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 

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

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

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

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

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!

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