Week 99 - A normal week...

Hey everyone!

So I'm out of time so this will be really short.

I'm great. Life's going great! This week was pretty normal, the most normal we've had in a long time so it's even harder to remember what happened so I'll just keep it short. I love you all a ton! You're all the greatest, thanks for all the support and the prayers, it really makes a difference. Have a great week!

Elder Hansen

Enjoy this picture of us with one of the recent converts from the ward -- he's awesome

Week 98 - Golfito, Independence Day, and Fun at the Border

Hey guys!

Well another great week out here. It was another crazy week, but really fun so it's all good. Last week was changes so we got to go to the airport and the temple with them which is always fun. It's always fun to see new missionaries because they're all so different. Some are excited, some are scared, some are just confused, but they all have so much faith and it's such a great example to us. 

New missionaries from the Provo MTC

The rest of the new missionaries

Wednesday we took off for the Zona Sur, the zone farthest away from San Jose, which meant a seven-hour bus ride. It's funny though because I was talking to Elder Vasquez a few days before about how I had always wanted to take the bus down there and sure enough the next week President sent us down so I finally could check that off my ever growing bucket list haha and let me tell you it was awesome. I mean it was kinda boring at times, but it helped me catch up on all the sleep I had lost. That night we stayed with the zone leaders, who are Elder Garay and Maldonado, two of my companions so it was fun to get to see them again.

Thursday we took off for Golfito, a coastal town waaayyy down south that I had always heard about. It was awesome. Honestly one of the coolest parts of the country that I've seen. It was the Costa Rican independence day, too, so there were celebrations all over and people were giving us food left and right. I've never been so full in my life, but it was awesome.

"Golfito"

"Iguana"

Friday, Elder Maldonado took me to the border with Panama so I got get my passport stamped and be able to drive legally here. I had heard it was pretty simple so I went in without too much stress. I got stamped out pretty easily from Costa Rica, but then when I got to the Panama side, they didn't want to let me in because I didn't have a plane ticket to get out from Panama when my visa expired. So I was stuck with a stamp out of Costa Rica, but without a stamp into Panama..... and you can imagine how I was feeling in that moment. I started playing it out in my head and got to the point where I would have to spend the rest of my life on the border haha. So we went back to the Costa Rican side to see if there was anything they could do for us and they said we could get the stamp rejected from the Panama side and problem solved. When we got back over there, there was another guy at the window and he asked me why I needed to go to Panama anyway and I told him I just needed to get stamped out and then back in to Costa Rica to be able to drive. He looked at me, talked to the guy behind him, looked at my passport, looked at me again, talked again to the guy behind him, then miraculously stamped my passport and told me to go get stamped out. I couldn't believe it, but before he changed his mind I went to the other window and got stamped out and almost ran back over to the Costa Rican side and got stamped back in haha it was crazy but I felt so relieved. I'll never forget that guy that felt mercy for me and gave me that stamp. So to celebrate, we went to Burger King.

Then Saturday we took the bus back to Tres Rios at 4 am and got back home at about 11:30, just in time for lunch. Later that night, we got a reference from Salt Lake of a cousin of some temple missionaries who lived in our area. We talked to her and she said we could stop by at about 7:30. We made it over there, but the house was dark so we decided to wait a little to see if she got home soon. After a few minutes, we called her and no one answered. We kept calling, but nothing. After about 20 minutes we decided to just leave a pamphlet in the door and hope for the best. 

The next day, we were getting ready for church when the elders from San Diego called us about some woman who had showed up with her 3 kids looking for us. We ran over to the church and sure enough, it was her! Apparently her phone had died and she had gotten stuck in traffic, but she decided to come to church anyway. And she loved it. It was so awesome, she got super into Gospel Principles, answering almost all the questions. After church, we went to go visit her, this time when she was actually there and got to meet her husband too. They both seem super interested so we'll see what happens! Miracles!

But that's about it fam! Love you all a ton! Have a great week!

Elder Hansen

Week 97 - Staying in Tres Rios

"Elder Barrios who's taking off this change"

Hey everyone!!

Well, changes were this week and.............................I'M STAYING IN TRES RIOS!!! I really thought I was going to have changes but I'll be staying here in Tres Rios with Elder Vasquez. It's been so much fun with him so I couldn't be happier to be staying with him my last change. It was a pretty crazy week, filled with too many road trips and too little sleep so I'm almost falling asleep writing today haha but it's been amazing to see the Lord's hand in our daily life, helping us with small miracles every day. I love this work so much and its been an incredible last few weeks and I'm just hoping it will continue that way.

I can't remember too much from what happened on Tuesday or Wednesday, but Thursday we got a text from president asking us to go pick up some missionaries from an area that was going to close down this change. We left at about 1 and didn't get back to Tres Rios until about 8 so it was kinda a crazy trip but it was to an area that I'd never been to before so it was a fun trip. 

Then on Friday we had leadership council and it went really well. There were a bunch of changes this change so it was a pretty long meeting but it was fun.

"Leadership Council - missing like all of the sisters"

On Saturday we headed down to Los Santos again for a wedding and a baptism! Miracles! It was a challenge to get the abogado out there, but in the end it all worked out great and we had a great turn out so it was really fun! 

Then Sunday Elder Vasquez went to Los Santos for church and I stayed in Tres Rios with Elder Greene, who was pretty sad because he had changes and was super bummed. I was really sad that he had changes, I've spent a lot of my mission with him and I was hoping to see him until the end, but the Lord needs him somewhere else so he'll do great!

Also President was out of town this weekend, so you all know what that means!!! Late night trip to the hospital!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Sure enough, Sunday night an elder who had changes was coming up on the bus and got really sick so we headed to the hospital at about 9 and got back to Tres Rios at 3 in the morning haha and then had to get up at 6:00 to start helping with the changes. We had to pick up and drop off some elders and then take the new elders that are going to open up Los Santos down there, SO its been a long day, but I feel like we've got so much done so I couldn't be happier.

But I'm out of time! I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!!

Elder Hansen

"The baptism!"

Week 96 - Volcano, pizza and a baptism

Hey fam!!

Well another fast week. I really can't believe how fast time is passing. I'm really hoping I can find a way to slow time down so if anyone has a suggestion just let me know please. But this week was really a good one, kinda crazy busy, but those are always the best ones.

Tuesday we were in Los Santos preparing an investigator for her baptism on Saturday and then we went with a member family for dinner and they gave us some super good sandwiches with real American ingredients because they lived in the states for like 30 years and it was awesome.

Wednesday don't really remember what happened, but it was great.

Thursday we headed back down to Los Santos for a baptismal interview and then after we cleaned up the baptismal font which is like just a small plastic pool, which turned out to be harder, but a lot more fun, than we thought (see picture). We basically just flipped it on its side and then slowly rotated it until we had cleaned it all.

Then Friday we were back in Tres Rios and we had some investigators come to the church to play soccer and it turned out being really good. The members and investigators bonded super well so we'll see how that turns out for us.

Saturday, back to Los Santos for the baptism! I was a little nervous to see how many people showed up because the branch is pretty small as it is, but we actually did get a pretty good turn out and the service went a lot better than I thought haha they had accidentally filled the font to the brim so when they got in and then actually baptized the person, a ton of water came splashing out, but it looked super cool haha.

Then after, that member family from the states invited us to pizza. It was awesome haha I've never eaten so much pizza. The owner makes his pizzas in a wood fired oven and it was amazing. 

Then Sunday, Elder Vasquez took one of the elders in the neighboring ward, San Diego, and took of for Los Santos for the confirmation and I stayed in Tres Rios with Elder Greene for both the wards. Marathon church day haha then it was a pretty normal day after that.

Then today we had a zone activity! We went to a volcano about half an hour away from our area which was supposedly super cool. I'm assuming it was because we couldn't see anything through the clouds haha and it was freezing cold, raining, and the wind was blowing super hard, so we were all frozen in about 15 minutes haha it was miserable, but also really fun haha you can see how much I'm enjoying it in the pictures.

Also I got to play with one of these weird animals up there haha it was cool.

But I love you all a ton! Hope you're all doing great out there! Talk to you next week!

Elder Hansen