Week 8 - September 26, 2016 - Gallipolis, Ohio

So this has been an interesting week! Haha! But it's also been a week full of many miracles! I've also learned a lot about the power of prayer throughout the week. I was kind of struggling teaching this week for some reason. I started to beat myself up a little bit on Friday because I was seriously just struggling so bad with teaching! So I knelt down and just prayed for strength to keep moving forward and I kid you not...I've never felt so much peace in my entire life! Guys! The power of prayer is real! So if you're ever feeling down, KNEEL! Kneel down and pray to your Father in Heaven! He loves all of you so much and knows the desires of your heart! Anyway, that's just one cool thing that happened to me this week.

So not much is new with Donna other than the fact that SHE IS SO INCREDIBLY READY FOR BAPTISM! She says that they have almost raised the full $60 for their marriage license. Please please please keep praying for them! They need all the blessings they can get!

Update on Gus and his family. So Crystal, his wife, found out 2 days ago that she is for sure pregnant! Haha! It's really exciting! Gus finally got an interview with the bishop about the temple and they set up an appointment for Gus's son, Junior, to get interviewed for HIS baptism! Ah! So exciting!. And fun fact! Crystal threw away her cigarettes for good!! Wahoo!! I absolutely love this family lol.

So last week I told you that we picked up some new investigators, Brady and Dylan. Brady and Dylan, his friend, are in they're twenty's. They both were super interested in talking to us. Brady was really interested in learning more about the 3 kingdoms. We also taught both of them The Plan of Salvation. Brady's mom is a member so he knows a little bit about the Plan of Salvation but Dylan hadn't ever heard of it before. They both said that it made total sense to them and the Spirit was so strong. So...we asked them to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know whether or not what we had taught them was true. I was also able to share with Brady my re-conversion story in the next lesson we had with him. And guess what?? He said the same thing happened to him when he prayed to know whether or not it was true! He said he hadn't really ever thought about how "God wont give you an answer, you already know." He's now a progressing investigator! Along with his friend Dylan! YES! They're super awesome!

We were also able to teach our new investigator, Lori Mercer and her family! We taught them about The Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus Christ and they said that it made total sense to them! It was super funny because literally their minds were BLOWN when we told them that the Book of Mormon and the Bible go hand in hand. Haha!! But it was super cool because they said they would read the Book of Mormon as a family! Heck yeah! Haha! Anyway, I'll update more about them next week after we see how they're doing!

CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:

Let someone know that you love them. Just as simple as that. On Wednesday, we contacted a former investigator named Izail. She was super skeptical about us talking to her at first and asked us a lot of questions. But while she was in the middle of trying to attack us with questions that contradicted what we believed, I felt impressed to let her know that we are there for her and that we love her. So I did and afterwards she was totally calm and more willing to listen to what we had to say! Just goes to show you that people truly NEED to know that they are loved! So simply just let someone know that you love them. It will mean the WORLD to that individual! I promise! Let someone know you love them so that they may, not only feel of your love, but of God's love as well.

FUNNY MOMENT:

Okay so from my subject title of this email you probably think I'm talking about a REAL forest and golf course. False. I am not. I'm talking about my leg hair. Now hear me out. So I went on exchanges with an elder in my district, Elder Holbrook. He wanted to do the "Nair challenge". It's a challenge where you put Nair on some part of your leg and the hair on that specific part of the leg will just fall off. So I put it on my right leg. And Seriously! It's so smooth! But I kinda hate it at the same time because I awkwardly only did one leg. Soooo yeah, I'll send a pic of it later on. Anyway, that's what I meant when I said "From dense forest to straight golf course." Okay

I love all of you so much! Thank you for all of the love and support you've given me! I am truly blessed to have such amazing examples in my life! The Church of Jesus Christ is true! I know it! Have a great week guys :)

Moroni 10: 32
Alma 7: 23-24

- Elder Hanson

Companion Study Time

Noah loves Dibs!

Looking for new people to teach in all kinds of places!

Week 7 - September 19, 2016 - Gallipolis, Ohio

Sounds like the family is doing well! That's awesome that you guys went to the Temple! I miss it so much! And that's fun to hear about the Aggie game:) sounds like a lot of fun! Ah! I miss that kind of stuff! Tell all the SBO's hi when you see them at Corinne's farewell! It's good to hear that you're doing my challenges because I KNOW that they will bless you life! So thanks for that:) Love you Mom and Dad so much! Thanks for everything that you've done for me and the family! Truly blessed :) 

Okay wow! So this week was full of amazing events as usual! Like for instance, we got 5 new investigators this week!! Freaking insane! Anyway, now imma update you on certain events!

Okay, so we're driving with our Bishop to go see some less actives and everything right? And we are literally in the middle of nowhere and look to our right and see this GINORMOUS sign in the middle of a field that says "TRUMP FOR PRES." and then right next to it was another huge sign that said "You build that wall!" HAHA! I had kind of forgotten that there was an election going on before I left. How is that? What's going on with that? Actually in all honesty, I don't really care because MISSION.

Anyway, update on Donna! She's SOOOO close to raising that money for her marriage license! She told us that they could have the marriage license in their hands by the end of this month! And she also said that they are planning to get married in the middle of October!! WAHOO! They're almost there! Please please please keep praying for her and Billy! Satan is doing everything in his power to stop them from getting married and her getting baptized! She wants it so bad!

Update on Gus and his family! Gus is doing amazing. He is till going to church and is going to have a calling in the church soon! So that's exciting! His wife has stopped smoking for 23 days now! Wahoo!! She lost her job though. So my companion and I had an impression to tell her that she probably got fired for a reason that will benefit her in the future. And then guess what?? Gus told us, 3 days later, that she might be pregnant! Like whaaaaat? So that's another amazing thing for them to look forward to BESIDES the Temple! Haha :) but keep praying for them! Pray that they will stay strong in Jesus Christ gospel and never give up!

So we have 5 new investigators! I'll just briefly tell you who they are. So first, we have Peggy. She's the wife of a less active we've been trying to see for the past 3 weeks! She seemed pretty interested in the gospel because her husband never talked about it. Then we have Dylan. He's a really good friend of one of our investigators, Brady Thacker, who we've been trying to teach for a long time now but just barely got in contact with him! Last but not least, WE GOT AN ENTIRE FAMILY! The Mercer family. Their names are Lori (wife), Butch (husband), and Adam (son)! They are all hardcore baptists. But they're super friendly and wanted to know what we believe, so we invited them to read the Book of Mormon and they did!  I'll update you on that next week :)

CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK:

SERVE SOMEONE ANONYMOUSLY! This week we had many of opportunities to teach people about service and missionary work and how it can not only make others happy but ourselves as well! And also how it makes us feel even better when we do it anonymously! So serve someone in any way that you can without them even knowing that you did so. The only person that will know that you did something good to someone anonymously is you and your loving Heavenly Father. And He will bless you tremendously for it! I promise!

FUNNY MOMENT:

So in case you didn't read my subject title for this email, here's what happened this week. WE SAW A FREAKING BABY STROLLER WITH A BABY IN IT ROLL DOWN A HILL. Okay, now before you think I'm a horrible person for thinking that that's funny, I'll tell you the ending first. The baby is fine! No worries! The hill wasn't that big but we didn't know that until we got close to the hill! Anyway, so my companion and I were walking to an appointment and we saw this kid pushing a stroller around with her baby sister in it. The big sister was pushing the stroller right along the top of this hill and she was carrying a blanket while pushing the stroller. She dropped the blanket and for some reason thought that she needed to pick the blanket up before she needed to stop her baby sister's stroller from rolling down the hill! So the stroller rolls down the hill and the big sister chases after it screaming. My companion and I just stood there for a second in shock of what we had just seen. Then we started running to help but the sister stopped the stroller in time and then we started laughing really hard once we realized the baby was fine! Haha!

Anyway, love you guys! Thank you for all of your amazing love and support! I truly am blessed with the most amazing family and friends! 

D&C 31: 9, 12-13
Ether 12: 27

- Elder Hanson

Week 6 - September 12, 2016 - Gallipolis, Ohio

It's been pretty crazy this past week! Holy cow! I mean it's crazy every week but it's awesome! Ohio is pretty foggy I've come to realize  haha because every morning when we wake up to go jog (which kind of stinks when you're super tired btw) it's always foggy! This morning wasn't as bad but it can get pretty dense! But I love it! Haha! Also fun fact, I swallowed a spider. If you want to know more, hit me up with an email and I'll tell you. Okay so I'll just start from the beginning!

So we're walking around this neighborhood that hadn't been tracted in a while and we ran into this guy. He asked us if we were the mormons in kind of a sassy tone lol. So we were like "Yeah! How can we help you?" He was like, "Oh no need to help me. Let's turn to Jacob 4:4". So we turned to Jacob 4:4 cautiously because we literally didn't know where this guy was going haha. He then went on to read it and said, "I wrote that". We were like, "What?" He was like, "Look I'm a mormon just like y'all and I have a father, his name is Isaac. I was baptized by him and I am now in this book." We were still like, "What?". His friend then pulled him aside and asked him if he had the money for "the stuff". Then he walked away and we were literally still standing there like "What?'". 

So some cool things that happened this week:

Update on Donna. She's raised up $30 already for her marriage license!! Wahoo!! Her future husband Billy is still working on raising the money but it's so crazy that they're already halfway there!! Thank you for all of your prayers for them and their marriage! Please continue to pray for them always! They still are struggling with health, money, and family problems. We don't want anything to hold her back from being baptized! So I would greatly appreciate it if you guys could do some praying and fasting for her! And I know she would appreciate it as well!

I also had ANOTHER amazing spiritual prompting experience on Friday. So we were walking by this park in downtown Gallipolis and I saw this guy sitting on a park bench staring at his phone. He looked really angry and so I was like "Nope. Nope. Nope." Like seriously, he looked frightening. But the Holy Ghost prompted me to go talk to him. And again in my head I was like, "No I'll get beat up." But the feeling got stronger and stronger as I got farther and farther away from him. Finally I said to my companion "Hey let's go talk to that guy over there." So we walked over towards the guy and told him who we were and about our message of Jesus Christ. And guess what I learned? He's actually one of the nicest guys I've ever talked to! I learned not to judge someone by the way they look. He willingly took a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and we gave him our number to call us. He said he would call us! I mean he hasn't quite yet but let's hope he does! And then again, I felt really good afterwards because I followed that prompting! That's why I always say to follow ANY prompting that you receive because you'll ALWAYS feel good afterwards! Anyway, that was something cool that happened to me :)

We also had an incredible lesson with Gus White and his family yesterday!! We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how families are an essential part of that plan. They seemed to really understand the lesson well. It was cool because they talked almost the whole time! They clearly understood the importance of families and how they provide that protection from the world in many ways! And they committed to reading scriptures as a family every night! Fun fact, Crystal (the wife) has stopped smoking for 15 days! Wahoo!!! I love that family! They're progressing so well!

Also I got an opportunity to teach Sarah Watson. She's a less active who doesn't get a along with her mom AT ALL. They seriously fight all the time, even when we're there. It's kinda awkward as you can imagine. But I had a feeling that we need to share with her the video "Come Unto Christ: Mutual Theme". It talks about Christ-like attributes. One of those attributes is forgiveness. The lesson made her cry. She said that she would do her very best to be kinder and more loving to her mom which is exactly what we wanted her to get out of the lesson! Yes! It was seriously such an incredible lesson because the Spirit was so strong! 

CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK:

Share your favorite scripture with someone and share why it's important to you! I shared one of my favorite scriptures to Gus White yesterday and it was 2 Nephi 31: 20. I bore testimony of it and how we need to press forward with faith and feast upon the words of Christ with our families! This scripture not only helped him realize the importance of families but it helped me strengthen my testimony on families as well! So I strongly encourage all of you to do that at least once this week! I promise you won't regret it!

FUNNY MOMENT:

So I'll just tell you about the whole swallowing the spider incident.    I was drinking some Kool-Aid and I set it down on our counter for literally like 5 seconds. I went to get another drink of it and I thought I saw a dark circle in the Kool-Aid but it was bad lighting so I didn't think much of it.  I drank the  Kool-Aid and felt that dark circle go down my throat. And I felt its legs stand up on my tongue right before it went down my throat. So for those of you who are wondering if I've eaten anything crazy since I've been here...there you go.

Anyway, I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Thank you guys for all the support :) stay strong in the gospel! God loves all of you and so do I :)

- Elder Hanson

Bittersweet in Gallipolis

We thought it was funny

Lookin' down the road that's Bittersweet

First Cinnamon roll attempt 

Great sunsets in Gallipolis

Week 5 - September 6, 2016 - Gallipolis, Ohio

Alrighty, so imma start off by saying I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T WRITE YOU GUYS YESTERDAY. It was Labor Day and all and so the library wasn't open. Frick. Anyway, hopefully mom wasn't too worried about it because I remember the first time Colin didn't write home. Loooolz. Okay, so this week was a great week! I have learned so much already and I'm already getting used to the culture here. Trust me. It's waaayyyyy different from Utah. Lol. I feel like I went foreign anyways. But I truly love it here :) I'm starting to get to know the people and I already love the people here. I think I might have said that last week but just in case, I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE! Okay so here's how the week went.

***Hey so my watch broke. Like the leather on it broke and so then the metal thing that hooks the watch to my wrist is broken too...Like destroyed. Aaaaand I don't know where to go to get that fixed. So if you want to, could you send me another one? If at all possible haha. Also, I love you guys! So much!***

So this week was actually kind of slow with teaching because my companion, Elder Hallewell, got really really sick. Now I know what you're thinking mom, 'Oh no! Did YOU get sick!?' Have no fear, I did not get sick! Lol. Which is actually super surprising because I have the worst immune system in the world. Like legit it's the WORST! Anyway, we stayed inside for two days because he literally could not get out of bed. But then we went to Walmart and got vitamins for him and he's all good now.

So remember how I said that we were trying to get Donna married so that she could be baptized? Well, she's starting to save up money for a marriage license! AND we set her on date for baptism!! October 29th! Wahoo!! We're still teaching her lessons about God's commandments and what she needs to do in order to prepare for October 29th. Please pray for her that she'll find a way to raise money for her marriage license. She needs all the help she can get!

Also, we are preparing Gus and his wife, Crystal is her name (I couldn't remember what her name was last week because I was still a pretty GREEN Elder)  for the temple to do baptisms for the dead! Their son, Junior, is preparing for baptism and guess what!? Gus, who just recently got baptized and received the priesthood, is gonna baptize him! AH! I'm literally so hyped. And his wife has stopped smoking for 9 days now! Wahoo! This is exactly why I came out here! To see the progress in people when they've been taught by the Spirit! And they're also preparing to be sealed as a family in one year from now! Guys, this gospel is so true!

CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK: (I'm going to start doing these now too haha)

Go and testify to someone anything about the gospel! Because I learned in church on Sunday that in order to grow our own testimonies, we need to share them! Because there is someone out there that needs to hear YOUR testimony. So if you every get the opportunity to share your testimony, DO IT! Because the Lord has softened someone's heart for you.

FUNNY MOMENT:

So when we were getting vitamins for Elder Hallewell, we ran into this guy named Trevor. He was about my age and he thought he was too cool for anything haha. He told us that he struggled with the law of chastity. He didn't say "Law of Chastity" obviously but he used different words that I don't wanna say because missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. ANYWAY, my companion extended the funniest invitation I've ever heard to him. He said "Okay listen. We challenge you to not do that kind of stuff for a week because that's nasty. Give us your number and we'll text you in a week." HAHA! And then the guy gave us his number and we're gonna text him tomorrow! Lolz.

Anyway, love all of you so much! Thank you all for your amazing examples and for getting me to this point :) stay strong in the gospel and you'll never fail! 

John 4: 19-21

- Elder Hanson