Happy New Year!

Hello errbody....  sup?   Well it was awesome to talk to you all and see you on google hangout on Christmas!! I loved seeing Samuel smile. :)  It was great!  I can't wait to meet him one day! He will be almost 2 by then though! ha ha oh and it was good to see all of you as well . . :)  anyway,  Merry Christmas!

This week was good.  Christmas was fun.  Just chilled and ate good food with members.  Then Wednesday was alright. Had some good lessons.  But then on Thursday morning I got sick.  I don't know if it was something I ate that gave me food poisoning or if it was stomach flu, but I was like dead for 2 days...  I didn't eat anything for those two days and I could hardly keep any water down.... It was just not fun. ha ha but Im better now!  Still haven't eaten a lot yet, but I'll get there.

 

Other than the sickness, we taught some great lessons and built trust with our investigators.  Also our investigators husband got here from Kentucky and we started teaching him and he seems very open to it all! So I am excited for that.  They even came to church, even when she had her gall bladder removed on Wednesday. 

 

We talked with our branch president, President Dennett a lot and he told us about a lot of people to go see and try to teach.  He is a great man.  We ate with him and his family yesterday as well.  It was good.

 

Well.... not much else happened.  Its been an interesting week.  My finger has been giving me a lot of trouble lately.....  Like last night it hurt so much that I couldn't get to sleep... I didnt get to sleep until 4:15 am . . ..      So I got less than 2 hours of sleep last night. .  It sucked.. but I went to the doctor for an appointment this morning and they gave me more medicine and told me to take it easy on the therapy so that the cut can actually heal.  Its been bleeding lately too . .  and a lot of the skin on my finger is dead and falling off .  ha ha . Its all really annoying.  ha ha but its all good.  Im over it.

 

Hmmmm.  Well.  Happy New Year!!!!  I'll miss eating freaking awesome snacks and stuff with you all and stayin up late playing card games!   Have fun!  Hope you all are healthy and happy.

Love you all.

God lives and He loves you too.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

The Church is true!

 

Godspeed.

 

-Elder Hansen

 

Peak The Strategy

Swahili Elders

Hello my family.  How are all of you?!?  I hope you are all doing well and getting excited for Christmas!  Im excited.  It will be a lot different than a normal Christmas though, but its all good. Thanks for all the packages you have sent!  I haven't opened anything from your package yet Natalie... should I wait for Christmas??  Anyway, thanks so much.

Well this week has been an interesting one.  We have done some missionary work and helped some people, but we have had a lot of personal troubles and stuff.  We went to the doctor 10 times in the last 2 weeks....  Its annoying.  Mostly physical therapy and other appointments for Elder Helmstetter, but its been just very time consuming.  Also just not feeling well at all.  I am doing pretty well now, but Elder Helmstetter had trouble for a lot of the week.  I'll probably tell you more in the email next week about some changes that are probably going to happen.

Anyway, enough of that.  

Life is okay.  Just trying to work and stay focused and keep feeling well.

I've been working out more because Elder Helmstetter was as trainer at a crossfit gym in California so he makes me work out and wants me to get strong.  Its pretty funny.  He would punch me in the stomach for 1 minute straight to try to toughen up my abs.  He doesn't hit as hard as he can of course, but enough to make it very red and even bruise a little... ha ha he is funny. 

Anyway, I don't know why I am even telling you all this.  My mind is a little scattered, and I don't remember what all happened this week.  

We drove up to bountiful though and went to a pawn shop to buy a guitar for our recent convert Pascal!  He played in the Congo, but hasn't had a guitar since, so we were going to buy him one.  The owner of the pawn shop is mormon and he knew we were missionaries and so he asked why we were getting a guitar.  We told him the reason and he ended up giving it to us for free!!  It is a $300 guitar and he gave it to us for free!  It is awesome the spirit of giving and love that comes with Christmas time.  I love it.  That man really blessed the life of this refugee from the Congo and he doesn't even know him.  Its great!!

Well Im going to send you a picture of my stitches and of Elder Helmstetter's leg (about 3 weeks ago when it was really bad) so that you can see what happens to the Swahili Elders.  Ha ha its awesome.

Im going to keep it short.  I don't know what else to say anyway.  I'll let you know more next week.  

Keep on being awesome everyone.

I love you all!

The church is true.

God lives and He loves us.

Jesus is the Christ.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Hello!

Hey there! how are are all of you?  i decided not to capitalize because i can only type with my left hand...   .    .

so yeah...   I had surgery this week on my hand.  It went well!  I was put under for it and stuff, but they reattached the tendon.  The other thing is that when i cut my finger, i destroyed the A4 pulley in my finger so i won't get all my strength back in my pinkie, but it doesnt matter.  Its fine.    I am having physical therapy twice a week to loosen it up and to try to get full use of my finger back...  so thats cool i guess.  It hurts a lot.   I don't like physical therapists.... they are mean.  ha ha but its all good.

Hmmmm well what else happened this week.....  It takes me forever to type and write because I can only do it with my left hand so this email will probably be shorter than usual.   sorry...   

Well I got to call Mom and Dad the day after my surgery to let them know that I am alright!  so that was fun :)  it was short but great to hear your voices and hear your reactions when I called and told you it was me!!!! ha ha ha I love you all and miss you a lot.  

So the day after my surgery, a man from the missionary department (mtc) came to observe us doing missionary work all day.  He only went with 4 elders total from our mission and President Winn chose elder helmstetter and I as 2 of them!  So that was pretty cool.  It was also really hard though because I was in a lot of pain from the surgery the day before, but I couldn't take any heavy medication (percocet) or else I couldn't focus well enough to teach or anything..... But it worked out alright! He paid for our dinner at crown burger that night as well, so it was worth it :) haha

This week we also met some white people, tina and joey.  They were a wreck..... Joey came home from war a couple weeks ago and he has just been drinking a ton to drown out the horrible memories he has from the war... He got shot multiple times and a car bomb went off and blew out most of his teeth... Tina's husband passed away about a couple months ago.  When Joey got back from war, he found Tina and she hadn't eaten any food in 27 days.........  She was almost dead.  He took her to the hospital and they taught her how to eat again and helped her.  We were referred to them to go give them a blessing. We got there and Joey was sooo drunk.  and tina wouldn't come to.  Eventually after 5 minutes of Joey shaking her trying to wake her up she started to come around.  we gave them both blessings and there was a very noticeable change in Tina.  She is not a member, but she got a lot better and wants to be baptized!  She went to the hospital again this week and almost died.   She flat lined.  But they brought her back.  They both need to quite drinking and smoking quickly...  but as of now they are doing alright. We passed them to the english elders so that they can be taught and get help.    So that was a very interesting experience!

Hmmm what else......   

We taught people.  We took a lot of drugs so that we wouldn't hurt so bad, both me with my hand and elder helmstetter with his leg.    So yeah.   still trying to learn swahili!  Its not very easy. But its getting there.    

Oh! also funny story..  Right when I came out of surgery the nurse who was helping me wasn't a member.  I was still very out of it, but I taught her some of the lessons!  I talk about Christ, then about priesthood, then Word of wisdom and tithing......  they didnt really fit together, but I was really drugged so its not my fault.. ha ha :)  I also invited her to church.   She said maybe sometime... so probably not.   Oh well.  ha ha I just thought it was funny that that was the first thing I was talking about.  I also was talking about learning swahili.  ha ha    anyway....

A new family just got here from Uganda 3 days ago! straight from the refugee camp!  We are going to start teaching them this week and the church is going to help them get food etc.    Should be awesome! If all goes well, they will be baptized in a couple weeks :)  

I probably have more I should say, but I can't type anymore... my hand hurts, and I am out of time...

But I love you all!

Things are going great.  I love the work.  I am currently on 0 medication and its feeling okay so thats good.  The physical therapist was impressed that it can move so much already, so everything looks good.

also here is a picture that they took at church.  I forget the young boy's name, but the little girl's name is Fortuna.  She is the cutest little kid ever! :)  ha ha anyway,  I love the swahili people.  they are amazing.   

well

God lives and he loves us.

Jesus is the Christ.

The church is true.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen.

Peak the Strategy.

Habarigani?! (Hows it going? / Whats the news?)

Hello.  So I went to the doctor today and they told me that I will have surgery on Wednesday to fix my pinkie finger.   . ..  so yeah  .. Should be pretty simple.  Hopefully.  Swahili is crazy.  Jina lako ni nani?  (that means what's your name?)   . . .   Mimi ni natoka Mmerikani.  (that means "I come from the United States(America).")  . . .    I am trying to learn a lot, but my brain just can't handle it sometimes. .  When I get to about 19 words while memorizing them, and keep going, I can't fit them in....  But I try to push past it anyway.  It's been about 4 days and I have learned 61 words, along with some other random words and phrases and I have learned some grammar and conjugations of verbs and stuff. ..     but not too much. . .  (Hapana kidogo.)    . .    Ugh . . and I don't have much time to write today because I spent 45 minutes filling out online paperwork for the surgery on Wednesday  .. .  So yeah.

What has happened  . ..  .hmmmmm

Well first off, thanks for all your emails! You are all awesome!  I miss you all .   Especially with the Christmas season coming up.  I'll be thinking of you guys.  I'll also get to call you!  Or maybe even skype..  we'll see.  

This week was transfers.  The night we got here we took one of the members to the hospital.  He had a stroke about 3 years ago, and didnt have any medicine left so he was really sick.  . .  So that was interesting . . especially when him and his wife speak swahili and very, very little english..  . .   ha ha but it worked out okay in the end.. He is doing better now.  

Hmm what else?

Well, we taught some lessons to investigators with translators that speak different tribal languages, french, swahili, english, and other crazy languages like lingalik.  Its pretty crazy out here. But yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and it was pretty cool!  The branch is swahili, so the speakers usually speak swahili, or french, or english..  So I don't understand much of the meeting.  . . . Church is pretty different . . The youth out here are very disrespectful.   They talk in their classes and leave and come in whenever they want and are ALWAYS on their phones. ..  .  Plus they always have a stupid response to what the teacher is saying.  We taught one class yesterday at church and it was nuts.  No respect.  We were teaching the word of wisdom because at the moment every single youth in that class drink alcohol except for 1 (Pascal - a recent convert who is such a boss...He is only 16 but is super excited to go on a mission!) .  ..  They wouldn't listen.  It was very frustrating. They still think drinking is okay.  They said that champagne is just apple juice and won't get you drunk!  Hahaha  . . . yeah right.  And we tell them that it is not allowed and they ignore us.  They are pretty stubborn, but the swahili people as a whole are soo awesome!  Nicest people ever.  They love everyone.  They are great.  Im excited to work with them!  I think I want to stay in this area for 6 months and then come back here for the last 3 months of my mission as well.  Hopefully that can happen :)  I'll cross my fingers.  

Pia (also) I met an older gentleman named Brother Hansen.  He is awesome.  He is making us business cards!  Apparently he does that for a lot of missionaries around here... :) he is a great man.  I think we will be friends and stay in contact even after my mission.  He is awesome.  

Alright.  I don't know what else to say.  My companion is freaking sweet.  Elder Helmstetter from Orange County California.  He is 24 yrs old.  His leg is pretty screwed up . . just the muscle is torn in a lot of places . .   but I think he'll survive.  He will have physical therapy to try to help it.    He has already owned a company and done a lot of cool stuff before his mission.  He is a convert of about 5 years.  . .  I love him . . We are going to have a lot of fun together and we will get a lot of work done as well.   

Okay.  I don't have time to write anymore.  I love you all though!  Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season!  The lights at temple square are beautiful.  . .    I love it.

Keep it real.

Tutaonana! (See you!)

Kwaheri. (Goodbye)

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy