. Alex and his new companion - Elder Carlson
August 12, 2014
Hi!!!!!! Sorry I wasn't able to make contact with you before today, the Airport was a mess. We had to go through customs, then recheck our luggage and then go right back through security again! - so I didn't have time to call. I'll give you a rundown of this crazy week, it's been a blast.
Tuesday- Elder Fazio and I stayed up all night until we went to the airport at 2:30am. When we went through security at the airport. We had a while to hangout so we talked to this kid named Daniel. He spoke English so he was really easy to talk to. We talked all the way through customs at Dallas. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. He really like the verses we shared with him. We gave him our emails so hopefully he will stay in contact with us. I didn't have any time to get food or anything in Dallas because of the short layover, so I gave Elder Fazio a hug goodbye and hopped on the plane to San Diego. There were a bunch of other missionaries to hang out with too. We landed in San Diego. Man San Diego is beautiful. I already love my mission and this is the place for me! The feeling of being back in America was amazing. This is a beautiful place!
President Schmitt greeted us, along with his AP's (Assistants to the President). We were then taken to the Mission Home, where we were fed some awesome food made by some wonderful local members. I was starving since I hadn't had anything to eat. We got the opportunity to nap and hear from President Schmitt and his Family. His family is so awesome. After that a few of us got picked up by the local Bishop in La Mesa and spent the night at his house. He and his wife were so nice!
Wednesday-They fed us a great breakfast, the highlight was fresh squeezed orange juice, which came from their own orange trees in their back yard. So good!!! After the AP's picked us up we went to the Mormon Battalion site and got to go through the tour there. It was pretty sweet! Such a nice visitors center there! After that we went to the transfer meeting. Man I was so nervous. I finally found out who my companion is and where we would serve! My trainer is Elder Carlson from Alaska, He's an amazing missionary. And our area is Calexico! It is an amazing area right on the boarder to Mexico. It is HOT here. at least 105 everyday. I've seen it at 115. We have a car which is nice, but we still sweat, a lot!! I also met the other members of my district, who are all awesome! That night we met with one member and went to a coordination meeting with our ward mission leader. His name is Halim and he's amazing. Super duper helpful.
Thursday - First full day in the field! We had our 4 hours of study in the morning (1 hour personal, 2 hours of companion study because of training and 1 hour of language). Then we ate lunch and hit the road. We started meeting with some investigators and less actives, but its hard here because people often will not answer their doors. We did have one amazing lesson with a 19 year old kid named Angel, who Elder Carlson had met one time before but had had trouble getting him to open his door. He opened it for us and we talked to him for a while. We gave him a Book of Mormon and explained everything about it and the restoration to him. He said without us even telling him that he needed to set aside an hour every day to read the Bible and the Book of Mormon together. He's awesome. Hopefully we will have the chance to meet with him again soon. He wasn't there when we went by yesterday.
Friday - I met Bishop Quiroz, who is really amazing. He works so hard for this ward. He's been doing all the home teaching with his son to make sure that everyone gets visited. Also I forgot to mention that we run every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This has been a little bit of a struggle, but it's good for me! Also there is a big thing about eating healthy in our district. We have been trying to do that!
Saturday - The highlight of this day was teaching a super solid restoration lesson to Ernie, a fifteen year old and his mom. She was so locked in, and we could tell that they really understood it! It was awesome.
Sunday - Church was fun! a little hard to understand, but it was good. I met a lot of the members, and I'm having kind of a hard time remembering their names, but they are all very kind.
Monday - Monday was rough. No one would open their doors for us. But we took Carlos Quiroz, the Bishop's son who is an RM and speaks perfect Spanish around and even though we didn't get any lessons taught, we learned a lot from him. He's awesome.
Now it's P-day!!!!!!!!! Tuesday is our P-day (preparation day - or day to do chores and write letters). We went and did laundry, got some food and now we are at the FHC! (Family History Center - where we can use the computers and the internet for email)
Love you all! Hope to hear from you soon,
Elder Hansen
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