El Gato, Thaksgiving and KIKKOOOOOO

Buenas tardes familia y amigos, los amo bastante, y siempre estan en mis oraciones. Espero que tuvieran una semana maravillosa!

(Hi Family and Friends, I love you all so much and and you are always in my prayers.  I hope you had a marvelous week!)

I heard that Thanksgiving was AWESOME! I am so glad that you all had a killer time in San Diego!  Sounds like the Del was a blast, and I have seen some awesome pictures.  Seems like you all are having a great time this holiday season.  I know that Mom has got the Christmas lights up right now.  I hope you all are getting ready to light the world!!

We were working on Chevy Chase Drive. Shoutout to Dad and the Three Amigos!

 I got an awesome surprise on Saturday night from home with some Sicily's pizza, wings, mozzarella sticks, and cake, so that was awesome!

We have seen some pretty cool miracles here this week.  I don't know if I told y'all, but we started teaching Elder Handy's mom's cousin who lives really close to us.  We have taught him a little bit about God's love for him and the atonement of Jesus Christ. We went to the church to go play soccer, because he loves the sport.  After we finished we went into the chapel with Victor, to show him around.  As we sat down, he started to open up to us, telling us that he has made some mistakes in his life, and he feels like this really is a second chance for him.  He said he knew the missionaries back in El Salvador, but now he feels like it is another chance.  

This is Edith’s little daughter.  She is great. 

Then, we also had a little rough day on Friday.  All of our lessons fell through.  So we decided to go take a dinner break, which we usually never do because we are usually loaded with lessons.  But we did, and headed to our favorite truck, El Gato.  I got a bomb gordita, and Handy got a machete that was amazing . But as we go, we run into an investigator that we havent had much contact with. We set an appointment, it was so great!!  That was such a miracle.  

Does “Chang’s Chinese Restaurant" ring a bell for anyone?  It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode at the Chinese restaurant - “Seinfeld party of 4?"!  ha!

We had a great Thanksgiving at obsipo's (bishop’s) house, with Kiko (I’ve told you his story before - just amazing),  and apparently he put it on Facebook.  It was awesome!! 

Kiko.

Also... the McFaddens dropped off a letter for us, AND DIDNT KNOCK THE DOOR!! We were doing personal study, and open the door, and there it was!! They are the best, so lucky to have the best friends.  One of my best buds Elder McFadden, serving his mission in Taiwan, has the best family EVER!! They are awesome!

Spiritual thought, 2 Nephi 32:1-2   Go be an angel in someone else's life.  Go lift someone else.  Christ is the reason for the season!!  Illumina el mundo!!! Hoy es el dia para empezar haciendolo!! (Light the World!  Now is the time to start doing it!)

Tengan una semana increible, y recuerden!! Jesus es el razon!!

(Have an incredible week and remember!! Jesus is the reason!!)

Brett /  Elder Hansen

Robbed, called the Devil and TEMPLE TRIP!

Buenas tardes mis queridos amigos y familia!

Sounds like you all had a great week capped by my now teenage sister's birthday on the 15th, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE!! Hope you got my letter!  Also a shout out to one of the best uncles to walk the planet who had his birthday last week as well, happy birthday Chris!!  Sounds like the fires are pretty bad back home, and I just want to let you all know that there are prayers heading your way from not only from me, but a lot of Texas! So sorry, and hope it stops soon. Stay safe!

As the title implies, it was definitely a week of highs and lows! haha We started of on a high note.  We had the opportunity to bring Edith to the temple!! It was such a miracle to see her taking steps to continuously try to make her life better.  The blessings of the temple are real.  I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to be there with her.  

If you’ve never seen a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple, then check one out!!! They are all beautiful and all over the world!

Ok, on to some interesting, fun things.  So we were tracting through a neighborhood, and some guy invited us in to talk with him.  We offered service, but got nothing.  He went on to tell us how we were all going to hell, and called me the devil (and all kinds of other terrible things), and swore that if we came back in this area, he would send his posse after us.  So Elder Handy and I kind of walked away laughing, and then after an hour of tracting, we come back to the bikes, and there were 5 guys outside of his house, and they saw us, and we ducked into a laundromat.  We stayed in there for 5 minutes, and we walked out and they were all gone, looking for us.  Soooo, that was a little freaky, but we got out unscathed. 

On to the other fun part of my week.  

Last night, we stopped to give someone a blessing and were gone for about  20 minutes.  We were going to go with Elders Tuia and Hale, and as we got back to the car, we saw that our window was all busted.  My backpack was taken.  Mi mochila ya se fue con mis escrituras caras.  I was so bummed, my really nice Spanish scriptures were gone with all my notes, and all my notes and things I’d studied from the begining of the time here in Texas. So that stunk.  Lesson learned.  My new hope is that the guy that stole my things finds Jesus, and gets baptized because he’s so inspired by my notes.  

The police rolled up and asked us if we knew how dangerous this area is. We said no, and they said that it is the 2nd most dangerous area in the greater Houston area.  So woohoo, lets go!!  I don’t think we will be avoiding the area anytime soon because that is where all the people live that we teach.  

Here are some of the Spanish missionaries at a Thanksgiving party.

How about a 24 hour Jesus hotline on your front door??  Ha!

I love you all so much, just want to challenge you all to use the enabling power of Jesus. He will strengthen us, if we ask.  He will pull us through difficult times.  

I love you all, have a great week!!

Brett

Elder Hansen

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net

Painting the house black and gold!!

Holaaaa Familiaaaa y Amigos,

How are you all doing this week.  Soooo, last week I got an AMAZING video from my best bud and also brother and HE IS NOW A COMMITTED VANDY BOY!!!  I am so pumped to hear that and to have the blessing to hear the house is being painted black and gold.  ANCHOR DOWN!

Also thank you all so much again for all the emails and videos this last week!! I am so grateful for all of you and the love that I have felt on my mission!!  You all are the best!

Our week started with a happy birthday to this cool guy named Michael. 

This week was a pretty interesting one! The first part wasn’t so great because I got sick.  I lost my voice for 3 days, and I couldn't really talk very well.  Riding a bike every day in the freezing cold weather isn’t so great for a bad cold. So that part was sad. However we saw a lot of blessings!

 We had 6 PEOPLE AT CHURCH!! That was such a blessing! Also, Patricia and Estefany came back from Panama, and they loved their trip, and were right back at church.  They are such amazing people!! 

The guy in the middle of this picture is named Kiko.  He’s awesome and we love him!  He is always willing to serve with us when we have assignments to go work. He has an amazing story to tell.  I’ll give you the quick version.   He was in a gang for a long, long time, met the missionaries and decided to change his life around.  Now he is an incredibly generous, selfless person that I’m fortunate to call my friend.  

To give you an idea of what part of town we live in, here’s a view of our mailboxes.  haha

And I can’t send an email and not mention something about food.  Mod’s pizza is so good. 

Just a few hours ago, we went to go give a blessing to Hermana Yolanda Rivera, this really sweet older lady in our ward.  She is heading to Mexico tomorrow and is coming back soon after but was incredibly sick.  Like could barely talk. Then we went and gave her a blessing, and it was amazing, it seemed like a few minutes after, she popped up, started walking, and her energy returned.  The power of the priesthood is so real!!  I love the power of the priesthood, and the blessing that we have to have the power of God on earth.  

I love you all, and hope you have a great week!! Thanks for being amazing!!

Brett

Elder Hansen

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net

https://elderbrettmhansen.blogspot.com

19, Referrals and BLESSINGS!!

Buenaaaaas diaaaaas!! Como estamos hoy familia y amigos!!

I am in total shock.  I loved all of the birthday videos and messages.  Thank you so much. I still can’t believe it all. It was the coolest surprise. I feel so blessed to have the best friends, amazing support and the greatest family ever.  I never realized how many people outside of the family actually cared.  I felt so much love and teared up over and over as each video came through.  Thank you for the time you took to make and send them.  I am so grateful for the huge influence you all have been in my life.  I really do appreciate and care for each one of you.  And thanks, Mom, for putting it all together.  I feel so incredibly blessed. 

I do have to say that the greatest gift I received today was a video from Ben telling me that he committed to Vanderbilt.  I am so excited it's crazy!  When I saw his video telling me about it,  I lost it.  I dropped the phone, ran out of the room and was screaming and then cried.  Best gift.  I’m so happy for Ben. 

This week was a pretty great week.  It felt like the work was slow, but we still had a ton of success.  I feel like we are naturally just so blessed, sometimes I feel like every door we knock should open up and let us in, but that didn't happen this week, BUT we had a huge blessing in receiving a lot of help.  We had received a lot of referrals and have had the chance to teach amazing people like Karla, who’s step-mother was a member, but passed away.  We have been teaching her and it has been awesome.  Just last Thursday we extended a baptismal date, and SHE ACCEPTED!! Super excited!!

I like this truck!  This is the goal one day . . .   hahah

Flooded again!!

We also went to go teach Marisol, who was a referral from Hermana Susana! Hna Susana is being a killer missionary right now, and Marisol, who is single and living with her daughter and her husband, immediately accepted a baptismal date as well.  That was amazing too!

We went out for sushi for my birthday.  Thanks, Dad!

I had to take this picture.  The guy behind me totally reminded me of Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. haha

This is Daisy, making pupusas to sell.  

Here we are at dinner with the familia Arellano.

We are doing well as a district, we are kind of carrying our zone which is awesome.  We are all like best friends, and it is a super fun district with lots of success so far!  We are just trying to keep it going.  Blessing beyond belief!!

Spiritual thought: 3 Nefi 15:9.  Read this.  It tells us to look to the light, to endure, and to live.  Christ is the light and life of the world.  Look to him, endure as a disciple of Christ, and LIVE.  THis is the best way to live!! The peace you feel in your life, the comfort that is always there, it is so there, it is almost palpable. Love the Lord, and follow him.  Do as he did!

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!  HAVE A GREAT WEEK! LOOK AND LIVE!!

Elder Hansen/Brett

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net

https://elderbrettmhansen.blogspot.com