Hey Family!

I am very filled with love and gratitude today, and I don't exactly know why. Some days I just wake up on the mission and can't even express enough gratitude to my Heavenly Father for all he has given me. I don't even know where to start. But if I had to start somewhere it would be with my family. You guys have given me so much over my life, and it has been amazing to see and feel the Spirit that you bring to me every week. I am so happy that things are going well, crazy that school is starting again. I bet it will be a year to remember for the little man Carter.. Senior year. Time goes by so incredibly fast!

Crazy to see that photo, (Mitch, Corbin, Tandy, Zach and Jason) and that Mitch got home as well! They are all looking so good! What studs. Crazy how fast the 2 years flies by. Hope they are all doing great, send them my love and support! It's wild that I met Elder Healey the other day. I had to go to the MTC here and ask for a couple of documents and he just happened to be coming in, so we talked for a couple of minutes. He seems like a super great kid! I'm sure he is going to love it here in the mission.

Sorry for the lack of photos! I really haven't been taking my camera around at all lately, I need to get better at that eh. Capture the moment. It has just been crazy as usual. We do have some photos on the mission camera. I will try to take those off and send them to you one day.

Things have been great this week. It was a crazy fast week, and we weren't able to leave and work very much because of a couple of things that come up in the office. We have been passing a tough moment with our investigators. I guess Gaston moved, and we have another family we haven't been able to talk too in over a week. But we just gotta keep working and have the faith that the Lord will bless up with prepared people.

Yesterday we did see a miracle. We had to stay in the office till about 7pm because a couple of Sister Missionaries went to the hospital. As we left we weren't really sure where to go because of the lack of time.. but we decided to go to visit Yamelin (member) and her parents who aren't members. They are from Bolivia but have lived here for quite some time. As we showed up they were just starting to pack up there stuff to move.. but still in our ward :) haha. So we spent the hour and something helping them move into their new house. It was great. We showed up perfectly in time, it really was a blessing from the Lord. They were a little bit hard to get to as far as gaining their confidence, but I think the service will really help. They also have 3 new people (kids that come from Bolivia to work with them) that live in their new house. There are 2 kids that are our age and they wanna come play Soccer with us this week. We are praying that we will see a miracle with this family, they really are great!

Sometimes it can be hard when things aren't going great as far as success, but I have learned a lot about patience and having a good attitude. It's important to focus on the little things, and try to always try to make a difference in people's lives. This week we were asked to give 2 blessings to elderly ladies who are in the hospital in extended care. What an honor it was to have people put their trust in us. I felt such love and peace as we were able to give them blessings and give them promised blessings from their Heavenly Father. I have never felt so strongly in my whole life that the Lord was telling me what to say, and that I was just acting in place of him. His love for us is so profound.

This morning I was reading in Section 50 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and it really is one of my favorite chapters in all the triple. I spent a good amount of time really trying to read and understand the message the Lord has for us. There are 2 parts that really called my attention. First off is in verse 26, when the Lord talks about how those called by God to be the greatest, will serve and be the least among others. It reminds me a lot of the verse in Matthew 23:11. I can't even begin to understand the Savior's sacrifice and service, and how he never wanted any glory. I also love in verses 40-45. I hope that you guys will be able to read this Chapter and learn from the amazing doctrine. I know there is so much we don't understand, but I know that the Lord is taking care of us, and that through his infinite love nothing is impossible.

Thank you for everything you do. I hope you know how much I love you and pray for you. I hope that we will always have the desire to do good, because there isn't anything greater in this world :)

Hope you guys have a great week!

With love, 

Elder Hansen

Hey Fam!

First off I just want to send out a big congratulations to mom and dad! So crazy that it will be 30 years that you have been married. How wild. I sure hope things are going good.. because 30 years down and a long time to go ;) haha. I hope that you guys have a great day and that you enjoy some nice time together! What a blessing you two have been for me in my life. Always been such an amazing example of love and kindness, and have helped me so much with my personal struggles and difficulties. I can't thank you enough with my words, but I hope that you know I love you with all my heart.

Things are going good still here in the Offices. This week was absolutely crazy. I have never been so busy.. and a little bit frustrated at times. I am learning a lot about patience. Sometimes things just don't go so well in the tramites world with all the different rules that different countries have, it makes things a little confusing but It is a good challenge! I love the offices. It is an amazing opportunity to be around incredible missionaries. I learn a ton from the assistants. They definitely are missionaries who are obedient in every little detail and love to serve and help others. It also is awesome to be around President Robertson, and his family. He usually comes in 2 or 3 times a week. It is amazing to see how humble he is, and how much he really trusts in the Lord. It has taught me so much. He is a very simple man. Kind of reminds me of Joseph Smith in the Restoration video. Many times in the video big situations or problems would come up and the Prophet would just tell people to trust in the Lord. President Robertson shows that a lot as well. He helps us realize that we as a staff, and him, have weaknesses but we need to include and trust the Lord in everything we do, and only then will we accomplish what we need to.

As far as an SD card I am good. I moved all the photos onto my USB card so I still have an SD card left. Thanks for all the help with the stuff. I will definitely try to take a picture of the truck this week, little bit different than the Focus.. but I am getting used to driving here slowly.

This week was good! We had our first "Zone Meeting" as an office staff last Monday. It was good. It is kind of like being a district leader again. Just had a reunion, shared how things are going in our areas, and I shared a little message. It's a little less work as far as calling at nights and answering that kind of stuff. But I still talk to the missionaries about how things are going in their area and how their investigators are doing. I love it. I love to be able to know about how the progress is going and help out if I have had a similar experience. I am looking forward to being able to do splits as well, to be able to go and learn and help others. Going on splits is one of the greatest things on the mission, I love going out with other missionaries and having spiritual experiences with them. It's amazing how every missionary has his strengths, and if we are humble enough we can learn from everybody around us. It's just like every child of God. We are all blessed with amazing different gifts and abilities, and it is our responsibility to find out what they are and use them to bless the lives of others around us.

I love that story you shared with me mom. We sometimes are so hard on ourselves, but we need to realize that if we are living righteously, that we can and will bless the lives of all those around us. I have been blessed to meet so many amazing missionaries and people on the mission, that have all taught me something unique and special. I hope you guys too will be able to look past the daunting and impossible task of being perfect, and realize that you are all important in the eyes of God. I really have come to understand that through the Atonement of our Savior and through his grace our imperfections and disabilities will be forgiven. And that we can become perfected one day though him.

Elder Gerrett G. Wong shared this in a Ensign talk in July,  "For those who may feel chronically burdened or anxious, sincerely ask yourself, “Do I define perfection and success by the doctrines of the Savior’s atoning love or by the world’s standards? Do I measure success or failure by the Holy Ghost confirming my righteous desires or by some worldly standard?”

Maybe it's not a big burden in our lives. The desire to be perfect, or the feeling of not being good enough. But I believe that these 2 questions can help us out with whatever struggle we are facing. If we come to understand that through the Savior, and the Holy Ghost we can feel that we are doing our best, and the Lord is proud of us. I invite you guys to think about these questions, and ponder them. I did. And it helped me so much.

This week we met an awesome lady named Laura. She is in her mid 30's and has 4 little kids! They are sweet. She has been separated for some time now, and it has really caused a lot of stress and hardship in her life. She has felt alone, she has felt exhausted, and lots of times she just feels like she can't go on. This really has caused some problems in her life, but she has an amazing heart! She wants to overcome the hardships, and she knows she can do it with the help of her Savior. We are praying that she will come to church tomorrow with her kids!

The time is short. I feel like my 4 minutes are ticking faster every single day! I hope that you guys enjoy your last week of summer and then back to work :) best of luck to you all, especially Carter man in his big last year! Enjoy every moment, be an example, and always remember what is most important in life!

I love you guys so much. We are so blessed in every way. 

Love, Elder Hansen!

One of my pair of walking shoes after a year. Time to buy another pair.

Hola Fam!

Thanks so much for the letters this week! Truly looks like you guys had an amazing week, so happy to hear. What a blessing family is eh. Just to see you guys so happy and together makes me happy, there really is nothing better. Seems like things are going good and getting ready to start another school year! Crazy it has past by so fast hey, I can't believe we are in August already! I really enjoyed the pictures you sent me of the family reunion.. definitely meant a lot to me. And Ryan's note of no tapping gave me a pretty hard laugh! Tell them I say hi and love them, and thanks for everything :)

1 year! So wild eh. I seriously can't believe it has come and gone so fast. So happy that I still have one year left, to make the best of every moment. I have been looking back and thinking on this past year and there is lots of stuff I know I can do better, but I feel like I did all I could and worked as hard as I could. I had a pretty neat experience today. I went with my companion to the airport to drop off some missionaries who are heading home, and it was the first time I have entered the airport where I came just 1 year ago. It was crazy to ponder back on the moment when I arrived and just the feelings I had, and how much things have changed. It made me really realize just how FAST the time passes! What a privilege to have another year to work and apply all the things I have learned, I can't wait to get started. They always say the 2nd year flies by which scares me.. so there officially is no time to waste! Thank you so much for the support you guys show me, I really couldn't be happier.

This past week in the mission was the week of "ojos rojo" in the offices (the week of red eyes) because it was transfer week. There is definitely a ton of responsibilities that we have here in the offices which causes us to lose a couple hours of sleep each day haha. It definitely lived up to it's name but it was a great week! The transfer meeting is something special for everyone because it really does get them excited about the work and having a new companion. We got all the new missionaries on Tuesday and it was so crazy to see them.. they were excited to work but also a little lost because of all the things going on haha.. and the overload of Spanish. Elder Healey is staying in the CCM for 4 weeks more. It was fun to be apart of it in the office. There was also a couple surprises for us as well. Because we now have 8 missionaries in the offices President Robertson decided to make us our own Zone! It's the 6 secretaries and the Assistants.. and to my surprise in the transfer meeting I was made the Zone Leader here in the offices. I was definitely super surprised. It is a pretty big honor and will be a good challenge. The offices are always looked at as the missionaries who do the paperwork and don't really work a lot in the field. But President wants to change this and have us out there working and baptizing as much as possible. So I will be trying to help as much as possible.. but in reality all the missionaries here are fantastic and they are all great examples and leaders to me.

We found a new family this week and they are great. The little girl (12 years old) got baptized by herself a couple months ago but we really want to work with the family and try to help them all participate in this happiness together. The dad is a little tough but with our Savior nothing is impossible. We aren't exactly sure what happened to Gaston, we think he might have moved. Sometimes here in Argentina if the people find a job they will just move without telling anyone. We are praying that we will be able to get in touch with him some way to know how things are with him.

Being in the offices is definitely different, but after this week I understand why I'm here. I think the Lord wants me to learn true charity. Charity to the point that I am willing to sacrifice and give up everything to help and serve others. I think this is something that is hard for us as humans, but I know that charity is the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If we have this love for others we truly will understand better just how much our Savior loves us. It's not always easy, but being here has helped show me that no matter what happens I can choose to be happy and serve others because I love them.

I hope that you guys are doing well. I pray for you guys everyday. I was reading a talk the other day in the September Liahona and it was talking about Missionary Work. It used the example of the sons of Mosiah. He offered all 4 of his sons the opportunity to be king and ruler over the people, but instead they chose to serve. Sometimes in our lives we are offered things that seems of great worth, but we need to look and understand that there is a greater happiness waiting for us. I hope that we can be like the Sons of Mosiah and look beyond those things of the world, and really care about the well-being of all those around us.

Thanks so much for everything you do.

With all my Love,

Elder Hansen.

At Hermana Robertsons birthday this week. So we took this picture and wrote her a little birthday card! These are all the Elders that are in the offices right now.

At a lunch we had with our Stake President and his family the other day. It was the Assistants, the Zone Leaders, and us. It was great! They are called the Familia Catron!

Hey Fam!

Thanks so much for the great letters! Sounds like you guys had an amazing week. I always remember the Echo Lake week as the best week of the year! Glad you guys were able to enjoy it and make the best of your time with family and friends! There is nothing better. Pumped to hear that you guys all got out there and hit up the water sports! Just a bunch of studs. We are so blessed to have such great friends. Give them all my love! So when you say the luge course at Olympic Park what does this entail? What do you go down on? Sounds like a ton of fun!

I showed the pic of Jocelyn's foot to everyone here in the office.. well more like they were around when I opened it up. That is so crazy! Give her my best, hope she is doing better. I will be sure to keep her in my prayers.

It has been a great week here in the Offices. To answer your question dad we speak some pretty serious Spanglish (Spanish and English mixed) here in the offices. Its super weird. We just will change in mid sentence or just say a couple english words here and there. There is just a bunch of different words up there in our minds, it's pretty funny. But we try to speak in Spanish so we don't lose it all. A lot of what I do is organize the paperwork that the people have to do. To be able to live here legally you need to receive a special identification card. To get it a person needs an FBI check in their country and in Argentina, a Carta de Culto (which is like a special paper that says they are certified to preach the gospel in a foreign country) and then they need to declare where they will be living during their time in Argentina. So between all these things I am pretty busy. I have to plan the appointments and set up all the different information with the different registros (not sure that word in English). It's a lot of work because the missionaries have to do paperwork every single year so I have to do all the new missionaries and then the ones who have 1 year in the mission. I don't really know what else to share about this. It's just a different world haha. My first day here we had a little staff meeting and the Assistants and old secretaries were talking about how they have learned how to do just about everything here in the office so if we need help just to ask them. Then one of them looked over at me and said, except your job.. nobody has a clue how to do it haha. It's not like it's that hard, it's just not something very common.

This week we saw a huge miracle in our area. Their is a less active family that we visited about a week ago.. the Cruz Family. They are pretty awesome. There is the mom, and her 2 sons who are members but about 3 other kids that aren't. She was telling us that her other sons weren't really super interested in the Gospel or the church, but we continued to pass by to see if they would listen to us. The one day one of the non member sons Gaston answered the door, and we later on ended up teaching him and he received us super well! I guess about 3 years ago he was going to get married and baptized but he suffered a serious accident and lost half of his leg. Super sad. He now has a prosthetic leg that he can take on and off. As he was telling us about this accident he started to talk about how he learned to trust in God and never doubt why things happen. This really made me look back on my life. Sometimes when something small has happened, or happens I think "why me?". I think we all think this sometimes. But he really did teach me this day that something that serious can happen and we can still be grateful for all that we have been given. That no matter what we pass through we can look on the bright side. It hasn't been easy for him. Since his accident him and his wife have got separated, and now he only sees his 2 kids every other week. It was amazing to see his testimony and see just how much he has learned from his hardships. Our trials really are what make the difference in our lives. We can let them beat us up and make excuses, or we can overcome them and learn what our Heavenly Father wants us to learn. He ended up inviting him to be baptized and he accepted! He says about 1 months ago he started to realize and feel that he needed something more in his life, and he stopped drinking because of this feeling. It is amazing to see the amazingly prepared people that the Lord puts in our paths. Not only as missionaries, but as worthy members of the church. He still has many challenges but he is super excited to come to church with us tomorrow!

It has been a great week! I am super happy and enjoying life here in the office a lot. It has taken a lot of adjustment. Mostly because before in the mission one is used to spiritual experiences and just being filled with the Spirit at all times. In the office I have learned just how sacred my study time is in the morning.. it's more like the life outside the mission. We may only have a little time to study the scriptures, and then we are out in the world with temptations. But if we honestly study with real intent and pay attention to what the Lord is telling us we will have the strength and the guidance we need everyday. I hope you guys feel this. I hope you guys cherish time together, and alone studying the scriptures and getting closer to your Heavenly Father. I can testify without doubt that this relationship can make all the difference in our lives. It has changed mine.

I hope you guys have a great week. Say hi to the Schmidt family for me and give them all my best!

Always praying and thinking about you!

Love, Elder Hansen.

Elder Flores and I having pizza at the Llerena home 

With the Familia Llerena

A few old friends reunited. Me, Elder Dunn, Elder Fristrup, Elder Paredes.

Life in the Office

Hola Fam!

Thanks for the letters this week! Sounds like things are going great up there in Canada! Glad to hear that Magrath Days were as great as ever. Crazy that it has almost been a year since I've been out here. The time sure does fly by so fast! Always comforting to hear that things are well and that you guys aren't working too hard or anything :) haha. What summer is all about right?

That is sweet that the Familia Llerena got in contact with you guys the other day! We are the first Elder missionaries to be in the ward in about a year and a half so they were pretty excited to have us over the other day... we had a great Family Home Evening, ate some pizza and played some games. I felt super awkward when they were taking videos and pictures haha pero bueno, They are a sweet family and I'm glad you were able to get in touch with them! Looks like you guys will have to learn Spanish to be able to communicate with the people down here :)

I officially got my drivers license! And the first thing I can say is WOW. If you think riding on a rollercoaster is an adrenaline rush, you need to try driving standard truck down here in Argentina! haha. It's a little different than driving my little Ford Focus automatic in Magrath. I was pretty bad the other day trying to drive stick shift again, but I am thankful that dad was patient enough to teach me. The people here seriously drive crazy, but they are so good at driving. They can literally fit through any tiny little space, which forces me to do the same thing. It definitely has been an interesting time learning to drive here in the city!

That's sweet that Elder Healey will be coming to the mission. I saw a couple weeks ago that there will be a Canadian coming and have been trying to get his stuff ready to go. I will happily look forward to receiving the package as well. Usually just the Assistants go to pick up the missionaries with the President and his wife. But I will see him soon enough. The other day I did kind of mix up. I said there were 5 secretaries, 2 Assistants, and 8 living in the apartment. It's because there are only 5 secretary positions, but one is training a new secretary and will be leaving next transfer.. so for now there are 6 secretaries.

Things have continued to be good here in the offices. The Ashton's (our trainers) have officially left back to their area in the mission field so we are alone now! It is a little bit scary but so far we have managed to get by! There is a lot to do and a lot to learn but it has been a good learning experience. There is a lot of interesting things that I have been able to learn through this great calling.

The things in the mission field are good as well. We are trying right now to just gain the trust of the members and show them that we are here to serve them! Sometimes its hard as an office missionary because we aren't in the field working a ton, but we want them to know that working there is our first priority! And it really is. During the day we have lots to do in the office but we are always waiting to get out there and hit the street :) There really is nothing greater than being able to preach the Gospel to others.

The other day we left with a young kid named Rolando (17 years old) to do a few visits. It is awesome to have such great members and youth who are willing to help us and visit our investigators. It really is the key to mission work. When the members and the missionaries work together is when we see the people investigating have a true conversion. Because not only are they able to learn about Christ, but they are able to make true life long friends with the members. I was just thinking about this the other day.. and the sacred responsibility and blessing we have to be that friend and guide to others. When I think of the strongest converts I know, I think of the great people that are there helping them every step along the way. We don't realize sometimes just how big of a step it is, but we know it is one that is life changing. I admire so much those converts all over the world, for their true faith. Their faith to trust in something sometimes they know nothing about, but can feel the truth in their hearts. And one of the biggest examples of this is you mom. How grateful I am for you and for your desire, and for dad's desire to help you every step of the way.

I have no doubt in my mind that this is the true church of God. We are so blessed I can't even explain it. I know the our Savior lives and that his love is greater then we can comprehend, and that through him all is possible. The other day I was watching a mormon message called "look to the light" and it really touched my heart. Just knowing that whatever we pass through, or whatever goes on in our life that the Lord is their with us. If we seek him, he will bless us.

I hope all the best for you guys. Never forget the love that I have for you, and know that everyday I pray with all my heart for you.

With all my love,

Elder Hansen.