Hey fam,
i´m glad to hear that Brian was able to move without harm or injury,
and I hope that you can continue working on the house, and that
everything goes well there.  That´s fun to have them there, and plus
all the cousins in the acequia 2nd ward is fun.  I´m happy for romney,
and I don´t think i would have guessed mexico, honestly i thought he
would have gone europe like Landon, but that´s awesome.  isn´t
chijuajua by the border, or where is it?  The cool too about Uncle
Julian, I hope that they have luck in finding a house and in moving
and everything.
    It sounds like it´s warmer there than it is here, and it might be.
 Today and yesterday have been pretty cold.  Usually in the afternoon
here, the sun is really bright, and it gets pretty hot.  But this week
has been kind of cold.  Yesterday it rained a ton, and hailed a little
bit too.  A little further up the mountain in an area called chiax, it
hailed so much that it was pretty much like snow, and one of the
elders made a snow man, and took a picture of it, so that´s great.
But this girl named Rosaura, we haven´t really had a chance to talk
with her, because she was gone almost the whole week, but we´ll talk
to her this week, and I think we´re putting a baptismal date.  But
we´re working, and i´m excited for this weekend for General
Conference, it should be good.  I´m looking forward to it, and hope
that a couple of investigators are able to come.
    I´m jealous that you´re going on a trip to florida, that´s
amazing.  You guys are lving the good life, haha.  I can´t believe
it´s almost april already.  I´ll have 9 months in 3 days, so this
month went by pretty fast.  And shane has like a month and a half,
that´s crazy to think about.  I honestly remember the talk he gave
still, and it was on mother´s day, so that´s weird to think about.  I
think i remember just about everyday that my friends have left on
their mission, haha.
     But today I think we´re just gonna hand around.  Changes are
tomorrow, but i´m staying here, and with Elder posas.
   Have fun with everything, and I hope that you all have a great week.
love,
Elder hansen

interviews

hey family,

sounds like everything´s going good.   I still can´t get pictures sent but i think next week i can.  But everything here is going good.  We talked to fredy, just because we ran into him.  He´s only 16, so not a priority one i guess, but he can´t go to church until april anyway, so maybe we will invite him to general conference, but I don´t think he´s that positive.  This week at church, this lady that is from momos came, and she´s kind of in a bad situation, she´s pregnant, but just from her boyfriend, but we´ll see how we can help her this week.  But we´re always looking for new people, and just working on references, so I hope that we can find someone new and positive this week.

   WE also had interviews with president this week.  They´re pretty simple, they´re just 10 minutes and he talks for us for a little bit, but it was good.  But I was just telling him in my letter that we need to work with the members more, so I really want to do better at that.   I feel like i´m still young in the mission, but i´m always learning, so I hope that´s good enough.  But everything´s going good here, changes are next week, but i´m staying here i´m pretty sure, but elder parry, this other kid in my area is leaving because his companion del cid is training.

    My rent this month was 700, so i played 350 quetz, so that´s not bad.  But we´re thinking about moving to another apartment, i´ll let you know if we actually check it out this week. 

     I don´t know if the papers of Rosa are coming for her divorce, she told us she is divorced, she just needs the papers to say she is or something.  But she said she´s been working on it for 3 years, so that´s rough.

I´m excited for Romney´s call, I feel like he´s gonna go to the last place that he expects, it kind of happened to me, haha.  But it´s a fun time, and I hope that all you guys travel safely and everything.  Have a good week, everything here is good, and functioning. I too am excited for general conference, it´s about 2 weeks right?  But it should be good.  Anyway, thanks for everything and hope that you all have a good week.  Love you all.

Love,

Elder Hansen

Xela

hey fam,
sounds like everything´s going good there.  Just to answer your
questions.  Marta is being taught by the other elders.  She had a date
for this sunday to be baptized, but it fell because she is going
through some hardships,  I don´t know her, I just met her one time in
church.  The other elders live like 200 meters away from us, so we get
to see them alot.  They have a neighbor that´s a member, and I had her
make me a cheese pie, which is way good, but it cost 50 quetz, but it
was worth it, really good.  I haven´t really had to adjust anything
here, it´s all good, and I like the members alot, they´re really
friendly.  I didn´t have to adjust to my new apartment either, it just
felt normal and everything.  It doesn´t have windows, just a piece of
clear lamina for the roof, but it´s like 30 feet above the floor, but
I´ll have to send you all that video when i´m able to get a cable or
some way of sending stuff.
    my compaion´s name is Elder Posas, he´s from honduras, near
tegusigalpa, but he doesn´t live in the tegu mission, but in the
comiabuela mission.
   I think that Rosa is divorced already, she´s just waithing for some
papers or something, i don´t really know, it´s not clear to me yet.
But other than that, we are teaching a kid named freddy, but we
haven´t been able to get ahold of him that much, which is hard.  And
two part member families in a place called xantún.  We´re going there
tonight to have one big noche de hogar with all of them, i hope that
it turns out good.  But everything´s going good here.
   oh ya, today we went to the lookout point for lake atitlán, so that
was cool....kind of haha.  It was just so close, but we weren´t able
to go any closer because it´s part of the central mission, but it
brought back good memories, haha, but it´s alright.  We did see alot
of gringos drive by, there was this one hippy van, so white trash,
with like 8 gringos in it, so that was cool i guess.  Then today we
ate lunch at this one house in a place called san cristobal, we had
some papusas and bareadas, it was good.  But this week went by fast,
and it was good, we just need some new investigators and we´re looking
always.
    This week on wednesday we had a conference with the presdient in
xela. It was good, and it helps to remember the goals and everything.
Also, yesterday we had stake conference, our stake is pretty big, area
and people wise.  And president bautista came and spoke at it, and
macheted the members to help us, no haha, just joking, but he did talk
about how the members can help the missionaries and everything.
Anyway, anything else?  I don´t think so.  I mean, life is just normal
and everything, and I feel like i´m learning alot.  I´m also excited
for general conference in a couple weeks, I think that will be
enjoyable. Just ask mark and brian and dad about the misison life,
it´s fun, but hard sometimes, but more enjoyable than not for sure.
Have a good week family, and good luck with school and everything.
Good job jared in church ball, i was a church baller by heart.  love
you all
love,
Elder Hansen
p.s. has jared grown anymore? or alysha, pictures too?, haha love you all

March 5

Hey family,
sounds like everything´s going good there.  Just, I have been getting
the packages you´ve sent me.  In the night´s it gets pretty cold, but
i´ve never cold during the night, i just throw the blanket over my
head, and I have 3 blankets, so i stay warm.  We pretty much know the
area, but we still haven´t been everywhere.  You could probably walk
all day, and not get everywhere in our area, actually you couldn´t get
everywhere.  Yesterday, we had to walk from a place called xantún,
(shantún)  to a place called chuculjuyup, and we walked for more than
an hour, and fast too, and we finally got where we needed to.  But I
love this area, and the members are awesome too.  We always have lunch
tuesday and thursday with this lady named maría chaclán, and wednesday
with the bishop.  The other companionship is doing good too.  The put
a date for this girl named marta to get baptized, but she didn´t come
to church yesterday, so I feel bad, but i don´t know what happened, so
maybe she will still get baptized.
    We are working with this lady named Rosa, and her husband is named
miguel, but they´re not married, but miguel pretty much told us that
he wants to get baptized, and one of their goals is to go to the
temple.  Just rosa needs to get divorced officially, then they want to
get married, then we´ll go from there.  So pray that everything can go
well with her papers.  I don´t know for how long she has been trying
to get divorced yet, so if she´s just barely starting, we´re gonna
have to wait, or they are, 3 to 6 months.  But there´s some other
people also, but I think it´s all in the question of time, because we
have some pretty positive investigators.  There weren´t any
investigators when we came in, well just a family, but the other
companionship is teaching them.  So i feel pretty positive, and i feel
like there´s a lot of people ready to be taught here.  just this area
is big, haha, but not that big compared to others.  In other area´s
like in momos, you could ride all day in a bus, or actually a flete,
or a pickup that gives rides, and still not reach the end.
     Elder posas is doing good, he has four months in the mission.  I
can´t believe i have 8, that´s pretty crazy.  Normally the time here
flies.  When i wake up and i´m tired, i just say, oh, i´ll be back in
about 2 seconds, and then 2 seconds later i´m getting ready for bed
again, haha, so that´s pretty funny.
   The tractor that i saw was a ford i think, a little one, and it had
like a 10 foot wide disk on the back.  so it was little, but good to
see haha.  Our neighbor wants a tie like the one i have, it´s a
reddish pink or something, and has stripes and everything, idk if you
remember, but maybe just send whatever tie in the next package.  But
other than that i don´t think i need anything.  just some starbursts,
that would be awesome, oh and tootsie rolls, but everything else i can
buy.
     I like the cheap stuff here, because for example, i bought four
bars of soap two weeks ago for 6 quetzales.  I´m still not done using
the first bar, so for four months, i pay  like 85 cents for my soap.
I still haven´t bought shampoo in the mission, so that´s good too,
haha.  Ok then, everything sounds good, hope that you all have a good
week, i love you all.  Good luck with everything.
love,
Elder hansen
p.s. send some pictures when you have time and everything, just of the
family, whatever ones you have.  love you all