Chula Vistaaaaa - January 13, 2015 and January 6, 2015

January 13, 2015

Another great week in the books!

The weather this past week has been awesome! Back to typical San Diego weather, in the seventies and sunny for the most part!

This past week we met a really cool family, it's kind of a weird situation, they aren't married but they are a family so let's just pretend they are. It's Larry, Rosio and their 11 year old son Sam. They are super awesome! They have been meeting with missionaries for 3+ years, and Rosio was baptized a couple years ago, but for some reason they lost contact with missionaries. We found their teaching record and went and stopped by! They are super nice, and we keep meeting with them, they are so chill! And they love to feed us! We have had 3 meals with them in the 3 times we met with them, so they are a tender mercy family!

We found 7 new people to teach this past week, which is super exciting! One of them is Johnny. We met him on the street, and he actually asked if we could come over and talk to them. He's in his mid 50s. He was one of those people who look like they wouldn't want anything to do with you, but then they turn out to be so sincere and humble! We passed by on Saturday for our appointment but he wasn't there, so we knocked on the neighbors door, which was kind of weird, we don't normally do that. But they are super cool too! They told us that his wife died the past week and that he was at the viewing. It was sad to hear that. We passed by on Sunday and he was sitting on his porch just thinking. He was so sad! We talked with him for a while about his wife and shared little tidbits of the plan of salvation. Mostly though we just let him talk to us. He's such a strong guy! He had been taking care of his wife for the last 2 years because she had a stroke. PLUS his mom has Alzheimer disease and so he takes care of her too. He would go to the clinic where his wife was and rub her feet, do her hair and help her eat. It's crazy how much he loved her! It was the saddest conversation I have had on my mission, but he's really open and so we can't wait to teach him about the plan the Lord has for him and his wife.

We also had a wonderful miracle yesterday! We were on exchanges yesterday with Elder Dudley and Ramirez, the zone leaders. Elder Dudley came to my area, he's a stud. He's been out for 2 years, he extended for an extra transfer. We stopped to talk to this lady that was in her car, taught her the first lesson, and turns out she lives in Elder Dudley's area, which is cool! And then we asked if she knew anyone we could teach, and she pointed us to her friend Carolina. So we went and knocked on the door, not expecting her to be super interested, but dang, we were wrong!!! She let us in right then and there, which never happens. Then we taught her about the restoration and she was stoked! She's preparing to be baptized on February 21!

Those are the biggest highlights of this week!

I love you all!

Elder Hansen

January 6, 2015

Hi family! How's it going?

We are on early this morning because we have interviews with president really early so we are using the waiting time to email. Because of some weird scheduling conflicts we had our interviews at 7:00, and while we were waiting in between he had us email a little bit, so I got a little head start :)

 

Interviews were cool! The more I talk to president the less intimidated I get, and the more I'm able to talk to him and really have a conversation with him (in Spanish), which is cool! He's a super cool guy. His family is amazing! They're like perfect I swear.

 

One of the counselors in our mission presidency just got called to the Chile Santiago mission. That was pretty cool! I'm jealous of those missionaries...He's super awesome! I wish he could still be here with us.

 

We went down to La Jolla for a doctors appointment today too, for Elder Browne, so it's been a little different "P" day. I'm not sure what we are doing for the rest of the day... Just hangin out I guess.. We just follow around the Elders with cars...haha  We probably won't use our full two hours, but it's nice to get a little head start while we are here :) 

How was everyone's week?

We had a good week! Elder Browne got a little of the sickness going around so that knocked out a couple days this past week, but we still made the most of our time!

Wednesday night we went out to dinner as a district for New Years. We went to Chili's together, it was a ton of fun! The food was super good too :) Then we were in our apartment by 6 pm and we made some yearly plans and got to bed pretty early. It was kinda nice to catch up on a little sleep.

Thursday- We had weekly planning, which we did down at a park in our area by the beach! It's super nice!!! I love it there. That was cool, because usually weekly planning is kind of a bummer, but on the beach its not a bummer at all! 

Friday- I had an exchange with Elder Najera in his area, we had a fun time. Their area is a lot different than ours, so it's always kinda fun to have time outside of the area and have a little break. 

Saturday Elder Browne was down for the count, so we couldn't leave. Poor guy. He got super tired of being in the house, so we went to a baptism that the sisters had, which was fun! The bishop asked me to give my testimony on the spot while we waited for the little niño to get changed... which is always fun in Spanish. It was good though! Elder Browne sang...they always ask him to sing for everything.  Poor guy wasn't feeling good and he still nailed "Grande Eres Tu" (How Great Thou Art).

Sunday was a good day at church.  Our ward changed from 1:30 to 8:30... super early, but it's pretty convenient for us. Except that Elder Browne shouldn't have gone out on Saturday or probably to church Sunday so after church he pretty much died...

Monday was a miracle day! We went around with the mindset that we were going to talk to everyone, which we did. At times it was frustrating because some people wanted nothing to do with us... but then 3 people in a row asked US if we could come over... that like never happens so that was cool. We ended up meeting some really cool people and got a bunch of return appointments to come talk to them!

That about sums up my week. Things are getting back to normal after the holidays. Last week was really cold. Down in the 40s and 50s. But today is back up to 80 and sunny :) It's beautiful down here in Chula Vista :)

Love and miss you all!

Elder Hansen