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

August 5, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 28

Dear Family,

Hey guys!! It sounds like Yellowstone and Jackson Hole was super Awesome, so I hope you guys had fun lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We baptized Joao Paulo this week!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was honestly a MIRICLE. I think I already talked about how he had a word of wisdom probpem and he stopped this completely! It was so AWESOME!!

We are continuing to teach Raimundo, who is super observant and has so many questions. We literally talked to him for like 2 hours yesterday haha trying to answer all of his questions. We know that he knows This Church is TRUE, so it's confusing to us as to why he has all these questions but he's Awesome! Other than this, I wasn't really in my area hardly at all this week lol.

Anyway........ I HAVE NEVER WALKED SO MUCH IN MY WHOLE LIFE. Seriously, the past few days, it's been like trek X  5 haha. I went to Goiania with Elder Srur, my Zone Leader from Belem Brazil, because his companion already went to Goiania earlier this week. There was this Elder in my district who got really sick and had to be transferred to Goiania, and so the other zone leader had to be with him when he left. They needed someone to go with Elder Srur to Goiania because they had a leadership meeting with President Kuceki. So I stayed in the mission office and just studied for four hours haha. It was sweet! But after, we went and did splits with Elders in our Zone in Jatai, which is a city about an hour away from Rio Verde. It's on a huge hill, so it was super tiring to walk on lol. They have a statue of Jesus on the mountain, like in Rio de Janeiro. It's pretty cool! I worked with an Elder named Elder Barros from São Paulo and it was pretty good. I learned a lot of things during this split. Also, they asked me to make a program for our zone lol! We're making a lot of baptismal dates with our investigators as a zone but some of the dates are falling through because the investigators aren't going to church. So they had me make a program of how we can teach the investigators understand the importance of going to church. It was actually harder than I thought it would be hahaha. But I showed it to Elder Srur and he said that it was great! So that made me feel good. He had me show it to the Elders in Jatai as well lol which was kind of nerve-wracking (how the heck do you spell this?) and I think they liked it too. I'm hoping that this program will work :/

Nothing much happened to me this week. I hope you guys had a ton of fun in Yellowstone! I'm jealous! But everything is super good here!!!! Love you guys so much! Eu os amo DEMAIS!!!!! Espero que voces tem uma semana muito boa! Tchau!

Elder Hanson

July 29, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 27

Dear Family,

This week was FREEZING!!!!!! Holy Cow, I had to use my giant Mr. Mac Missionary coat haha, which I thought I'd never use in Brazil. What the heck! It got down to 3 degrees Celsius, which is like 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Cray!! It could have snowed if there was any rain this week (which I don't know how Brazil is so Tropical, it seriously never rains here anymore). But now, it's super hot so things are back to normal lol.

This week was interesting. The people were basically dying because it was so cold lol so we didn't get around to teaching as much as usual. A lot of people's excuse this week was that it was too cold so they didn't want to let us in haha. And unfortunately we had to drop Alaupana (name change) and Ikiak (name change) as investigators because they didn't go to church 2 weeks in a row. Also, they don't have the desire to be baptized anymore which is super sad Alaupana said something happened to her dad this week and it made her lose the desire. I don't know why, but it was super sad.

Also, we tried to baptized Rayanne again but she was still super afraid of the water  :/ so she wasn't able to be baptized. She'll be baptized soon, she just needs to get over her fear of the water. It's alright though, everything will go good for her lol.

Anyway,  we found a guy this week that is Super Elect, Raimundo. He almost didn't go to church as well, but it was such a blessing that he went because this is what happened. He said that as soon as he entered the door of the church, all his doubts about religion went away. He said it was so weird and said that he has talked to many pastors and they've all asked him to be baptized but he's denied them all because he didn't feel right at their churches. But as soon as we asked him to be baptized, he said yes right away hahahahaha. It was so Awesome. Raimundo is like 20 years old.

Also, we found another man/woman this week haha. We were knocking on doors and feeling kind of depressed because we weren't having much success that day. And he/she answered the door and we were like, are you kidding me? Haha But he/she said that we could share a message with him and so we did. He said that he would go to church and he's actually super cool!!!! It made me think of Mormon, in the Book of Mormon when he felt sorrow for his people that were sinning, and he didn't judge them. That's how I felt as we were teaching him. At first, I judged, which is super wrong of me,  but as we were teaching, it completely changed. We really think that he has the desire to change his life. But we're not exactly sure if he's a boy or a girl (he's a transvestite? I think that's the word). But he's amazing and really awesome! His name is Ordnassela (name change), but his friends call him MaKayla (name change ~his alter ego haha). And he went to church and liked it a lot, so we're hoping and praying things work out for him.

Anyway! Tomorrow I'm headed to Goiania because we're doing splits........kind of haha. One of the Elders in my district has a bad internal infection, so he left to Goiania to get some medicine. His companion is our District leader and the other Elders in the area are the Zone Leaders and they're headed to Goiania as well because they have meetings there every week. I'll be with one of the Zone Leaders until Saturday and my companion will stay with the District Leader. I'm kind of nervous haha because on Thursday I'll be going to another city called Jatai, that's pretty close to Rio Verde. It'll be interesting!

I hope you guys have a great week in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone! Love you guys!!!!!!!!!! Tchau!

Elder Hanson

July 22, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 26

Dear Family,

WHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Six months into the mission tomorrow!! So crazy! I can't freaking believe it. It is honestly the weirdest feeling ever because it seems like I left for the MTC yesterday, but it seems like I haven't seen you guys in years haha. It's totes cray lolz.

Anyways! This week was super good!! WE HAD 3 BAPTISMS!!!! That's right shawty lol. We baptized Maria do Socorro, Lais, and Laiza this week and it was awesome. There's kind of a sad story about it - So the three girls, Lais, Laiza, and Rayanne chose me to baptize them and so I baptized Lais and Laiza. But when it was Rayanne's turn, she entered the water and got super afraid. I tried to baptize her three times but she just wouldn't go down under all the way :( She started crying and the Branch President's wife tried to calm her down but she still wouldn't do it. It was so sad! I felt so bad for her but we're going to try encourage her to be baptized this week because she still really wants to be baptized. The water was freezing and was a little high for her so she was super afraid. But she'll be baptized this week!

Baptism! Elder Di Giordano, Lais, Maria, Rayanne, Laiza, Elder Colin Hanson
Brazil Goiania Mission

It's hard to get people to come to church because they live so far away and Church starts at 9 in the morning, which is too early for a lot of people haha. People say that they'll come, but then end up not going. It's so frustrating. The goal for the mission is for each companionship to bring 10 investigators to church every week! I can't imagine having church at 7:30 in the morning like Cooper! That's insane! Haha

Anyways, we're teaching this guy named Joao Paulo who is super cool. He's a cousin of one of the members in the branch, so we teach Joao with that member. He is really cool and he's super interested in the Church. He has a problem with smoking, so we taught him about the Word of Wisdom this week. We also took his cigarettes away from him and destroyed them haha but he didn't care because he really wants to stop smoking. We also took coffee away from Maria do Socorro. Lol we went to her house one morning and we asked Lais if we could take their coffee and replace it with cevada (which is like coffee but doesn't have the bad substances in it) so it's okay to drink but it's awful haha! They didn't keep it a secret from the other people in their family though, like we were hoping :/

We're also teaching this lady and her son. They had missionaries teach them before but she was living with a guy at the time and she wasn't married, so the missionaries stopped teaching them. She has since separated from him and so we are teaching them now haha. They are super cool and they have a baptismal date for this Saturday. We're hoping that everything will go right and that they'll be baptized this week!.

By the way, I am playing the piano in Sacrament Meeting every week because no one in the branch knows how to play haha. You guys ask that every week and I keep forgetting to answer haha so.....yeah.

This week, we sort of like did these split type things with other missionaries in our zone. We went to the other side of the city (which is a long, long walk) and there's another huge Jesus Statue like the one in Rio De Janeiro. It's pretty sweet but I forgot my camera that day so I didn't get a picture :/ But I'll be sure to get a picture next time I go there, which should be this Wednesday.

Elder Colin Hanson

Nothing else happened. I'm loving the mission even though it's dang hard sometimes. Hope you guys have a great time in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone! Take some fudging pictures! Love you! Tchau!

Elder Hanson

July 15, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 25

Dear Family!

Oi! Como voces freaking estao??????? Hahahahaha

So everything fell through with Kcyrtap (name change) this week and unfortunately he was not baptized :'(. He lived pretty close to the church before but then he moved because his brother was annoying him. He moved  in with some of his friends a couple weeks ago and I think that really hurt him. His friends are always drinking and crap like that whenever we go to visit him. It seems like his friends don't like us much lol. When we first started teaching him, he was super receptive, excited, and understood everything we taught him. But ever since he moved in with those friends of his, he's been really unreceptive. We had difficulty finding him this week so he wasn't baptized :'(

But on the BRIGHT SIDE, we are really getting through to Maria, Laissa, Lais, and Rayanne. They will be baptized this week for sure. They changed the rule with the Goiania Mission in that we can baptize any day of the week now! So that's pretty cool but now we don't know for sure when they will be baptized. We had originally set their baptism date for Saturday, July 20th. Pray that all goes well :)

Anyways!!! When I read that Kate blurted out that "Colin's missing Chris's Wedding" right in the middle of the ceremony, I started laughing so hard!!! Haha I miss little Kate like crazy! I hope that the Wedding was amazing and that Chris and Chelsea are happy. I'm sad that I missed it, but I couldn't be doing anything better with my life right now. I'm really happy sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to such beautiful people. I hope everything goes well for Chris & Chelsea. Tell them that I'm that I'm thinking of them!

I also met my new Mission President Kuceki and his wife this week! They're so awesome!!! They're younger than President Prieto and his wife, so they have a little baby with them haha it's really funny. They have six kids and I think four of them are staying with them while they are serving which is really cool. They also came to our branch this week to give talks and they were awesome. President Kuceki is really bearing down on teaching our investigators with the members. So with all our investigators this week, we taught with members and I've noticed that it's so much more helpful than teaching by ourselves. They now have friends that they can be with at Church and hopefully that will keep members active and also help us convert our investigators. Sister Kuceki is ALWAYS smiling haha it's awesome and it seems like she would never be rude to anyone lol.

I hope you guys loved my hand written letter that I sent! Haha I don't remember what I wrote but I hope it was good!! I wrote another one that I should be able to send this week, not sure yet, but I'll try!

Lucky you guys get to go to Jackson Hole & Yellowstone! Never been there haha. Hope you guys have fun and send me pictures. So crazy that I'm almost six months into my mission! It seems like forever but at the same time, it seems like yesterday that you guys dropped me off at the MTC. I hope my Awesome Family is still doing okay? Love you guys more than anything in the world and I don't know what I'd do without you all! Tchau! Ate a semana que vem!

Elder Hanson

Oh! Before I forget! I almost received your package this week but you guys will need to resend it because you spent more that $50 or I have to pay a fee of $275 for it haha. They sent it back to the United States and when you resend it, maybe send two separate packages so it's under $50. Love you!!!! I hope this made sense? Also, let me know if Superman is good or not!