My ankle is ripped!

Hey there.  Thanks for the emails and letters as always!

Well this feels weird. Writing home for the 2nd to last time.  Hmmmmmm.  Oh well. I don't like thinking about it.

This week has been awesome!  We have been teaching a lot and the members have been involved in almost every lesson.  It has been a blessing.  We found another new person to teach!  Her name is Emily. She is very open to learning which is great. 

Dylan is doing well also!  He is going to be baptized on the 9th of May! Right before I leave.  I am so happy for him.  He came to the regional conference yesterday down in Salt Lake City.  We sat together on the 5th row in the conference center.  It was an awesome conference.  Elder Niel L. Anderson spoke.  He is so inspired.  He talked about faith, diligence, and patience.  It was great.  Also Elder Arnold of the Seventy spoke and talked about hastening the work!  He used examples of families that were taught by missionaries in our mission! There were some pictures shown as well.  It was cool.  

The night before Elder Hawkins and I had the opportunity to speak in the adult session of stake conference.  It was good!  It was sad to think it was the last time I would get to speak as a missionary, but it was awesome to be able to share some of the things that I have learned about being a member missionary and hastening the work after serving 2 years in Utah.  The members here are amazing.  I hope they keep inviting their friends and helping the work to go forward here.

Well.  Other than that, I guess I should tell you what really happened to my ankle.  It is not just buff.  I just rolled it pretty bad playing basketball, but I am fine.  I can walk pretty well still and it won't hinder the work at all.  Glad we have a car though. :)  Anyways, it is completely fine so don't worry about it (mom... :)  )  

Alright, Love you all!!  The church is true.  The work is hastening!  Keep inviting your friends and neighbors and doing what you are supposed to.  Jesus Christ is our Savior.  I owe everything in my life to him and the love he has for me and my family.

Love,

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy 

Miracles.

Hey!  This week has been pretty good!  We have seen a couple great miracles.  We have found 2 new people to teach.  They are very prepared.  I am excited to continue working with them and helping them feel the effect of the atonement in their lives.

Our greatest miracle this week was that on Monday afternoon we got a media referral (text) to go and see a man named Dylan Lines.  Our appointment fell through at 6:00 p.m. so we decided to visit this referral.  We knocked on his door and he said "wow, that was fast!" and let us come in.  We got to know him and his background and set expectations with him. He moved to Utah last fall from Indiana.  We went back on Wednesday and taught him about the restoration and invited him to be baptized.  He said yes and is preparing for the 17th of May!  I think he will be ready even before then so hopefully I can ask him to be baptized before I leave.  (Might be a little selfish, but I think he will be ready before then!) Then we met with him on Friday at the church and gave him a tour and showed him the chapel, classrooms, elder quorum room, and the baptismal font.  He said that he talked with his father about it and he got very emotional and started telling about when he was baptized and how great it was.  He is very happy for Dylan that he has decided to be baptized!  Soo cool. :) Then he came to church on Sunday and stayed for all 3 hours.  He is very prepared.  The Lord sent him here to receive the gospel. I know it.  We are meeting with him tonight as well.  The Lord is blessing us. :)

The other miracle was meeting a young man named Tyler.  He moved from Delaware in January.  A member took me there (Elder Hawkins was with another member) and we started talking with him.  His big question was why there are so many different churches and why there isn't just one church and one faith in God.  So that was a great place to start! :) :)  I shared the restoration with him and we came back a couple of days later and taught him again.  One of his best friends was killed in a car crash recently so he says it is hard but that it is making him depend on God more.  The Lord truly is preparing people all around us to share the gospel with!  We all need to be better at getting over being scared and just be open about what we believe.

Well that is about all I have time for.  I love you all very much!  I will write more next week. 

God lives and loves all of his children.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Easter was awesome.  I love sharing my testimony of Christ.  Did you see that video "Because of Him" on mormon.org? If not, watch it!!  Its good! 

Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. He restored this gospel in its fulness. I am so grateful for what he did.

Love,

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Crazy week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello!!  Well this week has been all over the place.  It has been great though. 

So as you know on Tuesday I got transferred to Bountiful Stone Creek Stake.  On Monday before that I went to the temple with the missionaries that were about to go home.  It was really cool.  A long session though because there were so many people!  It was because a lot of people stayed an extra day after conference to go to the temple.  I liked going to those temple trips before when I wasn't the one going home because I got to say goodbye to a lot of great friends and previous companions.  But now being the one that is leaving soon it was different.  It still hasn't sunk in quite yet!  On Tuesday the departing missionaries have a special testimony meeting in the evening where they all invite member families, past recent converts, and investigators and bear their testimonies.  Since I will be gone for the next one, I bore my testimony at this one.  It was a cool but kind of sad experience.  The good part was that I got to say that I am staying for another month or so!  So afterwards we went and taught a lesson to a less-active family!  It was great, but the meeting was so powerful.  Hearing missionaries right before they leave talk about what they learned and bear their testimonies is something else. 

Anyways, enough about that!  After those couple rough days, the week has been back to normal.  Teaching and finding and doing the Lord's work!  We had a lot of cancelled appointments this week though.  It always happens.  Im not sure how to get around it.  But we are meeting with some wonderful families that are progressing toward full activity in the church.  We are also teaching a few that are looking toward baptism.  I hope to see more success before I leave in helping people participate in ordinances.

Well. Today we went hiking.  Hiked up to the "V" in Centerville.  It wasn't a hard hike at all, but it was pretty fun.  I'll send a picture or two.  Other than that we have just been moving forward.  Trying to help people make changes in their lives.  Its a good time :) 

Love you all!  Hope everything is going well and that you are all healthy and happy.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

Transfers...

Hello!!!  Sorry I did not email yesterday.  I was at the temple with the departing missionaries for most of the day and then saying goodbye to people for the rest. I got transferred.  It was kind of disappointing to leave with only a small part of my mission left.  I wasn't happy at first, but I know President wouldn't do it unless he felt a good reason. So I know that there is someone here in my new area that I need to meet and be in contact with.  I am serving in the Bountiful Stone Creek Stake in the farmington zone.  It is a great place.  My new companion is Elder Hawkins from Washington. He is awesome.  we have served around each other a lot but never really talked a lot.  But it will be fun to work with him.  He goes home just after I do.  

Anyways,

General Conference was amazing.  I don't have time to write about it now, but it was cool.  Saw some people that I know from home and from the mission that have already finished.  Also we took Chuck our investigator to the priesthood session and he loved it.  And on Sunday afternoon we had really good seats.  

On top of all that, we had a baptism!!  Chase Clampitt got baptized.  It was so cool.  It has been one of the coolest experiences on my mission to be able to teach him and see how he accepts everything and progresses in this gospel.  He will be confirmed next Sunday and also receive the priesthood. He will be going to the temple with the youth to do baptisms at the end of this month as well. :)  so great!  I'll send a picture.

I don't have any more time to write, but I will send you some more pictures next week to make up for it.  

Love you all!!  The church is true!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

  

P.S.  Here is my new address -  1040 West 600 North, West Bountiful, Utah, 84087

Zone Conference

Hey everyone!  This email is going to be pretty short because we have to go to lunch in a couple minutes.

Thanks for your emails and letters!  They brighten my day.  Especially the pictures from my nieces and nephews! :)

Well this week was a little rough. A lot of our appointments cancelled and some people just decided that they didn't want to meet with us anymore.  It was hard, but things are still going okay.  The end of the week was the beginning of spring break so hardly anyone was home!  But we still met with a few people and had some great experiences.

Thursday was Zone Conference.  It was a looong day, but it was very good.  We talked a lot about teaching with the pamphlets and practiced.  Elder Kuck and I gave a training on teaching the Plan of Salvation.  It was pretty good I think.  We also found out about our mission goal for the month of April. It was a great zone conference!  Sad that it was my last though.....

This morning we got to go to the temple.  We saw a lot of missionaries from the East mission that we know well that are heading home tomorrow....  It was sad to see them go and it is scary to think that it is coming fast for us too. But it is okay.  

General Conference is coming!!!  We have tickets to 3 sessions.  We are bringing 2 or 3 investigators and 1 less-active family.  It is exciting!  I love general conference.  Here is an awesome quote from Elder Robert D. Hales about conference - 

" I promise that if you will listen, you will feel the Spirit well up within you. The Lord will tell you what He wants you to do with your life. In conferences we can receive the word of the Lord meant just for us."

Love it.  I know we can find answers and gain more spiritual knowledge at conference.  

Well that is all I have time for.  I hope everything is going well!  Love you!

The church is true!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Marianne's Baptism!

Hola!  This week has been great.  We had some great miracles and had a baptism!  Marianne was baptized and confirmed.  She is so awesome.  She wants so badly to follow the Savior in her life.  I am grateful that we got to teach her and help her on the path to eternal life.  I will send a picture from her baptism.  A lot of missionaries taught her over the last 6 months so they came back to see it.  So yeah.  Nothing better than baptisms.  I love it.

Well what else?  I will send another picture from a week or two ago.  So we were in this apartment complex called rose cove (where Marianne lives) and we see this dog running around.  A lady came outside and said that it had ran inside her house through the back door and took the bone from her dog!! ha ha so we went over to try to catch it and after a couple tries we caught the dog. We found a phone number on the collar and called it.  They asked if we could bring it back to them (they lived a couple of miles away!) and so we got the dog into our car and drove it to their house!  ha ha it was awesome.  We were hoping that they would be non-members or at least that they would be less-active, but they were active members.  So we talked for a bit and asked them how long the dog had been gone.  They said he only got out 1 hour ago!  It ran quite a long way. And it was kind of wet so we assume it went through a creek or pool or something.  It was an adventure! 

We have been teaching a good amount this week, but one of our investigators moved out without telling us.... and then another person dropped us.  So that was lame.  But the work moves on and we keep moving forward.  We are still teaching Chase and getting better at teaching with the pamphlets.  I love it.  I like the way it can become so interactive as we ask the right questions and keep them involved.  

We found a new person to teach this week.  His name is Kendall.  He is a handyman.  Like the one I used to work for with Wade and his brothers.  He is awesome.  We talked a little about the atonement and he is pretty receptive.  He has awesome kids and grandkids.  We can't wait to teach him more this week.  It is going to change his life a lot if he lets it! 

Well I know this is short-ish but we are running around today doing a bunch of stuff.  We played sand volleyball a bit today.  It was awesome.  This week we have zone conference on Thursday.  So that will be fun! I am excited for what we will learn and talk about.  Anyways.

The church is true!  

God lives and He loves us.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Birthdays!

Hey!  I don't have a lot of time to write today because we have been doing a lot.  Thanks for all your emails.  I love reading them. :)  Happy Birthday Jennie!

So this week has been good!  It has been hard because we have not had a lot of lessons, but Marianne accepted a baptismal date!  She is preparing for the 22nd!  We are excited!  There are a couple others that seem to be getting close for the weeks after.  I love serving in this area.  It is an awesome place.  I love this work.  

Also this week we spoke in a sacrament meeting.  It was great.  The fire alarm went off just as my companion started his talk!!!  It was loud and the Bishop said to just keep going... ha ha so he tried to talk over it and finally it got turned off.  We don't know who pulled it, but it was the first time that has ever happened to us!  It was funny.  

Elder Ballard came on Tuesday and spoke to us!  It was awesome! He talked mostly about treasuring up the scriptures and the lessons in PMG and then teaching for understanding.  It was awesome!  He also brought along Elder Bill Marriott!  So that was a treat!  He spoke to us as well.  He talked about how to be successful missionaries as well as some ways to be successful after our missions.  I learned a lot!  I feel so lucky to have heard from so many awesome people on my mission.  It has been such a blessing.  

Well that is about all I have time for! Sorry for cutting it short this time.  I love you all and miss you!  

Oh and last thing. Today we hiked Flag rock! (again)  So that is the third time I have hiked it!!  It was fun.  We had the whole zone come!  I will send a picture.  It was awesome.  

Love you!

The church is true!  

God lives and loves us.

Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

:)

Hello all!  I am so excited to hear about my new niece!!!!! The pictures you sent were awesome.  I am excited to meet her!  I am happy that Jennie, Paul, and Ruth are healthy and back home.  I hope this email finds everyone doing well and happy!

Well It is official, I came to Farmington on Tuesday!  I am serving in the Farmington Oakridge Stake.  It is a wonderful place to be.  There is a lot of teaching and work going on.  I love it here.  It is good to be back.  I was released from my last assignment and am now serving with Elder Kuck as a zone leader.  He is awesome.  He is from Atlanta, Georgia!  He is a Braves fan like us!  We are very similar and it is awesome to serve with someone who has been out the same amount as you.  We both go home in May.  

This week has been a little rough because 13 of our appointments cancelled or rescheduled!  But we still taught quite a bit.  I got to see some of the people that I taught 6 months ago that were baptized!  It was nice.  We had a pretty awesome miracle this week.  We set up a lesson with a lady named Connie.  She did a mission for her church a while back and she hosts a bible study once a month at her house.  She has studied the bible for +40 years.  She is way cool.  We had our first lesson with her and taught the restoration.  She was so open and already believes in almost everything.  She stopped us near the beginning and said, "I don't mean to offend anyone, but I want to tell you that I believe that God and Jesus Christ are two separate beings."  We were like, "no that is great, we believe that too!"    She grew up Catholic but she always thought that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were separate.  It was cool.  She is soo prepared.  She said that her son became a Mormon and she always wondered why he did.  She raised him to be Christian and then he converted and she said now it is time for her to see why he joined!  We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and pray.  She said she would.  We are excited to go back and talk with her more.  She is an awesome person.  

Well not much else crazy happened.  I will send some pictures this week.  Some from the baptism a week ago.  Danielle was baptized. She is great.  Then one we where Elder Williams, Elder Olsen (the new ap) and I were just messing around. :)  ha ha   

Once again I hope you are all doing well!  I love you tons!  And I miss you!  I promise to be more consistent in writing now that I should have the time.  :)

Love,

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

P.S. Elder Ballard is coming to speak to our mission on Tuesday! :) don't tell anyone.  ha ha I will write about it next week.  

Transfers!

Hello everyone!  So I don't have too much time so I am just going to hit the major points of what has happened lately.

-We finished up transfers and I am getting released and going to a new area.  We are about 99% sure that I will be going up to Kaysville to serve as a zone leader.  I will be serving in one of my old areas!! I served there for 5 weeks right before I came here.  It is going to be awesome.  I am so excited to have the opportunity to focus on the work and on a zone to try to lift and bless and motivate and just help them see success and be happy.  It is going to be a great opportunity.  So I will leave on Tuesday for the new area.

-My companion's birthday was on Wednesday and we had a very good day.  We taught 5 lessons and worked on transfers and he got some presents from some of the office staff and the people we teach.  It was fun. 

-We finally found one of the people we have been teaching after losing her for a week and a half.  Her purse was stolen (with her phone inside) and so she couldn't contact us and she went to park city with her family for a while so we could never find her.  But she got a new phone and then we got in contact and have been teaching her again.  She is preparing for the 1st to be baptized.  

-We had another couple lessons with Josh who I told you about last time.  He is awesome.  He is almost done with the doctrine and covenants and when we met last time we talked about the doctrine of Christ. At the end we asked him how he felt, and he said "well my plan is to finish reading the doctrine and covenants and finish the lessons that you teach me and then I want to be baptized."  It was sooo cool!!!!  We were about to invite him, but he already had the plan and has been praying about a time in march for baptism!  I have never taught someone as prepared as he is in my life!  He will be such a strong member of the church.  Usually most converts are converted by the way they feel when they meet with missionaries, when they read the Book of Mormon, or when they come to church.  It is interesting with Josh though.  I believe that he was converted solely because of the doctrine.  He knows the doctrine of the Church to be true, which is very good for someone who just started reading 2 months ago or less.  Granted he did read the whole triple.  Anyways, he is praying about the 8th.  It was such an awesome miracle and great experience to get to teach him.  

-We have a baptism today at 2:00pm for a girl named Danielle.  She is also very prepared.  It should be a great day!  

-We hit all of the Standards of Excellence this past week!  It was kind of hard to have that many lessons and be able to do everything else, but it was definitely a successful week. :)

-Lastly, we met with President to work on transfers and he invited two future mission president to come watch.  It was interesting!  One is going to Dallas Texas and the other to the Philippines!  We just talked about how a transfer works and what we do to find out where each missionary should go and who should do what.  It was fun to talk to them about it and see how excited they were to go to their own missions and work with the missionaries there.  

Well this was longer than I thought, but I have to go. We are going to go fill up the font.  I will try to write again on Monday.  Love you all!!!  Miss you a ton. Hope all is well there and that everyone is getting better!

Love,

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Family,

I have to say, valentine's day in a YSA ward as a missionary is not the best day to get things done.  Ha ha not many people want to meet with you.  And all the members are out on dates so they can’t come to lessons with you.  So tonight will be an interesting night!  Ha ha anyways, it is good to have a couple minutes to write you.  I am sorry that it has been so long.  I have been getting all of your emails and letters and I truly appreciate the updates on everyone!  It gives me comfort to know what is going on even when it is not the best news.  I hope and pray that everyone continues to recover well and that there will be fewer problems in the future. 

Life has been pretty great out here!  I am finally better from being sick!  I wasn’t even that sick compared to what is going on back there!  I hope the pneumonia goes away quickly since you caught it early.  The work has really picked up though.  We have been teaching a lot more and they are bringing their friends to appointments too!  Also we got the coolest referral I think I have ever received on my mission!  His name is Josh.  He grew up in a home with Catholic and Christian non-denominational backgrounds.  He didn’t know what was right, so he has been searching.  He moved out here for work and his family came for military.  He works as a pharmacist at the LDS hospital. He was curious about the LDS faith so he got a copy of the Book of Mormon and just started reading.  He read at a very quick pace and wanted to get a feel for it before meeting with missionaries.  He finished the whole Book of Mormon in 6 weeks! He said that at the beginning he had a lot of questions but as he read the Book of Mormon all of his questions were answered and he believes that it is true!! So epic.  His friend from Ogden got him a nice set of scriptures (a quad) and he just wanted to keep reading! So he read all of Moses and all of Joseph Smith History.  He started reading the Doctrine and Covenants and is already at section 44.  At this rate he will be done with all of the standard works by May!  He sent himself as a referral on LDS.org.  And then we got the referral from some sisters in the mission when they received it!  How cool is that???  He is one of the most prepared people that I have ever taught.  I love being able to work with people who actually want to learn and grow and are sincere about finding the truth. I am so grateful for the miracle it is to be able to teach him and help him come closer to the Savior. 

Hmmm what else has been going on… We had a lot of meetings lately.  We had an MLC and Leadership Training.  Both were great.  They might have been some of my last meetings that I will get to attend.  We have been working on transfers and I will most likely leave this transfer.  I might be a Zone Leader, or maybe a District Leader.  It is all up in the air, but we worked on it a lot yesterday and I think I have a couple ideas of what will happen.  Either way I am excited.  By this time in my mission I have learned that the Lord will put me wherever I can be the most effective and wherever both myself and those around me can be lifted and grow to become what He needs us to become.  It is a good feeling to know that because now the changes I go through are not as hard.  And that also translates to life in general.  Life is full of changes.  And even though I do not prefer to go through so many, I can always be confident that the Lord has a purpose in it for me and that I will become what he needs of me. 

Well that is about it.  We had some other sweet miracles.  A girl in the Capitol Hill ward who thought she was a member turns out not to have records.  So she already knows everything and she can’t really remember being baptized so we have started teaching her and she will be baptized in the next week or two.  She is awesome. Also we have started meeting with a girl in the Westminster ward that has come a couple times.  We went to temple square with her and had a great time talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and sitting in front of the Christus.  It was an awesome experience.  She is prepared as well.  She also is full of desire to know the truth.  What a blessing it is for us to be able to work with these people.  I am so grateful for the success that the Lord shows us as we put forth our faith and act as true Disciples of Christ. 

I have to go, but I hope you all know how much I miss and love you!!!!!  Keep healing and keep me posted.  You are all in my prayers.  I love you so very much.

Have a terrific week with school and work and all that!

Love,

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

Hello everyone!  How are you doing? I am happy to hear that the surgery for Becca went pretty well! She has been in our prayers out here a lot. I am also happy that Grandma's went well too!  I hope they both continue healing well this week and that they know how much we love them.  Please keep me informed about how Karen is doing. I miss her and I wish I was there to be able to see her.  I was happy to talk to her for a couple minutes on Christmas.  She is so wonderful.  Let me know how she is recovering. They are all in my prayers regularly!

Well this week was good.  We had some wonderful lessons and started teaching a couple new people.  Monique is one of them.  She really wants to learn and understand what she should do in her life.  It is cool to find people with that complete sincerity.  We are excited to teach her at temple square this week.  We also taught Hannah at temple square.  It was fun!  We saw the movie "God's Plan." Then we went to the temple model and talked a little bit about what goes on in the temple.  

I am going to keep this pretty short, we have some things to get done for our meetings tomorrow and the next day.  Oh!  But first I have to tell you about a couple things!  One of our missionaries named Elder Webb had to go home this week for medical reasons.  He is such an amazing man.  I'll tell you his whole story another time.  Basically Elder Clarke (the one who did our mission tour and that we went teaching with) wanted to personally thank Elder Webb for serving.  So President Hansen had us set up the timing and we got to accompany him to go see Elder Clarke!   (Once again Elder Clarke is from the first quorum of the seventy)  Anyways, we went and he let us come in while he talked to Elder Webb.  It was a very special experience.  He thanked Elder Webb on behalf of the prophet and on behalf of the Lord.  He also gave Elder Webb a couple of assignments.  I can't find the words to describe the spirit that was there.  It was amazing.  Then he asked Elder Webb what his favorite food was and Elder Webb said "Steak."  So he gave us a couple of assignments as well.  First to go get some steak for Elder Webb for lunch! ha ha :)  Then to make sure that Elder Webb's travel arrangements were complete and that he had transportation from one terminal to another for his layover in Dallas.  He said that if we had any problems we should call him. It was cool to see how a man as busy as him would be so willing to help.  Elder Clarke called Elder Webb's parents and stake president the night before as well.  It was just a sweet experience.  I will tell you more about it another time.  We got a picture with them while we were there so I will attach it.  Also Elder Martino from the second quorum of the seventy stopped in to meet him.  And the man in the picture is Steve Peterson from the missionary department.  On the way out Brother McConkie (Elder McConkie's son) came to meet him.  It was so cool.  I will always remember the smile on Elder Webb's face as we walked to our car. 

There were some other things that happened this week, but I can't remember them at the moment....  Oh well.  

I love you all soooo very much and I hope you can feel my prayers for you.  

God lives and He loves us.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

The church is true.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Transfers!

Hello Family!!!  I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to write!!  I keep telling myself that I will be better about it, but then other things just keep coming up and every time I sit down at a computer to write an email I find 5 other assignments that we need to get done by the end of the day or sooner.  Still, there are no excuses.  I hope you know how important you all are to me!  I love you and miss you so much.  I read your emails and enjoy hearing about what is going on in your lives! (even when things are not the best sometimes)

That being said, I am going to take about 10 minutes more to write you a quick note and let you know what has been happening lately! 

The greatest things that have been happening lately were two baptisms!  One was the first week in January.  That was Marlen Olmedo.  I believe that I have told you a little bit about her before.  She has had a very wonderful experience learning about the gospel and although it took about a year and a half from start to finish she was finally baptized!  She said the whole reason that she started listening to missionaries in the first place was because I sister missionary from temple square came into the store where she works and she felt the spirit that she brought with her.  She could see and feel a difference! She started being taught and then was off and on for about a year.  Then we got the referral and started teaching her with the sister from temple square.  It was a group effort along with the efforts of the friends in the ward that were so incredibly supportive of her that helped her feel a sense of belonging and gain a testimony of the gospel.  The cool thing about Marlen is that she has already been interviewed by the bishop and last week she went and did baptisms for the dead with the 3 YSA stakes in Salt Lake City!  How sweet is that??  

The other baptism was the other day (second weekend of January).  It was Justin Palmer!  He has a similar story.  He was taught by elders from the family ward about a year and a half ago and he kept reading and going to church and then the referral was passed to us!  It was my second week in the area when we started teaching Justin.  He has grown so much and was prepared for his baptism.  He also wants to do baptisms for the dead. He wants to bring his mother's name to the temple and be baptized for her as soon as he can.  I am so excited for him!!!  So both of these were highlights from the last 2 weeks and I will attach pictures as well.  

Other than that we had Zone Conferences last week!  It was a long week. We didn't have a preparation day either.  We had a zone conference every day Monday through Thursday.  We traveled to each zone and the conference went from about 8:30am to 4:30pm.  It was fun though!  We gave some trainings.  I would love to send you a slideshow that we made for it as well and you can watch it sometime.  It has great music to it.  

Then we finished up work on the transfer!  Lastly, I found out that I am staying here.  I will still be in my current assignment with my current companion, in our area.  We are both staying.  I thought for sure that I was going to move, but President and the Lord must have thought otherwise.  I know it is because I still have so much more that I need to learn here from everyone that I am serving around and with.  I am grateful for the time that the Lord has given me here to learn and grow and try to become the missionary that I need to be.  I love the work, and I love the Lord.  And I love you all!  

Alright, that was a little more than ten minutes. Oops.  I have gotten a little faster at typing than I was before though!  

Have a terrific week!!  I hope you know that you are all in my prayers!!!!!  

Love,

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

P.S. Here are the first pictures.  More to come in another email!