10/13/13 Surgery and Happy Families!

The foot is doing fine now don't worry!! I want to send you a picture of what it looks like now though.  I'ts just a beautiful looking toe!!! They had to use three shots to get the thing numbed up though!  I hope Kalan is doing well.  I havn't been able to email him very much>  ( I had told him how Elder Cantwell uses Facebook in his mission to post about the Gospel.)  Pres. Monahan said we might be able to use Facebook next year here in the Urdaneta mission. I'm glad you fasted for me.  I probably needed it.  But McDonalds made up for it! (He got to go to McDonalds after the surgery, which is a treat as he does not live near a city with fast food etc... Yep, he is still my Riley!)

 

In this next email Darin, Riley's dad, told him the story about John Rowe Moyle.  He was called as a stone Mason to work on the Salt Lake Temple and walked 22 miles there and 22 miles back each week form Alpine Utah.  He would awake at 2:00am to leave to make it to work by 8:00am, stayed with his son all week and then walk home Friday night to arrive at midnight.  He would then work on his farm Saturday and do the same thing again the next week.  All this after crossing the plains by handcart and never allowing anyone to help him push or pull his cart.  He was always worried about someone else needing help.  He did this for 20 years.  Then one day his dairy cow kicked him and broke his lower leg requiring it to be amputated from the knee down, at his home, with a saw while laying on a door!  After healing he formed a prosthetic leg out of wood.  He learned to walk around the house and then the property and soon decided to go back to work.  He told his wife he was never released from his Stone Mason calling and again took up the 22 mile trek weekly using a prosthetic leg.  He had to climb ladders to do his work.  He carved on the East side of the Salt Lake Temple, the Gold carving saying "Holiness to the Lord"  He was doing this at 77 years of age!  He died four years before the completion of the Salt Lake Temple!  This was a dedicated Man of God and a true hero!

 

Riley's email

 

This picture is at a dinner appointment that members invited us too. They are way good at cooking and make delicious food haha! But yeah the members are way fun here. One thing I started doing instead of writing in my journal is I'm just doing a voice journal it's way easier and faster but I can also get a lot more info down.  If I ever want to write really personal experiences I will just do it in my journal. About the work. We  are doing pretty good.  Pres. Monahan is having us change our focus a little bit again. Our focus has been on less actives but this past week he told us that we cannot teach a less active lesson unless they bring an investigator to the lessons. So we will be working on finding a lot more. That's one thing I would like to ask if you will pray for us to have missionary opportunities to meet new people and to serve people. Dad,  he is one tough son of a gun!! (Meaning John Rowe Moyle)  I have heard his story before and what he experienced is a lot worse than what I went through haha! But that just shows his desire and determination to do good and serve the Lord no matter what happened to him. That's one way how we need to show our appreciation is to be willing to serve him diligently every day. Now I say diligently because of what diligent truly means. When you think of being diligent you think of working hard.....what I think of in diligence is working hard and never complaining. When we were baptized it is what we covenanted about. It is  our promise to Heavenly Father. He loves and supports us as long as we serve him. I'm very excited to hear you say that, (Referring to Darin saying he may want to serve an adult couples mission someday) though dad I'm gonna hold you to it though!,  about serving a couples mission. Honestly you would do great and would have a great time! I see the couples missionaries here and they have a blast. And I promise you don't live how we do.......you can basically do whatever you want hahaha but I love you guys.  Thanks for all the good news.  Tell Jordan that I'm praying for him always and that I love him. You can tell Alex that too if you want! haha But wish him good luck on his exam if it isn't over yet. But I love you all.  I'm excited for tomorrow. All of the foreigners go to  Urdaneta to get finger prints. Oh and by the way we don't get to go to the Manila temple anymore when we go home.....so I would like if you deeply thought about picking me up here so we can go to that temple together!!

love Elder Hansen

 

He has my vote to go pick him up!

 

 

"I'm doing great! I have some bad news..." 10/06/13

Dear Friends,

I have been slacking on keeping up with this blog!  That life thing!  Anyway, to catch up you will need to start on September 16th!  Sorry!  But, a ton has transpired in that little time!  Pray for the people of the Philippines!  Pray for all the missionaries everywhere! Thank you for your support!
Sharon

haha Hello Mom I will address this email directly to you because I think I'm sensing that you feel that I'm not caring about you haha No I'm just kidding! But thank you for delivering those letters for me and you can tell them that they can email me if they would like but I'm doing great!  (referring to the Bishop and Stake President)  I have some bad news....I'm going to the hospital today because the ingrown toenail that I have had on my foot they just keep coming back worse after I remove them at the salon.  So they are going to remove my entire nail and I will probably have to rest a little.  I'm not sure though. But yeah hopefully they will be able to numb my foot. The hospital is nice though and very clean so don't worry about that!! (Ya Right!)  but I do have to use my own money so I will either be using it just at the hospital or I might have to withdraw. But don't worry about me I will be fine. Just keep saying your prayers for my foot haha and for my investigators if you would like! As for bro. Capitle he is doing great!!!! His wife told yesterday that he wakes up early every morning to read the BoM and he also wakes her up to read with him! So right now he is doing great. Every time we see him he has a huge smile on his face I love it so much!! Did you guys get the pic that I forwarded to you of the baptism??? Oh and yes my camera works and I have been taking pictures its just super slow to upload them to an email so it drives me nuts! But I will send you some pics in letters and stuff as well as emails. I'm glad that conference was good and that dad went to priesthood! We don't get to watch it until this following Sunday but it will still be good! I can't believe that I'm all ready on my second general conference of the mission!! It blows my mind how fast time goes by. When you work hard and stay focused on the work that is exactly what happens. You turn around and it surprises you that I'm all ready eight months down the mission line. As for one of our other investigators I don't know if I told you about him but his name is Bernard and he is a doctor, very smart and very rich and also very interested in the church. He actually happened to preach by the way or a street contact to us. We were in church and he walked up and asked if he could listen. GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR haha Before we had even taught him he texted us and asked if he could get a BOM in English because he is very good at English. that's how we teach him is in English and I honestly can't do it haha When I try and speak in English I sound like a turd!! because all I use now is Tagalog so its like what I'm used to doing, especially in teaching. I would like to ask if you guys will pray for the less actives and the other members here in Malasiqui they need more prayers in their lives so please help us out with your prayers!! I'm doing very good though here.  I just bought a sweet hand made bamboo hymn book holder basically like a scripture case but for my mini hymn book!!! It's made by a member in a different mission but we told him to come today so I placed an order!! So I will send pictures in probably two weeks of this souvenier and maybe one other but I won't tell you what that is yet hahah but I hope you guys have a great week love your son Elder Hansen

 

Hi Elder Hansen!

About your toe They should numb it and take the nail off. I had that done as a child. Just keep it clean after and hopefully antibiotics! I will pray right now for your mini surgery! I will also pray for and put the less actives on the prayer roll. Get a blessing before your surgery! Very cool about the " golden" investigator and brother capitile. Glad you are taking pics! I don't feel neglected but thanks for paying "special " attention to me ! I love you so much!  You will be ok and I will secretly be holding your hand and giving you a hug through your toe surgery! Love ya lots 

Mom

haha thanks a ton mom love you so much and I also get to eat at Mcdonalds today so I'm way pumped!!!

(I guess the trip to the Hospital in the city is worth it for Mcdonalds!)

 

Elder Hansen's First Baptism! Happy Day!

 

(Referring to the Chili Pepper incident!)

hahaha yeah it was the craziest thing!!! it hurt so bad I'm not even kidding. Too bad though that mom forgot to put it in her talk haha (Mom did not forget to put that in her talk, she wisely chose to not talk about that in Sacrament meeting!) but I hope the talk was good.  I"m sure it was because mom is an angel. But thanks for the mlb schedule even though I can't watch it! but yeah those yanks just suck maybe in two seasons they will be better. That's soo cool that your doing stuff like that in the ward keep up the good work! How is the ward doing by the way?? Do you have any missionaries assigned there? But anyway as for my week it was awesome!! The baptism did continue and let me just say that  the experience was awesome!! I was the one to baptize him so that was really cool standing in the font guiding him and his family to eternal life. Before the baptism as we were waiting for like the people to get here for the baptism I could tell that he was nervous even in the picture we took before the baptism he wasn't smiling and stuff because I believe that Satan was trying to stop him. He has been an investigator for six years now and he finally made that change of heart and desired to be baptized so you know that Satan was trying to do anything to stop him. But literally right after the actual baptism we were eating a snack or a mirenda and he had the biggest smile on his face and was shaking everyone's hands etc....you could just see the change on his face or a change in his countenance!! IT WAS VERY UPLIFTING I'm way excited to keep working we actually found or he found us but an investigator that showed up to the church and wanted to listen. He is golden because he is very smart,  rich and speaks fluent English. He is progressing very quickly its funny how the Lord works in the details.  But yeah later on today we are going to play basketball with a bunch of members and also some investigators!! I'm way excited!  On Saturday we had a branch FHE which was way fun!! We traveled to different barangays to do a FHE and had the last one at the church. we played games ate a bunch of food and had a great time!!

I hope you are all doing good!  I love you!

Elder Hansen

Add on to 9/23/13 This is HOT!!!

Also something funny that happened to me yesterday.  After we went to church in our little meeting house out in Palapar they fed us which was awesome!! But they had this thing called Sili.  It's basically chili peppers but I just squished one and was rubbing it in my hands and all the members were like elder don't touch your eyes its gonna kill and  stuff like that.  Of course I'm not stupid right?! I'm not going to touch my eyes, but what did happen was this....I forgot to wash my hands and I decided to go pee..........yeah right when I finished going pee...........I was on fire!!!!!!!! ...my comp was laughing like crazy and the two Single Adults priesthood that worked with us that day were dying as well....let me just tell you it hurt very badly......just thought I would let you know how I'm doing!!!! hahaha

Letter To Our Ward 9/23/13 Lesson in Patience!

Dear Ward!

So this is the new and IMPROVING Elder Hansen, just a couple things I would like to tell you. First its either hot or it rains but I love it all the same, the work is hard the sleep is great but peace and joy still remain. I was trying to make a little poem on the top of my head but I ran out of ideas. Well I'm here in my second area its called Malasiqui 1st branch the people are very nice and extremely helpful. My companion is half Filipino half German...yes really weird mix but he is awesome he is from Springville Utah and actually goes home in December.  Although he is very close to going home he is still very diligent and I have learned a lot from him. As I have been serving my mission I'm pretty sure the lord has been trying to teach me patience and how to do things his way and not base it off my own carnal wisdom. It's taken me up until this point to really realize what patience is. And why missionaries need to develop Christ like attributes in their work. In the life of our Savior like it says in 1 Nephi 19:9 how the world judged,  smote and spit upon our Savior but he suffureth it, because of his loving kindness or charity and his long suffering towards the children of men. He was our perfect example on how to truly love those we serve no matter what they do to us. In my mission it has been until Sept. 28th that I did not have a baptism.  My very first baptism is almost eight months into my mission so it has definitely taken some patience and diligence on my part as a missionary but I did also need to become humble because as a missionary I don't feel that I was ready to bring someone into the church until I became humbled enough to do things the Lords way. 

 

Love,

Elder Hansen

Family

So that's some of my thoughts that you can share with the ward it's just a little bit but you can take things from other emails but I want you mom to search your thoughts and your feelings about my mission so far....if that makes sense. haha!  (Which I did and loved reporting on Riley's mission to our ward!) 

but yeah so this Saturday the 28th I  have my first baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited and so energized its awesome!!!! All of these blessings are happening at once the branch is working with us I'm finally getting my first baptism Brother June Capitle.   And I couldn't be more happy! Being a District Leader is all ready helping me grow, I will be the first person the president will come to if there is a problem in one of their areas in my district if their stats are low it will be me first. So I'm responsible for not only showing my district an excellent example of my area but also I'm responsible for giving them training each week, interviewing their baptismal candidates etc....I actually have my first interview on Friday so I'm nervous for that....but yeah I'm doing really great. Here is something funny that happened I think my old temple pants  got left in the mtc or I lost them somehow but I didn't have any and we have a baptism this Saturday.   But I don't have clothes to wear.....and I really doubt the baptismal clothes will fit me here. (With a nickname like Thor, tiny framed Filipino clothes will not fit him!) But I had ordered some new pants a couple weeks ago from lds. org and they happened to get to me today the p day right before the baptism!!! so this is definitely perfect timing hahaha (I refer to this as a miracle!  It takes about six weeks for us to get a package to Elder Hansen!) but yeah I'm doing great! I did get the journals and stuff today as well. I don't know if I got the letters fromm dad or not.... love you guys 

love Elder Hansen

 

09/16/13 District Leader/ New Companion

Hey family thanks for the great email!! Well hey I'm just so glad you
guys are having a great week so far and having the opportunities to
share the gospel.  That's cool that you saw Tav at Cafe
Rio....you shouldn't have told me at Cafe Rio though you should have said
at some vegetable restaurant that way it wouldn't make me miss food
hahaha just kidding! But yeah so I had a crazy week with lots of ups
and downs that I will write a letter to you about.  I don't want to send
it over email. (We still do not know what that was about!)  But I'm doing great. I have another new companion.  Elder Delapaz
 was transferred.  My new companion goes home in three months so I will
probably kill him in the mission or send him home haha! He is way cool!
He is from Springville Utah.  He is half Filipino and half German.  I'm
not quite sure how to spell his name but its elder Frishnicht or
something haha! But he is a great elder. He looks Filipino but speaks
normal Utah English haha!  But yeah I am now a district leader here in
Calisao District so I'm excited.  I  will be giving workshops every week
to my district,  I interview people for baptism and interview all the
companionships in my district. So far it  has been going great. The
members are getting more excited about missionary work because I'm
actually involving them. We had mcm last week and every day we have
member signed up to work with us. We also received five referrals
last week that we will contact this week and actually later tonight we
are going to contact one of them. Random thought real quick two girls
are singing a cranberries song right now I have no idea why the
Cranberries are popular here, they are so old! Haha! but yeah so
hopefully we will get some new investigators this week. Bro. June
Capitle is going to be baptized on Sept. 28 as long as the interview
goes good on Saturday but our other Brother investigator had to extend his ibd
because he drank a little beer.   He
totally understood, he still goes to church every week and said that
he will stop now and completely  understands that it is bawal or
forbidden.
My Tagalog is coming along really well, my comp who is about to go
home said that I'm all ready pretty fluent so that's pretty cool!!! So
yeah that's about it for the work oh one really funny thing I saw
yesterday was a dog had his head stuck in a fence and he was jumping
up and down trying to get it out I wish I would have  filmed it or
something haha but yeah were doing good here in Malasiqui!  I love you
guys
love Elder Hansen