Dear Family,
Transferências!!!!!!!! Haha I got transferred this past week. Dad, you asked me if I ever thought that I would ever work in Goiânia a few weeks ago. The truth is, no, but that´s exactly where I got transferred haha. Actually now I´m working in the dead center of Goiânia and the ward is called Ala Goiânia (Goiania Ward) haha. It´s a pretty cool area! It´s where the mission office is and where we meet for huge mission meetings. There´s millions of buildings and it´s really crowded and overwhelming. Our chapel is really nice, but it´s super far away from where we live so it´s kind of complicated to bring investigators to church. Our members have to give everyone a ride. But it´s fine! I´m really excited to work here.
My companion´s name is Elder Santos. He´s from Curitiba Brazil. I had actually met him before way back in Rio Verde. He was my district leader there for awhile, and I thought that he was kind of arrogant back then haha. But he´s changed (a little bit haha) and I really like him. I´m zone leaders with him here in the Goiânia zone, so that´s pretty cool. Elder Bezerra is in my zone here and he´s one of the district leaders. Elder Santos seemed really sad for the first couple of days this week, and I wasn´t really sure why. But then he told me that his last companion was super trunky (this means that he wanted to go home) and didn´t really want to work. They haven´t baptized anybody in this ward since February! That´s so crazy. I was super surprised when I heard that. But I´m looking to change that completely. This area is great! I honestly have no idea how they haven´t baptized anyone in so long. Especially in an zone leader area, you have to set the example for everyone else! It´s crazy to me. But I talked with him and said that I´m here to work and so you can forget about everything that´s happened. After that, he became more focused and started working together with me. We got some pretty good work done here already! We have 3 baptismal dates marked and we brought 6 people to church! I think that made Elder Santos really happy. He wants to work so bad and his last companion just brought him down, so I´m sure things will change here. He´s an MMA fighter and he´s kind of intimidating :/. But he´s cool.
We´re teaching a family right now, but the parents aren´t married but they love church so much. They´re a real humble family as well, they don´t have a ton of money, so we´re trying to see how we can help them get married. Their names are Luciana, Weslei, and Ana (their daughter). They´re awesome.
We´re also teaching this really rich lady named Daura and her son Leandro. They´re really nice and they went to church BY THEMSELVES. haha that never happens! They live in a really nice apartment building really close to the church so it´s easy for them, but still haha. They have dates marked for the 6th of September.
There´s another lady that will get married on the 20th of September, named Flavia that wants us to start teaching her next week. She´s been going to church forever, but hasn´t been able to get baptized because of her boyfriend (she lives with him) and so it´s complicated. But they have a marriage date for the 20th!
She´ll be baptized on the 27th. Só milagres!!
I´m really excited to work in this area. I really like challenging areas, because they make me have to work really hard. This area shouldn´t be as challenging as much as everyone says it is. Everyone said that the area in Boa Vista is hard, and we had a ton of success there. I´m really excited!
Love you guys!! Thanks for all the support! I´ll send some more pictures next week. Tchauzinho!
Elder Hanson
Monday, August 25, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
August 18, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba (Transferred out) - Week 81
Dear Family,
Hey guys! This week was awesome. A lot of good things happened. But first things first, I have been transferred. :((((((
I have no idea where I am going or what will happen, but I´ll be happy with whatever. Elder Cunnington and I were talking about potential companions for us both haha and there are a lot of possibilities,.... but then I was like, I´ll be happy with whatever and whoever I´m with. I´ve really liked Elder Cunnington. He´s become like one of my best friends on the mission and we had a lot of fun together. It sucks! I swear, with all my favorite companions, I don´t stay with them for very long haha. But he´ll end his mission next transfer. He´ll go home the same day as Cooper! I literally could be going anywhere now. I´ve never been so nervous for a transfer!!!! No one will tell me anything and so I´m in the dark now.... I have loved all of my areas, but Rio Verde, Parque do Sabiá, and Boa Vista (Uberaba) were by far my favorite areas.
Ricardo got baptized this week!! It was so awesome and everybody loved it. He was so happy and it was great to see the change in him. I´m so happy that that was my last baptism in this area. It was a good way to end it off here in Uberaba. I´ll send all of the pictures and everything, there´s a couple of funny ones lol.
It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone. Tania started bawling when I told her and so did Thalita haha. These past couple of weeks have been kind of rough with a recent convert. We passed by there yesterday, and we gave her a spiritual lesson. I actually told that story of how a lady in our old Bountiful ward offended the crap out of mom one time haha and she realized that was way worse than what happened with her. I talked about how my mom was sad about it and everything, but that didn´t prevent her from continuing to go to church. She realized that she needed to let it go after that. This lady was actually feeling really sad about not going to church. She told us that before we came over yesterday, she was reading the Book of Mormon. She knew that the church was true and everything, but she wanted a confirmation that she should continue going. So she prayed, and asked God if the church was true, and that if it was, that she could have help at that very moment. Before she even ended the prayer, we came and knocked on her door. She said it was crazy and she was crying all over the place haha. Super cool.
Other than that, nothing much else happened this week. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard and tomorrow morning I´ll be going to Goiânia to find out where I´ll be going. I´m so freaking nervous!
Love you guys! Thanks for all that you do.
Elder Hanson
Hey guys! This week was awesome. A lot of good things happened. But first things first, I have been transferred. :((((((
I have no idea where I am going or what will happen, but I´ll be happy with whatever. Elder Cunnington and I were talking about potential companions for us both haha and there are a lot of possibilities,.... but then I was like, I´ll be happy with whatever and whoever I´m with. I´ve really liked Elder Cunnington. He´s become like one of my best friends on the mission and we had a lot of fun together. It sucks! I swear, with all my favorite companions, I don´t stay with them for very long haha. But he´ll end his mission next transfer. He´ll go home the same day as Cooper! I literally could be going anywhere now. I´ve never been so nervous for a transfer!!!! No one will tell me anything and so I´m in the dark now.... I have loved all of my areas, but Rio Verde, Parque do Sabiá, and Boa Vista (Uberaba) were by far my favorite areas.
Ricardo got baptized this week!! It was so awesome and everybody loved it. He was so happy and it was great to see the change in him. I´m so happy that that was my last baptism in this area. It was a good way to end it off here in Uberaba. I´ll send all of the pictures and everything, there´s a couple of funny ones lol.
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| Elder Zanuttini (from Argentina) my "Grandson". |
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| A Toucan Bird |
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| Me not knowing what to do (awkward as ever) |
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| Zone calls |
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| Geni and our Bishop |
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| Me getting to clean the font |
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| My favorite picture of Ricardo (and me) |
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| Geni and her grandkids |
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| Elder Cunnington, Colin and Ricardo |
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| Genival (in the white shirt and mohawk) |
It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone. Tania started bawling when I told her and so did Thalita haha. These past couple of weeks have been kind of rough with a recent convert. We passed by there yesterday, and we gave her a spiritual lesson. I actually told that story of how a lady in our old Bountiful ward offended the crap out of mom one time haha and she realized that was way worse than what happened with her. I talked about how my mom was sad about it and everything, but that didn´t prevent her from continuing to go to church. She realized that she needed to let it go after that. This lady was actually feeling really sad about not going to church. She told us that before we came over yesterday, she was reading the Book of Mormon. She knew that the church was true and everything, but she wanted a confirmation that she should continue going. So she prayed, and asked God if the church was true, and that if it was, that she could have help at that very moment. Before she even ended the prayer, we came and knocked on her door. She said it was crazy and she was crying all over the place haha. Super cool.
Other than that, nothing much else happened this week. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard and tomorrow morning I´ll be going to Goiânia to find out where I´ll be going. I´m so freaking nervous!
Love you guys! Thanks for all that you do.
Elder Hanson
Monday, August 11, 2014
August 11, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 80
Dear Family,
This week was crazy!!! We had two baptisms!!! We baptized Geni and Genival!!!!!!! It was so awesome.
Geni was struggling a little so we brought Tania over to Geni"s house to teach with us. I think Tania helped her a lot because Tania was just baptized a month ago. She shared her testimony to Geni. After that lesson, Geni was able to completely commit!!!! It was awesome. Genival was easy haha because he´s only like 10 years old. He´s super ADD though haha, but in the end, it worked out.
Okay, vocês teriam ficado com tanto vergonha se vocês tivessem visto nosso batismo esta semana kkkk. Literally the baptismal service was a MESS. Seriously, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. The baptismal clothes weren´t washed (not our job), the baptismal font overflowed (we had to take out the water with buckets) the members got to the baptism an hour late, we had planned on having the members on giving the investigators rides to the baptism and that didn´t work out. Holy cow, it was a mess. It was so bad. But all in all, it worked out in the end and they were baptized and happy.
I completely forgot to bring my camera to the internet cafe this week, which is a bummer because I have a million pictures to send. We saw like 4 tucans flying togther this week! I got a picture of one of them. I´ve never seen a tucan before in real life so it was cool. I´ve also seen a lot of monkeys in this area but I´ve never gotten a picture of one yet.... I´ll send all of the pictures next week.
Miracle of the week lol. So do you guys remember Ricardo? He´ll be baptized on Saturday!!!! WHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome. It´s been a couple weeks since we past by his house, and the Elders that live with me saw him in the street one day and he told them that we needed to pass by. It was great!! He´s super excited and we´re stoked out of our fudging minds.
So about my recent converts in this area:
Carmem hasn´t come to church in awhile because she lives super far away and needs a ride every week. We´re trying our best to have someone pass by there every week to get her.
Pedro comes every once in awhile because he lives on the farm most of the time. But he´s fine and still loving The Gospel!
Thalita and Vanessa are coming as well! They didn´t come to church yesterday, and we´re not sure why, but they always come to church.
Raynara comes every week as well! Super strong. This last week though, her pregnant sister lost her baby, and so they were super sad about it. But she´s doing great! She actually is going to move to a state called Maranhão at the beginning of September, so hopefully she´ll be able to find the church there. We´ll talk with her more about that as well.
Alisson is super firm in the church as well! He´s going to institute and everything with this other girl in the ward. He received the Priesthood on Sunday! So the bishop asked him to pass the sacrament next week. Vai ser muito bom!
Tania. Of course Tania is super firm! She actually gave us lunch this past week which was SOOOO GOODD. She made this Danish cake for us, which was amazing. I´m getting fat again :(. We took some pictures, and I´ll send those next week as well.
Girleide and Girlane are fine as well. They go to church every week. We want them to go to seminary but they don´t have too much interest in it. But it´ll work out.
Other than that, nothing much has happened. Our goal for this month is 35 for the zone and we´re at 10 until now. Vai ser bom demais!!
Love you guys! Transfers are this week and we´ll find out what will happen on Saturday I think. I don´t want to get transferred!! I´m loving this area!
Elder Hanson
This week was crazy!!! We had two baptisms!!! We baptized Geni and Genival!!!!!!! It was so awesome.
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Geni was struggling a little so we brought Tania over to Geni"s house to teach with us. I think Tania helped her a lot because Tania was just baptized a month ago. She shared her testimony to Geni. After that lesson, Geni was able to completely commit!!!! It was awesome. Genival was easy haha because he´s only like 10 years old. He´s super ADD though haha, but in the end, it worked out.
Okay, vocês teriam ficado com tanto vergonha se vocês tivessem visto nosso batismo esta semana kkkk. Literally the baptismal service was a MESS. Seriously, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. The baptismal clothes weren´t washed (not our job), the baptismal font overflowed (we had to take out the water with buckets) the members got to the baptism an hour late, we had planned on having the members on giving the investigators rides to the baptism and that didn´t work out. Holy cow, it was a mess. It was so bad. But all in all, it worked out in the end and they were baptized and happy.
I completely forgot to bring my camera to the internet cafe this week, which is a bummer because I have a million pictures to send. We saw like 4 tucans flying togther this week! I got a picture of one of them. I´ve never seen a tucan before in real life so it was cool. I´ve also seen a lot of monkeys in this area but I´ve never gotten a picture of one yet.... I´ll send all of the pictures next week.
Miracle of the week lol. So do you guys remember Ricardo? He´ll be baptized on Saturday!!!! WHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome. It´s been a couple weeks since we past by his house, and the Elders that live with me saw him in the street one day and he told them that we needed to pass by. It was great!! He´s super excited and we´re stoked out of our fudging minds.
So about my recent converts in this area:
Carmem hasn´t come to church in awhile because she lives super far away and needs a ride every week. We´re trying our best to have someone pass by there every week to get her.
Pedro comes every once in awhile because he lives on the farm most of the time. But he´s fine and still loving The Gospel!
Thalita and Vanessa are coming as well! They didn´t come to church yesterday, and we´re not sure why, but they always come to church.
Raynara comes every week as well! Super strong. This last week though, her pregnant sister lost her baby, and so they were super sad about it. But she´s doing great! She actually is going to move to a state called Maranhão at the beginning of September, so hopefully she´ll be able to find the church there. We´ll talk with her more about that as well.
Alisson is super firm in the church as well! He´s going to institute and everything with this other girl in the ward. He received the Priesthood on Sunday! So the bishop asked him to pass the sacrament next week. Vai ser muito bom!
Tania. Of course Tania is super firm! She actually gave us lunch this past week which was SOOOO GOODD. She made this Danish cake for us, which was amazing. I´m getting fat again :(. We took some pictures, and I´ll send those next week as well.
Girleide and Girlane are fine as well. They go to church every week. We want them to go to seminary but they don´t have too much interest in it. But it´ll work out.
Other than that, nothing much has happened. Our goal for this month is 35 for the zone and we´re at 10 until now. Vai ser bom demais!!
Love you guys! Transfers are this week and we´ll find out what will happen on Saturday I think. I don´t want to get transferred!! I´m loving this area!
Elder Hanson
Monday, August 4, 2014
August 4, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Uberaba - Week 79
Dear Family,
Hey guys!!! So not a ton of stuff happened this week. Not too exciting. But there were a few things that happened.
Our numbers this week were not that great because we spent two days this week in Goiania. It takes so freaking long to get there from Uberaba haha (like an eight hour bus ride). The meeting that we had with the assistants and President was really good! President Kuceki is so inspired and I freaking loved the meeting that we had with him. We were kind of lost with what we needed to do to help our zone.
Our mission lately has been all about marking baptismal dates on the first visit with everybody! And so there has been a few companionships who haven´t agreed with this, that we should only invite people to be baptized when the time is right. Freaking no!!!! I´ve made it my personal goal to invite every single person to be baptized, but a few don't agree with that (Some missionaries in our zone were thinking that we were being too harsh with them on not marking baptismal dates.) I was like what??? How can a person be baptized and enter into the Kingdom of God if you never invite them to be baptized??? A lot of missionaries in the zone are afraid that the person will say no, but that´s the freaking mission! You´re going to have a million people who say no to you! I´ve gotten so used to people saying no to me, that I try my freaking hardest to get the person to say yes now haha. But anyway, President explained on how we should invite people to be baptized. A lot of people in Brazil are afraid of commitment and so they don't like committing themselves to anything. He explained that we need to explain about the PREPARATION. As missionaries, we are there to help them prepare to be baptized so that they can understand the importance of the plan that God has for us. I´ve seen, throughout the course of my mission, that almost everyone who has been baptized understood better the plan that God has for us as we´ve prepared them for baptism. And they felt more committed to the church because of that. President Kuceki said that when we invite people to be baptized, we should explain first about this preparation. It was something so simple and so easy, that I felt retarded after he said it haha.
Then we had a zone meeting this week. In front of President haha. Oh my gosh this is my second meeting in front of him and I get a little nervous every single time. But anyway, we explained about this preparation and the zone really loved it! We noticed after that our zone started marking more dates and had more success this week. It was really cool! It goes to show that we need to follow the councils of President Kuceki.
Anyway! We have two dates for this Saturday! Geni and Genival and it´s going to be awesome. We also marked a date with Hanna!! (who is Tania's daughter) for the 16th!!! She hasn´t been able to go to church these past few weeks because she is always working, but Tania told us the other day that Hanna wants to get baptized before I get transferred (which could be really soon :/) Pray for her that she may be able to go to church as well!!!!!
That´s about it. Love you guys!!
ELder Hanson
Hey guys!!! So not a ton of stuff happened this week. Not too exciting. But there were a few things that happened.
Our numbers this week were not that great because we spent two days this week in Goiania. It takes so freaking long to get there from Uberaba haha (like an eight hour bus ride). The meeting that we had with the assistants and President was really good! President Kuceki is so inspired and I freaking loved the meeting that we had with him. We were kind of lost with what we needed to do to help our zone.
Our mission lately has been all about marking baptismal dates on the first visit with everybody! And so there has been a few companionships who haven´t agreed with this, that we should only invite people to be baptized when the time is right. Freaking no!!!! I´ve made it my personal goal to invite every single person to be baptized, but a few don't agree with that (Some missionaries in our zone were thinking that we were being too harsh with them on not marking baptismal dates.) I was like what??? How can a person be baptized and enter into the Kingdom of God if you never invite them to be baptized??? A lot of missionaries in the zone are afraid that the person will say no, but that´s the freaking mission! You´re going to have a million people who say no to you! I´ve gotten so used to people saying no to me, that I try my freaking hardest to get the person to say yes now haha. But anyway, President explained on how we should invite people to be baptized. A lot of people in Brazil are afraid of commitment and so they don't like committing themselves to anything. He explained that we need to explain about the PREPARATION. As missionaries, we are there to help them prepare to be baptized so that they can understand the importance of the plan that God has for us. I´ve seen, throughout the course of my mission, that almost everyone who has been baptized understood better the plan that God has for us as we´ve prepared them for baptism. And they felt more committed to the church because of that. President Kuceki said that when we invite people to be baptized, we should explain first about this preparation. It was something so simple and so easy, that I felt retarded after he said it haha.
Then we had a zone meeting this week. In front of President haha. Oh my gosh this is my second meeting in front of him and I get a little nervous every single time. But anyway, we explained about this preparation and the zone really loved it! We noticed after that our zone started marking more dates and had more success this week. It was really cool! It goes to show that we need to follow the councils of President Kuceki.
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| Colin at church in Uberaba |
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| Colin and Elder McLane |
Anyway! We have two dates for this Saturday! Geni and Genival and it´s going to be awesome. We also marked a date with Hanna!! (who is Tania's daughter) for the 16th!!! She hasn´t been able to go to church these past few weeks because she is always working, but Tania told us the other day that Hanna wants to get baptized before I get transferred (which could be really soon :/) Pray for her that she may be able to go to church as well!!!!!
That´s about it. Love you guys!!
ELder Hanson
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