Spider Bite- Swollen Arm - Passing Out 5/3/2010

Hey,
It sounds like everyone will be having fun this week in Utah. It seems like Mom and Dad are in Utah like every other week. I'm guessing that life in Wisconsin isn't as exciting as it sounds.

This week I had an interesting experience. We were out contacting, and I had my arm leaning on a tree while we knocked a door. I then felt a sharp sting on my arm. I looked at my arm and there was a mark where some insect bit me. (I'm pretty sure it was a spider). It swelled up at first but nothing too out of the ordinary. But as the day went on the swelling didn't go down at all. It was swollen up pretty big by the evening and it was bugging me a lot. We went and talked to a doctor and he just told me to take some allergy pills. I did that, and I ignored it. Then next morning my whole arm was massively swollen, and was itching like crazy. I took some more allergy pills and the itching went away, but the swelling didn't go down. We went out to work, but my arm was bothering me a lot. We decided to go back to the doctor. She prescribed me some pills and an injection. We went across the street to a member's store and asked her if she could give me the shot. If the bathroom in the back of the store she gave me the shot in my butt. That was awkward and incredibly painful. As I left the bathroom, all the blood seemed to leave my head. They gave me a chair, and I blacked out. I couldn't see anything, and I felt like I needed to vomit. But I didn't. While this was happening there were a lot of people in the store. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me. They just kept saying he's so pale. (ps Mexicans don't go pale). I'm sure I was the whitest gringo they had ever seen. Well, eventually the swelling went down, but my butt hurt for a while.

Other than that not much else happened. We are teaching two cool families, and hopefully they will progress. On Saturday we found a cool lady to teach.

Also this week I read the whole Book of Mormon. As a district we decided to read it in one week. It helped me to understand the book on another level. By reading it quickly, I was able to see how fast the people were corrupted by their pride. Time after time they repented and then fell in the same dumb mistakes. I was able to see how quickly pride destroys nations.

Ok well that's all for this week.
Here's the number you can call on Sunday. 01-747-47-8-17-52. Is 4:00 PM ok? That's central time. So 3:00 Mountain Time.
Write me back if there are objections.

Love,
Elder Hansen

Spitting Bug 4/26/2010

Howdy,

Well, I'm sorry if my letters are getting boring, but there's not much new going on here. We're still having a little trouble finding investigators that actually progress. The cool family that we we're teaching is kind of dying on us. This week only the two youngest kids went to church and they left early. I don't know why it's so hard here in Zumpango. The thing is that a lot of people listen to us and want us to teach them, but when we talk about baptism they get scared because they can't let anyone find out that they don't want to be Catholic.

The other day we were walking around and I saw some weird bugs on a branch. I decided to take a picture of them, but I think it made them angry when the flash went off. One of them spit something on me. It was probably poison or something. It was really weird. But that was my most exciting story from this week.

I'm sorry that I have no news. I appreciate the letters. I liked the story from your stake conference. And I liked the story about Zac.

I'll send you some more pictures to make up for my lack of writing.

Zone Conf - Elder DeHoyos 4/19.2010

Hey

Well, this week we had a zone conference and a member of the first quorum of the 70 came, Elder De Hoyos. He gave a really good talk. His wife also gave a really good talk. His wife talked about how we need to focus all of our lessons on the atonement. She said that if our investigators really understand the atonement they will understand the need to be baptized. And if the members really understand the atonement none of them would go inactive. And if the missionaries really understand the atonement they would all obey the rules. It was really good talk. Elder De Hoyos talked about our purpose as missionaries, how we can be more focused, and how we can baptize more often. It was cool to be with a 70 in such a small group.

We started teaching a family that is pretty cool. All of the kids came to church this week. The mom didn't come because she was working, and the dad is pretty Catholic and I think he's a drunk. (Those two usually seem to go hand in hand.) But it seems like they liked church a lot. This week we had the church full again with over 40 people. But other than this one family we don't really have investigators. It's a little frustrating because this zone baptizes a lot, but I don't know what's up with zumpango. It's pretty much just us and the branch president running the show here.

Well, I don't have much else to say. Not much happened this week. I complete 15 months in 2 days. Sorry, I would write more, but this computer is completely retarded, and I can't write anything.

I got the package. Thanks mom. The ties are cool and the cds are great.
Well, take care.

Love,
Elder Hansen

Tough Going 4/12/2010

Hola,
I got your letters and the pictures Mom sent. Summer and Alli are really big now. That will be cool if you get a trampoline. I'll have to come try it out.
Well, it's pretty dang hot here in Zumpango. It's not as bad as the coast because there's no humidity, but still I'm pretty sure it's been in the 90s all week. Vacations are over so everyone here has gone back to normal. Last week was kind of rough for us. Our investigators are dying on us. Our only cool investigator is going to have an operation this week and is not going to be able to leave her house for a while. On Sunday I was feeling pretty sad because we didn't bring investigators to church and only about 25 people showed up to church. I felt like for the past 3 months I've been knocking doors and talking to people all day every day, but I still haven't found anyone. I kind of felt like giving up. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't just give up. In our weekly planning session we talked about what we need to do in order to have success. We realized that we are doing evgerything good, but we could do it better. We set a lot of goals for this week. If we do it, I know we're going to see results.

I also really liked that talk in conference that talked about adversity. I think it really applies to me right now. Sometimes I wonder why I've been put with difficult companions or in little pueblos in the middle of nowhere. I don't know why, but I just need to accept it and do the best with what I've got. There are many times that I could have given up in this area, but something keeps me going. Something keeps me waking up on time and keeps me working. I've seen a lot of missionaries that start out good but get put with a tough companion or in a tough area and just die. I think I've learned that life's tough sometimes but you just have to keep going and doing the right thing and have faith that everything will turn out well.

Sorry I don't have much news this week. Hopefully, I'll have more news next week.
Has anyone seen the Alice and Wonderland movie?

Love,
Elder Hansen

Easter 4/5/2010

Happy Easter,
So I kind of forgot it was Easter yesterday. They don't celebrate it here. They celebrate the death of Christ but not his resurrection. So the big party was on Friday. They took the giant cross out of the catholic church and carried it through the town, and everyone followed behind it. Then everyone met in the center of town. First all of the women came, and then the men came from another entrance. They were singing some creepy chant. It was weird. There had to have been like 10,000 people there it was nuts. I tried to take some pictures, but some lady got mad at us. We didn't stay for long because it kind of creeped me out. But there was no one in the street that day. At night everyone got together to get drunk. What a way to celebrate the atonement of Christ.
This week was kind of difficult because everyone was on vacation. We didn't get any investigators to church because no one was willing to go to Chilpancingo for the conference. I didn't get to see much of the conference. We didn't go on Saturday, and someone told us the wrong time of priesthood so we got there an hour late. I think I saw Nathan Harris singing with BYU choir. I hadn't seen him since he was 12. But from what I did see of the conference on Sunday and Saturday night, I liked it a lot. I liked how they focused on the resurrection instead of the death of Christ which is kind of the tradition in Mexico. It's sad how the people here really don't understand who God is. They don't believe you can actually pray to God and receive an answer. Or they think that we aren't worthy to talk to God, so they pray to the virgen or their santitos (saints?).
Dad asked if I have an exercise plan. I usually use my exercise time filling up my bucket and heating up the water. Sometimes I do pushups, but I figure that I'm not too concerned about losing weight. I think walking all day and diarhea a couple times a month keeps me pretty thin. If I want to lose weight I'll just go eat at Tacos de Cuernavaca again. (We had a bad experience there.)
Well, there's not much new here. No, I didn't know there was an earthquake. I'm pretty far from Mexicali. There were changes, but we didn't get changed. It will be my third change with my hijo. But it's cool, I think we'll have some baptisms this change.
Ok well, peace out.

Love,

Elder Hansen