August 10, 2015

Great email. Loved the pictures. 

Still here in Morazan, changes don't come til september. I'll get to stay to see Rosibel get hitched and baptized and a couple more baptisms we have planned to boot. And yeah, send them a card! Better hurry though! And it will be sad to leave, but at the same time...6 months is a long time in one place. Heck, I can't even remember Roatan, it seems like so long ago. 

I'm glad you liked my little spiritual thought for the week, I get a good idea every now and then. And about what Spencer said, I understand exactly. I love it, I value it, and I'm even thriving sometimes, but...I have no desire to extend nor to go back. I'll do what I'm called to do and do it well and magnify my calling, but...I always remember an Elder Holland quote that said that they should have to cart us off the airplane after the mission cause we'll be so tired, and that's what's gonna happen. Give everything I have and then afterwards move on and get on with the next steps. 

How's Chenel doing? Good for you guys, giving her a helping hand. I really like her. Always remember to teach the doctrines of the gospel as well as the culture! Show her the LDS life, get her all indoctrinated. I'm so hungry right now, I'd kill for a waffle. More on that later. 

That party looks like an absolute blast! Good for you all, I'm proud. That's the gospel culture right there, having fun, clean fun, letting loose, not being all stiff, I love it. Who all was there? I recognize just about nobody. Wish we did something like that before I left, looks fun. 

And keep them pictures coming, I'll be online for awhile! But I'm real proud of the pictures-Utah trip, river trip, surfing, little bit of gossip, what else can I ask for? 

Curtis, nice bass. Solid. I'm proud. Keepin' it real on the river. How's the kayak? What did the bass take? Tell me about the river, is it still getting sandy? Water looked high. Seeing any deer? And scout camp sounds sweet. Musta been nice to have something that's no LaNoche. I miss shooting too. So you're a pretty good shot huh? Got any pictures of shooting? isn't flying a blast? How's Canaan doing, you all still pretty good buds? He likes to go fishing and out on the river? 

Sterling-loving the surfing pics, cracked me up. How'd you like the river? And tell me about surfing. You saving up for a bigger board? Always go with Wyatt? Seen any sharks yet? Curtis never goes with ya'll? Enjoy the football game, and tell Sarah not to flirt with the Elders. Hope you enjoyed having the house to yourself for awhile. Getting ready to start school? I imagine your surfing's gonna be a little more limited in the school year. 

Also, both of you boys, I expect regular football season updates now that it's coming up. Especially anything about BYU or UF. 

And Kate...so what do you like better, Utah or Florida? I'm real impressed with the pictures of the party and all that! who are the Mormon friends? Looks like the holloday kid and who knows who else. Keep on going with the party thing, make your group of mormon friends a solid group! And you chopped your hair off! Looks good though. And your schedule-Ohl is a good teacher. strict, but I respected and liked her. I'm gonna go back and visit her so we can speak spanish. McGhee will be a hard class, she made Marie cry a couple of times haha but at least its not the AP class she used to give. And Dershimer's good too.  

And Sarah-looking good on the river! Just warms my heart seeing you in a kayak. How's the horse? Provo's coming up quick. Having fun shopping for fall and winter clothes? I did, and...you know me. Still living in Helaman? I wanna see your schedule when you get it all straihtened out too. If you're running short on money and need someone to take you out to dinner just go up and loiter on the 3rd (or 4th...can't remember) of the library and someone will ask you out real quick. The smith fieldhouse has a great gym and exercise facilities and I highly reccomend it. Do intramural sports. Provo's all about who ya know, make friends with people with boats and snowmobiles and ATV's and horses and you'll be set. Just don't get too Utah on us. 

And to what Dad wrote-yup, one year's coming up! it does seem like it's moved slow but the weeks do go by so dang fast, there's not just time for everything. And thats too bad about the bass, how's the river? And Julie? and hey now, don't knock the woman, I've sure done my share of swimming in secluded areas! And plan on doing more of it when I'm home. Can't wait to catch alligators again.  Getting ready for seminary? Just warms my heart to picture you in your white shirt and tie in the seminary room, I think you'll do real well. And no, haven't heard the kiva story-actually I have but I don't remember it-tell me, and keep them coming!

Well, I guess I should let you all know what I'm up to. This has been a really trying week. But first, the good stuff. 

I'm just doing really well spiritually. And I'm maturing alot. Just the little stuff. More controlled, focused, making myself do things the right way, the hard way, taking care of first things first, not procrastinating...stuff like that. 

Also this week I've really seen an example of Ether 12:27, weak things becoming strong. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has always been a very weak part of my spiritual character. But, no more. After lots of prayer, work, and bothering the Lord about it the Book of Mormon has become one of the strongest points of my testimony. I've recieved answers to my prayers when reading it, had moments of happiness and tranquility while reading it, pure and simple, and felt the power of the spirt when I've been testifying of the book. My triple is probably my most prized possissions. Also had a golden investigator recieve an answer about the book of Mormon yesterday, so that was pretty cool. 

As far as investigators go, we're still going strong with the group of young men we're teaching-they went to church again, but...there's just not the mental capacity. That's been our biggest challenge. I just don't know what to do, in general-thats a huge problem we have here, and I never know if we should leave them and look for the people the Lord has prepared for us, or if we should have patience and see them as they could be one day in the future-I don't know how to describe without coming off incredibly superior but really, the average level of intelligence here is incredibly low. Just like Lucien told me, the mind is a muscle and they don't exercise it down here. And those we have with baptism dates are Rosibel, Denia (an incredibly intelligent 19 year old girl, who had the BoM answer I told you about), and Wilmer, Juan Carlos, and Anner, the young men above, and then a pretty large assortment of people we still have yet to sift through to see who will progress. 

But this week-hard all around. The principal trial has been money-I am in the most abject state of poverty. First, the ATM robbed me a week ago, and then I had to wait a week for the mission to redeposit the money, and then we went back to check and the ATM is out of service. So today, another elder paid a debt he owed me, and we used that money to travel to a nearby town that we were told had an ATM. We gambled, spent the money, and there's no ATM. So we have nothing. I'm writing this for free right now because we get along with the dueno of the internet place. I havent eaten anything but eggs and cornflakes the whole damn week and I ate my last supper today for lunch.  Thank goodness we had already paid the cocinera, because we always have a lunch, but only wednesday through saturday. We haven't even had water. I'm losing patience real quick. I read Alma 26 and it made me feel alot better but I'm getting hungrier by the minute. Besides the occasional invitation the members don't feed us (thankfully tonight the Ramos family invited us to eat with them, but its the first time this week). I don't mind suffering, I really dont-I just hate suffereing unnecesarily. Thanks to errors in the office and with the ATM. If the president told me to go open an area in the jungle and rely on what the people give me I'd be trhilled and in heaven, but I hate to suffer because the secretary forgot to deposit my money in time. Trying to retain my ability to roll with the punches!

Also really losing patience real quck with our branch president. He's getting lazier and lazier. The prlbem with me being a hardworker and a doer is that he got used to the missionaries doing everything and we've established a really bad habit. The missionaries shouldn't have the charge of the activities, the clases in church-we do it when it's necessary, but it really bugs me when we get to the third hour class and he's like "ok Elder Hansen, whatchya got for us?"as he sits bacleans back in his chair.  He's also got some awful ideas. Ideas pendejas. It got really uncomfortable (well, for me) when he had an idea for us that was a purely terrible idea and I just had to tell him no, in front of other people. I'm all about sustaining my leaders but its wearing on me. That's the only reason I'll be glad for a change. Maybe I'll even get sent to a ward that has a chapel, wouldn't that just be a dream!

The members are great though, I love all of them and have no complaints there. As always, the familia Ramos and Ortiz are still my favorites. If I ever get to be a man of position with my own business I'd bring Javier and his family to the states. Hardest worker I've ever met, he'd give Dad a pretty good run for the money. I just wish we had more opportunities to work with the members but the good ones are busy trying to procure the daily necesities and the ones that have nothing but time I don't really want to work with, but we do all the same. 

 That's all I got for ya! We're gonna have a real exciting week in the next couple of weeks. I had a bunch of stories for you all but for the life of me I can't remember a single one. Just pure work. Still struggling with the other companionship here. We get along great and they see me as both a leader and a friend but...I can only do so much, you can't teach a work ethic or how to be a missionary. Still improving every day, I'm getting real good at recognizing my faults and shortcomings and doing what I can to improve. Always striving to make a difference one person at a time and have a one on one leadership connection. And I thank God for my comp just about every day, he's always down for whatever thing we have to do and we have fun together. He gets it. He still does dumb stuff (his favorite activity is to talk about people when they are in earshot-drives me up the wall-dude, they can hear you) but he's a new missionary and an 18 year old kid so I give him some slack. 

package ideas? I've been thinking about a new triple...I don't know how much they cost but I would really love a new one if its feasible. The one I brought has not held up, and it doesn't even leave the house.  No worries on the shorts, I'm good on shorts. Always contact solution. pictures. more little deseret bookstore type stuff but for me, not for kids. interesting stuff.And treats please! I hope you know how grateful I am for the package!

and you all let me down, I want more stories! of your lives and of my ancestors!

Also, speaking of money-can you alwyas make sure to keep 100 or so in my checking account? I don't want to eat up all of my savings account. Also, when are you gonna invest my 2k?!

Tell everybody hi for me. Miss you all and love yo uall. Pictures next week!

Have a great week!