June 17, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 21

Dear Family,

Hey Family!!!! I hope you guys are doing well this week, HAPPY LATE FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!! Father's day isn't really big in Brazil haha I barely even heard about this week. Weird because Mother's Day is huge here!!! I hope you had a great Father's Day Meu Pai ;) Love you!!!

Anyways! We had one baptism this week, we almost had two but Anyat (name change), backed out literally at the last minute. He said something happened that day but he didn't want to say. Then yesterday at Church, he told Elder Lima what happened but I was talking to someone else at the time, so I didn't hear what happened. Yeah,  I literally have no idea what happened but he says he wants to be baptized before Elder Lima goes home. So we're hoping he'll be baptized this Friday!! Bom DEMAIS!!!!! We could use your prayers for him.

The BAPTISM that DID happen was this guy named Amaury ( Ah-man-dee lol). He was actually a contact that my zone leader had a few months back when he was in this area. This was before I came to Rio Verde. They taught him the lessons and were hoping to baptize Amaury. But apparently there were a few issues and so he couldn't be baptized. He really loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ so he always kept going to Church. Then, Last Sunday, he told Elder Lima and I that he wanted to be baptized this week! Everything lined up so we literally didn't do anything haha but he was Baptized!!! It was SUPER COOL because he wanted to be BAPTIZED MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD!!! It was Awesome!!!! The Spirit was so strong!!

Elder Lima, Amaury, Elder Colin Hanson

Cooper taught 90 lessons this past week in Guatemala!! Holy Fudge! How is that even possible?!?!?!?! It is our goal to teach 40 lessons every week. This makes me proud of Cooper and it makes me want to work my butt off and go hard as well! BTW! We didn't have the Big Conference this last week haha. No one knows why we didn't have it or when it will take place?! Elder Lima goes to Goiania and it is the end of his mission this Friday, which means that I will get a new companion this week :( I'm hoping it will be one of the Elders that's staying in the same house as us, Elder Di Giordano. His companion also goes home this week. Elder Di Giordano is an Italian from California, he is really cool, and I'm praying we'll become companions!

Portuguese.... I feel like I can have a decent conversation with people! But it depends on the people haha. There's some people that speak a different dialect of Portuguese haha so it's tough to understand all that they say. I'm still working on conjugating all the verbs properly but it's coming. Elder Lima understands everything I say so it's getting so much better! We haven't been robbed for forever because we've been smarter about everything!

Nothing much else has happened. I hope you guys are doing well and that Erik and his gurl aren't getting too serious (soulmates). I hope Noah isn't doing DRUGS hahaha!!!! I hope Mom & Dad are doing well lol. Love you all! OS AMO MUITO!!!!!

Elder Hancao

June 10, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 20

Dear Family,

Hey! How are you guys doing? I hope this last week of school was great for you guys :) and I hope Noah had a crazy Birthday!!! Way to score awesome grades Noah, I'm proud of my little Brother.

This week blew chunks big time. We didn't have a baptism this week because our investigators are struggling. We're teaching this kid named Nanyat (name change) (15) and he's cool but he is kind of a brat to us haha. He is a good friend of a member of the ward and so we began teaching him. He says he really wants to be baptized but he won't go to Church and he is afraid that he's going to have to "change" after he is baptized. We asked if he wanted to be baptized on the 8th of June and he was like "no I want to be baptized on the 15th of June" so hopefully he'll be baptized this week. Kind of frustrating haha!!!

We have a conference in Goiania this week because President Prieto and Sister Prieto are ending their missions at the end of this month. The whole mission is going to be there! It'll be fudging crazy. But I'm worried because Elder Lima is ending his mission on the 22nd of June and he's thinking that he'll be sent home early because of this conference. It's expensive to travel from Rio Verde to Goiania by bus, so he thinks that he'll end his mission this week :'( I really don't want another companion haha because he has been so Awesome!!!

We're also teaching this other family. I can understand most of what they say haha because they're from São Paulo and they speak clearly and they don't speak as fast as the people in Rio Verde. They're pretty sweet and they love to talk and talk, so it's hard to get a lesson in haha when we visit them. They made us mad yesterday though because they didn't go to Church! So dumb! That honestly is the hardest part of the mission is getting people to go to Church. Our area is big, so people have to travel a long distance to go to Church, but still. GO TO CHURCH!!!!!

Nothing much else happened this week. My Portuguese is improving every week now and I'm understanding what people are saying to me most of the time. Usually the only times I don't understand somebody is if they use a word that I don't know. Which is just about every other time I talk to somebody haha. Anyways, I'm feeling a lot better about the language and about teaching. I really love all the members and the investigators so I'm having more fun.

 My favorite scripture of all time is Ether 12:27. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I think that scripture has helped me out so much in my life and on my mission. I'm so hard on myself and this scripture just brings me so much comfort with everything. I have many weaknesses but God gave me these weaknesses so that I will be humble. I know that someday, these weaknesses will become strengths. When I go to members houses to have lunch, we share a message as well and I love sharing this scripture with them. I feel like this scripture was written just for me haha.

Anyways! You guys know that I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true Church. This work is Awesome!!! I know that it will be hard but it will be so worth it. Love you guys! Tchau! Ate a proximate semana!

Love Elder Colin Hancao (this is how the Brazilians pronounce my name)

June 3, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 19

Hey Guys!

What's up??? Haha this week was really good. We finally baptized Mateus and Marcos!! Bom Demais!! (Too Good!! thumbs up)? It was so cool and WE TOOK PICTURES! My testimony on fasting also grew this week like crazy.  We were struggling with Mateus and Marcos because they kept saying that they didn't want to be baptized. I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, Elder Lima and I fasted all day for them and for other things as well. But that night, we went over to their house and they were super excited and said that they wanted to be baptized! It was so weird, I have no idea what happened but I know now that fasting helps make miracles happen lol.  Before I had always questioned fasting, no not really, but I've always hated it! lol

Clarisse' mom, Clarisse, Elder Lima, Mateus, Colin, Marcos

Anyways, as you can tell, my English is rapidly declining. I seriously can't remember how to correctly put words into sentences and you guys are probably reading this and saying, Wow, we seriously raised a brilliant son, Not :/  I seriously am really worried haha because right now I'm speaking Portuguese but not amazing and so I hope I don't get stuck somewhere in the middle of English and Portuguese mode haha. I honestly don't know why I'm telling you this :/

By the way! I got your packages a few weeks ago haha I just keep forgetting to tell you guys.  Thank you so much!!!! I almost started crying when I got new G's because my old ones have sweat stains and are basically yellow :/ it's awesome. I don't really think I need you to send me anything else yet, I'll let you know if I think of anything.

We are walking so much! I seriously think that we walk like 10 miles a day at least. Our area is ginormous!!! We found a cool abandoned city haha yesterday but I didn't have my camera with me :( . I can't bring my camera with me everywhere because I'm afraid that one guy who assaulted us will steal it. Then we found this cool little forest with a pretty waterfall and everything.  It was really cool!!! But you'll never see it because I didn't take any pictures.....lol

I'm going to write a handwritten letter today and explain everything about what's going on here in Brazil because I really don't have very much time to email haha.  Let me know when you get it. I feel so bad for the Barnetts!  They are like the nicest family in the world but all these trials keep happening to them. Tell them that I'll be praying for them. I'm happy Grandpa's surgery went well, I didn't even know he had to have heart surgery again. You need to tell me things.

Congrats to Cody and Sharwan on graduating! I can't believe it was only a year ago since I graduated, it seems like 5 years ago haha.  Sharwan going to BYU Hawaii is Cool. I figured Cody would go to USU but whatever haha.

FELIZ ANNIVERSARIO NOE (Noah in Portuguese) ESTA QUARTA-FEIRA! VOCE E MEU MELHOR AMIGO E EU TE-AMO DEMAIS! EU ESPERO QUE VOCE E SUA NAMORADA TEM UM DIA LOUCO KKKKKK (Haha in Portuguese). AMO VOCE BICHA! English Translation: Happy Birthday Noah this Wednesday! You are my best friend and I love you too. I hope you and your gurl have a crazy day. HAHAHAH. Love you Dude!

Anyways! I don't have anything else to say.  Tell Grandma, Jacque and Dave that I'll email them next week because this computer that I'm using is so retarded and I don't have very much time to email. Oh one more thing, I understand what Dad goes through with the Jepperson's now!!! I hate dogs more than anything in the entire world now.

Love You!

Elder Hanson

May 27, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 18

Dear Family,

Hey Guys! How are you all doing? This week has been super great!! We had one baptism!!!

Have Dad tell Flavia that I'm going to email her today! I feel so bad that it's taking me so long to email everyone back right away because we only have 50 minutes! I'll eventually write everyone back though. Tell everyone to keep emailing me & writing me because it keeps me sane haha. By the way Connor doesn't leave until July 5th lol!

Anyway's, we baptized Clarisse this week!!  It was a miracle because no one else in her family was baptized. Her brothers don't understand, no matter how many times we explain to them that they can't enter The Kingdom of God if they're not baptized, they still don't want to be. It's so sad. But I feel like the worst person ever because I completely forgot to take a picture with Clarisse before her baptism :(  We were so busy getting everything ready for the ordinance of her baptism that it just slipped my mind. But Clarisse baptism went great and the Spirit was super strong!

This GD (Gosh Dang) language is getting better but I feel I should be fluent by now! 2 months in Brazil is enough time to be able to be fluent, right? But today, we had to practice the first lesson (The Restoration) with our district. I thought I sucked a fat buttcrack teaching so I was super pissed after but one of my zone leaders, Elder Comsa, is so Awesome, and he told me that my Portuguese is the best out of all the new American missionaries that he had seen in the mission. He said that I probably will be a senior companion soon and I think he was sincere haha. You know me, I'm a perfectionist, and so I want everything to be perfect now lol. But this made me a little bit happier haha. There's a brand new sister missionary in our zone and she doesn't speak Portuguese very well so that's comforting for me haha JK!

By the way, I ate LITERALLY the most REVOLTING thing of my life this past week. OX stomach! Yes, OX stomach! It looks like chicken but it's NOT Chicken haha. This nice lady in our branch made lunch for us the other day, but she had to do something so she dropped it off at our chapel and we ate it at our house. The ox stomach was mixed in with rice and so I thought it was chicken. I literally gagged when I tried to swallow it. I was thankful we weren't eating it at her house haha. It was so awful, you have no idea. Anyways! Not much else has happened this week.

SEND ME PICTURES! You guys get mad at me for not taking a lot of pictures haha lol. Tchau! Eu amo voces and miss you all like crazy! Congrats to Noah on singing his Les Mis solo like a champ! That's cool that FJH Choir sang a Les Miserables medley. Love you Noah! Happy Birthday to all the cousins this month! Annie's 12 What? Congrats to Molli on graduating from USU! That's cool! You guys have no idea how much I love you all and I pray for you all EVERY SINGLE MORNING AND NIGHT!!!!!!

Elder Hanson

May 20, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 17

Dear Family,

ESTA SEMANA PASSADO FOI LOUCO DEMAIS!!!! NOSSA SENHORA!!!

Hey Guys! How are you all doing? This past week was CRAY to say the least. We had two more baptisms this week!!! One was this 17 year old guy who is super awesome. We just barely started teaching him a week and a half ago. I actually thought that he was a member before we started teaching him because he went to all the youth activities. The youth members of the branch are really good at inviting non members to these activities. He honestly is the nicest kid in the world! His name is Rafael and Elder Lima baptized him on Saturday.

The other baptism we had, I think I've already told you guys about her. Her name is Habyta (pronounced Abita) and she is 11. She is super cool and I've loved teaching Habyta and her family. They are such a great family!!! Her mom is funny and swears like it's her job haha! She literally swears with every sentence she says and she drinks a lot of coffee. Habyta drank coffee before we taught her about the Word of Wisdom but then she stopped and accepted everything that we taught her. She's sooo cool!! I baptized her on Saturday:) which was the biggest blessing ever! Her mom wants to be baptized so bad and she loves hearing the lessons and says 'Amen Jesus' with ever prayer that we say haha!

Baptism of Habyta and Rafael

We actually would've had 5 baptisms this week but 3 fell through. They are all of the same family, Clarice (15), Mateus (12), and Marcos (9). The only reason Mateus and Marcus fell through was because Clarice is the oldest and she backed out at the last minute, so they followed her example. But we brought Clarice to the baptism of Habyta and Rafael and I think that she really felt the Spirit strongly there. I have a feeling that she and her brothers will want to be baptized this week. Say your prayers for them again and thanks for putting their names on the Temple prayer roll as well as Habyta's, Abadia's, & Rafael's names. I really appreciate it!

A little bit of drama with a family that we are teaching. Their uncle lives with them and doesn't like us AT ALL. After the baptisms on Saturday, we went back over to this house to teach a lesson there and the uncle was outside in front. He was angry and was like I need to talk to you. He said something to me but I didn't understand Portuguese Swearing and stuff like that haha. I did understand him saying that he didn't want us coming over anymore. For some reason, I just didn't have any fear at all. I think the Holy Ghost is comforting me when stuff like this happens, that I know everything will be okay because I am a representative of Jesus Christ and Angels will protect me. The mom talked to the uncle and everything is cool now haha. I hope these stories aren't making you guys worry because I promise that I'll be fine.

Anyways! That's so sad about President Monson's wife! I'm surprised I hadn't heard anything about it because we had church yesterday and nobody said anything about it. That's super sad.

Love you guys!  Thank you for all of your awesome examples to me, without them I would not be on a mission. Erik you better not get married until I get back because I have to be there. So just wait two years lol. Love you guys! Tchau!

Elder Colin Hanson

May 13, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 16

Dear Family,

I told you most everything yesterday on Skype. But I'm doing fine and I hope you guys are doing okay as well. Things are getting crazy down in Rio Verde, Brazil.  Like I told you I had two baptisms this week; I baptized Wellington on Saturday and my companion baptized Washington on Sunday!!! Washington is the one you met on Skype haha. They were my first baptisms and I was super nervous haha. My testimony has grown super strong here! Honestly I'm a changed person. My mission is the greatest blessing ever.

Colin Skype Screen shots with Washington and his Companion Elder Lima

Washington is ready for baptism!

Washington speaking to us in Portuguese. Telling us "Good Afternoon"

Colin on Skype

It will be OK Elder Hanson

Great Companions

I was happy when you told me Bryan's going to Houston Texas, Spanish speaking I think lol. He will do awesome.

Okay so Brazil is SOOOoooooo freaking Hot haha, it's always like 95 degrees. But it's not too humid here like other parts of Brazil. We literally walk everywhere, we walk a marathon everyday haha. We don't have a car because people drive crazy in Brazil. I'm so exhausted by the end of the day so I sleep super well.

I can speak Portuguese a ton better than I can understand it lol. Elder Lima, my companion said that the people in Rio Verde don't speak correct Portuguese and it's so frustrating haha.  Things are getting easier everyday and I'm getting used to the Brazil culture.

Anyways, since yesterday, we had district meeting this morning and that was it. Nothing much has happened other than Habyta, the daughter of Abadia and Carlos (I don't know if I talked about them with you guys) but she is going to be baptized this Saturday, along with this other teenager named Rafael and maybe, not sure yet, these kids named Clarice, Matheus, and Marcos as well. So we're hoping for 5 baptisms this week haha and they're all kids or teenagers which is pretty cool.

I loved talking with you yesterday on Skype!!! I hope you had a great Mother's Day Mom and I hope you had a great birthday Dad this past week.  Love you all so much!!!

Elder Hanson

BTW I can't carry my camera everywhere with me in Rio Verde because I don't want it to get stolen :/

Colin and Elder Lima in the Chapel in Rio Verde

Washington's Baptism

Wellington's Baptism!

May 6, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 15

Dear Family,

What???? Brice is going on a mission???!!! Why didn't you tell me this!!!! Where is he going? That's Awesome!!!!!

FELIZ ANNIVERSARIO PAI ESTE QUINTA-FEIRA!! Eu espero que voce tem um bom dia e eu amo voce com todo o meu curaçao. Voce e um Melhor exemplo por mim e voce vai ter 50 anos! Que louco!!! English Translation: Happy Birthday Father this Thursday!! I hope you have a good day and I love you with all of my heart. You're a great example to me and you will be 50 years old! That's crazy!!! I can't freaking believe I'm missing my own father's 50th birthday :( That honestly makes me so sad! You better do something crazy on Thursday dad lol.

Anyways, the baptism with Washington fell through :(, he talked to his mom the day of his baptism and she talked him out of it. SO DUMB!!! We were super pissed that the baptism with Washington  didn't happen but I have a feeling that he'll want to be baptized this week. Hopefully he'll change his mind for this Saturday. Our goal is to have 4 baptisms this week, Washington, this woman named Abadia, her husband Carlos, and their daughter Habitha.  They're super cool and Abadia speaks super slow and so I can understand almost everything she says haha. There is another family who we taught this week that was super excited about our message. They're awesome, the only problem is the parents aren't married. The dad speaks a million miles an hour and so I never have any idea what he is saying haha. But we hope to baptize three of their kids next Saturday. Pray for all these souls :) to be baptized.

I don't know what time we're going to Skype this Sunday for MOTHER'S DAY? I've asked but nobody knows for sure. We don't know if it will be at the Church or at the Mission President's house (of the ward, not mission). What will probably happen is I will call you guys first just to let you know that I'm going to Skype for 1 hour but if Skype doesn't work, I can only talk on the phone for 30 minutes, which is a bummer! So, hopefully Skype works!

There was a funny fight that we saw yesterday by our Chapel Haha. They were drunk & High at the same time and they looked completely ridiculous. They were yelling Vai Morrer! Vai Morrer! (Go die haha) They weren't really serious haha. We couldn't hear all of what the fighting boys were saying and my companion wanted to move in closer to hear (my companion, Elder Lima wants to learn English fluently but right now his English isn't the best) so he turned to me and said, 'I want to go to there' haha (30 Rock-Tina Fey) I laughed so hard. We were wise and didn't go to there haha. One of the most dangerous places in Rio Verde is by our LDS Chapel. There's always weird people hanging out by the Church.

Nothing much else happened this week. My Portuguese is improving but not fast enough! Anyways, I love you!!! Tem um boa semana! Have a great 50th dad! You're the best! Eu amo Voces!!!

Love Elder Hanson