Hey everybody!
I'm feeling better finally, for now. I just kept forcing
myself to eat and I finally came around. If it persists I will do something
because I can't go my whole mission being sick like that! What's saved me
this week-cause I couldn't eat anything else-was sandwhiches with turkey,
cheese, avacado, and tomato (I know, I like tomatoes now!) and cold milk I stuck
in the freezer for a while. I started cooking again, making french toast and
pancakes and simple things like that. I just didn't have the willpower to eat
in the week and i really had to force it. Also, I was drifting off to sleep
last night and I heard a big crash-at first I thought someone was breaking in,
but I was so tired I was just like "eh, we've got bars on the
windows" and then I realized that our mangos finally got ripe and are
falling! So this morning we set in to them and ate a nice breakfast of mangos.
And I know that home is always there. I do love the mission.
It's just kinda hard to think that as soon as I get home I'll have to leave
again and just go to being homesick again in utah (I actually love Utah though)
but I'm excited for that too when the time comes. What do you like about AZ? I
mean, I understand the feeling for sure, but what do you miss about it? But
shoot, my homesickness is so bad sometimes I get homesick for AZ and I'm not
even from there! but wait, does that mean you're not pining for AZ anymore?
Finally got converted to Florida or did I read that wrong?
How was the visit with Kevin? And Orrin? Got a nice long
email from Orrin, I still think he's crazy but I think he's doing the right
thing. He's really following the spirit here and going for it so more power to
him.
Those beach pictures you sent me are the best, looks like a
blast. And frozen gold of course. The skies looking beautiful in the
background. And the FOOD. You all have no idea how much I miss the food. Summertime
food. Cookout style. Watermelon, sandwhiches, fruit, real milk, real bread,
variety-we are truly blessed in the states. Enjoy it for me! And I'm glad the
kayaks are getting used! Still waiting on pictures of the wekiva trip!
I heard about the SCOTUS ruling, that's interesting. I've
lost whatever interest I've had in politics for the moment-got bigger fish to
fry I guess. I know I'll get back into things when I'm home but for now I'm
content to let the world do what it's gonna do.
And curtis gets to go scalloping! I love scalloping, it was
a blast when we went. We'll have to go as a family, its super laid back and a
good time all around. Isn't it a little early for scallops though? I hope it
turns out. Orrin told me how much Curtis reminds him of me, how he's getting
big and acting like me. Hope that's a good thing. And curtis! I need a favor.
Now that we have some new spearguns and cast nets and other fishing stuff
(thanks for that one by the way, I appreciate it!) Curtis's new job is to take
care of it and wash it and not let people borrow them! And, use them. What's he
doing to earn money? His emails make me laugh, about as brief as could be, nice
and direct and no beating around the bush!
And Kate is sure looking more and more grown up every week.
That's exciting, Mia Maid president. Is she just the leader/superstar of the
young women? Popular as could be? What else is she doing with her life? She's
probably the funniest person I know, I remember how I'd sometimes want to
strangle her and get mad at her but I couldn't cause it was just too
funny.
Is Sarah still working? I'm impressed with how
much she's working, and with everything she's done with the horses. The other
day I was explaining what she does with horses and special needs kids and all
that and the man was so amazed-the idea of charity/being anxiously engaged in a
good cause thing is pretty foreign here, it's hard to help others when you
can't get by yourself. Nursery leader, that's gonna be an interesting one, who
else is in there with her? How's she liking her job? BYU updates? How's she
feeling? How's the horse? Sarah and I are gonna tear it up in Utah, I'm excited
for that. Nothing like being away from home to make you realize how much you
just want to hang out with your siblings.
How's everybody feeling about the trip? Still murmuring? I'd
be real excited just for the drive, it's a totally different part of the
country than what they know. I expect lots of pictures of the drive, of
georgia, and tennessee. And please be sure to stop for either barbeque or
boiled peanuts and send me a picture.
But yeah, we're working hard in Morazan. We had a big group
of news-and we had 37 more this week-now the challenge is to get them
progressing and going to church. My favorites this week are pure gold-Antonio,
is a 37 year old single man (and is the latino twin of kevin mccormack) who is
a recovering alcholic with 4 months sober and wants to turn his whole life
around, start a family, invited himself to church, and we've got a baptism date
for the 25 of july. Solid. He really gets it. His reason for wanting to talk to
us (he contacted us when we were burning trash in the back of our little
"grove") is that he knows he's made some big changes in his life-he's
seen the blessings-and he says that to complete the process and have the power
to stay strong he needs to look for God and complete the process-he's made the
physical changes, and now he's looking for the spiritual changes. He'll
probably be the first convert for my greenie and we're really excited about
him. The other is a girl that works in the super market that also contacted
us-we went to her house, and I thought she just wanted to flirt with us or find
a gringo to take her to the states-but I was way off and she's solid. She's
really motivated, got her head screwed on straight, and she's looking for
answers.
Side note, the other day we were sitting in the park waiting
on a member to make visits with us and long story short an adventist pastor
sits himself next to us and starts expounding the book of revelations and tells
me how one of hte great beasts in revelations is the united states and that
we're here to enforce dominical rule, or in other words, force people to keep
sunday as the sabbath instead of saturday, at the penalty of death. I'm usually
extrememely patient with people like that cause they usually mean well and
they're usually old and they think they're doing the lord's work just like I
am, but he got rude and insulted us and my country so I got a little feisty
with him.
But yeah, my greenie's pretty cool. We get along great. His
"mater" moment for the week was when he asked someone
"wait, who's older, you or your dad?" I gave him hell for that
one, cracked me up. We have fun though. I'm really trying and making the effort
to have fun with him and joke and not just work. Whenever I'm on divisions with
a gringo its pure party mode and we're just dying of laughter in the street but
I have to work to make that happen with latinos. He's a really hard worker
though. He's kind of annoying sometimes with his pride and thinking that his
way is right (just about every day he says something to a hondureno like
"well, in peru, we do it this way") but we're working on it and he's
learning really fast and he's already a really good missionary. You can tell he
comes from a really solid family. He's flushing his TP too. I try to do lots of
little things for him like make him breakfast every now and then and be a good
dad-always try and build him up, have lots of patience and remember how I was
when I got on the mission, give him lots of opportunities to try things even
when it would be way easier to just do it myself-any tips?? Tips on leadership,
training? I'm all ears.
Anyways, that's all I got for ya, but I'll be on for awhile,
"working". Gonna get organized here, making spreadsheets and stuff
like that.
love you all!
Elder Hansen
p.s. Here's the gringos in our zone. Left to right, Criddle,
from Utah, Roberts, Utah, Hodson, Vegas, Yours truly, and Measles, Lehi,
Utah. I get to see them about once every two weeks.
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