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

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