Saturday, January 31, 2015

Last P-day in Catan eating watermelon with the some other missionaries

Shoes are hammered.

Well hey all!

So this week has been something else.. I don't even know where to start. So like I told you they called me on Sunday and told me they were going to change me! I was more than shocked. But we worked a full the last 2 days I had in Catan it was great we saw so many miracles! We found a complete family that the parents are married and they have 9 kids! Pretty much every age from 2 till 21. They are unreal! We taught them the Restoration and the Spirit was so powerful I can't even explain it! They are seriously so prepared. As we shared the first vision the Spirit was present in such a special way and they were left amazed and wanting to know more. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and to go to church and they said they would.. although I won't be there I hope they progress they are such a special family and it was such a miracle!

So Wednesday I was definitely all over the place as far as my thoughts and my feelings about what was going to happen. Right before the meeting I was feeling super sick to my stomach and there was a million things going through my mind haha.. I definitely was feeling the nerves. I don't even know what to say to tell you the truth, I feel super humbled about what has happened and where I have been called. Just as you can probably tell I am writing on Saturday again... which means that I am in the office once again haha. Crazy no. But this time I have a lot different responsibility.. I have been called to be Assistant.. and I definitely feel so blessed.. and definitely very under qualified for the job... But If I have learned one thing on the mission is that the Lord calls us in our weaknesses and if we learn to rely on Him that we will be made strong. When I saw where I was getting called, a scripture from Exodus came into my mind... in Exodus 3:11-12 when Moses says to the Lord that he is under qualified or not capable enough to be able to do such a big task.. and the Lord responds that He will be with him through it all. I love this part, and I have to be honest is that I feel like I will be depending on the Lord more then ever in my life, but I think that is one of the greatest blessing I could have. I'm super excited for the things I will be able to learn here!

My companion is Elder Collins. He has 18 months in the mission as well, he is super awesome. He is from Wyoming and we already know each other really well so we get along great and it's a lot of fun. It's also going to be awesome to work with President and Hermana Robertson again. They are incredible people, the other day we sat down with President and talked about the Zone Conferences that we are going to be having in February and I'm super excited! It's crazy though. I think before my mission my biggest fear was having to speak in front of people about church doctrine. I was always terrified to speak out in seminary or give a class in talk. And now that's what my job is haha. We are going to be travelling around the mission and doing special conferences when we talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the mission and what we can do to get better. I'm stoked!

Our area is also great too! Yesterday we saw 2 incredible miracles and 2 people committed themselves to being baptised. One lady her name is Norma, she is so awesome! She has been talking to missionaries for over 15 years and she just never understood one thing.. mostly about what happens to good people who never get / got the chance to be baptised or know the truth. We truly did feel guided by the Lord and as we answered her doubt she just felt full of happiness and relief. She wants to read the whole Book of Mormon before she gets baptised and her goal is to do it in like 3 weeks! She's so awesome.

Well I don't really know what else to say. I feel like my time here in the office will be flying by again like crazy. It's amazing what the Lord has in store for us, and it's amazing how he tries to use us to bless the lives of others. I was reading today in 2 Nephi 26:27 today and it really showed me that our Heavenly Father desires that we all receive salvation.. every single one of us. And that the way he does this is through us, we are his people that he commands to share the Gospel and preach repentance to others. I hope we can always be obedient and try to magnify whatever calling we have or whatever the Lord has in store for us.. He knows everything and as we humbly ourselves He will work miracles in us. 

Love you all, thanks for being such great examples and such an important part of my mission.

Have a great week!!
Love, Elder Hansen.
Baptism of Itaty

Monday, Jan. 26

Hey Fam!

Thanks for the letters they were great this week, sounds like life is great up there! Thanks for always taking time to share your experiences with me I definitely appreciate it! I definitely am a proud missionary after reading your story mom! So cool that you were able to have that experience, and that you were able to share some time. I sometimes think it's not always such a bad thing to share with others and let them in our houses. I am sure that you did just great and that they left with the desire to go to church :) haha. I definitely have realised in the mission that their never is an end when it comes to the amount of knowledge that we can and should obtain in this life. I love having every morning to just study. These past weeks I have been studying a ton when it comes to the Restoration and the how scriptures in the Bible support the Restoration, its super fascinating! Glad to hear that you all had a good week and hope that Jo enjoys her vacation and that Carter does well in his exams!

Well the baptism of Itaty was great! She definitely had an interesting but cool experience that showed her desires. She used to go to an Evangelical church and twice she almost got baptised there, but both times she just couldn't do it.. she told us every time it got close she just felt something telling her she shouldn't.  On Saturday she got baptised right.. but she told us that right before she left her house she was seriously considering not going. That she felt that same feeling telling her not to go and that she shouldn't do it.. but what was awesome is that she shared how this time she felt like it was something that she needed to do and that she stayed strong to her decision and her testimony. It was awesome to see how she could resist the temptation of Satan and go through and take this big step in her life! And then yesterday she received the Holy Ghost, it was awesome! Yesterday was her birthday too! She turned 22.. so we went to her house and cooked her and her family a cake! Put my cake boss skills to work haha. It was definitely a good weekend though and a good experience for her! Sorry that I can't send pictures still but hopefully one of these days I'll be able too!

Our English class went good this week as well! We had about 15-20 people show up which was pretty good for the first week, we are hoping that we get more and more every week as the word gets out! We just taught basic stuff. How to present yourself more than anything, very simple. We used the book that they gave us in the MTC to learn Spanish. It's super simple and it helped me a ton, you guys will have to study it up one day and we can all just speak in Spanish!

Speaking of that.. it could be next week. haha. So the mission decided to change how they announce the changes. Normally they did it Monday night.. but yesterday they called us and let us know! And I'm leaving Catan! Ahh man I was actually sooo shocked and surprised when they told me, I thought they were just messing with me for sure. But turns oot it is true, so this Wednesday I will be going to another area again and we will see what the Lord has in store for me! I definitely will miss Catan and was not expecting to leave, but I have learned that what the Lord wants is absolutely the most important and that if we really do humble ourselves and do His will that He will never let us fall. I am excited and know that it will be a change for the better!

So on that note I don't have too much else to share.. I will be trying to keep in contact with Elder Emry to see how the investigators go here in Catan and maybe will be able to come back if some of them get baptised. There are a couple that should be getting baptised her in February! 

So that's about it for me this week, it was a great week and this week will be one of changes but change is good right!? I hope you guys have a great week! And Mom I hope you have a GREAT BIRTHDAY! Don't you worry after all this time I still haven't forgot :) Hope you have a great day and that dad spoils you a ton. Thanks so much for being such an amazing example and for being willing to ask God for a witness that the Book of Mormon is true. I admire your courage. Thanks for always being so loving and understanding with me, and for all the times that you showed so much patience. You and Dad are going to be great missionaries one day :) hahah.

Love you all! Have a great week.. next week I shall be writing from who knows where.... :) 

Besos, Elder Hansen.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Hola Fam!

Hey thanks a ton for the emails glad to hear that things went well this week, sounds like you guys are super busy which is great. Gotta love it. That's so awesome that Carter continues to do well in basketball and that Jo is gonna take a nice little vacation, always the best! Hope that Mom and Dad don't feel too left out.

This week has been super hot as well! I got a little bit sick just from heat stroke I believe but we still were able to work all week. On Friday it was 37 degrees with 100 percent humidity! It was a scorcher. In our area we don't have buses we have these vans called combis. They are like white Hutterite vans but what they do is take all the seats out and just put wooden benches around the inside where you sit on. They are like 3 pesos to ride haha. But the thing is a lot of them don't have windows so they are like a 30 cent sauna! We had to take one on Friday and it was probably between 45 and 50 degrees inside! I have literally never sweat so bad in my life haha, it was definitely an interesting experience.

As far as our investigators we are working really hard right now with Itaty. She is progressing really good even though there are a lot of family problems in her house. She loves the church and the gospel a lot and she has already seen how it has helped her. She was definitely a miracle, we just found her looking for some less active members, she has a baptism date for the 24th of this month!
We are going to the temple tomorrow with Gaston, Monica, Luzmila and Agustina! They are such a cool family and so humble! They have had a few complications trying to get their papers to get married but we are still working hard on this. I love them a lot.
We have another family that we are working with now that also wants to get married but still haven't decided when, so we are trying to show them the importance of being able to keep this commandment. We went over to their house on Saturday night to eat pizza and had a little lesson with them. I love how open the Argentines are, it's cool!

We are also teaching a members daughter, her named is Romina. She is super cool and in the last week we have seen a huge progress in her. She has known the missionaries for awhile but has never really had the time or committed herself to listen and take the discussions. But just in these past little bit she has gone through some tough things which has really caused her to open up the past 2 weeks. The other day we had a super powerful lesson about the importance of repentance how how loving and merciful the Savior is. She really has a hard time feeling that in her life and as we explained it she was overcome with tears which was something super special. She has a baptism date february and her mom is capa! Definitely a great example of how important it is that the members share with their family members / friends because the mom reads with Romina pretty much everyday!

Besides that I am doing really good. We have a lot of good investigators and there is a lot to do! 
Today we are planning on buying a giant watermelon, sitting out in the shade and enjoying a nice relaxing P-day. The best part is that the watermelon here are like 3 times bigger then the ones back home... its like a complete lunch in itself!

This last week we also had our Zone Meeting and it went really well. We talked about the importance of learning how to teach how Christ taught, with power and simplicity. We also talked about how importance it is to learn the doctrine inside and out and be so familiar with it that you can explain it to anyone. As a mission we are reading parts of Preach My Gospel together, and in this next week or so we are going to be studying The Restoration. I want to invite you guys to read it with me when we read it, because it really is the key to everything we believe in and the difference that we have from everybody else. I will let you guys know more details next week. But I have no doubt and we study it and come to better understand the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the importance of a living day Prophet that our testimonies will be strengthened. We also talked in the reunion about the importance of urgency. The importance it is to decide today and work today, and not wait until tomorrow to become better. We shared the story in Matthew 4:18-22 and how the fishermen (who become the Apostles) acted as Christ called them. It talks about how the first two "left straightway" and how the next two "left immediately". I love this example. They left their families and their careers behind as the Lord called them, and this is a great invitation for everyone of us. We have all been called by Him, and its important to really ponder in what way we are following Him. With doubts, or "immediately".

I hope that we are all willing to follow the voice of our Savior immediately as He calls us, and I know that if we do we will be blessed greatly for it. I have seen that it isn't exactly about how much we know, but how quickly and willingly we are to follow and to learn. That's when the Savior can change us.

Hey have a great week, love you all!!
Elder Hansen.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Jan 5, 2015

Hey Fam and Friends!

Happy new year to everyone back there! Hope you guys had a great new start to the year and that you could party hard like you always do!! Crazy how fast 2014 went by I seriously can't believe it, but what an amazing year of progress and growth it has been! I have seen such a growth spiritually in everyone of you and it really has been such a testimony builder to me, thanks for always sharing your experiences with me, they really do strengthen me. The only thing that needs to grow now is Carter in height and strength! little smurf. haha just messing. Crazy how things change and how much you guys have changed, all looking like movie stars these days!!

We definitely have a relaxed New Year but it was really good. We went to eat with a part member family and then had to be in our apartment at 8:30 for security reasons. New Years gets a little dangerous around here. Lots of them start drinking at like noon haha. But it was a good time we were in bed and sound asleep at 10:30 haha, but we woke up at 12:00 when all the fireworks went off so we watched them for a little bit. The truth is I haven't had like 5 minutes this week to be able to sit back and think in some new years resolutions and goals, but hopefully this week will be a little less hectic and I will be able to do it. Thanks for sharing your goals with me, they all sounds super great! I have learned a ton about goals here on the mission. The other day Hermana Robertson said "that goals that aren't written down are just thoughts" I hope you guys can take some time to write down goals. I know that if we learn to make and complete our goals is when we can reach our true potential!

Today has been a pretty interesting p-day so far. So we have an investigator named Guillermo who lives in very humble conditions. He is so awesome but it breaks my heart sometimes. He has problems with the alcohol and cigarettes right now and we are really working on this. But the other day he mentioned that he needed a haircut and wanted to know if we could help him out or find someone to cut his hair. Before I could think twice I volunteered! haha. So today at 9:30 we met him in the church and I cut his hair! And he showed up with one of his friends who is sadly homeless today, and after I cut Guillermo's hair his friend shyly asked me if I would be willing to cut his. So i officially found my first 2 clients today! haha. But it was such a different but amazing little service. As I was cutting Guillermo's friends hair he said "viste Guillermo, hace algunos minutos estabamos tirados en la calle y ahora vamos a tener la facha como estes mucachos." .. which means "look Guillermo just a couple minutes ago we were out in the street and now we are going to have style like these 2 kids" haha it was so funny but such a special moment to see just how grateful they were for such a small act. That's what I love the most about people here, their sincerity and how much they really appreciate the little things. I wouldn't say it was the best hair cut in the word but it was a pretty cool experience for me.

Our investigators also continue to do well. We had a really successful day yesterday in church and Gaston, Monica and their 2 little girls went to church again! They are great and progressing super awesome. Today they went to start some of their paperwork to be able to get married, so we are hoping all went well! We also are working a lot with a older lady named Juana, and a young girl named Itaty, they are both progressing really well and have baptism dates for this month so we are really praying a lot for them. This other family we met last week didn't come to church yesterday but we had a really awesome lesson about the Restoration and they are really excited to learn more. They are super sincere people and have a strong desire to learn.. just want to be really sure before they make a decision.. kinda like mom :) haha. But its great, it shows how much it really means to them.

Things are going great! Tomorrow we have our zone meeting and Elder Emry and I are super excited it's going to be great. January is gonna be a great month in Catan and in the mission! Gotta love it, so cool to see the changes and how the Lord is bring to pass His work in these last days!
Thanks for everything, love you all and besitos!

Elder Hansen.

Thursday, January 1, 2015