CAMBIOS!

Elder Hanson

Familia y Amigos,

What is going on?? I hope that all of you enjoyed Halloween and found something fun to do!  This week was a pretty good one, it was cambios (transfers) so that was always fun.  On Tuesday we got the call, and found out that Elder Naupoto and Elder Vasquez were going to have changes.  Pretty much half of the zone too, as lots of people finished up their missions.  Me and Elder Smith knew that we were going to stay so we helped them get packed up.

After a sleepless night (we have to get up so early there is no point in sleeping) we got on the bus to go to Managua.  We got there early and got to say hi to everyone, that was fun.  I think I told you guys, but the changes meeting kind of changed. They used to announce everyone and their companion of the whole mission.  The thing took like 3 hours, but I guess they decided that we were wasting time so now they just announce the ZL and their companions and then they tell the ZL who is in their zone, you get them on the bus and tell them their areas and comps on the bus.  Anyway Tuesday night we had all been thinking about who was going to be with who.  A couple of the ZLs had changes, so we were trying to guess who was going to be with who.  Turns out that my new companion is.... Elder Merrill!! We thought that we might be companions, but didn’t really think it was going to happen.  We are both stoked!

On Thursday we just got to work and contacted, not much happened there.

On Friday I went to Boaco to work.  They look like they are doing better, really improved this week in church so we are happy about that!  They have some missionaries that are animated to work so that is good. I went with Elder Peterson, Elder Merrill`s son from Morgan, Utah.  He is a cool guy who has a desire to work.  We stayed there all day long, and got back late. I was so exhausted.

On Saturday we went around and committed everyone to church.  It looked like we were going to have a good Sunday, everyone was excited, but of course Satan always takes a hold of the people Snday and they don’t know what to do.

On Sunday it was a rough day.  Nobody wanted to go, or they weren’t home.  Here are some of the fun things I found on Sunday morning.  I went to an investigator’s house and her pastor was there waiting for me, that was fun.  I am so sick of people trying to fight with us, I just listen to them and then say thanks these days.  I went to another house where the guy told me he was confused and wouldn’t go to church because the night before he had seen members from the church at a disco... which means he was there hahaha.  I thought that was funny.  It started raining and then he said he can’t go out in the rain.  It was just straight excuses from him.  We got a couple of "ahi llego, no se preocupe" (I’ll be there, don’t worry) which always means they aren’t going to go, not much we could do there.  And of course a lot of them just weren’t home.  It was a fun Sunday, a nice welcome for Elder Merrill.  We are working hard to find new people.

This week we are going to have consejo (leadership council) on Tuesday, and then I am going to have to go to Managua again on Thursday for a training meeting for Elder Smith.  That should be great.  I am excited for early mornings and long bus rides! ;)  I hope that all of you have a wonderful week, I love you all!

Elder Hanson

I sent Elder Hanson ingredients to make his favorite...

Pumpkin Bread!

Conferencia Multimisional (again), HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The Juigalpa Zone

Familia y Amigos,

What’s going on?? This week was actually a pretty good one here, we had some fun, more General Authorities came, so that was all good!  I will let you know about it.

On Monday nothing else really went down, we just finished doing some things we needed to do and got back to work.

On Tuesday I had to go to Boaco to do a last second interview. The guy was super awesome, and super prepared, but he lied to me in the interview!  When I left, he told the Hermanas that he wouldn’t live the law of chastity, that he couldn’t do it.  The guy was so pilas (awesome), but his baptism ended up falling through because he wouldn’t commit to live the commandment.  Boaco had some really nice weather, it was really cool, and raining, but it was a cold rain so that was nice.  We got back to the area, while I was gone we had gotten one of our possibilities for baptism interviewed.  He passed and was a little sketchy for his baptism, but we decided we were just going to pass by every day to visit him.

On Wednesday it was just a day in the area. We contacted, tried to find some new people.  We actually had a really good day.  Everyone let us in, they listened, we put a good number of fechas (baptismal dates) and the people all seemed like they were going to progress, haha. We tried to pass by for our possibility but he wasn’t there.

On Thursday it was a day in the area too.  I had to go look at a house for the District Leader so I lost a little bit of time there, the house ended up not passing the inspection so we are still looking.  We found the possibility on the street, he told us he didn’t really feel ready for his baptism, we couldn’t like sit down and talk to him, we tried to set up a cita (appointment), but he was going out of town to work until Friday night.  Things were not looking good at all.

On Friday we had zone meeting to see how things were looking for November, not looking good at all haha.  We have been encouraging, but there are 3 missionaries dying (ending their missions) here this change so their areas are not looking good at all.  To have success in the zone, we have to have every area baptizing.  It was nice to be together as a zone though, and we had a good class about commitments.  We found a couple of new investigators, but still things were looking bad for the baptism.  He wasn’t there on Friday night when we passed by, and we weren’t going to be able to talk to him on Saturday because we had a conference.

On Saturday we got up bright and early (didn’t sleep at all) to go to Managua for a conference that we had.  It was with Elder Snow, and Brother Turley.  I think that Elder Snow is the church historian.  Anyway Elder Alonso from the Area Presidency was here too.  He or Elder Ochoa almost always come.  I really enjoyed Elder Snow`s message, even though I was exhausted and a little dozing in and out.  He talked about here in Nicaragua, right now they don’t need just baptisms, they need us to establish the church.  They seem like they really want a temple here in Nicaragua, but they are seeing that the church isn’t super established yet.  Brother Turley also talked about planting seeds, how things aren’t always going to work out the way we want.  Then Elder Alonso got up and told us that we can double the number of baptisms that we are having if we use the things that we were taught.  Lots more responsibility haha.  The conference ended at 12, we took a mission photo and left at like 1. Then we headed back to Juigalpa.  We got back here at 5, changed out of our suits and got to work.  We went straight to the possibilities house, and he wasn’t there.  We called him and he said that he was going to be at his house in an hour, so we just sat and waited.  That ended up being 2 hours, he came to his house, he had to go run another mandado (errand) so we said we would go with him.  As we were walking, I asked him, "you know what today is right?" and he said "Saturday, and yeah, my girlfriend says she can’t come to my baptism (she gave us the reference and we taught him) but its ok"  So after the mandado we went to the church and baptized him. 

On Sunday, he studies in the morning, but we have to confirm him in the morning since its our branch.  So he said he was going to be home and we could come and get him at 8, but at 7:45 he called and said that he wasn’t home.  Great.  He told us that he was going to come to the church for his confirmation, but it is so hard to trust people, there wasn’t anything we could do.  He ended up coming!  The other elders baptized one of their investigators in the morning on Sunday also so it made for not having a ton of investigators in church.  It was good to have the baptisms though.

This week is changes, but I am almost positive that I will be staying.  Plan on another 2 changes here in Juigalpa :)  I hope that everyone has a fun Halloween, I can’t decide if I’m going to carve a pineapple or a watermelon, we will see!  

Love you all,

Elder Hanson

Having some fun at Zone meeting

One of our baptisms

The other baptism this week

Elder Vasquez and Elder Hanson

Your average Nicaragua week

At the house

Familia y Amigos,

How’s it going? It’s probably real surprising to hear, but this week was pretty routine, filled with contacting, finding people that are "positive" and working in the zone.  It was a rough week zonewise, all of the zones are having a really hard time right now completing with the goals that we put, so we are just trying, praying for miracles and doing all that we can.

Last Monday was good, just got back to working and tried to find a couple of people, not much happened.  Elder Naupoto and Elder Vasquez got ready to go to Bluefields, so the rest of the week the area was mine.

Tuesday we went out to Santo Tomas to do some interviews.  They were 2 chavalos (young boys), sons of a Member, who did not want anything. I wasted 6 hours in total just to go and have them sit there and not answer anything I asked them about their baptism.  It was fun :)

On Wednesday we just worked in the area and tried to find some people.  We contacted an area that Elder Salazar and I had contacted when he first came, and we had a little success, but not much because on Sunday the people didn’t want to come at all.

Thursday Elder Naupoto and Elder Vasquez got back, and went to Santo Tomas to try to recover the baptism, but it didn’t work, the little kids weren’t that great.  We didn’t have a ton of people interviewed for baptism and things were coming down to the wire. Just kept contacting and trying to find people.

On Friday it was a crazy day.  The Hermanas had some people that could be baptized so they went and found them and called me over for the interview.  They were all good, just the grandma didn’t want to let them do it.  She was saying "mejor en otra epoca" (it would be better another time)..... puuuuuu! No thanks! The baptism was scheduled for Saturday, but all of a sudden they decided to do it in the moment.  So we had to rush to the church, fill up the pila (font) and get someone to baptize.  It all turned out well, definitely a miracle they got baptized though!

Saturday was nice to have the other Elders back working in the area too.  We just committed people to church.  In the morning we had this meeting about a retention program the mission is doing, so we met as a zone.  It was Elder Vasquez`s bday so the whole zone threw eggs, he wasn’t expecting it at all!! 

Sunday was a little rough, but we have the faith we`ll find people this week!  That’s about all that went down, I don’t have a ton of photos but here’s an old one of me and Elder Hartley, and me at the house!  Have a great week, love you all!!  I thought consejo (Leader’s Conference) was going to be this week, but we have a multimision, AGAIN.  I’m so sick of bus rides hahahah.  Have a great week, love you all!

Elder Hanson :)

Me and Elder Hartley

Multizona!

Our baptism!

Familia y Amigos,

How is it going?? Things are going pretty well here, I had a good week, a nice trip to Managua and everything.

On Tuesday I had a Multizona (multizone conference).  Elder Naupoto and I were in charge of a class, and it went well.  We played a game that the people seemed to like and things went good.  President said we did a good job, so that was awesome.  We also played a minute to win it game that the APs did, so it was fun playing against the other zones.  President’s main message was about being misioneros consagrados (consecrated missionaries), and what we can do to be better.  He gave out a copy of the 4th missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge, which is super good and I would encourage every missionary or future missionary to read it.  I have been studying that this past week seeing how I can be a better missionary.

On Wednesday we just worked normal, and tried to find people.  We are having a hard time finding people that are willing to go to church right now, so we are just doing our best and hoping the Lord will do the rest.

On Thursday it was the same.  Elder Naupoto and Elder Vasquez went to Santo Tomas to work with the Elders there, so the area was mine.  One of our now recent converts has a little sister with a birthday so we went and ate cake with them. That was fun.  

On Friday I went to Boaco and worked with the sisters there.  They are struggling but it’s hard to do divisions, because we have to leave halfway through the day to make it to our area on time.  It rained super hard so that felt good!

On Saturday we had a baptism!! Por fin!! (finally)  The girl that we baptized was super scared of the water.  She didn’t really want to do it, but her inactive mom showed up (we didn’t think she was going to come) and she got right in.  When she came up out of the water she was shaking hahaha.  It was nice to finally get her baptized.  I’ll send a pic.

On Sunday nothing really went down, just a lot of lying people that didn’t want to go to church. This fast Sunday was a lot less apostasy and things went good.   The goal this week is to find some cool people that will actually progress and want to go to church!  I know that we can do it, but some prayers would be appreciated!  Thank you for all you do, love you guys lots!

Elder Hanson

Cake with our convert's sister

A cathedral in Boaco

I LOVE BLUEFIELDS!!!!!!!

Great to be back in Bluefields!

Familia y Amigos,

This week was honestly one of the best weeks of my whole mission.  I loved it. It started really well and didn’t end the best but it was still awesome.  I’ll let you know about it.

Anyway on Tuesday we got up super early for the trip to Bluefields.  I didn’t miss that trip at all.  Your legs fall asleep like halfway through because the bus seats aren’t comfortable and then it is a boat on choppy water, while sitting on a wooden bench. But we got there pretty early, like at 11, so that was nice and we got to work.  The first day I worked with Bluefields 2 with Elder Page and Elder Peñalba, which wasn’t my area, but I still knew it pretty well.  We visited the Branch President who greeted me with a big hug, and a couple other people who I knew from the area.  It was super awesome.  It honestly felt like being home, just because I was there for so long.  Bluefields was still hot, but it had cooled down a little and the weather was perfect.  Things went well with those elders and in the night we got some of my favorite batidos (smoothies) so that was cool.

On Wednesday it was even better.  I got to work in Bluefields 1 with Elder Bradbeer and Elder Rushton.  We started out the morning going and visiting a couple of my converts.  We visited Ayoleth, who took us super long to baptize because of her marriage papers.  We have a book with all of the converts, and it says she isn’t active so I wanted to see what was going on.  Well turns out the missionaries didn’t even know who she was, they said they see her in church every week but just didn’t really know who she was.  That was awesome.  We went and visited Curt, who is active, has a calling, and goes every week in his white shirt and tie.  Asi es!!  We went and visited a couple of members, and when one of them saw me they said "mi gran amigo!" (my good friend)  It was so great to see the fruits of my labor, and that was probably why it made it the best week of my mission so far.  I ate some pan de coco and some picos, and we went to Noche De Hermanamiento (Fellowship night) where we saw some more members and said hi.  The elders there are working hard and are going to be baptizing 2 of my old investigators this week, so that made me happy too.  I even got to do the interview for one of them, which was cool.

On Thursday we got up and left at like 9 and got back at 4.  For those of you that didn’t know our house here in Juigalpa was really bad, it was super tiny and to pray on our knees in our study room we all had to get up on our chairs.  We were a little fed up with the house so we kind of started looking for a new one.  A member here, a returned missionary just said to us, you don’t really have any time to look for one so just ask the Lord for a house and He`ll give you it.  So that’s what I decided to do.  I prayed and asked the Lord for a new house, something kind of silly.  I asked last week on like Thursday.  So right after I got to Bluefields, a member called me out of the blue and told me that he saw a house that he thought would be really good for us.  He didn’t know at all that we were looking for a new house, but the new one is great.  We ended up moving on Thursday which took up the whole day, but it was good to finally get out of the bad house.  The family that found the house for us recently got sealed in the temple and just went inactive, but they went to church this week which was awesome too.

Then on Friday I just worked in the area, normal.  It was the only day all week that I worked in the area, so I’m sure you can imagine how things went with bringing investigators to general conference.

On Saturday and Sunday we had conference.  It went good, but it was a little hard to focus.  The problem with watching conference in Spanish is that you can still hear the English in the background so it is a little hard to focus.  My favorite talk was probably the first one of Priesthood session, by Elder Neil L Anderson on faith.  I need to have more faith so that we can complete with all of the things we need to do here, trying to get our goal of 2300 baptisms.  I hope that all of you were able to receive personal revelation also, and that you learned something from conference.

That about does it for my week, it was awesome and here are a couple pictures.  I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Hanson

Elder Bradbeer, Elder Hanson, Elder Smith, Elder Rushton, Elder Page and Elder Peñalba

Ayoleth is doing great!

Our new casa!

Home Sweet Home

Consejo, Zone Meeting, Going back to Bluefields

Consejo.  (the lighting is super bad hahah)   

Familia y amigos

Que pedo? (What’s up?) I hope that all of you had a super great week, things went well here.  This week was a week full of contacting and getting the zone excited for these next couple of big months.

On Tuesday Elder Naupoto and I went to Consejo de Lideres (Leader’s Conference), which is always in President’s house.  We had to get up like at 3:30am to be on a bus at 4:30am to get there on time.  It was rough waking up early and going to Managua 2 days in a row, but there was not much I could do.  We got there and our presentation went well, President was happy with what we had for September, but we need to do a lot more.  We raised the goal to 2300 baptisms for the year, so that means we will be having to do a lot more.  The Lord wants more from us, so it will be a lot more work and pressure to get it.

On Wednesday we just worked, normal in the area.  We found out that the investigator that we had progressing for baptism this week drank coffee, so she has to wait all the way until after General Conference to get baptized.  It was a little sad, but she’s excited to get baptized, so pray for her please!  One thing we have been lacking in is the norms (standards) and new investigators, so we just worked hard to find new people, and as always the norms just kind of fill out.  We have been putting a lot of emphasis in finding new people here in the zone, so the missionaries are putting like 3 baptismal fechas (dates) a day.

Thursday was the same.  We found a couple of cool people, one of them was actually a guy that came to church on his own on Sunday.  He accepted a fecha (baptismal date) super fast and was telling us he wanted to get baptized, I love when people are prepared like that!  A couple of our investigators that we had with Elder Hartley fell, they were positive but let other people get into their heads.  The missionaries from Bluefields came in because we were going to have Zone meeting on Friday.

Zone Meeting was on Friday and that went pretty well, we were just trying to get the missionaries excited to get to work, and to complete with the goals that we have.  The missionaries are working pretty hard and it looks like we should have a good month in October.  We forgot to take a picture (sorry mom!) but the zone is doing really well.  We worked with the Elders from Bluefields in our area and found a couple of people.

Saturday we didn’t have a baptism, verified all day with the zone to make sure things were going well, and tried to commit our investigators to church.  It was just like last Saturday and there wasn’t anyone home.  We put a lot of fechas and committed them to church, but none of them were too promising.  It is getting a little boring just finding people that aren’t progressing, we want to be teaching lessons but we can’t teach if we don’t have investigators.  We´ll bounce back soon here though.

On Sunday it was an alright day.  The branch council was a little rough.  Everyone in the zone got confirmed and we finished out the night well, I found a cool family so we will see if they progress!  

Today nothing has really happened either, just got my hair cut, we went and got smoothies and I’m just getting ready to go back to Bluefields tomorrow!! I’m super stoked to go and say hi to some of my converts, and see how all of the members are doing.  Next week I’ll have pictures from there!  Thanks for all you guys do, love you all!

Elder Hanson

Batidos with the district

Training, New Companion, Mondays I Live in Managua

Elder Smith and Me

Familia y Amigos,

How’s everything going?? I don’t have a ton of time this week, I’m doing a presentation for Consejo de Lideres (Leaders Conference) in Managua tomorrow.  It always takes forever and I got off to a late start because of today so things aren’t going so hot.

This week was awesome, Monday was normal and on Tuesday we found out cambios (changes).  Elder Hartley ended up having changes, so that meant that Elder Vasquez would be staying.  They told me I would be training also.

Wednesday we got up bright and early so that we would make it to cambios on time (last change meeting the Juigalpa bus showed up late... not good) and we were able to make it.  I found out that my new comp would be Elder Smith, who is from Riverton, UT.  He just barely finished up in the MTC and has a great desire to work.  I am now ZL1 here, and Elder Naupoto from Hawaii is the other ZL.  He dies (finishes his mission) in 2 changes, so I will probably be killing him here, which means that I'll be here until like January.  Whoooo!  We got back from changes after a little training meeting, and then got to work.

On Thursday we just visited some of our investigators and we contacted.  I was showing my comp around the area, letting him get a little comfortable, and putting him to contact.  Asi esssss.  He has a desire to work, his Spanish is pretty good, so we just have to get the nerves out and he has some great potential.

On Friday we did the routine cada otra semana (every other week) in Boaco.  I’m still the DL there too, so we went and worked with the hermanas.  That was an interesting experience.  I pulled out a baptism in their area for Saturday so they were happy, they’re not doing so hot.  We got back late so we planned and then went to bed.

On Saturday we just went and committed people to come to church.  Like nobody was home, nobody really let us in or anything, so it was kind of a rough day, but we just pushed through.  It was my comp's first taste of real rejection so he got a little discouraged but all is well.  We didn’t really commit a ton of people to church, so that stunk also.

On Sunday we were blessed as a zone and got everyone confirmed.  We have 16 baps right now as a zone, trying to get above the norm of 20.  Pray that we can do it!!  We didn’t have a ton of people in church, but our bap for this week passed her interview so that was cool.  We should have a baptism this week.  Other than that we just got back to work again.

And then today, we had to go to Managua.  I feel like I make the commute every Monday, but whatever.  My comp had to get some papers done for his cedula (visa).  It took forever but we got to eat Pizza Hut again and I got to take a little nap.  Now I’m just rushing to finish this presentation.  I hope all of you have a great week, love you all!!!

Elder Hanson