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

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

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

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