Jan 18 10 New Greenie & Area

Hola,

Thanks for all the letters. I had a lot to read, and yes I do read them. A lot has happened this week. I apologize for not writing, but I have a good excuse. I got transfered. I am in a pueblo again. I think I am destined to live in a small town, because I haven't left small towns my whole mission. I am in the area Zumpango, Guerrero. It is like 15 minutes from Chilpancingo. Chilpancingo is the capitol of Guerrero. You should be able to find it on a map. On Sunday at 10:00 pm I left Zihuatanejo and I arrived in Cuernavaca at 6:00 am. It was about 85 degress when I left and about 50 degrees when I got there. I had to go to Cuerna because I got a kid. I'm training a greenie, and we opened an area. The two missionaries that were there before finished their missions at the same time and went home. They were good missionaries and left us a couple good investigators. We should have a baptism this week.

The area is very different than my last one. The entire pueblo is built around two hills. All day long we are climbing hills. The town is really Catholic. There is a giant Cathedral in the middle of the town, and there is a church on every corner. It's been pretty hard tracting. This week was kind of an eye opener for me. I realized all of my weaknesses.
My companion is Elder Zozaya. He's from Merida, Yucatan. He has 8 brothers and sisters, and he is the sixth to serve a mission. He's pretty quiet and kind of serious. That has made it kind of hard because I'm not much of a conversationist either.

The area was just opened to missionaries 3 years ago, so the branch is pretty small. The services are kind of a mess. There was about 30 people there on Sunday. We meet on the second and third story of a building. There is a wearhouse on the first story. It's pretty ghetto, but we should be moving to a better house in a month. We're still pretty lost here. We don't know our way around very well. We have a map, but still it's kind of hard.

I think we're going to have to try out some new ideas in this area. Knocking doors hasn't worked out too well for us here. I think we're going to start visiting the members to try and plan some family home evenings. We did that in my other area and it worked out pretty well. If you have ideas in how to find new investigators I'd be happy to hear them.

The weather here is great. In the morning it is cold, and it usually stays pretty cool during the day. Today we played soccer and then football. There are a ton of gringos in this zone. It's the biggest zone in the mission.
You asked if I know Elder Nichols. He was an AP, and I think he's going home this change or maybe he already went home.

I got Brooke's package. The tie is pretty awesome. I like the calender too. I think almost all the pictures of me were taken in the same week.
I'm glad to hear that everything is good at home. I just barely met some JW's that were from Wisconsin. That was pretty weird.
Well, everything is going good with me. We are working hard, and hopefully we will get the hang of things soon.

Love,
Elder Hansen

Two Baptisms and Happy New Year!

Jaquelin's Baptism

Blanca's Baptism

Happy New Year! It's weird that a year has already passed. My New Years Eve wasn't too exciting. We got invited to eat pizza, but unfortunately it was Mexican style with a lot of chilis and hot sauce. Some investigators also invited us to a party and they killed a pig. It was pretty cool seeing them gut the pig. The Mexican tradition at midnight is to go in the street and shoot your gun, so that kind of woke us up.

Well, this week was great. We had two baptisms. We had been planning on one, but the other one came unexpectadly. I think those are blessings that came from trying to be 100% obedient. On Saturday Blanca was baptized. She was really excited, and had been waiting a really long time. On Sunday Jaquelin was baptized. She's the one that came as a surprise. We have had her as an investigator for a long time, and this week we decided that we were going to drop her. We talked with her ande beared our testimonies, and she told us that she really did want to be baptized but her husband was holding her back. We talked with her husband, and he told us that he wasn't ready but that he would let Jaquelin be baptized if she wanted to. So this weekend was really busy. We hadn't had a baptism for two months and then we had two in the same week. It was kind of a crazy week, but everything turned out well.

The other day we got a ride from two Spaniards. They talked pretty funny. They said that they started in Las Vegas and went to Tijuana and are going down all the Pacific coast surfing in as many places as possible until they get to Panama. They have 9 months to complete their trip. A while ago I met an American guy that lives here for 6 months of the year surfing and then goes to Alaska for six months and works as a guide on fishing trips. I look at those guys and sometimes am envious because I am probably doomed to living in the suburbs and working in a cubicle all day. But those guys will one day be old and alone without families. I guess it's worth it to make some sacrifices to have a higher level of happiness.

It sounds like everyone is doing well back home. I think I'll have a lot of movies to catch up on when I get back.

Love,
Elder Hansen

Ps Here's the pictures from the baptism of Jaquelin (first) and Blanca (second)