Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Hey fam, it´s been another good week in Lemon Grove, California.  Just started the last week of the transfer, these past 5 weeks have absolutely floooown by.

This past week we've been working with pretty much the same people, it's been kind of hard to find new investigators but we keep going anyway. Eduardo is doing well, still working on helping him to grow his faith and set a new baptismal date, he looks great and has come so far!! He and the guy who he rents from--Jose came to church on Sunday. They're funny guys, they are the ones that started to call me Chicharito, which means little pea because of the soccer player, but now they call me Chicharote, which means big pea.  haha  they say my eyes look like his eyes...    

Saturday we had more Lengua for dinner :) A member family-the Quinonez's made us tacos de Lengua. They prepared it a little different than Eduardo but they were super good too. We are helping their little 8 year old Angel get ready for his baptism in the next couple weeks.

Sunday was awesome. Raquel and Cynthia and their daughter Melanie came to church with us! (Melanie is like the friendliest little 2.5 year old ever). They had a really good experience. We had the privilege of teaching  gospel principals super last minute because our teacher wasn't feeling good--he told us as we were walking into the class..we taught about obedience. It wasn't too bad. Later on we had a mission president's fireside in Chula Vista so we went there for that, it was good to see a couple of people from the old ward although there were a few people that weren't there that I was hoping would be. I got to see my "mom and dad" from that ward, the Quintero family, I'll try to send ya a picture. Hermano Espinoza was also there who is one of my favorite people I've met in the mission.

Yesterday we had dinner with the other Quinonez family-they're brothers. She asked what we wanted and Elder Cloes said Aguachiles, which is his new favorite thing. It's shrimp which is cooked, but not really cooked. It sits in lime so the acidity cooks it, it's really good. We also had shrimp ceviche which is similar, just that the Aguachiles is made with chiles. so It's spicy. We love Mexican seafood!

Can't wait to see my little nephew! Send me pics and info asap!!

Love you tons!

Elder Hansen

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

 My Comp decided to play a game of "stack stuff" on me.

 Zone Conference

 The new International Zone t-shirt I designed.

Hey fam! 

It's been an awesome week here in beautiful Lemon Grove. It's currently pouring down rain which is a pleasant surprise!!

We started this awesome week with Zone Conference last Wednesday which is when Our zone and the Chula Vista English and Spanish zones get together and we get some awesome instruction from the members of the mission presidency and president Schmitt.

This time we talked about working with members, and how essential it is in missionary work that members work alongside us, we are on the same team. We talked about working with our ward and branch leaders and how the bishop or branch president   holds the keys for the work and needs to have a high vision for there to be success. After that he needs to work through the    ward mission leader, branch or ward council and the missionaries to bring to pass his inspired vision. We have been putting all of that into action this week, we got together with our branch president and set some expectations and made a plan and talked about it in ward council.

Thursday we had weekly planning and stuff-its always kind of a long day because we have to spend a lot of time inside the       apartment. We also had dinner with our branch mission leader and the sisters here serving in our ward. Hermana Robledo       made carne asada and pollo asado and she makes awesome salsa and guacamole. It was awesome. Then we had coordination which was good! People in the branch are getting a lot more motivated to work. We had an awesome lesson after with Julio and Paola, plus little juliette. They are such an awesome family! (Pics of us with them later on)

Friday we had a couple sweet lessons with our investigators Raquel and her daughter Cynthia. It's cool to see how the Lord     has prepared them through trials and life  experiences to receive the gospel, especially Cynthia, and they are super stoked! We also had an awesome lesson with a less active member who we just met. He's super friendly and really fun!

Saturday we had dmeet (district meeting)! We talked more about working with members-there is a sweet talk called "It's a          Miracle" by Elder Anderson that we talked about. Our branch president had a birthday party for their daughter. She turned 14-it was awesome.   It was princess themed and there were lots of people and lots of good food!  While we were there we got one of the best phone calls ever ... that the speakers weren't going to be able to speak so they called us, the missionaries, to give the   talks the following day...like 15 hours before the sacrament meeting. We talked about prophets and the restoration. It went      pretty well.

There's a little summary of the week! Love you all!

Elder Hansen

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The end of another awesome week here in Beautiful Lemon Grove, California!

Elder Cloes and I are still having a blast out here in the Sweetwater branch!  

Here are a few highlights!  

We are teaching an awesome family consisting of Juliet (1 year old), Paola and Julio. They are awesome! They are a lot of fun to teach and this week we were helping them get the first birthday party of Juliet all put together. We were helping them glue ribbons on jars, little "Juliet" stickers on stuff, marshmallows on a stick and other crafty stuff. It reminded me of getting things together with my crafty mom and sisters! We got permission to go to the party even though it was out of our area. Birthday parties are a huge deal in Mexican culture. They rented out a hall, had tons of decorations, dinner and even a mechanical bull. Unfortunately we didn't participate in that... :/ But it was packed!! We helped serve food and we were running around helping Paola and Julio as much as we could. It was cool to see all the Mexican traditions. Piñatas, Mexican dulces (candy) and the tradition when they throw quarters out to the crowd. We came up on some extra laundry money for the week :) There was lots of good food and it was cool to meet all the friends and family. We were definitely the only white people there. haha  

We have been teaching Raquel, she's doing awesome! She's always so grateful for everything we teach her and everything we do. She says we are like her sons. This week we also started teaching her daughter Cynthia, who is super nice and cool! It's an awesome little family. Cynthia has a crazy little 2 year old who is always running around and having a good time. She falls down a lot but never cries. Just sticks her hand out and waits until someone helps her up, then she dusts herself off and goes again!  

Eduardo is still doing really good. It's cool how he has started to recognize the changes he has made, and how much better he feels now. We had an awesome lesson with his neighbor Jose as well. He is feeling pretty down and lonely since his mom died recently and all of his kids are grown. He has really been humbled and it's cool to see the spirit work on him.  

I can't remember if I mentioned the best restaurant ever!! Bankhead Mississippi cooking. We went back as our pre-fast meal and man!! It was just as good this time. It's like takin a trip to the south. Had some baked chicken, fried chicken and smothered chicken plus smothered potatoes and Mac N Cheese. It was good preparation for Sunday.  

Sunday we went to lunch after church with some members that I met in Chula Vista, the Gallegos family. They are so awesome! Side story-I had some really good pistachio ice cream and pistachio popsicles in Chula and ever since whenever we run into a palatero I ask if they have them, they never do. But after we finished eating Hermana Gallegos was like what flavor ice cream do you want? Pistachio or I don't even know what she said afterwards because she lost me at pistachio. I started acting like a child because I was so excited. But anyway I had my pistachio ice cream and she bought me a whole container of it this week :) haha 

Since we have a car it has been a lot easier to get out and meet the members and eat with them :) we get fed quite a bit now.  

I love you dear family and friends! Thank you for all of the love and support!  

Elder Hansen

Hey family!

It's going to be a quick email this week, but it's been an awesome week! A picture is worth a thousand words right?

Things are going great here in Lemon Grove! Still teaching some great people! We currently have 3 with a baptismal date and we are still finding a lot of awesome people! We got a referral from the English elders this week, her name is Alica and she is super prepared! She had been talking to her boss and has LDS family, and we are super stoked to go back and teach her this week!

Tonight we will be eating tacos de lengua with our investigator Eduardo (Tacos of tongue). 

They are actually delicious.

This is a taco de lengua. It's actually really good. When we come back, we will eat some. 

Love you family!

Elder Hansen