Armies of Angels

December 3, 2012

My dearest family.

Thank you all so much for letters this week. I look forward to reading
them. Sounds like thanksgiving was kind of crazy! I am glad that so
many family members went. I cant believe that Grandpa fell. I hope
that he is doing alright now. Let him know that i love him, I am
grateful for him, and that i hope he is feeling better soon. Send him
my love.

Yes mom, i could use some sweaters. Send some please. But thinish
ones. Not to bulky. Cause that is a pain to carry around. Cause it
only gets cold at night. It is ridiculously hot during the day. It
feels like june...or august. Sorry mom, I still havent gotten any
packages. And the problem may be that they never arrived at the
mission office even. Try pasting some good ole pictures of the Virgin
of Guadalupe on there. I hear that helps. Everyone...and i mean
everyone...here, is very...and i mean very... Catholic. So that could
help.

Chony, i cant wait to meet little Madelyn. :) I understand that you
need to rest, but exercise your fingers...take pictures, cause she
will almost be 2 when i see her.

Hahaha. I am so happy that landon and brie had to do a musical number.
haha. I am really impressed with how involved you all have been in the
church meetings. Keep it up famdamily.

I am glad that tess gave an awesome farewell talk. Tess you will love
the mission. And really dont really worry about the language. You are
called to teach with the Spirit. If you do that, the language will
follow. Just HSI (Habla Su Idioma). That means, that speak all the
spanish you can, and if you dont know a word in spanish, say it in
english, and then keep speaking in spanish. And if you want to say
something, but dont know how, write it down so that you can translate
it into spanish later. The gift of tongues is real. No stress. I am SO
EXCITED for you to start the mission. I have it written in my planner.
I love you, and you are the best. Give it your all. Dont waste a
second.

Weston, how was passing the sacrament????? You are such a stud. ;)

Dad, i am writing in my journal a lot. Dont worry. Even though i dont
want to a lot of times...because i am so dog tired, i make sure to
write a little.

This week we had a capacitacion with President Angulo!! Just us
missionaries from Parral and Jimenez. SO COOL. We reviewed the letter
he sent us (I will send it to you maybe), and we went super in depth
with hit. Then we had practices with the zone leaders about how to
teach so that the investigators understand that we want to help them,
and how to help the have the experiences necessary for the conversion.
SUPER COOL. ANd then president Angulo interviewed all of us. After
that training, we hit the ground running.  I feel like i am just
barely learning how to be a missionary. That night, we had visits (the
first visit) where we had only been talking to the person for 5
minutes until we invited them to be baptised. And, believe it or not,
some of them said yes. So this next week we have to work super hard to
put baptismal dates with all of these people, and teach according to
their needs. On the 21st, there is going to be a large baptismal
service in parral, and we want to have a lot of people there. We have
a goal to have two baptisms here in Jimenez this month, and i beleive
that if we work with all of our heart might, mind and strengh, we
will.

The members here are super excited about everything. We received 7
references from members between wednesday and sunday. ANd they are all
visiting the less actives ever week. We had two less active families
in attendance this week. :)

I am becoming so much more natural in my teaching. At first i was like
a robot, just saying the phrases that i had memorized. but now that i
can speak spanish (more or less), my door approaches and everything
are so much more natural. I really focus on making the people trust
us, and get to know us. Cause it is a little weird of two men chase
you down shouting "We want to talk to you about Jesus." Which is
really what we want to do, but the people need to be our friends
first.

In the capacitación, president Angulo told us that the armies of
moroni, or armies of angels are with us. ANd i have this awesome image
in my head of Elder Ledezma and I walking down the streets of Mexico
with an army of angels, covered in armor and swords, walked beside us.
It is nice to picture that when things are difficult.

Well, i love you all so much. Get those christmas lights up. The
lights here make me happy. Yesterday we had a 2 hour testimony
meeting. THe people here like to share their testimonies. Have a great
week.

Love,

Elder Hansen