Future prospects

Hey Family and Friends!
This email is going to describe a little of the investigators that we have and how we find them...

• Contacting
• This is what we do every day and is our main source of finding people
• Components
• Approaching a person in the street and talking to them
• Knocking doors and talking to them
  
• By the way I have a bam sauce tocador (tocar signifies to touch so in other words its something that we use to touch or knock the fences). Its the lenses from plasma t.v.s and I found it after someone was busting up a tv infront of our house and left the lenses. If your wondering what they look like they are clear stones and remind me of the Urimm and thummin. It also can be used for magnifieing the scriptures for the older people we visit.
• It is not very affective and the amount of baptisms that I have had in this way is....1
  
• References
• These are extremely rare and usually are from people that we contact who usually dont know there neighbors but try to help us out by pointing at some houses. We like them anyway. We also recieve references from members and this can be ideal.
• Components
• Asking everyone we meet if they have references and going to members houses to ask them for some. Recently we have been really trying to implement an inspired plan by the First Presidency with our little Branch but it is taking some difficulty starting. We are pushing our mission leader. ha ha.
• Extremely effective or not effective at all (dependant on the sources efforts to find and give them)
  
• This can be very effective and helpful. When we recieve a reference from a member the investigator already has a support system and a friend, we are just the teachers.
• Even if the reference is from someone that is not there to support it is very effective
• We were given a reference from someone from the states to someone living in our sector. We went to the house and said that so and so sent us. Immediately she let us in and let us teach them. I think it was about three weeks later that both the Mom and the Son were baptized. They had seen us many times before but never knew what we did. The mom wasnt there when we usually do our contacting so she either wasnt receptive to two teenagers at her door or just was never home.
• Miscellanious
• We helped a drunk guy back to his house and now we are teaching him how God can help him quit his drinking and the Mom and daughter seem really receptive to our message.
• We have another family that are progressing really fast that we were able to teach after first being personal tutors for their children in English. The Mom and three children are listening to our lessons.
• We gave service to a catholic woman with her groceries. She wasnt interested in our message but her son that we met is progressing really well and is wondering about how science and religion fit together. I shared how we dont understand everything but through faith we can achieve a perfect knowledge (Alma 32).

Thats all the time I got. LATER!
Elder Hanson

Evangelio, Familia, y Los Profetas

Hey Familia,
So this week was really interesting and awesome. YEAH GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! I have never before felt so many of the messages apply to me and Dad! it was basically a new PMG it was pretty much all about missionary work except for that one about how to raise virtuous girls in the crappy world. I am so studying that one to pieces when I get a daughter.
So I learned about a million lessons this last week but I will try to keep the really neat ones on the top of the list. Saturday morning before Conference I was thinking about Vosotros, Mom and Dad, and how grateful I am to have had you for parents. One of the most evident things that can be seen out here is the contrast of the gospel teachings and everything. The start of my mission I was continually trying to make the best way to be a missionary only to find out that it was already made. I just had one of the frustrating and enlightining experiences this morning. But back to the subject...so I was thinking about my life and how I have had so many good things and some bad things. It became very apparent that the Gospel, or the plan that God has for us, was the source of every piece of happiness that I could remember either from living the Gospel myself or the positive side effects from others living it. I realized that it is the way to perfection. To really become like God and the only things that can stop us from suceeding is ourselves such as not learning what exactly the gospel is, how to live it, or just being to scared to try. We have the perfect plan for happiness. Even if we dont completely understand all the inner workings of it we know it's better than anything that we could come up with and we know at least in part what we need to do to live it. I challenge anyone reading this to put aside their fears, exercise a little faith, and living those principles of the Gospel no matter how small they may seem. I would probably not have been able to see this pattern in my own life if it wasn't for the faithful living of my own parents. Thanks MOM AND DAD!!! One of the most amazing thing is that the Gospel never wears out no matter how many people have used it. It continues to bring happiness and it has from the foundation of the world. We have hundreds of years of scriptural evidence and the continual words of the modern apostles and prophets that testify to the never ceasing functionings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I would also invite anyone reading this to learn more about the Christ, Jesus. We, as saints, sometimes go through life reaping the benefits and lack to see the source. How great our joy and appreciation might be if we only tried to recognize the source of our salvation. READ JESUS THE CHRIST!!! It is perfect to try to comprehend everything the Saviour did for us. It is the inspired compilition of everything the savior is from the Pre-mortal realm until far into the future as compiled in the Salt Lake Temple by James E. Talmage using both ancient and modern scripture.
Being at the battlefront of this war against Satan we as missionaries could see almost every idea that was spoken at Conference and the truthfulness of the message. As a representative of this Church and a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ I invite all of you to live the principles that the Prophets and Apostles have taught in this last conference. I feel that the rift is getting wider and wider. It is becoming harder and harder to be in the middle ground. Please, let's all choose to push aside those things that are stretching and tearing us apart. Let us side more valiantly with the Lord and we might just find an abundance of peace and security in an unstable world.
I Love you a lot, thanks for everything,
Elder Hanson

Conferencia y todo!

Hey Fam,
Sorry, I love you guys a ton and I really need to write to you guys more I was looking in our rule book and I am trying not to include anything to specific like names of people and all that jazz but I will try to let you guys know alot. Also it is really hard some times but in the book it says not to say anything bad about your area or the people you serve in so I have just tried to avoid it all together.
So Tijuana is really nuts. Its really busy, in another language, and their is a ton of dogs. Our sector is pretty big and we just found out that it is even bigger. The pictures I sent last time of the Privadas is only the tiniest part of our sector. We have a more rich area around Matamoros and then we also have a really poor area with house on the side of giant hill going into a valley that holds RB (Rivera del Bosque). We encounter a lot of different people with a lot of different problems.
We are recently dealing with some people that are trying to get over addictions and I am learning alot about how to really help them. Also contacting is really hard here. The majority of people have the idea of All is well as long as you have a faith in God and have a religious belief your good. The most popular phrase we usually here is that it all goes to the same place. Its a bit hard not to be too mean and say there wrong. Instead, we use scriptures. YEAH!!! So we also just had a huge meeting with our small little branch leaders and everyone else like that. They are really kicking the mission into gear with more than just Missionaries doing the work and I am loving it.
My Spanish is getting pretty good as I have been studying and walking and just trying to fill my brain with all the concepts. I also have made some goals for myself that you might find interesting

• I really want to learn the Guitar when I get back
• I want to learn Sign Language as well as other languages
• I am currently working on trying to be able to do the splits

I hope that kind of updated you guys a little bit. I will try to do better with my letters. Also the last baptism we had was with Judith, the mom, and Diego, the son, they are awesome and their story is awesome but I really need to go and I will try to keep you updated. Pardon.
¡LES AMO MUCHO!
Elder Hanson

Sorry no e-mail to post this week!

Sorry there is no new post this week. Curtis is doing fine and there is this one new photo to share. Thanks so much for all your support.

Lisa

A Little News is Better than None!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry Curtis' e-mails seem to be getting shorter and shorter. I guess the fact that he is so busy is a good thing right? Thanks for your continued support and friendship

Lisa

E-Mail Answers!

I gotst cero minutos mas!
Sorry I am really out of time this week so I will just have to answer your questions real fast

So, how are you this week?

Doing good, I just have to remember that people have their agency for a reason. ha ha.

Did you get transferred?

No, I am staying with Elder Martinez which means I am his first two cambio companion.

If so, what is your new area like?

Its the same and sweet!

Have you been able to open up the photos we have been able to send you?

yeah, I love them! Its basically Gmail so everything really works except chat. sorry.

I still need to know if you received your package?

YUP. GRACIOUS! I am already trying to put the recipies into practice

Do you need money to cover the cost of buying another back pack? Sorry yours hasn’t been quite what you wanted.

I might need that. Its just really big and fantastic....but big

How is your back?

Good and tired. I have been sure to exercise it in the mornings.

How is your health in general?

Alright. I have decided that I need about twice as much food as my companions.

Love you all!

Elder Hanson

I am getting a little sentimental at this point in my mission because we are about to have transfers and because of the special change I had half way through my training I think they are kicking me out of Ribera Del Bosque.
I have really come to appreciate my companion. He is 24 years old and is an amazing example and makes it so I dont have to worry on making par but being even better.

In our small little branch we had testimony meeting and Missionary Work and Missionaries were a huge topic. We even had a sister get up and bare her testimony on the need to do more missionary work when she had previously told us that she was a little busy to try and do that. The Spirit aparently was working hard. I am so happy for my first little area and the experiences I have been able to have. Sorry I havent been telling you guys all the stories becuase I just need to write the basics. I will remember and tell you guys when I get back.

As far as Spanish goes I feel really good. I can really feel the Gift of tongues and I know that God wants me to speak Spanish, not only speak it but also be fluent.

Thanks and love you all!
Elder Hanson