Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Tuesday, January 26, 2016  Buenos days familia y friends!!

I hope you enjoy the Spanglish subject line...that's about how I'm feeling now, I'm brushing up that Spanish! Hoping to go teach in Spanish soon.

This week has been an interesting one. Time keeps flying faster and faster... Last week we had an awesome worldwide broadcast on missionary work from Salt Lake City. Elder Oaks, Elder Anderson, Elder Bednar, Elder L. Whitney Clayton, Elder Neilson, sister Oscarson and Bishop Waddell addressed us. It was awesome. They didn't talk about anything revolutionary really, but FUNDAMENTALS ARE KEY, in pretty much everything we do. It brought be back to my days in like second grade playing sports when dad would always tell me to practice the fundamentals and I'd be like "whatever" but then he would make me do it anyway. Haha even the Apostles focus on the basic fundamentals of the gospel and of missionary work, so that's what we are focusing on.
It's awesome. I learned so much from the broadcast.

The rest of Wednesday we had exchanges so I was in another ward with Elder Thueson. We had a good time, found some good potential investigators for their area. Finding new people to teach is something we are always working on with our zone, it's a big focus here because it can be really challenging, but we have seen a lot of improvement in the past couple of weeks.

Thursday we exchanged back, but before we did I went to an English class that the other elders help out with, teaching to Chinese speakers, that was kinda fun. It's really hard for them, but bless them for trying their best to learn English :) that afternoon we spent in interviews with president, that took up our whole afternoon pretty much because we help facilitate, therefore we are here the whole time. But it's all good. That night we ran into a couple of people that we know the Lord was placing in our path. We got stuck in 5 o'clock traffic on the way back from interviews so we were super late to
dinner at a restaurant with a member, but because we were late we ran into a family in the parking lot that we have been trying to get a hold of for like a month, so that was a cool little miracle. Later that night we felt impressed to go visit a couple that lives in our same complex, who we had just met once when she was locked out of her apartment. We went by and they had a few minutes so we taught a great lesson about the  restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are super awesome, so we are stoked about them.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful! Taught a couple really good lessons, the usual. Yesterday was one of this days where no one is home and you knock the door of like everyone you know and wonder if they are all hanging out somewhere...it was weird. It's weird that even those days in the mission are good days.

I've been thinking about these verses a lot, especially when we were talking about the importance of the Holy Ghost in conversion and in the Lord's work in general. In  everything we do, we should not rely on the arm of flesh, but on the Holy Ghost.

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.

Love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Hansen

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

What's up everybody!! What's new this week?

This week has been an absolute blur. I can't believe how fast it went. We had a more normal week, with more time in our area to work and more time to teach, which always makes the time go by quick. We found a couple new people to teach in Penasquitos 3rd Ward, which is a miracle in and of itself.

We are continuing to have good lessons with Krissi and Mike, which is exciting. They are awesome. We had a funny lesson with our investigator Joe, he's a talker so we spent most of the hour and a half trying to find a place to speak... But he has some stories. Haha it seems like it's that way with a lot of people we teach. It made us almost half an hour late to our next appointment which was frustrating...Thursday we did a blitz for the sisters who work in the young single adult branch. It was good to go try and see some of their people. We also had a really good first lesson with Tony and Nicki, who have met with missionaries a lot in the past, they are so nice. We taught a really good lesson, with a member there with us. The spirit was really present.

Friday we had service at the canyon park here in Penasquitos like we do every couple weeks. It was a lot of fun. The whole zone goes, so it's pretty cool. They also got us a picnic lunch for afterword which was great! That night we started teaching another new investigator here in 3rd Ward, her name is Rubi. It was an interesting lesson, definitely didn't go as planned, but it was also very spiritual which was good. Her son is getting baptized in the young single adult branch later this month. So that's 3 new in one week in a ward that has had 5 new investigators since I've been here...it was awesome!

Saturday was crazy busy. Between coordination meetings, teaching lessons and invite ping everyone to he mission presidents devotional it was a blur. Sunday was as well. We had the mission presidents devotional that night. Since our zone was the hosting zone we had to make sure everything was taken care of, set up and we had to get the speakers. We had Alex, our recent convert bear his testimony. It was really good. He's a beast. Solid as a rock.

Yesterday we added another new investigator named Christopher, again in third ward. That ward is on a roll! It's awesome! We taught him also with a member there, which makes a huge difference.

There's a little update for ya. Life here is good. Transfers are comin in about 2 weeks, it's one where I could stay or go. I'm itchin to get back to Spanish work, and teach the Latinos again, but God's will be done. And I'll have fun wherever I am.

Let me know how everyone is doing! I love you all!

Elder Hansen

Here's a video of me trying to hula hoop at the Jamchi's house. Those kids are so fun.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Hey guys! It's been another crazy but awesome week here in PQ. I hope you are all doing great! Let me know what's new with all of you!

This week has been suuuper busy, but super fun. It all started with exchanges last Wednesday with the assistants to the president. I was cruising around my area with the other Elder Hansen. It was fun to introduce ourselves as Elder Hansen and Elder Hansen. People always did double takes at our name tags. We had a super fun day. The weather was crazy, we got some storm action this week. Wednesday was an absolute deluge. It was awesome. Here they really aren't equipped for rain like that, too so streets flooded and walkways were like shin deep of water. While we were at a members house they even had a brief tornado warning. It was awesome. We were teaching the kids of that family who aren't members we talked about the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, and how we need to build our foundation in Christ (Helaman 5:12) so that when the storm comes (like it was when we were teaching) we won't get washed away like the foolish man's house. It was fun to teach while the storm was raging outside and we could hear it. We had an awesome lesson later on with the Wagner family who we found a couple months ago, but who we just recently have been able to see. It was a super powerful first lesson, and our member friend brother Grant was right there to bear testimony which is always awesome. They are a great little family, they have a 2 year old and a 2 month old.

Thursday was busy too, we had a district leader council, which we lead for the district leaders in our zone. Then we had our long planning session for a couple of hours. We had a fun lesson with the Jamchis, I was trying to help Shana work on some family history so we can get a name and go to the temple, and Alex had just gotten home from a long day at work so he was in the kitchen and then you had Elder Maughan right there keeping the kids occupied with one hand watching his watch timing for Jordyn's times tables the other hand in a boxing glove taking Austin's punches and then also helping Savannah draw. It was a hilarious sight.

Friday we had district meeting and then had to plan for our zone meeting, which was Monday. That took up a good chunk of our afternoon. It was good though. That night we got to see our investigator Joe, and we finally got through the restoration, he likes to talk a lot. We also got to see Christofer Lundin, who is super cool. He and his family are awesome. He just got married, he should be getting baptized here pretty soon. Keep him and his family in your prayers! Then we met a super cool family- the Colantuono family, they are former investigators who we called. they are super nice, we had a really powerful first lesson with them. Traci is seriously one of the sweetest ladies ever. It was a really awesome lesson. Brother Larson- our ward mission leader came with us, it makes all the difference.

Saturday was crazy- driving from one coordination meeting to another and then a baptism where we met some awesome contacts and then we had to drive all the way to the mission office, it was a very administrative day.

Sunday was pretty typical, long. 6 hours of church plus ward council meetings.

Last night was cool, we could really tell we were in the right place at the right time. we taught a good zone meeting about stretching ourselves and setting goals, and reaching them by using fundamentals. Last night we felt really impressed to go see an investigator at 8:15, and it really didn't make sense, but we went anyway, and while we were walking from our car we ran into a member who had just gotten out of jail a couple of months ago, and now he wants to go back to church. That was pretty cool, plus on the way back we met a really cool potential investigator named Christian, from Guatemala. He's super open, and so we really felt like we needed to be there.

Anyway, life is good out here. We see miracles every day. Thanks for all of your love and support!

Love,
Elder Hansen

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Happy New Year!!!

Buenos Dias querida familia!!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic new year!! It's been a fun crazy week. I'll start off with last Tuesday night-when our ward mission leader Brother Gosch took us out to a super good Korean BBQ place. One of the places where you have the grill right in front of you and they bring the meat and you cook it right there and stuff. It was sooooo good! It was all you can eat, too so we had lots of ribs, steaks, chicken. Plus we also got to try pork Jowl and octopus, plus some more cow tongue :) It was a fun adventure, I'll include a picture of the octopus. It really wasn't even bad actually. The flavor was decent, but it was kind of like chewing on a big ball of rubber bands.

Wednesday was great because we didn't have any meetings, no trainings to give, no exchanges. It was just Elder Maughan and I doin work in our own area, which doesn't seem like it would be that exciting but these days we don't have very many normal days to just work. So we took advantage. of that and had some really good lessons.  Especially with one of our investigators Cliff. Man, he's so sincere! It was cool how he was found, the YSA sisters contacted him in his apartment complex and he wasn't interested, but they gave him a card with a question written on it, I don't even know what it said, and the question made him think so he called after them and they talked to him for a while and then passed us his information. He has gone through a lot in his life that has questioned God's existence, and now he really wants to find out if he's there and build a relationship with God. It's so cool to see someone seek so diligently. We had Alex, one of the most on fire recent converts I've ever seen with us, and they just clicked. Cliff really opened up and it was so cool to see. The spirit was super strong. Wednesday night we didn't have a dinner appointment, and somehow people knew it, so like 5 people texted us and offered. Which is awesome. I love these wards. We ended up with the Knaphus family. They're so rad. Brother Knaphus is our assistant ward mission leader in PQ 3rd ward. He's so cool. He and his wife have 5 little girls, it's a fun family to be with for sure.

Thursday- Thursday we went and helped set up at the Knaphus's place for a little birthday murder mystery party they were having for one of their daughters. Elder Maughan used his artistic talents to help paint some stuff, and I was there as moral support. I tried to paint what was supposed to look like a wood door, and it was so bad their daughter Halley had to come take the brush away from me...oops. I helped lift stuff and move stuff, I guess that's all I'm good for. The cool thing was while we were painting outside one of their daughters was talking about all of their neighbors. We felt like we should come knock some of their neighbors (more about this later).

Friday-Friday we had zone service at the Penasquitos canyon park, we do this twice a month. It's really fun, then we had district lunch and district meeting and then we had some exchanges. I was with Elder Archambault. It was a lot of fun, I served with him in Sweetwater, so we already knew each other. We had dinner with a family and the wife is from Chihuahua Mexico. She had her parents, and her sister and niece there from Chihuahua as well. The whole dinner was pretty much in Spanish. I had a blast. I miss Spanish sometimes I'm not going to lie. I should go back in the next couple months probably. We even taught a lesson in Spanish. And by we I mean I.

Saturday we had our two coordinations. I'm still stoked about how awesome these wards are.

Sunday-like 7 hours of church of course, Martha came! She's like my sweet little Mexican mother that I've never had, she's so funny.

Yesterday we had an awesome MLC. We Talked about our goals and stuff. We made some awesome stretch goals.

It's been an awesome week! I love you all. Thank you for all your love and support!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Hope it was a very merry Christmas for you all!

Que onda querida familia y amigos!

Hope you all had amazing Christmases! I know Elder Maughan and I did!

I'll start out with a cool miracle that happened last Wednesday on exchanges with Elder Goeckeritz. We were in our area and stopped by a potential investigator named Krisi, she was super nice the first time we met her and super prepared, has good friends from the church, had just attended a baptism and her 2 year old had been blessed in church. Well anyway we went to stop by her and she wasn't home, instead we met her husband Mike who we had never met before. Turns out he was baptized when he was 8 but  ended up with his dad who isn't a member for most of his life, so he is familiar with the church and loves the memories he had as a child. We were able to just talk about the savior and he expressed how he wants his daughters to grow up with that. We were also able to talk about the blessings of eternal families and he was stoked. we are super excited to go back this coming week.

Christmas Eve was a blast, we spent it spreading Christmas cheer to our investigators and members and everyone. We had lunch and a lesson with the Jamchi family, who are so awesome. I love every minute we get to spend with that family. Alex's mom mad a Persian style turkey with some rice, it was super good. Later on we had dinner with the Stapely family, they have a tradition of having the missionaries over on Christmas Eve. They even invited their friend and our investigator Martha over, so that was great to be able to spend some time with them on Christmas Eve. They are an awesome family and helped us to feel as at home as we could :) after the Stapley's house we went to bishop Wilton's house and had another dinner, and participated in their little family Christmas program. Elder Maughan played a song on the piano and since I'm not super musically talented I shared a Mormon message. Thank goodness for those. It was a lot of fun, we felt a lot of love from the members this Christmas. Thanks for everything that was sent to me and all your love and support!

Christmas Day was great! We woke up and ran, studied and for comp studied opened some presents. Then we went and had a zone lunch at the church together. We had dinner with a couple awesome families and then got to skype! It's always so great to talk to family. Felt like I was just hanging out again, didn't miss a beat. We finished the night by Christmas caroling to some members and investigators as a district.

Those are some of the highlights of the week. I would love to hear about your highlights this Christmas season. The work is going great, always finding, always teaching always baptizing!