First Month in Urdanetta Philippines! April 2013

Today is April 27 and I am finally updating Riley's mission blog!  We have had some craziness go on, like Darin's father had a stroke and we have been out of town, so with Parker's Farewell tomorrow, I thought I better get going again!  Riley only emails, and I think he has limited access and time to a computer.  So, his letters are short.  One of the drawbacks of being out of the country!
I am sending him his first package on Monday.  Just candy cookies, and a few food items.  It is going to cost over $80.00!  So Riley will get about 2 packages a year! HaHa!  Anyway, thanks for checking on Riley, we love him and appreciate the support of friends and family so much!  Herre goes!

From:
Sent:	Sun 4/07/13 9:13 PM
To:	DARIN HANSEN  (This is in response to hearing about his Grandpa Roger having a stroke)

holy cow thats very sad news.....tell grandpa that i love him very much and dad i love you to! dang im so sorry about that.i hope you are doing okay! hows st george are you in the motor home at leeds?? haha but as for me im doing very good! im loving it here!! ill send some pictures a little later i also sent just a little voice test drive thing to see if it works so i will know to use it next week or not. but this week has been good! the weather is nice here its maiinit or hot haha but its okay! im starting to understand the language during lessons more so thats good to here! how is the family doing how are jordan and alex doing? and hows the sports going haha basketball baseball etc and how is bingham doing so far. i think the regular season is about to begin right? man i love you guys so much! sometimes i look at our family picture and think to myself we have an amazing family! ive just had so much fun with you guys and i love you all so much! i got to say my first IBD this week which is inviting someone to become baptized..it was kinda scary but cool at the same time! we also had an investigator come to church on sunday (ps we dont watch conference until this coming sunday) lame but oh well but she has problems with the word of wisdom but we got her to go to church and she ended up saying the closing prayer in gospel principles class and started crying in here prayer so i know she was feeling the spirit it was so sweet!! its crazy how much you can and sometimes cant feel the spirit in lessons sometimes it really depends on the way you prepare yourself earlier in the day. but i hop you are alll doing good in life dad just know that i love you so much and to stay strong in faith because through our savior anything is possible we can handle any challenges in life if we stay close to the gospel. i know that your dad will be okay hes one tough son of a gun! born and bread to endure to the end and thats exactly what he will do. love you dad write back via you email if you want to talk to me! keep working hard in all of your callings its truely a blessing to have a calling in the church! love you all im doing just fine ill send some pictures here at the end!

love elder hansen

(Part of a letter sent to Jordan)

 

 

its crazy how many things we take for granted back at home! i mean i flush the toilet with a bucket..and there is no beef here i mean like at all. but i seriously love the people here they are so welcoming and helpful here and theyre just so nice and all the kids love me because im whso im not going to send my voice this week just cause im in a sketchy interenet cafe but im just going to write one letter to all of you with different paragraphs for each okay? haha

 

 

Dad

it is so awesome that you got the chance to give your dad a blessing it is truely an amazing opportunity to use the priesthood to bless others. in my patriarachal blessing it says that it will be important to use your priesthood to bless your family it will strengthen the relationship yu have with them. so i believe that its not just a special blessing for me but its for all of us to use. and dad i know that if you use your priesthood to bless mom and jordan and alex it will truely bless our family a ton! the priesthood is a power from god. its an amazing gift and i love talks about the priesthood.  im not surprised about grandpa going home early he is one tough son of a gun but i think what actually helped him out was your willingnes to bless his life through you r power. im glad i could help with what i said last week, its just that the first two principles we teach in this gospel to new investigators is how important families are and how much our father in heaven loves us. so obviously families are extremely important. i want you to never forget that your family is the most important thing in this life. i love our family so much and dont know what i would do without it.

mom i got your pouch letter yesterday and when i read it i was like im pretty sure ive all ready told you about these things. so yeah it usually takes a while to get letters here so it would probably be better if you just wrote emails that would be really sweet.

so we have been teaching a lot of families but we also have a couple pi progressing investigators here and they are doing awesome!! one nanay or older lady named sister tess hadnt been to church of anykind in six years and two weeks ago was her first time going since. she ended up praying in a lesson and starting crying so i know she was feeling the spirit.. another is brother john john he is 21 and is keeping commitements he reads when we ask him too and he went to general conference with us this sunday. so he is awesome! i love the people here they are just way to nice and caring they are awesome!

 i told you most sports games are really boring after a wheil adn thats crazy that kobe tore his achilles!! man sucks to suck huh kobe? but hopefully the jazz can make the playoffs, occasionaly i walk into a house and they have a game on and i try and sneak a peak at the score and what not haha but im definitely separate form the world. thats cool that you are praying i know that prayer will help you strengthen your relationship with our heavenly father but just know sometimes the answers to your prayers dont come at once they come little by little as you have faith to take the next step in what ever you are doing.

Jordan- you didnt write me this week but you did last week so ill keep this short!

PRAY for guidence in your life and the Lord will Help You if you have enough faith to trust him. i promise that throught the ATONEMENT of our savior we can be healed of anything and remember them no more.

i love all of you one thing i learned this week is that a family that prays together stays forever. i would like to invite all of you to get on your knees at least once a night and say a family prayer. i promise it will help all of your lifes.

love elder hansen

 

4/21/2013

 

 

From:	Riley Hansen
Sent:	Sun 4/21/13 9:26 PM
To:	DARIN HANSEN

hey guys hows it going?? i sent like two pictures today so hopefully you got them. but yes i read the emails i just dont have time to reply to everything!! but i bet st george has been nice! thats one thing i miss is being able to go swimming weirdly enough! oh and just a home made sandwich! but thats cool you went to those places and yes i can see the pics if you email them to me so that would be cool if you could send pics every now and again. but yeah thats a tough hike...i probably do that each day hahaha just kidding!! but dang bingham needs to get there acts together! its ridiculous we cant be losing to riverton!! but i bet 42 was a good movie it looked so good!!! ill just have to watch it when i get back! but this week has been a little rough weve had a couple investigators drop us so its been unfortunate but oh well i just need to keep working!! oh by the way ill read those scriptures too!! as of my companion he is awesome! i dont have any complaints about him haha and as far as knowing whether or not i will be in urdanetta or baguio i dont know yet but my guess is that i will stay in urdanetta! haha make sure you look up all my areas on google maps that will be cool if you do that! i try to write daily in my journal its just hard because im so tired at night haha

i just love you guys though i cant believe i have all ready almost been in the philippines for a month!! i think time will really start flying by at least for me haha maybe not for you guys! i hope the family is doing good and i hope that betty still remembers me!! i love you guys so much cant wait to see a recent pic of you guys!! our family pic is nice but i want to see the recent face of my family!

nothing real cool has happened but im loving it out here and im so grateful for this p day hahaah love you guys so much

love Elder hansen

 

(This is a short email from me to Riley, we caught him on email in real time and were able to talk to him.  This is what I said about him losing a couple of investigators.  Interestingly enough, I was reading my scriptures that morning and came across 3 Nephi 5:13 and the very last verse of chapter 5.  I had the impression to send those in my email to Riley.  It was that night that he told us about the investigators and I think these scriptures put those experiences in perspective.  I also told him that Jesus Christ must have become very frustrated, ...but...he never gave up.)  I believe that the Lord gave me some insight to help my son that day.

 

 

On Mon, Apr 22, 2013

Ill pray for those investigators, but remember you have planted the seed! Just love them! Have a wonderful pday! Thanks for the update! Keep your head and spirit up!

Love ya!

 

thanks mom and dad drive safe and be happy im doing good out here i love you guys so much and im so grateful that i have such amazing parents!!! you were too good to me!

love you always Elder Hansen

send me coaches email to so i can woop the miners into shape!

haah

 

 

From:	Riley Hansen
Sent:	Sun 4/21/13 9:49 PM
To:

love you guys know that at 430 every afternoon im waking up and praying for you guys and at 830 in the morning for you guys its 1030 at night for me and im praying for you guys again so i love you guys your always in my prayers!

Love Thor


Elder Hansen and his companion.

Walking through the forest

 

Elder Hansen's apartment, not too bad!

 

 

 

 

 

 Riley's companion

 

 Beautiful sunset!

Off To The Philippines! Monday March 25 2013

The day finally came that we were going to get a phone call from Riley before he left for the Philippines, and it was a LONG day! 

He called from Salt Lake to say in 1 minute that he would call from Los Angeles!  So we waited 2 more hours and he finally called!  Darin put him on speaker and I recorded the call!  It was soooooo nice to hear his voice again!  He was very excited to be getting to The Mission Field!  He had a long flight ahead of him.  15 hours from LAX to Hong Kong and then I think like 9 more hours to Manila and then a 7 hour bus ride to Baguio!  He told us how much he liked his teachers in the MTC.  He told us some stories that made us cry!  His spirit was so full of joy and excitement!  He talked about the importance of exact obedience and he has such a strong desire to do what is right.  The highlight of the call was to have him bear his testimony in Tagalog for us.  It was beautiful and warmed my heart even without understanding the words.  I had tears falling down my cheeks!  He left a message for Alex, talked to Jordan and then said goodbye to us all until we hear from him on Mother's Day!  I can't believe he is clear across the world from us, but it is ok!

So I don't have any pictures because he left his brand new camera on the flight to LAX and the airline can't find it!  Imagine that!  So he is in search of a camera in the Philippines and I hope he gets one soon so that we don't miss much!  Anyway, I love him and miss him so much!  But...Here we go...the adventure begins!

FIRST EMAIL FROM THE PHILIPPINES
MONDAY APRIL 1, RILEY'S BIRTHDAY!

From:
Sent:	Mon 4/01/13 12:36 AM
To:	DARIN HANSEN

holy cow thank you so much for writing a new kabanata for me to insert into the book of mormon, i will just call it 1sharon it has 30000000 verses hahah jokelang. but jeez it is so good to hear from you but i should probably say this now.....i left my camera on the first flight to lax and didnt realize until i was in hong kong.... im so sorry ahhaha i willl buy one here tho so next week i can send pictures!! but IM in the urdaneta asingan area my trainers name is Elder Sikat (popular) haha it translates to that in english but He is fillipino hahah but he is awesome!!! ive all ready taught like a billion lessons and understood like 2% of them haha but its okay no big deal that i dont understyand whats going on i do sometimes but not all the time! It is so beautiful here its unreal its hot but i really do love it so muchj!!! its been really cool being here, i look around as we are riding on the tryke or walking through the forest and think that this area is maganda! beautiful. Pres. Monahan and his wife are very nice and very helpful, i got to play catch with him on the first couple of days so that was good!! but yeah ive been in my first area now for like four days and im starting to get a feel for where i am! ive all ready had a kid take a picture of me cause im white! literally everyone stares at me especially when i stand up on the tryke ahaha they think im a super star or something! the funny thing was in our ward one of the members came up to me and said i heard you were a professional baseball player and i was like talaga which means really? but i told him i wasnt but my kaibigan or friend is.

i really do love serving the lord all ready the first day i went out teaching i was very nervous i mean who wouldnt be, but i felt good after that. except one day at the beginning i was just really down saying to myself i have no idea whats going on i cant communicate bla bla bla and finally we were riding on a tryke and i said to myslef a quiet prayer asking heavenly father for relaxation and just a calmness swept over me and ever since then i havent been down on myself or sad sometimes nervous pero not sad. the people here are so awesome tho, its true how hospitalbe people are here! i love it, oh and get this...first night i was in my area i ate balut hahahaha that duck egg that they let basically grow in the egg then you eat it...yeah i gagged a little but didnt throw up!!! ELder Sikat filmed it on his camera so im going to get a copy from him on a usb so we can watch it when i get back!! but geez im loving it here and today is my birthday!!!! im 19 holy crap this is crazy! and alexs birthday was yesterday!! so nuts HAPPY BIRTHDAY alex!! im so bummed i cant be there for it but i want to send you my love via email!! how is everyone doing i think that is awesome that you had the missionaries over! maybe sometime you guys could help them out by going to a lesson with them! it would be a coool experience for you guys! ive also eaten chicken intestine and pig intestine stuffed with meat ahahha and a lot of rice! im very excited to serve and love all of you so much sorry if i didnt reply to everything but im doing great dont worry about me but go find my area on google maps okay! that would be sweet!

love Elder Hansen

oh by the way i dont have to do my laundry someone does it for me hahahahahahahahahahahah waaaaaaaahoooo i was pumped about that@!!!!!!!

mahal kita sobrang

 

 

So, 2 more things!  First of all, I wanted him to do his own laundry.  Sometimes we refer to Riley as the Golden Boy and this is an example why!  What a lucky duck!  My next door neighbor went to the Philippines and had to do his own laundry by hand on a scrub board for 2 years!

 

Second, the area he is in now is going to be the new mission, Urdenetta, when it splits.  So I don't know if Riley will be reassigned to Urdenetta or go back to the Baguio mission.

More updates to come!