February 23, 2015

Ok, here goes. Hope you all are ready for a ton of photos. Big things for this week:

This is coming back from LaCeiba - The Island you see is Roatan

This is in La Ceiba - Scott loves this city

Elder Sandoval - Scott loves this guy! He is holding a bag if pepsi??

Tony's baptism



Scott said this is the white house of Honduras

School of Tarpon behind

Baggy!

 

The church is growing here. We are baptizing. People are recieving the priesthood. Inactives are coming back to church. We started a seminary program. People are having babies. It's exciting. Our little branch is about to send out 3 missionaries at the same time and there are already 3 out. At one point in the near future there will be 6 missionaries from a branch of around 120 people. It's so exciting and some days you can just feel the excitement. 

And, other days, no one does anything and I want to wring their necks. For example, for Tony's baptism, no one showed up on time, and the branch president showed up an hour late cause he was hanging out on the beach. I just have to remember that I'm in Honduras and no one really cares. Expectations are super low so it really doesn't matter if church starts late or no one shows up to give their talks or the singing sounds terrible, most people's church's here are like 12 people in a warehouse, so I've gotten real good at just rolling with it. 

This emails gonna be short on details cause I'm including a ton of photos and my little spiritual thought, so forgive me. 

However, I do want to tell you how cheap I am. For example, I usually buy a big bag of knock of frosted flakes. Then, I buy a big bag of cornflakes, which cost about 50 cents, and mix them in with the frosted flakes. Twice the cereal and you cant taste the difference. Also I buy whole milk, drink half, and then fill it up again with water. skim milk. Someone gave me a decorative mug for my birthday (It's a honduran thing) and I was super excited because I finally didn't have to eat, drink, shave, and brush my teeth from the same cup. Just to give you an idea. 

Also, are you serious about returning here to Roatan with the family after my mission? I think it would be sweet. And outside of travel, super cheap. 

So, my spiritual thought. I'll give the basic outline cause time is short.

Ok. Let's go to 2nd Nephi 28:30. We recieve our knowledge line upon line. The book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel of christ, but says little about temples, temple marriage, parts of the plan of salvation, etc. What gives? Why is this not included?

Let's go to 3rd Nephi 26. Verse 6 says that this book couldn't contain even a fraction of the things Jesus taught. v. 12 says that Mormon uncludes the things that he was commanded to include-the basics, what we need most, our building blocks. 

So, just like 2 nephi 28 says, if we are faithful to the first principles, we will recieve more. The book of Mormon is full of examples that show us, that, really, there is more (3rd Nephi 26:9) And, interestingly, 3 Nephi 26:11 says that Nephi was forbidden to write more so that we could be tried. 

Ether 4 says the same thing. If we are faithful in recieving, and being obeient to the basics, we recieve more. Ehter 4:7 talks about how The brother of Jared saw and knew everything but was forbidden to reveal it until our faith and spiritual strength was sufficiently strong.We have to start off with faith in the basics to recieve "all of my revelations".

So, all of the modern revelation we have recieved are like "rewards" for faith and obedience to the first principals of the gospel, i.e, faith, repentance, baptism, etc as found in the book of mormon and bible. 

 So why is it the way it is? What's the reason God didn't just tell us everything from the get go? For example, D&C 19. This section treats the nature of hell and how eternal punishment isn't really eternal (remember that the book of mormon is full of refernces to hell, lakes of fire and brimstone, etc) But in v. 21 the prophet is commanded to not show this unto the world, and preach nothing but repentance. Why? V.22 says that it is for our good. Our protection. The world needs milk before meat. The last line is interesting, and it says "They must not know these things lest they should perish". It's only human nature. If we knew that we'll have opportunities in the next life or that even the worst people will still recieve a degree of glory, its human nature to sell ourselves short, and say, good enough, I'll do what I want here and still have a reward in the end. 

So, much of the language in the BoM is tough love from a fatherly heavenly father. D&C 19:7 says that it is written this way to "work upon the hearts of men", in other words, to spur us to repentance. When we are rebellious, God gives us strong words to spur us to action. And when We are righteous, god gives us soothing words and increases our light and understanding because of our faith and obedience. 

However, we always have to focus on the basics. As we read in Jacob 4:14, don't look beyond the mark. Don't get caught up in deep doctrine and trivialities. The basics of the gospel, as explained in 3 Nephi 11:33-40, are simple and should always be the center of our spiritual foundations.

Hope that made sense, I wrote that at a mile a minute. 

Right on, Dad, texting and driving. And taking selfies. You didn't even have any errors, impressive.  And no way, I'm never bored. There is so much to do. After we get home we still have to cook, clean, wash clothes, plan tomorrow, update our area book, call people, it never ends. I fall asleep praying half the time and if not I'm asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. 

I have no time so I'm just gonna respond to bits and pieces, sorry! But I always love reading the details and the pictures are stellar, as always. 

But yes, I wrote grammie a letter. And I'm emailing the mesa grandparents. 

I'm super excited Lars is engaged, I was talking to him last week and he didn't say a thing! And last month he didn't even have a girlfriend! But yeah, she's cute. 

And that's a cool picture of Sarah on the beach. I'm just gonna set her up with missionaries I know, they all want to marry her. 

How's Kate doing? She's the only one I haven't heard much about. Still a socialite?

Made me laugh about the old lady. I bet she was from New York. 

But yeah, turned 6 months! Sometimes it feels like forever, sometimes it feels like time's already running out. Also, I don't want to get transfered, ever. We have sooo many baptisms coming up. We have found a ton of people that are already prepared and our long term ones have all left their fornication partners and are ready to go. If everything goes as planned we'll have up to 5 baptisms in march. We went so long without a single baptism on the island and now we're baptizing every weekend between the 3 companionships. Also, funny story, we keep forgetting to change the water in the font...So right before each baptism I would tell the person and be like "hey, you know that like 3 other people have been baptized in this same water right? This water is fullll of sin. Good luck". It's funny in spanish. The humor here is so dumb. 

That's all I got, love you all, photos are coming! Also I'm going fishing with a family we're reactivating (and about to baptize their cousin) this afternoon, wish me luck. 

February 16, 2015

 

awesome pictures! I wanna be in the cold so bad! 

I'm writing this from La Ceiba, we have interviews with president tomorrow so we just decided to come a little early and spend our pday here. I love la ceiba and I just hope I can serve here one day. It's dry, cool, with mountains all around, and a super productive high baptizing area. So we had to wake up at 5 am and take a cold shower to get to the boat on time, and I'm still the only one that has never gotten seasick. 

As always, I'm glad orrin came over. That looks like a blast, I'm glad you all could break the guns out, they were getting a little dusty. 

Any updates for what you're gonna do with Delray beach? And hey, I'm cutting my hair myself too. 2 on the sides and 4 on top, I switched it up a little bit. 

So yeah, we're not fishing, we'll just bum around ceiba for a little bit and then play something with the other missionaries here. We have a multi mission conference coming up next month, with the san pedro sula west mission, and I cant wait to see all my mtc buddies. And an apostle too, but ya know. 

And yes! on saturday we baptized tony. he's super excited, is attending seminary, and going to church on his own. He's neighbors with the branch president and a another family in the branch so he has lots of support and fellowship. I never really clicked with him, but he really clicked with my weird, strange, socially maladjusted companion so who knows. I guess thats why we're sent in twos. No pictures because I forgot my camera cord but I have a bunch of sweet ones. baptisms, people, missionaries, a bunch of huge snook and tarpon from a dock...next week should be good. 

Hey ster, glad you won. Good lucking picture with the the other players, how's the team? Are you really good at clays?? that's awesome, when I was your age I don't think Id even tried. And hey, relaxing on the river is the best. didn't catch anything at all? And .22's are the best. Unless I'm trying to kill something I'm never gonna shoot anything but a .22 ever again. 

that story about curtis and the girl cracked me up...little turd, I died laughing. way to go. is she pretty? Sounds like he's doing real well with the track thing, what's he gonna focus on? What observation did he have at Julies? 

And yeah, I really thought I was gonna go. I'd been here for a long time and I've been here longer than usual. Still have the same companion and he's improving. He's only lied to be a few times and only offended a few inveswtigators and he's not quite as disobedient. Still working on my patience, everyone is the way they are for a reason. And his reason seems to be his parents. grateful for my parents! 

and yeah, We were in the robbers house, he told us he still had the camera so we came and were basically hanging out with him (I even brought him a soda) and then he told us he already sold it.

 

And the things I'm learning? Shoot, I couldn't even begin to start. I'm bring my notes or something next monday but it's an everyday thing. 

And no worries on the package, hopefully I have that christmas card package waiting for me here (I think, you sent it right?)

Interesting experience of the week: I was walking with Elder Fotheringham (the new missionary here that replaced Elder Cluff) to oranize a new area and I was showing him around the island and giving my suggestions and all that good stuff. So we're walking on the road to flowers bay, and it runs along the ocean the whole time-under palm trees, nice breeze, and we can see the mountains of la ceiba in the distance.  We're walking past little beaches and rocky coves with clear water and little caves and it looks like something from pirates of the carribean. We keep on walking, and up ahead we see this old rastafarian man-dreadlocks, beard, captain's hat-sitting on a stump he carved into a chair. He see's us and starts singing "white boys, white boys, whatchyouu doin on my land"and then calls us over. I'm thinking "oh, this is gonna be good" and we go over and start talking to him. The other elder didn't understand a single word; he was talking in English but his island accent was super thick. I missed alot of what he said but from what I was able to understand, he is Moses. The moses. He wrote the first 5 books of the bible, he was telling us that we cant be here without his permission (walking on a private road) and that the islands are given to the black man. At this point I can tell he's just not right and felt bad for him and we tried to leave but he just kept on going. He told us all about the history of the island-well, his history-and about how americans have no right to be here and then he told us that a group of israelites came here to the island many years ago and that they "still speak the hebrew tongue" (hey, we have a book about that exact story, wanna read it?) and then at that point he's like "I wanna show you a photo". So he brings us up to a bunch of rocks hanging out over the water and says "well here it is" and he's pointing out the faces in the rocks and how they're the faces of the people that either used to live there or the people he killed, I wasn't super sure about that part. Wayyy off his rocker. I woulda felt bad for him but he was super rude and has a house and was well fed so I didn't feel too bad. It was a blast though, welcome to the island. 

That's my big story, if I think of anything else I'll let ya know! Was the picture of Kate at sarah's honor grad or something else? 

Also, could you do me a favor and get me the email address of corey white? I wanna see how he's doing. 

Enjoy the day off, what's the occasion? Keep the pictures coming, I want some river pictures soon! And some more family pictures. 

Love you all,

E' Hansen

Monday, February 9, 2015

Doing really well, but still here on the island!

 

Hey Ster-sounds like you're having a blast out there with garretts. where is the property? I don't remember. And yes, get a kayak! You and Curtis could go take the kayaks anywhere and fish and explore all by yourselves, that would be a blast. You'd only use the dirtbikes once in a while, too expensive. Keep up the good work with football, still playing wide reciever? that's cool you had prayer before the game. People here tell us all the time that sports are sinful. They're like "you guys have a soccer court IN YOUR CHURCH, what are you doing??" crazy. 

About the robbery-the funny thing is, after hearing word on the street and various things, I actually know the guy who did it-we've taught him a lesson. He lives with the brother of Krisia, beneath her. Bunch of bums and trash. And the best part is tonight we're gonna go buy our stuff back for cheap. We're friendly with him. He's black and skinny and has a tattoo of a marijuna leaf on his hand. Our neighbors are waiting up every night with guns to shoot him, and it's weird...we're friendly with the robber and his cousin (I know their whole gang and who sells the stuff too) but at the same time, I would not lose any sleep if our neighbors shot them. It's terrible but I kinda hope they do. One less problem, one less scumbag in Roatan. I should probably repent for that but I'd do the same. He's tried in the neighbors apartment 3 times, and either couldn't get back in ours or saw we didnt have anything of value and didn't try. And the police...nah. It really didn't even cross my mind. I have an even lower opinion of the police. Super corrupt, scumbags, too much power. One of our investigators is in jail for who knows how long for fishing too close to the airport. They arrest you and leave you in jail for a long time before you even get a trial, ship you to the mainland to be tried, and then if you're innocent they're just like "our bad" and you go out without money or anything. 

And if the robber comes back in our house I'll just call him by his street name that only his family and friends know and we'll be good. 

And just a little update on the work-we have another baptism for saturday, he's called Tony. Super solid. He's going to church on his own, neighbor of the branch presidents, was super excited when they gave him a shirt and tie, participates in the classes, and has good questions. He's 17. 

And this week we had two boys recieve the priesthood-we've been working with their part member family for a while and reactivating them and it's going great. The boys fit right in and are excited to pass the sacrament. They live in a little house about the water and fish right from their living room. I watched them cast net a little snook the other day, and we'll be in the middle of a lesson and they'll jump up to go catch a crab they see in the water beneath them to use for bait later. We're gonna fish with them next monday. I showed them my fishing pictures, and the dad has that same yamaha 2.5 hp motor we had and he opened up to us after I was talking to him about all the problems we had and talking boats and fishing and all that. It's just cool because I'm able to use my talents for a good cause-I'm able to use all that time fishing and on the water for missionary work. They have a big 12' net they can't throw and i'm excited to show them how it's done. Stuff Like that. 

Glad Boca wasn't too bad, its just cause Dad is so friendly and everyone loves him. I've found the same about Roatan though-it has a rep for being unfriendly and rude, and really, it kind of is in parts-but you just have to know how to work with the people. Sometimes I wish I could just get transferred to another mission and go to different carribean islands because I've really figured out the people here. At least, I think I have, and then someone will yell at us for not giving them money. 

Thanks for the summary, bunch of white trash, playing with spray paint and the like. Good stuff. cracked me up about Curtis though, thats funny. 

And Curtis-congrats on the improvements! That's cool, how do you stack up in the shot put against others? I want some fish pictures. Don't burn yourself. Also if you put little balls of aluminum foil in a water bottle and add "works" toilet bowl cleaner and put the lid on the bottle they explode really loudly. 

How's sarah doing? She's the only one i didn't hear anything about. 

Summer trip sounds like fun. North of georgia I know absolutely nothing about that part of the country, I'm excited to see some pictures! And a keys trip would be sweet-get everybody dive certified! Or go snorkeling at least. My only reccomendation for the keys is to spend a little money and hire a boat, just the family, and go out reef fishing-something where they put out a chumbag and chum up yellowtails or other snappers. Such a blast. constant action. Plus snapper eats pretty good. 

This week was kinda interesting at first-I was honestly really disapointed I didn't get transfered. It was time to leave. I've been here a long time. But I did alot of thinking and praying and had another little moment and came away from the experience with a really clear vision of exactly what I need to do here and the people I need to work with here and why I didn't get transfered. Now I don't want to go, ever. 

Also, tell Mark I said hi, always liked that guy. Tell all the shop people hi for me, and enjoy the weather. Definitely working hard! Thanks for the pictures, and the pending package! Miss you all, all the time. 

And Curtis, I'm gonna be here for a little while, not sure if you're still there. 

love you all!

Monday, Feb 2, 2015

Stefanie's baptism

Stefanie

 

I think this is Hermana Garay Scott's cook.  Not sure though

As I write this I'm still on the island, but I'll find out tonight where I'm going. It's almost a sure thing I go, and really it's time. I've been here for a long time. I don't want to go but really I do. Anyways, this week, we:Had a baptism, got robbed (story later, no worries) and felt an earthquake. 

 

So, the baptism-I can't remember what I've told yall about stefani, but this is the family we found that had dreams about us and was already reading the Book of Mormon. Super solid. The mom isn't married and can't be baptized yet but we're starting with Stefani. We have to move slow with them, very little education, but they have strong desires and strong faith. I baptized her saturday night and it was a great experience. She fits right in in the church and she already has a support system-her downstairs neighbors are alonzo's family, and we have been teaching them with alonzo (strengthening alonzo at the same time) and another recent convert that lives close by who's 19. She's island island native, and as far as I know, the second native islander to be baptized here-I don't know of any others. All the rest are from Honduras or mosquitia or other countries. 

The robbery-It finally happened. Our little island peace has been shattered. The island is usually so tranquil that we weren't even worried about it. We left the window open to let the breeze in (unlike the rest of central america, we don't have bars over the windows) and someone came in in through the screen while we were sleeping. And...we didn't know a thing. There is no doubt in my mind that we were protected and kept asleep. They took about 3,000 lempiras and a camera of elder sandoval and my ipod. 1,000 of those limps was my personal money to buy souveneirs, so...I'm gonna have to take a little more haha. But really, if we had woken up we would have had major problems. They came into our individual bedrooms and everything-I had my wallet about 2 feet from my head in my little closet thing, and they did the same in the other companionship's bedroom. No one knew a thing. They took our stuff and left, and thankfully left our ID's and cards-just took the cash and the electronics. We figured it out in the morning and knelt down and prayed in grattitude for our protection. They got our neighbors too and cleaned them out, tv's, microwaves, computers, everything. At least now they know that we don't have anything of value and won't come back! So that was something interesting for the week. 

We also felt an earthquake-it was super small and lasted 5 seconds but that was the first time I've ever felt one so it was cool for me. Not what I imagined. But the buildings sway and everything, it was sweet. 

And yeah, you guys can hang out with the younger crowd, you guys are cool. No worries. 

And that shutter picture....ughh, that made me sick. Glad to hear it all turned out ok. What happened with the install? 

And just don't get an ugly chevy...I think all the new ones are ugly. But no worries, it's still a new truck. 

Curtis and fishing shirts, that's funny. Is he fishing? That's the way to keep him out of trouble, send him out on the river. That's cool that he's doing so well in track, are you gonna encourage himn to focus on one thing or what? And I have never heard of the brevard county zoo but sounds cool. 

Sterling looks so...I don't know, but the picture on the couch with the cat made me laugh. Too bad his team isn't all that great, isn't he playing with all the ward kids? 

And with Kate and her schedule (she'll be a sophomore?) I really did like the class but I had Joyce as my teacher and he's not there anymore. It depends on the teacher really but I'd still reccomend it. Have fun in jacksonville, I love jax. 

How much time does sarah have left? Is it worth her time to buy the horse? Still sounds like fun though. When does she find out about colleges? And yes, the end of senior year was super easy. The only hard parts are the ap exams, but I skipped a ton of class and definitely just coasted there at the end. Not that she should do that but I wouldn't be worried about a lack of homework. 

And about the acne-the doctor here already gave me a super basic, light antibiotic similiar to monodox and it helps but not much. But nooo, this isn't a problem of keeping my face clean-this is a medical problem. I'm in full favor of advanced medication. And I can always stop meds if I get weird, I told you all about minor anxiety, I'd definitely tell you about depressive thoughts. I'm not mentaly unstable or anything, no worries. And there are no good doctors in the mainland, Roatan is the most civilized place in Honduras. 

And my old ipod doesn't work-it seems like it works for a little while but after a while it craps out. But the thing is I need an mp3 player, like a cheap one-I cant use apple products because they require itunes to put music on. Missionaries are always exchanging talks and music and I can't do that with an ipod. But yes, Disney is just fine. Headphones, no, but I have my little speakers. 

Keep me posted about the nauvoo trip! Are trhe Garrett's still there? Any of the appalachian trail hikes would be cool, and Blood mountain area is where connor and I went and it was beautiful. You should ask connor how to get to that waterfall we bathed in when we went up there, it was super cool and pretty close to a road. I remember TN being super fun, sounds like a blast. Go to Nasheville! 

That's all I got for ya, hope this email was suficiently exciting. Have a great week, can't wait to hear from ya'll again!

Love you all