May 18 2009

The myldsmail keeps messing up so I'm using this one.
Happy belated birthday Jenny. I did receive the package. It was great. I haven't had good old fashioned American sugar in a while.No I did not loose my driver's license. I thought that my wallet story was pretty cool, but you guys seemed to not think so. For me it was a pretty big testimony builder of prayer, and proof that God's watching out over his missionaries. It's pretty impossible for it to just be chance of another member happening to find my wallet on a bus in Mexico.Well, I got my new companion. His name is Elder Moscoso from Tobasco, Mexico. He has eleven months in the mission. He has been entirely on the coast in Guerrero with almost six months in each area. Apparently he has developed a coastal accent. He is kind of difficult to understand. He talks really fast and doesn't annunciate, but we can communicate. His family are converts to the church and he was baptized when he was thirteen.We get along pretty good, but he is definitely different than my other companion. I kind of have to be in charge and keep us from wasting hours at people's houses. He's a good missionary, but he has his times of laziness. But I have noticed that the people are much more receptive now that I am with another Mexican. I think that's one reason why a gringo is almost always with a Mexican.I really enjoyed hearing that story about the Janke family. I didn't know there were cool stories like that in our own family. I would also be interested to hear about Dad and Clint's missions. I've never really really hear them talk about how the work was in Asia. Where was the most success found or whether there was much success at all or some stories about converts. Today I am writing a little later than normal because we went to this castle thing today with a bunch of people from the zone. It was just a giant huge, old Spanish castle with tunnels and stuff. You just pay ten pesos to go in and then you can climb all over whatever and explore the whole thing. It was covered with a lot of graffiti, but was still really cool. I have no idea about the history of the place. But it is called La Sienda and is located in Cuaixtla, Morelos.Yesterday we visited with a member and he told us his conversion story and I thought it was way cool, so I'm going to tell it. One night this man had a dream. In his dream there was a large river, and across the river was a really happy family. Also across the river was a large building with pillars. Out of the building came two personages dressed in white, with white beards, and white skin floating in the air. One of them asked him where he wanted to go. He replied saying that he wanted to cross the river and see how this family was so happy. The personage said it's not yet your time, and he woke up. For a while after the dream he had an unsettling feeling. Then, about a month or two later two missionaries showed up to his house gave him a Book of Mormon, sang a hymn, and left. When they sang the song all of his bad feelings went away. Months passed without seeing the missionaries again. He read the Book of Mormon one and a half times before he saw the missionaries again eight months later. He saw two missionaries sitting on the curb outside his shop and he approached them and told them his story. They told him that his dream meant he needed to be baptized and he was baptized that week. When he went to church that Sunday he was given the Gospel Principles book. In it he saw a picture of Joseph Smith's first vision, and he was able to identify the two personages he saw. Not long later, his entire family was baptized.Well, I will include some pictures of my adventures in Meixico.The computer is not working very well today so I could only upload one photo of the castle thing.
Love, Elder Hansen