HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Christmas gifts

 Familia y Amigos,

Wow this week went by super fast and was crazy.  I hope that all of you enjoyed your Christmas, mine was pretty fun!  It was the last one here in Nicaragua so I definitely wanted to enjoy it. I’ll let you know what went down this week.

On Tuesday we just worked, visited our possibility for Saturday and got him interviewed.  He is 9 and told Elder Nave that a prophet is a revelator..... kid knows a lot.  He was super prepared by the Lord because I only taught him like 2 times.  His family is super awesome and they just wanted him to get in the water.  There were no problems with him.  We interviewed the other possibility I had and she was alright, she had a problem with the law of chastity and said she had left her partner, but was saying she wasn’t ready.  She decided she wanted to do it but  I didn’t really think it was going to happen.  It wasn’t a lack of faith, she just hadn’t really been to church in a while.

Wednesday was crazy, I had to go to Masatepe to rescatar (rescue) a baptism.  They were saying they couldn’t do it on Saturday so we committed them for Friday.  They said yes.  They were super excited and everything so the rest of the day we just got ready for the multizona (multi zone Christmas conference).

On Thursday we had the multizona navideña.  I felt like I was back in Juigalpa, we had to wake up super early and go and pick everyone up.  It wouldn’t have been so early if we hadn’t had to go to San Rafael del Sur to get Elder Collado and his district but whatever.  We left at 3am and got back at like 10pm.   It was super awesome, there were some good messages, we played some games, had a white elephant, and they gave each of the houses a microwave.  That will be nice to have.  I wasn’t in charge of anything so I got to enjoy the whole thing.  It was really nice.  I didn’t see a ton of the missionaries I am friends with, but I saw a couple which was good as well.  We took pictures there and then got out of there.  I got home and crashed.  The fireworks at 12 didn’t wake me up at all.

The next morning I woke up and opened some of the packages my fam had sent (special shout out to mom, dad, granny, grandpa, gran and papi, THANKS!) and then got ready for the day.  We had a district meeting so I went with Elder Nave´s district and that was fun.  After we had to find some food, our lunch cita (apt) wasn’t there, and then we tried to work a little.  Nobody wanted to talk hahaha.  We ended up having 2 dinner citas that were super good and then I talked with the fam.  It was awesome seeing them, everyone is so big now haha.  I hope everyone pasaredlo bien (had a good time)! 

Saturday we had a baptism, it went well except when he got baptized he left the water screaming.... it was not good at all. He ended up getting confirmed so it all went well!  Sunday also went well, I had some investigators come which was great.  All is well here with me, and I hope you all have a great new year.  2016, so crazy.  Love you all!!!

Elder Hanson

Baptism

White elephant gift

Elder Kleiner and I with the gift I gave.  It is a blue vase.  We have this thing here in the mission called "jargon azul", go look up the video on youtube.  You will understand.  It is just like give all you possibly can to achieve the task.

Click here to watch the "El Jarron Azul" video

La Actitud marca la diferencia, Merry Christmas!!!!

The family we baptized this week

Familia y Amigos,

This week has been a really good one, I have seen that as my attitude has changed, I have seen a lot of results.  This week was a week of miracles, I´ll let you know what happened.

On Wednesday we were contacting and I had one of the worst lessons ever. I felt like I explained things so clearly, but the lady just wouldn´t open up her heart.  I said to my companion, lets leave this barrio (neighborhood).  We decided to contact one more house before we left.  So the lady answers and is like, I´m mormona, actually I’m investida (endowed)... I thought "no way, that’s cool!"  Well to make it even cooler, she let us in and we started talking, and turns out she has a son that is 9.  She continued telling us that she and her husband (an ex presidente de rama – former branch president) had just decided that they were going to stay here in San Marcos instead of going back to Granada where they are from.  They had talked to the branch president there on Saturday telling him that they were going to look for the missionaries to get their son baptized.  So he has a fecha (date) for this Saturday, pray for him please!  His name is Ernesto.

Thursday was a little rough, but there was still a miracle.  We had correlacion misional (missionary correlation meeting) which took way longer than it should have and we decided to go to this super far part of the area where there is an investigator that the missionaries have been teaching forever, she knows everything.  So we went over and she let us know that she was going to be breaking up and leaving her husband.  He is a drunk and they are living in fornication so it was the only thing holding her back. She is also for this weekend, keep her in your prayers.

On Friday we got a call from an old investigator asking if he could get baptized on Saturday, too bad he had 0 times in church.  He didn’t end up going on Sunday anyway, we will see what happens with him.

Saturday we baptized a complete family, they were a reference from the first counselor here in the Bishopric, he helped us to teach them and everything, they are pilas (awesome).  I’ll send a pic.

On Sunday I went and did divisions with some sisters to help them out in their area and then did some interviews for Elder Nave.

I hope all of you have a great Christmas, I love you tons.  You are all in my prayers and I hope you all enjoy this great time of the year.  Keep it Real!!

Elder Hanson

Elder Kendrick, Elder Hanson, Elder Avila

San Marcos, Carazo

Elder Kendrick and Elder Hanson

Familia y Amigos,

How are you all doing?  Well turns out that I had changes, and I am currently in San Marcos, Carazo.  I am still a Zone Leader here, and I am loving the area so far.

Carazo is the coldest part of the mission, it is like an hour and a half from Managua and in my zone there is Diriamba, Masatepe, La Concha, San Rafael Del Sur, and my Area as well.  I have a lot of people that I know here in the zone, Elder Nave is my DL in Masatepe and Elder Collado is my DL in San Rafael del Sur. I am excited to be here, and have already had a super fun time.

We got changes on Tuesday, so that night I packed up, didn’t really sleep and I enjoyed my last long bus ride from Juigalpa to Managua. I was kind of sad to leave Juigalpa because I had some awesome companions there, but I was glad to get out of the area.  We got to Managua and found out that my new ZL comp is Elder Henriquez from El Salvador.  This is his last change so I will be "killing him." My companion is Elder Kendrick from El Paso, Texas.  He has like 5 months on the mission.  When I got to the area we just got to work, found a couple of cool people and I got to know the bishop, the counselors and everyone.  It is a ward here.

On Thursday I headed out to San Rafael Del Sur.  This is the second change that missionaries have been there and they are starting up the church for the first time.  Every Sunday they go on a bus for 45 minutes to get to the church in Diriamba with their investigators.  It was awesome working with Elder Collado, and I got to visit their possibilities.  I slept the night there, woke up and then went straight to Diriamba for the Reunion de Distrito.  That went alright, and then we worked the rest of Friday in our area.  

We found a super cool lady on Friday.  We needed a menos activo (less active) lesson and we visited a member to see if he knew any.  He told us that one lived next to him and the other side too, but that none of them were home.  We decided to contact the house right in front of his, and we were surprised to find a less active who hadn’t been to church in over 20 years.  We talked to her and her kids, one of them was super positive and accepted a baptismal date, and they both came with us on Sunday.  That was pretty cool and a testimony builder that the Lord has people prepared here for me.

Here this weekend it was also stake conference in Jinotepe :). So on Saturday we had to go to the priesthood session.  I got to see one of the converts I baptized last year there, Herty. I don’t know if you guys remember but he was a miracle baptism that just showed up to church one Sunday all prepared.  My zone and Zona Jinotepe are part of the same stake so I was super stoked when I found out.  He told me and Elder Collado that he was going to the temple at the end of this week, which was super awesome.  I forgot how much I loved Jinotepe, and the people there.  San Marcos is a little similar so I felt at home when I got here.

On Sunday I also got to see some converts, Hna Ana Hernandez who was also a great baptism, it was super hard to get her in the water. She is active with her RM daughter which is cool.

Overall it was a really good week, I’m excited to be here to work.  I love the weather because it is cold compared to Juigalpa!  

Thanks for all you do, love you lots,

Elder Hanson

Elder Collado and Elder Hanson

December winds, back to Managua

Mission Council

Elder Merrill and Elder Hanson twinning again

Familia y Amigos,

I hope all of you had a great week, this one wasn’t too bad here in Juigalpa. The weather is cooling down a little, there is a lot of wind, which makes the heat not so bad, it was even a little cold this last week (80 degrees haha) which was a nice change from the usual 95s.  A lot of stuff went down this week, a lot of things with the zone, so ill let you know what happened.

We thought that consejo was going to be on Tuesday, but they changed it to Wednesday.  Elder Smith and I just worked in the area on Tuesday.  It was a little hard to find the desire as the next day was consejo so we were mostly worrying and thinking about that.  The month we had wasn’t the greatest, it could have been worse so we were counting our blessings it wasn’t a disaster.  On Wednesday we went back to Managua (the worst trip ever) and got to see everyone.  That was a good time because we are all pretty close and have a good laugh.  A couple of my companions from the past are going home this week which is crazy, so it was fun to talk to them too.  Things went well at consejo, we learned about contacting more boldly, and using new ways to contact.  It is something I definitely need to do.  We also talked about #HaNacidoUnSalvador (#ASaviorisBorn) which was good, we watched the video a couple of times and they gave us some pass along cards to use while contacting.

On Thursday Elder Medrano was sick so me and Elder Merrill went and worked the day, we had a zone meeting to plan and had to visit a ton of people so it was a busy day, probably one of the most fun though that I have had in a while.  We had a really good lesson with one of the investigators that we have that is progressing well but probably wont be able to get baptized for a while.  We talked about the plan of salvacion, and he understood well. The spirit was strong.  We planned out the meeting and got everything ready for Friday.

We had Zone meeting on Friday and that went really well.  It turned out how we wanted to, helped the missionaries to realize what they are doing wrong and to help them to change.  We talked about like I said a couple weeks ago changing the things we don’t want to change.  It was great overall.  2 Elders from Bluefields came in for the meeting so they stayed in the area and Elder Merrill and I went to animar (encourage) some possibilities we have for the next couple of weeks.  We ended up going out to Santo Tomas and then visiting people here in Juigalpa.  That turned out well, and we are just trying to get the place moving.  Saturday and Sunday just flew by after.  We had a really bad turn out at church, but then a really good turn out at the devocional, I don’t understand!  But that was good, and I was happy we could watch it. 

We aren’t exactly having the turn out and the success we want, so we are committing ourselves to work harder and more efficiently, even though we feel like we are already working hard and efficient.  That is the main focus for this week and from now on, giving everything we have.  This week is changes, I don’t know what’s going to happen!  I will let you all know.  That’s all I have, here are some pics from the week!  I love you all,

Elder Hanson

It has cooled down and apparently its jacket weather... it's 80 degrees

Elder Naisbitt is going home this week!

Study time selfie

Penosa Thanksgiving cena y la busqueda (the search)

Just a typical day on the mission.

Familia y Amigos,

I hope that all of you guys had a super great Thanksgiving, I am very thankful for all of you and all that you do for me.  This week was a pretty good one, and by pretty good I mean it was the usual stuff, and nothing too bad happened. We didn’t end up having consejo, and we decided to get to work in the area and not lose too much time in Bluefields, so I didn’t go either.

I’m not going to go day by day here because it was about the same.  There was a lot of contacting and trying to find cool people that would go to church.  We found a good number of people throughout the week that accepted us, a fecha bautismal (baptismal date) and were kind.  But of course then Satan tempts on Sunday morning so not a ton of them came.  We have found that people here just don’t really understand a couple of things, one of them being commitments, another being commandments.  We have been really trying to simplify our teaching and to try and help them understand, it has kind of been working, but not a ton.  We feel like the people don’t really understand the concept of God, so we are starting from the beginning.  It is interesting to see that a country that is so "religious" has a hard time accepting that God controls everything and is willing to bless us if we keep His commandments.  We are trying to help the people understand so they can receive the fullness of the gospel, but there are some hard hearted people here. :)

On Thursday it was Thanksgiving and let me tell you it was the most penoso (pitiful) Thanksgiving ever.  We started off the day eating some pumpkin bread, that was good.  hahah We got 100 extra cordobas each ( a little under 4 dollars) to spend on Thanksgiving "dinner" (ended up being lunch) as a zone.  So the whole zone is latinos, and there is nothing to do here in Juigalpa so we just ordered pizza for the zone.  Super lame but whatever!  We lucked out because Elder Merrill had a friend from Managua who works for the church who was going to be out here working at the church, so he took us out to a super nice restaurant and bought us a nice dinner.  It didn’t end up being too big of a bust, and we had a good time so that is what matters!

Friday I went out to Boaco for district meeting, taught about how they can get to know better their investigators and complete efficiently. Eficacia (efficiency) has been a big focus of mine and Elder Merrill's lately, and the missionaries are having a hard time with that too.  I’m glad my dad always taught me that we should get the job done right the first time, so we don’t have to worry about doing it over again.  Good life lesson.

I really enjoyed studying 3 Nefi 27 this week, I would encourage you all to go and read it, along with the JST of Matthew 16. I like verse 26 that talks about how we have to reject every worldly desire, and keep the commandments to be able to follow Jesus Christ. We need to change the things that we don’t want to change to be able to have success in our lives.  I know that if we do it we will be blessed.

I hope all of you have a great week, enjoying the Christmas season.  Love you all,

Elder Hanson

Elder Merrill and his friend from Managua

A mission can really wear you out sometimes!

Happy Thanksgiving, entrevistas, lets get this place rolling already

Elder Medrano, Elder Hanson, Elder Merrill and Elder Smith with new members

Familia y amigos,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! I hope that you guys all enjoy Thanksgiving this week and enjoy something that isn’t rice and beans!  I’m thankful for all of you guys, and all you do.  Thanks for your prayers and everything.

Anyway this week not much really happened.  Elder Merrill and I are just trying to lift this zone up, and we are not having too much help.  We have some good district leaders.  Elder Miculax, the Elder I was with in my training is the District leader here in Juigalpa and he is doing a great job.  He is definitely getting people up and moving, even if they don’t like and or want to do it.  I don’t understand why people don’t want to work here, they are just wasting their time if they aren’t.  We worked a couple of days in our area, on Tuesday and Wednesday we worked hard to contact and try to find some people.  Before I was just kind of going to whatever house in between citas (appointments), but Elder Smith and I this week started just contacting every single house on streets, even if they were closed.  We found a couple of people, but not too many.

This week we also had interviews with president Russell.  They went well. As a zone leader, you have like 3 interviews, one before the whole zone goes in with the other ZL, then the personal, and then the interview with the other ZL at the end.  So interviews went pretty well, there were a couple of issues in the zone and we ended up being there until like 7pm.  I don’t know how, even though you just sit around all day, it is so exhausting.  I went around and checked all of the houses with Elder Kleiner and Hna Russell which went well, the whole zone passed.  My interview also went well.  We mostly talked about contacting people because that has been the main desafio (challenge) here in the area.  He gave me a couple of ideas that I can use to find new people.  He said he was proud of my progress and that I was doing a good job.  My 2 interviews with Elder Merrill also went well.  He wants the zone to get moving, and was asking us what we needed.  We are working hard to do it, we are just finding a little opposition and having to push the missionaries.

On Friday I went to Elder Miculax´s district meeting, he did a good job.  I stayed in the area with Elder Medrano and we got to working, found a couple of families that were cool at first and kind of ended up being duds on Sunday, but it was nice to have a couple of positive people for 24 hours!!

Saturday we had the baptisms, it actually ended up being only one on Saturday. Elder Merrill and Elder Medrano went and passed by at like 1, and he was leaving to go do a "mandado" (an errand).  That is always bad news. He said he would be back at 4 right on time for his baptism.  We got there at 4, he wasn’t there and we called him.  He answered and said he was busy until later so we went and baptized our other investigator, a little kid.  He ended up having some job he had to do all night long, and didn’t get home until like 4 am (that’s what he told us).  

So what we did is on Sunday morning we got up super early, like 4:30am, got dressed and then just posted up outside his house to make sure he didn’t leave, woke him up at like 6am, and got him baptized.  He was telling us that he needed to go home to sleep and that he was going to get confirmed in the afternoon but we just did what we have learned best from the nicarageunses, and we “bailared el mambo” (danced the mambo) with him until like 9am so he could get confirmed.  It was a huge blessing that the guy got baptized, really a miracle so even though we haven’t found too many people, the people that we are teaching have been baptized which is nice.  We had not too many people at church but we are working to find new people. We had a couple problems with the sisters in our zone at night, which was fun to deal with, but we are back into the routine for this week.  If we don’t have consejo (leadership training) I will be going to Bluefields! :) That will be a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all have a great week! Your prayers would be appreciated so that we can get this place going.

Elder Hanson

Bus hopping and no more trio

Familia y Amigos,

This week was an all right one, not really anything big happened, but I had a fun experience on Friday that I’ll let you know about.

On Monday we got a new companion here, it is Elder Medrano from Corpus Christi Texas,  He has about a year in the mission so it is nice that we aren’t in a trio anymore.  He is willing to work hard, and is a funny kid so he should make things a good time.

The APs came down on Tuesday to pick a sister up that had a personal problem, Elder Martinez wanted a quesillo (a tortilla with cheese, cabbage, onions and cream) of course and it was his birthday, so we celebrated it a little with him.  That was kind of fun. Nothing else really happened until Friday, which was a crazy day haha.

On Friday I made the weekly trip up to Boaco to do the District meeting and then work with the sisters.  It was the typical day of following the sisters around, went and animated the possibility for baptism that they had, and then just kept following them.  It was kind of a routine day, right until the end.  So we can’t stay too long in Boaco because we always have to take the bus home, and we usually end up getting home a little late.  I left Boaco at like 7:30 because I thought that it would give me enough time to get home right on time.  You have to take a 20 minute bus ride to the empalme (fork) of the road to boaco and the road to juigalpa, and then switch buses to go to Juigalpa.  So by the time we waited for the bus down to the empalme, and got to the bus stop it was like 8:30.  There was a bus there waiting but it was super full, and we knew (or at least thought) that another bus would be coming so we decided to wait.  We waited for like another hour, and finally a bus came, so we just got on it, because they all go to Juigalpa (really bad thinking).  Elder Medrano was with me and he claims to have said something, I didnt hear him.  But next thing we know the bus is turning up to Boaco!  We realized and got the driver to stop, hopped off and started sprinting because we knew another bus was coming, the last one.  Luckily we got there right as it was passing by, flagged it down and got back way too late.  Once again there weren’t any seats so it was a fun ride :)

We didn’t end up having that baptism this week, we have 2 possibilities for this week so we are working hard with them.  The work is still going all right, we haven’t found too many people yet so we are just looking for some positive people! President Russell came to our branch on Sunday and we didn’t really have anyone so it was kind of embarrassing but we are working so there’s nothing much else we can do.  Our best investigators have some major problems, like super big so we`re helping them to repent and change.  Other than that nothing much is new.  This change is flying by, don’t know where it has gone.  I hope you all enjoy this week, love you all!

Elder Hanson

no pics this week.... sorry!!!