Happy New Year!

Hello errbody....  sup?   Well it was awesome to talk to you all and see you on google hangout on Christmas!! I loved seeing Samuel smile. :)  It was great!  I can't wait to meet him one day! He will be almost 2 by then though! ha ha oh and it was good to see all of you as well . . :)  anyway,  Merry Christmas!

This week was good.  Christmas was fun.  Just chilled and ate good food with members.  Then Wednesday was alright. Had some good lessons.  But then on Thursday morning I got sick.  I don't know if it was something I ate that gave me food poisoning or if it was stomach flu, but I was like dead for 2 days...  I didn't eat anything for those two days and I could hardly keep any water down.... It was just not fun. ha ha but Im better now!  Still haven't eaten a lot yet, but I'll get there.

 

Other than the sickness, we taught some great lessons and built trust with our investigators.  Also our investigators husband got here from Kentucky and we started teaching him and he seems very open to it all! So I am excited for that.  They even came to church, even when she had her gall bladder removed on Wednesday. 

 

We talked with our branch president, President Dennett a lot and he told us about a lot of people to go see and try to teach.  He is a great man.  We ate with him and his family yesterday as well.  It was good.

 

Well.... not much else happened.  Its been an interesting week.  My finger has been giving me a lot of trouble lately.....  Like last night it hurt so much that I couldn't get to sleep... I didnt get to sleep until 4:15 am . . ..      So I got less than 2 hours of sleep last night. .  It sucked.. but I went to the doctor for an appointment this morning and they gave me more medicine and told me to take it easy on the therapy so that the cut can actually heal.  Its been bleeding lately too . .  and a lot of the skin on my finger is dead and falling off .  ha ha . Its all really annoying.  ha ha but its all good.  Im over it.

 

Hmmmm.  Well.  Happy New Year!!!!  I'll miss eating freaking awesome snacks and stuff with you all and stayin up late playing card games!   Have fun!  Hope you all are healthy and happy.

Love you all.

God lives and He loves you too.

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

The Church is true!

 

Godspeed.

 

-Elder Hansen

 

Peak The Strategy

Swahili Elders

Hello my family.  How are all of you?!?  I hope you are all doing well and getting excited for Christmas!  Im excited.  It will be a lot different than a normal Christmas though, but its all good. Thanks for all the packages you have sent!  I haven't opened anything from your package yet Natalie... should I wait for Christmas??  Anyway, thanks so much.

Well this week has been an interesting one.  We have done some missionary work and helped some people, but we have had a lot of personal troubles and stuff.  We went to the doctor 10 times in the last 2 weeks....  Its annoying.  Mostly physical therapy and other appointments for Elder Helmstetter, but its been just very time consuming.  Also just not feeling well at all.  I am doing pretty well now, but Elder Helmstetter had trouble for a lot of the week.  I'll probably tell you more in the email next week about some changes that are probably going to happen.

Anyway, enough of that.  

Life is okay.  Just trying to work and stay focused and keep feeling well.

I've been working out more because Elder Helmstetter was as trainer at a crossfit gym in California so he makes me work out and wants me to get strong.  Its pretty funny.  He would punch me in the stomach for 1 minute straight to try to toughen up my abs.  He doesn't hit as hard as he can of course, but enough to make it very red and even bruise a little... ha ha he is funny. 

Anyway, I don't know why I am even telling you all this.  My mind is a little scattered, and I don't remember what all happened this week.  

We drove up to bountiful though and went to a pawn shop to buy a guitar for our recent convert Pascal!  He played in the Congo, but hasn't had a guitar since, so we were going to buy him one.  The owner of the pawn shop is mormon and he knew we were missionaries and so he asked why we were getting a guitar.  We told him the reason and he ended up giving it to us for free!!  It is a $300 guitar and he gave it to us for free!  It is awesome the spirit of giving and love that comes with Christmas time.  I love it.  That man really blessed the life of this refugee from the Congo and he doesn't even know him.  Its great!!

Well Im going to send you a picture of my stitches and of Elder Helmstetter's leg (about 3 weeks ago when it was really bad) so that you can see what happens to the Swahili Elders.  Ha ha its awesome.

Im going to keep it short.  I don't know what else to say anyway.  I'll let you know more next week.  

Keep on being awesome everyone.

I love you all!

The church is true.

God lives and He loves us.

Jesus is the Christ.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Hello!

Hey there! how are are all of you?  i decided not to capitalize because i can only type with my left hand...   .    .

so yeah...   I had surgery this week on my hand.  It went well!  I was put under for it and stuff, but they reattached the tendon.  The other thing is that when i cut my finger, i destroyed the A4 pulley in my finger so i won't get all my strength back in my pinkie, but it doesnt matter.  Its fine.    I am having physical therapy twice a week to loosen it up and to try to get full use of my finger back...  so thats cool i guess.  It hurts a lot.   I don't like physical therapists.... they are mean.  ha ha but its all good.

Hmmmm well what else happened this week.....  It takes me forever to type and write because I can only do it with my left hand so this email will probably be shorter than usual.   sorry...   

Well I got to call Mom and Dad the day after my surgery to let them know that I am alright!  so that was fun :)  it was short but great to hear your voices and hear your reactions when I called and told you it was me!!!! ha ha ha I love you all and miss you a lot.  

So the day after my surgery, a man from the missionary department (mtc) came to observe us doing missionary work all day.  He only went with 4 elders total from our mission and President Winn chose elder helmstetter and I as 2 of them!  So that was pretty cool.  It was also really hard though because I was in a lot of pain from the surgery the day before, but I couldn't take any heavy medication (percocet) or else I couldn't focus well enough to teach or anything..... But it worked out alright! He paid for our dinner at crown burger that night as well, so it was worth it :) haha

This week we also met some white people, tina and joey.  They were a wreck..... Joey came home from war a couple weeks ago and he has just been drinking a ton to drown out the horrible memories he has from the war... He got shot multiple times and a car bomb went off and blew out most of his teeth... Tina's husband passed away about a couple months ago.  When Joey got back from war, he found Tina and she hadn't eaten any food in 27 days.........  She was almost dead.  He took her to the hospital and they taught her how to eat again and helped her.  We were referred to them to go give them a blessing. We got there and Joey was sooo drunk.  and tina wouldn't come to.  Eventually after 5 minutes of Joey shaking her trying to wake her up she started to come around.  we gave them both blessings and there was a very noticeable change in Tina.  She is not a member, but she got a lot better and wants to be baptized!  She went to the hospital again this week and almost died.   She flat lined.  But they brought her back.  They both need to quite drinking and smoking quickly...  but as of now they are doing alright. We passed them to the english elders so that they can be taught and get help.    So that was a very interesting experience!

Hmmm what else......   

We taught people.  We took a lot of drugs so that we wouldn't hurt so bad, both me with my hand and elder helmstetter with his leg.    So yeah.   still trying to learn swahili!  Its not very easy. But its getting there.    

Oh! also funny story..  Right when I came out of surgery the nurse who was helping me wasn't a member.  I was still very out of it, but I taught her some of the lessons!  I talk about Christ, then about priesthood, then Word of wisdom and tithing......  they didnt really fit together, but I was really drugged so its not my fault.. ha ha :)  I also invited her to church.   She said maybe sometime... so probably not.   Oh well.  ha ha I just thought it was funny that that was the first thing I was talking about.  I also was talking about learning swahili.  ha ha    anyway....

A new family just got here from Uganda 3 days ago! straight from the refugee camp!  We are going to start teaching them this week and the church is going to help them get food etc.    Should be awesome! If all goes well, they will be baptized in a couple weeks :)  

I probably have more I should say, but I can't type anymore... my hand hurts, and I am out of time...

But I love you all!

Things are going great.  I love the work.  I am currently on 0 medication and its feeling okay so thats good.  The physical therapist was impressed that it can move so much already, so everything looks good.

also here is a picture that they took at church.  I forget the young boy's name, but the little girl's name is Fortuna.  She is the cutest little kid ever! :)  ha ha anyway,  I love the swahili people.  they are amazing.   

well

God lives and he loves us.

Jesus is the Christ.

The church is true.

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen.

Peak the Strategy.

Habarigani?! (Hows it going? / Whats the news?)

Hello.  So I went to the doctor today and they told me that I will have surgery on Wednesday to fix my pinkie finger.   . ..  so yeah  .. Should be pretty simple.  Hopefully.  Swahili is crazy.  Jina lako ni nani?  (that means what's your name?)   . . .   Mimi ni natoka Mmerikani.  (that means "I come from the United States(America).")  . . .    I am trying to learn a lot, but my brain just can't handle it sometimes. .  When I get to about 19 words while memorizing them, and keep going, I can't fit them in....  But I try to push past it anyway.  It's been about 4 days and I have learned 61 words, along with some other random words and phrases and I have learned some grammar and conjugations of verbs and stuff. ..     but not too much. . .  (Hapana kidogo.)    . .    Ugh . . and I don't have much time to write today because I spent 45 minutes filling out online paperwork for the surgery on Wednesday  .. .  So yeah.

What has happened  . ..  .hmmmmm

Well first off, thanks for all your emails! You are all awesome!  I miss you all .   Especially with the Christmas season coming up.  I'll be thinking of you guys.  I'll also get to call you!  Or maybe even skype..  we'll see.  

This week was transfers.  The night we got here we took one of the members to the hospital.  He had a stroke about 3 years ago, and didnt have any medicine left so he was really sick.  . .  So that was interesting . . especially when him and his wife speak swahili and very, very little english..  . .   ha ha but it worked out okay in the end.. He is doing better now.  

Hmm what else?

Well, we taught some lessons to investigators with translators that speak different tribal languages, french, swahili, english, and other crazy languages like lingalik.  Its pretty crazy out here. But yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and it was pretty cool!  The branch is swahili, so the speakers usually speak swahili, or french, or english..  So I don't understand much of the meeting.  . . . Church is pretty different . . The youth out here are very disrespectful.   They talk in their classes and leave and come in whenever they want and are ALWAYS on their phones. ..  .  Plus they always have a stupid response to what the teacher is saying.  We taught one class yesterday at church and it was nuts.  No respect.  We were teaching the word of wisdom because at the moment every single youth in that class drink alcohol except for 1 (Pascal - a recent convert who is such a boss...He is only 16 but is super excited to go on a mission!) .  ..  They wouldn't listen.  It was very frustrating. They still think drinking is okay.  They said that champagne is just apple juice and won't get you drunk!  Hahaha  . . . yeah right.  And we tell them that it is not allowed and they ignore us.  They are pretty stubborn, but the swahili people as a whole are soo awesome!  Nicest people ever.  They love everyone.  They are great.  Im excited to work with them!  I think I want to stay in this area for 6 months and then come back here for the last 3 months of my mission as well.  Hopefully that can happen :)  I'll cross my fingers.  

Pia (also) I met an older gentleman named Brother Hansen.  He is awesome.  He is making us business cards!  Apparently he does that for a lot of missionaries around here... :) he is a great man.  I think we will be friends and stay in contact even after my mission.  He is awesome.  

Alright.  I don't know what else to say.  My companion is freaking sweet.  Elder Helmstetter from Orange County California.  He is 24 yrs old.  His leg is pretty screwed up . . just the muscle is torn in a lot of places . .   but I think he'll survive.  He will have physical therapy to try to help it.    He has already owned a company and done a lot of cool stuff before his mission.  He is a convert of about 5 years.  . .  I love him . . We are going to have a lot of fun together and we will get a lot of work done as well.   

Okay.  I don't have time to write anymore.  I love you all though!  Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season!  The lights at temple square are beautiful.  . .    I love it.

Keep it real.

Tutaonana! (See you!)

Kwaheri. (Goodbye)

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey there!  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Thanks for all your support and love and prayers! They help us a lot. 

Alright.  This week was actually a pretty slow week.  Most of the people that we work with rescheduled appointments or just weren't home.  It was rough.  So yeah  . . 

On Tuesday we ate at a Greek place.  It was really good.  Its called Mad Greek.  I liked it a lot. 

 On Thursday we had District Meeting that I think actually went very well.  I trained on the Book of Mormon and its vitality in the conversion of our investigators.  It was pretty sweet. 

Hmmmmm  . . . what else. . .  Oh!  One of the Elders who went home about 3 months ago came back to visit and we hung out with him for a bit!  His name is Clay Lanier. .  Its still weird to say his first name though . .  ha ha but its all good.  He is doing well!  But he brought a girl with him . . .   they are dating ha ha but she was pretty cool so its all good.  I just think its funny, I could see him married in like a couple months! ha ha!

Anyway,

We told two of our investigators this week that they couldn't drink coffee and they freaked out and didn't want to get baptized anymore....  It was really lame.  .  .    over a stupid cup of coffee . . . .   ugh  .  . .  but we tried to explain to them about the word of wisdom and that it is revelation from God, but they weren't listening  . . .    But we are still going to try to help them.  They are still great people, they just need some more help and guidance. 

What else  . . . .

Well I was going to not tell you all this because I thought Mom would be a little freaked out, but I'll tell you anyway . . . ha ha it wasn't very bad anyway.

2 days ago on Saturday night, we were walking around and it was getting late so we were going to head in soon.  We were walking and this guy saw us and said "Are you the Mormons??!!"  He came up to us and we were like "ya we are!"  and he was like, "just the people who I needed to see".  He was an average height black dude and he was holding a beer with a white shirt wrapped around his hand.  As we listened to him, I noticed there were a lot of red spots on the white collar shirt that was wrapped around his hand.  Yeah . . it was blood. ha ha we started talking to him and he was sooo drunk and he told us that he had just gotten into a fight and had just gotten stabbed! He showed us his hand and there was a pretty deep cut in it and it was bleeding a lot.  At this point I started to get a little nervous because as we talked a man walked by him and he stepped back into him and then yelled at him using all manner of profanity (ha ha) and got very angry.  I thought he was going to do something bad to us or the other guy, but for some reason he didnt do or say anything bad to us.  He just wanted us to show him where the nearest bus stop was.  I am glad he didnt turn on us like he did on that other guy.  He was callin us his "niggas"  . .  it was funny.  and then at the end he said group hug, and hugged us . . .  it was so random.. and a little crazy ..  ..  ha ha but Im glad the Lord knows us and is protecting us, because I could have seen that situation going a lot differently if we werent wearing these tags and serving Him and being watched over by the Lord.  So yeah!

Well thats about it for this week....

Oh but one more thing!  This week some Tongans fed us horse meat!!!  ha ha! It was actually very delicious.  I liked it a lot and they gave us some to take home! So we have been making horse sandwiches and my companion Elder Driskell even put some on a slice of cheese pizza!  Horse Pizza!  hahahahaha  sounds weird, but he said it was good. :)  I like trying different foods! Its funny to think that when I was little I wouldn't try anything! 

alright,

gotta run!

Love you all!!

 

Godspeed.

 

-Elder Hansen

Peak The Strategy

Madet Manyiel Dut

Hello Family!  How is errbody???  Well I wish I had time to reply to all your emails individually, but I dont have much time.  But thanks so much for your emails!  Especially Dad and Mom.  They were great.  I am glad to hear that all is going well.  So yeah.
Wellllll  .  .  this week was good!  We got someone baptized!  Joseph Thoker!  But we actually baptized him by his African name Madet Manyiel Dut (hence the title of the email...)   so yeah!  It was great!  He was ready and he is going to be a great member.  We challenged him to go to the temple in one year and so I hope he does!  Also he is going to get the Aaronic Priesthood next week.  So that will be sweet! He can pass the sacrament.   . .   anyway . . . 
What else happened this week  . . ..    oh!  we had zone conference.  It was great!  Learned a lot.  We are asked now to envision all our investigators three times in white.  Once at the baptism, once at the endowment in the temple, and once at the sealing in the temple!  It helps us see how we can help our investigators make their commitments and keep them.  So yeah.  It was a great zone conference. 

Alright. . .  Well also this week two of our investigator didnt have the money to pay rent so they made a deal with their landlord that they would clean and paint the upstairs apartment so that they could stay.   . . .  they are both on disability and have a lot of problems.  So we actually did a lot of painting. . . .    im pretty sure we painted for about 10 hours total.  .   We were there one day and Margie (one of our investigators) fainted . ..   She just straight up passed out.  And she wasnt coming to . . ..  it was scary!  Daniel (her husband) called 911  . .   Eventually she started to come back.  She was fine and now she is doing okay.  She has diabetes and high blood pressure and she is on oxygen . .  so its hard.  But she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.   They are trying to quite smoking now so that they can get baptized next weekend!   Hopefully it all works out well.

We also took Stacy (another investigator) to temple square!  It was really awesome.  We had a lot of fun and she learned a lot ..  She is very scared to commit to things though :/     but we'll work on that.

I had exchanges with the zone leaders this week . . I went into their area and they are spanish speakers . .  so it was a little weird. . . but it was fun. 
Anyway.   Other then that, we went to the temple this morning!  it was amazing.  I always love going to the temple . .   I learn new things every time I go.  Its awesome :)

Well I think that is just about all.  I love you all!  I love being a missionary.  It is going by very quickly too. .  I don't know what to think about that .   . .           
Anywho,

God lives and He loves us.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
The church is true.

Godspeed.
-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy

Hey!

Hello Family!  So Jennie had her baby!?!?!?!  Samuel Kenji Peterson??   That is soo cool :)  I saw some pictures already.  Looks like he will be one cute kid!  I am glad that he is healthy and doing well and that Jennie as well as the whole family is doing great.  I wish I could be there to celebrate and see Samuel!  Just give it a couple years.  It'll happen :)    I hope everyone is feeling well and happy as always.

Alright.  Well, this week was alright.  We had some struggles with appointments falling through and not being able to find many new people to teach . . . and only one person showed up to church.  But its okay.  We worked hard and the Lord knows that.  He blesses us in many other ways, and in time we will see more fruit.

Anyway, this week was very similar to other weeks.   . .     Although there was Halloween!  Happy late Halloween everyone!  ha ha we couldnt even go out that much to work.  If we had set appointments we could be out, but if not we couldn't tract or anything, we had to go back to the apartment.  So we had one appointment, then we went home.  On the way home someone pulled over and held a giant bowl of candy out the window and told us to take a lot of candy!  Isnt that awesome??  We didn't even need to go trick or treating!  People just handed us candy on our way home!  ha ha so that was pretty freaking sweet :P

We also put 4 more people on date to be baptized this week.  So right now we have Joseph 10th, Daniel and Margie 17th, Edgar and Kelsie 24th, Joli 1st.  We are going to try very hard to keep these people on date and help them to be baptized on these days.

Hmmmm other things that happened this week . . . .      . .  well there was a pretty sad thing that happened.  A less-active lady who we talked to about 3 weeks ago for like an hour and a half on her porch passed away...  She was such a sweet, kind lady.  She was in her 70's I think.  She was a widow.  It was a sad thing to hear about, but now she is with her husband so in the end I think it is better for her.  Her funeral was on her birthday! November 2nd.  We went to the funeral to help try to support the family and see if there was anything we could do to help.  The family is taking it pretty well though.  So thats good.  

Anyway, Other than that, not much else.  I went to a baptism for someone I taught with Elder Miller in Farmington!  Her name is Ashley Allred.  It was so exciting to see her get baptized and to just be there.  It was a great time :)  I'll send a picture of that. They are a little crazy but I love them. The picture is a little weird ha ha.

In church on Sunday an investigator, Augustino, went up and bore his testimony!  He has been investigating the church since 2001 when he came to this country from Sudan.  He already has a testimony of the gospel and that it is true, but for some reason he wont get baptized.  We have worked with him for a while now and even gave him a blessing this week to help him get over his sickness, and yet he still wont get baptized.  Its confusing.... but we are praying very hard for a miracle to happen and for God to help push him in the right direction to be baptized soon!!  Your prayers along with ours would be greatly appreciated.  

Alright.... well thats about it.  I taught a short 15 minute training to uor whole zone last week.  It was interesting.  I think it went pretty well.  Im not as nervous anymore to talk in front of a larger group of people.  So thats good I guess.

Well I love you all!!  I hope you have an amazing week!  This work is real.  God lives and He loves us.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. This is His true church restored to the earth today.  I love being a missionary.  It is an amazing opportunity.  I can't believe that I have been out for 6 months already.  It has gone pretty quickly, and yet so much has happened that it has felt like a year or two has already passed.... ha ha but its all good.  maybe I'll adjust to the time out here when I have been out longer. 

Love you all!

Godspeed.

-Elder Hansen

Peak the Strategy