Hey hansen family,

sounds like everything´s going good at home.  Everything´s good here.  Estuardo hasn´t gotten baptized yet.  But obviously we´re hoping before the end of the change, I would love to see him get baptized.  We found this other kid this weeknamed hugo martinez, and he´s from a place called todos santos where they wear the clown pants and everything, uyou´ll have to ask aunt jody about it.But he went back to todos santos this week because his family lives there and they´re potato farmers and everything so that´s cool.  But I think the mission´s probably the hardest out of those choices, haha.  But I know that jared is pilas, so he´ll do good with everything.

     The conference with Elder Falabella was really good.  I got a picture with him so I ´ll try and send it.  But it was really inspiring of course.  But their was a really good spirit there, and it made me excited to do missionary work.  It was just all around good.  He talked about that we should work with members more and with recent converts and less actives and everything, and he also talked about being the member´s friends.  That´s something that I´ve been trying to keep in mind this week.  But the musical number went well.  Elder Hales who played the violin, is from Orem or somewhere I forget in utah.  But it was good, obviously it wasn´t perfect, but I thoughtj that it brought the spirit well. 

   The members here are nice.  There´s very few that are dirt poor.  The rest have a decent home and everything, and pretty much everyone here has food to eat. There´s a couple members that struggle, but they don´t really give lunch anyway, but the one´s that have enough give lunch.  But there are a few rich people, for example the bishop and willi, the ward mission leader and a lot of others are well off. Not rich probably according to U.S. standards, but they have cars and everything.  Willi, hermana zoila´s son, and her own a company where they make the iron doors and window panes and everything, so that´s all that anyone uses, and they´re well off.  I think it´s different then what I imagined that to be.  But there are for sure places where every person is poor. But my area is all city.  Just the only person I can go to outside the city is with maria espital, but the next time we go, we´ll have to take a few photos and everything.  

  But on the 14th are changes, so i´m assuming that I´m going to be transferred so we´ll see what happens there.  But i kind of want to stay here, now that we´ve established some good ways to work and everything. 

    But wow, I cannot believe that jared has like 6 girlfriends now, good job!  But that´s crazy that he´s at that age and everything. That´s a really fun age though, so J, you should enjoy it while you can, haha. But that´s good.  Ya, i´m excited too for Brian to move back, that´s fun, and i´m sure that you all will enjoy that, and I hope that craftons are able to find a new house and that everything works out smooth.  But  that´s great. And also, if there´s news or anything you want to tell me, and stuff that´s going on, just tell me, and i´m able to print out stuff, so I can just print it out and read it later, after using internet.  There´s kind of a lack of investigators right now.  We are teaching an excommunicated member, so that´s interesting.  He says that he knows the church is true, but i think that just how his character is makes it hard for him to come back.  But his wife celebrated her brother yesterday, Ana de Galindo, so we went and sang happy birthday, and later they gave us food and cake, so that was awesome.  But our ward has 150 to 160 that assist, so that´s pretty good.  But everything her is good.  It´s pretty much normal, and not much new has happened.  But I hope that you all have a great week.  I love you all, and I´ll let you know how this week goes.  Take care, and pray for estuardo please, and also for Eluvia, she´s having a hard time coming to church for the question of her work.  But take care!

Love,

Elder Hansen   

family,

how are you doing, it´s sounds like all great.  Wow, that´s great about Brian and Ashlee, I don´t think that I ever would have expected them to move there, but if feel good about that, that´s great.  But anyway, this month has felt a little bit slow, and probably because I am in the same apartment that i´ve been in the whole mission. haha.  But every missionary says that after the year mark, time goes by extremely fast, haha.  But i´m enjoying it alot, and I feel like i´m learning alot.  Elder Bench is typing next to me, and he just gave me some awesome analogies that we can use with Estuardo.  We haven´t put a set date yet, but we´re thinking this next weekend.  In our last lesson that we had with him, Elder Besendorfer promised him that if he read 10 minutes a day for a week, or 8 days i guess, and if after every time he prayed to know that the book of  mormon was true, then he would receive an answer that it was.  But anyway, we´re thinking that we´ll put a date for this weeekend or for the next.  But, walter and paola are supposedly married, but who knows, if someone lives together here, then they´re spouses.  But they can never come to church because they´re always gone away selling and everything.  But we need to explain to them the sabbath day and everything, even though they have heard it already, but another time would be good.  

   We got a new mission leader, he lives 2 meters from us, so that´s pretty convenient.  his names willy vasquez and he´s the son of hermana zoila, and us three live in that house.  But he does speak english, he learned it in college, so that´s good.  But I think he´s gonna help us alot.  I think i told you that changes are in february 14, so that´s not too far, and I want to work hard to try and get a few more baptisms if it´s possible.  But we´re looking and everything.  Elder Besendorfer´s doing good, everything´s pretty much normal and everything.  

   But good job jared with basketball.  I wish my coaches would have done that, haha, those who had good grades could play.  But they just no hacen caso (ask mark).  Haha, but those are more important anyway, but that´s awesome that you get to play.  My companion reminds me of jared in alot of ways also. This wednesday Elder Fallabella is coming, he´s the area president of central america, and I have to play the piano, or i get to, i´m excited, because we´re playing a poor wayfarying man of grief, but i need to practice alot more, i haven´t had much time.  This elder hales is playing violin with me, and that´s where i got the music from, so it´s good.  But i´m excited for that.  That was an awesome story that you told me about the lady that had the dream, that´s great, and I know that that´s the true nature of God.  This week i´m going to focus more on having Faith, and I know that that will help me alot.  anyway, thanks for everything that you all do, you´re great and a great support.  I love you all, and hope that you week goes well.

love,

Elder Hansen

hey family,

sounds like everything´s going good.  Can I have some more details on Brian´s and Ashlee´s move, for example, why?  haha, just wondering some details, but anyway,  everything´s going good here in old huehue.  I feel like I´ve been here forever, except for the spanish part, but I can pretty much understand everything, there´s just some words and everything always.  But I did get that christmas package, thanks, that was awesome.  I especially loved all of the pictures.  I could tell in one minute exactly who malea was, I hope that was her, haha, because she looked alot like marissa did when she was little, so awesome. transfers are in a month  on Feb. 14 so I have a couple weeks left, and then I think Elder Besendorfer will be training in this same area.  But everything's good here, just normal.

     We are teaching Estuardo Mendez, I think that I've mentioned him, but he said that he wants to get baptized, he just doesn't know what day yet, so we're working with him on  that.  But we found a  couple of new  investigators this week, but I'm not sure if they're positive so I will let you know the next week. Walter and Paola we haven't visited for a while, just because they haven't been home and everything, but we will see if they come to church next week.  today, we  went to some ruins in Zaculeu, so those we're pretty awesome.  But nothing like El Mirador, haha, but it was cool to see them. There, they are made out of cement, with rocks mixed in with the cement, so pretty much like their modern-day sidewalks here.  But it was cool.  Eluvia's doing good, she and her husband are really happy now, so that's good.  

   Our ward's doing good and everything.  I feel like less actives have been coming more and more, so the attendance is about 170 right now, but we hope that it stays u p higher.  For sunday, the only responsibility that I have is to go to the ward council after church, we don't have jobs or anything in this ward.  

   That's so funny about bowen, haha, I can just imagine that, and I'm sure that he's growing so much everyday, and learning alot too.   But jared's going on a date this weekend, then right?  haha, i'm sure he's already been asked out, but don't give in to the pressure Jared, no, haha.  It's all good to date and everything.  But wow, that's crazy, and he can drive at night now, I know I was more excited about that, haha.  But ya, today was good, everything's normal, we're jus t sitting here in an internet place in huehue, and we came from eating at Zumba's, that restaurant that that guy owns, who lived in Arizona for  a while.  But ya, let me know if anything new's going on in the states, and here too actually, since we never hear anything, haha.  but thanks for everything and I love you all.  Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Hansen

family,
how is everything going.  That last part about Bowen made me laugh,
haha, that´s awesome.  But send me some pictures of whatever the next
opportunity you get, just send them through email and I´ll figure out
a way to view them, but it should work good.  Anyway, maybe the
package arrived at the mission home, cause I haven´t gotten it yet,
but I´ll let you know next week, because the zone leaders are going to
the mission home this week.  But anyway, ya, i talked to amador almost
every week until about november, and then we just stopped writing, idk
why, but i need to write him again.  And the trek fireside? does that
mean our ward´s goign on the trek?  that would be cool, i never got
the chance to go, but that´s awesome.  Jared´s probably doing great at
basketball, i wish I could see him, but maybe you´ll have to takek
some videos and I´ll be able to see them here in 18 months.  But time
is going by pretty fast.  It might have slowed down just a little
because I´ve been in this area for what feels like an eternity.  But
we are still working hard and everything.  We found a new guy to
teach, but we´ll see if he shows up to the english class.  It´s so
interesting to see the difference between latin´s here and latins in
the states.  Because you can´t really know how someone thinks and
everything until you talk to them in their native language.  But
mostly all the people here are nice.  We just had one time when a
guy´s all I´m Catholic, and then just shut the door, but it´s usually
fun to talk to people.  They always say the same things though,
literally almost exactly, like i´m catholic, it would be playing with
god if I listened to you, I don´t want to go to church so I would be
wasting your time listening to you, I would be lying to you If I told
you to come by some other day and I wasn´t there, I´m usually not in
my house, i´m only here on the weekends so come by another day and
with mucho gusto I´ll receive you, haha.  But it´s alright, it´s just
always the same, haha, but i´m learning alot how to talk with people.
We went yesterday with a member and it was good to learn really how I
can change and talkt o people differently, so that they know that
we´re nice guys.  Oh ya, I said that Romney was coming to this mission
right?  Haha, that would be awesome, but i´m betting that he´s gonna
see shane before he leaves, that would be great for them.
    Jordan Gillete´s pretty funny, i talked to him alot before I left,
and Hés a great guy.  But ya, here, the weather´s pretty much the same
everday.  Some morning´s it gets pretty cold, especially last week,
but then the sun burns everything off, and I´m guessing it´s somewhere
in the 70´s everday, and the air´s pretty dry here.  my companion´s
doing good.  I think he´s going to train the next change, so we´re
trying to get him ready for that.  his spanish has improved, and I
hope that mine has as well.  Yesterday I felt like I needed to improve
my accent so i just began to read like a 5 year old, really
pronouncing everything  carefully and everything, so hopefully that
helps my pronunciation.
   O ya, Eluvia got baptized on Saturday, she asked me to baptize her,
so I did.  her husband said that he wasn´t ready to baptize yet, so
that´s why I ended up baptizing her.  But it was a good service and
then my companion confirmed her on sunday.  Tomorrow a missionary is
leaving from this ward, I feel like we´re pretty good friends, so
we´re going to tell him goodbye today.  He´s going to the dominican
republic, but to fly there, he´s going to SLC first and then to there,
haha.  I told him he might see snow, but sounds like that´s doubtful.
But anyway, thanks for everything fam, i´ll see if i get this package
this week, and the daught of hermana zoila is coming down from SLC, so
if you want me to send anything up with her when she returns, let me
know.  Thanks for 3everything and love you all.
Love,
ELder Hansen

happy new year 2012

family,

how are you all doing?  This week was pretty good.  I don´t know that nothing new happened.  Only that for new years, at midnight, once again fireworks were blown off, and so I woke up for about fifteen minutes and watched those, they´re pretty cool.  But I think I told you already, that every single day here, all the kids play with fireworks and throw these fireworks that sound like guns going off so sometimes that´s annoying, but it´s good.  Also, this family invited us to come over at midnight to celebrate! haha, but of course we couldn´t go, so they said, ok, we´ll just send it over at midnight, ok I said.  So at 1245, after i went back to bed after the fireworks, I guess the bishop was just pounding on our door yelling happy new year and everything, but we didn´t hear him, we´ll just my comp heard him, but then he called our phone, and so we went to the door and picked up the food.  But it was awesome.  Our fridge had 2 tamales, i had to chuck those because they were smelling, and now we have 2 slices of pizza, and this carne asada, and then apples, walnuts, and grapes, and some ice cream and root beer, so it´s full in the holiday season.  But this week i don´t think we bought any food, except just for the breakfast that we already paid for.  But the members here our awesome.  We´re sincerely trying to work harder with them, cause it´s so much better.  But i´ll give you a run down on who we´re teaching.

    There´s Eluvia, who we´re going to baptize on saturday, so I think my comp will baptize who cause her husband isn´t a priest, and just told his he´s not ready to baptize her, so who knows what that means.  Then also, there´s estuardo, who I think we´re baptizing this week, we just have to confirm with him, but it´s that he went to mexico for a week and a half so we haven´t had contact, but we´ll talk with him to make sure he´s ready.  and then the sister of a member in our ward, and her husband and 2 kids we´re teaching.  But they´re pretty positive. Walter and paola vasquez.  haven´t come to church yet because they had to sell on christmas day, and then saturday night they went to bed at 4 or something, so we went to their house and knocked but they didn´t answer.  And also a brother of some members, but we haven´t talked to him for a while, Walter Gomez, because he also left for the new years.  And also, a story, there´s this guy named victor, saber what his last name is, but usually when we have taught him before, he´s just had huge doubts about why we talk about joseph smith and everything, and we could barely get through any principles teaching him, just because we would have to answer his questions and everything, and it seemed like we would never get through a lesson.  But yesterday his throat was so sore and blocked up or whatever you want to say, so he couldn´t talk.  I took it as a blessing.  So we just began teaching him the first vision and about joseph smith and everything, and that´s what he had the biggest doubt over.  So we were able to teach him that whole lesson over, and it was pretty good actually.  WE´ll see what he says when he´s able to talk.

   But that´s about it for investigators that are positives, and i´ll let you know how the baptism goes.  o also, a guy told us that we´re here as missionaries so that we can avoid being forced to serve in the united states military.  But some people´s theories down here, you just can´t argue, haha.  But thanks, and yes the root beer came in safe and sound.  oh, and tell me about this 15 passenger van, i´m curious. but have a good week family, today´s the start of my fourth change in the mission, and so in 6 weeks, i should have changes.  But love you all, good luck in school and tell everyone hi.

Love,

Elder Hansen