Week 29 - French Toast, Omelettes, and Meet the Mormons

Hey Team!

Well mom you're gonna be super proud of me. I'm changing completely and actually cooking! At first I did it as a joke, like oh I'll make mom happy and cook some pancakes from a bag. But last week I got a little tired of those, so I relapsed and bought some cereal. But one day I was passing by the eggs and I looked up and saw the bread and I thought I could try some french toast. So I bought eggs, milk, and cinnamon and made some of the best french toast I have ever eaten (not as good as yours mom, but it's been a long time). 

Then a few days ago I was going to make some eggs, but I had turned it up a little to hot so when it hit the pan, it fried super fast on the bottom. I then got the idea that has changed breakfast forever. I let it fry a little longer and then gently turned it over and made my first omelette. Thank you thank you ladies and gentlemen, I am officially a cook. No but it was actually one of the biggest surprises and it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself haha.

But other than the best breakfast I've had, this week was really good. On Monday we had a great P-day. it was super hot, so we just stayed inside, but it was worth it. 

Tuesday we had a super good day and did a whole lot of stuff.

Wednesday we had interviews with President which was by far the greatest interview I've ever had. I had gone into it with a lot of questions, but by the end he had answered every single one without me having to ask. It was such a powerful testimony to me of the role he plays for me. I'm gonna miss him. After that we had one of the greatest days we've ever had. I felt so inspired to just get out there and take on everything.

Thursday we got to go watch Meet the Mormoms. Elder Ferrin and I got super pumped up when the football part came on. Felt the Spirit super strong haha. After that it we took a bus up to one of my favorite parts of our area. It's a lot higher up so it's a lot cooler and has an amazing view. There's a special feeling up there and the people are a lot more receptive. We've been seriously thinking about moving up there haha. We were walking towards the bus stop on a empty road, with the lights of Siquirres shining down below us and I couldn't help but feel how grateful I was to be there and doing what I'm doing.

Friday we had a pretty normal day, but it was fun, I remember that.

Saturday was just about the same, not too much happened, but a family of Elder Farnsworth and Elder Lopez got baptized and that was super special. They had challenges the whole way and to finally see them get baptized was amazing.

Sunday it rained harder than ever before, which really hurt the church attendance. It rained all day and a bunch of streets flooded which was something I've always wanted to see haha. Goal Achieved. But my boots chose that day to start letting water in and I was walking around in puddles the rest of the day, but it was fun to just stop around in the rain and watch water shoot out of my shoes haha. That night we had a baptismal interview with a family of Elder Ferrin and Elder Macias and it was one of the best interviews I've had. The dad is the most humble man I've ever met. He doesn't understand everything perfectly, but he knows that the church is true. He said he just feels so special when the missionaries come or when he goes to church or listens to his wife read him the Book of Mormon. I could feel the spirit so strong with him, it was just amazing.

Well family, that's about it. Hope you're all doing great and have an awesome week. Love you!

Elder Hansen

PS Some shots of our apartment:

Week 28 - Bunk beds and a cold spree

Hey Fam! 

Well sorry I don't have a whole lot of time today, had to download some conference talks and that took a lot longer than I was hoping, but super pumped to listen to them haha.

This week was pretty normal....again haha I mean obviously it wasn't normal because I'm a missionary and this is the greatest work I've ever done, but for a missionary, it was pretty normal. 

We had a little bit of a cold spree these past few days, which was so so so nice. To make it most of the day without just sweating through my shirt was a blessing haha. One day, it was super windy and Elder Hernandez's umbrella flipped inside out. Classic. haha something I've always wanted to see. Had to be super careful with mine for the rest of the day though. That same day (which day was it?) after about 10 minutes of waiting, I was getting super bored and a little frustrated, but just then we heard someone yelling for us. I turned around and saw someone pulled over and waving at us. When we got closer we saw it was a gringo family, and the driver introduced himself. He had served here about 4 years ago and was back with his family to visit some friends and see his old areas. We talked for a while and then they took off, but it was a really good boost for us. I felt super excited and ready to go take on the world, which is just what we needed.

Well sorry this is so short but hope you enjoy the pictures! We got tired of normal beds so we made some sweet bunk beds. There's so much room for activities!

Love you family! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hansen 

Week 27 - Skype on Mother's Day

Hey Fam!

Man, two days in a row, you guys are gonna get sick of talking to me haha. But hey here I am again. Finally get to have a normal P-day so we're making the most of it. I can honestly count on one hand the number of normal p-days I've had in my mission haha there's just always something we gotta do. But it's a pretty nice day so hopefully we'll get some time to get out and do some adventuring. 

So once again I get to this point where I have to try and remember everything that has happened this week and I've got a whole lot of nothing coming to me. But here goes.

Monday we got back from San Jose super late like I told you last week and nothing too exciting happened that day.

Tuesday I went on divisions with Elder Lopez in their area. It's always interesting to go out to their area because it's literally where all the crazy stuff happens. In all my time here, all the crazy stories have come from their area, which makes it really fun to do divisions out there...... haha but I gotta do what I gotta do. 

Wednesday was more divisions. Learned a lot, had a lot of fun, was really happy to get back to my own bed though haha

Thursday was a really good day. One of the members stuck with us all day to go out and work and that helped us so much. We found a ton of new investigators and just had a solid day. We went up to one of the highest parts of our area and got slammed by the biggest rainstorm, but saw some amazing lightning.

Friday. [Guess nothing happened on Friday?]

Saturday was good, got to visit Carlos and Lijia again and it's always so good to see them. They always give us food and they're just the funniest and nicest people.

Sunday was awesome. Got to see all your beautiful faces and we set some pretty high goals that day and hit almost all of them which was really good. 

Well almost out of time, but I love you guys, have an awesome week!

Elder Hansen

Week 26 - A trip to the office

Hey fam!

So sorry this is so late, we got a call on Sunday night we had to be in the offices early Monday morning and we got back a little later than we thought, but here we are haha. Elder Hernandez had to head out to the embassy with a few other missionaries so I got to hang out with Elder Nielsen all day which was super fun. I miss that kid haha it was so nice to just talk and try my best to help him manage all the crises that happen every 5 seconds in the office. I honestly don't know how they do it.

With Elder Nielsen

I don't know how many times I've said this but I really can't believe another week has gone by. But it was a really good week this week. Our new zone leader, Elder Macias, is super pumped to be here and he's giving us that little boost that we needed to get better. It's been a little more pressure on me because there's a lot more I need to be doing as district leader, but it'll be good for me I know. 

It was really just a pretty normal week. I can't remember too much of what happened except for one thing that really struck me. On Thursday, we went back to another part of our area, where we haven't had much success, to contact some of the new investigators we had found the week before. We passed by one of the houses from the week before and they weren't there so we kept walking down the street to see if we could find someone else. It was a pretty lonely street, but for some reason we kept walking and I remember feeling that we were about to find someone big. After about five minutes of passing houses that were all closed, we were about to turn around, but I decided to just contact the last house before the road curved off. After we called, a man came out and told us to come up, before we had even introduced ourselves. When we got into his house, he introduced himself and his mom and asked us to sit down and teach us. We started our normal routine of explaining that God loves us and wants the best for us, which is why he called prophets to teach His gospel. They got really excited about that and understood perfectly everything we taught. We were about to finish up the lesson, but I felt the prompting to share a Book of Mormon with them. They received it so well and promised to read it, saying that it was a gift from God and was their new treasure. By the time we left they had committed to be baptized and come to church and the mom was hugging the Book of Mormon. Those moments are the most rewarding things about being a missionary, seeing the change the gospel makes in the lives of so many people.

Also, we've been getting relly into the EFY music. It's actually pretty good stuff!...... ok I just miss real music haha but there's this one called We Are One, that had become our pump up song haha

Well that's about all I got for ya guys haha sorry. Hope you had a great week and can't wait to talk to you!

Elder Hansen