christmas day

familia,

it was good to talk to all of you.  Even though it was just a short period of time, it was good to hear all of your voices and everything, it sounds like your all healthy, so that´s good.  my comp´s from heber city, Elder Besendorfer, so that´s cool that meagan and landon were there and everything.  But how is landon and maegan, I can only imagine the crazy things they do, haha, they funny, but that´s good.  oh ya, what is the 15 passenger van, I had´n´t heard anything about that?  or is it just the bus that grandpa has?  And also, the farm got a sprayer?  wow, thát´s crazy, but what kind of everything.  Anyway, i hope that you guys get some snow soon, it´s always a better winter with snow, or if the weather´s just perfect, thát´s fine too, with me. 

   But maybe this week Eluvia will get baptized, i´m not sure yet, she usually doesn´t like to say too much, but maybe i will have them call you or something, nah, haha, but we´re always trying to work with her.  Sounds like all the extended family is doing good too, so that´s awesome that everyonés good.  But did Richard end up going to the temple dedication? i can´t remember what you told me or wrote me. 

   With this pacakge that´s supposedly coming, i just gave about 50 bucks to the office 400 quetz, and i´m assuming they paid it via credit card or something, but i´m not sure.  I will have to talk with my zone leader, and then with the office.  But actually if you want, maybe you could call the office to make sure,  but i will let you know next week if i talked with them.  I´m not sure what we´re going to do for new years, i´m assuming nothing, but the past 4 days have been pretty slow, and I´m just ready to get past the holidays actually because nobody´s availabe, and nobody really wants visits anyway, haha.  I didn´t think i would ever say that, but ya, i´m just ready for the new year, and then maybe people will have goals that we can help them with.  Also, what is ryan stockin´gs email and david fennell´s.  And also my companion was in david fennell´s district in the mtc, and he knew jeffrey gomez in the ccm, but he was 3 week´s ahead of him.  jare´ds probably awesome at basketball, but just tell him to keep practicing and have fun, you can´t please everyone no matter what you do, so just might as well have fun at it.  But it´s awesome though, just to travel around anyway, and see all the kid´s from different schools.  55555554765  that was elder celus.  But anyway, i´m looking forward to this week.  And i hope that you all have a good one, and everyone be safe driving back.  like i said, elder hansen romney, is coming to this mission, that´s my prophecy, haha, that would be awesome.  in this mission, an elder in my group was trained by a kid in his stake, and they´re in the same grade, so that was pretty funny, so you never know.  Anyway, love you all and happy holidays.

Love,

Elder Hansen

Hey family,

how is everything going?  sounds like a good week, it was good for us too.  But first, I wanted to call you guys on saturday so that we could set up everything good for sunday.  But I was planning on calling at around 11 am on saturday, but if you guys aren´t there or if that´s not good for you, then i will call on sunday morning at like 7 or 8 like you said and everything.  But i´m gonna call you on saturday, and then you´ll call me back within 5 minutes just to make sure that the number and everything works and that everything´s good for sunday morning.  And also on saturday i will talk to you to see if it´s better that i use a phone card or what, or actually what would be even better is if you guys bought some saldo or minutes on skype and then called me back at my house.  But either way, wé can talk about it on saturday at about 11 am.  o and also, i´m predicting that you guys have news for me, like someone in the family is having a baby, but that´s my prediction.

    But ya, this week Eluvia got married, it was kind of a weird situation.  The guy who marries people does marriages for free if the person gets baptized within 24 hours.  But eluvia hadn´t decided yet, but the guy who married them didn´t know that, so we got there and he was all what! why aren´t you getting baptized and all this stuff.  But he collects 500 quetz if a person doesn´t get baptized, but he doesn´t want the missionaries to pay for the wedding.  But i told his secretary the day before that eluvia wasn´t going to get baptized till later, but obviously the word never got to him, and plus he changed telephone number so i could get ahold of him.  But anyway, it sounded like he wasn´t going to marry them when we got there, but then everything ended up being fine, and then he told me that he wasn´t going to collect money or anything for the marriage.  But i was really nervous and everything just that he would still marry them!  But if none of this made sense just tell me in the phone call.  And so we put a date with Eluvia for the next wednesday, we had actually put for the 7 of january, but yesterday she´s all can we do it before or after the 7th?  I said we sure can, let´s do it next week, haha, so we put that.  But i think we´re getting prety good investigators.

    I´m not gonna lie, it´s hard to get good investigators here, but í think we´re being blessed.  But one couple named walter and paula jst moved into our ward, and paula is the sister of a guy who is a member with a pony tail, named Byron Xutuc, haha.  But i wish you could know all these people, there are some really funny members here, haha.  But walter and paula are pretty positive. 

But like you said you thought people are poor here, there´s some people that do well in our ward.  But others really don´t have much, just their house, and a few clothes and everything, but they have enough for food for the missionaries.  But the food here is pretty cheap too, but the members are really generous.  Sometimes i don´t know why the people give us food, i feel blessed, but i think it´s because of the faith that they have, that they´re going to be blessed for what the do, and I think that they will be.  i´ll get my packages this thursday if i have any, because we´re going to xela to have a christmas conference as the mission. hae you guys been skiing, that´s one thing i miss right now, butnot too bad.  last night was probably 40 degrees, it was pretty cold.  so that blanket for sure will help, but theré was another thick blanket in the house, so it wasn´t too bad, but now i have 2 sheets and 2 blankets y me aguanto the cold, or i presevere through the cold, haha. 

   o that´s a good idea of what shane said, i don´t know if i read that, but we can offer to do that too.  But we just saw the dedication´s from the church also.  Anyway, i will call you on saturday morning or sunday morning depending on you guys, but good luck with everything this week, and i love you all. 

love,

Elder hansen

hay family,

sounds like you all had a busy week, but that´s good.  We had a pretty busy week, too.  We are working as hard as we can.  And i feel like i need to improve on alot of things, but it´s hard sometimes.  But ya, we have investigators and everything.  We challenged a kid who´s 18 to baptism last thursday, but i don´t think he´s giong to be ready, in time for this weekend.  His name is Estuardo and he´s the boyfriend of a member, so sometimes that´s good and bad, haha.  But we will have to visit with him.  Eluvia is going to get married on this friday.  They just barely told me last night, so i need to call the licensiado so that he can get everything set up for them.  The are so many things to do as a trainer.  I´m always calling people and everything, and since my comp can´t really talk yet on the phone, i can barely because it´s hard to talk on the phone in english, it requires some time.  But we are trying to get things organized in our area.  We don´t have a ward mission leader so that´s really great as you can imagine with 2 new gringos.  But we try and have lessons with members, and less actives, but that´s our goal for this week, to have more with less activies, but it´s so hard here to get appointments.  Everyone is always working it seems like, and then of course i only know a few phone numbers here of members, so it´s not like you can call someone to set up an appointment, haha.  But everything´s good i feel like.  I can pretty much understand everything, as long as it´s gospel related of course, haha, but the language isn´t too bad.  my companion is improving as well, and everything´s good I feel like. 

     But everything´s pretty good.  on saturday the 24 i´m going to call you guys in the morning probably at 10 or something so that you have my number, then you can call me back to make sure that the number works.  And then sunday in the afternoon, i will have you call me, or do you think it would be cheaper if i bought a phone card or something?  Idk, but i could buy a phone card and call  you, or you can call me, let me know in next week´s email.   but we only have about 40 minutes on sunday to talk.  And everyone´s going to be ther right?  If not, send me brian or mark´s or marissa´s phone so that i can call them separately for a little bit. 

        As far as good experiences, i haven´t been feeling so well healthwise this week, really nothing big just an upset stomache, i didn´t throw up or anything, so i had my companion give me a blessing, and that was really great and helped me alot.  And then I gave him a blessing, and that helped us a lot I feel like as a companionship.  It´s hard to train though, because everything is so much slower I feel like, but we´re progressing and I learn something new everyday.  But I hope i´m doing a good job, and i´m trying my hardest.  But i read shane´s letter that he sent, probably from last week, that was great when they knocked on that lady´s door and felt the spirit and everything.  We don´t contact too much, just because nobody really is interested, but I have felt guided as I talk to the people, and I just know what to say, and it´s really a good experience.  But also, we are teaching a youth named george in english, so that´s great.  He lived in la for 12 years and is a citizen of the U.S. but his dad got deported so they moved back down here.  But I think that we have had some pretty good lessons with him.  He´s actually going to be gone this whole week, so when big interupptions happen, it´s hard to keep someone focused on the lessons and everything.  But I didn´t really like teaching in english, i think I´m better in spanish, haha. 

     But anyway, the temple dedication was awesome, President uchtdorf spoke at all 3 sessions and it was so good.  He talked about how blessed the country of guatemala is, and he prophesied that many more chapels would be on the hills of guatemala.  Also, in the sessions, they talked alot about how the lamanite people is being blessed, and a lot of cool stories were told actually.  There are some really great members here, and I would love to see the church grow a ton because of the temple, that would be great.  But anyway, I had a good week, and I´m looking forward to this week.  We are going to try and throw fire.  But have a good week, and everyone keep safe, I love you all, and congratulations alysha on the nutcracker.

Love,

Elder Hansen
p.s. i had to pay 400 quetz for some package to get from guatemala city due to processing fees so i´m not sure what that means.  maybe there was electronics in it or something.  but it´s alright, not a big deal, It was just really random when i was told i had to do that to get a package.  But anyway, i haven´t gotten a package yet, because here they keep them all until christmas, all that have come in november and december, so i´ll let you know when i get them.

winter is here!

familia, how are you,

how is everything going for you, sounds like everything´s good for you. Elder Celus los quiere mucho.  anyway, ya, the other night it got pretty cold. I couldn´t fall back asleep cause it was kind of cold, haha, but it´s good.  but that´s cool that aunt jody is there in Guate and everything, when is she coming back.  And maybe we will have a conference or something with president uchtdorf, because he´s coming to dedicate the temple, but idk yet.  We never know alot of things haha, but I like this mission alot for alot of reasons, for example, just being with the latinos and everything is pretty funny.  But it´s really cool, for example, riding in the chicken buses.  That´s how we get everywhere, and all the ´corte´ practically smashed on top of you.  They wear cortes, those skirts that they make from the native material, and they never wash them and everything, but it´s a cool experience.  But everytime i ride to xela, i´ve been there about 6 times since the beginning of my mission, i get so tired, and my ride is spinning a little and everything, just because the bus ride is really curvey and everything, but it´s good. 

    Just the transportation here makes me life, I think that some missinaries wouldn´t be able to take it, haha, but it´s fun.  And also, it´s kind of funny the way things work here.  For example, there´s not really boundaries for the area´s.  there is, but nobody really knows where they´re at, you kind of just guess.  And places like momus the areas are gigantic, like it´s impossible to go from one side to the other in one day.  But places like xela and huehue are pretty normal. 

     Today we went to El Mirador, so that was pretty fun.  We also ate lunch at a chapel, one lady from another area made us lunch.  my companion is from heber city, he´s bigger than me basically, not taller, but wider.  So i don´t think that those clothes will fit him.  But wow i´m tired right now, and preparation days pass really fast, but we work really hard.  There´s been 2 maybe 3 nights where we have come home before 930. Other wise, it´s been more like 920 or 930.  But eluvia´s going to get married the 17th but idk yet about baptism.  SHe´s still thinking, but not really reading or praying i feel like.  But you never know, we´ll see if she accepts that same day to be baptized.  Also, there´s this guy named victor who seemed positive, but then last night I called him and he was drunk, so i don´t know.  We will pass by to seem him tonight.  But i feel sorry for alot of people here, but it´s that they don´t look in the right places.  We can only offer and testify and everything, but you can´t feel too bad if they don´t do anything to help themselves. 

  But for jared, just make sure to use the commas correctly.  With her, you use commas normally, but if the subject changes or if the subject is mentioned again,  between a dependent clause and an independent clause, then you use a comma, but if not, then you don´t.   for example´   jonny went to the store and bought candy.  you wouldn´t use a comma.      but with, jonny went to the store, and he bought candy.  you would.  That´s all i remember from her. 

     did i say already i watched the christmas devotional.  But in spanish, but i think i understood most of it.  it was really good.  but anyway, on christmas day i think i´m going to call the house.  But the president says just for 45 minutes, so we´ll see how that goes.  idk if i´m gonna be able to do it in that time, but i hope, so have ready what you want to say.  i´ll let you know how the dedication and everything goes, this week should be good, so i´m excited.  But my compaion´s good, and his spansih has already improved and so has mine.  But have a good week family and good luck with everything.  I love you all, and always have you in my prayers and everything. 

Love,

Elder Hansen