Stuff

Hello!  Hope everyone is doing well!  Thanks for all the emails.  They made me smile and brightened my day.

Alright.

Well this week was pretty interesting.  It was hard because we didn't have much success.  Hardly any members could come out with us at all this week to teach. We couldn't find any new people to teach.  Most of the people that we are teaching didn't come to church though.... It was lame.  Its hard to really get people to want to come to church.  They think it isn't important, but its basically the most important part!  You can't learn as mush or use the atonement completely or get that boost that everyone needs each week if you don't come to church!  So yeah... anyways,

We had an exchange this week in Rock Springs with some elders there.  It was sweet.  I feel so close to home when I am there.... ha ha only 5 hours away!  Its crazy. But we had a good time. Taught some lessons, found some new people to teach, and got yelled at for chasing a random bunny and throwing a rock at it.  (I know it was immature and a stupid decision, but there was no need to freak out about it like this Lady did.)   But we apologized and then she called us some bad words and then left.  Ha ha.  You live and you learn right??  two lessons in this experience. 1) Don't throw rocks at rabbits. and 2) No matter where you are, even if it is an empty, open lot that looks abandoned next to just a couple other houses, someone is always watching!  Gotta be on our best behavior.  We are representing the Savior and I don't think he would throw a rock at a rabbit, so we shouldn't either.  Like I said, you live and you learn. 

So yeah.  Then came back to Evanston and worked hard with still little success.  Its been frustrating, but this week should be better.  We spoke in two wards yesterday.  I spoke on the Atonement.  I love learning and speaking about this subject.  It is central to everything we do!  It is the only way we can live with God again.  It was cool.

Anyway,

We have to go down to Salt Lake tomorrow for a zone leader council meeting, but the rest of the week we should get to work in our area.

So yeah.  Well.  Thats about it!  I love you all!  I hope everything is going great!  

God lives and He loves us.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

The church is true.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

P.S.  Here are some pictures that I tried to send last week.  Love you.

Baptisms

Hello everyone.  Thank you for your emails, letters, encouragement,
and support!  It helps.
This week was a great one.  We did a lot.  Talked to a lot of people.
Found more people to teach.  Taught a lot of lessons.  Got everything
ready for the baptisms. And then had the baptisms.  4 people got
baptized.  The first was a family of 3!  The mom is Kathy, the dad is
Joe, and their son is Ethan.  It was an amazing baptism.  To see a
whole family take this step and be so ready to come unto Christ was so
amazing.  This is what it is all about.  The church is true.  The next
baptism was an hour later.  A boy named Tharyn Barker. He is awesome.
He is 11 years old and so ready to be a member and soon hold the
priesthood.  So cool.  Then they all got confirmed on Sunday. Also
Travis who got baptized on last Sunday got confirmed and he received
the priesthood.  It was a very powerful experience.  It was an intense
weekend, and we also spoke in a ward.  We are speaking in 2 more next
week.  The work is really progressing and I am so grateful for that
blessing.  The whole zone is doing very well.  As a zone we had 100
lessons to investigators with members present last week... Thats the
most I have ever seen!   Anyway,
what else happened this week.... I think that is about it.  We just
worked a ton to make all this happen.  Also I was in Lyman on an
exchange with one of our district leaders this week.  It was cool to
be out there and see some investigators and teach some lessons out
there. It is pretty small.  Only 2000 people.  And then we drove
through a little town called Carter, Wyoming.  There are 4 houses
there and 2 of them are abandoned.  Approximately 4 people live
there... ha ha tiny place.  But it was cool to see.  Its in the middle
of nowhere!

Well  I think thats all.  I love you all very much.  I appreciate
everything you do for me and your prayers.  We feel them working.
I love this gospel.  I know it is true.
God lives and He loves us.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

P.S. I was studying about Charity the other day and I really like
Moroni 7:45-48 if any of you feel like reading it.
Oh and here are some pictures.  jk.  my camera's batteries are dead.
I'll send some soon though.  Maybe today or tomorrow.
Love you.

Zone Conference

Hello family!  How is everyone?  I hope things are good.  I am so grateful for all your emails and letters.  Thank you.

Well this week was pretty good.  We had trouble finding new people to teach, but we witnessed a lot of miracles with the people we are currently teaching.  We put a lot of our investigators on date.  Currently we have 9 people on date to be baptized.  We have 4 on date for this Saturday.  I hope they all get baptized.  It is so great to see people enter into this promise with Heavenly Father.  

We had a baptism last Sunday.  Travis Olmsted got baptized.  It was so powerful.  He has come a very long way.  He has truly changed and now he is so much happier.  This gospel really brings happiness to our lives.  He will be confirmed this coming Sunday.  We spoke in another ward last Sunday.  It was a cool sacrament meeting to be in.  To learn so much and to try to encourage these people to become more like Christ and share the gospel with everyone.

Anyway, we had zone conference down in Salt Lake yesterday.  It was really good.  Learned so much.  It was President and Sister Winn's last conference.  They are amazing.  They truly love all of the missionaries and the people they come in contact with.  I want to become like that.  We got pictures and a medallion that has 3 Nephi 5:13 on it.  Its sick.

So yeah.  Over all this week was good.  Just heading into another.  

Well, I'll attach a picture or two.  Hope you all have a great week this week!  Love you all!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

General Conference

Hello errbody!  Hows life??  Thanks for your emails and letters and support.  I really appreciate it.

Well this week was good!  As far as teaching and finding new people to teach this week was pretty slow.  It was a struggle because we had to go down to Salt Lake twice and to Lyman once for a Zone Meeting.  But we did have some great teaching moments and saw some miracles.  On Tuesday we went down to Slat Lake for Zone Leader Council.  It was a good meeting.  We talked a lot about how to improve ourselves and inspire and build the faith of all the missionaries in the mission.  It was great.  Then on Friday we had Zone meeting.  We got up and gave a training.  It went pretty well.  Its hard to keep the attention of a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds though.... ha ha!  But overall I hope they learned something and that because of it they can be better missionaries and disciples of Jesus Christ.  The training was on preparing people to be baptized and confirmed.  So ya.

General Conference!  It was sooo awesome.  We went down to Salt Lake and saw 4 of the 5 sessions in person.  It was great!  Also some of our investigators came down and saw the prophet speak as well.  I was so happy they came.  I really liked every single talk that was given.  They were all so inspired.  This was the first conference that I have been to that it was easy for me to pay attention the whole time and that it felt like it went really fast!  I am so grateful for living apostles and prophets that are led by the Savior himself to show us what we need to do.  I saw some people at conference as well!  I saw Britlyn Compton who went to school with us in Colorado!  It was crazy.  I also saw some people from BYU that I had met last year.  They are friends with Ashlyn Mills.  They roomed with her.  So that was random, but sweet.  Then I saw an elder from my MTC district that is serving in the Ogden mission.  Elder Maynez!  He is a boss.  I also saw another elder from my MTC district that went to New York!  He was home on medical leave because he is having trouble breathing while he sleeps.  But he is going back into the field soon.  It was cool to see him.

Last thing, we had some great lessons last night.  Taught a part member family about the restoration.  Then taught a single lady and gave her a priesthood blessing.  It was very powerful.  She knows that we are bringing light to her life and I think she will be baptized soon.  So yeah.

Well, I love you all very much.  I am so thankful for everything you do for me and your support and encouragement.  Have a great week!

Love you!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

John Moore's Baptism!

Alright sweet.  How is everyone???  This week was pretty great!  We had a baptism!  John Moore is a 12 year old boy that got baptized on Friday.  His baptism was so powerful.  The spirit was there very strongly.  We watched a video while he was getting changed.  It is "The Patterns of Light" by David A. Bednar.  It is really cool.    I'll send a picture of the baptism.

Hmmm what else happened this week...  It was Easter!!  Happy Easter errbody!!  And it was fast Sunday.  It was cool to have them on the same day and hear everyone bear testimony of our Savior and his resurrection and what that means for us.  I love Easter time.  We bore our testimonies a lot yesterday. 

We had some amazing lessons last week.  We found a new family of 3 that is going to be baptized on the 20th of April.  They even came to church yesterday and really liked it!  It was awesome.  I am so excited for them. They are the White family. Kathy, Joe, and Ethan.   Anway,

What else happened this week....  Oh.  one of our baptisms cancelled.  It was lame.   He cancelled 10 minutes before.  The font was already full and everything... but its okay.  He will get baptized soon.  We went out and found 9 new investigators this week.  It was soo cool.  The Lord is blessing us.  Thank you for all your prayers and everything you all do for missionaries.  Trust me, it helps.

Well this week was pretty similar to the rest so I will just leave it at that.  Thank you all for your emails and letters.  I truly appreciate it.  

Love you.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy