hey family,

sounds like you´re all doing, que me alegre.  But i´ll have to ask my companion about those people.  pretty much my responsibility is to get people to and from the mission, so it´s fun, i´ve already called some parents from the u.s., i´ve called the ccm a couple times, i called the mtc in provo yesterday, and i talk to president and everything to get everything coordinated.  I like it alot, at least so far, some people say they don´t like it too much, but that´s probably after about 4 months, haha, but i´m liking it.  We always try and get out at about 4, and that´s not too bad, it hasn´t happened so far, but this week we want it to happen.  my companion is the retention secretary, and he pretty much just takes all the dats and everything, but this next change he´s leaving, and to be honest, i think an elder hales is coming to be my companion, but i´m not sure yet, it´s too soon to tell, haha.  But we live with the assistents, so that´s pretty fun, the house is nice, i´ll have to take a video tour of it.  i just uploaded like 7 pictures, but the computer just deleted them off the email, so that´s awesome!  let me upload them again, but i´m on the computer alot, right now i´m just pretty much trying to understand everything and what´s going on, so that´s why it´s taking a little bit more time.  But we also do little errands and everything, we went to toto on thursday i think, cause we had to run some phones up there, so i was in my old area, and i talked witht eh bishop´s wife and everything, it seemed kind of weird, but i liked it.  

  But this last week we challenged a kid to baptism, he´s 17 so not quite priesthood, but he´s a good kid.  we put the date for april 5, so i hope that he´s able to reach that.  He wasn´t able to come see a baptismal service last night, but i´m pretty sure that he´s coming to church again on sunday.   our ward is almost like a ward in the u.s. 

    i´ve pretty much had warm showers my whole mission, except that one month, so it´s not too big of a deal, haha, but it is nice to have burning water.  hey, and our house is getting fixed too, the electricity is only 110, so pretty much  only the microwave and washer work, but they changing it to 220, so that´ll be good.  

anyway, other than that, everything´s prettty good, the president said i would be here 5 to 6 months.  i´m learning alot, and enjoying life.  i hope that all ya´ll are doing good, and thanks for your support always.  i think i´m calling you next month right?  or i could just call you whenever i want, and say it´s for office business, haha, no, but anyway, take care and love you all.

love,

Elder Hansen

On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 1:12 AM, Doug Hansen <dhans10@hotmail.com> wrote:

hey family, how is everything going?

ya, sorry haha, that I just wrote that haha, but i moved into a new area...the office, so our preparation day is on saturday, just for us.  I'm getting trained to be the next general secretary and an elder named Elder Frodsham is the current one, so that's pretty fun.  I got a call on wednesday morning and they said to come to xela at 3, and so i came down with elder posas.  Then we came to the office and they told me, but i actually knew earlier that morning that i was coming to the office because an old assistent to the president told me, who was in my district in toto.  So i traded spots with an Elder de Lora, who came with me in my group, who now is in toto with elder posas, and i'm in the office.  But there's three secretaries because elder carter broke his foot about 4 weeks ago or so, and also elder de lora had a broken foot, so there were three secretaries two of which had broken foots, but now there{s three, two of which are healthy, haha.  

   I also got to drive for the first time in 9 and a half months, so it was kind of scary when i first started, but i just drove last night, it was fun. there's only two cars in the mission, so i feel priviledged to be able to drive one.  But we pretty much only get to drive because of elder carter's broken foot, but when he leaves, which i think he is in three weeks, then it's back to walking and everything, except when we need to move stuff and everything.  But it's not as fun to drive as i thought it was going to be, just because it's really slow here and everything, especially when there's alot of traffic, which is pretty much always, haha.  But our house is pretty nice, i feel like i had a huge change of houses, environment, everything, it's pretty crazy.  I pretty much speak english all day, but there's an assistent from el salvador, so i try and talk to him alot, just so i keep learning, and don't lose any spanish.  But there's a hot water heater in our house, which i haven't used for a while.  

     pretty much we are in the office after our studies in the morning, and then until 5 or 6.  The last couple days have been pretty slow because there hasn't really been much to do, but as soon as elder frodsham leaves, then i'm gonna probably have a ton to do, just working on projects and everything, which i'm pretty sure that he's leaving on tuesday.  But everything's going good, and i love the area that we're working in, it's great.  i'm still getting to know it and everything. 

   But my companion officialy is elder carter from sandy utah, but then the assistents are elder becerra, whose dad is the mission president in the california arcadia mission, and elder andrade from el salvador, i think?, and then elder frodsham who's the general secretary, was.  

    but also, everyone has a baby picture, or whatever picture of them when they were little, here in the office, so if you could send one of me when i was little, with whoever, or whatever, it doesn't matter, just when i was little.  also in the office are an elder and sister fairbourne, and they're from idaho falls idaho, originally, but they have lived in minnessota for 35 years or something.  anyway, everything's going good, and you can send me a picture whenever because i'll be able to look it up any day of the week and print it out or something.  But i hope that all of you have a great week, and have fun with mark and everything.  i'll be writing you then from saturday on, but you can probably send an email whenever, i could read it, but just not respond or anything probably until saturday.  anyway, i love you all, and i'll have to let you more about the investigators and or members when i get to know them better. take care,

love,

Elder hansen 

familia,
sounds like everything´s going good.  I´m glad that Brian and Ashlee
are doing good there, I feel bad that some beets blew out, you never
want to hear that happen. I planted some corn and beans this week with
a family where only 3 of the kids are members, the familia cóp.  So
that was fun, brought me back for sure, haha.  But noone came to
church this week, no investigators, but we´ll have to get some for
next week.  The papers for rosa are done by the government, but it´s
just about impossible to get a divorce here, but hopefully it can
happen soon.
   Today we went to those same waterfalls that we went to about 5
weeks ago, it was good, we hiked up to the top, and just kind of
stayed there a while.  But i left all my stuff to be able to send you
pictures at the zone leaders house, so that´s kind of lame, but i´ll
have to get it for next week, if i can get organized and everything.
But i´m learning alot always, and having good experiences.  that´s
awesome that that lady vivian was baptized, maybe you guys should
invite her over or something, for dinner or whatever, or a family home
evening, that would be good.  we have a family home evening tonight
with some investigators, so we´ll see how that goes, i hope that it´s
good.
     The next 40 days we have a challenge to read the book of mormon,
so i´m gonna try and do that in spanish, I really need to read every
page, and also this week we are trying to contact 40 positive people
that want to know more about the gospel, and those are the mission
goals.
   I don´t think that they have easter here, because nothing happened.
 They just have the semana santa (holy week)  where the catholics like
reenact the death of jesus christ and everything, but to be honest I
didn´t see anything, but I guess the reenact everything, and i don´t
know, it´s really lame, and mostly it´s just a vacation and an excuse
to drink alcohol, but that´s the tradition here.  But I pretty much
just had a normal week.
  i´m proud of jared that he´s doing track, that´s good for him, I
hope that he continues to have success.
   i played the piano this sunday, the guy that usually plays the
piano didn´t know that i could i guess, but i think that from now on
i´m going to be playing on sundays,
   about uncle richard coming, to be honest I don´t need anything, my
shoes are fine, they should last my whole mission, and i have
everything, no need for anything else, so don´t worry.  But i hope
that all you guys have a good week, send pictures when you can.
love,
Elder hansen

 hey mamaita linda, and all the familia chula,
> how´s everything going?  What a great letter, and what a great
> conference too that we had.  Ya, we were able to watch every session.
> in our zone, i think there´s 16 or 18 elders, so that´s good.  We were
> all able to be there and the english white people all watched it in
> one room, there was only 6 of us, so not too big, but it was good to
> hear it in english and everything. Before, last week, i downloaded all
> the sessions in spanish from the last conference and listened to
> almost all of it, that was good.  But ya, i loved every talk, and they
> really applied to me, and helped me out alot actually. i´ll have to
> read over the notes and everything i took, but it was great and i
> liked it alot.  And one thing we said is that the themes were really
> interesting, and kind of different, some of them, then they have been
> before.
>    i´m glad that you guys were able to go to florida, that´s awesome,
> i´m sure it was alot of fun. and also i can´t believe shane´s coming
> home in a month, that´s really weird, and went by fast.
>   i´m happy for brian and ashlee too, i hope they enjoy it there, the
> farm was a good place to grow up, haha.  But that´s great for them,
> and i hope that everything continues to go well.  Tell brian to plant
> the beets straight, so that we look like professional farmers, haha.
> the weirdest thing here, mostly they plant corn here, but they make
> huge rows of dirt, the hills,  like twice the size of the potato
> hills, and from there they put about 5 or 7 corn seeds on the side of
> the little hill, and they do that on both sides of the hill, and about
> every 3 feet they plant seeds, so it´s really different.  I heard of
> one family here that they just plant it normally like us, and that it
> grows better, but i´ll have to take a picture so that you can
> understand it better what they do.  They do everything with those big
> hoes, but no one really has a lot of land anyway.  like i´ve said,
> i´ve just seen one tractor here.
>    as far as the missionary work, Rosa is still just waiting for her
> divorce papers to go through and everything, it´s just waiting, she
> can´t do anything else, so that´s a pester, but there´s not much else
> anyone can do.  also, yesterday, a guy in a wheelchair came to church
> with us, his name is samuel.  He liked it alot and said he felt the
> spirit, and he recognized it.  His life is harder than i can describe,
> but i know that the gospel and the priesthood could help him if he
> allows it to.  And that´s really what the gospel is about, to be able
> to bless us, because God wants us to be happy, but he can´t just give
> us certain blessings without reason, he allows us to learn and I think
> to see the cause and effect also, and of course we always need to
> practice faith.  But conference helped my testimony too, and i was
> just thinking about how lucky we are to have such guidance, the world
> doesn´t have that surety and it´s sad, but the Lord offers everything,
> if only we ask him, and do His will, it´s just that simple.  Like
> president Uchtdord said, if you have any feelings of hatred or have a
> grudge against someone, Stop It! it´s just that simple, so it´s great.
>     Anyway, the package should come tomorrow because that´s when the
> zone leaders go to xela, and also i´m the district leader now, there´s
> 8 in our district.  It´s good because i get a cell phone, which is
> nice. I´ll have to send some pictures when I can, but you guys should
> send me some of whatever, just by email and i´ll get them and also am
> able to print out photos here.  have a good week everyone, and thanks
> for everything.
> love,
> elder hansen

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