The Adventure Starts Here

Wow this has been such an amazing week. Okay so I will answer all of the questions first. Yes I am in Vancouver right above Portland Oregon. It actually reminds me exactly like Alaska becuase we are right by the Columbia River and it’s rainy and cold almost every single day. I really like it though because of the fact that it’s just like Alaska. Okay so my companion is Elder Snow. He is from Farmington Utah. He has only been out 3 months and he is a stud. Basicaly right when he was done being trained I came in and now he is training me. I like to call ourselves the shot gun companionship because we are both so young. So funny story, the day of transfers after my 4 hour drive to the other side of the mission from the tri-cities to Vancouver I saw evey different climates that are in the mission. Dry, farmland, mountains, and rain. Its very green here. I love it but we all have to be taking Vitiman C pills so that we don’t start feeling depressed and what not because there is not much sun. So guess who my district leader is! The one and only Elder Petterson from V2. How funny is that. When I got out of the car to meet all the elders here he was like Spencer Hansen what are you doing here. He was way excited to see me. Our teaching pool is growing every day. At the moment we are really trying to gain the members trust so that we can get as many referals as possible. We are on bikes right now, but we do walk a lot just so that its easier to talk to people as we go from place to place. My second day we had a total of 29 oyms which was a really good day. Its getting easier to talk to people but I know I couldn’t do it without our Father In Heaven. He has helped us in so many ways. So we get fed each and every day here from different members in the ward. Its crazy how much we are fed. I am slowly meeting more and more members but there are so many. Oh actually there is a family here that we had dinner with last night by the name of McKell or something like that. He grew up in Valencia and his dad is on the high council so I think we all should know him. He showed me a picture of the dad and I remember him. So maybe dad knows him. Apparently his mom knows you mom because she was on camp committee one year so there you go. So the other day we tracted into a Russian family and at first he kept telling us that he doesn’t know any good english and so we handed him a card that gives an explanation in Russian of who we are and what we are teaching and then all of a sudden as we kept asking more and more questions and more and more english kept coming out. So we set another day to go by and on Saturday we got to teach him a little about the Book of Mormon and what it’s all about. He knows just enough english to get by but we are looking for someone in the ward/stake that speaks Russian to help us because it’s really hard to explain some things with him. We hope to get his whole family involved in the lesson because they speak perfect english so that will help as well. So the first day in the mission home when we first got there we had meetings all day. We all got interviewed by the president and then we went to the mission home and had a really good dinner that Sister Greer made for all 25 of us. It was quite an amazing time. They are so nice and they really took the time for each and every one of us. So tell Abby that I did the Elf thing with my trainer and he loved it. I actually met my grandpa and great grandpa as well. They are really good missionaries and I am excited to get out there. Oh before I forget we are also teaching an investigator by the name of Rick and he is amazing. He has been an alcoholic for most of his life and the missionaries before me have got him from drinking a gallon a day to a cup a day. Then me and Elder Snow have helped him as he went cold turnkey a few days ago and you can really tell a differnce when he is sober or not. I am so happy for all of the things that Heavenly Father has given me. I hope this is enogh detail for now. I think one question that is left is The AP’s have a town home that they live in full of beds so that is where most of us slept that night. Some others went to some members home and the sisters stayed at the Presidents home. I live in an apartment its just me and elder snow and its nicer then my apartment up at school. I was really impressed. So I love you all and I am so grateful for all the support you give me. Love you so much. 

 

Elder Hansen

 

P.S. We’re not in a hurry why is he eating so fast look at him! ( cab driver from china trip.) (Idiot Abroad) 

 

He’s Arrived!

Elder Hansen arrived in Kennewick this Tuesday. We received an email from his mission president notifying us of his safe arrival. We were also sent this pdf file with a few pictures and map of his mission.

In the group picture, Elder Hansen is the one in the very back on the left.

We are so excited that he is now in the field! We look forward to hearing from him next week. It will be interesting to see how his first week in Kennewick has been!

 

Week 3

Ha that sounds like you have had a lot of things to do this week. That is so crazy that Dallin is serving in PG and that he met Grandpa hahah that is too classic. Well I am itching to get out of the MTC. It’s less then 24 hours away. We will leave the MTC at around 8:00 and my flight leaves at around 11:30 so I will call you before then. I just bought a card that has 500 minutes on it so I have plenty of time to talk and what not. I am so excited to get out and do the Lord’s work. We had an amazing fireside yesterday. The speaker was the head of the proseliting division of the church. He talked about his best friend the Book Of Mormon. He talked about the play the Book of Mormon and showed us some clips form it. Its was horrible but it helped us understand what we are really going up against. He then showed us how the church has taken full advantage of the this opportunity to do publicity. He showed us a copy of the play bill from the play and on every other page the church has bought out a page to encourage people to read the book for themselves and visit mormon.org. Its was amazing. The church has also bought some billboards in Time Square to publicize the church as well as on most taxi cabs they have advertising. Apparently all the missionaries in the NY mission have become instant celebrities and they never have a shortage of questions about what we believe. The church is so smart to take full advantage of this opportunity to do missionary work. The Lord’s work will go forward because we have the truth all people need to do is try it for ourselves. We had this thing this week called in field orientation where we spent a whole day in work shops learning the ins and outs of missionary work. It really helped. I just want to get out there and do the work. I really hope they produce that MTC Fireside so that dad can watch it because it was so good I cant stop thinking about it. So I have about 4 hours to pack today which should be more then enough time. I just hope my bags are under weight. I think they will be because I have a scale in our room so I can take care of it all before I even get to the airport. I really wish dad was still in China right now because we had some of our zone leave this morning to where he was and it would be awesome if they all could have met my dad haha. I am really excited for them and I can’t believe they actually spent 12 weeks here in the MTC. SO everyone found out that dad works for Disney and they won’t leave me alone about it haah. Its all good. Elder Cobar keeps telling everyone that Dad owns Disney and I tell him no he doesn’t he just works in the audit department. haha they just dont understand. Well life is good here, I have to go but I will talk to you tomorrow. Love you.

Elder Hansen

I just wish that I could get some normal food in china, I dont like waking up and for breakfast you have some squid bollic on my plate.

 

Week 2

Wow its sounds like you have had just as crazy of a week as I have. That is sad to here about Heidi but I know that the Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us here on this earth and that we will be able to live with Him again in the next life as we live worthy to receive those promised blessings. I love the plan of salvation because its just another gift that shows how much Heavenly Father really loves us. I have learned so much this week and it’s been really tough. We are teaching about 3 to 4 investigators per day and at times in can be a little overwhelming. But I have no need to worry because we really do have Him on our side and we are an army waiting to go out into battle. Elder Cobar and myself have been trying to work together as well as we can to help our investigators. The days feel like the never end but the weeks really do fly right by. We spend about 6 hours a day in the classroom as well as about 4 hours teaching and studying. I love it here. I am not going to lie I love being a missionary so much that I don’t really want to ever go home. Sorry angel mother. So to answer your question my p-day is on Mondays. I have gotten my flight information and I will be flying out a week from Tuesday. I can’t remember the date off of the top of my head. I am so excited to get out here. There are so many elders and sisters going to my mission. We were told we have the biggest group to ever leave the MTC a total of 25 of all of us. My gym time is really nice. I have been playing volleyball every day and I really like it. Our district is doing well and we are all striving to keep the spirit with us always. We had a fireside yesterday and then we watched a recording of Elder Holland’s talk to the MTC a few years ago. He basically yelled at us the whole time it was very intense. It really helped put everything into perspective. Oh I will give you more information of the flights in the letter because I don’t have my information with me. Yes I get to call you. Do not worry. Well my time is short I love you all and I will give you a better update in my letter to mom.

Love Elder Hansen

P.S. I stood right where they shot Sons of Provo in front of the temple. The sad thing is no one else has seen it so no one got how funny it was to me.

 

Week 1

Hello from the MTC or also jail hahah not really. This place is amazing. I love it so much and you can really feel the spirit when you really work and be exactly obedient. Well here we go haha My com is Elder Cobar and he is from New Hampshire. He is amazing he is so funny and really supportive. We are really trying hard to listen to our investigators and find their needs and see what we can do to teach them the this is its really up the how much they want to put into the work. The Holy Ghost will answer any question that they have they just need to be willing to ask. Its nuts how much Heavenly Father loves us. He gave us the restoration of the gospel so that we could have a purpose in this life and know where we are going. The thing that gets the investigators the most is the idea of eternal families. We at this moment are teaching 4 investigators. They are Jeanie, Dom, Christian and also Ray. We are praying all the time for them and we are really trying to express how much our father in heaven loves them because they really don’t know much about him and about religion in general. Our teachers are amazing. They really teach by the spirit and really teach how what we need to do to be effective missionaries. I love the work. I have honestly learned more in one day then I do in a week at BYUI. The spirit is really helping. I have seen Dallin, Drew, Ryan, and Luke Spiker and a few other friends from school. It’s really nice to see them. So Ryan got a huge package a few days ago from his mom I saw him carrying that was full of food. He told me that he had a big brake the fast party. Yes fast Sunday was soo long. We woke up, had sacrament meeting, then a 2 hour conference then we had 4 hours of study time then another hour devotional and then a 35 minute movie. We didn’t get back until 9:30 that night. Well my time is running short so I hope this is enough detail. I will send you a picture when I have the opportunity. Thank you for all the support and I love you all so much. Please remember all that Heavenly Father gives us and spread the gospel.

Elder Hansen

Here is me and Elder Cobar at our temple session this morning. PS it was not open. So we woke up at 5:45 for nothing.

Here is district 45a. PS we are split half of us are going to Fresno, CA and the other half Kennewick.