11 23 09 In Pantla

Hola,
Thanks for the letter Grandma, and thanks for keeping me in your prayers.
Clint, yes I did sell my shoes for $300 pesos, but I only had to walk barefoot until we got to the taxi. I found some other shoes in the zone leaders' apartment, so I ended up gaining $300.

That should be fun having almost the whole family together for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving will be pretty lame here. Maybe we'll go out for tacos or something.
That was interesting about the Rough Stone Rolling guy. I'll have to read that book when I get back.

This week went by pretty fast. I left Tuesday morning for Guacamayas for divisions with the zone leaders. Elder Querry went to Pantla with my companion and I went to Guacamayas with Elder Arevalo. I was there until Thursday morning. It was an awesome experience. I learned a lot. We worked way hard, and we got so much done during the day. We didn't waste a minute of our time. I've always asked myself, "how is it possible that the zone leaders consistantly baptize 5 or more every change, and we seem to always be struggling to find one?" I learned that the zone leaders aren't any smarter than me, and they really don't do anything that I couldn't do. But they are obedient, work hard, study hard, and plan well every day and week. Maybe I will never be able to control what my companion does or force him to be obedient. But that should never be an excuse for me to slack off.

Things in Pantla are going good. We have someone scheduled for baptism this Saturday. Her name is Blanca and she is way excited. Her husband is an inactive member and her father in law and his family are good members of the ward. She is excited and already has a strong testimony.

We have two baptisms scheduled for the next Saturday. They are Jaqueline and her husband Albert. Jaqueline has come to church two times with the kids and Albert only once. They are also very excited. This week we helped them clear out the lot behind their house with machetes. That was pretty awesome. They have four little kids and one more on the way, and Jaqueline is just barely turning 22 this week.
We are teaching another man named Luis who is also way cool. He has come to church twice, but he needs to get married before he can be baptized. They are getting married in two weeks. He is way cool. His wife and mother in law are members. This week we helped them knock down a palm tree in their yard. All we had was an axe, but we got it down. My companion got pretty into it, but now his hands are blistered.

There are changes again next week. Time is flying. It will be sad if I get changed and won't be able to see our investigators get baptized, but we'll see what happens.

Ok well take care and have a great Thanksgiving.

Con cariño,
Elder Hansen