Welcome to Guatville!

Mi  FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!!  

Como le va??

I hope you all are having an awesome week!! We are at a church right now playing soccer in the gym.   The last time I played soccer I was nine.  I am SO uncoordinated at it that I’m sure I give everyone a good laugh!  Ha!

It was another great week for me!! It was full of finding and preparing people.  Most of the people we meet here are from Honduras or Guatemala.  The cool thing about our message is that everyone needs to hear it, so we get to share it with anyone we can.  It is such a blessing to know that we are doing what the Lord wants us to do.  That is one of the things that I love most about the mission.  Being able to talk to everyone in sight.  

We spend most of our time in Guatville, and no that is not the name of the city.  The missionaries give it a nickname because everyone who lives there is from Guatemala.  It is probably my most favorite place in our area.  There are street vendors everywhere, pushing their shopping carts full of food, selling arroz con leche, horchata, honking their little clown horns.  It is so awesome!! Also they all speak Quiche which is a dialect from Guatemala, so I am picking up a few phrases in that dialect too. I know how to say "What's up" and "Bye" and they think it's hilarious that a gringo is trying to speak it.  It is so fun.

Here we are at a dinner with two awesome families in Guatville.  They are so generous to us.  

After we got bible bashed by a pizza guy selling in Guatville, we were walking out and ran into Manuel.  Manuel moved here from Guatemala, and was staying in the apartment complex we were contacting in.  We talked to him more and he invited us up to his apartment to teach him.  Crazy thing is that we knocked on his door like 15 minutes earlier looking for someone else.  We taught him and he invited us back.  When we came back another day, he had all his friends there and so we taught him and like 5 others about Jesus Christ and the Restoration.  It was AWESOME!! 

Here are some typical homes in Guatville. 

Here we decided to switch it up a little and study on the floor instead of our desks.  Gotta keep it exciting!! haha

I do think of baseball and miss it but don’t regret for one second my decision to be here!  The cool thing is that I have used it to help connect with people.  I just met someone from the Dominican Republic! That was sick! He was giving me some Dominican tricks. He said the Dominicans throw softballs to strengthen their arms, run the beach to get faster, hitters hit beans to work hand eye coordination, and they swing their bat and hit a tire to strengthen their swing. He's awesome!  It was fun to talk baseball with him. 

This was exchanges with Elder Lofgran.  He speaks English only buuuut I found some people from Honduras to teach so I taught 3 lessons in Spanish:)

Spiritual thought: When Amalickaiah is trying to take over Captain Moroni and the Nephites, he is attacking on all sides.  He was deceptive, cunning, and flattering.  Moroni, however was one step ahead.  He was preparing the minds of his soldiers and also preparing the cities of the Nephites. He built up walls, and set up watchtowers, and strengthened themselves daily.  Same thing in these days.  Build up your walls daily.  Set yourself up to protect yourself.  Strengthen yourself daily against the devil, and he will have no power over you.  Captain Moroni is pretty much the best example ever!

Love you all!! Hope you all have a great week!!

Brett

Elder Hansen

I had some weird soup this week . . .

Hola MIS AMIGOS Y FAMILIAAAAA!!!

 This last week was one of the greatest weeks of the mission, not going to lie!! Houston is the greatest place ever but hotter than heck!

First off, WOW! Mom and Brik and Gracie are all in Kauai with Mo and Beeg! That's so awesome!! Love seeing the pictures! Crazy to see that you are there, and that the Hanalei area next to the pier is just like wiped out.  So wild. Also, so glad to see that Ben had a good time at Cary for the Team USA tryout.  So hilarious he went as a 2 way.  I thought that was awesome! First at bat was a triple and had 6 k's, that is big time!  Nice job, Ben!

This week has been amazing!  I really am having fun out here.  It’s crazy how it can be so fun and SO hard at the exact same time. It’s the greatest thing ever and I just absolutely love testifying of Christ.  Here I am eating Hermana Quiche’s Guatemalan tamales.  She’s awesome!!  We really appreciate the chance to eat food from all over Central and South America. Most all of it is just amazing.   I did have this weird soup with something from a pig.  I didn’t even bother to ask what it was.  Elder Ledezma got sick off of it.  It was nasty. . .  hehe  I’m shopping on a budget now and doing pretty good.

The day after my last p-day, we ran into Glenda.  We asked her if she knew anyone that needed to have a message of joy and peace in their life, centered on Jesus Christ.  She said that she didn't know anyone, but we could teach her family.  So we did, she's awesome, she's from Honduras, her husband is from Peru, and they have 5 kids.  We taught the family, and they were way interested.  Then, I went back on transfers with other missionaries, and I extended a baptismal date for Glenda and Edwin (the dad), and they accepted!! It was so awesome and I felt so great.  You can see them changing their lives to align with the Lord, and they are just so much happier! It is awesome! We also found 2 more people to teach that day, and that was just a day we were so blessed. We have been finding a lot of people to teach! It has been a blessing!

Here I’m learning how to make tortillas with one of our investigators, Maria.  By the way, no more dog stories this week but there are cats EVERYWHERE!

Also had my first service for moving someone. That was cool. Hermana Ching had some heavy stuff, but that was fine.  We then went to Costco after and got Costco hotdogs.  They fit our budget and tasted amazing.  

Yesterday we had Zone Conference. Elder Pieper came and we had a study on goals and doctrine.  He said a quote from President Packer, saying that the quickest way to change someone's behavior is through true understanding of doctrine of Christ.  As we come to understand Christ, we change who we are.   It really is an amazing thing.  Christ is the way.  

We joke about this huge building being the Tower of Babel or the Great and Spacious Building.  haha

So we go to apartments like this and give away pass-along cards.  

This house keeps putting our pass-along cards in the window! haha

Spiritual thought: Alma 29:13-14.  When Alma came back to see his best friends the Sons of Mosiah.  In verse 13 he said that he had exceedingly great joy because of our success, but in verse 14, he said that his joy was full in the success of his brethren.  I see that applies in our lives.  We can have joy in our lives in our successes, BUT, we can have a full joy when we celebrate the successes of the people around us.  That is the way to make us even happier, celebrating others success!  There’s your thought for the week. 

Hope you all have a great week!!  Love you all!

Brett

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net

I've been chased by dogs and people honk and yell at me! 😂

Hola mis amigos y familia!! Que tal?

I’ve been chased by 4 different dogs on my bike, and been honked at a bunch of times, pretty sick!! 😂  I’ve also had a bunch of drunks yelling at me about Joseph Smith. haha  Now I feel like a real missionary.

Week 8! That's kind of wild I am not going to lie.  It’s weird to think I've been out almost 2 months now. 1/12 of the way through.   Wow, that was fast!  I love hearing all of your stories!!! Ben, I am so glad that you did so well at Area Codes.  Those uniforms looked a whole lot better than the Elf outfits we wore last year!  Looks like you loaded up on gear!! Brik and Gracie, holy cow, Disneyland?? Do you have the best mom or what?? Also, Dad, so good hearing from you and sending updates!! I love to hear and see them.  Ben looked like a natural out there, and I am so glad none of you all got into some trouble in Compton. 

Thanks to Mom and Amazon I now have enough snacks to last 3 transfers!!  And the TidePods are GOLD!  Thanks!

This week was pretty great!! Honestly it has been a wild ride, and just a lot of fun, a lot of adjustment too.  But overall, wow, the Church is true!  So a highlight for this week was that we got to go teach the Nigerian Chief again! He is awesome and loves talking about Christ.  We taught him the whole Restoration and he seemed to be totally into it!!  So we are teaching him again on Wed. There are a ton of people here from Nigeria.  It’s amazing getting to know them. 

We are teaching between 2 and 4 lessons a day.  Mornings are brutal because no one is home so we usually street contact. I try to talk to everyone! We got to teach a great lady named Maria.  The first time we talked to her about the Book of Mormon, she was way Bible bashing, which made it pretty hard to feel the Spirit.  But then we taught her a few days ago, and we read the Intro to the Book of Mormon, and everything went silent.  The Spirit was palpable, and I bore my testimony to her, and it was awesome!!  We then had dinner with her, and that was awesome too. Everyone loves tortillas and meat here, so we have that pretty much every night when we are eating with someone.  Also, the pupusas here are AMAZING!! It's like a sweet roll with meat stuffed in it.  It's like a taco with a stuffed crust. So good.

Oh, we also had a baptism yesterday, and I got to do the confirmation so that was amazing, even if it was broken Spanish.  The language is coming little by little, but I'm working at it.  It's hard to understand, but I think I understood almost everything in Sacrament meeting.  Still working on the speaking part. The quantity of Spanglish here is crazy, and it is messing with my mind haha.  But I am feeling the spirit very strong.  OH, we also have another person with a baptismal date set! Edith is getting baptized in September!! She's from Honduras and is so awesome!!

The bikes are great, my legs are getting strong!  I’m doing 100 pushups a night, and as long as I can go on a plank.  My goal is 10 minutes by the end of the mish.  I have kind of turned into a neat freak.  I know, crazy. I’ve also used half my cash for the month so I hope I can prolong it a bit!  hahah I’m sweating like a nut every day.  No rain yet, but I LOVE the ward I’m assigned to.  There are some quality people and the best bishop ever!  (Second to Bishop Paul of course!) 

Here’s a picture of our apartment and my desk.  (My neat freak-ness isn’t showing here.) 

I ran into my old EFY counselor on the way to the airport in Salt Lake City.  How crazy is that?

One of the things I craved most in the MTC was a 5 Guys burger.  Now I’m giving Whataburger a try.  It’s pretty good!

Spiritual thought: I have been praying every night that I can find ways to be the best missionary I could possibly be.  Then, I was reading a talk titled "The 4th Missionary".  The 4th missionary doesn't want to be a great missionary, but a servant of the Lord.  So I have been looking for ways to be a servant, and it is so much easier than wanting to be a good missionary.  Your thought process switches from inward to outward, and I have found way more joy.  So one day I was reading in John 15:14-15.  And it was when Christ was referring to his disciples.  He didn't call them his servants, but his friends.  That's the goal.  To have Christ call us his friends, by doing what he asks us to do, and serving him. That's my goal!!

Love you all, hope you have a great week!!

Brett

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive

Houston, TX 77063

Apt #217

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net

"Week 7, I think?? I'm starting to lose track! haha"

Hola todos!!!

Hearing some amazing things about things happening back home!! Heard about Gracie and Mom having an awesome time at girls camp at Camp Ritchie!! So glad that they both had so much fun!!  Also heard that Ben went to EFY, just missed on the overlap at the airport by a few hours before I left Provo.  Shoot!!  However, I did hear that Benny is getting some love from LSU, which is super exciting.  Also heard that Brik and Dad had an amazing time at Great America!!  I had a great time being able to talk to Brik, Gracie, and Mom on Monday before I took off for Houston. 

 So I have officially left the MTC and am currently in Texas!  This is kind of crazy, not going to lie, but it's awesome!!  Like kind of nuts to think that I'm already here.  Freeeeaaaaky!!  President Guthrie picked us up from the airport.  He is honestly the best.  I can officially say he is my idol.  His wife is awesome and full of energy.  His kids are great.  I met all of them and love ‘em! This picture is of all the new missionaries that arrived together. 

First thing that I realized was that i know absolutely no Spanish😂😂  I got assigned to have Elder Ledezma as my companion here.  He's from Mexico, and is pretty much fluent in Spanish.  He about 25 years old and has been out here for 1.5 years.  He also speaks really fast and uses a lot of slang, soooo it's taking all my brain power to keep up.   I got assigned to the Houston 1st ward, and it's just a straight Spanish ward.  It's weird, there's a lot of Spanglish, so when I start trying to say something in Spanish, they all answer in English.  Brain is switching back and forth all the time haha!!  The area I am serving in has a little bit of downtown and it is JUST outside of the city.  It has Minute Maid Park in the area along with Rockets Stadium.  Haven't been there yet, but looking forward to it.

People are feeding us really well!  We have lots of flautas and they are so good. I’ve met Elder Tai.  He’s  the man.  He’s 6’8 and from Tonga and will play football for BYU when he’s done with his mission.

We had some pretty cool experiences this week.  We had a baptism this week of Michael and Jennifer.  They're younger kids from Honduras that accepted the gospel.  They honestly know so much and have such a strong testimony of the gospel already.  It was really special.  Their mom is going to get baptized too, Edith, but she's waiting to do it with her husband, who should be coming anytime.  Honestly it's got a really strong influence here from Guatemala and Honduras.  People from Honduras talk so fast.  But the Guatemalans are awesome!!   Its hard to get in investigators houses, and hard to get out of members homes.  They are so nice.  Once in a while we get 2 dinners a day, because they just invite us in...  We also cook for ourselves lunch and dinner at times.  Sometimes we skip dinner and just eat when we get home at 9:00 because thats like primetime for contacting and tracting on the street.  There is this place called Guadville that is straight all from Guatemala, and its crazy.  The people are so nice.  Everyone here loves Jesus, so we talk to a lot of people.  

I’m not complaining about the food at all! 

Also, a cool highlight, we met, and taught a Nigerian chief and his son!  His name is Chief Alfred. It was the randomest thing.  He just asked us what we were doing, and we explained, and he invited us up to his apartment to talk about God and Christ.  We are going back there today to teach them today.  

Also, I got to give my testimony in church the other day.  It was awesome!!  It actually wasn't horrible.  People said I did a good job, I think.  They all talked so fast.  I am waiting for the day I don't need to think so much in Spanish!!  Faith, prayer, and lots of studying, that's going to be the way!!

I am completely drenched in sweat every day.  Took this picture to prove it.  Houston is just a little warm.  :)

Spiritual thought for the week:  We had a meeting with President Guthrie, and he gave a great talk about the Atonement, and how to succeed.  He said that success is not going without failure.  It's about going from failure to failure without faith being lost.  The Atonement isn't a destination, it is a journey.  It is sufficient for all of us, if we submit to the will of Christ, because he did it all for all of us.  Great talk: "Behold the Man" - Bishop Edgely.  

Love you all, and hope you are having a great day!!!

Brett

(Elder Hansen)

NEW ADDRESS!!

  

8585 Woodway Drive 

Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063