September 23, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 34

Dear Family,

Hey Guys! This week passed by SO SLOWLY. It literally feels like a month ago since I've written you guys haha. So much crap happened this week.

First off, the baptism with Rairanne didn't  go as planned. This time, Elder Di Giordano tried to baptize her and she entered the water, but her gosh dang foot came out of the water! At the same time, water got in her nose, so she got super scared to go under again. Then, two days later, the zone leaders called me and said they would talk to her and encourage her. So they came and talked to her and basically tried to get her in the baptismal font, but she wouldn't stop crying. I felt so freaking bad! Especially for her grandma because she had to deal with her crying so much. It was so dumb! In short, Rairanne wasn't baptized :(.

Rairanne's "Almost" Baptism 

Also, Elder Di Giordano finished his mission and went home on Friday :( . It was super sad saying goodbye to him as well! I literally almost cried (but I didn't lol). When he went home, they put this other Elder in my zone with me because his companion went home on Friday as well. His name is Elder Coradeghini (from Argentina) but he was only my companion for just a few days  because this morning we took him back to his area in Rio Verde. I'm not really sure why our Leaders did it this way. So right now I'm in a Trio with the other 2 Elders in my house, Elder Lobos (Lobo means wolf in Portuguese haha so we call him Elder Wolf) and Elder Lee. I'm pretty sure this means that I'll be transferred today :///////////. I'm kind of freaking out haha because I really don't want to be transferred. Also, they put me as Senior companion with Elder Coradeghini and that's also why I think I'll be transferred. We'll see what happens though! Usually people stay in a area for 3 to 4 months and I've been in Rio Verde since fudging April.

Colin and Elder Coradeghini

Colin's District

Nothing really is happening with Naivi (name change) She isn't progressing at all. We tell her to read the Book of Mormon ever time we visit and teach her, but she won't do it. Although- she came to Church yesterday, but only for Relief Society because she didn't want to be in the same room as her cousin. We passed by her house yesterday to talk to her and she told us that there's an Assembly of God Church (which is like a huge Evangelical Church in Brazil) that is close by her house and she said that she wants to go to that Church away from her cousin. I told her "But Our Church is not the church of your cousin, it's The Church of Jesus Christ. Do you want to attend the Church that is The Church of Jesus Christ, or the church of the world?" She didn't really know what to say haha, but I hope the Spirit will guide her in the right direction. As we were talking with Vivian, her cousin came into the house and it was super awkward lol, so Elder Coradeghini and I just  left.

We also went to a Rodizios Restaurant last Pday! It was so freaking good, it wasn't even funny lol!! It was three million times better than Rodizio in Utah. It was so dang expensive as well but we wanted to celebrate!

Elders from Rio Verde Zone

Colin and Elder Di Goirdino

Colin and Jesus

Rodizio!

Rodizio ! (ignore the beer sign  haha)

Other than that, nothing else much happened. I'll end by sharing my favorite chapter in The Book of Mormon, Ether Chapter 12, it talks a lot about faith and Miracles.  I especially love Ether verse 6, "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith". Ether Verse 12,  "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith". And Ether verse 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, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them". I love the Book of Mormon so much! I know that it is true and it has helped me a lot in my life. Everyone just needs to read it and it will change their life forever.

Colin and Raimundo (one of Colin's converts)

Love you guys! Thinking and praying about you all the time! OS amo DEMAIS!

Elder Hanson

September 16, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 33

Dear Family,

Sorry I emailed your email to everybody last week haha. I didn't mean to do that. I just want to send my emails that I send you guys, to my close friends that are on their missions so they know what's happening here in Brazil. Sorry! I'm super retarded when it comes to things like this haha.

Anyway! This week was better than last week. Yesterday, we got Raianne to commit to be baptized this Thursday! It's gonna be on Thursday because we're pretty sure that Elder Di Giordano will leave for home on Friday and Raianne wants to be baptized while Elder Di Giordano is still here! Hopefully, she's over her fear of water haha.

We did divisions on Wednesday, but I stayed in my area this week. We honestly do divisions so much here lol. But it was good this time, because I didn't have to leave my area. We just knocked on a lot of doors and on one street we found a bunch of people to teach and they all wanted to go to church! It was actually really cool. What's annoying, is a lot of people commit to go to church and still won't go :/. On that one street, we found 9 new people who said they would go, and only 2 actually came to Church :(. We went to this one lady's house who loved our lesson and said that she really wanted to go to Church. So we went back to her house to confirm that she would go and she was there cleaning a bunch of stuff. Her husband got super mad at us for no reason and was like "Can't you see that my Woman is cleaning?" (That's what Brazilian men call their wives hahahahaha). Then he told us to leave!! Super strange, but anyway, she didn't go to church :/.

We went and visited  Naivi (name change) at her house the other day and she is doing a ton better! She told us that she realized that a lot of people have much worse problems than she does. She is about ready to pop haha so she wasn't able to go to church yesterday.  Keep praying for her and her baby.

Our Zone was number one in the mission this month with 31 baptisms! So we got to have a water balloon fight this morning haha.

Elder Lee, Elder Lobos, Colin, Elder Di Giordano

Rio Verde Zone, Brazil Goiania Mission

Elder Pontes, Colin, Elder Lins
Brazil Goiania Mission

Other than that, I realized that on September 12, it's been a year since I got my Mission call to Goiania Brazil!!! Crazy how time flies. Anyway!!!! Love you guys so much! I pray for you constantly, still. Tchau!

Elder Hanson

September 9, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 32

Dear Family,

Hey guys! This week was a little bit better than last week haha. Not much though!!! We struggled teaching lessons this week! It was so weird, we literally knocked on like a thousand doors this week and only a few people let us in to teach them. The adversary is so DUMB!!!

However, we did have a cool experience the other night. We were struggling with finding people that would keep their commitments and go to Church. My companion and I were feeling like total butt heads, until our district leader, Elder Eastwood called us and told us to pray with real faith, to find an Elect Family to teach. So Elder Di Giordano prayed and then I prayed with total Faith... A few doors later, we found an awesome family! The mom told us that she had already gone to church a few times, but then she had to travel to a different state in Brazil, so she lost contact with the missionaries. But NOW we're here to teach them!  The only problem is that they're not married :(. She was super excited about going to church and she came on Sunday, but her boyfriend didn't. This was a super cool experience in praying in Faith for something specific (To find an Elect Family)  and then finding this family right after that.

Bad news with Naiviv (name change) :(. We went to teach her on Tuesday, and it was actually a really great lesson! I think we helped her a lot. But that night her sister was getting frustrated with her and then something happened that wasn't good. Anyway, for right now, She can't get baptized. So crazy! Things like this make me so frustrated because as missionaries, we are here to help people and bring people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so sad that something like this would happen, preventing her from being baptized, for now. It sucks!!!

We had interviews with President Kuceki this week! Honestly, I feel so much better about EVERYTHING!!!! I freaking love President Kuceki!!! He is making some changes in the mission. He took out everything we were teaching that wasn't in Preach My Gospel. Like there were a few things that President Prieto added to help the missionaries with their teaching. But President Kuceki believes that everything we need to teach in our lessons, is in Preach My Gospel. Which is really true! Preach My Gospel is an inspired work, written by the General Authorities, and so it's basically considered scripture. This makes total sense why he is making these changes. But it was kind of a struggle for me this week haha because we weren't allowed to use the things that President Preito made for us, but I'll get used to it for sure.

Other than this, nothing else happened this week. Raianne is still afraid of the water.  Anorak (name change) should be married this week and that means she'll be able to be baptized this Saturday. Elder Di Giordano will end his mission next week :( and I think that I'll be transferred at that time as well. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next couple weeks. I'm sad and excited at the same time.

Love you guys! I finally got your photos from Independence Day haha. I still need G's, and HAIR GEL por favor!!!!!! Tchau!

Elder Hanson

September 2, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 31

Dear Family,

Well, this week blew CHUNKS so hard!!!!! It was actually going super well until yesterday. We stayed in one area to find new people to teach and we had a ton of success there. We found five families that we taught and they all said that they would go to church! But then Sunday came around and not one of the families went to church. We do everything we can to teach them the importance of going to Church to learn about Jesus Christ and to feel the Spirit, but they don't get it. It's soooooo frustrating, it's not even funny. I honestly can't stand it.!!!! Flavia was so right when she said that in Brazilian culture,  it's all about 'there is always tomorrow right?' Haha it's so annoying sometimes.

We also had to kind of drop Solrac (name change) as an investigator this week because he didn't go to church again yesterday. Like I told you guys last week, if something happens in his life, he just shuts down and can't do anything else until he solves that problem. This is what happened again this week, he had another family problem and so he couldn't go to church. We stopped by his house on Sunday and he kind of got frustrated with us because we told  him how critical it is to go to church, and how we get sad when he doesn't go. We just told him to call us when he decides that he really wants the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. It's so sad because I honestly can see him being a great leader in the branch.

We did have a MIRACLE happen this week! We taught this lady named Naivi (name change) who is a referral from one of the members in our branch. She has some problems in her life. She's 32 years old, she's pregnant and so she lives with her brothers and sister. When she found out she was pregnant, she became super depressed. She is so nice that it's difficult to see someone like her struggle with this. We taught her a while back but she never was able to go to church because she gets extremely depressed all the time. But this week, one of the members asked us missionaries to give her a blessing. So we went over to her house and gave her a Priesthood blessing. It was very cool because she had never heard or seen a blessing before, or anything like it. She was crying and I could tell that she felt the Spirit super strong!!!!!! Boa Noticia (Good News), SHE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY! It was so Awesome and I think the Priesthood Blessing helped a ton. We invited her to be baptized yesterday and she accepted.!  Pray for her and pray for her cousin, that she will help her. Pray that everything will work out for her.

Also, we're teaching this lady named Anirak (name change) who doesn't live in Rio Verde haha. I don't remember if I already talked about her to you guys, but she lives with her boyfriend, who is a member, in Quirionopolis Brazil. We teach them because they're always in Rio Verde working with a member of our branch. So we're teaching her and they are going to get married either this week or next week and then she'll be able to be baptized as well. The weird thing about it is that she is 18 years old and he's like 32 :/. Hahaha  THE thing is that this is completely normal here in Brazil. We see it ALL THE TIME.

Other than that, there's not much else to say lol. I hope you guys are doing great and I'm so happy that Travis is planning on going on a mission! I hope Noah and Erik had a good first week at school and that everything is going great. Love you guys! Have an amazing week! I'm praying for you always!

Elder Hanson

August 26, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 30

Dear Family,

Oi! Como vai? Espero que tudo e otimo com voces e que Youth Conference foi bom demais is pra voces. Esta semana passada Nao foi muito boa :(

Haha but before I get into that, this is the picture of the baptism of Joao Paulo and his Cousin. He was baptized a couple weeks ago, but I'm finally sending you the picture of Joao's baptism. He is so awesome now! It's crazy how much people change because of the church! By the way, his cousin baptized him.

Elder Colin Hanson, Joao Paulo, Cousin, Elder Di Giordano

I just need to tell you how freaking awkward I am. We're in this Internet Cafe right now, and out of the four missionaries here, my computer is the one that didn't work. So I ask the lady if I could change computers., but as I was getting out of my chair, the chair fell back and made the loudest noise ever :(. Everyone looked at me like I was genuinely retarded. An Awkward American!!! These past few weeks have been kind of a struggle of Awkward Retardedness. Lol:/

Anyway, like I said this week was kind of hard and it was difficult to focus. I'm not really sure why, but this week our numbers were awful. We didn't bring any investigators to church this week, which is horrible. We had people who said that they would go, but didn't. Even our investigator Solrac (name change) didn't go. It was so frustrating because we passed by his house that morning and he said he would go and then he didn't show. We stopped at his house again later and he said that he was having problems with family and so he couldn't go. He's the type of person that if something minuscule or big happens, he lets that get in the way of everything and he can't focus on anything else. It gets super frustrating at times. We're really trying our hardest with him, but he really has to do his part if he wants us to keep visiting him. He loves having us come over and teach him, but he isn't reading the Book of Mormon and he has missed church for two weeks, so it's hard. But we're hoping everything will go through with him.

We literally can't teach Ordnassela (name change) any more because he moved to Jaitai :/. It's so sad, but there's nothing we can do about it. :(  Hopefully, all will go well for him.

There's a member in our branch,  Alegnasile (name change), who wanted us to teach her husband. He goes to church every week, but they aren't married and so he can't be baptized yet. He never had the desire to be baptized until this week when we taught him. It was pretty cool! So we made a goal for them to get married before September 20th haha because I think I'm going to be transferred soon after this day. It's actually super easy to get married in Rio Verde. In Brazil, the cost and the wait to be married, depends on the city. They accepted the goal so hopefully- They will make plans to get married. Once they are married, Her husband can be baptized.

Other than this, nothing much else happened this week. I'm super jealous that you guys went to Fun. in concert this week! I want to see them live so bad. Lucky dorks!

Love you guys! Have a good week at school! Os amo! Tchau!

Elder Hanson

August 19, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 29

Dear Family,

Oi Familia! Lol How are you guys?

So just to let you know, the dog didn't pierce the skin when he bit me haha. It hurt super bad though and it's still a little bit bruised. We went back to their house the other day and we were careful with the dog. But as we were teaching the people there, a worker arrived at the door and the dog bit him too haha and the investigators that own the dog, just laughed at him like it was freaking normal????  There are so many stray dogs roaming around and the dogs get in terrible fights with each other, leaving one to die. It's sad but at least once a week, I smell something awful and I know exactly what it is, a dead dog. But other than that, Brazil is really pretty and I'm loving it! I love the people! I love the food! I've grown to love the meat, beans, and rice, I seriously look forward to the beans everyday haha.

They told me that I was going to stay in Jatai until Wednesday. And so I said okay I'll go because my investigator, Raimundo's baptism was supposed to be that day, but Wednesday arrived and they told me that I couldn't come back until Thursday! So I called the zone leaders on Wednesday, just to see if there was any way that I could come back on Wednesday so I could be at Raimundo's baptism! They told me that he got baptized on Tuesday! I missed my own investigator's baptism!!!! But yeah, Raimundo was BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!! So freaking Awesome and I didn't even know about it until Wednesday. But whatever haha I didn't get back to Rio Verde until Friday. But yeah he got baptized and I don't have a picture to prove it lol! I'll have Elder Di Giordano send it to me and then I'll send it to you guys.

Also, Katiely and one of her brothers, Karlos Eduardo were BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOO!!!!!  Haha We tried everything possible to baptize her other brothers, but couldn't get it done. However they came to the baptisms and it was really cool because they seemed super excited after. We'll keep working with Them and hopefully they'll be baptized this week. I don't have pictures of Katiely and Karlos baptisms either because my camera freaked out and stopped working at the baptism, but then after it started working again. Hahahahaha This week just wasn't my week. But we did have three baptisms so that's AWESOME!

We are teaching this guy named Solrac (name change) who seriously could be the Bishop in a few years lol!!! He is so Awesome! But the other day, he was cleaning his house and he tweaked something in his back. It was really bad and like he can't even move now. It hurt so bad that he literally couldn't get up to go to Church yesterday :( but he LOVES having us teach him and he loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ so much. We have a date marked for him to be baptized this Saturday! But we might have to change it to next week because he didn't go to Church yesterday. Please Pray for him and pray for Katiely's two brothers this week so that they will all be baptized.

We literally haven't been able to find Ordnassela (name change) this past week. We go to his house, but he's never there. I'm worried that he was annoyed when we taught him about the Law of Chastity, and how he has to be the way God created him, and that he can't be a girl. I think that was difficult for him because we haven't seen him since. But HOPEFULLY everything will work out because he's way cool!

One thing good about being away from Rio Verde this week was that I didn't have to deal with a problem we had with our house for a few days hahahahahaha ha!!!! In Rio Verde, Brazil, Sewers don't exist, and all the poop that we do--stays basically under our house. When the poop fills up, workers have to come and suck all of it out with these huge trucks that are so disgusting its not even funny. Our poop accumulated to capacity and was leaving the ground and rolling into the streets. SO AWFUL! The other Elders in my house called the worker guy on Monday last week and he said that he couldn't come until Saturday to clean it up. So they had to to deal with that everyday until Saturday lol and I only had to deal with it on Friday, but it was so terrible.

I think that I'll be transferred at the end of this transfer. My awesome Zone Leader and the Assistant told me that something basically will happen to me at the end of this transfer. So I'm wondering what it is....

Anyways! I'm loving my Mission so much and I'm growing more and more everyday! I'm so very grateful for this opportunity and I hope and pray you guys are doing okay! DON'T BE NERVOUS FOR HIGH SCHOOL Noah---You freaking Trick, it's not even hard haha. Love you guys! Miss you all more than you know...

Elder Hanson

August 12, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 28

Dear Family,

Hey guys! I hope you guys had a lot of fun this past week!!!!!!!!!!

I've been kind of stressed out this past week haha and I'm not really sure why. I think it's because I thought that I might be transferred this week but thankfully, it looks like it's not going to happen. I just want to stay in Rio Verde for my whole mission! Most missionaries want to be transferred after awhile, but I love the people in Rio Verde so much and I'm so used to it here that it will be hard once I get transferred.

So this week, we focused on Katielle and Raimundo. Katielle, is a referral from a solid member here in the branch. Her parents are great and she has 3 awesome brothers that will be baptized this Saturday. Only Katielle and Raimundo both backed out of their baptisms this week :(. Katielle said that she just wants to be baptized with her brothers, so that's cool and there's not really a problem with that. But Raimundo, honestly is such a long story, but in short, he just said that Saturday wasn't the day for him to be baptized, and that August 14th is the PERFECT Day :) If you want to know the rest of the story, just ask lol.

The Zone Leaders had me travel once again to Jatai haha. This time, it's because a missionary there is going home, leaving his companion missionary by himself. Missionaries can't be alone lol so they needed someone to go to Jatai AGAIN. It honestly annoyed me a little bit when they asked me to go, but you know, you can't say no. So right now I'm in Jatai sending this email to you guys. I've hardly been in my actual area lately. I'll be here until Wednesday when the new Elders come to Jatai and this means that I won't be transferred :):):)

Anyway, I can't freaking believe that Cody was in such an awful truck accident and that it rolled 5 times. That honestly sucks so bad, I feel terrible. Two days before he was supposed to leave for his mission? That stinks!!! But I'm so glad that he's okay and that nothing too bad happened to him. That's nuts that the truck is completely demolished!! I can't believe it!!! Tell him that I'll be fasting and praying for him this week :)

Hey! Does Ben leave this week or next week? I want to know so I can send him an email. Oh By The Way, with pictures, I'll send them next week because the computer that I'm using isn't reading my camera. Also, I got bitten by a loser dog yesterday. It hurt so freaking bad!!!! But it's just a bite mark that's bruised right now haha, he didn't pierce the skin. So dang annoying!!!! I hate dogs with all my heart now!!! More than anything!!! Don't worry Mom, it was a normal dog and it didn't have rabies or anything so no need to fret.

Nothing much else to say this week. When you guys ask me if I'm singing. I don't really know what you mean haha. There is never a chance to sing, like EVER. The people here, are completely tone deaf hahahahaha so nobody sings. Seriously, you should hear the sacrament meeting Hymns here :/ lol. It's all good though.....you can still feel the Spirit :) Until they asked me to play the piano for the Sacrament meetings, I don't know that they knew the tune of any Hymns haha.

Love you guys! Is amo muito e espero que tudo e bom com voces. Tchau!

Elder Hanson