thankful for thanksgiving.

hey que pasó,

no, hey family how is everything going, sounds like for the most part it´s good.  More than anything, i went to a baby shower because i became a father.  In mission terms it´s training.  So my son is from heber city utah, and i went to xela on tuesday to pick him up.  He was the only white person that came in, at least in the elders, brand new, so i´m the only gringo training a gringo.  So that´s pretty hard, but everything is better than i thought it would be.  I feel like i can understand a lot more things now, and my spanish already has improved in this week.  Therés still alot of stuff that i need to work on in the language, there´s so much that´s involved, but i´m working hard on that.  But i was nervous at first just to talk to people and everything, but now it´s good.  But i hopw that everything goes well with that. 

  But like i said we ate with this owner of a restaurant and his wife is from the states and doesn´t really speak spanish.  But almost all the elders from the 2 zones went and ate, so at least 30 or 34 of us went.  It was so good, seriously, we had everything and more.  There was stuffing, sweet potatoes witht he cooked marshmallows on top, potatoes, etc.  pumpkin pie with eggnog, and i ate till i couldn´t anymore.  So we had a similar experience i feel like.  But i´ll have to send some pictures the next week.  I´ll have to watch for aunt jody i guess, haha, that´s cool that she and kathy are coming down.  ya, just let me know about richard.  oh also, my companion met jeffrey gomez in the mtc, so that´s pretty cool, i´ll have to look at the pictures that he has of him. And also, you can look on the ccm website and see my companion if you want, his name is Elder Besendorfer.  nobody here can say it pretty much, but he´s a good kid and he likes to work hard, so that´s good.  my driver´s license doesn´t expire until 2012 so don´t worry, but i think you can renew it now if you want, but it´s no big deal, because lonly the secretaries have one car.  So there are 2 cars in the mission, on e of the presiden´t and the other just for one pair of secretaries so the chance to drive for me is like 1 percent pretty much or less.

   BTw, Eluvia said that she and julio would get married by the next weekend, so that´s good and exciting, and then after that we´re hoping that she makes the choice to get baptized.  last night we taught her with this member that´s like 23 and it was a great lesson.  I learned so much from him helping us teach, and he helped bring the spirit alot in the lesson. 
the package hasn´t come yet, but don´t worry, and i´m doing good with everything, so don´t worry bout sending me stuff, everything´s good.  i´ll have to take a picture of our tree, also.  it´s pretty cold today, i would say like 55 degress or something, and can you send me the math equation on how to change farenheit to celsius, it´s bothering that i don´t know how cold it is here.  But that´s awesome that jared´s doing good with basketball, i hope everything goes well with him this weekend.

     yesterday i spoke in church.  i was a little bit nervous at first, but during it i wasn´t nervous at all.  it went good, i spoke about the book of mormon and just that it´s necessary that we have it so we can recognize what church is true.  i´m sure it wasn´t that great in spansih haha, but i thought it went well.  and just when i think that I know what i´m doing, something happens where I realize i need to learn a ton still, so i´m just doing my best, and it´s hard, but I know it´s always worth it.  Tell alysha good luck with the nutcracker, she´ll do great when the time comes.  Thanks for everything family, and i´l send some pictures the next week.  I love you all and thanks for your support and for your love.

    Love,

Elder Hansen

Thanksgiving just around the corner

Family,

how is everything going.  Que Calidad that Grandpa went to El Mirador.  That´s awesome. that´s great.  Ya, they should have come on over to xela to go through the temple.  It´s pretty cool.  You got the pictures right?  But when my camera gets full here in a few months i´ll put all my pictures on a cd or 2 and mail them up to you, that way you can have all of them.  But anyway, everything´s going good here.  But6 ya, i´ll try and send a message to that email tha tyou gave me.  Thlat´s awesome that Jared made the team, I knew he would, he´s going to have fun.  Just tell him to not stress too much, but enjoy it.  Who are the coaches this year?  But when is the nutcracker, you´ll havfe to ltake pictures and everything of course for me.  I didn´t get your package yet, but don´t worry.  There´s this guy named Enriques that used to live in the states, and he pretty much speaks fluent english.  Anyway, he owns a restaurant that all the missionaries in the 2 zones go to every p day. We only went twice just because we eat with members, but it´s pretty good food.  But anyway, he´s having a huge lunch for thanksgiving today at his house, only for the missionaries.  So that´s awesome, it´s going to be just like a dinner in the US, because he knows all about it and I think he´s rich, at least for here, so that will be good.  I´ll have to take some pictures.  But i´m sending some pictures today. 

This weekend was the stake conference, and the  broadcast from salt lake for all of Guatemala and parts of belize.  It was awesome.  Elder Holland spoke, and he gave his testimony in spanish!  haha, it was awesome though and really powerful.  But at the beginning he started off in spanish also, but his pronunciation was bad, ha, but it was understandable.  He was all, sería mas facíl si yo empezzzzo hablar en ingles, and everything, but it was good.  Also Elder Clarke spoke about pride and spending money wisely, mary cook spoke about the book of mormon and how we should study it, and then Elder uchtdorf spoke about tithing and about how we should study always, and that temples minimize the power of satan on earth, so that was awesome.

   But this week we did quite a bit of service, splitting wood, so i sent a picture of that.  The wife of rogelio is looking more positive, i hope in this change she can receive personal revelation.  Rogelio probably will become an apostle.  He is really a strong person, and hows one of the strongest testimonies that I have seen.  But he went to the temple, and wanted to know everything about it, how to get there, what to do, and everything to go.  so we explained some stuff, but it was awesome.  anyway, we have some really awesome lessons with his family.  the president of the mission sent him some brand new scriptures, so he was excited about that.  But there´s this other guy named Alan and his brother Erik who we taught last night.  theyr pretty positive, and Alan told us that he thinks the church is true, so i told them that somebody from his family will probably try and have him doubt, i hope not, but we´ll see how that goes.  anyway family, this week was good.  Is richard still planning on coming to the dedication?  ¨The place where the celebration is going to be is actually pretty small, because this other place wanted like 120,000 quetz to rent it for the celebration so that parts not going to be that big, but we´ll be able to watch it all and everything.  But anyway, we have changes tomorrow and Elder Rodriguez is leaving.  Idk where he´s going yet, but i´m staying here and i went to a baby shower with a couple of other missionaries this last friday, so ask mark or brian what that means in mission terms.  anyway, i hope that you all have a good week, and hope that you get my pictures.  Have a good thanksgiving and tell everyone hi for me.  But I thought jeffrey spoke spanish already? hhaa, why did he go to both mtc's?  but anyway he´s awesome.  And no the missionaries don´t work at the temple or anything, only the sisters from here and the retaluleu mission, but we were guides for the video part and everythign but only for one time.  So no, we didn´t work there, but anyway, have a good week and I love you all, i´ll let you know how this week goes and who my other companion is. 

Love,

Elder Hansen

Temple open house

Another week in the mission!

Hey family,

how is everything going back home, sounds pretty good, yet pretty sad at the same time.  I can´t believe that derek walker died.  That´s probably on eof the biggest shocks ever, and really random as well.  We were pretty good friends in elementary and middle school and everything.  After they moved we just kind of kept in touch with facebook and everything, but every time we saw each other we always talked and everything because we were friends.  But i can´t believe that, but what a tragedy, seriously.  I think that he´s been out for about a year in last september.  But wow, if you talk to their family, tell them that i feel really bad and am sorry.  They are really good people, seriously, and I always enjoyed talking to them and everything. 

    Hey, did jared have tryouts for basketball and if so how did those go?  and hope that all the practices with alysha are going well. This week we did go to the temple open house.  I´m trying to send some pictures but it´s not working too good right now. It was good though.  Ít´s kind of small, but it´s really nice inside.  There are alot of mayan symobls and everything and it reminded me alot of the twin falls temple actually.  But the baptismal font is right in front of the door.  We had some investigators go, including eluvia, and they liked it alot.  Idk about Eluvia, i think she´s progressing pretty good, it´s just hard to teach a good lesson with her.  But she´s pretty much married, they just need to have a ceremony, haha.  We found some other investigators too, but they´re not seeming too positive right now. 

     That´s cool about that guy that joined the church in the acequia 2nd ward.  If people read the book of mormon, usually they get baptized here.  But if they read it with real intent and everything, they´ll for sure get baptized, it´s just alot of people don´t know what they can find in it, and why it´s important.  I love explaining what the book of mormon is, and we explained to Eluvia that the profets who wrote it and stuff are her ancestors.  But she speaks mum too, haha, so that´s pretty cool.  We haven´t heard her speak it , but she teaches it.  It´s cool that people here just know other languages.  Rogelio knows like 3 languages, and then Alrio knows 5.  But he acdtually moved to Barillas supposedly and we haven´t heard from him for 2 months.  Anyway, the language is coming little by little.  Any extra time i have, i just read in the ensigns or in teachings of the prophets in spanjish, and i think that has helped.  But it´s still hard to express myself.  For the most part i understand everything.  Sometimes it gets confusing like who talked to who, or what happened with what, but it´s alright.  I´m getting alot of different vocab for my companion because he always tells stories.  his dad´s a butcher, and so it´s hard to understand when he talks about how to cut the meat and everything off a cow, and random stuff like that.  But anyway, i think that those pictures sent, and i hope that all of you have a good week.  Don´t worry mom, i´m always cautious and my companion is great to have because he knows all about what is safe and stuff like that.  So don´t worry, and everything is good here.  I know things like that can make you wonder what could happen, but this mission is pretty safe, and so it´s good.  But anyway, i love you all, and thanks for everything.  i don´t need any other addresses or anything like that.   

Love,

Elder Hansen

BTw, last p day i learned how to make kites, so we made some and i didn´t even get to fly mine, cause it got stuck in a tree, m`y compaion´s fault, ahha, but it was cool anywya.  <It was so windy, and it was on top of our house where we flew them.  Anway, love you all.  BTw, that would be a great date idea for jared or someone in the future, haha. 

    

pics

Love you, and give my greetings to everyone.

Hey family,

sounds like everything is going good at home.  Happy anniversary mom and dad on Friday?  I hope that everything goes all with that.  it will be 11-11-11 so that´s awesome.  I wish i could buy you a gift or something, but that´s alright, i´m sure that the rest of the children can manage.  Bowen makes me laugh, haha, i can just imagine him doing all that, so that´s good.  The work this week was pretty slow it seemed like.  I don´t know why, it´s just like that sometimes, but i hope this week will go better.  In our district i think there´s like 10 all elders, and in the zone there´s about 22 or so, with 4 sisters in the other district.  IN the mission i think there´s about 200.  The mission president´s good, he´s awesome, and before i came to the field i thought he would act all strict and be uptight, or perfectionist or whatever, but he is really cool.  He understands everything and he knows what the mission´s all about, so i´m excited to see how the mission changes in the next couple months.  President Lewis Bautista is his name, i forgot his wife´s name, but i think they´re from minnessotta, and he served in uruguay on his mission back in the day, he´s 63. 

   The weather here right now is like fall pretty much.  But it´s weird cause it does get pretty cold in the late night and more cold in the morning, but in the day it´s actually hotter than before.  I like it though, the air always feels good.  But it hasn´t rained for more than 2 weeks.  I don´t think it´s going to rain until april or something like that, cause it´s the dry season.  Elder Rodriguez is doing good.  I think we have changes on the 22nd, so i´m pretty sure we´re getting changed out, but they´ll let us know in a couple weeks.  On saturday we´re planning on going to the open house in the temple with the ward.  I´ll have to take pictures and send them to you, I heard it´s awesome on the inside.  

   Keep me updated on your cousin´s son, and when he´s coming and everything, that´s cool.  This mission´s great, and I know I haven´t even seen the start of it yet.  I´m proud of jared and glad that his was able to get his eagle, i´m sure it was great.  I hope everything goes well with him also this week for the basketball tryouts.  I remember how nervous and everything i was for mine, but just tell him to relax and have fun.  If he doesn´t make it he can ski all winter, but I think he has a pretty good shot at the team.   Wow, that´s crazy that shane already has a date to come home, that seems like a long time away, though, still, but i know it wil fly by. 

   Where is dad going this week, idk if you told me.  But this week, we have to progress an investigator named Eluvia.  She isn´t married to her boyfriend, they´re just called esposos here anyway, but they have a kid.  And her brother in law is named Neri Recinos and he lived in twin falls for a couple years, a couple years ago.  But we´ll see what happpens this week.  I´m trying to send this pictures but these computers don´t like to work sometimes.  Anyway, there´s some little things down here that are different in the church, for example.  A lot of men don´t know how to do ordanances, because for the confirmations they called rogelio and amilcar, 'hermano rogelio, etc.' so they have confirmed a lot of members with the name hermano or hermana, haha.  But i think that it´s understandable.  anwyay, i love you all and hope that you have a good week.  Thanks for everything, and i don´t really need anything specific in the packages mom, so thanks for sending those and everything.  Love you, and give my greetings to everyone. 

Love,

Elder Hansen