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)
Me and Elder Hansen
A bit cramped fro space at the MTC we have to fit 5 Elders in a bed.
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.
Elders Hansen, Dudley, and Hansen.
The cafeteria food has not been treating me well.
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.
***
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment