Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas my favorite family and friends!

This email will be my last before Christmas.  My next day off will be Christmas day! On Tuesday, I will have the chance to talk to my family and I am super excited! We have been invited to homes for dinner on the 23rd, 24th and 25th.  How great is that?

This week was way cool!! Sounds like everyone is getting set and ready for Christmas! I am so excited to hear how y'all are doing!  This picture is for Mom.  Still got my Santa picture this year!

This week was full of blessings. I'll start with the first one. ESTEFANY WAS BAPTIZED!! Oh my gosh I was so excited. She showed up super early because she was so excited. Wilson baptized her, and I got to confirm her in church the next day. She is from Ecuador. Exactly a year ago from her baptismal date, her husband got shot in Ecuador. That day her life changed in a horrible way. She then moved to the States, got to know Wilson, and eventually the church. She decided she wanted to get baptized on Friday. The reason she specifically wanted to be baptized on that day is because on Dec 14 her life changed for the worst. However, she wanted to change that day to be one of her best. She came up out of the water crying. She is an amazing example for all of us. 

One thing that happened that y'all could think of as funny, but I thought was kind of messed up.  So we got a call from a lady to say that she needed help putting up lights.  So we show up, and there is this kind of crazy Colombian lady that dressed like she was 20 but was actually like in her 60s that kept calling us "papi" and "amores" and turned out she actually needed us to move ALL OF HER STUFF. No clue how she got all the stuff in there.  Then at the end she tried to give me a kiss.  Evaded that one pretty nicely, not going to lie. haha.  

Here’s how they are “Lighting the World” in South Houston! 

My new Christmas slippers.  What do ya think?

We went to the Rockets Center last week.  It was so cool. 

Just remember the reason for the season!! READ ABOUT JESUS'S BIRTH!! I am so excited for this amazing city, and am so excited to have a chance to talk to you all so soon!!

Have an incredible week!!

Brett

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt. #217

Houston, TX  77063

Ankles, Gangs and CARS!

Buenas tardes familia y amigos! 

Sounds like everyone is getting ready to go for Christmas! I am super excited to get some emails (and Christmas cards - address is below)  from y'all.  😉  Thank you so much for the emails for this week. I heard that the Christmas Choir was on Sunday! What a huge blessing! I loved participating in that back home. Even though I will never be musically blessed, the Spirit has always been so strong in that program. Hope you all loved it! Also, I forgot to give a HUGE shoutout last week to CHOKA!!! His birthday was last week, and I totally spaced it.  HAPPY late BIRTHDAY!!!

Christmas is getting popping around here in Houston. The Hispanics LOVE lights, which makes it easy to choose what door to knock at night. It is awesome, they are all decked out and we are too!  The tree is up! ( Thanks, Mom! )  We have 5 invitations to dinner on Christmas Eve so far!  The people here are so kind. 

We have had a few pretty cool experiences this week. Lots of blessings, and let me tell you, the king of all tender mercies for me.

So a month ago we ran into a man, his name was Carlos.  He was just divorced and moved to Houston, and wanted to ask where the nearest church is.  We lost all contact for a month until last Tuesday. This guy told us that he needed to meet with us, so we set an appointment. He then told us to pray for him because he was sleeping in his car with only 10 dollars. At that moment we became a little nervous, because we thought that he was going to try to come back just for money. But then we had a lesson and taught about repentance and Jesus Christ, and he started crying so hard. Just saying that he wanted to change his life. So, he decided to come to church, and not only church, but a baptismal service we had after. He was awesome, and told us if we needed anything, call him, ride, food, anything. It was awesome! Taught me a great lesson about judging someone and their situation without knowing. Just a great blessing. 

We also had a huge blessing on meeting with Elder Handy's 2nd cousin again. He said that he wants to change so much.  It was just so cool to see his desires to come unto Christ.  It is an incredible family that he has, it is just such a beautiful sight to see.  That was something so amazing!!

Ok, on to some other things.  So Elder Handy twisted his ankle bad playing soccer.  It was the size of a baseball.  So, we called Sister Anderson, the mission nurse, and she said that we needed a car, soooo for a little while, WE HAVE A CAR!!!  I am super pumped. 

Here I am “Lighting the Companionship” by getting some ice for Handy’s ankle.

Also, I can now say that there is a gang here in Houston.  We saw some gang affiliated spray paint, so apparently MS13 is here in Houston.  So that was interesting haha. 

Sadly the baseball camp at Minute Maid Park got rained out, so we did not do it, so we had to reschedule January.   The rain doesn’t stop us though.  Rain or shine, day or night, we are out!

Hope everything is going well!!  Just keep remembering to read your scriptures, say your prayers, and go to church.  Jesus is the reason for the season.  He loves us all so much, please share his light.  

Hope you all have a great week!! 

Brett

Elder Hansen

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net

Presidents, Transfers and RAIDS!

Buenas tardes familia y amigos! 

Los quiero a todos!! Ojalá que tuvieran una semana maravillosa! Que divertido que nos estamos preparando para la Navidad. Sé que ahorita es el tiempo para iluminar el mundo, y espero que tomemos tiempo de prestar servicio especialmente en este momento para que podamos sentir la luz de Cristo más brillante. Durante este tiempo, quisiera invitarles a buscar oportunidades para servir como El servió. Estoy bien animado por esta Navidad!! 

(I love you all!  I hope that you’ve had an incredible week! It’s so great that we are getting ready for Christmas.  I know that right now is the time to Light the World and I hope that we have time to lend service especially at this time when we can feel the Lord’s light so brightly. During this time I invite you all to look for opportunities to serve, like He served. I’m really excited for this Christmas!)

Sounds like it was an AWESOME week. I forgot to give a shout out to my main man Luke Berryhill last week for turning 8, and getting ready to be baptized!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!! Sounds like things are starting to pick up and get going for Christmas!!! So excited to hear all that awesome stuff that usually goes on at Christmas time. I have zero doubt that my mom has all the Christmas lights up and everything is decorated, SIN NINGUNA DUDA!! I'm sure it looks so awesome! Also hearing that Benny is taking the ACT, oh boy those things are super fun...

Houston here is heating up, in more ways than one. First off, today is transfer day, and I am, once again, staying here! This will be my 4th transfer here, making it tied for a record of the longest stay in a bike area. Setting records here!!! I get to stay here with Elder Handy one more transfer, and we are pumped because we have some great things on the horizon. President called us individually and set us to a super high standard with respect to the mission goals already this transfer. He said that he expected to bring in 50 new contacts this transfer. Challenge.. Accepted. Bring it on!  

Here we are heading to lunch.

Things are also heating up literally speaking. Like this last week got up to 70...and was raining...in December. Houston weather is crazy haha. Here is a picture of the beautiful Houston Skyline.  I LOVE the hills and mountains here.  😂🤔 But for real, this is where we work.

So apparently we heard we walked by these apartments right after it was raided for drugs. The doors were wrecked. 

Also this last week apparently President Bush Sr. passed away, and they are burying him here in Houston. Actually, right across the street from our church building. haha. So the place has been decked out with cops and secret service EVERYWHERE. Especially today, more than any other day. We heard somewhere that President Trump and President Obama are here, and I would assume President Bush Jr. as well. So yeah, that's pretty crazy.

This last week for us was pretty awesome, and pretty sad at the same time. Sad because we had to say good y to Elder Tuia. He is heading back home to Stockton and Samoa. He actually knew Stone Godi in the MTC, he was his Zone Leader, so that was cool. But he has officially ended his mission. Bummer to see him go, but he was awesome! 

We found 5 this week, which was pretty awesome. The coolest part isn't that we found 5, but how they were found. We received a referral one day to go visit this lady named Meylin, but sure enough she wasn't there, but then I got the strongest prompting to knock the neighbors door. As soon as we did, this cool lady named Yuraima from Cuba let us right in, we taught her! Then the next night, we were walking around one night at 8 o'clock, feeling a little bummed because all our lessons fell through. As we came up on this apartment with lights, I got this thought to go knock. I said to myself, "Na it's late, no one opens this late, we'd just annoy them and if anything they'd NEVER want us back". I took two steps past the house and had the thought return to my mind "GO BACK". So I did, we knock, they let us in, and thus began an awesome lesson with the Perez family! The spirit is so real, and I am so grateful to have him as my companion. We are always in a trio with him!

This past Sunday was awesome as well. We had 5 investigators there. Usually we can pull out 2 or 3, but yesterday we had 5! One lady named Marisol from Mexico,  FINALLY CAME after teaching her for a month!! We were so excited! Like amazingly excited. Another awesome lady named Carol from Guatemala got her work schedule switched so she can come to church! Miguel, someone who we have had at FHE's for some time, decided to come, he has 3 awesome daughters all in middle school and high school. And finally, Patricia and Estefany who have their baptismal dates were there as well! It was so great!

The real Superman! 

President said we need to start figuring out a time to call on Christmas! We can do a video call so that'll be awesome! He said to do it in the morning. He switched our P-day to Christmas day, sooo there's a lot more flexibility! I'm super pumped to talk to you all!

Spiritual thought: The Holy Ghost will show us the way, he will lead and guide us, IF WE ARE LOOKING. (see Galatians 5:22-25)  I am so grateful for that gift and know that without it, I would be lost. But, if you can't tell if it's the Spirit or your own thoughts, Elder Rasband told us that 9 out of 10 times if it is influencing you for good, then it is of the Spirit, and God is trying to help you out and grow.

I love you very much and you are always in my prayers! I hope that you have an incredible week filled with the spirit of Christmas!

Brett

Elder Hansen

Elder Hansen

8585 Woodway Drive  Apt #217

Houston, TX 77063

brett.hansen@myldsmail.net