June 30, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 74

Dear Family,


     This week was another awesome week! The only thing is, Eliete and her family did not get baptized this week, unfortunately. But it is all good! I didn´t let it get me down because it was just a stupid thing. They decided that they wanted to go traveling randomly (which happens more than you think it would here in Brazil haha) and so they weren´t even here on the day that they should have been baptized. Don´t worry though! We will pass by there this week and mark a date with them, I´m guessing that it will be the twelfth. Vai dar certo!
     So Elder Bezerra and I went to Goiânia this week to have a meeting with the other zone leaders and President and the Assistants. It was really good and we learned a lot of stuff that we need to do to improve the results in the mission. Our zone had the most number of baptisms this month in the mission!!! In total, the zone ended with 20 baptisms. Which is good! But we know that we can do so much better.
     Okay, now for the miracle of my mission. Actually, it´s the miracle that´s about to happen on my mission haha. Freaking This Awesome Lady!!!! Oh my heck most elect person I´ve ever met in my entire life. I´ve never seen somebody so prepared to recieve the Gospel and somebody so willing to change her life. The first time we talked to her in the street, she was holding a cig in her hand and wasn´t super receptive, but she said that we could pass by another day. We passed by and she still wasn´t super receptive, but she said she would go to church and she went! She loved church so much and ever since then, she´s been progressing like crazy! She realized the blessing the church will be in her life and how the Gospel will affect her life. She smoked a box of cigarretes a day, and now she has completely stopped! She is so excited for her baptism on the 5th and she has invited everyone haha. The entire ward already knows who she is and everyone is so excited for her. Guys, the ward is going to the temple in Campinas on the 11th of July, and Tânia is going with them!!!!!!! We taught her about temples, and she wanted to go so bad, so Elder Bezerra and I are both going to pay 40 reais each so that she can go. So she´s gonna have her baptism on Saturday, and the Bishop will interview her that night to give her her temple recommend, and the day after she´ll be confirmed. She´ll have a huge lunch at her house after haha and on the 11th, she´ll be going to the temple. How freaking awesome is that??? I have never seen anybody so converted in my entire mission. She reads the Book of Mormon like crazy, and understands everything!! She bore her testimony at church on Sunday during the last class and everyone freaked out at how spiritual she is already. I´m so happy and excited for her and I can only thank our Savior for these blessings that he´s given to us. So happy with this :)
     We´ll also have another baptism on Saturday with Alisson, whose 18 years old. He´s awesome and he´s kind of awkward like me hahaha but he´s super excited for his baptism on Saturday as well. He lives with his brother and his sister-in-law. They agreed to go to the marriage agency to mark a marriage date! It should be like a month or two when they get baptized as well! Super cray! The Lord is putting so many elect people in our path, and we just have to keep working harder to keep having these blessings every week.
These past two weeks have been amazing. I´m seeing the blessings that I´ve been waiting for for a long time and it made all of the hardships that I passed in Uberlândia worth it. 
Love you guys!! Thanks for all you do for me.

Family Home Evening at Tania's

The "First Presidency" HAHA

Sisters in our Zone in Uberaba

Our Uberaba Zone

Elder Hanson

June 23, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 73

Dear Family,

This week was BOM DEMAIS!!!!!! Holy crimminey there were so many milagres that happened this week you guys have no idea. We were so blessed by our obedience and hard work it´s not even funny haha.

I´ll get the bad news out first, Ricardo was not baptized this week. We´re not really sure what to do with him. It seems like he is avoiding us a little bit. But it´ll be fine, I know it will be. 

Alright, so we had 11 people at church on Sunday!!!!! That´s a record for me haha. SUPER ELECT PEOPLE as well. Eliete decided that she´ll be baptized on Saturday with Lara and Joana!!!! WHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my freakin heck it´ll be awesome. We went on a division yesterday (Elder Bezerra and I) with the members and I ended up going to her house just to follow up with her on the commandments, and she told us how she went to a World Cup party with her family and her family was all up in her grill about accepting the church and everything. They were trying everything they could to get her to drink beer and everything too and she was like "I love accepting the missionaries in my home. I love going to church. I don´t drink beer anymore because I know now that I should not be doing that. I used to let drunks, and stuff like that into my home. What´s wrong with letting missionaries and the Spirit of God into my home?" Haha it was awesome! After, I felt like I should ask her about the baptism, and I just said "Have you prayed about baptism lately?" and she was like "I pray every day about this. And I feel now that the Lord is showing me that this is the path that I need to follow." and I was like "And about the 28th?" and she said "I´ve been praying about that as well, and the Lord is showing me that yes, I need to." I almost said, wait are you serious? Hahahaha I was so happy! 

Eliete has been helping us out with missionary work as well haha. She gave us a referral the other day haha. This lady named Elizabeth (pronounced e-lis-a-betch haha). Super elect as well. We´re helping her out.

There´s another lady named Tânia that we´re teaching. SUPER ELEITA!! She went to church on Sunday and loved it! She had a million questions after about a lot of different things. She even asked about temples, and what she had to do to be able to go there someday! Haha we talked about baptism with her and she accepted a date for the 5th of July!! She´s super excited as well. She had a really bad infection a couple of years ago (not sure what type, medical terms in POrtuguese still go over my head haha) but she almost died from it. She was in a coma for 30 days and the doctors said it was a miracle that she lived. She said that she completely changed as a person after and that God kept her here because she had some things to do still. Com certeza ela vai batizar no dia 5!! It helps as well that she already knows Bianca from the ward.

Oh, do you guys remember Joandro from Uberlândia that Elder Webb and I were teaching?? He got baptized last week!!! I don´t know a whole lot of details yet but I´ll let you guys know. NO word yet on Abadia, Carlos, or Zito yet but it´ll work out haha.

There´s a lot of other people as well that we´re teaching, other miracles that happened this week, but it´ll take forever talking about them haha. This was probably my favorite week of my mission until now. So many crazy things happened, and it just made me so excited and grateful for this chance to serve here. I love Uberaba! The ward is awesome, and I love everyone here. I can´t complain about anything right now. Just need to humble myself a little bit and know that these blessings came from the Lord and He knows the hard work that we´ve put in here.

Love you guys!! hope everything is well with you.

Elder Hanson

June 16, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 72

Dear Family,

Hey guys!!! So this week was nuts lol. The zone had 7 baptisms this week and so for the month of June we´re up to 16 batismos!! We´re hoping to have more than 30 by the end of the month and there´s a lot of baptismal dates goin around so we´re sure we´re going to get there!

We had a baptism this week! WHOOOO!!!!!!!!!! We baptized Raynara, and it was awesome. She was super excited for her baptism and the Young Women are really happy with the recent converts that we´ve baptized. The water in the font here is FREEZING. She got baptized and then randomly just dunked herself under again haha it was so funny. 

Elder Bezerra, Raynara and Colin

Elder Bezerra, Raynara, and Colin

Us being silly

Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil

Brazil flags all over Brazil

Ricardo is getting ready for his baptism. We have his baptism marked for this Saturday.

We are also teaching this family right now. Their names are Eliete, Lara, and Joana. Eliete is Lara´s mom, and Joana is Eliete´s mom. They have been coming to church for the last 3 weeks and they really like it, but they just won´t accept baptismal dates. I think that they are afraid of the things of the world, that they won´t be able to live like they lived before. They said though, that they would fast and pray and then give us an answer on their baptism for the 28th. Pray for them that they may be able to be baptized next week! They are sweet haha they told us yesterday that they really wanted to pay tithing. They know that the Church is true, they just need to freaking be baptized!

The World Cup was so crazy here. President told us to just stay inside during the game. We were actually able to get a few lessons in that day though haha. But we just heard screaming and yelling for 2 and a half hours straight and everyone was drunk out of their minds after the game haha. 

Oh! The Young Women´s President here, Bianca, (who´s like 20 years old) told me that she talked with Noah this last week in English and I had no idea that she even spoke English haha. 

By the way. It´s confirmed. I leave on Christmas Eve and my plane lands in Salt Lake on Christmas day morning. Totes cray! Me and Elder Bezerra will be going home on the same day. 

Anyways! Love you guys! I hope you´re all doing well and that everything´s going great. Congrats to Noah for his driving test lol. Tchau!

Elder Hanson

June 9, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 71

Dear Family,

Hey guys! Wow, I can´t freaking believe that Sam is already leaving on his mission. I remember that we were talking with Sam and Jenny a year and a half ago talking about how we wouldn´t see each other for 3 years. That seems like that was just a month ago! So crazy how fast the time goes by.

So this week was crazy! We just went crazy working our little fannies off. We had more member present lessons than I´ve had any other week of my mission! The members are awesome here and always willing to help. Especially the youth, the youth are really good here.

We have a baptism for this Saturday! Wooo!!!!! her name is Raynara, and she is from Maranhão (a state in the northeast of Brazil). She´s 17 years old and really excited for her baptism. She´s been progressing really well this past week and we know that everything will work out with her. 

Also, Ricardo´s girlfriend leaves on the 15!!! Finally!!!! So he will be baptized on the 21st. So freaking excited for him. Satan has been doing everything in his power to prevent him from being baptized. Seriously, Ricardo is one of the most elect people I´ve met on my mission so far, and Satan knows it as well. He´s gonna be great in the church and will help out a lot. They announced that his baptism would be on the 21st at church and he got so excited. I´ve never seen anyone who has wanted to change their life so much. He´s awesome.

Also! My two kids are District leaders now!! Elder Neeley is still District Leader here in Uberaba and Elder Thomas is District Leader in Rio Verde now. So proud lol they´re growing up so nicely :)

Alright. You guys are about to freak out right now. So I just got a call right now from the Secretaries of the mission and they aren´t sure yet, alright, but they think that my plane will land in Salt Lake on Christmas Day!!! How crazy is that??? That would just blow my mind. That made me really sad and kind of happy at the same time haha. So weird! They aren´t sure yet so don´t plan anything crazy right now haha so I should know for sure on Wednesday. But yeah, just so you guys know lol.

Other than that, not too much happened this week. We´ve got a lot of people progressing and we should be having great success this next month. It´ll be great! 

Love you guys

Elder Hanson

June 2, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 70

Dear Family,

This week was kind of cray. So we had two baptisms this week!!!!!!! We baptized two girls, Thalyta and Vanessa, and they were super excited. We wanted to baptize the entire family but the parents aren´t married... 

The baptism was really awesome because the other Elders had two baptisms as well, so we had a baptismal meeting with 4 baptisms for the ward! It was really cool and a lot of people from the ward were there. Uberaba is starting to get cold so the water was FREEZING. Nobody wanted to get in the water haha just because it was so cold. The other elders baptized this really old lady haha and it was a miracle that she got baptized. It was hard for her to even get into the font, let alone that the water was absolutely frozen haha. Elder Bezerra actually had to get in and help her with it haha it was so funny. But they were all baptized and everyone was happy so it´s all good.

Colin and Thalyta after her baptism!

Colin, Elder Bezerra, Thalyta and Vanessa and Family

Uberaba Baptisms

Elder Bezerra, Thalyta, Vanessa, Family and Colin

There were transfers this week and I`m staying in Boa Vista! So is Elder Bezerra and so we´ll be together for another transfer. Which is good. 

There´s not a whole lot to talk about this week other than I got super sick again haha. The exact same thing that happened in Uberlandia happened with me again this week. Elder Bezerra got it too but he got it worse than I did. He´s still sick and I´m getting a little bit better. I had to go to the hospital AGAIN lol. But don´t worry. I´m fine now.

Dinner at Ricardo's with the other Elders

Ricardo has a date marked for the 14th!!! we´re hoping that it´ll work out and we´re going to fast for him this week hoping that his girlfriend will leave! It´s a whole lot harder for him now because he is having a little drama in his life. He was super down last night because of it and he was almost wanting to leave Uberaba, but we calmed him down and now he says he´ll do the fast with us. Pray for him that everything will work out because he´s trying to do the right thing and Satan is doing everything in his power to get him down. 

Happy birthday NOAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all that you have done for me and I hope you have a  good 16th birthday. You are the best!


Thanks for everything!!!

Elder Hanson