Buenas tardes,
I'll start off telling how this week went. Well, on Sunday during our weekly planning session we discovered that we had zero progressing investigators. So we made a plan of how we were going to find new people to teach. The goal we put was to find and baptize a family before the end of the transfer. We talked about how we were going to find this family and the sacrifices we were going to make. We wrote down all of the sacrifices we were going to make, and how we were going to meet the goal. So the week started and we were finding tons of good people. We found two complete families that seemed like sure baptisms. By Friday we had found 18 new investigators, and we had a day full of appointments for Saturday. The day didn't have a great start because no one showed up to the English class. We proceeded to go to every appointment and one by one they started falling. A few weren't home and others simply told us that they didn't want us to visit them anymore. We got to our last appointment at 8:00, and they pretty much ran us out of their house. After that I was at an all time low. I started to wonder what I was doing here. While walking back home I started to pray in my mind, pleading a miracle, something to show me that all my work had not been in vane. Then we passed by two women talking. I overheard as we passed one of them say to the other, "I'm just looking for a church. I just want to find somewhere that can really help me understand the Bible." My companion and I stopped immediately and turned around to contact them. She gladly accepted an appointment. Do all that you can do and the Lord will do the rest. This is the Lord's work and He does not forget those who work in His vineyard.
I hope all is well back home. Dad don't break your hip again while rollerblading.
Love,
Elder Hansen
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
8/16/10 Getting the Members Involved
Hola,
All is well here in Cocoyoc. Well, last week I didin't tell you about my new companion so I thought I would this week. Elder Bautista is from Catapec, Estado de Mexico (the state of Mexico) just outside the federal district which is only like 2 hours away. He's 26 years old and has been a member for four years. Only half of his family are members. Because he's a lot older than everyone I think he has a tough time relating with the other missionaries. We get along pretty well. He's kind of nerdy, but he's a hard-worker.
This week didn't go too well. We've had a pretty tough time finding people to teach. But yesterday we planned really well what we're going to do. Yesterday we started a project with the two wards in our area. We put the goal for them to give away a box of Book of Mormons (36 copies) in the next month. The two wards are going to give away a box and my companion and I are going to give away another box. We gave the members two questions they can ask to any person in order to give away a Book of Mormon. 1. Do you like to read? 2. Would you be interested in reading a book that talks about Jesus Christ visiting the Americas? If the person says yes they give them a paper to write their address, and then we go and give them the book with the testimony of the member that gave the reference. I'll tell you how it goes. We really hope the members get excited to work.
Dad congrats on the long bike ride. Sorry, but I don't think I will ever accompany you on one of those rides.
Sorry I don't have anything else to write about. I don't have any pictures to send either because I left my camera charger in my other area. Hopefully they send it to me soon.
Take luck,
Elder Hansen
All is well here in Cocoyoc. Well, last week I didin't tell you about my new companion so I thought I would this week. Elder Bautista is from Catapec, Estado de Mexico (the state of Mexico) just outside the federal district which is only like 2 hours away. He's 26 years old and has been a member for four years. Only half of his family are members. Because he's a lot older than everyone I think he has a tough time relating with the other missionaries. We get along pretty well. He's kind of nerdy, but he's a hard-worker.
This week didn't go too well. We've had a pretty tough time finding people to teach. But yesterday we planned really well what we're going to do. Yesterday we started a project with the two wards in our area. We put the goal for them to give away a box of Book of Mormons (36 copies) in the next month. The two wards are going to give away a box and my companion and I are going to give away another box. We gave the members two questions they can ask to any person in order to give away a Book of Mormon. 1. Do you like to read? 2. Would you be interested in reading a book that talks about Jesus Christ visiting the Americas? If the person says yes they give them a paper to write their address, and then we go and give them the book with the testimony of the member that gave the reference. I'll tell you how it goes. We really hope the members get excited to work.
Dad congrats on the long bike ride. Sorry, but I don't think I will ever accompany you on one of those rides.
Sorry I don't have anything else to write about. I don't have any pictures to send either because I left my camera charger in my other area. Hopefully they send it to me soon.
Take luck,
Elder Hansen
where am I flyin Home?
mom,
hey you need to decide where i'm going when i come home, if i'm going to utah or wisconsin
because they're going to buy my ticket pretty soon, and i don't want them to send me to the wrong state.
write me back so i can tell the offices.
thanks
hey you need to decide where i'm going when i come home, if i'm going to utah or wisconsin
because they're going to buy my ticket pretty soon, and i don't want them to send me to the wrong state.
write me back so i can tell the offices.
thanks
8/9/10 New Comp & Guillermina's Baptism
Hola,
So today was the real day of transfers, and much to my surprise my companion was changed. So I now have a new companion, Elder Bautista. His name means Elder Baptist so I hope lives up to the name. Well, I don't really know the guy yet, so I can't tell you much. He just got here like a half hour ago. The last few months have been full of a lot of changes, but I think things are going to calm down now.
President has been making a lot of changes lately, and one of them is that the districts are all a lot bigger now. Our zone now only has two districts. My district got combined with another, so I'm no longer the district leader. It was a fun two weeks. I was a little disappointed because I really liked giving the district meetings, and last week I also did a few baptismal interviews which was a great experience. Oh well.
We had a baptism this week. It was a really special baptism because her son who was baptized 3 weeks ago got to baptize her. It took him 3 tries, but he did it. The hermana that was baptized, Guillermina, told us about how many years ago when she lived in Mexico City, she had an lds friend that was always trying to get her to go to church. But she always said no. This week she was able to call up her old friend, and tell her about how she was going to get baptized.
Other than the baptism the week was pretty rough. This area is very different than any other area I've had. There aren't many people that live here, but there are a ton of members. I think I could easily knock all of the doors in the area in a month or less. So we started to do so and had pretty much no success. I think this area has been knocked every 6 weeks for the last 20 years. I think we're going to try a different approach. Yesterday I read a book that my companion had called Already to Harvest. It talked a lot about how to set and reach goals, and it also talked a lot about the member's responsibility in missionary work. My companion and I are going to make a plan of how we are going to involve the members more in missionary work, so that they can be the means by which we find more investigators.
I don't have much else to say. All is well down here.
Love,
Elder Hansen
So today was the real day of transfers, and much to my surprise my companion was changed. So I now have a new companion, Elder Bautista. His name means Elder Baptist so I hope lives up to the name. Well, I don't really know the guy yet, so I can't tell you much. He just got here like a half hour ago. The last few months have been full of a lot of changes, but I think things are going to calm down now.
President has been making a lot of changes lately, and one of them is that the districts are all a lot bigger now. Our zone now only has two districts. My district got combined with another, so I'm no longer the district leader. It was a fun two weeks. I was a little disappointed because I really liked giving the district meetings, and last week I also did a few baptismal interviews which was a great experience. Oh well.
We had a baptism this week. It was a really special baptism because her son who was baptized 3 weeks ago got to baptize her. It took him 3 tries, but he did it. The hermana that was baptized, Guillermina, told us about how many years ago when she lived in Mexico City, she had an lds friend that was always trying to get her to go to church. But she always said no. This week she was able to call up her old friend, and tell her about how she was going to get baptized.
Other than the baptism the week was pretty rough. This area is very different than any other area I've had. There aren't many people that live here, but there are a ton of members. I think I could easily knock all of the doors in the area in a month or less. So we started to do so and had pretty much no success. I think this area has been knocked every 6 weeks for the last 20 years. I think we're going to try a different approach. Yesterday I read a book that my companion had called Already to Harvest. It talked a lot about how to set and reach goals, and it also talked a lot about the member's responsibility in missionary work. My companion and I are going to make a plan of how we are going to involve the members more in missionary work, so that they can be the means by which we find more investigators.
I don't have much else to say. All is well down here.
Love,
Elder Hansen
8/2/10 Transfer to Cuautla
Hola,
I've got big news. I got changed out of Acapulco. I am now in Cuautla, Morelos in the area of Cocoyoc. I am also a district leader. It was a pretty unexpected change. What happened was a group of like 10 new missionaries came from the US, and because their visas were delayed they came a month late. So they had to move around a bunch of missionaries, and because I didn't have a comp I was first on the list. I was a little bummed because I had just got to my last area, and I was just starting to have success. But I am very glad to get out of the terrible heat of Acapulco. My new companion is Elder Funk. He's pretty new in the mission, and still doesn't really know any Spanish. He's from American Fork, Utah.
My new area is pretty cool. Right now we are covering two wards, so our area is really big. The wards are also pretty big. The weather is amazing. It usually doesn't get too hot during the day, and at night it cools down really nice. The area covers a lot of towns and colonias on the outskirts of Cuautla. The area has some of the richest and poorest people I have ever seen in my time in Mexico. The other day we went looking for a reference, and we ended up in this super rich neighborhood. All of the houses were massive. We finally found the reference, and the house was incredible. But the people we were looking for just worked in the house. But then the next day we went looking for some other reference and ended up in this little colonia with houses made of sticks and cardboard. It was a pretty drastic change. I'm excited to be here. I think we can have a lot of success. We have a baptism for this Saturday.
I saw the pictures you sent. I especially liked the float o graphs pics. That's cool that Mom is the new RS president. It looks like there's a reason why you had to move to Wisconsin.
Well, that's all my news for this week. Bye
Love,
Elder Hansen
I've got big news. I got changed out of Acapulco. I am now in Cuautla, Morelos in the area of Cocoyoc. I am also a district leader. It was a pretty unexpected change. What happened was a group of like 10 new missionaries came from the US, and because their visas were delayed they came a month late. So they had to move around a bunch of missionaries, and because I didn't have a comp I was first on the list. I was a little bummed because I had just got to my last area, and I was just starting to have success. But I am very glad to get out of the terrible heat of Acapulco. My new companion is Elder Funk. He's pretty new in the mission, and still doesn't really know any Spanish. He's from American Fork, Utah.
My new area is pretty cool. Right now we are covering two wards, so our area is really big. The wards are also pretty big. The weather is amazing. It usually doesn't get too hot during the day, and at night it cools down really nice. The area covers a lot of towns and colonias on the outskirts of Cuautla. The area has some of the richest and poorest people I have ever seen in my time in Mexico. The other day we went looking for a reference, and we ended up in this super rich neighborhood. All of the houses were massive. We finally found the reference, and the house was incredible. But the people we were looking for just worked in the house. But then the next day we went looking for some other reference and ended up in this little colonia with houses made of sticks and cardboard. It was a pretty drastic change. I'm excited to be here. I think we can have a lot of success. We have a baptism for this Saturday.
I saw the pictures you sent. I especially liked the float o graphs pics. That's cool that Mom is the new RS president. It looks like there's a reason why you had to move to Wisconsin.
Well, that's all my news for this week. Bye
Love,
Elder Hansen
7/26/10 Member Companion From California
Hola,
It seems like everyone had a fun trip. I didn't know you were planning on going to jackson. It sounds like you had a great time. I need you to forward me some of those pictures.
This week went really well. I had a good time with my companion for the week. He is from Anaheim and just moved to Mexico like three weeks ago, so he is more American than Mexican. It was funny because he didn't know any of the words in Spanish because he had never been to a Spanish ward before. We worked hard and ended up finding sixteen new investigators, and we had three investigators in church on Sunday. Two of them have baptismal dates.
I kind of like not having a real companion because that means that I can work however I want. The bad thing is that I have to teach almost the whole lesson every time. By the end of the day my voice is pretty much gone.
This week we had interviews with President Spannaus. We started started talking, and he asked me if I had any questions for him. I told him that I was feeling a little frustrated. I told him that I felt frustrated because I feel like I am working hard and being obedient, but I can never complete my goals. It seems like everyone else is baptizing, but I can't. He then asked me how many baptisms I had had. I went through my mind and counted them and told him. He told me that in every mission there is an Elder Hansen. There are missionaries that work and are obedient but don't see the fruits of their labors. He then told me a story. He told me about how about 60 years ago a pair of missionaries in the Patagonia of Argentina found and taught a large family. They spent a lot of time with this family, but despite of their efforts none of them were baptized. One of the daughters, Iris, believed the message and desired to be bapitzed, but her parents wouldn't allow it. Fifteen years later after she was married she was baptized in the church. As a result, four of their five children were also baptized. Each of them later served missions, are now married in the temple, and now have children serving missions. Iris was the mother of President Spannaus. While President was attending BYU, his mother told him to look up one of those missionaries who was now a professor at BYU. They met and President was able to thank him for teaching that family many years ago. President told me that many times we don't see the fruits of our labors, but if we are trying our best and living worthily the Lord will use us asn instrument in His hands. He told me to consult this matter with God, and make sure that He was pleased with me. If He is pleased with me, then I can be sure that I am having the results that I am meant to have.
Placentero nos es trabajar en la viña del gran rey Jesus.
Take care.
Love,
Elder Hansen
PS I got your fourth of july package. Thanks Mom.
It seems like everyone had a fun trip. I didn't know you were planning on going to jackson. It sounds like you had a great time. I need you to forward me some of those pictures.
This week went really well. I had a good time with my companion for the week. He is from Anaheim and just moved to Mexico like three weeks ago, so he is more American than Mexican. It was funny because he didn't know any of the words in Spanish because he had never been to a Spanish ward before. We worked hard and ended up finding sixteen new investigators, and we had three investigators in church on Sunday. Two of them have baptismal dates.
I kind of like not having a real companion because that means that I can work however I want. The bad thing is that I have to teach almost the whole lesson every time. By the end of the day my voice is pretty much gone.
This week we had interviews with President Spannaus. We started started talking, and he asked me if I had any questions for him. I told him that I was feeling a little frustrated. I told him that I felt frustrated because I feel like I am working hard and being obedient, but I can never complete my goals. It seems like everyone else is baptizing, but I can't. He then asked me how many baptisms I had had. I went through my mind and counted them and told him. He told me that in every mission there is an Elder Hansen. There are missionaries that work and are obedient but don't see the fruits of their labors. He then told me a story. He told me about how about 60 years ago a pair of missionaries in the Patagonia of Argentina found and taught a large family. They spent a lot of time with this family, but despite of their efforts none of them were baptized. One of the daughters, Iris, believed the message and desired to be bapitzed, but her parents wouldn't allow it. Fifteen years later after she was married she was baptized in the church. As a result, four of their five children were also baptized. Each of them later served missions, are now married in the temple, and now have children serving missions. Iris was the mother of President Spannaus. While President was attending BYU, his mother told him to look up one of those missionaries who was now a professor at BYU. They met and President was able to thank him for teaching that family many years ago. President told me that many times we don't see the fruits of our labors, but if we are trying our best and living worthily the Lord will use us asn instrument in His hands. He told me to consult this matter with God, and make sure that He was pleased with me. If He is pleased with me, then I can be sure that I am having the results that I am meant to have.
Placentero nos es trabajar en la viña del gran rey Jesus.
Take care.
Love,
Elder Hansen
PS I got your fourth of july package. Thanks Mom.
July 19, 2010 Flooding and Companion Change
Hola,
This week was pretty interesting. I was with my recent convert companion. He didn't know much, so I mostly did all of the talking. But it wan't too bad. He had a good attitude. One day we got rained on super hard. It had only been raining for like 20 minutes and already the whole town was flooded. It was pretty crazy. We ended up taking cover in the church and waiting for it to die down.
Well, I have news. My companion had special changes, so I will be with a different local companion every week until transfers. It's going to be a little difficult, but I am pretty relieved to be done with the problems that were happening with my other comp. My companion this week is pretty cool. He's from Anaheim, California and is here in Mexico visiting his family for a while. He's a pretty recent convert too.
The work here has been a little slow. This is probably because of all of the changes of companions and because I got sick last week. We do have a few investigators, but I don't know what it is about this place but everyone always promises they will go to church and then they never show up. We have this great investigator that really wants to change his life. He has accepted eveything. He had a baptismal date and always tells us how we were sent to him from God, but he hasn't come to church yet. It's pretty frustrating.
I'm sad I missed the family reunion again. It might be a while before I see all of them again. Tell everyone I said hi. I have a question. What's bum charades?
I think that's all for this week. Have fun on your vacations everyone.
Love,
Elder Hansen
This week was pretty interesting. I was with my recent convert companion. He didn't know much, so I mostly did all of the talking. But it wan't too bad. He had a good attitude. One day we got rained on super hard. It had only been raining for like 20 minutes and already the whole town was flooded. It was pretty crazy. We ended up taking cover in the church and waiting for it to die down.
Well, I have news. My companion had special changes, so I will be with a different local companion every week until transfers. It's going to be a little difficult, but I am pretty relieved to be done with the problems that were happening with my other comp. My companion this week is pretty cool. He's from Anaheim, California and is here in Mexico visiting his family for a while. He's a pretty recent convert too.
The work here has been a little slow. This is probably because of all of the changes of companions and because I got sick last week. We do have a few investigators, but I don't know what it is about this place but everyone always promises they will go to church and then they never show up. We have this great investigator that really wants to change his life. He has accepted eveything. He had a baptismal date and always tells us how we were sent to him from God, but he hasn't come to church yet. It's pretty frustrating.
I'm sad I missed the family reunion again. It might be a while before I see all of them again. Tell everyone I said hi. I have a question. What's bum charades?
I think that's all for this week. Have fun on your vacations everyone.
Love,
Elder Hansen
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