December 28th 2008

Hey,

First of all, Thanks for the package!!! It was great, it came on Saturday, and it was fantastic! Wow all full of candy and all that, and my pants and tie! Thanks! And the list of people too, that was a good call!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and all that, and also for the pics! Tell Shelly thanks! I had to delete them right away, I’m all out of room, so I didn’t get a chance to reply...sorry.

Oh before I forget, I sent Nancy that letter with my return address of the mission home, just so that in case she sent a letter a little later, I wouldn’t have to worry that it went to ferrol, and I could just have it go straight to the home. Nothing big, but I can see where she’d worry.

Wow thanks for the stories about the mission, that’s funny that you said its like groundhog’s day; we make that joke all the time. And interestingly enough the days are relatively the same! We do a lot of knocking, when we can, but at some times we can’t. But the nice thing is here in Europe there are a lot more people on the streets, making it a lot easier to contact there. We had some good success this week; actually we probably had one of the best days of contacting we’ve had here in Ferrol the day after the phone call.

But the thing about not carrying a backpack was interesting, what did you carry your scriptures in? And the a/c, well we don’t have any, so I know what that is like!

That was a good phone call! Hulka was the cherry on top! I wasn’t expecting that at all! I am glad that he was there though, good preparation. Ya interesting news about mother, I mean I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming, but it is always sad to hear that. But things will move on I guess....I hope.

Oh and the time thing, well it was just my fault for not wanting to kick you off, I guess I should have been a better example, I actually wrote in my weekly president’s letter a little bit about how I went over, and that I’m trying to repent of it! So this is part of my restitution, I was bad, sorry, the next time we’ll just hit the 40 min, no big deal. But I’ll tell you what, the idea with speaker phone is way better than passing it! My comp did that, and wow did it take a long time, plus he just had to explain the same thing over and over again! How lame!

Well the news stories were really great, i'll have to print them off, and give them all a good reading! 

Otherwise, we’re off to a big tourist site today, it’s the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world I guess, so ill get some good pictures!

Thanks for sending the card back! 

The IRS stuff…can I mail it from here? And the same with the Republican Party stuff?

Well, take care, have a good week!

Thanks for everything!

Elder Hanson

December 19th 2008

Queridos misioneros,

 

Pensé que esta conferencia de zona fue una de las mejores jamás hemos hecho.  Gracias por todos sus esfuerzos y participación.  Los números musicales fueron increíbles.  Tenemos tantos talentos musicales en la misión.  ¡Que bendición!  También me encanta cada de sus comentarios y escrituras que encontraron para contestar sus preguntas en el Libro de Mormón.  Aprendí tanto y sentí un espíritu muy poderoso mientras mi testimonio del poder del Libro de Mormón creció aun más.  La comida fue increíble también.  Tenemos cocineros buenísimos y creativos y gracias por ayudarme con este almuerzo excelente.

 

Les deseamos una buena semana como disfrutar el privilegio de compartir su testimonio de Él de quien representa en esta época del año mientras celebramos su nacimiento milagroso.

 

Con cariño,

 

Hermana DuVall     

 

 

 

Vamos a mandar las escrituras más tarde.

TRANSLATION!!

December 19th 2008 

Beloved missionaries, 

I thought that this Zone Conference was one of the better ones we have done. Thanks for all your efforts and participation. The musical numbers were incredible. We have so many musical talents in the mission. That's a blessing! 

Also I loved each of your comments and writings that found to answer questions in the Book of Mormon. I learned so much and I felt a very powerful spirit while my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon grew even more. The food was incredible also. We have creative and excellent cooks and thanks for helping me with this excellent lunch. 

We hope you have a good week as you enjoy the privilege of sharing your testimony of Him whom you represent at this time of year while we celebrate His miraculous birth. 

With affection, 

Sister DuVall 

We are going to send the writings later.

December 15th 2008 (Letter to Brett from Mission Pres. Wife)

December 15th 2008

Queridos misioneros,

 

Que suerte que Uds. tuvieron dos conferencias de zona con dos setentas de área en un traslado.  Uds. son muy mimados.  ¡Fue un banquete espiritual!  Me gusta mucho el discurso de el sobre la importancia de tener el espíritu en todo aspecto de la obra misional, incluyendo en plañimiento, en encontrando y en enseñando nuestros investigadores.  Ahora misma tenemos 24 fechas bautismales y van a aumentar ese número como enfocamos en las personas dignas y que han sido preparados de Dios.  

 

Gracias por su reverencia, su respecto, y su participación en la conferencia.  Élder Weidmann nos dijo que el quedó muy impresionando con Uds. y disfrutó mucho su tiempo con Uds.  Gracias también por sus esfuerzos,

 su dedicación a la obra, sus testimonios y por ser obediente.

 

Con cariño,

 

Hermana DuVall

TRANSLATION!!!!

Dear missionaries, 

How lucky you were to have two Zone Conferences in a row with two seventies before a transfer. You are very spoiled. :) It was a spiritual banquet! I really liked the talk on the importance of having the spirit in all aspects of the missionary work, including in plaimiento, in finding and enseando our investigators. Now we have 24 baptismal dates and are going to increase that number as we focused on the worthy people and that they have been preparation of God. 

Thank you for your reverence, your respect, and your participation in the conference. Elder Weidmann said that they were very impressed with you and really enjoyed their time with You. Thanks for your efforts, dedication to the work, your testimonies and for being obedient.

 With care, 

Sister Duvall

December 15th 2008

Hey, 

Glad to hear that things are going well, sorry about the storm, but it’s been pretty rough here too if it makes you feel any better. I don’t miss plowing the lot or anything like that, but sometimes I’d take the dry cold over the humid wet one. 

Crazy to hear about Rob Aird, I think there’s got to be some temples in England and in Switzerland too? But ya the Madrid one is one of the biggest, and nicest to go for a longer amount of time, and stay in their little apartment thing they have, it’s practically free, and you can stay there pretty much as long as you would like.

The Christmas day phone call. Ok well here’s the deal. You have to call me, and I’ll get the number to you next week, but I think the best time for you to call me would be around 6 at night for me; that’s 10 in the morning right? If that won’t work just tell me, and we’ll work in accordingly, but my companion is going to call about 8 or 9 at night, so I’m on for the earlier call, or the next day, whatever you want. The other thing is I have to relay this message to mom, so she isn’t emailing me right now, I don’t know why, but we just write letters, and that is just fine with me, it’s a good way to communicate and all, but the one problem is this phone call. So if you would tell Newt (NATE) to talk to her and have her tell him what is the best time for her, I’ll send her an email too, and next week with my phone number, but he’s got to do this, and then email me. If he doesn’t I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen, but I don’t want her calling President or anything. But I figure you’ll just call at 6, and we’ll talk, and we’ll divide the time into 3rds and then we’ll hang up and I’ll have mom call, or maybe the next day, or earlier, or whatever, not too big of a deal. I just need to know if that’s all going to work out for you, or if you want to do it any other day, because President said that we could do it any day that we would want, before Christmas, or that whole week, whatever is best for you. 

Also the Michael Sanders updates are sounding better,

The glen beck thing is cool, I’m glad to see he’s still doing well, that’s funny he went to Fox, but is all that other stuff on fox still?  Hannedy and colms, and stuff? I liked him on CNN, but you know, if he did it he probably had good reason to do it and such.

That’s funny that the missionaries teach priesthood, I never have taught that, but I’ve given my fair share of other 2nd hour lessons, and talks and all that, but one big difference, they were in another language. But last week was the 6 month in the mission field mark and all that, and I’d have to say that things are improving, a lot. The language, and lessons, and studies, and just about everything is going really well. I’m glad I’ve got through those times of greenie, and now I’m moving on, because whatever happens now, at least I’m not in those first stages again.

I’m excited for Christmas, we should have a good one, I hope it doesn’t rain or something, because it rains every day here, no joke, every day. Me being from Utah, I can’t stand it, but I’m getting more used to it, but my companion who is from Washington, he likes it, but that’s my Christmas wish, is to not have rain for a day.

Things are going really well, but our investigator that was gold, just moved to Madrid. He’ll get baptized for sure, but whatever, I would have liked to help out the ward here a little bit, but otherwise it’s all the same church.

Well I hope that all goes well with Christmas! Thanks for the mail, and the updates! Take care!

Elder Hanson

December 7th 2008

Wow those pics were...nice I guess, but yes thanks for the email. Sorry You’re having back issues, what is it from? Painting all that stuff? 

I didn’t hear anything about Glenn Beck? What happened?

This week was pretty normal; we had a few good lessons, but nothing really too new. Today is my month mark of 8 months! I was pretty excited, it’s 6 months in the mission field, and I feel a little strange. When I was back in Logoño, I had an interview with president, and I mentioned that I just didn’t feel that confident in many things, and that I was struggling a little bit, but he told me to give it some time, usually about 6 months in the field, 8 months, and you should be feeling better about things. And I’d have to agree with him, he was right, I do just feel a lot better, like that this isn’t so bad, and that I think with some more time I’ll be able to pick up the language, and pick up all the lessons, and do this, it is a strange feeling.

Also, in case you didn’t notice the late news, I had zone conference yesterday, and it was the Christmas one, and was very good, I loved it. We talked about a bunch of stuff, and just made us really be grateful for our missions and being out here.

Which brings me to Christmas calls...we only get 40 min to call total, then when I split it between you and mom that’s going to bring us to a 20 min phone call. I don’t know when you want to do that? We can do it Christmas day if you’d like, but if you want to do it any other day, it’s all good, we can. You’ll have to call me, like before, and ill give you all that info in the next email.

Otherwise, all is pretty good here. Glad things are good there!

Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

December 1st. 2008

Hey!

 

Thank you for the mail! Wow that had a ton in it! The Bathroom really looks nice! Good job! Good old Trevor, I haven’t heard from him in a while. A while back he said that he was going to write a letter, but I never got anything...but I’m glad to hear that all is going well with him as far as the surgery. What is going on with gas? It’s lower here too. Plus, a very good thing, the exchange rate has dropped, quite a bit. From 1.7 to 1.25 or something, I don’t know if it’s gone more or not, but anything helps! Hillary is Secretary of State huh? Wow.

 

Quick question, do you save all the emails that you send out? Because I have been trying to do that here, but my ldsmail kind of isn’t that good, so I think I’m going to have to depend on you to save them all...if that’s all good. But the pics are all very good, thank you for them! Also, the memory card is still here, I have to give some pics to some other elders, and then I’m putting it in the envelope, and sending it off! Sorry it’s taken me so long, but if it makes you feel any better, we have been taking a ton of pics lately, so it should help make up for it.

 

Otherwise things here are doing really well. Last week was really good, and this past one wasn’t too bad either. We have that golden investigator who was asking us questions about baptism in the second lesson, we explained the basics, and told him to wait until the next lesson. I swear he’s just going to tell us that this is all a joke one week, and tell us he’s just some member that’s from some other part of Spain. We had some other lessons that were good too, and had some people in church, I was really happy.

 

It’s been tougher, because it hasn’t stopped raining for about a week now, so it’s hard to do contacts on the street; we just mostly knock, or go by people that we’ve already contacted trying to get visits in. The power has gone out on us a few times, we were a little cold. It doesn’t ever snow here, but the cold with the humidity makes you feel it right through your clothes, not too fun, especially because it’s been raining, so everything is all wet too.

 

We celebrated thanksgiving here in Coruña with the other elders and sisters, and that was a blast. We made real mashed potatoes, and had a good turkey, made apple pie, gravy, rolls, all this stuff that we had been saving up from our packages, and buying, it all turned out really good though, a nice day to make you homesick!

 

Well next week we’re having the Christmas zone conference, so ill have to write you back on Tuesday!

 

 

Thanks for everything!

 

Take care!

 

Elder Hanson

(Letter to Shelly)

December 1st, 2008 (Email to me)

Hey!

Wow it looks like you girls have had an awesome time together! All the pics were very fun, thanks for sending them!

So how long was Beth in town? It didn’t seem like long at all! I’m glad to hear that Morgan got her to go to church like that, that really is awesome! By the way it is also way awesome that she won the reflections! Tell her congrats for me, but you know Tuesday...And let me see the tree when it’s all done, it sounds like it should be fantastic! (Mom note) I let Morgan decorate the tree this year.

As far as ripping my clothes, well ya, I did kind of scuff up my suit jacket, and mess up my pants too, but over all, not too bad, I was wearing my black one, and that is the thicker one, it looks like it is the stronger one, so all is good really, I just lost a sock really, not too bad. But by the way if you are thinking of sending some things for the winter (just a thought) some type of long johns might do the trick! And maybe the ibuprofen, just because it’s a very useful thing as a missionary! But thanks for getting all that stuff for my pants done that is so much, thank you!

Well I’m off to the day, thank you so much for everything! Take care, have a great week!

Elder Hanson