Tuesday, March 15, 2016 Qué onda (Cool)

Qué onda!!

Whats up fam and friends??

It was the end of a fantastic week here in the Logan Heights Spanish branch. every Tuesday we have dinner and a lesson with a recent convert, Maria. The one we went to the temple with a few weeks ago. She is the sweetest little Mexican grandma ever. She's the best. She makes awesome food, always gives us tons of salsa and has one of the most solid testimonies ever. I always leave her house so happy, because you can really see the light of the gospel in her life. She met the missionaries at a really low point as well, so it's awesome to see her progressing so much. It's so funny when we read the Book of Mormon with her sometimes she will realize she zoned out so she makes us read it again, she always wants to understand everything, and she's whip smart so she does. She's also running a smog check business while she's at it, she's always going going going. She got sick last week and said she woke up sick so she got up a little earlier and started working until she felt better, she's amazing.

Wednesday we had exchanges, I stayed here in Logan with Elder Gunther, from Mapleton Utah, we had a lot of fun. I'll include a picture of our exchange. We taught a bunch of good lessons that day and talked to a Ton of people. We had a great lesson with Giselle who is getting baptized this weekend, she's so awesome!! That night David also had his baptismal interview, he's the coolest little guy every, such a good example of child-like love. His mom was really excited, too she's a returning member. They are an awesome little family. It took a little work to get them feeling the spirit so Joana would be excited about David's baptism and let him do it but it all worked out in the end.

Thursday we had a zone meeting, Elder Burt and I taught about working with members, and we also had training on helping people receive revelation through prayer. It was a little scary because President Schmitt came, but it was super good, it was awesome to have his insights there.

Friday was mostly us running around getting everything put together for David's baptism, it was kinda stressful because it was a bit last minute, but we got it all together pretty well.

Saturday was cool we a had a busy morning and afternoon teaching lessons Abd got to go to a little carne asada with one of the returning members we are teaching, which was perfect because we didn't have a lot of time to grab dinner before David's baptism. We went and got everything set up and then waited, and waited and waited. Joana and David came eventually but we were a little worried for a while because it was like 30 minutes after it was supposed to start. But it all went okay and we had good support from the branch.

Yesterday the niño got confirmed! It's always good when they get confirmed and recieve the don. Aka the holy ghost. Always a relief. Besides that it was a pretty normal day at church, afterword we had studies and dinner with a member, Carmen who feeds us every Sunday, we will try to take a picture at her place next week, she's awesome. We had 2 awesome lessons that night, one with Sara and her son Jonathan who is 15, they are super sincere, we are stoked about them.

Yesterday was pretty normal, had some good lessons. Taught Giselle and her husband George, she's getting baptized on Saturday, we are super excited and so is she. She's so solid, her testimony is super strong.

That's about all I got, everyone go check out followhim.mormon.org and check out the video on there! It's like 2 minutes long but it's super cool.

Love you all, hope to hear from you!

Elder Hansen

Another Week in the Hood

What's up everyone!

Hope everyone has enjoyed their week, I know we have out here in Logan. It's been an awesome week out here, here are some highlights.

Last Wednesday we had our outdoor Zone conference up at Camp Wildwood in Ramona. It was a blast, the morning was spent receiving training from President Schmitt and some other missionaries which is always good. This time the trainings were particularly good. Since elder Burt and I trained last month at MTEs we didn't have to train here. We then had a super good lunch provided by some of the relief society sisters. It was one of the better zone conference lunches I've had.

After Lunch was awesome, we changed into normal clothes and got to do some team building games. It was really fun and it helped bring unity into our zone and also the English zone in our stake who we work closely with. Of course we completed all the challenges super good and beat the other zones . The last part of the day was probably one ofthe coolest parts, we went on a silent hike up to the top of a mountain by the camp where there was a huge cross (the camp used to be owned by the Salvation Army). Since we weren't talking at all it was an awesome time to reflect on our mission, on ourselves and on the Savior. Once we got up there we also had a few minutes in silence to ponder and think. Taking time to ponder is something that is really under- appreciated I invite you all to make the time to do that this week.

I didn't take any pictures really just because we were busy doing stuff, but there was a photographer there so eventually we will get the pictures. I'm sure there's some good ones so I'll send them when I get them.

The rest of the week has been busy, our investigator David, who is 9 will get baptized this Saturday, we got permission from his mom and everything should be good for that. He's an awesome kid. Kids really are a testimony of humility and love and David isn't an exception, his desire to follow Christ is inspiring especially at his age. It's no wonder that Christ invites us to become as little children when he says "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." We had an awesome lesson with his mom, who is a convert of a few years but has fallen away at times from the church, the spirit reminded her of her first experience feeling the spirit when the missionaries were teaching her the first time, and she has so much desire to continue feeling that.

We have also had a couple of really good lessons with our investigator Giselle, who is super awesome. Her testimony is amazingly strong. She's the rock of her family (who are members) and she's not even baptized yet. She had her baptismal interview yesterday and bore a powerful testimony of repentance and has such a sincere desire to do what God wants her to do. She's getting baptized not this Saturday but the next.

Those are pretty much the highlights of the week.  We see miracles all the time. God's hand is truly in each of our lives and in His work. I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016 - Another week in Beautiful Logan Heights

What's up fam and friends!

It's the end of another awesome week here in Logan with Elder Burt. We are continuing to have a blast, and have been super blessed to find lots of new investigators these past few weeks, the work is awesome.

Two of them are Aurora and Mercedes. They are the funnies little old ladies. They are sisters and it looks like they are super close. We met them getting out of the car on a random street and talked to them, they were super nice and invited us to come over and teach them the next day. When we went back we had a super powerful lesson about the restoration. They loved it. The coolest part was that they said they hadn't planned to go out on a walk that night, but that Mercedes who usually never wants to leave said she wanted to go out. They did, and they went a way that they had never really gone before and then we ran into them when we were parking. They were super stoked because they could tell it wasn't a coincidence that we ran into them. They are awesome.

We had two people we have been trying to contact show up to church which was an awesome miracle! We have talked to them over the phone, but they have just been so busy that we haven't been able to visit them, and out of the blue they showed up.

Yesterday we had a really really good lesson with our investigator Giselle.  She's had a couple of tough experiences in the last little bit with her family, and as she did she was praying and said she just felt peace and love from God so strong.  So she said she knew she needed to stop resisting and follow God and do what he wants. We were able to set a baptismal date for March 19. Keep her in your prayers!

Tomorrow we have a zone conference at the church-owned camp here in the mission, it should be pretty cool.  Hopefully we will have some awesome pictures to include.

Love you all! Thanks for the love and support!!

Elder Hansen

Tuesday, February 23, 2016, Buenos Dias Mis Queridos Amigos!

We had a really good week this! I hope you all have too.

Last Wednesday we had a two-day training with our mission president and the assistants, which included exchanges in other zones. Elder Burt and I gave a training on commitment invitations, we feel like it went really good, we made it pretty fun and felt like it really impacted the missionaries. We talked about making our invitations clear when we invite people to act and helping them realize why they are doing it, to strengthen their faith and help them realize the blessings that come from what we are inviting them to do (i.e. Read the scriptures, pray, baptism) whatever it might be. We had fun with it.

For the exchange I went to an English ward in our stake, with Elder Byington. We had fun.  I got to see a little different part of San Diego which was fun. We went to an area called Hillcrest which is similar to a Capitol Hill type area.  We met some interesting people there for sure. It's a lot different than our normal area which is full of friendly Latinos. It was a cool area to be in though.

We found 7 new investigators this week which was awesome.  We meet some super cool people who are really prepared to learn about the gospel and most importantly to act on the things they learn.

Saturday we had an awesome opportunity to go do baptisms for the dead in the temple with Maria, a recent convert of a few months. She lost her daughter a little while ago, and when she was learning about the gospel, one of her favorite parts was the plan of salvation, and the opportunity her daughter would have to accept the gospel. It was so

cool to be there with her. She is a fantastic lady, one of the coolest people I've met here in Logan.

Sunday was funny in church.  We are the closest unit to downtown, so we had a few visitors stop by not knowing we were a Spanish branch and not knowing we met in a school, so we got to translate for a couple of members from out of town. The week before I got here Donny Osmond even visited because he wanted to take the sacrament while he was down here for a show.

Sunday we also had a mission president's devotional in Chula Vista. We were invited to sing in the choir. It was English so not as many people from my Chula ward were there, but I got to see some of my favorite members, it's so cool to see people after such a long time.

We went on exchanges with our district leader they live right below us so we still eat lunch and exercise together so it wasn't like elder Burt and I were really separated. You know you like your companion when you are still happy to see them during exchanges. I was with Elder Najera, we served in the same ward in Chula Vista together so it was fun to catch up after a year of not serving around each-other.

That's about all I got for this week, I'll include some pictures! Hope you all have a great week!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - Feliz Dia de San Valentin

What's up everyone!! Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day this past week.

We had a super good week.  As a mission we have been focusing on reaching the standard of excellence, or really pushing ourselves to find new people, bring people to church, and help them set baptismal dates. It's been awesome because as we have focused on these things we have really been able to help people grow closer to Christ.

We have found some awesome new people this week, we our working with our recent convert Brenda's son Abdi. He's super cool. He's 19 and has a really strong desire to do what God wants him to do. Yesterday it was cool because we were talking about commandments, and he realized that when God gives us commandments it's not just to hinder or restrict us, it's always for our own benefit. As he realized that he was more than willing to live the commandments.

We taught a super cool kid we met yesterday.  It's really cool to see people realize that God really does listen to his prayers, and helping people say their very first prayer ever is one of my favorite things ever. He gave the most humble prayer, and you could really tell he was seeking to know if what we taught him was true.

The other day we were walking through an apartment complex where some random people were grilling some stuff. We went over there and talked to them, told them their food smelled really good, so they told us to come back in an hour. We did. We found out they were making stingray, which is actually super good. So we had some tacos de monterraya. I love Mexican food.

Anyway-we are going to a cool park for p-day, I'm sure we will have some good pictures to send later. Love you all!

Elder Hansen :)

We were driving down the streets of Logan and saw a burning shopping cart.

Flaming Shopping Cart in the Barrio

At the Laundromat

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Hey friends and family!!!

What's up everyone!

It's been a fun week here in Logan Heights, it's 150% different than Penasquitos. It's a lot of fun, there's always something exciting going on here, tons of people. Best of all tons of Latinos, I've missed talking with them, and my Spanish feels like it's back after just a week!

We had a baptism this last Saturday which was fun, her name is Brenda, we are teaching her son now which is cool, he's 19 and came to church on Sunday. We started teaching a guy named Ramiro yesterday who has had some drug problems but is super excited to become the father he wants to be. He's super excited to be baptized and we met him when he came to church on Sunday. He's awesome. His wife is a member and she really wants to come back to church, too so we are stoked about them.

Logan is awesome! Church in an elementary school was a fun adventure.  The branch here is pretty sweet, it's fun getting to know everyone!  Life is good! The gospel is true!

Sorry for a short email this week, we went to the temple this morning, but pictures are worth a thousand words right?

Tuesday, February 2, 2016 De Regreso a Español!

What's new friends and family?

So transfers happened. We did them differently now, so instead of finding out whether or not we were leaving on pday, and then finding out where and stuff on Wednesday, we find out who and where on Monday and today we meet up, so I'm in my new area! Logan Heights!

I'm soooo stoked for my new area. I'm in the Logan Heights Spanish branch, which is right by my old area in Lemon Grove. It covers downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods like Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, South Park, North Park, places like that.

I don't know much about the area yet, except that we meet in a school and cover some of the more interesting parts of San Diego. I'm so stoked for it! My new comp is Elder Burt, he's actually from Poway which is in our mission. I'm stoked.  He's been out a while too. I'm excited to tear it up with him here.

So this last week in Penasquitos has been a fun one. Elder Maughan and I enjoyed our last little bit together, I feel like we were constantly laughing this last week.  Gotta keep it light hearted even when things aren't going so good. We taught some great lessons though.  We had a great one with brother Lundin, who should be getting baptized in the
next month, so I'll be able to go back for that.

One of the highlights of the week was exchanges on Wednesday. I went to the Tagalog area, which was fun. In lessons I was about as useless as a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. But it was fun anyway, Elder Baloaloa is super cool. We got to leave the mission!  That was pretty exciting. Since there aren't any other Tagalog missionaries in Southern California they cover up to Oceanside. We went up to Encinitas which was pretty fun.

Saturday we went to give a baptismal interview to one of the Tagalog investigators at the church and they were having a ward activity. We hadn't eaten dinner and they offered us a bunch of food, so we were like sure! I put a ton of rice on my plate and one of the members came up and scooped this huge pile of dark blackish brown sauce on it, he said it was good so I went and tried it, it didn't taste that bad. But then my companion asked me if I knew what it was. It was blood... Cooked blood with pork... What was once pretty tasty turned instantly disgusting. We also got roped into singing a song with the Tagalog Elders and two guys who are leaving on their missions...not well practiced, but it was fun. I'll include the video.

We found out about transfers yesterday, I got to visit a bunch of people. I'll include some pictures.