Cambios, Multimision

Me and Elder Collado at the last zone meeting

Familia y Amigos,

Not much too exciting happened this week. I´ll try to make it as exciting as possible. I have some new comps so anyways on Tuesday we got the call for cambios, Elder Kendrick had changes, Elder Henriquez was dying and so me and Elder Avila were going to stay. They also let me know that I was going to be training. We went and said bye to everyone, Elder Kendrick was a little sad but all turned out well.

We got up super early and did the recorrido, going out to San Rafael, Diriamba, Masatepe, so much fun.  I was super exhausted and the cambios meeting also started early because of a worldwide mission capacitation that there was.  So I got my new companion, he is Elder Wagstaff, he is from Kaysville, Utah and went to Davis, he is the other ZL.  And my son (the 5th one) is Elder Lambson, he is from Cortez, Colorado.  He is good and seems like he will work hard.  We stayed there for that capacitation, and I liked how Elder Bednar talked about how we are the instrument of the Holy Ghost, lots of times we think the Holy Ghost is our instrument.  We need to do everything we can so that we can be worthy to be used.

Thursday was a normal day of working, we got to teach a couple of the people we have, the majority aren’t doing the hottest, but we are working to find more.

Friday I went to Diriamba to the district meeting.  Elder Kendrick got changes right over to Diriamba so it was fun seeing him.  The district is doing alright, this month we could make history here in Zona Carazo so all your prayers would be greatly appreciated.  The APs called and told us that Elder Avila was going to have changes so they came and picked him up.  We are now in a trio which makes things a lot harder.  We have plans for this week to go out and do divisions with the zone, it is going to be easier than when I was in Juigalpa in a trio.

Saturday we just committed people to church.  On Sunday we had an alright turnout, got blessed by the Lord, a couple people just showed up.  

But the most interesting was today.  We once again did not have P day due to a Multi Mission conference (like the 30th one) and Elder Christensen of the Presidency of the 70 came.  He can speak Spanish so that was cool.  He shared a couple of experiences and his main focus was on how we need to baptize people that are actually converted and not try to convince, force, or put pressure on people that aren’t converted just to do it.  The North and South Missons in Nicaragua are the highest baptizing in Central America, so a lot of what I just talked about is happening.  He asked our mission president and he said that like 60-70 percent are actually converts.  He also went over the devotional from Thursday.  It was overall pretty good, trying to keep my eyes open from the tiredness. I’m super tired.  That’s all that is going on, I hope you all have a great week, love you lots!

Elder Hanson

Diriamba is having a big party so the streets were super crowded

I forgot to send this photo last week, we surpassed our 2015 goal

I live in microbuses, Semana de Playa

Three Musketeers

Familia y Amigos,

I hope that all went well this week, mine was super crazy and it flew by. I am a little short on time so I am going to write quick.

Monday we didn’t have P day, it was just a normal day to work but we could write home and get the stuff we needed.  We got everything ready because Wednesday was going to be a crazy day going to Playa Gigante and back.  We talked to a couple of our investigators and tried to get them animated, it wasn’t the best day ever but we didn’t end too bad.

Tuesday I had to go to Diriamba to do an interview for the sister training leaders.  The lady tried lying to me hahahah.  She had to get married and was trying to tell me she and her husband had separated.... wasn’t true.  Everyone in the night was super excited for the next day, because the whole mission would be getting together at Playa Gigante.

Wednesday was a fun day, got to see all of the friends from the mission and we had a good time hanging out.  My companion wanted to leave super early, at 5 in the morning when we had to be there at 10.  They said we had to wait in Rivas until 10 if we got there early.  I calculated it out and I knew we were going to get there at 8:30.  I told my companion, he didn’t believe me so it wasn’t a big surprise when we showed up at 8:30 am and had to wait a while.  It was a cool day on the beach and president put the new goal.  It is going to be 2600 baptisms.... I know that we can do it, it is going to require a lot of work, but I know it is achievable.

Thursday I worked with the APs, we went around the whole zone animating people for baptism.  We visited that girl I had interviewed earlier in the week, and we committed her to get married, she said she was willing - we just had to talk to her husband.  It was a good time and some of the people we visited were super happy.  I love seeing the nicas smile and get excited because there is no way it doesn’t make you smile too.  Me and Elder Kleiner had some good laughs with them and it was a great day.

The next morning I had to get up super early to go to Diriamba because we had a cita (appointment) with the husband at 7am.  I showed up and it was like a 5 minute lesson, things went well.  We got that all set up and then I had to go all the way to Masatepe for a district meeting.  So many buses... I live in them.  Things went well the rest of the day.

Saturday was just committing people, and then Sunday was church.  The zone did super awesome and I am really happy how we are progressing.  On Sunday in the morning I also found one of my first converts.  She is active and things are going super well with her!  Every month with 5 weeks the zone that baptizes the most por misionero goes to a BBQ, and we have a legit shot so pray that we can get things going!!!  

Today I had a super fun p day with Elder Collado, his last one so we went big. I hope you all have a great week, love you!!!

Elder Hanson

Me and Merrill

With my convert on Sunday

P Day Fun

Elder Collado, my trainer, goes home this week

Consejo, San Rafael, we´re going to San Juan :)

Consejo with the pals (missing Naisbitt :()

 Familia y Amigos, 

This week was super crazy, not that much happened but it was a pretty fun week. Here’s what went down.

Monday I had an interview with president, that was fun and an after mission story :)

Tuesday I went down to San Rafael del Sur to work with Elder Collado and his district.  I did 3 interviews for him and got to work with Elder Petty.  Haha the interviews were all different and unique, the best part was that one of the guys I interviewed told me that he had 2 wives hahaha.  Silly Nicas. I still haven’t understood them.  Things aren’t going the greatest there, they are struggling to get the church started up so we have been trying to help them out.  I stayed the night there with them and got up in the morning to head back to San Marcos.

Wednesday was a really slow day, my companion had his last interview so just me and Elder Kendrick worked in the area. We got to talk to one of our investigators that is progressing, his mom who is a member doesn’t really want him to get baptized so we are working with that.  We couldn´t really find anyone so we said a specific prayer and asked the Lord that we could find someone.  We found this guy who was super nice, let us in and listened.  We had a couple other citas (appointments) with him throughout the week.  He didn’t end up going to church, but we are going to see what we can do there.

Thursday was consejo de liderazgo (leadership training.  It went well, we didn’t have the best month ever in December, but we have some pretty high goals set for here in January.  It is a month of 5 weeks, so we are trying to get everyone in that we can. I hung out with the usual people, some old companions and all that fun stuff.

Zona Carazo! Puro fuego.

Friday was zone meeting, we did it in Diriamba.  There is a nicer capilla (chapel) there and it went pretty well.  We have a pretty good zone so they are all working hard, and have good visions for right now.  That night we were working, and it was like 8:45, we were about to head back to the house but there was this house that caught my attention.  We went and contacted it and turns out it is a family to complete.  The wife was baptized a while ago and the husband has never listened to the missionaries.  They need to get married so we will be working with them.

Baptism

Saturday we had a baptism that was a blessing, this kid is the son of a convert who has been going to church for like 8 months but has never wanted to get baptized.  He finally did which was awesome.  He asked for me to baptize him so I did. We had a cool lesson with this family we are teaching.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and they were interested.  The wife in the family (they are married, miracle!) says she was presented in our church as a baby, who knows. That day we also had a cool visit with a less active.  He is super bitter about the church, doesn’t really have plans to go back. They have a rm son who is inactive and the whole family hasn’t been to church in forever.  We got there and I felt like I should share the sacrament prayers with him, it was super random because we weren’t talking about the sacrament or anything.  As he was reading the scripture the tears stared flowing, he couldn’t finish the scripture so his wife did.  He said it brought back a lot of memories but still doesn’t want to go to church. Oh well.

Sunday this old member died, so there was a funeral, we went for a little.  The family is super awesome and the lady had worked as a temple ordinance worker which was cool.  I went and did some interviews for Elder Nave and that was about it.  A couple new investigators came so that was nice.  All is well here and this week we are going to San Juan del Sur because we completed with the goal we had set as a mission for 2015, it was 2060 baptisms and we finished around 2140.  Number one in central America in baptisms/missionary :)  I hope you all have a great week, love you all!!

Elder Hanson

New Year!

Baptism this week

Familia y Amigos,

I hope you all had a super good new year, here things weren’t too different, hahaha.  This week not much happened and I am short on time so it is going to be quick, sorry!

This week we were mostly trying to find new people to teach.  We were mostly contacting, knocking houses and we got a couple of references from some members that all didn’t really turn out to be positive people.  We got to meet with a couple of people that are preparing for baptism, we have been trying to focus on them and visit them as much as possible.

On New Years Eve not too much happened.  A member invited us over for dinner in the night and some fireworks so we went over to her house and ate dinner and then did the fireworks, it wasn’t too special or anything and we just went back to the house to light off a couple of the fireworks we had too - hahah.  But it’s crazy because now it is 2016!!!

New Years Day not too much happened either.  In the morning we had district meeting so I went over to Diriamba to see how things were going there.  Nobody was home, and all of our citas (apt) fell through the day and no one was home so it wasn’t the most successful day either.

On Saturday we had a baptism of another daughter of a less active.  She is super pilas (awesome) and knows a ton.  She was supposed to get baptized in Nandaime (part of Zona Jinotepe) but Elder Copeland was telling me on his last Sunday there she hid. There were no problems with her and she was excited to make the step in her life.  

Sunday the turn out was super low, this week we are going to be looking a lot more, even though I have consejo (leadership training) and I also am going to San Rafael del Sur this week to interview a couple of people.  Should be a good week.  I hope you all are doing well, you’re in my prayers. Have a great week!

Elder Hanson

Me and President and Hermana Russell at the multizona navideña (here you go mom!)