September 29th, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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