Elder Brett Hanson Spain Bilbao

November 16, 2009

2009-11-16T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Yes my package most certainly got here, and I loved it! That was great! Thanks for the sweatshirt and everything! The candy is just about gone, and the pens are pretty well broken in! Thanks for sending it!

The sickness, well sorry about that, but it is here also, you know it has just been around a lot more lately, and everyone seems to be getting it. But I hope that nobody else gets anything alright!

I would love to get some pictures in the mail, because with email, yes obviously I have to delete them because they take up too much space. Sorry!

Yes things look very good for the baptism. It is a "spoon feed" from a less active member, who came back and is now wanting to help share the gospel with his girlfriend! It’s awesome! The lessons are way easy, she never has any problems, and is always ready for us, and the member tells her everything that she doesn’t know, and explains everything before and after the visit! I love that! It’ll be really good for the branch to have another couple here, I am excited.

Everything else seems to be going fairly well too, all that with the rest of the investigators that we have, and all the rest of the work is getting better, pretty normal.

But that’s about it! Have a great week!

Take care!

Elder Hanson

November 09, 2009

2009-11-15T20:05:00.001-08:00

So nice to hear from you, thanks for the mail. I finally heard from Newt this week too, so that was nice.

Things this week went pretty well too, you know we had a lot of people in church, and we were teaching quite a bit the past week. We are looking at baptism this month too! It was this less active guy’s girlfriend...it's a long story, but we’ve been working with him for a while, and now it looks like we are going to bring in some more! We are all really excited.

We have been very blessed this week in general, and it is such a motivation

to keep it all going. We’ll have to see what the next week brings!

Rain is here, and is going strong...everyday, but my shoes that you sent me keep me pretty dry! But yesterday I wore my old ones because I thought I’d be alright...I was mistaken. Oh well, we learn through experience I guess.

This week we’ve got a Zone Conference with Elder Causé from the 70, so it

should be a very good experience, I am excited to learn, and ask questions,

and improve things here.

I don't miss the leaves! But I am glad that someone can help! Newt is pretty busy, and all that, but I am glad to hear that Morgan can help out!

Anyway that’s about it! Take care,

Have a good week,

Love,

Elder Hanson

November 02, 2009

2009-11-15T20:04:00.001-08:00

Well Hello!

The week went really well! Thanks for the email; I was kind of worried about all that was going on there for a little bit. But I guess that little laptop had to go sometime eh?

I haven’t heard a thing from Newt, but I guess he’s probably a bit busy with all the mission stuff, so you know I understand. The thing is that I wrote him a letter not too long ago, I just don’t know if he got it.

The week went fast, we picked up this new elder who is living with us, he’s from Spain, and his English is pretty bad, so we have been speaking a lot of

Spanish all the time in the apartment. I have been really liking it you know, it is a good experience to get to see how much easier it is to express yourself throughout the mission. I have a really good time talking with him, and I am really glad that I am here in the city with him.

We got to go to a big Halloween party on Friday, and I dressed up like a Scot, with the kilt and all. It was pretty hilarious; I have photos, don’t worry. Then we went and watched a baptismal service Saturday night. It was pretty awesome, we had some investigators there, and they are looking very well. We set some goals with them to get baptized by January. I am sure that it will be great.

Church was really good too, we had a lot of new people there, and we had a good time. Today is going to be a bit slow because of the holiday; it is one of the biggest in Spain, the saints day. But it is good to have a relaxed p-day every once in a while.

But that is really great that the ward had such a big fast for the work. I know that the blessings were with us last night. I had the best lesson that

I have ever had on my mission. I know that it wasn’t just us in there, but that the prayers and faith of the members of the church help the work in all aspects.

Well I could actually see Shelly’s pics. this week! And they were really good! But the only thing was that the church put out some disclaimer right on my email saying that I should be careful with the email....I don’t know why, but whatever it opened!

I hope all is well in the family and at work too!

Have a great week!

Elder Hanson

October 12, 2009

2009-11-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

How goes it?

Well I heard from Branson that Brandon got married! That’s good for him, did you go down to it and see the wedding at all? I would like to congratulate him, but I have no mail or email of Brandon’s...

Anyway, conference was great! But of course we didn’t see Holland’s talk, we only saw up to Sunday morning. But I thought the best talk out of all conference was M Russell Ballard’s talk about the father and sons. I love Ballard in the first place, I mean a car guy, and writes pretty solid books, and then I just like the way that he talks, I really enjoyed the talk from him.

But I don’t hear much from Newt. I sent him a letter a few weeks ago, but I never got anything back...but I hope all is well. I wonder about his papers, how are they going? Is he looking close to done or what?

This week went fairly well, we taught a Jewish guy from Israel. It was one of the coolest lessons I have ever had in my mission. He is way cool; he did his time in the military, and now is here living in Spain. He speaks perfect English, and is believing, but not that practicing of his religion. The Book of Mormon will have to be what changes his heart, and we have shared it with him, and he is excited to read. We’ll see how it goes this week. Otherwise things are normal here, the numbers are growing more and more at church on Sunday, it is incredible. I have never seen something like this.

Anyway, I am looking at possibly moving at the end of October, just to let you know...in case you were going to send that memory card, but we’ll have to wait there too.

That’s about it for now! Have a great week all right!

Love you,

Elder Hanson

September 28, 2009

2009-11-15T19:59:00.001-08:00

Hello!

That is good that you don’t have to do too much to the boat to get it running or anything, just some stripes, that’s not too bad at all. About the civic, that’s too bad, I just am curious about the door panels themselves, or the steering wheel? Mine was growing pretty big you know, so that’s why I ask. Besides, what do you think you are going to do with the rest of the car? Junk it, or have newt steal parts off of it?

That’s fun about Powell, I’m glad you had a good time; it seems like a later run? I mean we are almost to October, but sometimes the late ones are good!

We are pretty excited for conference too, we are going up to Gijón, they have a standing chapel there, and we are going to watch everything there, it should be pretty nice! I am excited for the conference, as well as just excited for the investigators that will come too. We have been telling everyone about it, and it looks to be pretty good.

Newt emailed me; he seems to be all right, you know, happy to get his cash for his bike and all that mess, but pretty good. His accord sounds like a nice big Junker, but he seems to be happy.

Any news on Branson’s rig? Have you been assembling that thing up at all? Is he just putting in all new stuff, or cleaning everything well, or what? I mean how show worthy is he making this thing?

Alright, well not too much new here, we had Zone Conference, and it was a good one! Things are still different with the new mission president, but I like them.

Take care; have a good time watching conference. I watch Saturday and Sunday morning sessions live with you, so remember that! It’s just that they go from 6 to 8 at night.

Have a good one!

Love you,

Elder Hanson

September 14, 2009

2009-11-15T19:57:00.001-08:00

Hey!

Well the week went all right, a bit hectic, but that’s pretty normal around here. Sorry about last p-day, we had a lot of stuff happen, and I was sort of all mixed up when I came to do email, and we were in a rush to get across town, so I didn’t do much as far as what I usually do on p-days, but I did get a letter out to Morgan, so don’t worry about that!

But things here are pretty good; we just are working normal and so on, I will be honest I got a little sick this week, that wasn’t too fun, but it’s gone by now. It’s just funny when you are sick, because everyone thinks that it’s the swine flu.

Anyway wow that’s nuts about Newt getting his papers in and all that stuff, he’s getting on that train pretty quick! I hope that he gets out of there soon, nice and close to his birthday, instead of halfway through the semester.

But do you know what mission J Gates is in? If it is in the Santo Domingo or another mission in the D.R.? I run into Dominicans all the time, and they are like the nicest people ever, I think he’ll enjoy that place, but I just thought I’d send a letter or something, and see how he was doing.

All is well! I am glad to hear that things are well at home too!

Take care,

Have a great week,

love you,

Elder Hanson

2009-09-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Thanks for the mail, I was very happy to get some this week eh! But wow the dogs seem to be pretty busy, and the same with the rest of the life!

First of all, thank you so much for the package!!! It was great, and yes I am very grateful, and indeed wear the new shoes now, but I am going to try and save as much as I can for the rain, I’ll wear the old shoes the dry days, and then the news in the rain to try and keep them in good shape!
Thanks so much for doing that, and with the hurry and everything, it is appreciated!

Sorry about the small priests quorum, but it’s funny to think about separated priesthood, I haven’t ever seen that here, we just have the class and hope for 5 members.

So do you keep in touch with Easter? Or who does? That does seem pretty good, and pretty exciting. The church is pretty big in France; they just can’t build a temple due to government laws, that’s why one got put on the fast track here in Spain. Their membership is much higher than ours, but they are limited. We had dinner this week with a lady who served her mission in France, and she told me a lot, I feel like I know much more now than before.

Anyway, I will for sure get a letter out to Morgan, and things should be alright!

Well I am quite tired, we just got back from a several hour hike to the top of this cool mountain, and we took lots of pictures, and just had a lot of fun.

Things have been improving, we found some pretty cool people this week, and we filled the church right up! We had to pull in chairs from the classrooms because we filled up all the chairs in the chapel! It was a blast, I do love going to church, even if it is stressful, and I still feel good after.

Anyway that’s about it, I’ve got to run, but have a good week!

Thanks for everything!

Take care,

Love you,

Elder Hanson

August 24, 2009

2009-09-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hey!!!

Well well well, I am surprised to see how fast you got that letter! But yes the shoes here are junk! Both of them! But what did Mr. Mac say? Did they give you any problems? I do wear a 44. I was surprised to see the email, and that you had already got them and all; I mean that is really impressive, thanks for doing that so quickly!

Wow the dog sounds fun, and that looks pretty normal for a pup! Does he get along with the cat?

Yes, well being a trainer, it’s got its challenges, but overall I got lucky, and my greenie is really cool, and we get along quite well. I think the thing that I am working on now is showing him how to have a good time while working really hard. There never was any rule that said that you can’t have a good time out on your mission, so I am trying to let him have that. It is something that I didn’t really have with my trainer, when we did work, it wasn’t fun, and when we did have a fun time, we didn’t work, but I’ve

Figured out that you don’t have to have it like that, and I am trying to share it with my companion.

The branch over here is doing pretty well, we had a good day yesterday in church, we had lots of people, and we all ate in the church right after it was over. It is really good for the bonding of the branch, and for us too.

I have only been here a transfer and a half, but it is by far my favorite branch. The president and his wife are the two most giving people I have ever met, they are incredible. The president is a convert of like 5 years too!

It’s quite the example for us all.

How’s work? Anything new? Any news from Branson’s rig or anything? I haven’t heard much from him lately....

Anyway that’s about it!

Have a great week, thanks for the mail,

Take care,

Love you,

Elder Hanson

August 17th 2009

2009-08-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Thanks for the quick one, I don’t have much time either, but thanks for the mail! I loved the pics from last week, I printed them out! But anyway things are good here, nothing too new or exciting, but we’re working on it!

Have a great week! Have fun getting Newt out of the house!

Elder Hanson

(Side note) We are not kicking Nate out of the house. We are taking him to School in Cedar City; Southern Utah University. We're leaving this afternoon and will be back late tonight. Shoot me now...

July 27th 2009

2009-07-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Hi! Well that’s way cool you got to talk with President DuVall, he is one amazing person, I am curious did he say that he was looking for a car too? I told him to go and see you, so I am just curious to see if anything happened there.

But otherwise the rex (Honda CRX) project seems to be moving along, but are you really going to just put the hatch and the spoiler on the car black!? That would be pretty funny. But how much can you save from the other rex as far as dash or seats and stuff? I assume a lot of it is bent and banged up, but just curious to how much you can salvage.

Things this week flew by, we had Zone Conference, and that was great, it was a little different with the new mission president, but we had a great time getting to know everyone, and it was good.Then I went on comp exchanges to another city, Avilés, it is the smallest city in the mission, but I had a good time. Then we had little exchanges here in Oviedo, because we cant do them this week because I have to travel back to Santiago tomorrow to finish up my residency, and then the day I get back it’s transfers, and then who knows!

Things are moving right along though, we are finding and teaching more people all the time, and my companion and I are getting along really well, it's nice when you figure out what the strengths and weaknesses of each companion is, and you can just get to work, and help each other.But that’s about it for this week! Thanks for the mail! Send some pics of the REX!!!!!

Take care, have a good week!

Love you,

Elder Hanson

July 20th 2009

2009-07-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow Dad!

Well that is good that everything is going alright on the project, but why did newt want to change the color? I liked the white! But, that should be cool to have all the things put all back together, it seems like a nice rig.

So how about the trips and all that? How were those? I haven’t been getting too many mails from anyone, and I’m just guessing that everyone is just on vacation!

So the city is pretty awesome, I do like the big park, we live right there next to it, and then we have the rest of the city that is really nice too.
The thing I like about this place is how clean it is, I mean Google maps doesn’t really show that, but it is awesome here, it is known to win the cleanest city in Spain award every year. You can’t take your trash out until like 9 pm, and they are just good on keeping everything else up too.

Besides that, the branch is good, everyone is a recent convert, over half of the branch was baptized within the last 5 years, but they are all really cool, and they like the missionaries, so that’s a plus.

The new mission president is way cool. We had our interviews the other day, and they went well, his wife is sisters with the Chappels, and so that was a nice ice breaker for the conversation, and otherwise they seem great. We have our first Zone Conference with them tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes too.

Everything else is alright, and normal, it’s humid here, and we sweat all day, but you get used to it I guess. We had a wedding the other day, but we had to set up and serve everyone, but we did eat too, so it was alright.

But besides that, the rex (Nate’s Car) seems like a project and a half! Man, you’ve got to send me some pics of something! I think that would be pretty fun for Newt, I hope everything else goes alright.

Well, that’s all for today! Have a good week!

Love you,

Elder Hanson

June 29, 2009

2009-07-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!

Yes we heard all about the deaths this past week, it’s what everyone is telling us, and how the US beat Spain in the soccer tournament, that was pretty big news.

But things are great here in the new city, my comp is really cool, and the city is big, and kind of crazy. A lot of bums, and drunk people yelling all the time, it is pretty famous in the mission for that I believe.

Anyway, you know what else this city has?... A lot of Schnauzers! Everyone has them, I have never seen so many, and they all are barking loud when they see other people that they know, I just think it is funny.

**Desmond** **Stockton**

We live here at:

C/ Martínez Marina 16 3 C

33009 Oviedo (Asturias)

So that’s about it! I’m very excited to get to work here!

Thanks for the photos, newt finally emailed me, and told me about the rex (HONDA CRX), and what the plans are. Branson forgot to email...something to do with the

Freddy situation I am sure.

By the way I never really got back to you on names...because I just really don’t like the names of Spanish people, or their dogs, but I do ask what the names of some of their dogs are still out of curiosity. But did you name the dog yet? If not, I’ll continue searching.

Anyway, that’s about it! Take care, have a good week,

Love you,

Elder Hanson

June 29th 2009 (to Shelly)

2009-07-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Thanks for the mail, and the info, and the pics!

Yes Will Davis did email me actually, that was really great to get something from him! I haven’t talked with the guy forever!

Things looked good on Pioneer Trek, it seems like you had a good time taking all the pictures of everyone!

But, I am on the slim side for time this week, new area, it’s all strange to me, anyway gave the address to dad, but here’s it just in case.

C/ Martinez Marina 16, 3 C

33009 Oviedo (Asturias)

Have a great week!

Take care,

Elder Hanson

June 15h 2009 (To Shelly)

2009-07-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!

So, about the package, I wear a 15 1/2 neck, kind of like every other person in the world! It’s pretty funny. But if you don’t send any, no big, I’d be happy with just the package. But whatever, I’m moving anyway, you know it’s been a transfer since we talked! I’ll find out this week where I’m moving, and I’ll see if I can get an address before next week, but if not, no big.

But wow, no other mails from anyone, what happened with the CRX?

Good luck on Pioneer Trek, taking pictures would be pretty fun!

Hey and I know of a guy named Ashby, I’ve never met the guy, but his dad’s a mission pres in South America somewhere. How does Colette know him?

Well things are all well here! Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

June 8th 2009

2009-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well thanks for the mail!

I got everything; I thought that I’d just respond on this letter. But that sounds like you had a good time in Texas, and that Nate’s graduation went well, and wow the story about the lawns that is nuts!

Well we all actually heard the story about the thing in Africa, PresidenDuVall told us in Zone Conference, and he said it was quite the example of strength, because the next day, they everyone continued on like normal.

But things are going pretty good. The rain is back, and it’s fairly cold, quite strange for early June. Anyway the week went by pretty quick, we had zone conference, I went to Lugo to do some comp exchanges for a little, and then we had pday pretty late, so that was fun. But besides that nothing too new or strange to report.

Just curious about the package, because if you still haven’t sent it, I think it might be better to just hold on, I think I might be moving soon, so just hold on, but if you send it tomorrow, or it’s sent already, well that’s different, but otherwise ya, just keep it.

I didn’t know if you had any further insights to the whole school thing, or the summer, but if you did, just let me know.

Otherwise, have a good week, take care!

Love you,

Elder Hanson

Playin' around

2009-07-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

P day doesn't mean Preparation Day... it means PLAY DAY!

Pig Car?

May 18th 2009

2009-07-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!

First of all nobody is keeping me updated on the restoration, and I’d love to see some pics, and hear what he’s done! I haven’t talked with him the whole mission, but if you wanted to give him my email, I'd love to email the guy.

But wow the political news is a little nuts huh? Things look good though, that was what I took from it.

Well things are pretty normal, nothing too new to report this week, so that is a bit sad. Thanks for the news updates, I do enjoy reading them once I go and print them off. Like I had to wait to do that with all the car company info, but wow that sounds like things are a sure mess, I hope that they get better.

Fill me on with everything else you know!

Oh yes and I would love to get into the spring semester, but the only thing is that I am just afraid for the cash. Like I know that I can go for the semester and everything, and maybe even for the summer, but to then do fall and winter, well that’s the problem I am looking at. So I don’t know if it would be wise to try and get in the spring semester, fix my 4 crappy classes that I didn’t do anything, (because if you just retake the classes it replaces your grade) and then try and get a scholarship to ride off of for the rest of the year? (All you need for a scholarship is a 4.0 and it’s like paid tuition) It seems a bit risky, so you tell me what you think, and we’ll figure out what we can do. Or if you find a big mountain of cash that would just solve a bunch of problems too. You know, whatever is the easiest!

Well that’s about it! Take care! Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

May 4th 2009 (To Shelly)

2009-07-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Thanks for the mail, I do love hearing about all that good stuff that has been going on! Well here’s the thing, I would be ok with the phone call at 3:00 but that is going to put me pretty late with the call, and the thing is we usually get our Sunday night phone calls all done you know, plus I just think it would be better a little earlier, but sorry to make you jump ship early, I hope that you understand though. The 12:30 is going to have to be it. Ok and to make sure that you have the number, it’s 607-513-044 and I’m pretty sure you have to dial a country code before hand, and it’s 34. So that’s about it for that!

Wow but as far as anything that I need, actually yes, I would love some more socks, even though you just sent me some this past little while, I am just getting rid of some of the crappy ones, but those are like last on the list. Fist would be the full sized journal pages, second would be the D&C soundtrack on CD, and third would be newer short sleeved shirts, I’m just pulling them out again, and wow I forgot that I got the most of them from other elders on the mission, and they are in pretty rough shape. But that’s too much to ask I think, so just wait until the phone call to really put together and send the package, because also it’s transfer calls this week, so who knows, even though I don’t really think I’m moving, that’s when they get you.

Well now look who’s rambling!

Take care though, thanks for the email, and I will mention a thing or two to Newt.

Have a great week! Happy Mothers Day (in advance)!!

Love,

Elder Hanson

Just a few pictures to break up all these letters!

2009-07-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

No, i'm sure it's not alcohol...I bet it's olive oil or something.

April 26th 2009

2009-07-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Thanks for the mail, and yes I am having a pretty good time out here, but my videos that I have been taking lately are way better than those ones! So send me back the memory card, and I’ll send you the next one as soon as you want. But I’ve been thinking that if you just sent me a pen drive thing that might be easier you know? Just a thought, but you should try and send that as fast as you can.

Well things are pretty good here, you know the weather has lightened up a bit, and that always helps. The work is getting better and better, I think we taught the best lesson that I’ve ever been in this week, I hope things keep going that way.

We’ve been trying to speak as much Spanish as possible, and it is really helping me, I am glad that my comp is as willing to help me with all of it, and is determined enough to keep going.

The food has been quite boring this week; we’re almost towards the end of the month, which means we’re all out of money! Rice and Pasta!

We met a some ladies yesterday that came to visit the branch, one served a mission here, and we talked for a while. The other one is a Samoan lady who is married to a Tongan guy who knows Jeff Kaufusi! Small world. She said shewould say hi to him for me the next time that she could.

Well I do quite enjoy the news updates, I have to read them once I go back to the church, and that isn’t always every week, but you know I do read them! It is just tough to read them while on the computer.

Oh yes I am learning all these British words, like that a hood of a car is called a bonnet, and the trunk is a boot, and these sayings and that pissed is a swear word, and you know just funny little things that I’ll tell you about in the phone call! Tell me when you’d like to do it, and we’ll set that up ok!

Take care! Have a great week!

Take care of the roof! And yes send me some pics of the Mustang ASAP!

Elder Hanson

April 19th 2009

2009-07-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!

First off, I have been taking lots of videos of us two, so don’t even worry about it, it’s classic I can’t even believe that I can understand the guy sometimes. We had Zone Conference last week and I was the one translating for people, it’s pretty funny.

Well I have been enjoying the fruits of the package! Thanks so much for the socks; they really are so nice, I can’t even tell you.

Everything else here is pretty good, nothing too new or interesting. We have had some rough weather, but I think it is on the turn around.

We have been working and studying better than I think I have ever done in the mission, it’s just hard to really express that over email, but you know I just feel really good, and blessed to be out here.

Having a convert of just a few years in the lessons and in contacts is such a blessing, and it makes me really think about a lot of things. He asks me questions all the time about the fam, and about how I grew up, and that makes me realize how fortunate we are/I am.

Well I have been learning how to cook more recently. None of us really know how too cook, but we both want to eat well; so I made some chimmy changa things the other day, they were really good!

We have had a bit of a rough week as far as people cancelling, or just not showing up to visits, but you know, that’s how the cards fall sometimes.

Oh ya, so yesterday when we were in church, the branch pres came up to me and asked me to give a talk in sacrament! Thanks for the heads up! I really can’t believe that I did it. I was pretty calm before, and during the talk, which is really strange, I never am that way. I think I have learned and have grown so much already, and I’ve still got another year. It’s incredible sometimes.

So it sounds like things are pretty good! Mom sounds...well you know, kind of what I expected. I guess no mothers day call?

You can call me on mother’s day, you know like Christmas. What time do you want to do that at? Feel free to change the day, whenever you would like to do it.

Alright, take care,

Elder Hanson

April 12th 2009

2009-07-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well sorry for not getting back for a while, but we had Zone Conference, and then we had a really busy day yesterday, and now we’re here.

Anyway, I got your package! Thanks so much for that, and the socks are great! Thanks so much. By the way I don’t need any face cleaner, we found some, so don’t even worry. The candy was really good though; we are still going through it.

Well actually I didn’t get the package until Monday night, even though I got the slip like Tuesday. Well with the wonderful holidays that they have here in Spain, (they are all atheist, but they sure love to celebrate them Christian holidays) we didn’t have the post office open again until Monday. It was Holy Week, it was pretty good, but the streets were empty except for the old town, the place was packed with tourists, and everyone that we stopped was from out of town, but we had a good week still.

I’ll be sending the memory card home this week, so you can see some of the stuff we’ve been doing over here. But all is pretty well and pretty normal. I haven’t heard a single thing from Newt, and I am curious to see where he is going to school!

The weather is back to some pretty cold and rainy stuff, but oh well.

Otherwise my understanding of Scotland is growing, and I don’t have to ask my companion what he said all the time, but some things are pretty tough still. We have been speaking a lot of Spanish, and I had a few dreams in Spanish last night, my head is spinning a little bit.

Well that’s about it!

Have a good week, and I’ll be to emails normal time next week!

Elder Hanson

March 30th 2009

2009-06-30T22:36:00.001-07:00

Hey,

So things have been pretty crazy at work I guess huh? Well how’s the shop doing, just curious, I mean with Dave and all that back there? Is that still going all right? How is the detail bay? I mean with all the cars that you’re getting back, things might be busy it would seem!

Well some news, we got transfer calls this last week, and my comp is taking off, and I’m getting a new comp on wed from Scotland. He’s lived in Spain before, and knows the language, so he’ll help me there, because I’m afraid to talk to the guy in English, I know I am going to imitate his accent when we talk. I already do that to people that we meet that are from England, and that’s only when we talk for a min or two, so I can’t imagine when we are going to have to live together.

But things are going pretty well here. We’re in the same boat as you, we thought the nice weather was here to stay, but it most certainly was not. We had to get out the umbrellas, and the coats, and play that whole game again! We had a really good week; I mean we taught the most lessons I have ever taught in one week, which was pretty cool.

Church was a little slow because we had daylight savings, and our cell phone didn’t change automatically, and since we never watch TV, or make much contact with the outside world, we were just getting ready for church up in the piso, when a member called us and knew that we forgot to change our clocks, so we were a little late, but it’s ok because everyone else was too.

Well we’ll see how things will go this week, getting a new comp is always fun, a little scary sometimes, but fun.

Alright, well take care! Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

March 30th 2009

2009-06-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

(I just thought this was classic Brett!)

A quick question,

How bad do you react to mushrooms? Because I had 2 meals with them in it this past week, and I thought I was going to die because of how sick I felt, and runs, and all that. I was just curious to see if you had an allergic thing to them that I might have too? Just curious.

Brett

(Mike does not have an allergy to mushrooms...he loves them) Brett just has a sensitive stomach. poor baby. :(

March 16, 2009

2009-06-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Ok, this transfer is coming to an end, and I’ll just buy a new one right after, when I send the card for this transfer over.

Well thanks for the news! That’s pretty nuts huh? How is Taz doing right now? Tell him hi for me when you can. Oh and by the way did you ever get that picture I sent to the CU that said Junkers on it? I still see posters that say that over here, and I just hear Branson’s voice saying "Junkers!" every time.

Well the hump day is on it’s way, I’m most likely going to get a new comp right before, and then we’ll celebrate it somehow, I don’t think any ZL is supposed to do exchanges or anything, but that is a way cool story, and you had a good ZL too.

Otherwise things are going pretty good here, We’re teaching a decent amount still, and we’re still finding people, and the member work is going alright too. That is interesting that you have the lessons like that, because we do the same thing at times. We’ll ask families if we can practice the lessons with them, but to be honest it is mostly for the Spanish practice, and for asking questions and things like that.

One thing that is interesting is how much we have been teaching in English.

We have several investigators that know a little, but we have a few that are fluent, so we’ll teach in English! I cannot tell you how much better it is to do that! It makes things so much better! But we still are working on the

Spanish all the time, it’s just a nice break.

I had to talk yesterday, and that went ok, mainly because we had a really good investigator in church, and then the first lady who gave her talk only talked about the temple and exaltation, and how terrible this life is but after it will be so much better for like 20 min, and that was just a little scary. So when my talk was on the decisions that we make in this life, and how to enjoy this life, it made quite the contrast.

Well, I hope that all goes well,

Take care,

Elder Hanson

March 16, 2009

2009-06-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry the mail thing is way slow, myldsmail doesn’t do live updates on the screen, like they have to come when you update the whole thing. Plus the

Crappy place I’m at right now has the SLOWEST Internet ever!!!

But it’s good to hear from you,

Elder Hanson

March 9 2009

2009-06-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well it’s good to hear that all is well, sorry about Shelly, so send her my

Hello’s, (that’s how you say it in Spanish)...sorry.

Me and Hulka are in pretty good contact, and that’s good, you know to have a friend writing, I mean he realizes now how much you want letters. Speaking of letters, what is Newt up to? I just want to see some other pics of the lude (Prelude) and hear about all that.

I am glad to hear that work is going well, and that in the middle of all this you found that. Everyone here talks about the crisis, and you would maybe think that that would soften some people’s hearts to where they would listen, ok maybe it does a little, but I can’t really tell. Well things are going really well, and I hope that they keep getting better. We had a really good week, even though it was short, we just had a lot of unpredicted blessings just kind of fall into our hands. We really didn’t even have too much extra time because we were teaching pretty much all the time that we could, we only had to knock like a half of one morning.

Well anyway I am feeling much better this week than the last, I was so wiped out last week, but after a good nap, and a good day of lying around we both felt really good. Well now let’s see what this week has in store.

Quick questions, what was the deal with the memory card??? Did you want me to send you another one? And the $$$ deal with the bank. I’m sure when you look back on the months past you’d see that I was spending a lot more money in December and stuff, but as of this city, I really haven’t spent hardly anything. It’s been really nice; I hope to keep it that way. Just curious.

Ok, well you have a good one!

Take care,

Elder Hanson

March 4, 2009

2009-06-30T22:24:00.001-07:00

March 04, 2009

Hello!!

Well thanks for the letter, and the update! Wow all the pics of miller; that was a pretty big deal. That’s cool to see all the people there though. Oh ya, and the Hulka letter was good, but did you know that him and I are writing letters pretty good back and forth? Plus he said his mission pres lets him email friends, so that is cool, so I am keeping up pretty well with what’s happening over there with him.

Things here are good, we are back in the rain again, but oh well, it was nice to have as much sun as we did. Zone Conference was great; I had a fun time, and learned a ton. Also, we got the new name of our next mission president, Richard Clegg...actually I’m not so sure on the first name, I just know it’s a Clegg, and they’re from bountiful, and that he’s a dentist. President DuVall made a joke or two about how he’s a candy man, and now they’re sending a dentist here, I thought it was funny.

Well we helped some investigators move this week, that was awesome, it was like the first time that we did that, and/or real meaningful service. It was sad, one of them is leaving to Italy, but we’ll keep in contact with him, and see how it goes. Otherwise things are doing pretty good. I’m just really tiered today, because it’s been a little while since a p day, and we had to wake up early today to go to some government building to get me legally registered to live here, I don’t like residency that much at all.

Well thanks for everything! I hope that all is well! Take care!

Elder Hanson

March 22, 2009

2009-06-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!

Thanks for the mail, and the info about the area and all that has been going on. That is good to hear about Blake, I hope that he gets back on the right track.

That’s funny about the other missionary, because we as missionaries always make jokes about getting those companions, and how it really does have an impact on the work. I mean, we don’t have members here to correct what we might say wrong in the lessons, it is pretty much all on us, so if one of the missionaries is strange, it does take an effect on the work.

Oh yes and another question, what is the number of temples operating in Utah with this Draper Temple dedicated? Just curious. Everyone wants to know that always, so I thought I’d ask.

Well things here aren’t too bad. My comp is due for a change, and we’ll see this week. The work isn’t too bad, we have an investigator who is like a member; she gives us references, and is defending us in lessons. Pretty cool,

I hope we can get some stuff done here. Otherwise the weather is extremely nice, and walking isn’t too bad at all. We’ve had a good time this week; I just really don’t want to have to deal with the weather in the summer with how humid it is here.

Well anyway, I’ll let you know all the action that goes on this week, and if

I get a new comp. Well the other thing is when I get a new comp is usually when I change out the memory cards, so I’ll send you one when that all goes down.

Ok! Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

February 22nd 2009

2009-04-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Well yes things are very good here in good old Santiago. I actually am loving it here, and yes we have been very blessed with the work lately. Actually we had dinner with an investigating couple yesterday, the guy came to church, had a billion and a half questions, and then we went to their house right after, (she had some work thing). It was really great. The only thing is that he’s maybe moving back to Italy, (he’s Italian, but has lived here for a long time, and speaks perfect Spanish, and not to mention English) so we are sad for that, but it was way cool to talk with them. Mainly it’s just been the change. I don’t know how much I’ve told you of the story with them, but it was just a normal contact on the street, late at night, like 9 or so, and we talked for a little, he said that he wasn’t interested, and that he had studied the catholic religion for 13 years, and that he knew a lot, but hated religion, and didn’t believe in God. So we somehow got them to meet with us in the chapel, and so the next week we did, and they came, and all we talked about was prayer the entire time. That went very well, and he had been praying until the next visit, and was much happier, and extremely different. Well then with the visits on from there, it has just been better and better. He has tons of questions, and is reading a decent amount of the Book of Mormon. Well now, they are both very nice to us, want to learn more, and are having us over for dinner on a Sunday night! Not too bad! It’s been such a great experience, I can’t wait too keep teaching them.

Otherwise, nothing too out of the ordinary, just knocking a lot of doors, and talking to a lot of people. It is getting better all the time.

But hey, it sounds like that business thing is going good, but that seems tough when you’ve got to deal with papers and all that.

Oh yes, another quick question before I forget, did you ever look at the money thing? The credit card from sears, or the exchange rate thing? I just am curious, not a big deal, but you know, just curious...

LHM died, that is big news. And kelvyn is ward mission leader? That’s pretty cool, but how do the full time missionaries even work there? Like they come once every few months or something, if that! Things are a bit different. I remembered that we used to have 10 people pass the sacrament....and 12 on other days. With our 1 person here, I forget what it was like.

Anyway, I sent Beth a letter the other day, and same with Hulka, so hopefully I’ll get something back!

Thanks for everything, take care.

Love,

Elder Hanson

February 16th 2009 (For Shelly) Yey! an actual letter just for me.

2009-04-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Well I’m glad that you are doing so well, and that my handwriting was better and you could read all of it! I have tried to work on the handwriting, but I didn’t pay much attention to it in that letter, so I am glad that you could still read it. Plus that paper that it’s written on is pretty cool huh?

So, about that cooking show, that’s awesome that you get to see that. Actually yesterday I was thinking about how I am now in a branch with some really good cooks, and we’ve been eating better here than in any other city I’ve ever been in. We go to a member’s house generally every Sunday, and they are from here in Galicia, from Santiago, and they cook really well, and native like. In fact, yesterday we had this pig leg stuff. To be quite honest it grossed me out because we had to eat the meat (which tasted ok) then if you had some bones, or hoof things, or the pads on the bottom of the pig feet, you would just pull them out of your mouth, and put them in the bowl. Well that was yesterday, but lately we’ve just had some really good dishes, and soup, I am going to start writing some of this stuff down, but it is so good! The Spanish tortillas are my personal favorite, they are big, and I really don’t even know what they are, all I know is that when they are on the table they’re gone really quickly!

So that cooking show...where is the guy from in Galicia??? You know I’ve been here for the most part of my mission, Ferrol is in Galicia, and now Santiago is actually the capital of Galicia. (Oh yes, and I do say it like Galithia....welcome to Spain) But the only tough thing about being here is that they have their own language, and the street signs are written in it, and most official documents and everything are written in it, and everyone learns to speak it in school. Well we have picked up some of it, but it’s basically a dialect of Spanish (although they’ll never admit that, they’ll tell you it’s original until the world ends!)

well anyways, I thought you would like that little schpeal on Galicia, after all I’ve been here for about 6 months, and I’ve got probably another 5 here! So I figured that I’d let you know that I love this place!

Well take care, thanks for the mail! Have a good one!

Elder Hanson

February 15th 2009

2009-04-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Alright, that’s good that you’ve heard from Hulka, because I have too. He sent me a letter, and I got it the other day. I made sure to get one to him his first few days in the MTC, joking about everything and so on. He sounds like he’s having a good time. Ya a good comp for the MTC, because you need one, otherwise that place could be a nightmare. He said that he’s happy he’s taking off because they get along too well, and don’t get too much done...but you know it’s only the first 3 weeks.

And about the letters to all the grandparents, yes, I am in contact with most everybody pretty regularly, but grandma and Grandpa Hanson are more by email, what is their land address? I’d like to have it; I mean I sent mail to everyone else, but not to them. And yes, grandma and grandpa lance have been good on keeping me updated, they sent me my first letter that I ever got here in Santiago, and it was just letting me know all that was going on.

That’s awesome about Barny! I didn’t even know that! How long ago was that?

When I was there it seemed like the members had all been around for a long time, and had served missions, and all that so I would be interested to see when Barny was there.

That’s awesome about work! I just hope the shop says alive too, and with the detailers and all that, are you going to have to hire new ones once Newt takes off??

But this week here has been really great. The weather finally has let up, and for the first time since I have been here I didn’t use my umbrella! It started from last Tuesday, and I haven’t used it since, otherwise everyday before then I had to use it, every blasted day. Well so that was a nice addition to the week. But then we had really good success knocking, like we got let in to doors. Because usually we just make a return appointment, and come back, but we were super blessed, and just got in 2 times this week.

And also we found some other new girl. She came to a lesson with another investigator, and was pretty cool. She’s from Brazil, but her mom’s Argentinean so she speaks perfect Spanish, and then she learned English somewhere, and we just talk with her in English. Well it just so happened that we taught the 1st lesson with the investigators, and then we scheduled a lesson with her the next day. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she came to church yesterday! Usually doing all this stuff takes a few weeks at least, finding, teaching the first lesson, and then convincing people to get up Sunday morning to walk to a random building...Oh ya, and when she got to church she said that she had already read 5 chapters in the Book of Mormon, and that she would like to read more, on her trip to Denmark (she’s leaving today for 3 weeks) but she didn’t want to take the Book of Mormon because she never paid for it! We had to tell her several times that it was free, and not to worry about it! It was awesome. She’s way too smart, she was a lawyer in Brazil, and now she’s studying something to get her PhD. Anyway, we’ve got to wait for 3 weeks, but hey, she seems really good, probably the best investigator that I’ve ever found personally.

Things are just going very well, and I’m happy to be here!

I’ll get something out to Beth today, for sure.

Have a good one,

Elder Hanson

February 8th 2009

2009-04-03T03:58:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad,

Hey, first of all the memory card is bad, but don’t even worry, because memory cards are way cheap, so if you need me to buy one, I can, but get this, I have bought an 8 gig flash drive that I have been backing everything up on, so I’ll just send all the pics with the next one! I kind of figured that one of these times it would get stolen, or damaged, or you know, just get ¨lost in the mail¨ so just tell me what you want to do, the memory cards here are like seriously 5 euro for a 4 gig card, not a big deal at all!

But hey, that pic of newt was hilarious, oh man, that looked like a fun car,

was it? But wow, that lease deal seems pretty sweet! And you getting your state and I/M??? How hard is that to do? I would think that isn’t too hard, but wow I just didn’t know that you were going to get it!

Well here, things are pretty normal, we have been just finding new people all the time, because we don’t really have anyone that wants to progress, so we are just looking for some. We found some cool people that speak English, and we had our lessons in English, and wow how EASY that was, I almost didn’t know what to do! I had so many options of what to say, and express myself, I loved it. We are pretty blessed to have been finding as many people as we have been.

We had a priesthood meeting for the district (the eventual stake) and a bunch of members came down from Ferrol, and that was way nice to see all of them again, the old branch president and I talked for a while, and it was just good to see them all. I guess that’s an advantage to not moving far away.

Well that’s about it! I’ve been trying to get some more pictures taken, because I hardly have any here in Santiago, (I don’t know why, maybe it’s because it rains everyday, or we actually work all day???) But I’ve been trying to think of some to get to send home!

Thanks for the mail! Have a good week too!!!

Elder Hanson

February 1st 2009

2009-04-03T03:52:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Ya, well all is well here in Santiago, it is a way cool city, but first thing, I got every other package that everyone sent me, I just didn’t get Grandma and Grandpa’s. I just figured that it was in Ferrol right now, and I’d have to just get it at Zone Conference. But besides that, all is well.

This city is pretty sweet, and is really busy too. It is a huge tourist city, like I said before, but I really like it. My comp is from California, and studied Spanish a lot before the mission, so that helps me a lot. He knows all the grammar rules, so he is helping me get some of them down, and it is just a really nice blessing to have him as my first junior comp. We have been doing really well lately. Probably better than I have ever done on the mission, we didn’t have too much going on when we first got here, but we’ve been knocking our brains out, and the nice thing is that it has been working.

Knocking here has got to be much better than most knocking in the states, because everyone just lives in like apartment complexes, and when you can get into the building, you can knock a 7 story building with 4 doors on each floor, and contact a lot of people in a very short amount of time. So after doing that for a while, you can usually find a decent amount of people! So that’s what we have been doing; a lot of first lessons, and hope to move on. Obviously it is tough to say that everyone new that we find will be good investigators, so we have been getting through that too.

Well the branch here is really small. Like 20 people in church every Sunday. They are really nice and great members, but it is just hard when there are so few. We would really like to help the branch out and find some new people.

So Dave is working at the CU?! (CU Auto Sales) That’s great, what made him want to leave? I thought that Jeff would have wanted to leave before Dave. That’s nice on the lease returns, what condition are they in? Or like how old are the cars?

Otherwise ya, that’s all for this week, I’ll fill you in on anything else you ever want to know. Just ask!

Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

January 26th 2009

2009-03-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Thanks for forwarding the letter, that was great. I keep in pretty good contact with them; they’ve been sending me things pretty often throughout the mission.

About the long johns, sorry, I felt kind of bad, but after talking with my companion a little more, he said that they do have this mall place a little closer in this new town that I am in. It was really far away in Ferrol, but now in Santiago, it’s a little bigger, so things like that do exist, that was pretty good news to hear. So if you haven’t sent it, I can just take a bus out, no big, sorry I didn’t find out sooner, but when I first talked with him, it sounded like it was a lot further away than it really was. So sorry for that.

But everything here is pretty good, we had our Zone Conference last week, and that late pday, so things went pretty quick as they do on weeks like that. We have been working with pretty much all new people that we have found, just in the time that we have been together, so that is cool for us to see that, but it is tough, because it is a lot of starting over, and figuring out things, and how to do them.

Otherwise, I’d say all is pretty well. Oh wait, I bet if you looked somewhere you could find something on the crazy weather that we’ve had here the last few days. It’s been like 93mph winds and stuff like that, I guess 4 people died around the northern part of the country because of it, and wow it just has been tearing umbrellas apart! But not mine, it was given to me by some elder who was going home, and it is really nice, and withstood most everything.

Well thanks for everything, have a good week!!!

Love, Elder Hanson

January 18th 2009

2009-03-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Ok so sorry for not getting back to you! It has been a while. Well first of all, I never got that letter from you last week. So that was strange, but then the reason this is late, is because I had zone conference. It was really good; it was nice being in the same zone still even though I moved. I talked a little with president about it, and he said that he usually likes to move to the other side of the mission, but in this case he kept me close, because of the city and because of my companion.

My comp is 2 transfers old, and is awesome. He knew Spanish before the mission, so that helps me a ton. Well because my Spanish is all through living with natives, speaking with people and so on. But his is much more grammatical. I study everyday, but still it’s only for an hour where as I am speaking with people much more of the time. Needless to say, it is a huge blessing to have him as my comp.

Being senior is a different deal. I like it because I can apply all the good stuff that everyone has taught me, but it is just tougher because I have to make the phone calls, and make more decisions and such, so that isn’t the most fun or stress less job, but I think I’ll get used to it.

Anyway, I am in a huge tourist city! It is sweet though; just wait for some of the pics! Which by the way, I still was unsure about the last memory card you sent to me... did you take the pics off of it? Because remember the videos before that? Just wondering. I’ll send home my other one as soon as I can, but I am sort of waiting on a response to this question.

Hey glad to hear about the deal with the leasing business! And that service is up! Have you got a better mechanic in the shop yet? Or what is the plan there?

Hulka didn’t write me, so go give him some crap for me! And tell him thank you for ratting me out in front of the ward.

Have a good week!

Elder Hanson

January 4th 2009

2009-03-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hey!

Thanks for the stories, and all that, I will have to print them off, I haven't gotten the chance to lately, it's been a little crazy.

Last week when I got my emails I didn’t get hardly any, and I was ok with

It, I mean I figured that maybe that everyone was just busy, but it turns

out that it was mostly that my mailbox filled up, and didn’t accept any more

Mail! So I started deleting some things, but for the most part I just got

cheated out of a bunch of mail! I mean I got yours, but did like newt send

me anything? Or Hulka? If they didn’t they could just lie and say they did, but I just didn’t get it...

Anyway, so this week I got some more mail, and thanks for it! But oh yes, I have some exciting news...I got transferred! Remember how President told us that we were going to stay together? Well I don’t really know what happened, but on Thursday he called and told me I was going to go to Santiago. It is one of the biggest tourist cities in the mission, and is only an hour away from me! I’ve been there for zone conference, (and there’s a cool picture of me in front of the cathedral?? It’s way cool, there’s a ton of history in the city, you should look some of it up, and the "Camino of Santiago" is the walk of Santiago, that everyone does across Spain, it’s way cool,) but I wasn’t really expecting to go! Well it’s been crazy here trying to get it all together, and go on short notice!

I sent a little package thing to you, it has a bunch of little papers, and little things that I’ve picked up in the area that I just don’t have much room for, and would just be better if you put it in a closet downstairs or something!

A question, did you leave all those pictures on the memory card for a reason? Or did you not get them? Just curious..

Well that´s about it! I´m really excited to go there, and i´ll tell you all how it is by next week! I´m out of here tomorrow!

Take care, have a good week!

Elder Hanson

2009-01-02T15:05:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-01-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

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

November 24th 2008

2008-11-24T14:39:00.000-08:00

Autumn in Spain

(Letter to Shelly)

Hey!

Well that’s good that everything went well there in Arizona! And Beth is coming to town, that good, how long is she going to stay?

Yes, thanksgiving is this week, but we’re just going to celebrate it when we go to Coruña and have district meeting, it should be a fun time!

The ankle is good, we can’t play soccer or anything, but otherwise I’d say it’s completely healed, I’m really grateful.

The work here has lit up quite a bit actually. Obviously it died when we were out for 2 weeks, and other reasons, but now it’s right back on its way up. We have a golden investigator, who asks questions and says things that are written in Preach My Gospel, and just is friends with all the members, and is a young guy who’s in the navy, and wants to find what church is true. But he’s moving to Madrid in December, so we’ll teach him everything and then he’ll get baptized there. Whatever, it’s all the same work!

We got transfer calls this week, and I’m staying here through Christmas, but probably moving (in my opinion) in January, so feel free to send anything!

I get a decent amount of mail, so don’t worry about putting in anything in the high neighbor, it’s all good.

Well that’s all; hope you have a good thanksgiving!

Elder Hanson

(Letter to Mike)

Well hey,

Ya the month is about to end, we’re just going to go to Coruña and have our district meeting and then after celebrate Thanksgiving together, since there

aren’t any Americans in the rama who would have us over for dinner. But again, no mail from Hulka, I’ll have to send him something.

The leaves! Yes the pic looked good, like a typical year of leaves! The nice thing is that here they still change color and fall off in the same season, so it does feel like late November, but it just bites because we’re out here alone, when all the Christmas stuff is going on, but I think we’ll have a good Christmas, we’ve already been invited to a few houses. We got transfer calls yesterday, and we’re good to stay until early January.

Wow the bathroom sounds good, you’ll have to send me some pics of everything, and speaking of pics, ill send you the card this week. I couldn’t send it before because I had to print some pics off for everyone in our district that was leaving.

Thanks for the letter about Michael Sanders, wow that’s just got to be tough.

As far as the ward letter, well I wouldn’t know what to say really, just that I was really blessed to have such great people that lived in my ward and taught me the gospel, and were examples to me of what I would like to be in my life. I am very grateful to have the chance to share what we have to others. I don’t know, i'll write some things down this week, and get back to you next week...(if that’s ok?)

Alright, things are going pretty good here! I wrote Shelly about the work a little bit, we’re really getting blessed out here!

Well tell everyone hello for me! Take care,

I hope all is well,

Elder Hanson

November 17, 2008

2008-11-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Nobody told me about Hulka! That’s awesome! I’ll have to send him something for the congrats! Was he pretty excited? Tell him to send me some mail, and

I’ll get his address or something.

I’ll be honest I won’t miss the thanksgiving tradition of cleaning the leaves, but I miss the holiday like crazy! They obviously don’t celebrate it here, so they already have all the Christmas stuff up, and it is sad!

But in general, things here are pretty good, we are getting cold, and I mean cold, the humidity just chills it to the bone and wow makes things a lot colder. Yep it rains here almost once a day, if you ever look on the weather channel or something; you’ll see clouds over the northern western part of Spain guaranteed, every time we walk by a TV that has weather on, that’s all it ever shows. I like it though, at first it was a big adjustment, but now I think I sort of like it, I have a big umbrella that I use, not those little cheap ones, we have the big ones that are like canes with fabric on them, and that helps fight the weather a little.

As far as work, yep well it’s coming along. We had a long week of ¨finding¨ even though we didn’t find too many people, we were on the street. What we do when we tract we go to big buildings that have like 12 floors with 4 doors on each floor, and knock. We get a ton done in a short amount of time because of how many pisos there are. Then if we can’t take knocking any longer we just go and do contacts and stop people on the street and try and talk to them. It is an amazingly hard thing to do. I have learned a ton about people, how they work, and all that from doing contacts. That is the thing that is most hated in the mission. A lot of missionaries like to just walk and pass everyone, because the people probably won’t stop to talk to you, ya, sure, but there are some that will talk, and some that might be interested, so until I find them, I am going to stop every person I can and find them. I don’t have a power, maybe I’m not as sensitive to the spirit as others to find people, and I can’t just look at one person and see that they are ready to receive the gospel, but the way I see it, I’ll just stop them all and find the prepared people out of the masses.

Referrals...ya they really don´t exist. Some people will give them, and they will be really good. I think I’ve only seen about 2 from members my whole mission, and they were to different elders, and they are teaching them right now. As far as advertisement, headquarter referrals, they are for other missions I guess, I’ve never seen one.

The language, another interesting point. My companion and I are both very young in the mission, and we need to learn this language, so we have some things we do. We don’t speak any English from 9:30 (the start of companion study) to 2:00. Then we eat lunch, and at 3 we have Spanish study. At 4 we leave, and do contacts, usually we'll have lessons at night, so we'll be speaking Spanish most of the night. With all that combined, my Spanish has really become much better. It’s not like I learned a ton of new words, but my ability to think in the language is improving a lot. That and being a missionary, having the gift of tongues, it’s pretty nice.

Tell Shelly hello and congrats to Stacy!

Keep me updated on the car business, that’s got to be tough. I pray for it

All the time.

Thanks for the mail,

Love, your son,

Elder Hanson

November 10th 2008

2008-11-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Thanks for the info! It sure is interesting! But being here in Europe, it is almost a joke hearing about all of this!

Obama...well that was just nice to hear about let me tell you that! Everyone that sees us, and that sees that we are Americans brings it up, it is really getting annoying.

We’ve been out on the street though, a nice change from all of the past. We had greenie feet all over again, but hey we’re getting some things done!

We’ve been traveling non-stop! I wrote you from Coruña last week, and then we spent p day there, went to the aquarium that is on the coast, and had a really good time! It is really cool to just look out there along the coast, I wish that I could serve there sort of, but I still like Ferrol. Anyway, then we came back to Ferrol, worked until Thursday night, then we went to Coruña again, spent the night there to have District Meeting with President the next day, and interviews and all that good stuff. They checked our ankles and stuff out, and we’re pretty good! So then we came back to Ferrol that night, but had to leave early the next morning to go to Santiago (a famous tourist city) for a mini Zone Conference with a general Authority there, his name was Elder Weidmen, he’s from Switzerland. So that was great, I was able to talk with him for a little bit. He shook my hand and asked me if I was from Sweden, as I am, and we talked pretty normally for a bit, and about the accident, but it was just a great experience to talk with a member of the 70 like it was nothing.

Then we came back to Ferrol, worked that night, and then yesterday morning, we took a bus back to Santiago with our branch to have a meeting for the district as a whole including the members. That was also really great. Then we had to come back and work last night, and now here I am! I am a little mixed up, but we should have a normal week this week I hope so we’ll see!

All the Christmas activities are starting up (because they don’t have thanksgiving, but I can tell it is going to be strange to be out here with just my companion for the holiday season, but I’m still way excited for the days to come!

Oh ya and my month mark was yesterday, big number 7.

Well it sounds like the car business is nuts. I am very curious to see what will happen. Feel free to let me in on that information. But Easter is working at the cu? Detailing or what? Is he going to school?

Thanks for everything!

Take Care!

-Elder Hanson

November 6, 2008

2008-11-09T15:07:00.001-08:00

Hello,

Thanks for the email, but yes things are much better, I’m actually walking without my crutch, so that is good. I have a good brace on, and I’ve been pretty good. Obviously I haven’t been walking a whole lot, but it’s getting better.

That letter I sent to you; wow! It was just something that I had to get out, because sitting up there in the 2 man apartment, I was about to go nuts, plus I thought you could relate a little bit because you’d been on a mission.

Well that is good that the week was good. We had a Halloween celebration; we ate all the candy from the package Shelly sent, and played chess for a little. I liked it.

Things seem pretty good with the ward, with Chris Patch in there as EQP, that’s pretty good.

Well this week we should be off to do some actual work!

How is work and all that going with the gas prices down? Tell me the update on the election...

And Hulka? Mission call sometime or what?

Thanks for everything! Have a good week!

-Elder Brett Hanson

October 27, 2008

2008-11-09T15:00:00.001-08:00

Thank you thank you thank you for the package!

It could not have been any better timed!!! Wow it came at a very boring time in the week when it really helped me! Thanks for all the decorations, and the pictures and everything! And the candy, sadly most of it is gone by now!

But actually I have a question. This is a request for something; it’s the white baptismal pants, and a white tie. I didn’t bring them; because I thought it would be easier to just ask for them, but it is looking like that might not be the best course of action out here. I might need them sooner than I thought too. I haven’t seen a baptismal service, but I’m hoping to have one sometime soon. So I don’t know how much of a stretch it would be to send some size 33 pants out and a white tie along with it soon? I feel dumb for taking so long to ask for it, but I hope to use them soon.

Nice story with the blog though! It sounds awesome! Send some pics of all of it in the daytime if you want. By the way I’m working on sending my pics home soon. Thanks for getting the other ones so fast to me!

Thanks for everything! I hope that all is going well!

Take care

-Elder Hanson

October 22, 2008 Letter from Hermana (sister) DuVall (Wife of the mission president)

2008-10-22T16:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Brother Hanson,

Elder Hanson told me that he finally had the chance to e-mail you yesterday, so I am sure you are relieved and glad to hear that he is doing better. What an amazing miracle that took place in the lives of he and Elder Fowers. As they explained to us exactly what happened to them, we are more and more convinced that they truly did have angels watching over and protecting them from serious harm. We love these young men and women like our own children and we were so shocked and scared when we received that frightening phone call. We also felt so blessed that we just “happened” to be on their side of the country so we could go there and see for ourselves that they were going to be okay. We are also so grateful for the wonderful sacrifice of the Ferrol Branch President who spent the entire night in the hospital with them despite having put in a full day of work and for his help in finding crutches, arranging meals, rides and other things to make sure they are completely taken care of. They living angels that Elder Holland talked about in his conference talk have certainly continued that loving care.

Elder Hanson said that his ankle is doing a little better each day and he feels like he will be fine. We continue to talk to them every day to ensure that they are improving and following the doctor’s advice. They are getting a little stir crazy in the apartment, but we have asked them to make sure they take it slowly so that they don’t cause any further damage to their injuries. I am so amazed at how positive and upbeat both he and Elder Fowers are, despite the circumstances.

We have sure enjoyed getting to know your wonderful son. He has such a humble personality and is a pleasure to work with. He is a hard worker and is focused on doing what he should. Spanish has not come particularly easy to him, but he continues to work hard as he studies and practices every single day. The quality that stands out more than anything else to me is his desire to be obedient. He knows what is right and he has chosen to do that even when others around him may not chose that way. He even had the courage to advise President DuVall of a situation that he didn’t feel was right so that a change could be made. We are very proud of him for his honesty, his love of the Lord and his strong testimony. Thanks for teaching him these important principles and for raising him to be such a good young man.

If at any time you have questions or concerns about his health, you are welcome to e-mail us.

Sincerely,

Hermana DuVall

October 22, 2008 Letter of explaination after the accident

2008-10-22T16:57:00.002-07:00

Sorry family, you already know most of the story, but I don’t have any time!

Ask any questions you have and I’ll try to answer them!

It was nice talking to you! What were you doing all together? Anyway here’s the story:

Ok, well sorry for not getting back to you on time; I had an interesting experience last week. My companion (he had only been here 2 days) and I were walking across the street at a crosswalk, and it was a 4 lane street; 2 lanes one direction, and 2 lanes the other. Well, we safely crossed the first 2 lanes but as we were crossing the last 2, the first car in the first lane stopped, but the second one I guess didn’t. My companion started shouting, and since he was closer to the car, it hit him first, and then HE hit me until I rolled up onto the hood, and then it threw us both pretty far. I didn’t see the car coming at all, so when I found myself on the ground, I didn’t know what to think really, just that my ankle was twisted up under my back, and I was bleeding. I started to get up, and shouted "you’ve got to be kidding me" as I looked at my companion a ways off and then back at the car. I could see that his head had cracked the windshield, but my companion was walking over to me! Then a ton of people started coming over to us, and shouting things in Spanish that I couldn’t understand.

They took us off to the side and talked to us and the police and the ambulance came, then the woman that was driving came up to us, she was crying and all that, she looked worse off than we did. We called the mission President, and some members to meet us at the hospital. We rode to the hospital, and there we met everyone, and waited in wheel chairs for a few hours until they could check us out. We got x-rayed, and bandaged, and it turns out that nothing was broken! We were just really beat up. My companion; who is 6'2 and a lot bigger than I am, took a lot of the beating and has a lot more injuries to his knees and ankle, and shoulders and arms and stuff, where as I was just mainly concerned with my ankle.

Well the fact is that we spent 9 hours in that blasted hospital, it was ridiculous! But we missed zone conference that a general authority was at, but the President and his wife came over to our apartment, and checked everything out, let us call home,(which was way cool) and we’ve just been sitting around the apartment talking and keeping our feet in the air.

We keep finding new bruises every day, and getting a litter sorer every day, but we’re overall ok. We couldn’t walk until today, so we just came to do a quick email, and then we have to go back. I’ll write up a bigger and better email next time, when we have more time, instead of paying to use these computers that cost way too much, we’ll be at the library where I can write a good one.

Just know that we are very watched over, and very blessed as missionaries, and that I know that it isn’t just luck that we are pretty much alright, without any broken bones after a car accident like that.

Thank you for the emails, I promise to write more next week!

Until then I probably will be in my apartment not doing a whole lot until at least Saturday!

Take care!

Elder Brett Hanson

October 13, 2008

2008-10-22T16:57:00.001-07:00

Wow, that´s unreal!

I don´t even know where to start, that whole story is so crazy. But i only

have questions. What about the attic now? How do you think it started?

Didn´t you just do some work on the attic not too long ago? That is all very

wild.

All the failing car businesses and such, that is also really crazy. Things

all around the world are all bad. That´s all that we hear of all day, is how

rough everything is. But how is the cu? alright?

Here, not too much is new, except that i am staying here for a while, and I

am getting another companion on Wednesday. It should be good.

The work here should pick up some more with the arrival of the new comp.

I´ll explain more as the time goes by.

I´m glad to see that you got my package! The thing cost me enough I tell

you! But did you like the pics in it? The video of the hot dog water is

pretty good!

Thanks for giving all that to marcus and such. It is much appriciated. I

sent a letter home to the Bennets the other day, it should get there pretty

soon, if you would, pass that along too.

Thanks for the mail, and everything!

I hope that all continues to be ok, keep me updated on all that is going on!

Thanks!

2008-10-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

General Conference was great! Normally it looks like we’d have to go to another city to watch it by a satellite connection. But this year, we figured that here in Ferrol we have a nice enough chapel, and enough members that we could just try and watch it here. So we had 2 laptops, and some projectors all hooked up, to speakers and all that, so we could do it. We had one play it in Spanish, and the other in English, because there are enough people who can speak English, and there is now an American family in the ward, they are here because he’s working for a boat repair company that got hired out here. So that was really nice to watch. We were able to watch Saturday morning live, at 6 at night, and then we watched Saturday afternoon on Sunday morning. We tried to get priesthood, because there is some connection to it somewhere if you have the right passwords and such, but we couldn’t find it. So we watched Sunday morning live at 6, and then we’ll just have to read Sunday afternoon in the ensign, because it would come on live at 8 and go till 10, and we have to be home before that so it doesn’t really work out.

Definitely strange not going to dinner after priesthood, and all the traditions. I miss that like crazy.

The week beyond that was pretty normal. Not too much to report other than it’s transfer calls this week, so we’ll know who’s going where, and so on. But I’m 99 percent positive that I’m not going anywhere. I’m thinking my companion is, but we’ll know on Thursday or Friday.

I sent a big package home full of Logroño things, and pics from the CCM with President Hill, and my planners from the MTC (which are a big waste, and have almost no use, that’s why I sent them home) And a CD that has pictures from first transfer, and my memory card with recent pics. Also there’s a postcard for Marcus Flinton, I didn’t have his address. Plus there’s a bunch of stuff I wanted to keep, but just not have with me on the mission because it’s pointless, and gets annoying to pack up every time I have to move. So like the stickers and books, just put them in a box or somewhere where they can just sit until I get home! That blasted package cost me 18 Euro, so know that everything in there is special.

Otherwise I’m glad to hear that things are good, have a good week!

Thanks for the mail,

-Elder Hanson

September 29th, 2008

2008-10-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

Hey, glad to hear that some people came into the CU, I’ll admit I was pretty worried.

This week has been one of the longest weeks in the mission. As you know I was in Coruña last week from Sunday night to Tuesday morning. We worked, (or really got lost in a big city,) but it was by a really cool beach, boardwalk place too, so as we were doing contacts, I got some really awesome pics! We were pretty lost, but whenever you are lost in Spain, all you have to do is just go ask an old guy, and they’ll explain where everything in the city is 5 times over, so we just did that, and we found our way around!

On Tuesday, we got up, had district meeting, and then came back up to Ferrol. The thing about being in someone else’s piso, is that you don’t have any food, and you end up forgetting something, so we were pretty happy to be home again. We went out and found a few people and taught some lessons, like normal. We did the same on Wednesday, just normal days. But Thursday, the first thing we did was get up at 5 so we could catch the first bus back to Coruña to do more residency stuff. We were there the whole morning waiting in line with everyone that was looking to get residency papers...you can imagine the crowd, (Spain is worse than the states when it comes to illegal immigration) but then we got back to Ferrol before 12 in the morning. Then a good day of walking, and wow we were a little tired. But Friday, after making food, and planning all morning, having a lesson, correlation with the branch, we went to a funeral. A member had passed away, so we were there setting up everything, passing out the programs, directing the choir, and helping out. We also went to the grave site, and I am just kind of surprised at the way they do things here. They just slid the casket into the side of these walls, and the workers started putting the face of the wall on with the insulation foam stuff, their hammers and everything right there all of us watching. It was a little strange for me.

Saturday we still managed to get a few things done, and have a family home evening with a less active family.

Then yesterday, President Duvall was here, so we had interviews, and all that. We also set a baptismal date with a child of a less active family.

So besides all that, we are working pretty hard here, I really am happy to be getting some stuff done.

I’ve heard about the financial mess from some members, and they’ve said that it is a little scary. Wow the political scene looks equally as bad. It would appear that it isn’t too bad of a time to be out of the country...sorry but it’s true.

Also, yes Ferrol is a city that is surrounded by big ship repair things. I’ll have to send you some pictures of them, but I can see some cranes right outside my window in my study room. There really isn’t the prettiest beach here, but the ocean is still cool to be around. Also my companion and I were talking about how Ferrol is really the typical city that people think of when they think of Spain. The streets are narrow, and of cobblestone, it’s really busy, with cars and buses, and people walking in the same place. Not to mention that it is on the coast, and sort of on a hill, so you get the whole sloped buildings, and cool streets. It really is a beautiful city.

Well I’m off to the day, thanks for the info, and thanks for writing!

Take care!

Elder Hanson

September 24, 2008

2008-09-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the mail!

Here’s the thing. I’ll send the card home from last transfer, and then ill send the one with the movies on it home a little later on once you send me mine back.

The other thing is I need that journal paper that is from the distribution center...you know the ones with the lines and the dates? I keep forgetting to tell you, but I’m running out! I don’t know when you could send it, but I sure could use it!

Glad to hear about Morgan, (Morgan turned 12 and went for her Bishops interview, and to get a temple recommend to do Baptisms for the dead next week!) but everything else...sorry. Things are tough everywhere. Here in Spain things are on the downside, and everyone’s complaining. I don’t know what to say sometimes other than the message that we share is much more than our money; that things like family and our real happiness don’t depend on money.

But in other news:

Things are going pretty well. I am actually writing you today from A Coruña, a bigger city about 45 minutes away from Ferrol. We came down last night, and we are here for a few days doing some of my companion’s residency things, so I feel kind of strange walking around, lost in a big city, but it’s kind of fun too.

This week in Ferrol has been pretty good. We found some new investigators, and we set a baptismal date with a guy who has been investigating the church for years. He needs to stop smoking, that is always a tough one, but he’s pretty motivated, and there seems to be a lot of hope. We’re pretty blessed.

The other thing that we are so blessed in is our eating appointments here. We are fed almost everyday! It’s something that is extremely rare out here in Spain, but in Ferrol, there are a lot of members, and only 2 Elders, so we are spoiled. The only downside is that I still can’t cook, and I don’t really have to learn anything right now, maybe in the future...

Thanks for everything! Take care!

Elder Hanson

2008-09-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it's good to hear that Michael is doing well, I have been thinking of him this week. I love newt's article! (For those of you who don't know, Newt is Nate, his brother) I'm glad to hear his article got in the Salt Lake Tribune. But tell that kid to write...

Glad to hear that Morgan had a happy birthday! And that my letter to her took 11 days to get to the states...wow that's a little more than it was back in Logroño. I think this new city is too far away from the rest of the world, but it is an awesome city.

Have you seen it on a map? (And that's why I added the map above)It's on the west northern part of Spain, and it's a pretty good looking city. I am happy to be here taking all these pictures and all that.

(Personal message to Mom and Dad) Quick question, did you see, or take off those videos of the MTC, and the CCM on my first memory card that I sent to you a while back? I don't want to delete them if you haven't...but if you just left them on to let me look at them, that is cool too.

I have a card that I am going to send home pretty soon, but I want to know the answer to this question before I do it. I also will be sending home a little package pretty soon; it is just a bunch of papers and my first planners, and some pictures from the CCM. I also will put in the CD of pictures from first transfer in it. So I don't know how much that will cost, or how long it's going to take to get to the states, but I am just trying to cut down on all the things that I have here with me, I am finding that this is the secret to packing, so I am going to send home this soon. I have some cool little tourist things from Logroño, and some stickers that I want to save. So I don't know if you want to just put it in my room or somewhere for the next year and 7 months.

But thank you for sending the pictures, they will be used almost everyday, so thank you, thank you.

Guess what, we are teaching this girl that just got baptized in a less active family all the follow up lessons, and she has a cat whose name is Lucifer. (Our cat's name is Lucy-Fur. Brett came up with it and it stuck!) It's awesome, so I am showing her pictures of the cat, we all thought it was funny.

But the work here has picked up a little. We had 4 people in church, and 2 less active families, so we saw some of the fruits of our labor here; I just hope it keeps going.

Zone Conference was pretty good, I saw a ton of people from my MTC group, and that was really great. It was in a city called Santiago, it is a little more south of us, and is probably the biggest tourist city in the mission. It has this big catholic cathedral, so we went and checked it out yesterday, it was pretty cool, but I didn't get any pics... next time.

Sorry to hear about the work. More banks are going under? I thought things might be getting better? The exchange rate turned around, so I thought things were headed in a little better direction, but they'll get there sometime.

Get Quang there in the CU! And tell everyone hello for me!

Take care, thanks for everything!

Elder Hanson

September 7th 2008

2008-09-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Ya wow that is a bunch of stuff!

I can't believe that thing about Michael, so what's the deal? How dangerous is everything else? This is pretty crazy...(Our friends Michael Sanders was diagnosed with Lymphoma a few weeks ago.)

I don't really know the Jenny lady, but that is still sad. Especially because she´s probably related to that missionary that is related to Virginia, and grandma knew. He had a bunch of death in the family right before he went on the mission, so he had some hard times, I felt really bad. (Mike's cousin Jenny passed away a little over a week ago.)

But I wrote Morgan a letter the other day, tell me when she gets it!

The political scene...that is very interesting, I'm really curious to see how it turns out.

Otherwise this new city is pretty crazy, it's the furthest spot away from anyone, and it's just me and my companion, who is from Logan and has been out here for almost a year. His name is Elder Olds.

But the thing is he's been sick all this week, so it's been a little slow. I've been doing a lot of study time in the piso. It's a really nice piso, it's less than 8 years old, but is really cheap because it's so far out here in the middle of nowhere. But it was terrible, more trash, old food, old papers, "piso finds" were waiting here for me when I got here than I could ever imagine. So I've spent a lot of time just cleaning this place, and trying to make it the nicest piso I can, because everyone says it is the nicest in the mission.

but beyond that I've had a pretty hard week. Not many teaching appointments, and a lot of sitting. I just don't feel that good. So I hope in the coming days things will pick up a little and we can get to work.

the branch here is really strong, everything is very nice, so I'm glad that this is here, we just need to work!

but send everyone my hello,

I hope all stays well.

Elder Hanson

August 24th Letter from Brett to Mike

2008-08-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

Thank you!!!

Yes I got the box this week, and it was fantastic! Thank you! The pictures, and the planes, and the cool-aid, and all, thank you! I liked being able to see the pictures on the blog, and all that!

But do you think you could print off some of the pictures that were on the ipod? I really liked the ones of the family and such. And the dog too. I need just some ones that I can share with like investigators and such, like other missionaries have some that are laminated, and they can put them in their scriptures. Like one of the house, just all done now, maybe one of the CU, so I can tell about my old work, and one of the truck, old on one side, and new on the other, I just know that I could put these into lessons.

Glad to hear that you sold some things, is the gas coming down at all?

Ya I heard all about the Basketball game, everyone was pretty upset. they blamed it all on the refs...(dumb chinos is what they all said)

other news:

Along the lines of the work here, it really has been a good learning experience. You do have to be that sensitive to the spirit in order to plan what you are going to do everyday, and when you are contacting too. I find it very interesting when we plan, because we plan very specifically what we are going to do hour by hour, what we will plan to say in our contacts for that hour (inviting people to church, or answering questions on the back of a pass along card, and so on) and really when we carry it out, I see why we planned for that, and it is truly amazing. Along the lines of contacting people in the street, or knocking doors, we don't pray and look at a street and go there, we just stop everyone that we see, or knock every door that we can. Sometimes I think that the spirit works like that, if we are doing our job, being obedient, and trying to find we are rewarded.

We had a really good week this past week. We broke all our records for teaching numbers of lessons in 1 day, and the most I've ever taught in 1 week. We were really blessed. But why? I think that it is like it says in the scriptures, after our trial of our faith. After some hard weeks of walking, and walking, and not having success, we are blessed when we still get up and go, and do what we should everyday. I learn so much everyday, I am so grateful to serve here, in this mission. It might be one of the smallest,(80 elders in total) but there are people here, wanting to hear the gospel, and that's why I'm here.

But that's all for now, I´m getting the call that tells me where I'm off to this Friday, so I'll know next week, then I will leave on Wednesday! I'm a little nervous, but excited too. New city, new transfer, new companion, 4 months in the mission....total, 2 months in the field.

Thanks for everything! Again the package was so great!

Take care,

Elder Hanson

2008-08-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

You may all find this hard to believe about me but a few weeks back I asked Brett if Spaniards did anything for Halloween. This was his reply...Read August 18th first.

August 25th 2008:

I found out that Spain celebrates it (Halloween)sort of, it is a day for the dead, kind of like the memorial day in the USA! Work is off, but no candy or anything...sorry

As far as picking me up after my mission thing goes, the reason is that a General Authority has asked us not to do it. Repeatedly. It causes visa problems for incoming missionaries, and if we visit cities that I served in, it makes other missionaries want to leave.

Plus it takes away from the mission. You have to still live the rules of the mission, but you're not a missionary.

They asked us to send it to the families, and it's in the white handbook. It says "when your mission is over, return to your country"

Sorry...we'll just come later, no worries!

Thanks for everything!

Elder Hanson

August 18th 2008:

Thanks for the news, I will be sure to get a letter off to Morgan soon enough, but only after I move! Yes that is right, I am moving again. President told me in my last interview that I'll be changing cities in the next 3 weeks...hope the package gets here in time! Side note: (It did) Did you send it to the address that says Gonzalo De Berceo? just curious, because if it's not...it could be a little while. You could send any mail, packages, pictures, anything to the office anytime. They can receive anything and just give it too me at zone conference, just as a side note. Because with all this moving around it might be good to know that there is at least one address that is stationary!

But the Halloween thing, I don't really know! I know that they will celebrate it to a degree, at least that is what I have heard my companion who is a native say, but I will ask him what exactly the deal is!

Glad to hear that you have been going to the temple, because living in Utah we don't realize how lucky we are to have a bunch of different temples right by our house! It's so different from everyone else! Everyone is pretty jealous!

Same with the hiking thing, we are so lucky to have the mountains right there! it's pretty awesome!

Otherwise ya, things go on here just the same as usual, new companion who was an a.p. so he's a really good example to me, and I'm glad I could have some time with him, it's great! The people are still the same, and the language...ya it's still a different language! it's just a ton to work on, I can't quite explain it, I just try and do my best everyday and pray for the rest!

Well take care, I'm looking forward to the package!!!!!Thank you!!!!!!!!so much for sending it!!!!!!! Take care,

Elder Hanson

2008-08-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry friends! I was a few letters behind! Now we're all caught up

2008-08-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here’s just some basic news:

Ya, our zone conference was in Vitoria, a city about 2 and a half hours away by bus; it would be shorter but we go through a bunch of little cities, and wow is
it strange to watch the driver shift all the time. I don’t know how all those
big clutches in bus work, but they seem interesting.

I got my new companion there at conference, he’s an old AP, he’s way awesome. He’s from Park City, and has 20 months in the mission field. I don’t know how much time I’ll be with him, but I think at least another transfer.

We use cell phones here, all of us. We just share each of the
companionships. It’s really nice to have, because we can make all of our calls
when we are waiting for investigators and so on. Plus it’s really nice for
safety reasons, if there is a problem, it’s just nice to have.

Everyone is always surprised to see that this little city has such a big strong
branch. Church here is really good. They are just really focused on making themselves Stakes and Wards, which is so strange to me, but the members are really cool like that.

Anyway the heat here has been killing me; I can’t wait for the fall! It’s been
crazy here as far as transfers in the mission, every companionship will change
in one way or another this transfer, it is pretty rare to have that. This is my
4th companion and I’m only mid way through my 2nd transfer! But the work still
goes on, I love it.

Don’t worry about the package, I just hope for it week after week...but you
know no rush! Thanks for keeping up the blog and all that for me.

I remember you in my prayers every night, thank you for all that you have done
in my life, before the mission, and now.

Take care,
Elder Hanson

Monday, July 28th

2008-08-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Alright, sounds like things are very good with all of you! I’ve been having to
adjust to some things here, I’ve had to say goodbye to my father (that’s what
you call your 1st companion) and move on to my new trio. It’s with Elder Bamy,
who is from France, and has a Spanish mother, so he’s fluent, and Elder Sayaz,
who is from Barcelona. Yep, there isn’t much English at all. But it’s good...I
guess.

Moving was a pain and a half, I really didn’t want to do it at all. Plus I just
kept getting more and more stuff from my dad, because he was trying to make
weight for the plane ride, so I have a ton of Spanish books, clothes, cigar
boxes, and other things I don’t really plan on taking back to the states. We
had to clean the whole piso, that took a day on it’s own, and then move into
our new, smaller, much smaller piso.

There are some ups and downs to this place. We have 3 of us in 1 small room to
sleep in, because you have to stay in the rooms with all of your companions. My
desk is a door that we took off and put books under. The place is just small as heck. But there are many ups. We have a dishwasher, a new iron, and it’s on the 1st floor, which is nice not to have to climb a thousand steps just to get up there!

But things continue to move on as usual. Our areas are now combined to make just a huge area, which is sort of a pain, but whatever. We did teach a lot more
lessons with our investigators combined. That’s about it.

Life’s pretty simple, not a ton of worries about money, or gas prices or things
like that. It’s kind of nice in a sense. But my worries are just in different
places. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve among these great
missionaries, and among the great people of Spain.

I hope all is well, thank you for your love and support.

Elder Hanson

July 21st 2008 Letter

2008-07-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Glad to here the good news of the week, things have been pretty good here too.

I´m getting put into a trio, the other elders that are from Spain and France and I are going to be together...not a whole lot of English. My compainion takes off in 2 days, he's been great, I´ve learned a ton, I am kind of nervous about this whole change. But we are also moving pisos today and when he leaves, it's a way nicer piso, the only reason the church can afford it is that it is owned by the president of the district, and he gives us a deal. But I'm excited to get that going, and get to work with the new guys!

here's the new address:

c/ Gonzalo Berceo 6, 1(degrees sign) F

26005 Logroño

All is well here, I am still getting used to talking with everyone in church and stuff, spanish is still an everyday challenge.

Great to see all the letters, I am so grateful for them.

take care,

-Elder Hanson

Well Hello Everyone

2008-07-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

First things first, DONT MAIL ME ANYTHING!!!! I am moving to a different apartment, and won’t be able to get anything! So keep the packages, and love letters to yourself, and hold on for just one more week (I know it’s tough, but you can do it), and I’ll mail you my address!...but kind of an interesting thing about the reason I am moving, they sold our piso, for 350 grand! And that’s Euro, with the exchange rate at what is...wow that’s a lot of cash for a 1 floor, 1 bath piso, without air conditioning. So we are kicked out, and they found us a new one, it’s pretty nice, it’s a lot closer to the middle of the city, so that should be nice.

This week was great as usual, but we had Zone Conference, so it was even better. It was in a town 2 and a half hours away by bus...at 10 in the morning. So we were supposed to wake up at 5 to get ready, our bus was scheduled to leave at 6:50...we sort of slept through all 3 of our alarms, and I was the one to wake up at 6:20 by chance, and that was just great, we all were running, and shouting in different languages, but we did make it to the station on time, just without food. But the conference was great, an interesting fact, over half of our zone will be going home in the next 2 months...they said the average age for our mission as a whole will be 5 and a half months by that time, my trainer (who is going home next week) said that he was training me pretty well because there are pretty good chances that I could be training before the end of the year. It’s nuts.

Zone conference was great though, Pres. DuVall is great, he gave some great talks, and then I got my package with all those letters in it from the mission home, and all the old letters from the Spain MTC, and such, it was awesome, thank you thank you thank you to everyone that wrote, I’ll be sending my reply letters off once I get my new address.

Besides that, we’ve still had some relatively good times here with our investigators and such, we are finding a lot of new people, and trying to keep those that are truly interested and want to know more. The ward here is still great, I love the fact that I am starting to really understand things when I go to church. Like I can understand jokes, and stuff, ok not all the time, but it’s amazing, little by little, this whole Spanish thing is actually going somewhere!

So I got some comments on my food habits, I just need to clarify this; I don’t eat like I did last week every day ok! Here’s a normal day, at 8 in the morning I eat a bowl of cereal, usually cornflakes with some coco pebbles on top, SOME, very few, they are expensive. Then I will eat a banana. Lunch is at 2, we eat something pretty healthy, rice with tuna has been this week’s favorite, ya, it get’s a little old. Then we eat again at 10 once we are done planning, and I usually have a peach, or apple, and then a sandwich. That’s about it! Sometimes we eat other stuff between 2 and 10, and that’s just to keep ourselves awake if we are knocking doors. So last week’s food was a big deal!

Well anyway I am glad to hear everyone is doing well, I have only gotten 1 letter to my apartment, and yes, it was from a girl. Alright well until next week, take care, I hope you know that you are all in my prayers, Thank you, for writing, it does make the days better, it really does!

Thanks again for everything,

-Elder Hanson

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

2008-07-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

This has been the best week by far in the mission! We kicked it off, as you know, by winning the euro. cup! My companion and I ate at a member’s house, and we ate ice cream that night. Then on p-day we ate ice cream again, then on Wednesday it was Elder Sayaz´s birthday so we went out to eat for lunch at the good old "Drunken Duck" a great place for missionaries, we know. But it was extremely delicious, and they had a TV there that I did watch, I’m sorry but I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. It was about the Olympics, and had a large part about the 2002 Olympics that were in Salt Lake, it was cool to see home. And we got ice cream after that too. (Note from the evil Step Mom: Does everyone get the point that I didn't feed this kid enough ICE CREAM while he was growing up?!) But then of course, Thursday was our country’s birthday, so we went to the German store; it’s really cheap, and bought hot dogs and buns, and marshmallows and a ton of chocolate, (that’s way cheaper, and better than ours in America...its awesome) and we made s’mores! It was genius, we cooked them in the oven, but here is the problem with that, they don’t really turn gold. The way that you know they are done is when they slip off the end of the hanger and fall on the bottom of the oven and smoke goes everywhere, so we just had to watch them and be fast, but it was so nice to eat all that stuff.

Then the next day a less active member had us over for breakfast, where we ate pancakes; I must have eaten 10, plus all the fruit...man. Then of course we finish off the week with a fast, that was much needed, and now I’m here!

Well besides the food, it’s also been one of the best weeks as far as the missionary work too. The thing is, we’ve had some good investigators, but then they hmmm hawww their way out of the visits once we ask them to be baptized, and they just had a hard time being truly interested. Well this week we have had some success with those I would never expect. Last Sunday a man came to church that we invited one day just on the street. We do this about 25-30 times a day, it’s nothing new, and most of the time people don’t just come to church from a short contact. However, Eduardo did. He smelled like smoke and beer, and had a sweet nose piercing. Anyway, he was a little hung over in church, so we sent him home with a return visit set for Tuesday, I really didn’t think he’d show, but that was my lack of faith. Well Tuesday rolls around and he shows up with a friend, still smells like smoke and all that, but is there. We taught him the first lesson, and said we’d teach more in a few days with a member. The next lesson we had the 1st counselor in the bishopric come, and he flat out told him to stop drinking and smoking so he could feel the spirit, to which Eduardo said ok, it makes perfect sense, I understand. He wants to truly change. I was impressed with Eduardo, because all through our lessons he is alert and attentive, asks good questions, and reads when we ask him too, and truly wants to know more. I just haven’t seen this type of an investigator yet in my mission, so this just gets me excited.

There is another story this week, we ate with a member, like I mentioned already, named is Alexis. He’s a younger guy, late 20´s, he’s a Spaniard, served a mission, but when he came back he had school, work, a stake calling and 3 ward callings, so he got all busy and couldn’t handle it all, so he stopped coming to church. But we ran into him on the streets, so he had us over for breakfast. We mentioned that we play Futbol every Saturday morning and invited him to that. He came, and had a good time. We didn’t invite him to church, we thought we’d just take it one step at a time, but he came yesterday, it was really awesome to see him there!

That’s just a good example of why we go to church, it isn’t so the perfect people can become more perfect, it is so that we can all be uplifted, and whether it’s been a while since we came to church, or we smell like smoke and have some things in our lives we need to change, the church is still there for our benefit. That kind of stuff is what makes me want to keep doing this every day, knowing that with money, gas, and happiness in general getting harder and to come by, the gospel stands out in such a unique and incredible way. It is such a uniting force, I don’t like how religion has to always be so polarizing, it really is only there for good.

Anyway, just about out of time!!

Hope all is well, thank you so much for all the mail, I do love it!

Take care,

-Elder Hanson

We get picture's this time!!!! Yea me! let the scrappin' begin!

2008-06-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Brett has finally graced us with some pictures! I'll put a few on this post and then you can go to the left side bar, (soon) and I'll have some slide shows that are more chronological.

Plaza Mayor

Brett's dinner at the CCM (aka MTC Madrid)

Brett enjoying? afore mentioned meal.

Brett hasn't giving us any names really, and with the pictures coming to us digitally there isn't an easy way to attach names with faces. I can tell you that that's Brett...2nd to the left, in front of the Madrid Temple...that's about it.

Here in America we have Spanish markets, Italian markets, Chinese markets... So, I guess this makes sense huh?

And now on to the letter for June 23rd, 2008

Hello from Hot Logroño!!

This week has been hot! My companion told me that before I came, he had not seen a day without rain in Logroño his entire time, and now since I've been here it´s been a killer! Nothing at all! I will never complain about Disneyland again, (the heat, and my feet hurting part) I mean at least you aren't wearing a church shirt, and shoes, and dark pants with a tie on! I just sweat all day, I guess you just get used to it...they don't have air conditioning in hardly any apartments here, especially not ours, and being on the top level of our building isn't exactly the coldest place in the world. Sometimes I don't know why I even shower in the morning...

Did you like all the pics? They show vividly the fact I gained 12 good pounds!!! Ya, wow they are starting to come off I can tell you that much...But also they show that I really was on a 9 week vacation, because I was spoon fed every meal, was in an air conditioned building all day, was next to the temple, I could feel the spirit really strong all day, it was so nice! I will admit, I miss it like crazy.

But things are improving as far as the language, but on Sunday we ate at a member´s house (which was sooo nice not to make our own food) and I just had to sit there quietly, not saying too much, because I just didn't understand what they were saying...the accents are tough, and change a lot from person to person! But little by little it´s moving along.

I love the investigators we have, they are good, they are all fairly new because so many dropped us, so we have been trying to seek out families, because that is what everyone tells us to do, especially this branch, there are a lot of Spaniard families who have a lot of kids here. Sacrament is kind of like home, there are kids running around, and crying babies, and enough teachers and deacons to do everything, this will be a ward pretty soon I guess, that´s what I hear...but it's in Spanish so if I´m wrong don´t hold me too it OK!?

We had an awesome p-day, we played Frisbee and ate ice cream! I loved it, wow it was so nice to relax a little!

Anyway thank you for everything, and all the news updates!

Take care,

-Elder Hanson

2008-06-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hello America!!!

I am here in a little old town called Logrono...I think it is spelled that way??? But I got here yesterday after flying into Bilbao, driving up to the President’s house, and then eating, talking, getting my credit card, and all that good stuff, I got on a bus and took off or 2 glorious hours and drove south east to this little town. I got my first companion, his name is Elder Anderson, he’s a good guy, he went to Olympus high, and grew up around me!! He’s on his last transfer, just about outta here, so he knows his stuff, and is fluent in Spanish. Anyway our apartment is pretty nice, I like it, we live with 2 other elders, one is a native that I served with during the CCM experience in Madrid, his name is elder Sayaz, he’s so funny, he doesn’t know much English, but enough to make me laugh. I also live with another elder who is from France, he is a native of there, but his mom is fluent in Spanish, and spoke to him only in Spanish his whole life, so he’s fluent too...Let me tell you, I don’t talk a whole lot. but otherwise everything is really good here, I am excited to see what things are really like, we did talk with some natives, they were pretty nice, and we have some appointments tonight, but we have a bunch of our day that will be knocking doors, I’m ready to see how that goes...

But anyway how are things there?? My p-day is on Monday, but I can email you now to tell you how i am...Plus a cool thing about the mission is that we can email whoever we want! Family, friends, anyone really!! So tell everyone that!! I would love to get email!!

Ok, for the package though, I don’t know how soon you can send it, but I’d love to get something sometime!! And if you could maybe throw in a jump rope?? I can’t find one around here...and everyone just has the free ones you get at gold’s gym, so I didn’t think you could maybe just swing by and pick one up?? I also figure it’s light enough too....

Any way tell Nancy that I here her songs all the time being played by my companions here and in the MTC, everyone loves the EFY music, it’s good stuff!!!

I’d love to hear from you!!! Hope all is well take care!!

Oh and by the way, this is the address of the apartment...

Apparently we can send pics now, so ill figure out how to do it next week...

Calle Somosierra 25, 4ºD

26002 Logroño (La Rioja)

Spain

Love you all-

-Elder Hanson

E mail letter from Brett!

2008-06-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well good morning to the Land of the Free!!!

I just realized that I really don’t have much time here to email, and I am going to be in the field on Tuesday I thought I might have to just write one letter, and just have you forward it to everyone, I’ll be able to write others when I have the time, but wow how I really don’t have any time!!!!

So here’s what’s going on over here:

I leave on Tuesday to Bilbao, and get on with my mission!!! Monday is the 2 month mark since I’ve been in the MTC...doesn’t feel like it at all. As the saying goes "the days go by like weeks, and the weeks go by like days" I cannot express to you how true this statement truly is!! I mean we get up at 6:30 every morning, and start going, going, and going! And all I do is sit inside all day, and when it is time for me to go to bed I’m all tired, and fall right asleep at 10:30, I cant imagine when I actually get out there, and walk and walk...and walk some more. (Did I mention our mission has no cars, bikes, and apart from the city mission, no trains or other public transportation. the average weight gain on our mission is minus 30lbs. Well some Elder told me that, I believe it too, because the first 10 pounds will just be coming off what I put on here in the MTC. (Actually I think I’ve gained 12 lbs...But who’s counting right?) Brett could use a few extra pounds! :)

I just have to mention Elder Rob Swenson. I love this Elder, I think you’ve mentioned him to me, but he is one of my favorite people here. He is in my district, and we just talk a lot. For sure after the mission we will be friends, but I could honestly see us rooming together. He didn’t go to BYU, but he’s gonna go to UVSC and we’ll just hang out. He and I talk about Cardin sometimes, he always mentions how much he loves the Cullimore family, and how cool Cardin is too.

Well today was the last time I’ll go to the temple for 2 years (ok 22 months...but again who’s counting?) But I just loved being in there with everyone, especially my companion. Elder Moore, who has been with me all these 9 weeks, is the man. I am so blessed to have such a great first companion. I hope we can be later in the mission, and throughout our lives.

I got my hair cut again today. It’s the 3rd time since I’ve been in the MTC. It grows so dang fast. Well I guess I should mention my wonderful 89 euro razor I bought. Yes I did spend just short of my life savings on it, but it’s ok because every morning when I wake up I have something wonderful to look forward to. That’s what I spend my money on. That and McDonalds...5 euro for a Big Mac meal. (Don’t do the conversion it just hurts more and more every time)

Well I’m loving the food here, fish is getting better to choke down, and all sea food really tastes the same when you use half the bottle of Tabasco on it, so that’s my little trick I can pass on to you!!

I will have to stick up for Spain and say we get the best chocolate here, it’s straight out from Germany!! And it’s way cheap!!

Anyway I’m almost out of time; I’ll email you later if I get the chance!! Otherwise the next time will be in Bilbao!!!

-Elder Hanson

Email from Brett May 8th.

2008-05-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Spain Madrid Temple.

Brett Lives about 150 feet away from it, on the same property.

What a beautiful view to wake up too.

Hello!

well first off we´ll cover the business...We are going to the stores today for p day so i´ll see if they have the paper or whatever...i heard the chinese stores have some cheap paper, mainly it is just strange here to buy things, and with the dollar exchange rate at 1.7 dollars to 1 euro things aren´t looking cheap. However i must say that the church gives us 30 euro a week while we are here in the MTC so that should help!! I´ll email you later on today to let you know how the trip to the store goes.

Anyway glad to hear the trip to st george was fun!! I mean you did it all for me...essentially...i´ve made you do a bunch of junk since i left, sorry about that, but just know that i am exrteeeeeemly greatful for it, and with my praying at least 20 times a day (and no that is not an exageration) you all find your way in there somehow....

But the volley ball thing, I swear you are good! You´ll be fine don´t worry, just try and not get kicked out for yelling at the kids or the other coach or something!!! (Morgan's V- ball Coach had to work so he told me I was Coaching last Saturday YIKES! Luckily his wife Celeste showed up and we team coached.)

Also if you see Bryce´s mom tell her hi for me, me and Elder Sansing talk a lot, agian it is really nice to see anything that has some resemblence of home....

But things are pretty good here, the food though...maybe it´s just me but Provo had it way better than here. I mean i´m getting used to the whole sea food thing, but in provo it was unlimited seconds and the lady´s wouldn´t get mad if you didn´t eat everything off your plate!

We had to do some visa stuff yesterday...we went into town in a car, that was so strange....i haven´t been in one of those for a while.

But the best thing here by far is the park. Every saturday we get to go to the park and preach the gospel for real! i was so scared, ¡¡¡¡¡i dont speak spanish!!! we are supposed to talk to everyone on the metro on the way there and all we see in this huge park once we get there!! We got new companions for the day (that had been in the ccm for a while and could speak half decent) and we went out. half the time as we would start to talk they would get into some random conversation and i wouldn´t know what they were saying. but after some hard times we got talking with an older man, just about the birds and the trees, and he was helping us with our spanish, and then we started to bring up the gospel. with him knowing that we were his friend first, and that we actually cared about him and what he thought, he was more readily able to accept what we wanted to teach him. We gave him a Book of Mormon, or Libro de Mormón, and then it was time to go. but i can tell you it is amazing to actually work and see what we will be doing for the next 2 years!!

i´m excited to get out there, but first i´ve gotta learn this language!

I´ll get back to you in a few hours...

Love Elder Hanson

Some day I'm hoping he'll send some pictures. I'm having withdrawals. :)

First Email from Brett at the Madrid MTC!

2008-04-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well hello!!
i am in a different country, and i don´t know what to even think! I dont know how to change the caps or anything, the keyboard is all crazy. anyway i hope you get this i´ll write to you more in a sec

(Dad makes a brief comment back)

yes!! Hello!! I am glad to see you are on! we get to write our families right now and tell you that we are ok. but i am more tired than i have ever been in my life right now, it is almost 5pm, and i havent slept really since i got out of my bed in provo. i did for a min. on the plane, but not enough to balance the fact that we got here at 9am spain time, but 1 am provo time, and have been going ever since!!!
I will have to say that this place is the most georgious place on the planet!! This mtc is the bomb!! We went for a walk, and saw all around the town, we get to go into town on our p days!!

Brett Called Home from Atlanta!! WOOHOO!

2008-04-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well, he's really on his way to Spain today! He called his Dad this morning from SLC International and then he called me from Atlanta, Georgia. He says he's excited but a little scared and he's worried because he's boarding right now (6:00 pm) and in 6 hours he'll be in Spain and it will be Wednesday, 9:00 am! yikes! Are these 21 Missionaries going to get any sleep? Will tomorrow possibly be a free day for them to catch up? The mother in me says IT HAD BETTER BE! oops...sorry. The Lord knows best hehe ;)
Nate and Morgan got a chance to talk to Brett. The boys talked about guy stuff and Nate told Brett not to get killed by extremists! Hello?!?! don't say that in front of me!!!
And Morgan told Brett about going skating at Classic tonight and then asked him if he had a girlfriend yet...um...well...MAN! I'm a bad LDS parent...how does she not know that LDS missionaries don't go looking for girlfriends while they're out? how?

By the way, Brett says that McDonald's in Atlanta...possibly all of Georgia...possibly the entire south; I don't know,... has a Southern Style Chicken Sandwich that is Deep Fat FRIED! It's #5 on the menu in case you're interested. I can feel my stomach churning just thinking about it.

He's really going, he's heading to Spain. Leaving the continent, for 2 years.

Before I go, I'll tell you about the first Blessing I feel like I've received since Brett left. It's sweet for me, the kind of sweet that makes me tear up.

I've always loved Mikes boys like they were mine, but I've never felt comfortable telling them that I love them. I don't know why; everyone needs to hear it, but I just didn't want to embarrass them...or maybe I didn't want to be hurt by their possible reaction. But I love them. Always have.

But it's different now. They're getting older and they're leaving and I don't want them leaving not knowing how I feel about them. What if something happened to Brett while he was gone and I never told him I love him...I couldn't live with myself!

So that's the blessing...I love my step son and I can tell him so. AND he tells me he loves me too!!!! yeah me!

Watch out Nate...You're Next!

Our Final Goodbye's

2008-04-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday April 9th, 2008

As we walked to the front of the MTC, to take the pictures that every LDS family takes before their son or daughter embarks on the biggest adventure of their young life, I'm amazed at this picture before me...(below) of our two grown sons walking with their Mother Suzy. So big! SERIOUSLY...so much bigger then I thought they were. I see them every day in my home and I know they're bigger then me...their Step Mother, but to see them next to their Mother...

She looks like she's walking with two men.

Amazing

Doesn't Brett look great in a suit?

This is Brett's friend Andy Hulka. Andy was going to BYU and thought he'd run from his classes on Campus to the MTC to see Brett off. We were so happy to see the University approved

MULLET gone from his head...till we saw the RAT TAIL he left in its place! GOOD GRIEF MAN! But he's a great kid and we feel so luck to have had his family move into our neighborhood years ago, to become one of Brett and Nate's best friends.

So we took Andy into the MTC as one of our Sons so he could get 30 more minutes with Brett.

That's our guy. I love him so much. I miss him like crazy,

but I couldn't be more proud.

Brett's last night home or,...OMG! what are we going to do without BRETT!

2008-04-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, if you read my "meadow on a ledge" blog a few weeks ago then you know how I was feeling on this evening...these pictures were taken after Brett was set apart as a Missionary. So here he is with his mangy looking companion for the next 24 hours.

AND I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE DOG

MY BOYS...boy do i love them

The setting apart was a sweet experience; and I don't mean saaaaweeeet...I mean sweet. I just wish I had a better memory because I have nothing that was said, in writing. Everyone got a chance to say a few words to Brett about how they felt about the gospel, about this choice he was making, about our pride in him. His Mother Suzy was so gracious to Mike and I. Her comments were toward us and the gratitude she felt for the way we'd raised her Sons. That was so kind of her. The blessing given to Brett was beautiful and I felt the Lord was with us. Brett's countenance seemed to change as we said Amen. The smile wouldn't leave his face. His testimony of the work he was about to do was sweet and ambitious.

Let the adventure begin!

Farewell...oops, I mean Testimonial; sorry Mom

2008-04-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Brett's Farewell (testimonial) was Sunday, March 30th. He did a great job, a little shaky at first but he got comfortable fast and gave a great talk. My favorite part was his comments about his Dad and the great time he had working on the truck late at night for years. Brett felt like he learned a lot from his old man and he wanted to make sure the Ward and Mike knew that it was appreciated.

Mike gently cried, with a smile on his face.

Lunch was a little shocking! That boy has too many people who love him; and that's not counting his mothers side of the family who had a party for him the night before. I fed at least 100 people. The office was filled with shoes! I was never this popular as a teen. Of course I don't think I was this cute either.

We had ten days to go at this point. We thought for sure MTC day was forever away...

2008-03-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Brett got his Mission Call on December 27th 2007 and chose to keep us all hangin' by waiting till after work to open it! It was hard to tell by the look on his face but i'm sure he was excited. It was a day we all waited for in anticipation...

Bilbao Spain!

It was a good day