Yeah...they hurt!

Hi viewers!  This is mom speaking.  I have struggled with even having the desire to post this week's email.  Why?  Because it was a reality check!  Because it is so hard to not be able to reach out to your kids when you know that life is especially trying for them.  Some of us new mission moms have this grand illusion that their son or daughter will have the time of their life!  Baptisms every week, lots of warm and fuzzies from everyone and of course not dangerous!  Well new mission parents, get over it!  Missions are, yes, dare I say?, HARD!  There was such flooding from the Typhoons in Manila that around 19 people died!  One of my friend's sons has had his apartment in another area flood twice in the last couple weeks, now they are being invaded by rats!  He has not been able to sleep and is exhausted!  And with the water comes...the mosquitos!  With the mosquitos comes the Dengue fever among other disease!  But they convey very little to you and there are several HaHa's! following sentences including the words fever.  Yes, my nails are shot, I've gained 10 pounds and am now a regular on the mission mom website!  But here is the weird thing.  I feel at peace.  I am comforted beyond what I deserve to be.  I get feelings about things to send and find out the next week that oh and I could sure use whatever it is I sent.  Crazy?, Maybe.  I am absolutely happy that my son gets to see another part of the world and live as they do and be strong and empathetic.  Despite a small quip here or there about the rain or whatever, his letters always include things like "I love it here!"  "I love the people" "Wading in knee deep water is fun!" "mangos are my new favorite fruit" "I'm so happy for or thankful for..."  "And always, always..."I love this Gospel, I love the plan of salvation."  And hope and prayers that those people he has grown to love will receive it, and almost every letter, "I'm happy!, don't worry about me!"  Hopefully within the next year and 1/2 I will learn to take his advice.  Thank you to all of the missionaries out there in the world!  And just for the record, they could be assigned to Disneyland and parents would still worry!

Here is the email!

8/26/13

hey family let me start out with the bad news first!!! I  have nine blisters total on my feet yeah it hurts....also I had a 102 fever for two days but I still worked hahaha freaking rain is killing me out here!  Just kidding,  but I did have a 102 fever I'm just fine now though!!! When will I be getting those pics of Powell,  in the package???? I'm very glad you guys went to Ben's farewell that is very important to me and to him!! I'm sure he did great!!

As for here,  yes it has rained a ton!! I have walked through knee deep water like five times now!! haha but its all for the work and its a fun experience its a lot worse in Manila, look up baha sa maynilla on youtube its crazy!!! But I'm doing good now.  I'm not sick or anything so don't worry about that!!! I'm glad C Will (his friend on a mission in Spokane) is doing good.  He emailed me so I need to email him back.  But I hope your doing good.  I'm going to try and write you guys a letter so I can express some things to you guys in more depth.. But as for the area its good. We need more investigators but we have two ibds right now for Sept 28.  Their faith is awesome. I love it! I know they will be baptized!! (in answer to Darin's question about his investigators from his previous area Riley says)  I'm pretty sure they ended up getting baptized. Elder Barney hasn't told me yet... I'm happy here.   My comps okay.  The plan of salvation is awesome!!!! I'm so happy for you two that is quite a long time but imagine eternal happiness with each other!! even better right!!! (talking about us celebrating our 28 year anniversary) I love you guys so much and I'm very happy I'm sealed to you!  love Elder Hansen

One Happy Elder!

Notice how the first words out of this email exclaim his happiness for his friends!  Not Dear Mom and Dad, or How are you?  And...that is exactly what I love about this young man!  He wants happiness for others and is truly overjoyed by his friend's good news!

8/18/13

Josh got his call to Argentina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is so awesome!! He has been talking to me about going on a mission for about a month now.  I didn't even know that he turned in his papers!! Ben leaves in a couple of days and Koa is expecting his call in a couple of days!! This is crazy!! I am so excited for all my friends. As I have looked back on time I have seen so many people accept the call of President Monson and of God for all worthy able Priesthood holders to serve a mission. That is honestly the coolest thing in the world to me!! Josh enters the MTC Dec 8 so that is way cool!! I could never be more proud of him than I am now!!

So I'm so glad you guys had a great time at Powell and I'm glad Alex was a great help!! He is a great kid for sure! and  so is Jordan.  Being on the outside looking in I see all the little miracles that are happening in our family.  I know that Heavenly father is looking over you guys. Hopefully Alex  can get lined up with a good looking LDS girl.  But I'm having a great time.  I was a little down last week but that was because i was being selfish. I understand that all missionary work is a process whether your planting or harvesting. Its the same work. we have two ibd for sept 28 and a couple Sundays ago I received a witness from the spirit that they would be baptized. He is really awesome and I'm seeing the changes he is making in his life to become clean and repent of his sins in order to be baptized!! I love this gospel and I love serving here.   I learn so much every day its really cool. Dad that rig looks super dangerous hahah I'm surprised you didn't wear out the brakes. But I'm so glad you are all safe now and I'm glad that family is safe!! Yes,  I got my ingrown toenail removed.

things I need in my package.

Shaving cream

Deodorant

and whatever else you want to put in it. love you guys so much I will send some pics this week hopefully it works.

Love Your Son

Elder Hansen

 

 

(  During his email time he found out where his friend Koa was called.  Background story on this is that Christmas of his senior year, Riley's friend Kyle invited Riley and Koa to spend Christmas in The Philippines with his family, they are from there.  They went and had a great time!  Riley fell in love with it there.  So, it was quite a surprise when Riley was called to the Philippines.  Then the spring of this year, Kyle turned in his papers and was also called to the Philippines, a different mission, in Naga.  A side story to this is that Kyle's dad served a mission in Manila and served with and Elder Anderson.  Now Elder Anderson's son, Ian also got called to serve in the Philippines in Naga, same as Kyle.  So two dads and two sons each serving in same missions in the Philippines!  Now on with the story.  So Koa decided to serve a mission.  He turned in his papers and just received his call to yes, The Philippines!  In Manila! More than a coincidence in my book!  Why?  We have yet to find out!  The Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways!)

 

8/18/13

Koa is going to Manila Philippines Mission!!!!!!! How nuts is that all of us went to Philippines together two Christmases ago and now we all return!

 

Love, Elder Hansen

 

 

 

New Companion!

 

 

 

 

 

Typhoon!

A super Typhoon hit The Philippines and we were not able to hear from Elder Hansen during the storm, but thank goodness, everyone was ok!

8/13/13

hey guys I'm doing just fine!! haha What's a typhoon to a missionary!
nothing that's what  it is! But yeah there have been some parts that have
flooded here but it hit a lot harder in Manila so its okay I'm doing
all good though. We weren't  aloud to work yesterday so it was way
boring and to be honest it wasn't even that bad.   We could have gone
out and worked no problem. But that's way cool that your out in lake
Powell now. I hope your having a blast, but that does suck that the
water is low.  That will be a ton of people in one boat hahaha but
it will be fun. That is way sad about Jon's brother...tell them I send
my love and prayers when you get the chance. (Our neighbor's brother passed away) As for the work I do
really like my area but right now we only have two investigators so
its like I've gone into one hard area to another.....its basically
impossible to get a baptism now this transfer because of the rules
that we have as missionaries here in the Philippines. They have to go
to church four weeks in a row to even be eligible so we are now on
week two of this transfer..so its going to be four transfers not
counting the MTC in the field with out a baptism. To be honest that
can be super frustrating. When I look at the fact that I'm six months
into the mission and I don't have a baptism it can be kind of
sad.....all I'm doing is working hard and sometimes I don't see the
success. I know its happening but I need something to help out
myself. My old comp said that Jay Ar and Maricell should be getting
baptized on Saturday so that will be sweet!! That alone will be a
confidence booster for me. as for my Tagalog I can say that I'm doing
really well. Six months into the mission I can easily talk to people
now during lessons, preaching by the way, buying food, really anything
its honestly a miracle and a spiritual blessing. You have to be
diligent in order to get these blessings but they come so that's what
matters.   Tell everyone on facebook and what not
that I'm okay no problems or anything, but you can mention that my
ingrown toe nail has come back again and I have a ton of blisters on
my feet hahaha Its all good though.  I just deal with it. I love
studying the scriptures. I learn so many amazing things each day and  I
love the relevance the gospel has in our everyday lives. Honestly if
you learn to rely on the Savior and the gospel in your life everything
else will be just fine. I just want to tell you guys that I love you
and stay safe in Lake Powell!!  More than
anything stay safe because we know Powell can be dangerous.
Love Elder Hansen

First Transfer!

8-4-13

Still no pictures!  Sometimes they are difficult to send from the computers in the Philippines!  Riley will have been out 6 months on August 13th!  I can't believe it!  I miss him so much, but this landmark has come really pretty fast!  So even though Riley has been in the Philippines for over 4 months, this is his first transfer!  Here is the letter!

Hello family,  I hope your all having a blast vacationing and doing cool stuff like that!! I bet Yellow Stone was a blast!  When do you go to Lake Powell?? I think its this coming up weekend right?? But that is extremely sad news to hear.. please give my regards to their family.  (This was in regard to the passing of our friend's son, Chance Slaymaker.  He was just 14 years old) But as for me I did get transferred to a new area. So I won't see the baptism and marriage of Jay Ar and Maricell....but that's okay as long as they get baptized haha!  Right now my new area is called Malasiqui its a branch but its a sweet area! My new comps name is Elder Delapaz he is from Bacolod.   He is like 26 now so its way weird...just think I'm only 19 years old....blows my mind.  Right now I can all ready tell that I will get a ton better at Tagalog here because I have a Filipino companion and all  I speak to him is Tagalog!! Sometimes its quiet while we are walking around but its all good!! haha I'm in an area where they speak a dialect called Pangalektok its super hard to learn haha ! Obviously they speak Tagalog but its cool to learn things in different languages!! My last area is all Ilocano so yeah two different dialects now!! I'm pretty sure those will be the only two that I run into on my mission! One cool thing is that an Elder from my batch is in the same house as me his name is Elder Manzione!! Me and him got way close in the MTC and our plan after the mission is to go work at Lake Powell for summer 2015!! We had a sweet investigator come to church yesterday. It was his first time going. He had had a stroke a couple weeks ago and is paralyzed on his entire left side. He can barely walk now. But he found a way to get to church.  I have taught him once but I can tell my testimony and the spirit me and Elder Delapaz brought to the lesson gave him the reassurance and faith to go to church. The pictures are way sweet that you sent me!! and I have no idea why the pics I sent didn't work?? I will try again though. But I hope everyone is doing good!! out there in the 801 Don't have too much fun at Lake Powell and yes I do want pictures!! haha love you guys

Elder Hansen