November 24, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 95

Dear Family,

Hey guys! This week was a ton better than the last few weeks. First off, Ruciery recieved the Priesthood! So awesome. He´s been going to Institute and everything and he´s loving everything that´s happened to him since we´ve met him. He should be blessing the sacrament within these coming weeks. It was crazy, because we were already planning on telling the Ward Council that he needed to recieve the Priesthood, but the Bishop just did it himself! It´s crazy haha because usually we have to tell the ward to do EVERYTHING but it was nice to see that this ward already knew!

So we found some really good people this week. We had been working really far away from the chapel in a poorer area and it wasn´t really working out. So we decided to work really close to the chapel this week. We saw this lady sitting in front of her house super close to the chapel, and we talked to her. Turned out she was handicapped, but she went and talker with her mom and we taught her and her sister. They´re like 50 years old. They loved our message and they both went to church! Augusta is her name and she had already gone to church once awhile back, and so we marked a date with her for this Saturday! She is super excited. She lives with her son, but her son hates religion and doesn´t want anything to do with it, so we´re just teaching her. She lives like 3 doors away from the church! So crazy. Her sister´s name is Geronima, and she has a date as well for the 6th of December. We also marked a date with her grandson who lives with her, Leonardo for the 6th as well. It´ll be great! 

Unfortuneately, Viviane is leaving for France this Saturday, so we won´t be able to baptize her here. But it´s okay! We´ll explain to her how she can find the church there in the city she´ll live in. 

I´m happy with the way things are turning out here. I´m happy with the success we´re having and I know that they are the Lord´s blessings and I need to be super grateful for them. I´m working hard still and I´m trying to do everything in my power to not get trunky haha. 

I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving and I hope you´re all doing well. I love you guys so much and I´m super excited to see you all in 4 weeks. But, I´ll keep working hard until the last hour of my last day here in Brazil. I love this country so much and I´ll be super sad to leave. Love you guys!

Elder Hanson

 

November 17, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 94

Dear Family,

Hey guys!

This week was pretty stressful haha but it was alright, I guess. We have been working in a different area this past week and it didn´t go too well. It was a really poor area and there were a lot of things that I didn´t need to see haha but it really didn´t give us any results. Which is so weird, because in Rio Verde, it was in those areas that we thrived and we had a ton of success. I don´t know, here it was different. We were really blessed because on Saturday, everything was falling through and out of nowhere this lady stopped us in front of her house and told us that she was a member that had been baptized more than 20 years ago, but soon after she got baptized she fell away. She lived in Brasilia at the time but then moved to Goiânia and didn´t know where the church was. She told us that she wanted to go back to church but didn´t really remember anything about the church. We told her we would take her to church the next day and she invited one of her friends to go to come with her. They both came yesterday to church and they loved it! It was pretty cool. The member´s name is Iony and the friend (non Member) is Viviane. Viviane is going to move to France at the end of this year, and told us that she was nervous because she knows that most of the people there are not super religious. She wants to be super religious so that she wouldn´t fall into that. We´ll pass by there on Tuesday to teach them more about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and it´ll be great. We´ll try and mark a date with her for the 29th!

This week was also stressful because of the sisters in my district. A new American sister got here last week and isn´t speaking a lick of Portuguese haha (like every other American) and is being trained by another Brazilian sister. The Brazilian Sister always gets mad at her and she gets mad at me because I try and help out the American sister. It´s so annoying and I´m not exactly sure what to do. It´ll work out though. Hopefully haha. She always tells me that I´m wrong even when I do what she asks. I don´t understand this sister at all! 

But other than that, there really isn´t a whole lot to talk about. As for my pant size, I´m pretty sure I´m a 32 now. I had lost 40 pounds, but it looks like I´ve gained 10 back haha. Uberaba made me fatter because the food was so good there and I haven´t lost the weight since haha. 

Oh, one story. We found a family this week who had been baptized a few years ago but had fallen away because they wereconfused about some of the doctrine. They didn´t believe that families could be sealed for all eternity. They then told us how they had lost one of their sons this year (who had also been baptized) who was about 20 years old. We talked to them about the importance of families in God´s plan, but the mom told us that the dad was super furious about religion and didn´t want anything to do with it anymore. We talked with the mom and she started crying in the lesson and told us that she wanted to return to church, but it all depended on the dad. It made me really sad, but made me really grateful for God´s plan for families here on Earth. I don´t know what I would do without my family, and the knowledge that I will be with them for all eternity. It only strengthened my testimony, having this experience with them.

Love you guys!!! I hope that everything is alright with you and that you´re all happy. Thank you so much for hooking all that stuff up at BYU with Cooper. 

Elder Hanson

November 10, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 93

Dear Family,

Hey guys! This week was pretty good. We baptized Ruciery on Saturday! It was awesome. He kind of acts and talks still like an Evangelical haha but he really loved his baptism. It was great! He was baptized by one of the Bishopric counselors (is this how you spell counselor?). We had done a family night at his house this past week. 

Service Day in Goiania

Terrible picture of our district (no one was ready)

Ruciery's Baptism

Besides the baptism, it wasn´t the best week of our lives. We didn´t really find anybody new to teach this week, and the people we found were kind of trashy haha. We´re just going to be looking for new people this week. We´ve been working close to the church this past transfer, which gave us 2 baptisms, but now we´re going to start working a little bit further away from the chapel to find people who have never heard of the church. We were really blessed with Francisca and Ruciery, because they have only been living in Goiânia for a short time. I´m tired of being rejected haha and it seems like everyone that lives close to the church is extra rude to us haha. But it´s okay. We´ll find some sick (really good) people to teach in a different area.

So this week was transfer week and they didn´t call us so I´m pretty sure that I wasn´t transferred and that I´ll "die" here in Balneário haha (this is slang here saying that you´re ending your mission). Elder Pinheiro, I´m pretty sure wasn´t transferred either. I have really gotten along well with Elder Pinheiro, but I think he was sad that he wasn´t transferred haha because he´s been in Balneário for a long time. He sometimes gets on my nerves because he´s kind of immature, but I really do like him.

So today I took my first bucket shower!!! Haha it was awesome! Our house ran out of water (the water system is way different in Brazil) and so we had to take a bucket shower this morning with water from the chapel. Don´t worry though! We should have water in our house by tomorrow and for now we´ll just take bucket showers haha it´s so great....

Thank you guys so much for looking for an apartment for us! I really do appreciate it, and to thank you guys, I promise that I´ll keep working hard up until my last lesson of my last day. Don´t worry about me! Everything will be great this last transfer of my mission. Love you guys!

Elder Hanson

November 3, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 92

Dear Family,

Hey guys! This week was kind of frustrating haha but it´s all good......

We found a lot of good people to teach this week, but it was one of those weeks where we confirmed with a ton of people to go to church with us and only 1 person came with us haha. It´s so frustrating when it happens. 

We will have another baptism on Saturday! Ruciery is super awesome and is progressing well. He is super evangelical and so it´s hard for him sometimes to understand some of our beliefs. But he knows that his baptism wasn´t valid, and so he´s excited for his baptism on Saturday. It´ll be awesome. He´s kind of awkward so we have passed by with some awkward members this week to be friends with him haha. The lessons have been kind of awkardly spiritual :/. 

Not a whole lot happened this week that was cool haha. We had a huge multi zone meeting with President this last week which was pretty cool. He set up this new program for the mission that´s a program for the missionaries to progress. It´s pretty cool and I liked it a lot. It´s a long complicated program that would take forever to write about haha but it´s basically a program for the missionaries to improve their work. 

This Saturday, there´s a program from the church that´s called Mãos que Ajudam in Portuguese haha (I don´t remember what it´s called in English, is it helping hands?) I´m not really sure what we´re going to do there yet, but it´ll be cool I guess. All of the missionaries from Goiânia will be there so I should send some sic pics next week.

Thank you guys so much for all that you´re doing for me back home. I feel your prayers every single day and it gives me a lot of strength to continue on. I really do appreciate it. 

Love you guys! Sorry this email was so stupid this week. I will try to improve lol. Tchau!

Elder Hanson

Goiania Mission

October 27, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 91

Dear Family,

That´s crazy what happened with Sam! I hope he´s doing okay. I´ll send an email to him this week to help him out. I run into drunk crazy people all the time and they´ve never done anything to me, which is a huge blessing. There are a million bars EVERYWHERE. Like literally, anywhere you go in any city in Brazil, there will be a bar on every corner and it´ll be packed the entire day with crazy drunk people. Every day haha it´s so awful. People yell at us all the time, and I´m really grateful that nothing has happened to us? I´ll pray for Sam this week.

This week was crazy! We baptized Francisca!!! Oh my heck it was so crazy! Like it really was a huge deal to baptize her. It was so weird, at the beginning of the week she was super excited for her baptism, and then we started passing by during the week, and she started avoiding us a little bit and we didn´t know why. On Wednesday night we passed by unexpectedly and she told us everything. She had been looking for a job for a long time, and finally found one. The Assembly of God (A huge evangelical church in Brazil) offered her a job to be a cook at an Evangelical School. They also told her that she couldn´t go to any other church if she was hired and that she would have to attend their meetings like every single day. It pays well I guess, and she was really wanting to accept it. We talked with her for a bit, and she decided not to take the job. We fasted and prayed like cray and it all worked out in the end. We were really worried haha. But she was super happy the day of her baptism and went to a church activity after and she said it was the best day ever. Everyone was happy.

A member from the area - Going on a mission

Francicsa and her daughter and boyfriend with Colin

Elder Pinheiro, Francisca and Colin

This week, I went on a division with an Elder who works in Jardim Curitiba! My first area! It was so wierd being back there because 
it´s been a year and a half since I´ve been there. It has changed a ton and it looks like it´s even poorer haha. It was fun. I saw a few of the members there and they were like "Oh my gosh! You were fat when you were here and you´re Portuguese sucked!" haha it was awesome. 

We´re teaching a few good people right now. Alex, Reciery, and Aparecida. They all have dates for the 8th of November and we´re hoping that it all works out. I don´t really have any special things to say about them yet because we´ve only taught them all one time. But I´ll give details on them next week.

Love you guys! Sorry my emails are getting suckier and suckier every week! You´ll just have to have me tell you guys all of the experiences when I get home! Tchau!

Elder Hanson

October 20, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 90

Dear Family,

Hey guys!

This week was pretty good. A few disappointments, but still it was another pretty solid week.

Francisca is progressing demais! Holy crap she is so awesome. She accepts pretty much everything we tell her and she is excited as crap for her baptism. We´ve been passing by her house with members almost every single time and she loves the members here. She went to a Relief Society Activity as well and is super integrated with the members.The baptism was announced in Sacrament Meeting and everyone is super excited. I think the members now are warming up to us and are more excited to help us now because of it. It seems like they have gotten mad with some of the missionaries that have served here in the past and so we´re trying to gain their confidence back. But honestly, it really isn´t even that bad. My companion thinks that it´s really bad, but I have seen a lot worse haha. It´s hard for the new missionaries in the ward when you have retarded missionaries who have served in a ward and do basically nothing to help the ward out at all. But it´ll be fine! Everyone is stoked out of their minds for Francisca´s baptism. She´s like the nicest lady ever. I feel like I'm always sent to areas to clean up and I love it!

We found a few really good people this week, but for some reason, we weren´t able to get them to go to church. But we´re hoping for the best and we´re trying to work a lot more with the members and get references from them. we were able to get 4 member references this week, but we´re trying to think of ways to get more. It´ll be awesome.

Other than that, there´s not a whole lot to talk about. It´s so nuts to me that Cooper is home now! Don´t worry, all of those pictures are not making me trunky haha. Not at all......

Anyways! About the whole BYU thing. I actually have thought about it, and I´m wanting to go into the Psychology field. I´ve changed my mind about everything haha. I want to be a Psychiatrist (Don´t know if that´s how you spell that). I´ll explain why when I come home. But that´s what I´ve decided to do. I hope that it works out with the whole housing situation because I have no friends at BYU other than Travis and Matt haha and I don´t really want to live with somebody I don´t know again. 

Love you guys! 

Elder Hanson

October 13, 2014 - Brazil Goiania Mission - Goiania - Week 89

Dear Family,

So this week was pretty sweet. A few sad things happened, but all in all, it was a solid week.

So about Thaynara and Jonaton. They liked church and everything, but they really weren´t progressing after a few visits with them. They weren´t reading, and not praying with real intent. We then took them to the church to teach them, and they told us there that they didn´t want to meet with us anymore. I´m pretty sure that their family had said a few things to them to get them to stop visiting with us because Thaynara´s mom is Evangelical and her dad hates religion. Thaynara seemed really interested in the beginning, but then I think her family got to her. She was bawling her eyes out when she told us that she didn´t want to meet with us anymore. Jonaton, on the other hand, had never been interested and told us that he wanted to be baptized in the 7th Day Adventist Church haha. Whatevs. I feel like we planted the seed with Thaynara and in the future, she´ll be more prepared.

But with trials and hard work come the blessings haha. We found this SUPER CHOSEN lady named Francisca this week. We had just left our house after P Day last week, and we saw her and her daughter walking down the street. I had this huge strong impression that I should talk to her, but my companion was feeling the same thing haha and he beat me to her. We talked to her and then we passed by her house the next day and she told us "I have only lived here for two weeks, and I prayed to God every day for Him to help me find the right church to join. And then I met you guys!" Haha she was super happy and accepted a baptismal date for the 25th. She went to church and loved it as well. 

My companion is awesome. He is one of the calmest missionaries I´ve met haha. He kind of has a awkwardness about him. He repeats a lot of things that he says as well haha. It´s pretty much everything he says. It´s strange, he´ll say something, and then right after he´ll repeat it under his breath. The sisters tease him in fun a lot because of it haha.

Other than that, there´s not a whole lot to talk about. I can´t freaking believe that Cooper is home now! Elder Cunnington also went home last week. Don´t worry, I´ve always pushed myself to be exactly obedient throughout my entire mission. I´ve seen a lot of miracles because of it. I know it´ll keep happening as well if I keep doing what the Lord wants me to do. 

Oh, Travis sent me an email and he said that he wants to room with me. Mom, is there any way that you could get in contact with him and arrange the rooming situation? I can´t go onto those kinds of sites here :/. Haha Thanks! Love you guys!

Elder Hanson