Happy Birthday Paula!!

Hey!  How is everyone?  I hope everything is going well.  I am probably going to make this kind of short today.  A lot is going on with our mission splitting and the new mission presidents coming and just a lot of changes so I will probably make it brief.

Also thanks for the letters.  I love reading about how everyone is doing.  It brings some color and brightness to my days, especially when it feels like we are doing the same thing every day or every week.  (which is kind of true, ha ha)

Alright.   Well this week was great.  It was transfer week!  So both Elder Wampler and I stayed.  We still had to go to transfers and do all the usual stuff.  It was good though.  Got a lot of new missionaries in our zone.  Its good!  2 new district leaders.  We are really excited for this transfer.  It should be a good one!  

The best part of this week was Mitch Romo getting baptized!  He was the one who had been investigating the church for 5 years and finally decided to join!  It was soooo cool!  They had to do it in the chapel because there were so many people.  And the chapel was full!  We could hardly fit everyone into the relief society room for the actual baptism.  Standing room only.  It was so awesome to see him finally get baptized.  It was an event!   But ya.  It really made the week a lot better.  

Other than that we were just doing our usual thing.  Trying to teach and find and all that stuff.  We met with a family that the mom and her 2 kids were supposed to get baptized this upcoming weekend, and they told us they cannot afford to live here anymore and the landlord is making them leave immediately.  They moved yesterday...  So now they aren't getting baptized.  So that was rough.  But its alright.  We keep our chins up and keep tryin.  So many things happen to people when they commit to being baptized.  Satan comes at them so hard and its difficult to see that happen.  But they will get baptized.  She said she is still going to work with missionaries in her new home and that she still wants to pursue baptism. So ya.  

Then the next day we had church.  Mitch got confirmed.  Then he was sustained to be ordained a priest in the aaronic priesthood. Then he was given a calling!  Family History Consultant.  It was awesome.  Then after the meeting he was ordained.  He is one the path to being sealed to his wife in the temple.  They are committed and I look forward to helping them along the path to live together eternally with their family and their Heavenly Father.  

Next was the worldwide broadcast!  What an amazing thing.  To have a special meeting called by the first presidency and the twelve apostles with stake president, bishops, ward council members, missionaries, and anyone else that wanted to come to discuss the work of salvation.  The spirit was so strong in that meeting.  The announcements that missionaries will be using the internet and technology more in their proselyting effort and the way that they talked about member missionary work was truly inspired.  I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this time to witness such inspired changes and adaptations in the way we carry out this work.  I love it.  

The church is true!  

I love you all and miss you!  

I have to go, the mission president and his wife are coming to say goodbye to our zone because they are going home....  :(  I'll miss them.  But I am still excited for the new mission president and all that comes with these changes.  

Love you all!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!!!

Hey errbody.  Happy Fathers Day DAD!!!!!!! :)  I have a letter written that I will send today or tomorrow.  Thanks for all the letters and emails.  I appreciate it a lot.

Well this week was good!  Hiked Deseret Peak like I mentioned last time.  I am attaching a sweet picture of the hard part we were climbing.  I went up that rocky edge that is behind me.  It was sick.  

So ya.  Then we had Leadership Training on Tuesday.  It was great!  Learned a lot of awesome stuff. There were a lot of great trainings and the spirit was so strong.  President Winn is so inspired.  I am going to miss him and his wife a lot.  They are amazing.

We also had a field trip to the Salt lake Cemetery on Wednesday!  We got a really cool tour by a man who knows like everything about the cemetery and all the prophets that are buried there.  It was awesome. I've got some pictures from that too that I might send.  

Other than that this week has just been finding people and teaching a lot and trying to help people.  Did some service.  Made some more shirts for missionaries in our zones. 

On Saturday I went on an exchange with Elder Alvey and  Elder Nufer while my companion was with 2 other elders in Grantsville.  It was awesome.  Elder Alvey and Nufer are spanish speaking though.  So that was interesting.  I even went to their baptism that night.  And I sang a special musical number with them.... in spanish.  It was crazy.  I don't know spanish, but they helped me learn some pronunciation and then we sang it.  I think it went alright.  The hymn in english was "Jesus Savior Pilot Me"  or something like that.  So that was an adventure.  Then we had church on Sunday.   3 investigators came.  Not too bad, but still want more to come!  So ya.  

Other than that, we have been working out a bit.  I need to get less fat.  So a family invited us to use their gym thing and she does this class.  Its intense!  But hopefully that'll help me not gain so much weight.  Word.  This family is like the nicest family ever.  They gave us a bunch of food, and fed us the last two Sundays in a row.  I am so thankful for them and all they have done to help us.  I love members out here.  They are great.  

Well I think that is about all for this week!  I'll send more pictures err somethin.   

Love you all!  Have a great week.

Godspeed,

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Deseret Peak/Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Hello errbody!  Sorry for the late email! We have been busy all day.  Cool adventures that I will tell you about in a bit. 

First off, thank you all for your emails, I really appreciate it!  I wish I had more time to reply to them, but know I read them and love hearing about everything that is going on there. 

Also,  Happy Late Birthday Dad!!!  I hope you had a great one!  (from the picture Mom sent and your email, it looks like it was awesome :)  ) I miss you and love you tons.

 

Alright.  Well this week was good.  The usual stuff I spose.  Doing the work of the Lord. 

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges twice this week.  First on Tuesday I went with Elder Allen (one of my previous companions!) in his area in Tooele East Stake.  It was sweet.  Taught some lessons, tried to help everyone, and had dinner with a funny bishop in their area.  It was cool.  Then we were back in our area for a day.  Had District Leader Training meeting and planned on that day though, so we didn't get too much done.  Then on Thursday I got to go on exchanges in Wendover, Nevada!!  ha ha it is in the middle of nowhere.....  I went out there with a district leader and we split off with the two missionaries serving out there and worked double for the day.  It was really cool actually.  Had a spanish lesson that I didn't understand too much of.... But it was good.  The place is just casinos and stuff.  Small little town where you can go to gamble and lose all your money.  The border between Utah and Nevada is written on the road in paint.  The casino parking lots are still in Utah, but the actual buildings are literally just a couple feet past the border in Nevada.  Its funny.  Im pretty sure the only reason the town exists is for the casinos.  Although there is a military base there.. (or used to be.)  It was big.  That is actually where they built the bombers that carried the nuclear bombs that bombed Hiroshima.  I think it was called the Enola Gay?  Not sure, but it is an interesting place for sure.  But the exchange got even better.  Myself and Elder Hollingshead got to go down to a small place called Ibapah, Utah. Look it up!  We stayed there for the night and left in the morning to go back to Wendover, then Tooele.  But we got to go out there to try to teach some people.  I believe there are about 80 to 100 people living in Ibapah!  That is including the Indian reservation that is right next to it.  It is probably the smallest place I have been to.  (Besides Carter, Wyoming which has like 4 or 6 or something.)  There are no restaurants, not even a little home town diner.  No gas stations.  You have to either fill up in Wendover which is a little over an hour away or have it shipped in which is pretty expensive.  But there are just rancher families out there!  Its pretty awesome actually.  I like it.  All the people were super nice to us.  There are about 20-25 people that attend the branch out there each week.  We are trying to get all the Indians to come to church more as well so there will be more soon.  So yeah.  Then we finally got back to Tooele on Friday.  Had meetings and then worked a bit.  Saturday was normal, and Sunday too.  Taught some lessons, found some people to teach, and met some really nice members that have helped us out a lot. 

We also made some shirts for our zone.  Spray painted them, like I did for those Peak the Strategy shirts a long time ago.  Its cool. 

Then today we went hiking.  We got to go hike a mountain called Deseret Peak.  It was intense.  The hike wouldn't have been so bad if we would have been able to stay on the trail...... but there was still a ton of snow up there so we lost the trail and had to just hike straight up it.  It got a little scary for a second cause it was like rock climbing up this edge for a bit, but eventually we got to the trail on the ridge and then hiked the rest of the way to the top.  It was awesome.  I am out of shape though.  But we ran all the way down and just slid down the glacier snow pack things.  Its like a 4 mile hike and we ran down it in an hour.  It was so fun.  I got a little cut up from the ice, but no big deal.  It was worth it.  I'll send some pictures so you can see.  I think it is one of the highest in Utah, not sure though.  Not as high as the 14ers back home, but still a great hike. 

So ya.  That pretty much sums it up.  I love getting to teach the gospel so much out here.  So many people are ready to hear it.  Things are moving forward quickly and I am so grateful for that. 

I hope you all are doing well.  I miss you all, and love you a freaking ton!  Wordski.

The church is true.

God lives and loves us.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

 

Godspeed.

 

-Elder M. G. Hansen.

 

Peak The Strategy

Temple

Today we got to go to the temple.  This was the first time I have gotten to go since November!  When I served in Swahili we missed it because my companion was very sick, then the temple was closed, then I went to Wyoming and we don't get to come down to the temple up there.  So finally I got to go.  Its so great to have the opportunity to be at the House of the Lord.  I have missed it.  You can feel the difference.  ya know?  It was a powerful session this morning.  We had about 60 or 70 missionaries come this morning.  Its crazy to see that many missionaries in the temple.  So yeah.

Well this week was a usual week.  Had some meetings in Salt Lake.  On Tuesday we had Mission Leader Council.  (It used to be called Zone Leader Council, but now some Sister training leaders are coming to the meeting as well...)  It was good.  Discussed a lot about what will be happening with the new mission and how we are going to try to help the transition be as smooth as possible and how we can deal with this change and help other missionaries do the same.  It was the last "ZLC" for President and Sister Winn....  I am going to miss them.  Great people.  So caring and willing to help all of the missionaries.  But I am sure the new mission presidents will have that same love and care for us.  President Winn says it comes with the calling as well. So yeah.  Then I got to have lunch with my trainer (dad) Elder Miller!!! he has been home for 5 months now!  Its crazy, but he is at school at UVU and so he came up and we had lunch.  It was great to see him and remember all the good times we had in Farmington.  Its crazy that it has already been a year since I was in Farmington....  weird.  

The rest of the week we just looked for more people to teach.  Taught a lot of lessons as well.  And we got to do a little service.  Took the stuff off of a lady's porch and then scraped it down trying to get it ready to be stained.  Her husband isn't a member so we are trying to build a good relationship there so that eventually we can help him have more of the gospel in his life and eventually be baptized.  We had some other miracles this week as well.  We talked to a lady that thought she had been baptized, so we checked to find her records but they don't have them.  So she will be getting baptized the last week of this month!  Her two children will most likely be baptized with her. Its awesome.  Also at church this week we were sitting in the last ward we go to, Silver Spur ward.  We were pretty disappointed because we had invited so many people to church and they had said they would be there, but only 3 showed up..  So yeah.  But then just before the ward started, a man came up to us and said "I have a 9 year old (almost 10) that has not been baptized yet.  Me and my wife have just started becoming active in the church again and would like you to come over and teach us and help her to get baptized."  !!!! :)   It was freaking sweet!  What a great miracle.  It was what I was fasting for.  This kind of thing rarely ever happens, but I am so happy when it does.  The Lord is truly in His work and is helping us along every step of the way.

Well  I think that is about all.  I love you all very much!! I miss you.

Have a fantastic week!

Godspeed,

-Elder Hansen

P.S. Mom I have a recording of the song we sang at zone meeting.  I'll try to send it sometime.  It won't fit in an email though, so we'll see.  Wordski.

Peak the Strategy