Whoa!

Hello everyone!  How are all of you??? I miss you all and love you.
Welllll.... yeah! I got transferred.  And guess where I am? I told
Paula and Brian that there was one place that I didn't want to go.
Wyoming. And where am I serving?? EVANSTON, WYOMING!!! hahaha it was
pretty funny to see that. But it is actually pretty great out here.
The work is moving along very quickly and the stake that we cover is
so awesome. The members are really willing to help us out which is
nice.  So I am glad I am here and I know I am here for a reason. There
are specific people that I need to find and teach in this area that
will be influenced by the power of the spirit and the gospel as we
share it with them.  I am excited and after the initial shock, I am
happy to be here.  Sometimes it still hasen't hit me that I am here
though.  Its pretty funny.
Anyway!

Holy cow, a lot of stuff has happened this week.  We had a baptism! An
older man named Dave Hoover.  He is such a great guy.  His baptism was
very powerful.  He was so prepared and ready, and it was such a cool
thing to see him make this promise with the Lord.  Getting to see
people actually get baptized and confirmed and see the change in them
is the best part of the mission in my opinion.  The highlight of my
week for sure. So yeah

We met with all of the Bishops and the Stake President within the
first 2 days of being here.  Which was great because it was what the
mission president asked us to do. And all of them are excited to have
us here and willing to help us with the work. We asked each bishop to
give us 3 to 5 names of hard-core less-actives. The names from the
bottom of the list that say "do not contact" ... ha ha it will help us
test and build our faith and the members will see us working very hard
and will be more willing to let us teach their friends and family that
aren't members. That is the idea at least. I think it is going to
work.  Im excited for the experiences either way!

Well another change is that there will be another new mission in Salt
Lake City! The Salt Lake City East mission.  It was announced along
with the announcment of 58 new missions being made on July 1st.
Because of all the new missionaries that are coming out since the age
change, they need to make more missions and more places to put
missionaries. So the Salt Lake Mission (my current mission) will be
splitting again on July 1st!!! (For the second year in a row.)  Since
I am currenlty serving in Wyoming, I might be part of this new
mission. If I stay in this area until then.  We don't know the
boundaries of the new mission yet, but it is just crazy.  I might
serve in 3 missions. With 3 mission presidents.  Its ridiculous. ha ha
so yeah.

What else major happened? Well this one is a pretty funny connection.
So you remember the other week when I talked about Mike Newbry and
that I met the Kingstons?? Well the Bishop of the 5th ward, Bishop
Kennedy happened to know where Louisville was. Because his daughter
got married to someone and they moved into the Coal Creek Ward! Guess
who the daughter is married to?? Mike Newbry!! Ha ha so I met both
sides of the family within a couple weeks without even trying! It was
a pretty funny coincidence.  Bishop Kennedy also has another daughter
that lives in the Coal Creek ward. I think they are the parkers? I
don't know if I remember correctly though.  But yeah.  Bishop Kennedy
has even been to the Coal Creek ward that meets in our building back
home! It was crazy to find all this out. What a small world.  The only
thing is I don't think I have ever really met Mike Newbry! or his
wife! Just their families while I am out here on a mission. ha ha

Well this email is really long!! A couple more crazy things... There
was this random little pillar of fire thing outside of town that we
saw one night and so I took a picture. I'll attach it to the email.
It looked so crazy. Elder Edstrom (my companion who is from Buffalo,
Wyoming!!! funny right? we both live about 6 hours away from where we
are serving now... ha ha) and I were joking aroung that the 2nd coming
was happening!  It seriously looks like a little pillar going up and
lighting up the sky! If you look closely you can see it.  But we
decided that it was most likely just a refinery burning some gas or
something.  Sounds a lot more realistic.. ha ha.

Alright.One more thing to talk about. We went to teach a couple
less-active people at a members home last night. The members are the
Turners.  They are awesome people. The father converted a while back
and his conversion story is sooo cool.  I'll probably tell it to you
another time. But yeah.  Awesome people! The Dad gives me a hard time
though.  He keeps on trying to set me up with his daughter. It is the
most awkward thing ever.... ha ha like at church he comes up and says
"This is my daughter! So when are you going to have dinner with her?"
and Im like ...  uhhhh "With your whole family, we can come by
sometime! :) ha ha"  and then he says, "But you are going to sit next
to her right??"  ....uhhhhhh! ...... I didn't know what to say... I
didnt have any witty come back or any way to get out of it! hahaha it
was so weird. I've already become that awkward missionary! :/ ha ha
but its all good. The experience we had last night with these
less-actives made the situation better. So we taught the whole family
and these two less-active members that are trying to stop drinking. We
taught the first lesson, the restoration, with a young man that is
preparing to go on a mission.  It was very powerful. We asked them how
they felt and the man that was there said that he misses it.  He
misses the church and he misses everything that he had.  He had the
priesthood and was married in the temple but something happened and he
fell.  We promised him that everything would be better if he followed
the doctrine of Christ and read the Book of Mormon. We engouraged him
that he CAN come back!  It was so powerful. And then the member bore a
testimony that was one of the most powerful testimonies I have heard.
It was truly amazing.  At the end we gave the man a blessing. Brother
Turner anointed and my companion Elder Edstrom did the blessing.  In
the blessing my companion was prompted to cast out the bad spirits
that were trying so hard to bring this man down.  It was intense!  One
of the craziest experiences of my mission so far.  At the end the man
seemed a little shaken, but I think he will be good.  Brother Turner
will take care of him and we will help him as well. I really hope and
pray that he will come back to church and feel the cleansing and
healing power of the atonement in his life.
Well this is like the longest email ever..... A lot happened though!
And a lot more to come!
I love this gospel and I know it is true!
I know God lives and He loves all of his children.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Godspeed.
Love you all!

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

Leadership training

Sup. How is everyone?!?! I hope you are all doing well.  Thanks for the emails. They really make my day better.

This week was pretty long.  Leadership training was on Tuesday and Wednesday, from 8:30am to 5:00pm both days..... It was intense. My brain sorta hurt afterward. ha ha too much to cram into my head! I learned a lot though! Sister missionaries gave almost all the trainings!!! It was pretty cool. Also a lot of the Temple Square sisters came and did a training on how we can improve the experiences of our investigators at temple square by working more effectively with them. It was good. I learned a lot about how to help our investigators feel the spirit and learn of the truth. Over-all there were a lot of great things shared at this training and I am glad I had the opportunity to go.  

Hmmm what else happened.

We taught some pretty good lessons and had a great miracle this week.  We haven't been able to find new people to teach lately, but that referral that we received at the baptism last week turned out to be great! We taught her the plan of salvation and talked a little about Joseph Smith, but she already knows pretty much everything! She is 9 or 10 years old and she is prepared to be baptized. The Lord really does bless us when we put our trust in him and show him that we care. 

The rest of the week was pretty average. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Just trying to help everyone we come in contact with. 

The swahili branch is great. If I get transferred this week I will be pretty sad... I will miss it. For example, I don't think that there is another area that I could go to sacrament meeting and sit down and have 3 little boys from a recent convert family run over and sit with us and ask for us to teach them and just be so eager to be with us. They are the funniest little kids! And I have grown to like how crazy they are. Full of energy and love. I will miss all these people if I have to leave.... But we will find out tomorrow, or maybe tonight.  

Well transfers this week will be nuts.  We are getting 7 regular missionaries, 4 trials missionaries, and 17 visa-waiter missionaries!!  A lot of changes this time. We'll see where I end up! Hopefully not Wyoming . .. .  ha ha! 

Anyway, I think thats it.  I love you all and miss you a lot! I hope you are all doing well.

Have a great week! I'll probably email on Thursday or something.

God lives and loves us.

Jesus Christ is our Savior.

The church is true.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

P.S. The picture is of a girl named Danyela. She was baptized last weekend. Wordski

Baptisms!

Hey family!  Thanks so much for all your emails and support. I love you all and miss you and hope everything is going well for you. So ya,

This week was good! We had 3 baptisms! The first was an 8 year old baptism, but her parents are back in Africa and are not members so it counted as a convert baptism! We taught her a lot and had the interview last week and then she got baptized! The other two was a family we were working with a lot. A single mom (whose husband was killed in Africa :( ...  ) . Her name is Rachel Abit Dau. And her son got baptized as well. His name is Deng Mateoup Yak.  It was so cool.  I actually had the opportunity to baptize them personally.  It was amazing.  They were prepared by the Lord and the Spirit and it was so nice to be able to help them enter into this covenant and feel even more blessings from their Father in Heaven.  It was sooo sweet.  I will always remember this baptism. The spirit was very strong. This work is real and it is God's work. I am so grateful to be a part of it.  

Anyway, this week overall was pretty good. Haven't been able to find very many new people to teach though :/  . . . BUT we did get a referral at the baptism!  Another tender mercy from the Lord.  We had a pretty good district meeting this week.  I got to train on teaching with convincing power and authority, asking inspired questions, and listening.  It was one of the better district meetings I have given. I am so grateful for the spirit and how it can lead us, shape us, and help us feel comforted and strong.

Hmmm.  what else happened this week.... Oh! We ate at a place called the Blue Lemon. It is very nice. Elder Lee's adopted family, the Kingstons, took us there to eat.  They are pretty freaking awesome. Sister Kingston's brother lives in Colorado! He attends the Coal Creek ward!!!  He knows the Hathaways and the Melvers and Im sure many other families over there! It was cool to find that coincidence.  His name is Mike Newbry.  so yeah.  wordski.

Well I think that is pretty much it. Other than that just trying to do work and teach people! Its good. 

We have leadership training for 2 days this week. Should be interesting! Im excited to learn how to better help other missionaries. Thats been something on my mind for a while now, and I know I can receive an answer through these trainings. 

Well I don't have any more time. I love you all very much! I hope you are blessed from the Lord in everything you do. 

The church is true.

God lives and He loves us.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Miss you!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

P.S. here are some pictures from the baptism and stuff! Hope you enjoy them!  ( jk its only going to be one picture. The camera died as I was trying to put them on. oops.. ha ha)

A post from Sister Winn's blog

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It's probably not.

Just in case you are ever a missionary.  And just in case you are an Elder, because this would never happen to a Sister.  And just in case when you are a missionary you move into an apartment and it has a bunch of old phone books sitting around.  And just in case that apartment also has a knife in it, that belongs to "nobody" and is clearly against all the mission rules to own or handle.  And just in case, while you're sitting at the kitchen table, you suddenly think "Hey! Wouldn't it be a really great idea to take that knife and see how deep into these phone books I can stab it?!?!"  Don't try it.  Because even though you think it's the best idea you ever came up with, it's probably not.  Just ask Elder Hansen.