September 2018 - Letters from Patrick

9/5/2018

hahahha I shared all these with my companion and he enjoyed them, and sounds good! Yes 4x6 work perfectly! I'm getting so ready to leave soon, thank you for helping take good care of me!!


***

The cultural differences sound like they could be pretty funny, I would have bust out laughing, I could not do that. Glad to hear that no one got killed by shrapnel. This is why we wear eye protection.  i didn't understand the music part but that's okay. Glad you see you all are killings things. And I will add those onto my list.


***

Well well well ladies and gentlemen, things are getting exciting for your old Elder Hansen down at the MTC here in sunny Provo Utah. To those of you that are new to this weekly newsletter, I do sell t-shirts to my fans so let me know if you're interested.

1st My mission President e-mailed me this week, we are leaving in just under two weeks so we're starting to talk with him over e-mail to get to know him! 

2nd my stake president spoke at our Sunday devotional and I also happened to be singing at that devotional. it was pretty neato, I was right next to him the whole time.

3rd we had a general authority speak last night, and wow it was riveting!

So into this week, Friday night all the missionaries on our floor heading to the Phillipines, who are now gone, I'll miss you Elder's Fa'aloto and Elder Money. Came into our bathroom, like all 30 of them, and me being the big boy I am, age not size thank you, got to go and ask them why they were in our bathroom not theirs. turns out they had all been shaking sodas for like 30 minutes and they all popped them with their room keys and chugged it. It was funny and left our bathroom a huge mess. So they left and the bathroom was messy so I went and asked for one pair of missionaries to come and clean it up, they came and mopped then wiped the whole bathroom. I had my glasses on and my shirt tucked in out of habit and got a lot of dad jokes because apparently I look like a soccer dad, but it's fine. I also found one of my best friends Laura Wilde here!! Other news, we had two Elders in our district make the 10 commandments on cardboard then use them in a lesson. 10/10 I also made friends with one of the cats here at the MTC and now it follows me around whenever it finds me which is neat. Companion unlocked, so I guess now that's a trio. In addition, we had an Elder drink 7 little containers of milk this week then he threw it up, pictures will be included. Spiritual stuff, this week has been awesome, I know that through me the Lord will do awesome things in Ukraine if I let him. I know that nothing has  made me happier than this gospel and that it's a reason for me to be happy everyday. And I learned maybe the most important lesson of all this week, that only through Jesus Christ can we truly be saved and be happy forever.

That's all for this week, I love you all and I hope it's awesome for you!! Also if you do not want to see throwing up, do not look at the last picture.

 

It is the worst quality I have ever seen but it's my new tags. Spelled correctly!

 

Sister Wilde and I! Both very tired and walking back to our dorms when we crossed each others paths.

 

Elder Peterson and Clark sharing the commandments, not a great action pic but it was funny to watch.

 

There are the commandments!

This is the one, proceed at your own peril

The next one may be a bit graphic for our younger viewers

Like seriously, make sure, I am trying my best to protect you.

 

A whole lot of milk.

***

Thanks dad, I was sitting next to hear when she made the call, I will have to pay $25. And I'm just kinda bummed out, I always hate going to the doctor with medical problems I dunno why, but it just started and got too painful for me on a regular basis so I decidd I will, they are gonna put me on meds, I hope something actually goes well, and that I'm not psyching myself out by just being weak with pain. It might be the sitting we do all day.


***

I will, thank you dad, I love you. I've told so many mission stories about you. And you have done a lot to prepare me to be a good missionary and to be a good person. You are absolutely the dad I have needed and you have raised me to be a better person than I could imagine.


9/12/2018

Hey Dad! 

I leave for Ukraine next Monday! So only 4 days!! I definitely agree with the associates first, and I would definitely consider LDS Business college, how much does that cost? Let me know how Locke does on the ACT. Also, I forgot to mention this, but I met a guy here who was a Commander for Marine Recon. He says he might have the hook ups to get me into MARSOC. So that might be a possibility. I might just major in Russian and try to get into medical school or law school. But I also have a friend here who is a business man from Sweden, he says I'd be way good at managerial consulting, it's essentially finding answers to business problems and it apparently it pays pretty well so that could be useful to major in, I'm still not quite sure what I want to do with myself outside of military and religion so I'm figuring that out. If you have any fatherly advice on that it would be appreciated! Also I will not be able to e-mail until the 25th because of when my P-Day lines up, it's Monday.  SO I love you and I'll see you then! Also this is a note for after I wrote this. thank you for the wonderful pictures and music I enjoy them so much. Also as a son who is on a mission let me tell you one thing that has been on my mind, make sure as a family we are studying the scriptures everyday, not just saying a family prayer, but we need to study the scriptures as a family everyday, I promise that the harder everyone back home works to do this the more the Lord will bless all of us. So please do that, the world is no longer a place we can live in without scripture study every single day.

***

Song in the subject is provided by John Denver, the jet, or jets in this case, are provided by the church.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury I present to you this wonderful feat, the next time I send y'all an e-mail I will be in the COUNTRY OF UKRAINE. I leave Monday morning so if that isn't worth a hoot and a holler I dunno what is.

Well last night we had Elder Gay President of the 70 speak and he said some awesome stuff. I am motivated to get out and go! One of the things that was emphasized was that since i am out here, God is willing to bless those who support me, so I ask that all of you try to notice blessings that are occurring in your life, if you look I promise you they will be there no matter who you are. An awesome thing this week is we had our last practice of TRC which is where we speak Russian to people who are not our teachers. We taught a woman named Dasha from Saint Petersburg! This was our second time teaching her and wow she is awesome. We talked about how no matter when we read the Book of Mormon it can always teach us something, and she had some awesome insight that one of the reasons why is as we are continually becoming better, maybe different for those of us that are not improving no shame I just want to include ;), that God is willing to reveal different things to us. She is pretty awesome.

Also in other news I feel super confident in Russian and I feel like I am able to accurately express myself at least part time which is super cool! Now I just gotta work on the slav squats and I'll be good. No pictures this week, I've just been so excited to go.

Also on a side note, I fly out on a Monday, and when i get to Ukraine my P-Day is changed to Monday so I might not send anything till about the 24th is my math is right. Or maybe the 23rd for all of you in America

Anyways I love you all!! 

***

Our last soccer Saturday. I am directly under the ball!

Our district, going to Dnepropetrovsk and Rostov Russia.

Action Shot

9/13/2018

 just sent you flight plans but they changed mine this morning so here is the ~new~ schedule!

I now leave the MTC at 2:30 AM 

My flight leaves SLC at 6:00 AM

I land in O'Hare @ 10:09 AM

I depart O'Hare @ 4:20 PM

I land in Vienna @ 8:45 AM

I depart Vienna @ 10:25 AM

I land in Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine @ 1:40 PM

This is my new flight schedule! All of this is in local time, but I have quite a bit of travel time.

Wish me luck I love you!

9/18/2018 

Hey I am in Ukraine, feel free to spread the news! I arrived safely. My companion is Elder Decker and he is amazing! He is loving and kind and he really cares about the people here. I've already done some street contacting and seen some poverty and been rejected quite a few times but that's what this is about! My first area is Kharkiv I believe which puts me right on the border of Russia! I love you! I'll talk more monday

9/24/2018

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am in Ukraine!

That's all this week.

The following is just going to be excerpts from the collection of Dostoevsky. 

I kid but that would be awesome.

So if you have not guessed my first district is the wonderful city of Харьков! That would be Kharkov for those of us who don't know how to read only consenants.

Let me tell you it was awesome trip over here on our ride over i got to help a buddhist monk find his gate, his name is Tenton and he's from Nepal, he's pretty rad and was very grateful! We flew Austrian Airlines here and wow they feed you and junk? Like actual good meals, it was a shock.

Well we landed in Dnipro, wonderful city, lots of stray dogs and cats and drunk people asking me for the directions to the metro then high fiving me. I talked to some teens there about where the best places to visit in it are and of one them asked me where I'm from so I said America because you know I stand out pretty easy in a suit, and she said it was pretty obvious by my speech that I wasn't from thre so that was a blast. Anyways, President Wirthlin is a G and I love him. I met my companion!

My man Elder Decker here is already one of my best friends! He's been super encouraging, helping me do my job here as a missionary, helping me teach, helping me contact, which is not easy here in Ukraine, everyone is suspicious of us and thigns we are here to mess with them so that's fun. However we have quite a few people in our English class who are happy to help me practice Russian and show me whats good. 

My apartment has a pretty good view, at first i was a little cultural shocked by it but it feels like home now. Same with the food, and |I think I'm on the time schedule, last night was the first night I slept normally since the MTC which is 10/10 I would reccommend that everyone try it.

So the people here stare at us a lot and get really scared/upset when you try conversation with them so you sort of have to feel out which people look like they want to talk, so I've been getting better at that. it's always safe to hand out practice cards! You just say take and they grab it, once or twice I've gotten "thank you" so pretty neato. I went to trade with a newspaper worker and she asked me about my church because of the nametag! So we started talking to here and her name was Lana, she is a Ukrianian patriot who thinks we should speak Ukrianian. Sounds like something my MTC teachers would say shout out to you three that are on this list because wow I can actually communicate with people here! She believes in Odin and had a black sun necklace which is pretty neat, I know it's one of there symbols but I don't remember what it's called. But she was pretty friendly, she might come to English practice, right now she isn't interested in the church but she was one of the few people who talked to us, but work is being done! 

We had our first Sunday yesterday and my ward is amazing!! They are so kind and fun, and WE HAVE A NURSERY AND A PRIMARY! We have two kids who are Dasha and David that are just a small part of it but they are so funny and expressive! In second hour I was in Doctrinal discussion and was actually able to participate and give my thoughts, the topic was Eternal Families which was awesome. After ward council I said to E. Decker that I was hungry and a brother named B. Timchenko made me a huge bowl of instant mashed potatoes and gave me a ton of bread and potatoes and wow the people here are so genuine and kind and I love them!!!

Also sidenote, the national language of Ukraine is Ukrainian and all of the signs are in Ukrainian and all the writing so I can read the letters, had to learn the alphabet but there's only like two different letters so it's chill, but I have no idea what a lot of things mean.

Anyways public transport here is wow 10/10, I've seen thigns that would be unacceptable in the US that are encouraged here in Ukraine. Crazy place, I love it. Anyways, this week were finally able to plan some lessons. We so far have only taught Ashkan who is from Iran, he wants to make sure he can keep all the commandments before he gets baptized so that's awesome! 

Anyways, I love you all and think about you often!

--

Elder Patrick Henry Brett Hansen 
I\ll get this address потом.

***

orgot to include pictures and some details.

1st I was on a bus and was told by one old bahbooshka that I was very handsome and all the Sisters in our travel group that they should be happy to be travelling with me, to which the babooshka and in front of here turned around me look me up and down then replied, "nah he's hot!"  So it's confirmed by the mouths of two wtiness so now no one can tell me that I'm not.

2nd On a less funny note but a very happy note, my district leader Elder Woodin is a marine! So it's awesome to have someone that I can relate to and talk to! 

Also here are some pics

***

Hey dad

I appreciate the e-mail. Ukraine was rough the first day adn a half, I went contacting in my first few hours there and people really don't want to talk. We also can't knock on doors because they are locked apartments and it's also super illegal. But we can talk about our church and teach, most people don't smile at us and it's not all the time people want to talk but we haev a method of things to try adn we have work to do, so as long as I'm working for the Lord I'm okay with whatever success comes my way. My companion is from Boston so he's awesome. Elder Decker has the same sens of humor as me and I get along with me so much better than my MTC companion. I got used to the jetlag finally, and I like contacting now, it's kinda like gambling, is the person going to open up to you or shut you down, so I made it a game and now it's just fun! I'm getting russian pretty well and I am exciting to go out and try my luck!  i have felt the Holy Ghost in some pretty awesome ways and I act almost instinctly on it which is awesome!

August 2018 - Letters from Patrick

8/1/2018

First, if you don't know the song 5 Feet High and Rising by Johnny Cash you're wrong, and should go turn it on to listen to.

As for this weeks good grief Charlie Brown I feel like it has simultaneously been both the shortest week of my life and too long to remember! Fortunately I have a journal and even better, I write in it! I will have the spiritual stuff separate from the notable events because I don't want the spirit killed by the events of about 3,000 teenagers at the MTC. So with that in mind, nothing really happened Thursday night until Elder Croxall and Elder Bagley starting brushing their teeth. my companion remember this one kid gargled his water in a way that made it sound like he was throwing up. So obviously an 18 year old fresh out of high school wants to try that, Elder Croxall though that was hilarious so he goes to try and doesn't quite have it down. He starts laughing and immediately throws up all the contents of his dinner into the sink. It was so loud that I heard it fro my room. The next night everyone thought it was funny and we were joking about him when my companion calls out his best friend who is in our district and says that he can vomit on command, so mind conversation he just lets it go. Out of pure shock I ran out of the bathroom and laughed the hardest I ever have in my life. Was it out of fear? I believe so. No one man should have all that power. Continuing the week I met two sisters who are going to Mongolia and they thought it was cool that my dad went there and opened it. They also thought it was cool that I have 4 names but that's because it is cool so make sense. We also had an Elder who was doing pulls ups from his feet trying o get a cool picture. As the picture was taken, he fall straight onto the top of his head which was by far one of the funniest things I have seen a picture of. I'll see if I can grab the photo from the elder who took it. And that should wrap it up as far as events. On Saturday night I started feeling sick and on Sunday morning I had strep. It was awful and I was just absolutely congested. However the Branch President felt impressed to give me a blessing and sent me back to my room in order to sleep. Two miracles happened there. First I was actually able to sleep all day, from 10 till dinner. From dinner till 2100 (9:00) then from there till the next morning. So hopefully that ques you into how sick I was. Second by the time I woke up at 9 I was healed from the strep. My throat didn't hurt anymore and I made a full recovery. When I was getting the blessing from my District Leader. Elder Clark. The spirit was so strong in that room it felt like a furnace. A really awesome quote this week was from Sister Slight our Russian teacher. She told us that "Life doesn't get any easier." It's short sweet and it get s to the point. It helps remind me there you shouldn't start complaining because if you do you'll never stop. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this e-mail, fell free to e-mail me or send me pictures or ask me questions. If you feel like donating to the Elder Hansen food drive that is at the bottom of the page! ( my mailing address)

 20180725_170839.jpg

I found Sister Griffin! One of my very good friends from high school!

 

Me and Elder Hansen

 

Elder Croxall interpreting all the drawings of him. I drew the Gorilla which he said was the best.

 

A bit cramped fro space at the MTC we have to fit 5 Elders in a bed.

 

Most of the guys on our floor, I thought I had to bend my knees, turns out it just turned me into a 4'11" dwarf.

 

MTC has been rough for Elder Croxall :/ 

8/1/2018

Hey Dad! I always love to get you emails!  I laughed pretty had at the meme! I also want you to relay a message to Julie. I finally found out who had left the cards inside all of my belonging and where they came from. This last Saturday I finally found the last card. Signed by Julie. It did bring me to tears even though marines don't cry. Please tell her thank you and that it seriously brightened my day every time I found a new one and the she is a wonderful mom and I love her very much.

My favorite lesson this week was about finding people through our efforts who are willing to learn the gospel. The part that stuck with me the most was that the Lord has prepared specific people for me to go and to preach the gospel to. There are peole that are out there that I have not met yet who are ready to meet me and who are ready to discover Christ. To come closer to him and to feel his love. That's something that I am grateful for this week! 

8/8/2018

Well 3 weeks in the MTC done, 6 more to go, I feel like I had P-Day yesterday so at least this week went by super fast. I've having trouble thinking of any funny shenanigans that occured. Big news though is that my companion and I are finally getting along! It started last Thursday when I took him out into the hall and just asked him to tell me everything that I was doing that upset him, and this is where  you thought I would tell you all my personal flaws. Hahaha the changes I have made from that conversation are pretty awesome, I've promised to try to be kinder to those around me and to work on saying jokes that build people up instead of tearing people down so I'm changing as a person. I've also started memorizing a scripture a day and it's neat because I have to actively search through my scriptures for a principle I want to memorize, and I've had some wonderful opportunities to use them! A couple of awesome principles I've learned has been 1) The Lord will not wait to bless you until you are living perfectly, if so none of us woud receive blessings. He blesses up according to what we have faith that he can do. I've been realizing that with Russian, it's been a little rougher for me, I feel like I understand a lot of Russian but I also feel like I don't speak it very well, so I'm trying to work on that. 2)Whenever I do something for me, and have any intent to be the one that benefits from the situation I will not be able to use the power of the spirit. 3) My personal favorite, Christ forces us to do as much as we can. He only does the things that are literally impossible for us, and I think that's awesome. It shows us how much we truly can do but also how much more the savior can do. this week I want to challenge you to do something hard. Look at yourself, see one thing you're doing that is selfish, and makes you think of yourself and do one thing each day to get rid of it. I promise that as you try to do this it will bless you and the people around you. And it will make you happier. Lose yourself in love and in work.

Fun little story I just remembered. Elder Saab, who I took a picture with in my first e-mail, can bench  about 330 pounds. He decided to prove this to us by picking up several of us, including me, one of the lightest missionaries here, with one arm so that was neat, being held like a child.

 

My bag was super cool until I realized several other people found the same sale I did...

 

Elder Miller posing for a modern art piece.

 

This picture by no means does justice to how pretty it is here but I absolutely love being able to look up the canyon every single morning. As my English friend Elder Saab said, "Nowhere in the world compares in natural beauty to the US, it truly is God's gift."

***

My password is ------ for the RCA laptop, and that dance looks way cool! I would love to go on a date there when I come back! And I got the second package today and just wanted to say thank you so much, it has been tremendously helpful in uplifting my spirit and helping show love to those around me. The time is flying fast however that makes me nervous to learn Russian in time. Do you have any advice that would help me either study, or learn, or feel better about where i'm at? I would really appreciate that.

8/15/2018:  4th week / Half* Way There

I think I could write a could a good title for Fall Out Boy.

Hello one and all, let me tell you from the start there are going to be two this week and this one will probably be a little more upbeat so if that's what you want here you go! 

Okay this week was kinda whack, they keep going by faster and faster and I don't know how that works. Sunday was awesome because Sacrament meeting was all in Russian and I understood everything! It felt way cool, granted they were missionaries and don't know a ton of Russian nor do they speak very fast. In my class on Monday two teachers sat in the last 5 minutes and after words they told I had really really goo Russian so that was a blessing for me and helped me see how far I've come so another blessing. Elder Croxall's birthday was yesterday and we celebrated by waking up singing Happy Birthday and giving him a hot pocket and an Ice Cream Sandwich in the morning. We got him food later in the day. We had an all Russian day Saturday and it was pretty neat to have everyone speaking Russian all day, helped a lot of people be more confident which is awesome. We had President Kearon of the 70 speak to us last night and he's such a good speaker. He talked to us about how excited and happy we should be to invite people to baptism, he compared it to gifting somebody a Rolls Royce just so we could imagine how happy we should be when talking about the gospel which made me so excited! Also this week on Saturday is our halfway point at the MTC which is m=nice because time is going by so fast. I realized I'll be turning 20 in a year and that's not okay because that's an adult age. I unfortunately did not snack any cool pictures, there are only so many things at the MTC that are picture worthy but we did have an incident where our zone at 68 bananas at one lunch and we came out and got talk to by the lunch stuff because that could "send us home." Well it did not, and we have a picture of most of the bananas on one tray, we ate more after the picture. I'll see if I can acquire that one.

I hope you all have a great week, always fell free to email me, I love you all!

***

This last week one of my friends passed away. For those of you who knew her I want to start out by saying I'm sorry. Something that President Kearon said last night that really struck me is that your tears are counted in Heaven. I definitely think that's true. I wanted to really quick share my testimony with everyone. I know that Christ lives. I know he suffered for each and everyone of us personally. He knows and wants each of us to take advantage of the fact that he suffered all pain, all sufferings, death and then was resurrected to overcome all of that. I know that life on Earth is not the last stop and we can see those we love again. I know that because of Christ we can conquer over death.

Please reach out to each other and take care of one another. If you know someone is hurting, no matter what reason, reach out and love them, I know from personal experience from others who have taken care of me that it makes a world of difference. when you take care of others and love them you will find that it makes you feel better too. I love you all and pray for you. 

***

hey dad, it's good to hear that you still need my help to navigate. Youth Conference sounded awesome and i would have loved to have been there. I also want you to know that I very much appreciate the weird news, my friends love it and it helps us from going insane to know the world is still world. That sucks that Sammy couldn't make it, I really don't like it when people are irresponsible. This has been a weird week and I miss you guys a ton as a family and am realizing I really wish i had spend more time with everyone, I now I'm not dead but i just love all you guys very much.

***

Yeah, I found out Friday night and it was rough. She was a good friend of mine. She was in Locke's grade and I went to school with her. She had been really nice to me a lot.

***

On another note, my debit card has ceased to work, which is weird because I need it to get some study materials, I also will be unable to get souveniers for the family, I have one in mind for you and mom that I don't want to spoil and I cna not use mission money for that. It's not super important but I am unable to buy books and stuff.

***

I sent this e-mail to confirm that the expenses made on my card on the 1st of August and anytime after July 18th were not mine. 

8/22/2018

Well Ladies and gentlemen we have reached two very important dates in one week, first your boy is now 19 and had a wonderful birthday in the MTC, 2nd I reached my half way mark on the 18th!

So I'll be completely honest my birthday here in the MTC has probably been my best one, I had so much love from so many people. I had a lot of Elders and Sisters in my District wish me Happy Birthday and write me notes/birthday cards which was really awesome. I also got so many packages from so many of you tha t now I basically don't have to go to Lunch, I can just live out the MTC with the food you all have sent. And the end of the day I was trying to find some spoons to eat a cake and the who le l Zone of Elders was sitting in the foyer and sang happy birthday and the Phillipino missionaries i know also came out and joined in so it was really awesome and nice. also my camera died and I am now on the search for batteries, however i did snag a few pictures.

As far as my spiritual progression, we had an apostle come and speak to us last night which was way amazing! It was Elder Christofferson and he spoke to us about the proper us of the name for the Church, which we had no idea was a thing that was going on. I just want to tell all of you that I know that each of these men are called by the Son the represent his church. I support and I uphold these men until the day I die because I know they have a personal relationship with the son.

 

Elder Croxall got sniped by two separate nerf guns, poor guy.

 

I think this was Sunday, I really don't remember. Wait yes it was.

 

We were blessed in that on my birthday we had a few extra hours before bed to relax and study in our own personal ways.

 

Elders Hansen, Dudley, and Hansen.

 

The cafeteria food has not been treating me well.

***

Hey dad thank you so much! It's awesome to hear tings are going well! Sorry Lexus and Char are fighting. I did and we have a video of me giving the weather forecast in the rain but i'm not sure if I'm allowed to send it, if you think I should, I did meaning i saw the lightning storm.

***

Also thank yo earlier for you e-mail of encouragement, I believe in and am excited to do the Lord's work, my patriarchal blessing talks about how many marvelous things will be able to happen on my mission according to my faith so I'm excited to out and work and love. Thank you for being my dad

8/29/2018

When September 1st hits us yo should all listen to Wake Me Up When September Ends.

Let me tell all of you, i am itching to leave the MTC. It's a little comforting knowing that in 3 weeks i will actually be in Ukraine so that's super neat but for the mean time i'll be here. Playing 4 square, getting a whole lot of nerds out. Fun note about Russian is there is no translation for nerd, so that's going to be a little sad. As far as funny news my district got their Russian name tags last week and in between now and then the rest of the people name tags as well. I say they because when I got mine last Wednesday night Then decided to spell my last name as Hanmen not Hansen. So I that's neat. I thought I would have left all the misspelling of my name back in New Hampshire but I guess not hahaha.  One of the cools things that happened this week is I ran into a Sister from Russia yesterday and spoke to here as best as I could, and she said my Russian was very good! It's exciting for me, I can;t wait to go and speak Russian every day. it is genuinely a beautiful language! We had an awesome devotional and one of the thoughts that I had was regarding something President Nelson said about 2 months ago. It was that the most marvelous thing happening on the Earth is the gathering together of the Church. And that if you want you can be a part of it. What I took away from this was that even if I am here as a missionary, that doesn't mean I am being a part of it. Unless I choose every single day to work my hardest and give everything I can every single day, then i will not be part of a marvelous work. So I'm going to work my hardest to give everything i have, and not let a single moment pass me by. This week has been fantastic for me regarding spiritual experiences. I had my testimony really really strengthened that our Savior lives. I know he does. I know he watches over us and that he blesses up for being faithful and for doing good things, even if we don't notice for years. He has done it for me, and I promise he will do it for you if you want him to.

Da Svedaneeya! I don't feel like typing it out in Cyrillic so there's that. If you want anything or want to chat and pick my brain feel free to email me! 

 

Here is a picture of Elder Saab, holding me with one arm. Took me a while but I got it. He is now is Russia!

 

Here are my misspelled tags! i should be able to get the right ones in a little bit!

***

Hey dad! 

i always love getting your emails and I look for them every Sunday, Grandma sounds like she loved the anniversary so awesome job there! The Corps menu thing started when i was in boot camp so I remember those very very well, always pick green otherwise you die. And good excuse to go the cabin, I would love to utilize that If I could, my friends appreciated the lavender meme so thank you. I have some goals set for Ukraine, i want to talk to 5 people before I can get to apartment on the first day. I've realized here in the MTC that the only way to find those that area ready for baptism and the gospel is to talk to everyone, so that's my goal!

***

I got some extra pictures, only two but i hope you like them :,) This was from our temple visit a week ago.

July 2018 - Mission Letters from Patrick

7/19/2018

Hey dad I am in the MTC! I do not have my list full of e-mails so I can only email a few people who's emails I remember my P-Day is Wednesday! tHE SPIRIT HERE IS AWESOME! Caps lock

7/25/2018 

Hello hello hello everybody! (Except Kody, Kody please stop reading this.)

Well I have completed my first week here at the MTC which is crazy because I don't feel like I've been here that long at all. To start I absolutely love it here! There is good food, good people, amazing spirit and powerful leaders. My companion is Elder Bagley (I have actually not used the English word for elder more than 5 times since I've been here) And the guys in my room and Elders Croxall and Hart all of whom are going to the same mission as me!. Everybody is really cool and fortunately I have placed with guys who are as serious to becoming the best missionaries they can be as I am. We've been learning Russian everyday which takes me right into my first spiritual thought I would like to share you. I had to teach an investigator on my second day in the MTC which I was crazy nervous about, but as I started to use what I had studied in my personal time and trusted the spirit I was able to convey to him a message about the Holy Ghost and love of God and he was able to understand it. So try that on for your second day in a language. Another thing that has been amazing is that if you know me you probably know that I have a hard time paying attention and focusing in classes. My brain literally won't let me sit and think without interrupting with a thought of it's own. However since I have gotten here I have had seemingly laser focus whenever I'm in the classroom which Elder hart pointed out to me yesterday. In his words "I can tell you have ADHD because whenever we are out of the classroom you go from subject to subject to subject but for whatever reason when we get in that room you are always on topic and either practicing or looking up words. It's like you have two personalities!" So there is proof that all things are possible through the Lord. I also had a wonderful experience of my testimony being grown while I was here. A couple nights ago I was doing my scripture study and I prayed to really know, not just have faith that it is true. As I proud I suddenly had the thought come to my mind that "Why would the Lord who you do have a testimony of bless you so greatly to bring about something that is not true"? At that I moment I know for a fact that this church is God's church. I knew for sure that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that his life and message is spread through it's entirety, and I know that as we study it DAILY (key word right there, you have to do it daily) and pray with at least the desire to believe (Alma 32:47 as well as in the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis) it will be made known unto you. Every one I just want to say that I encourage all of to know and study for yourself, the gospel has already blessed my life so much and I can only see that growing. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

On a different note I'll be able to email you all until about 6 PM today so feel free to email me back. Here are some pictures for you guys! Description is beneath is photo in the draft, I dunno if that will send that way.

 

My room and I on this Sunday.

 

A more formal group picture, my companion Elder Bagley is on my left then Elder Croxall on my right then far right is Elder Hart.

 

My whole district who are all good guys and gals. I especially love our European missionaries!

 

Elder Bagley and I at our favorite study spot.

 

The view from aforementioned study spot.

 

District F Back row: Me, Elder Clark from Sweden, Elder Peterson both are going to Russia, Elder Hart. First row Elder Bagley then Elder Croxal

 

Elder Saab from South London, looks exactly like Patton Oswald, he is one of the nicest guys I knew and made my entrance to the MTC a lot more enjoyable.

7/25/2018

I forgot to mention, please feel free to send pictures we had a workshop which told us that was okay! Also that I can read your emails any day of the week but that I will not respond until the Wednesday of every week which is my P-Day.

7/25/2018

Hey dad!

I on't know if you have gotten my emails but I'm sending this in faith that you do. I need some things sent to the MTC. I for sure need pictures of our family, preferably in album format because the people of Ukraine and Russia love that according to what I have learned. The rest are things if you have the time. Some CD's or other ways to listen to music of like Mumford and Sons, Lorenna Mckennet, Joseph and the Amazing Color Coat. And you could also give those to Brother henderson which he could give to you. I love you and hope to hear from you soon!

7/25/2018 

Yes! i just got it and opened it and I appreciate it very much! I will work on figuring out what I need to do to get those back today! And I just remembered, Khaki Slacks! I forgot to bring mine so if you see them please send them but don't worry too much about it!

7/25/2018 

So I sent this e-mail Bcc to everyone so I dunno if when I reply to something you sent it replies to all of you but if it does please let me so I don't send an email meant for one person to everyone. Please and thank you!

7/25/2018

Hey Dad,

My companion and room guys and whole district were pretty cool about me showing up a day late so that was cool! I saw Peterson Saturday when he finally came in, my marine buddy, and he and I talk almost everyday. And I'm pretty sure the Marines there were from my uni, just missed it! Also if you could somehow send me the soundtrack to Hunchback of Notre Dame I would love that! I love you and I am always proud to be your son, I've talked a lot about you while I've been here!