A Real Letter!

7/7/13

As I said we received a letter in the mail from Elder Hansen!  I was grateful for this as last week he was not able to write much other than to say he was fine!  I love these the most, because I know he held the paper, I see him in his writing style, I can see him sitting at his desk writing to us, I run my fingers over the stamps that he touched and placed on the envelope and then placed it in the mail bin to arrive weeks later in my mail box!  These are the thoughts of a mom who misses her son!

I wish I could show you the letter because he wrote two paragraphs of it in Tagalog!  We got to go on a sort of scavenger hunt to find someone to interpret it for us!  Thankfully my next door neighbor also went to the Philippines and did not speak Tagalog, but was familiar enough with the dialect that he could tell us what he was saying!  He told us of his love for the Philippines people and how thankful he is to serve there.  He told of his love for Heavenly Father and that through Jesus Christ we can do all things.  He expressed his love for the Savior and his Gospel.  He also told me that I am the "Safety monitor" of our family (inside joke), but a compliment.  He said how mothers are the safety monitors of the family in general.  He said that the 4th of July was just another day there but he got to sing American Patriotic Hymns like, "America the Beautiful" and "The Star Spangled Banner".

Now for the rest of the letter.  He talked about how his Tagalog has come along a ton in the last while.  He knows it is not perfect, but it is a lot better. He hopes to learn another dialect now.
He has become as he put it a 'world class chef!"  He can now make French Toast!

He talked about the challenge of changing companions.  Not that he doesn't like  him, he does, just getting used to another person's mannerisms, personality etc...  He said it is just the two of them in this apartment though and so getting ready in the am is way easier!  Now this Friday he will all ready get a new companion again!  In this letter he thought he might stay in this area again, which would mean he could see through the baptisms of the people he has set to go the end of July.  But, now in his email he feels he will be moved to another area!  We will see!  He also says he is getting a "rice belly"  Haha!  He is so busy that there is no time to work out or run and they eat rice 3 times a day!

Here is a quote "Doctrine wise I'm learning a ton of things just from studying each day and I love it.  That will be one thing that I recommend you do.  Study from the scriptures each day, there should be no excuse for not reading in your scriptures each day.  We can give 15-60 minutes a day to studying I promise.  But yeah, being out on my mission I've learned so many things that I thought I all ready knew, but you really can never know all the secrets of the Gospel.  That's why we study each day."
I need to be way more diligent and take this advice.

He says his first pair of shoes are holding up and he is hoping they last a year and then he will start on his second pair.  He is definitely putting some mileage on those puppies!  He is thankful that he still has not had to wash his own clothes!  Someone does it for him!  These are the things he is grateful for: 1.  Air conditioning, 2. carpet, 3. Reeses, 4. Cars, 5. Normal dogs like Betty!, obviously a lot  of other things, but mostly family.  Riley mentioned that he felt like he did not appreciate his family enough or spend enough time with us, he just wanted to hang out with friends.  While I am grateful that he recognizes the importance of family, I have to come to his defense and say, he is and has always been a great son and brother, no complaints!  "On your mission you realize how important family is.  that's a big part of our message for others is how the Gospel can bless families and how through this gospel we can be an Eternal Family."  Riley encourages us to remember to be thankful for families and to also think of all the things Heavenly Father has given us and remember to thank him."

Riley feels he is learning the principle of patience very early in his mission.  The work is hard and mentally stressful.  He wants so much to share this message with others and it is discouraging when people are too busy or they just don't receive the message.  He does have a couple scheduled to be baptized the end of July, but may be transferred before that happens.  But, he wants us to know that don't confuse frustration with not being happy to be there.  He says he loves the work and serving!

Side note, he would love some hand written letters!  So if you would like to send him a letter!

He closed with expressing his love again of family and friends!


7/29/13

Haha! First thing is first don't judge my Tagalog it is far from perfect, and I'm all ready a lot better now than when I wrote that. Its crazy how fast I'm progressing to be honest.    My hope for people who are struggling with anything is that they may be able to find our Savior the one and only healer of our souls. Our true Redeemer and Savior. People's true healing will come when they know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God who died to save us all. His whole mission in life was to redeem us from the pains and afflictions of the world. It would be very important for us to know that in our lives. It is very important that as we come closer to the Savior, we will be farther from temptation. I'm to the point now in my life where I have realized that if I didn't have the Savior in my life I wouldn't have anything. I could have all the money in the world all the riches and I would still be desperate in the soul. THE GOSPEL IS WHAT SAVES LIFES. I can not stress that enough. Sometimes its hard getting that across to people here because what they want to do is work in the Bukid or they will say may pupuntahan kasi elder....which basically says I have somewhere to go or in other words they have excuses to not put the trust in the gospel and give three hours to our Heavenly Father and go to church. It can be very frustrating at times because you tell them look brother you will be more blessed if you go to church than if you go to work in the Bukid for a few hours. Its the same thing in our lives with all trial. We have time for the gospel we  need to give that time to it we need to be disciples in all that we do or we aren't being truly active. People  need to search out for themselves who the Savior is. What he really did for us.   As for the work I will most likely be transferred this transfer to a new area so I wont be there for the baptisms but they are still getting baptized!! and that is what really matters. I still don't know for sure if I will be sent to a new area but for sure I will have a new comp. by Friday. and yes I am super jealous that you guys are going to Powell.   That will be way fun hopefully you will have a blast! Right now we have 8 ibds we went from 4 to 8 in one week so that work is going good but it can be super frustrating at times as well. Today for our zone activity we went to San Rocque Dam supposedly its the second biggest dam in Asia!! pictures to come shortly!

I had a great week I'm very happy and loving life not sad at all so don't worry about that.  Sorry I went on a tangent but I love you guys keep strong and always pray for opportunities to share the gospel in any means necessary which means by being a good example to your peers.

as Pres. Monson said "Dare to stand alone!!"

 

 

Love, Elder Hansen

 

This is a family Elder Hansen is teaching, the young couple are hoping to be baptized this week!
The pictures of the dam would not download, so I'll try and get them from Riley next week.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GREAT WEEK!!!

July 21 2013

Alright so let me start out with how our week went. It went a lot better than the week before lets put it that way. haha Yesterday at church we had a nanay come to church for the first time and also a new investigator named Omar who is a teacher at a high school here. He is really smart and has great questions. He seems super interested in what we have to teach him so that's good. We also had a funny lesson with him last night, we were talking about where we came from, and Elder Barney asked him, " brother do you know where this baby came from?" as he was pointing to the plan of salvation pamphlet. And Brother got kind of awkward and said well yeah from biological parents and then he got super awkward and said that he was shy to talk about stuff like that. So it was just funny the train of thought he had when we asked him that question, because he thinks more scientifically, {he is a teacher} he thought more worldly.   But then I told him "brother did you know we have a Father of  flesh and a Father of our spirits?" Then I expounded on that. He just seemed really enlightened about where we came from so it was a fun lesson. I am also seeing great improvements in my Tagalog so far this transfer and since I have arrived here my language skills have improved immensely!! We have four ibds right now.  Our couple are planning on getting married on Aug. 10 so that is their baptismal date as well. The girl's mom has been super hard headed always nice but hard  and stubborn. But ever since we went over to their house one day and pulled weeds she has softened up a ton and even went to church on Sunday. And then our last ibd is a little kid of a less active part member family, so if we can return the family we will be able to baptize her as well. The work has been really fun and I'm very happy this week. I cant believe that July is like 10 days away from being over.. it blows ;my mind how fast time goes by. But yeah I've been doing good now that I have a nice ole package here and what not haha. But I honestly don't need anything material wise, it would be cool if you could send me a new journal just like the leather one you bought me before my mission so that I can continue later on. Because yes dad for the most part I have been writing everyday. This transfer I have so for the rest of my mission I will!! But yeah I'm pretty sure I will stay in my first area for one more transfer after this , so that will be from March 29 to Sept 10 or something like that. haha a long time in one area but its all good. We have one area in our mission now called 100 islands the Finnemans will know what that is. Ask them about it hopefully,  I will go there in my mission.!!

 Anyways I love you guys a ton keep strong and try to become missionaries for our ward back home. 

The missionaries need your help I promise!!

Love,  Elder Hansen

Early Pictures from Elder Hansen's first days in Urdaneta!

Back Row 4 from right

Center Back

Back of picture

Left of picture

Back Row

 

These are some pictures from Sister Monahan's Blog from Riley's first days in Urdaneta!  Very tired, hot but also excited!

 

Elder Riley Hansen reassigned to the New Urdaneta Philippines Mission! Updates June-July 2013

Elder Riley Hansen as of July 1, 2013  was reassigned to the Urdaneta, Philippines Mission.  He has actually been there since he first arrived in The Philippines, but it is now its own new mission.  There is a Temple due to be built there, so the work needs to move forward!  They are really working on strengthening the members as well as spreading the Gospel to those who do not have it in their lives yet!

 

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  6-9-13

 

Hello Family, the only one out of that group that I know is Elder Christiansen he was in my district at the MTC, he is awesome!! That is way cool that you are able to speak with other missionary moms from my mission that is actually way cool.  But yeah the temple they have been talking about building one here forever, but the members need to pay there tithing more here before it actually gets built.   I believe that the ground breaking will be around the end of this year. but it won't be finished while I'm still here....so oh well. haha The fact that there will be a temple here means that the work is going forward here. Thats all that matters. but that is way cool that we have had people from all over reading about it, too bad I don't have much to say yet hahahaha just kidding. This week was really cool, we had one investigator who said that she relates herself a lot to Joseph Smith because he was searching for the correct religion and didn't know where to find it and stuff like that but then later on as she was talking to us she said I have been looking for the right church and she said that I have found the right church. So it was way cool.  The thing is we have to get these two married before they can get baptized, so hopefully by the end of July they will be able to be baptized, the thing is either me or Elder Sikat wont be here. An interesting thing was said to us last week by one of our APs he quoted one of the prophets I can't remember who, but he said no matter what part of missionary work you are doing they are all steps. finding, teaching, baptizing they are all steps to get them to the final goal which is Salvatino. So it doesn't matter as long as you serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength you are bringing people to Christ.

I'm having a blast here though each day is a great day, except today hahah because I have to get an ingrown toe nail removed....its going to kill hahaha but oh well.   It means I'm working hard ! I hope the family is doing good it sounds like everyone is doing great, Tell Alex to email me with more detail about what he is doing with school and life and stuff. If you see Tav and Druce and Lund tell them I love them and also tell them congrats again, and I definitely want to know what Brennan gets drafted at, are they expecting a high draft or no?  Hopefully I get transfered to Baguio because rumor is there is an American burger joint there!!!! So I'm hoping hahaha but anyways I love you guys so much keep working hard in all that you do and remember to always become like Christ. He told two fisherman to follow me and I will make you fishers of men. That is exatly what I'm trying to do out here. I'm trying to become more Christ like in my life.

I would invite you to do the same and just you wait and see all the blessings in your life emulsiify if that make sense haha!

Love Elder Hansen

 

 

6-17-13

 

hahaah mom don't worry I'm doing just fine my toe is just fine and yes I'm taking care of it no need to worry! Yes I got the tie as well. I'll try and send you a picture later on.  I think I have a couple of pics for you!! This Friday I will be getting a new companion.  It's going to be weird.  So next Monday I will send you a picture of him.  You know what's weird is that I got an email from some random elder saying that his mom read your blog about me and he asked me about my mission.  He was using an lds account so I think he is on a mission right now too. But who knows, his name was like Elder Taylor?? So I don't know ahha but I hope your doing good mom, don't miss me too much I'm doing just great over here in the Philippines!! But yeah if you ever feel bad about me just read my patriarchal blessing it will give you comfort I promise, and I think I know why yours says you will have a love for the islanders, a lot of my best friends are Tongan and Samoan,, so tha'ts cool!! haha Ben should be getting his call pretty soon make sure you get a hold of him and go to him when he opens his call!! Everything is going good here though mom I promise.  Things are going great with our investigators there are a couple who are really close to baptism now, so that is really exciting!! This gospel if you think about it is hope for us. The plan of salvation is all about how we can return to our Heavenly Father and have eternal families, this message gives people hope and this hope is brought to the hearts of others by the power of the Holy Ghost through us as missionaries. They feel of the hope and then they start remembering the plan they have all ready accepted once. I'm very grateful that I'm sealed to you and dad and it brings so much comfort to me to know that all the temple and missionary work for every single person will be finished during the millenium so even though some people might not accept the plan here, they most likely will in the spirit world.

I love this work I love you guys tell everyone that I   love them and Happy Fathers day again

love Elder Hansen

 

6-17-13 Father's Day!

 

 

6-23-13  We got home late and Riley had all ready checked his email when I sat down to write him.  BIG MISTAKE!  This was his response.

 

where's my family???? haha

 

My Response

Elder Hansen!
We are on line!
We just got back into town, and was just sitting down to write you a letter when your email came through!  You usually don't email us until around midnight or later!
Are you officially in the Urdanta mission?  did you get your new companion?  How is he?  I put yours, Elder Sikat's and your unkown new companions names in the temple this week!  We received your letter and it was marvelous, I treasure it!

 

haha okay sweet write me a long letter and i ll write you one at the same time!! but yeah im in the urdaneta mission im still in my first area my companions name is Elder Barney from Arizona. I like him a lot but what day did you get my letter?? That seemed kind of fast but not really ahaha

send me a long letter though

 

(I sent him a long email and a very long letter in the mail!)

 

So this week was a super long week.  I was really hoping to get transfered so I could experience a different area but it will be good being here for another transfer.  Hopefully we can get a baptism this transfer. Cause it definitely does get a little hard or you start getting a little down on yourself when you feel like the work isn't doing good. But its okay me and my new comp are going to do work here!! I'm excited, as for Elder Sikat he is in a zone called Rosalles zone.  He is still in the Urdaneta mission but not in my zone!! As for the finals I all ready know who won...dang heat! haha but yeah its all good! Lets see,  my new companion is from Mesa Arizona and he has been in the mission for a year and 4 months. so he is starting to get close to the end of his mission! he is a great kid very nice etc. But no I'm still in the same apartment so its kind of like home now! haha But this week like I said earlier was kind of rough, just with the transfer and having to adjust to a new companion for the first time and now I'm leading out the area so I don't want him to think that the area sucks and stuff like that so I'm a little stressed out but I'm okay! Hopefully we have two inv. that are close to baptism if we can get the permission of the husband and then get the okay by the zone leaders, I know that if I get those baptisms that my hard work is paying off! We are in the branch and trying to help develop it here!! I'm hoping to strengthen this branch a lot by the time I leave the area! We need to get the members more involved in the work and hopefully that will get some good inv. and LA coming back to church!! Kyle is doing great in the MTC.  It's funny seeing the pictures there cause even though the MTC is fun I don't miss it because it isn't like the field at all, its WAYYYYYY to comfortable hahahahahahahahaha but yeah he is doing good there. I'm doing good as well!!!

I'm excited for this transfer but also kind of nervous....but yeah I hope your doing good mom and dad I love you guys and yes mom I'll start another letter just for you hahaha that definitely is a mom thing about the whole I touched the letter I wrote you so you love to touch it kind of thing.

anyways love you guys love Elder Hansen

 

 

haha thanks family I hope what I say can help bless your lives back at home!! Just know that I love you all and I'm very blessed to have you in my family hopefully I have a sweet week and hopefully you can be able to send me a package pretty soon! haha just kidding but if you want to you can. Love you guys keep up the work and remember that anything is possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Bad relationships with others, overcoming sin, or addictions, even physical, mental and emotional pain if we learn to rely on our Savior every day.  That is when we grow closer to our Savior and truly feel happy. love Elder Hansen and make sure to write me letters as well it is nice to get letters from people just send it to the mission address and its the same address but its just changed from Baguio to Urdaneta! Everything else is the same!! love you guys love Elder Hansen again haha

6-30-13

Okay its going to be way hard for me to reply to everything but I will try!! Let me first start off with a I'm getting fat here....hahaha Its all the rice and not working out...its sucks!!!!!!!!!!! but once I hit my six month mark in the mission I will start working out more to keep my self in shape. But as for the package no stopping it now!! haha but I hope I will stay where I'm at in the mission until I get it then I can be transferred haha but I definitely am doing a lot better now I'm not worried anymore we are now more organized in our planning but we definitely need more new investigators so that we can have more success here in Asingan. As for my companion I like him a lot it just took some adjusting. Its definitely weird its like getting used to a new roommate but your forced to be with him at all times haha But its all good.   We have hung out with some of the same people and we like the same music and stuff so that's good!! I have been having fun! The work was good this week we can always do better but yeah hopefully we will have some better success this week, hopefully by July 27th we will have two baptisms, we have one couple who are planning on getting married but hopefully their date for marriage is in July. The sister is pregnant so it will be sweet to baptize them so they can start their family off in the right way!! Then hopefully a year from now they will get sealed in the temple!! if that is all I would do in my mission I wouldn't care!! If I could just get that one family sealed I would be pleased!! I did have one dream early in the week that I went home from my mission after two years of course but I couldn't speak Tagalog and I didn't get a single baptism but I didn't want to tell you that had happened so I would lie to you and it was one of the worst dreams I have ever had. It felt like I was a complete failure, but I know that I'm doing a great work and the success will come with my diligence!! I hope the family is doing good! I hope that you are all safe and getting along!   Boating with the Diamonds sounds like a blast and that will be way fun for them to go to Powell with you guys, too bad Pam and Dave can't go that isn't fun at all....but I'm sure the Diamonds would love it! Maybe Brooke will be able to go with you guys again to Powell two years in a row! that would be funny, might as well take Kenna as well to fill in my space at Powell!! haha just kidding! but those dog things are nuts they look crazy!!  I know how Jacob feels the dogs here drive me nuts!! There are some of them that are crazy and they will run after you but all you have to do is act like you pick up a rock and they will run away, or hit them with your umbrella!! haa but yeah dogs drive me nuts here!   As for the work it's fun!   The broadcast was way sweet we watched it on Sunday because we are a week behind of everything. yeah it was way cool but we won't be starting some of that technology here for a while...but yeah I was thinking about what dad said abut how I am leading out a new era of missionary work,, that really is true!! Making history here in the Philippines!!! I am having a blast here but I need to email Alex now so I love you guys keep on studying the scriptures and do member missionary work it truly is needed!! the members have to be involved in the work so I would like to invite you guys to follow the teachings of the apostles in the broadcast and always be looking for missionary opportunities and try and find people you can refer to the missionaries, then join them in the lessons, it will strengthen your testimony and the investigators so that is what is really cool!! but study,  study,  study, I promise you can never read the BOM to many times! and I promise Dad I will check my t's and dot my i'.  s .... I will be safe though so don't worry,

love Elder Hansen

7-7-13


Hey guys Happy late Fourth of July as well!!! hahaha I hope you all had fun at Utah Lake!! I bet it was HOT! but I bet swimming and stuff felt way good! Was there a lot of people there or not really?? I would imagine that there was a lot but I don't know?   As for my Fourth of July I got to sing some good ole American hymns from the hymn book that was about as exciting as my Fourth of July got!! haha but I hope your having a good Sunday right now! and I hope that you both remembered to fast today!! haha Cause I fasted! But yeah so I sent you guys a letter today so you will probably be getting it in about three weeks its not way long only three pages but hopefully that's okay for you! and no I have not received your package or letter yet. but that's okay. Do you remember when you sent it? The pictures of all of you  are way cool I bet you had a blast!

As for the work here we had a pretty rough week I'm not gonna lie but we were able to find a lot of new people to teach so the week was still effective. But what matters is that we are still pressing on in the work of the Lord. and I hope that you can both begin your missionary work there at home with all the people you meet. Like it said in the video conference the other week members need to be more involved in missionary work, there cannot be any boundary between missionaries and members. so I would suggest that you guys try and get referrals for the missionaries and help them teach them and then become the fellow shipper for that person. It would be so awesome for you both to be part of the missionary work out in Utah. Oh and I also heard that they get to have iphones and ipads there....lucky for us we get a nice 1990s Nokia cell phone hahahaa but at least its durable...but yeah I'm still happy as a clam but the work can be stressful!   I had one of the weirdest dreams last night, I dreamed that one of my friends was my companion and he was chasing me trying to kill me with a shotgun he ended up shooting me in the arm and I had a huge chunk missing form my arm it was a way crazy dream. But anyway that's about it that has happened so far. But I guess a ton of my friends are heading into the MTC really soon now so that just blows my mind!! Tell dad to drive safe to Elko and that i love him.  Tell Jordan and Alex that I'm proud of them and that they need to read their scriptures and you can also tell them that I love them if you want...hahaha and I love you too mom thanks for all you have done for me and for all that dad has done for me I love you all 

love Elder Hansen

ps Elder Lipscomb is my zone leader now, I think you know his mom from that website haha

 

 

I just have to make one little comment!  OOOOOOHHHHH YUCK!

A special thanks to Brian and Deon Williams (Connor's Mom and Dad) for giving Riley this tie!  If you look at it closely it has Temple Spires and windows on it.  This tie was designed by Brian's brother who through an accident is paralyzed and blind.  After this accident, he pictured this design in his mind and had it made!  What a special gift!