Monday, July 29, 2013

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.


 
 

 

 



 

 
 
 
 



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