He's back!!!

He's back!!!
HE'S BACK!!!!!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Happy 4th of July!

Hey!!!!  Happy late 4th!  I miss and love you all.  I hope you had a good time, shot off some fireworks for me, and played games like we used to on the 4th of July.  

Well this week has been pretty busy! A lot of things have happened and Im not even sure that I can remember to include all of it in this email. But I'll try my best.  

Alright.  First was Tuesday.  Mission Leader Council in the morning.  That is a meeting with President and his wife, the assistants, the zone leaders, and the sister leader trainers.    It was a great meeting.  We got to meet President and Sister Hansen for the first time.  They are awesome.  I already love them. They are both very inspired and straight forward people.  It is such a blessing to see the inspiration that is given to ourselves and others from the Lord.  I am grateful for the confirmation that I have received that President and Sister Hansen are called of God and that they are here for a reason-to help us improve and become even better disciples of Jesus Christ.  So ya.  The meeting was great.  Not many changes in our mission.  We talked about technology and the vision that may be achieved in our mission if we are prepared and ready.  They talk of us having smart phones and mini i-pads.  No more writing everything down in an area book and trying to figure everything out by hand.  The catch is we don't know when these things will be implemented in our mission.  President Hansen says it could happen in 6 weeks, or 6 months, or even over a year.  So Im not too sure what will happen.  I have seen how useful it would be for us, especially lately in our area.  Our stake president wants to pretty much do away with our correlation meeting and change it to just going out and visiting people.  He wants us to correlate in real time.  When something happens, let them know.  With just our stupid flip phone that doesn't work well in the first place that could prove to be difficulty.  But Im excited for the new vision for our mission and the vision of work in the specific stake where I am assigned.  We should see a tremendous growth in work here over the next month or two and another set of Elders assigned to this stake.  Cool right?  Should be awesome.  We will just try to do our best and do our part and let the Lord provide the rest.  
Next I got sick.  Just a bad cold or flu or something.  Some members in the area thought that I had strep, but one of our bishops is a doctor and he swabbed my throat and I didn't have it.  It took a couple days but I am almost feeling 100% again.  So yeah.  Wednesday was a pretty normal day.  Still felt pretty bad, but got to teach some lessons and meet some people.
OHH!!! I almost forgot something that happened on Tuesday.  It was a sister missionary's Birthday in our zone on Tuesday. Her name is Sister Cardon. She is on a trial mission here for 12 weeks.  She is from Bountiful, Utah.  So yeah.  Being the undoubtedly awesome zone leaders that we are (ha ha just kidding, but we try!) we asked her about what she wanted for her birthday.  She kept on saying nothing, but after our persistence she told us she had been wanting a sweet potato. So we bought her a sweet potato.  Then asked what else she wanted with it.  With more persistence, she called us back during dinner and left us a message with a long list of things that she wanted for her birthday.  Just ridiculous stuff!  SO, of course we decided it would be the best thing to do to get everything that was on the list for her.  We had 3 lessons to teach that night as well.  So we went and taught two lessons.  At the second one we asked our investigators mom (who we have built a great relationship with their whole family) if we could borrow something that she had asked for.  This was the hardest thing to get.  She asked for a chicken.... a live chicken.   So after the lesson we asked her and she said of course!  Our third lesson cancelled and we had less than 30 minutes to get all the other things she wanted before we were supposed to meet them and give them the sweet potato.  So we went to the dollar store.  Bought the peas, carrots, pencils, watermelon sour patch kids, and then got a bike seat from one of the bikes at our place, then got them 2 more miles to use for their car, and got some shoes-heels from the same family as the chicken.  She asked for all these things.  
In the end we got it all, went and gave them the potato first.  Then said, "would you like the rest of your presents??"  walked to the car and pulled the rest out one by one.  Then at the end said didn't we forget something.  And her companion thought about it and said, "oh yeah! the live chicken!"  We went to the car and they were like nooooo way.  Yup.  We got a chicken.      So that all happened in 30 minutes.  Crazy.....  word.

Then Thursday was the 4th of July!  Party / Picnic in Bountiful for the whole mission.  It was awesome. Got to see President and Sister Hansen again.  It was fun.  Made little rockets and stuff as well.  So yeah.  There President informed us that he wouldn't be able to make it around to the apartments the next day, so those visits were cancelled.  Then friday.  Zone meeting.  Gave a training on improving ourselves as servants of Jesus Christ. Then in the evening appointments and the usual work. 

Saturday was fuuuun.  We did service from 9:30 till 4:00.  We got to tackle cows down after they are roped, tag their ears, cut off the tip of an ear if they are male, castrate them, and then brand them.  It was super cool.  And it was a good time.  That was for the same family that we borrowed the chicken from.  And also we helped get their chicken that was about to die, stay alive and get back to normal.  I don't know if I told you about that either, but it was funny.  I love that family.  So awesome.  Their daughter is getting baptized on July 27th.  Should be great.   But yeah.  We might get some pictures that someone took of us branding the cows later.  Everyone that was there was either not a member or not active in the church.  So it was a good opportunity for us and them!  So great. :)

Sunday was a blessing.  Had a meeting with the stake president where we discussed the changes that I mentioned earlier in his stake.  Then had church all day.  And for the first time in this area we had 5 investigators at church!!! :)   I was sooo happy.  It was a great blessing to finish a busy, intense, good week.  

Last thing.  On Saturday evening we were told that we would be giving a training in our zone conference on Monday.  So we had like one day to plan a training to give yesterday (hence the reason I am emailing today.  We had zone conference yesterday so our p-day is today. :)  )   

So zone conference was amazing.  Learned so much.  The trainings were sooo inspired and were exactly what I personally needed. We gave our training on having Perfectly Prepared Plans, and Spiritually Successful Studies.  We used alliterations.  Or whatever they are called.  sick.  
Then came back last night.  Had dinner.  Made visits.  And finally got to relax a little knowing that P-Day was today. :)    

So that was my week!  That was like Jennie-style from all those years ago when she would call us every Sunday night. :)    Those were good times.   

I hope you enjoyed the email.  This week was good. :)  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.  

Have a great week!!!!

Love,
-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

P.S. Here is a picture of us and Sister Cardon and all the stuff we got her for her birthday.

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