April 7, 2015

Ahhh, I miss Easter dinners! And watching conference at home! That's fun having the house full.

Right on on the GPA! When do you sign up for classes at BYU? And about the ancestry stuff, I only want stuff about my grandparents. There's not space for the others, only info.

And we had to break the sabbath too, we ran out of water and had to buy some. And that special olympics picture is awesome, I'm glad she's still doing that.  

And yeah, talks via email works just fine. As always I love hearing about the family and pictures and all that good stuff. How's the trees doing? Any sign of a garden? Sunburst? how's the crew doing? 

Here comes the updates, in which I imagine I'll answer your questions. 

First off, the week started really good. It later got pretty slow because my comp got dengue, which is pretty much west nile virus, and was bedridden for three days so we just did divisions the whole time and got about half the work one. But the start of the week had really spiritual lessons-teaching powerfully with people that were progressing, and people that recieved answers to their prayers. So all that was really great to see and feel. Moments like we had early in the week really keep you going. This sure was an interesting week though, and Í've got some stories. 

This week is semana santa, or holy week-in latin america they celebrate the whole week of easter. They have processions in the street and all kinds of events put on by the catholic church, I'll send pictures. The most interesting thing though is that they send out "jews" into the streets too (can you imagine anything so offensive happening in the states?" with horrible looking masks and hunchbacks and canes and they walk around the town making little shrilling noises and asking for money (cause they're jews...get it?) and if they don't give you any money they hit you with their sticks. We ran into a bunch but they didn't hit us, thank goodness. it's actually really creepy. I'll send pics of the parades with Jesus walking the via de la cruz.

 

Also something I want to tell you (props to sister bush) is how many times I've remembered seminary scriptures this week-and I remembered them using the same stupid little clues she taught us to remember them with. Guess it worked! 

Another thing I'm really realizing is that the best way to make worry and anxiety and any kind of stress to go away is to immerse myself in the work and in the scriptures. With a sick comp immersing myself in the work was a little tricky, but I was able to force myself to study hard and utilize my time instead of loitering around and I came away with new insights and more knowledge.
 But yes, Marta and Jenny got baptized!

 

We ended up baptizing them in between sessions of conference, so no river baptism pics :( hopefully in two weeks. They are super solid, especially Jenny. Future missionary. Reading everyday and those two are the first two in church. They get there before we do. Their case is really typical of the church here-we teach the whole family, whole family loves it, but the parents aren't married and won't or can't get married so we baptize the kids, the kids are super active and end up going on missions, and the parents, without the blessings of baptism and the holy ghost, eventually fade away. Really we're building the church here for the next generation. The church is very young here. In our little extension of a ward with an attendance of 60 we have around 5 future missionaries that are preparing now-as in saving and starting their papers. And then all of their little siblings. So while growth is slow for right now, the future is pretty bright. There is Kevin, the  "bishop" who is second counselor of the ward in Santa Rita, and we're under santa rita's jurisdiction. Aside from that its pretty much the missionaries. We meet lots of people who know some of the pillars of the church, and then they give us the chance to talk to them because they know good members of the church. so...be examples!

Also in my next package, could you send me a little slingshot? not even joking.There's been so many times this week where I could have used one...dogs, cats, pigeons...I love animals but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The cats are the worst. There are a few that perch outside our window every night just doing that super loud meow all night. And, funny story, speaking of cats and slingshots-we were all watching conference in the church (which is outside remember) and we have a tv set up in front of all the chairs. It's already kind of irreverent, ton of kids, the duena is cooking, signals pretty bad. And then, on the roof of a shed right behind the tv, two cats hop up and start getting it on, and loud too. The place just lost it. All the kids are just dying of laughter and I was too. That was the moment that I decided I needed a slingshot.

Another funny story from the same day-a big easter tradition here is eating fish soup. But the fish is dried-they make a fish jerky basically-it smells horrible and straight up rotten (the fish is usually snook, fun fact) so they take the fish jerky, mix it with eggs and corn flour, and fry it and make little cakes. It's horrible. It smells like the bottom of the live wells in a bait and tackle shop and tastes about the same. So this sister happily dishes us up heaping plates of this garbage, and I'm just stressing. I'm really good about choking food down but this is too much. So I pull up my backpack and start slipping pieces into a little plastic bag inside of my backpack. We're all laughing, and then Elder Tarqui, a brand new little fat missionary from Bolivia, starts to do the same, but then the sister walks out-so he panics and for whatever reason shoves this bag of piping hot fish right off the fryer in his pants. And then the sister just stands there...watching us eat...making small talk...And I'm just watching tarqui and he's got tears coming out of his eyes, poor thing and we're all trying so hard not to laugh. Finally she leaves and he jumps up and screams like a girl and loosely translated screams "my God, my nuts are cooking!" I just about died, funniest thing ever.

But yeah, we got to watch conference! I even got to watch one session in english. Unfortunately though, I forgot my notes, so you'll have to wait another week to hear about what I liked and my thoughts and all that good stuff. It was really good though, spotty signal and irreverance and all. Some of them were very powerful and we had investigators there to watch it.

But yeah, this week was really good and kind of hard at the same time. I mean, it's always hard, but recently its been extra tough. I don't know how to explain it but back in Roatan I was top dog. Everyone came to me, I had all the responsibility, I knew the island, I knew the people and how to work with them, had really close friends in the branch and I just felt more respected. Thrived on the responsibility and on having to do it all myself. And now, I went from being a big fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a big pond. I'm definitely not top dog anymore. My comp is a really good missionary, has things under control, I don't know the area as well as I should, my spanish sill feels iffy some days, and it's real easy to either feel inadequate or unneeded. I should be greatful I have a good comp but I almost like it the other way around better! Anyways, there's my vent for the week. it'll get better with time, no doubt, just gotta keep on truckin'.

There's my update, I'll send some more pictures. And I'll be here for awhile in case I remember anything else!

Love you all, keep me posted!

Elder Hansen