Las Buenas Nuevas

Some dope shirts a convert gave us

Familia y Amigos,

Hope you all had a good week this week, my week here was good and we were able to find some new investigators!  I’ll give you the run down on what happened.

Tuesday we were only able to proselyte until 3 pm, there is a national holiday here on the 19th of July, it is the day that 37 years ago the new government came into power.  This year is also elections here in Nicaragua so supposedly it was going to be crazy, nothing really happened just a lot of drunk people.  The streets were dead because everyone went to the plaza.  We were able to get a little caught up on things.  In the short 2 hours we had to work me and my companion were able to find this awesome guy who has a big desire to change his life.  He went to church on Sunday with his kids, we didn’t have to pass by for him so we are going to be working with him and his family.

On Wednesday we had a good day as well.  One of my investigators that I have, someone we have been teaching since April has been doing well.  She went to church 2 times right at the beginning of the teaching and then got a job where she works on Sundays, hasn’t been able to go. We have been teaching her on Wednesdays and she told us that her boss was going to give her a new job and that on Sunday she was going to be able to go to church... so we were stoked.  Anyway in the moment it was a miracle buuuuuut she didn’t actually have Sunday off so we´ll keep working with her hahah.  Hoping that she did actually get the job and that she will be able to get baptized here soon.  We also are teaching the cousin of a member who is progressing well.  He has 2 times in church now and is going great with the teaching.

Thursday we had the first Consejo with President Brown.  It was very different for a couple reasons, first of all the people there, I didn’t really know a ton of the zone leaders, they are all new.  Second was what he talked about.  It was very focused on spiritual power and repentance.  He showed us some parts from the new mission president’s devocional, mainly from Elder Andersons talk.  It was really good, we talked a little bit more about establishing the church, and quality converts. It was definitely different, I´ll leave it at that.

Friday we had zone meeting, that was good.  Our training was on using inspired questions (I swear like the thousandth time) but it was really good and was more focused on bringing the spirit.  It all went great, we took a zone pic and then ended it..

Saturday we had a baptism in the area of a convert’s best friend, he was super ready and came to us so we could start teaching him, we committed everyone to church and all that fun stuff.

Sunday was a good day, got a good amount of people out to church and we are working to have some baptisms for the next month.  Sunday was probably the best day this week though, right after second hour I got a call from one of the APs (who were in Bluefields with president) and I was able to talk to some of my converts there.  I got to talk to Curt and his wife, the ones who were just sealed and they are great.  But then I was able to talk to Ayoleth and her husband, and they told me that they are going to get sealed in December, they were going to get interviewed right then for their temple recommends.  Super awesome! I was able to talk to a couple other members and things are going great.

That’s about it, this week should be another interesting one, we will have the training meeting for Elder Peterson and we might have interviews, we will see!  Hope you all have a great week, love you all!

Elder Hanson

 La Zona Universitaria!!!

 Baptism

Cambios

Baptism

Familia y Amigos,

How is it going, hope you all are doing great.  This week was cambios, so it was the usual routine, nothing changed at all really the way they did it with the new mission President.  Tuesday we got the call that Elder Hall would have changes (going home) and that Elder Chacón would also be training.  They took out one of my dls from the zone, and there weren’t too many changes.

Anyway Tuesday night the new missionaries came to our area to work, I was able to work with Elder Diaz from the Dominican Republic, that was cool and it was fun to see the energy the new missionaries all have!  We found a cool lady that accepted a fecha super fast.  We haven’t found her since, but were hoping we can!

Wednesday was changes, pretty much all of the leaders of the mission went home.  It was weird being in my last change meeting and saying bye to all those guys.  There is a new Elder in our area, he is Elder Rivera, from El Salvador.  Elder Chacón will be training him.  Funny story, they actually live like half a block away from each other in El Salvador, they are in the same ward.  That would be weird to be comps with someone from your ward haha.  They didn’t really know each other too well because Elder Chacón is a convert to the church so he was home like a year before he left, and he is also 6 years older than all of us.  Wednesday me and Elder Peterson had a super awesome day, we were able to put a couple fechas with families, and the people we found that day actually went to church.  It is always great to see the fruits of the work.

Thursday was normal, Friday we had a mini zone meeting to get to know everyone a little better. The zone wasn’t really what I was expecting it to be, and we lost some really good missionaries.  Oh well. The zone should have a decent month and we are getting ready also for August. 

Friday afternoon we also had a baptism.  It was crazy.  So the baptism was planned for 5 o’clock and we went at like 4:30 to fill up the font.  So as we were filling it up, it started to smell really bad. We decided to quickly clean it and there were some young men there to help us.  We got it all good and then we started filling it up. Still smelled like rotten fish and the water had like gross foam in it.  We had an idea to put some clorox in the water to see if it would take away the smell and so we got a bag from a pulperia (store) and it worked.  So by then it was like 5:30 and we decided we should probably go and see why the baptism hadn’t showed up yet, so we decided to walk the mile or more to her house.  Right when we were half a block there we got a call from Elder Chacón telling us that she was there.  We started walking back, got another call saying that the pila had drained and that Sister Brown and her daughter were there because the youth had invited her.  So we bought another bag of clorox and started the long walk back.  It all ended up great, so we were happy she was able to get baptized.  There is never an easy baptism here!

Sunday we had a good turn out at church, and things are looking good here for the end of this month and the beginning of the next. I am doing great and loving things, I hope you all have a great week!  

Love you,

Elder Hanson

Bye Elder Heileson

Me and my 3 sons that are in the mission

Meet the Browns

With a cool member family that gave us lunch yesterday.

Familia y Amigos,

How is it going?  It was another mas o menos week here, some cool stuff happened though so that was fun!

We were going to have a baptism but he ended up falling.  He was telling us how he didnt feel ready, he wasnt sure, he told us that when he prayed he felt good and everything but we dug down a little deeper and he doesnt really have a testimony of the Book of Mormon so we will be working on that with him.  He and his friend also decided to look up stuff on internet, thats always fun.

The week started out normal, we just started looking for some new investigators because the majority of ours fell and or didnt want to progress.  We didnt have a ton of luck, but we found a couple people yesterday after church so we are hoping we can get things rolling. 

On Friday we had a multizona to get to know the new mission president.  Sister Brown talked about the importance of following the spirit.  It was a great talk.  And then President Brown gave a good talk too.  He talked about how in his 8 months of preparation he prayed to know what to do with the mission.  He shared a scripture in Johnd 5:30 that talks about how we need to do the will of the father. He said that in the preparation, he felt that God wanted 2 things from the mission and the missionaries.  First thing, that Nicaragua needs a temple so we need to do everything we can to get it, and we need to establish the church here not just baptize a ton of people and have them go inactive the next month.  Second, he said that we need missionaries with more spiritual power. The 2 things he talked about are exactly what we need, so it was awesome to see how he has the revelation to direct and guide the mission, and the Lord has a plan for us here. We should always be asking if we are doing the fathers will, and what we can do to improve! Each of their kids gave a talk and after it was crazy to see all the kids running around.  Forgot what that was like haha.

Miracle of the week, there is this girl who is the sister of a recent convert here in the area.  Her sister got baptized a year ago and she didnt really want anything to do with the church.  Sometimes she would go with her sister but would always say that she wasnt getting baptized, etc.  Anyway at the beginning of the month we decided that we were going to teach her because all the missionaries in the past probably just came and talked about baptism, baptism, and baptism, because she had been to church a million times but never really been taught. So we decided to teach her and she was looking a little more positive, but she still was saying that she didnt want to.  Anyway when we showed up to teach her on Saturday she said "Elderes, tengo una noticia. Me voy a bautizar el proximo sabado!" (Elders, I have an announcement.  I'm going to get baptized next Saturday!)  It had been a rough day up to that point so we were stoked.  Anyway she passed her baptismal interview and all is good for this Saturday!

Sunday was an alright day, church was good, not too many people came.  This week we are trying to find some new families to teach so we can get some more people out to church.  Everything is going well and I love you all!

This week is changes, I am most likely staying here to finish up Elder Petersons training!

Elder Hanson

We bought ping pong paddles so we could play on the table at the church!

President Change

Eating nacatamales.

Familia y Amigos,

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! Hope you all enjoy it!

Well not a ton happened this week, it wasn’t really the greatest week ever, turnout in church wasn’t that great as well.  We tried finding people but not much happened.  This week we are going to bounce back and find some new people and get things rolling again.

We had a couple of cool lessons this week with our investigators. We were able to finish teaching the commandments, and they committed to live them.  This week we should have a baptism, his name is Henry and it would be awesome if you could all pray that he does it!  He has a good testimony and is almost there on doing it.  We continue to look for new people and know that we will find some this week.

The zone is doing awesome and we should have a good amount of baptisms this week.

They changed our mission president this week, President Russell left Tuesday or Wednesday and so our new President, President Brown was here around that same time. I actually was able to meet him 2 times this week, the first I was going to the church and he was there in front of the church in his car. I was able to meet him, me and my companion introduced ourselves and it was quick.  He seems like a nice guy and told us to work hard and be happy!

The second was on Saturday, one of the sister missionaries invited him and his wife to their baptism in the morning, so he came with his family (3 of his 4 kids came.) We were able to talk with him a little more and get to know him a little better. His family is super nice, his Spanish is great and all is going well! I am excited to keep working here and finding some people to baptize!

That’s all that really went down this week, we had a fun p day today, played some soccer and then played with some water balloons. It was a great time.

I hope you all have a great week, love you all,

Elder Hanson

Water ballons!