Week 13

It sounds like your trip was so so. Life is good here in the misson field. Elder Crandell is a very good missionary and we are getting along great. He has taught me so much! Its good to have a missionary finish training me who has some good exprience under his belt to help me out and teach me things that he had to learn while he was out here. He is from a little town about 20 minutes outside of Snowflake Arizona. He has already served in the Meadows ward which is good. He was here when he was a greenie as well ha so its funny because everyone still remembers him! Church yesterday was really good. We had 2 of our investigators at church. Kody who is getting baptized this Friday and also Jennnifer. We have been teaching her for about 2 weeks or so and she is really soaking it all in. She is still a little iffie on baptism but that will come when she really gains a testimony for herself. We see her about 2 times a week so she is progressing fast. 

Thanksgiving was good. We had dinner with a family and had a lot of fun. We ate so much food. We then stopped by members and gave a Thanksgiving message. We got a lot of pie from it! So that was our Thanksgiving. This week has been good but I really don’t know what else to say. We are doing a lot of finding because we dropped a lot of people who we were teaching who were not seekers of truth. I love you all and I am sorry this letter is so short.

Oh I forgot about one thing. Christmas is coming and I am so excited. I have been quoting a lot of Elf and I love it! 

Love Elder Hansen

 

Week 12

What a crazy week this week was let me tell you. We had Elder Pieper of the 70 come to our mission to do a mission tour and we had a 6 hour training with him and it was like drinking out of a fire hose and it was so good. He taught us so much about how we can help the people we teach act and learn on their own. He also talked about how we need to find the Elect. We need to find seekers of truth who are waiting to be baptized and are looking for the gospel. I am so glad that he came by because he answered a lot of our questions. You could just feel the spirit that he brought with him and he was teaching so powerfully because it was all by the spirit. He didn’t have any notes or anything. He asked us to all bring a question and he took 12 of them. The crazy thing is he answered every single one of those questions at once. He explained that there are only three forms of questions that people have and he gave us a formula on how to answer every question that you are given and they do most of the work to find the answer on their own. We are here to teach them how to fish and find their own answers.

So I woke up yesterday morning to the alarm just like every other day. I go to turn the phone alarm off and I saw that President Greer texted us at like 5:30 earlier that morning. He wanted Elder Snow to call him asap. So he called right away and was told that he is being ET to Pasco and he leaves Monday at 5:00 PM on a train. So I now have a new companion. I haven’t met him yet but I will meet him at around 11-12 today. So I am now taking over the area and I am kind of freaking out! I am going to have to rely on the Lord now more then ever. I am nervous but I know that I will be fine. I have only been out less then 2 transfers and I already am taking over the area. This is going to be interesting. I don’t know what going on over on the east side of the mission but they need good strong missionaries to clean up some things I guess and Elder Snow is the one for the job.

So the work is going crazy over here in the Meadows Ward. We have 3 people on date. Our next baptism is going to be on the last day of the month. His name is Kody and he is 14. We are really excited for that. We also have an investigator named Camille. She is a seeker of truth and is soaking every little thing we teach her up. She wants more and more and she is reading everything we give her and she comes back with more and more questions. We have her on date for January 5, 2013. We can’t wait for that to happen. I am so blessed to see everyone grow and change with this amazing gospel in their lives.  I am so grateful for everything that we are blessed with. I wish I could put into words how much I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for his doctrine and his gospel. I know that this is THE way and the only way. I am so grateful for the blessing of being here in the Washington Kennewick Mission. I love everyone here and I know that when I put them before myself I really grow and love them just like the Savior does. I see these people in a different way. I wish I could help everyone here but I have to remember that it’s only one person at a time. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I will bring us closer to him as we read the book and abide by what it teaches. When we do what right we WILL receive answers to our prayers. Like President Uchtdorf said, “When we do, is when we become.” When we do as the Savior taught we will become like him. We MUST follow his example if we are to receive all of his blessings. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be forgiven of the things that I do wrong. I am so grateful that I can repent. I have learned that repentance means change. Sometimes we aren’t doing things that are wrong, but we need to remember that there is good, better, and the best things we can be doing. Let us not forget that.

I testify that Jesus is the Christ! I know that He lives and loves each and every one of use. I am so excited for the seasons coming up. Let us not forget the true meaning of Christmas. Like President Monson said we can just take the first syllable out of Christmas and you remember the true meaning. It’s about Christ.

So about the rain. It rains every day here. I have gotten used to it. Its crazy it never really stops. I hope you all at home are grateful for the sun. I would love some CDs of classical Guitar music. I know that they have hymns in Classical guitar and also Christmas music. Maybe a sweater or 2. It gets colder every day here. The humidity really gets to you.

Love Elder Hansen

Elder Hansen with Elder Snow and Elder Fenn

Halloween

Elder Hansen and Elder Snow with one of their investigators

Elder Hansen and Elder Snow with Grace on her baptism day

Another photo from Grace’s baptism day

Elder Hansen and Elder Snow with Grace and her family

 

Week 11

What a crazy week we just had! First off the baptism was amazing. It went very well and everyone felt the spirit so strong. She was so happy to get into the water because she just wanted to get her clothes wet. So we had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to go fill up the font. We set up all the chairs and prepped everything. The service started at 10:00 and it was a success. Here is the thing though — the night before we got a call from our Zone Leaders (right before we were about to go to bed) saying that something happened on the east side of our mission so one of the zone leaders had to fill in for someone who was going home now. So President Greer wanted us to be in a 3-way companionship with Elder Fenn, the other Zone leader. So we are now covering 3 wards and trying to work out three different areas that have a lot of people we are teaching. So after the baptism the APs came and picked up Elder Dreager and took him to the east side and Elder Fenn was now with us. That made Church nuts because we had to schedule each ward and had to make sure he was with his ward mission leaders so that we could go to our ward. But things are now looking up because he got a call from President and he is getting a new companion today so we will be back to normal.

The work has picked up so much in the past week. We have been seeing a lot of good things happen in the Meadows Ward. I am excited to see how everything goes down and who will keep progressing. I know that this is the Lord’s work and its His will not ours. I love it out here and I don’t ever want to come home. I wake up every morning ready to get to work. I love the scriptures so much and I am trying as hard as I can to learn them forwards and back. Heavenly Father is really helping me learn and grow. Elder Snow is doing great. He is always on his game and we are working really well together.

It sounds like everyone is having a great time at home. The freak show is always a fun thing to go and do. I will always remember the days when we would go down there and do all of that.

We have a packed week coming up this week. We have specialized training tomorrow and interviews with President Greer. And then on Wednesday we have Elder Piper from the 70 coming to visit us and we are going to be in meetings all the next two days. I am so excited to have him come and speak to us. I will learn so much more and I know that it will be an amazing learning experience.

The work has gotten to the point now where days are meshing together and you don’t really know what time or day of the week is. It’s making time fly by and I don’t know how I feel about that. I have seen so many miracles here and I know there is more to come. We are seeing the ward really starting to come to us with people ready to hear the gospel. Its great. We will be teaching a family tomorrow that was a friend of a member here in the ward and it’s going to be really good. She is a seeker of truth. We also found out that some elders have been teaching a 14-year-old boy who lives in our area and he is on date already for the 25 of November. They are going to hand him off to us this week I think so be ready for another baptism.

I am excited to see how this friend that Maddy has progresses. I am proud of all of you to have the lessons at our house. That is the perfect teaching opportunity. Well I must go we have lots of things to do still! Love you all.

Elder Hansen

 

Week 10

Hey, Its glad to see all is well at home. This week has been slow but yet still rewarding. I actually have a very funny story. So we are teaching a less active lady. She is an older lady and struggles with a few things about the gospel. So apparently she sprained her arm working so her boss sent her to go to the doctor. She is on some sort of pain killer that makes her really sleepy. So we were teaching her and she was doing well for a while and then all of a sudden she fell asleep on us. It was so funny. She started snoring right as I asked her a question. She fell asleep faster than Dad does. I mean like half a second I kid you not. She starts snoring right away. So I look over to Elder Snow and we had no idea what to do. So Elder Snow asks a question really loud and then she woke up and we kept going. We were having a hard time teaching after that because we were trying not to laugh. I felt so bad after because she was trying so hard to stay awake and just could not do it. Next time we go back to teach her we will be a lot more active with her and teach using objects and things like that to keep her awake.

Its great to hear that Madeline is doing some missionary work. I am actually kind of sad the missionaries were not talking to her right away. I am glad that you helped them to overcome their fears and talk to someone haha. Elder Snow and myself jump at every person we don’t know at church. Most of them are just visiting… kind of annoying at times.

So the baptism is a go for us here. I am excited! I will send pictures next week. I have not taken that many lately because we have been very busy. I am so grateful for all the things that we are blessed with. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon. It is such an amazing thing to have. I have learned so much about the power that the Book of Mormon has and how it can answer any question and ease any concern. When we humble ourselves and feast upon all the words of Christ and pray and build that personal relationship with Christ is when the spirit will be with us and all will be well.

We had dinner with the Sharp family last night and they are so awesome. He is the former bishop before Bishop Bacon who was just released. He and his wife get missionary work because they brought friends over who are not members! It was so great. I hope there will be a time that we can teach them and see miracles come from it. Bishop Mckell is doing great. Yesterday in ward council he was doing a great job of getting all the ward business taken care of. I am excited to see what happens in the next few months.

So to answer your question this is how P-Day goes. We get up clean the apartment, study, then we go to the church to email and then after we go to the WinCo across the street for some shopping. Then we come back to the church and play B-ball in the Gym and also write letters and hang out there on the stage for the rest of the day. Its very nice. Then we go home around 5 and shower and then get to work. It’s a good break,  I really like it.

Love you all at home. Thanks for the email.

Love Elder Hansen