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