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!

Christmas Eve 2015

December 22, 2015

Merry Christmas Dear Family and Friends! ☃❄

Hey everybody! Merry Christmas, I hope you are all having a great Christmas week so far! I know I am.

Sorry for some of you who haven't gotten an email from me yet, I just barely got the list of emails, but I hope you have been able to keep up with my mission a little bit from the blog.

So this week in Penasquitos has been crazy! It's been awesome but crazy. Last week was transfers, so I said goodbye to my last companion Elder Augusto as he went home and Wednesday we went to transfer meeting to get my new companion!

My new companion is Elder Maughan from Provo, Utah. Some of you might remember that about a month ago Elder Maughan and I went on an exchange out in Ramona for some training, so it was sick to get a companion I already knew a little bit! He's a stud, he's been out for about 5 months. This is is second area, I'm the second oldest missionary in the zone based on time in the mission, which is SO WEIRD! I'm about to hit my 18 month mark.. Elder Maughan and I are having a ton of fun together!

The assistants asked us to not teach zone meeting until after transfers so Elder Maughan got to teach his first one two days after he got here. He did great though, we taught about the atonement. It was one of the most spiritual zone meetings I've had on my mission so it went great. I love reflecting on Christ's birth and mission this time of year, especially as people are together as families and are more open to talk about those things. We have seen some cool miracles in the mission with Christmas.Mormon.Org as well, so check it out and share it! The little videos on there are great :)

Sunday we had our Christmas Programs in church which were awesome. We had some really great musical numbers and talks given in both wards.

Yesterday was the Mission Christmas devotional. It's so fun to get altogether as a mission, see some musical numbers and get a chance to eat together. It's always fun to see my old companions and friends I've served around in the mission. That is always a highlight.

I wish you all a merry Christmas! I love and miss all of you!

December 15, 2015

Tchau to the Portuguese :(

What's up family! It's been an adventure this past week! Lots of interesting days, I don't think we had one normal day!

It all started with dinner last pday, we had dinner with an awesome family, the Riches. They fed us some massive steaks! I'll include a picture.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Tagolog Elders in our zone. Love those guys. I had Elder Martinez in our area, we had an we some day. Taught a bunch of lessons, it was a fun day.

This weekend we had a mission tour, from Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the seventy, it was awesome!! It all started on Thursday with a mission leadership council. It was awesome, we talked about lifting others without trying to take their burdens away, and how Christ does that. I love that concept, that he never takes away our load, but he lifts us and strengthens us so that we can lift it ourselves. That night we had more stake (people have been really stepping up their dinners for elder Augusto's last week).

Friday we had some more mission conference in the morning, tons of good stuff, they talked about planning a lot, and how much it applies after the mission as well, not just on the mission. That night we had a fun lesson and dinner with the Jamchis at the Pomeroys House. I'll include a picture with the Pomeroys and the Jamchis.

Saturday we wrapped up the mission tour, it was crazy to have 3 days in a row interrupted by the meetings, it was because Elder Clayton had to be in Tijuana with President Uchtdorf for some Part of the Tijuana temple dedication.

Sunday was awesome. Elder Augustos last Sunday in the mission. He spoke a little in both wards, everyone was really nice to him as he prepared to leave. We had a final dinner for him at the Raymond's house which was great. Then we had the stake Christmas program at the church.

Elder Augusto flew out today.

I'm hanging out with Elder Thueson, who's companion also went home. We are hangin out playing ping pong and basketball. Elder Fiso and his companions came to our zone to hangout. We miss him still our zone is getting blown up this transfer. Each companionship has someone leaving so this next transfer will be a fun adventure.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

It's the end of what's been an exciting and eventful week out here in beautiful Penasquitos! I love it out here, the weather is perfect! It was 75 and sunny yesterday!! ☀️ I now think I'm freezing when the temperature drops below 50 in the morning... I'm officially a converted San Diegan.

This week has been a super busy and interesting one! This past week Elder Augusto was pretty sick but he's been a trooper and he's powered through. He's finishing the last week and a half of his mission strong. We've had lots of administrative things to take care of, stake member missionary coordination packets, checking out apartments and all the meetings that go along with it, so it's been busy in that sense. But we have also been busy with missionary work as well.

Plus Friday Elder Augusto had the first half of departure activities, so they had a temple session and I got to wait around out there with a couple other elders. Then after that we had Mission leadership conference and then we saw the Jamchis and had dinner with our bishop and that was pretty much a typical day this week, running around everywhere.

We have been working a lot with the Jamchi family. They are an incredible family and I learn so much from them. They are so fun to teach and be around!  We finished up with the lessons this past week and finalized all the plans for the baptism. Alex, who was baptized in August baptized his wife Shana and two daughters Jordyn and Savana.

They were so excited for the big day. It was an awesome baptismal service. So many people came we had to move it out of the set up relief society room where the baptismal font is to the chapel so everyone could fit. The ward has been incredibly supportive and have really been instrumental in bringing this family to Christ. It's awesome to see a ward family come together! Elder Fiso got to come back for the baptism, and we did the intermediate message while the Jamchis were changing. The trio made a comeback! Haha it was super fun. We still miss him.

A Couple cool things with the baptism. Cara, an investigator of ours came to the baptism with a member friend of hers and really enjoyed it. I think she really felt the spirit there and she also came to the ward Christmas party afterword. She's so cool and had a really great time meeting the members. Also the Jamchis went out to eat after the baptism and a struggling member of another ward overheard them talking about the "stake center" and thought to ask what ward they were in. The Jamchis were all excited to talk about their baptism and the light of Christ was really shining through them as they were able to talk about how the gospel has blessed their lives and brought their family closer together. The other ward's bishop was sharing this in our stake coordination meeting and shared about how much that experience helped the member see the importance of the gospel in her life and the happiness it brings. It was a cool side miracle. The Lord puts people where they need to be so we can all feel of his love in one way or another.