Week 43 - May 31, 2017 - Princeton, West Virginia

Howdy y'all! So I'm sorry I'm the worst and didn't email on Monday or Tuesday. Let me explain. Monday was because of Memorial Day and everything was closed and all that good stuff. Tuesday, the internet in all of Princeton was closed down. I was like "Are you kidding???" But now it's up and running and everything is fine and dandy! Sorry for the scare lolz. What? There's a new Pirates movie? I wanna see it so bad. Ugh!

Okay wow so miracle after miracle happened this week! We found 6 new investigators this week and it was so fire! And they're all pretty solid investigators! We set 2 of them on date for July 8th. I'll let you know the details in a sec but yeah this week was pretty bomb to say the least!

UPDATE ON INVESTIGATORS:

Bonnie. Okay so she is the definition of "someone prepared for the gospel"! Seriously though! She was a referral from church headquarters and we drove to her house which was like 15 miles away! It straight wrecked our miles on our car but it's fine. Then we get there and introduce her to the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she says, "Wow! This is great! I want my husband and daughter in on this!" And then the husband walked in and said he couldn't talk to us at the moment because he was heading out but he said he wants to meet with us on Saturday along with his wife! The miracles that come from diligence and obedience are fo' real!!

Vicki & Ed. So Vicki was a former investigator and we picked her back up along with her husband Ed! We went over the restoration with them and they loved it! We put them on date for baptism for July 8th and they're very committed to it! WAHOO! 

CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:

So y'all have heard me say this before but always remember that EVERY MEMBER OF THE CHURCH IS A MISSIONARY! Once you are baptized, you promise Heavenly Father that you will spread the gospel. In D&C 4: 3 it says, "If ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work." Last week I challenged y'all to share your testimony in some way, shape, or form! I'm challenging all of y'all this week to share your testimony with a nonmember! It might be scary, but I promise you that you will be blessed and that you won't regret it! I know you can do it!

FUNNY MOMENT:

Okay so y'all know that I always say things like "That's so FIRE!" or "This tastes FIRE!" Meaning that it's really cool or it's really good! Haha! I'm dumb I know. But I just want to share that I've gotten almost our whole ward here saying "fire!" and majority of this ward are elderly people and it's the funniest thing I've ever seen! Haha! So just thought I'd update y'all on me spreading, not only the gospel, but my slang as well.

Anyways, I seriously love all of y'all! Thank you for your love and support and I'll talk to you on Monday :) have a grrrrreat week!

D&C 4: 5-7

- Elder Hanson

Camp Creek Falls West Virginia

Camp Creek Falls

Elder Christensen and Me at Camp Creek Falls

Awesome day!

Shots of the Ol' apartment

Kind of made my bed

Top side view

Awesome Family named the Sacketts from Layton took this photo of Noah and Elder Christensen in WV

Week 42 - May 22, 2017 - Princeton, West Virginia

Whattup y'all! I hope you guys had an awesome week!! This week was a little rough on finding new people to teach but it was still a great week :). We were, however, able to find a lot of potential investigators this week so I'm pumped for that! Elder Christensen is doing great! We're just having a grand ol' time doing all we can for the Lord! Haha! 

UPDATE ON INVESTIGATORS:

Vanessa (okay yeah I know she's not an investigator anymore but this is pretty sik). So yesterday, she came to church (which is awesome) but she came in a DRESS for the very first time! Okay I know that sounds weird but hear me out. So she used to just come in just whatever she wanted because she didn't have a dress! And the fact that she went out and BOUGHT a dress for church just shows how committed she is! Hahaha wow as I'm typing this, i'm realizing how weird this is but it's just reassuring that she really is committed. Haha :)

Annette. So she's still doin great! However, she didn't come to church yesterday :( her mom had to go to the ER last minute and sooooo yeah. But she's still on date for June 17th :) so just keep prayin for her that she'll be able to make that date! :)

CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:

So I've kind of done this one before but I always like to share that sharing your testimony is a GREAT way to strengthen it. So my challenge this week is to do just that. Share you testimony about the gospel either on social media, through text, call, or better yet, IN PERSON! It can be kinda scary to share it especially if you don't do it regularly. But I promise you that your faith in Jesus Christ will be strengthened as you share your testimony about what YOU know to be true with someone else!

FUNNY MOMENT:

So you might be wondering from my subject title, "what's Dew-Pong?" Let me tell ya. So I was on exchanges with my zone leader, Elder Prince and we decided that we wanted to play it. So it's where you bounce a ping pong ball into your opponent's cup that's filled with Mountain Dew. However, it's not just one cup, it's like TEN! And when it lands in your cup or your opponent's cup, that person needs to drink that whole cup in one sitting. I drank 9/10 cups. Elder Prince drank all ten. We shared a very tender moment as we both almost threw up on their balcony. Haha! I'll send pics. 

Anyways, thank you all for your wonderful examples to me every week! Y'all are amazing and I hope you know that :) have a great week! Love y'all!

"By no means am I perfect, but I am perfect in one thing. I am perfect in trying." - Meet the Mormons

- Elder Hanson

The Cascades with Elder Prince

The Cascades near Pembroke, Virginia

The Cascades

Dew Pong

Princeton District

Week 41 - May 15, 2017 - Princeton, West Virginia

Hey y'all! Wow!! This week was awesome! I mean we had a baptism so I guess you could say this week ROCKED! Vanessa Cox got baptized on Saturday! WAHOOOOO!! I'll talk a little bit more about that here in a sec but yep! She's officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! Ayyo! Plus I got to Skype my family on Mother's Day! That was so fun but it went by too fast.

UPDATE ON INVESTIGATORS:

Annette. Okay so since you haven't ever seen this name before, obviously that means she's a brand new investigator! Haha! She is sooooo awesome! We tracted into her and apparently missionaries in the past had come by and taught her but they never gave her a Book of Mormon....?? Like what the heck? We sat down with her and taught the Restoration and she stopped us and was like, "I...already feel that this is all true. I need this." Miracles!!! We were able to set her on date for June 17th! Wahoo! So please pray that everything will work out for her to make that date! She's ready!

Vanessa. Soooooo she got baptized! Wahoo! The baptism went really well :) however, everything about the baptism program fell apart last minute! So many people couldn't make it that were supposed to give talks and bear testimonies and stuff like that! BUT it all worked out because we have awesome members that are always ready to do stuff last minute haha! Vanessa was really really nervous before the baptism holy cow. But I said a prayer with her and she seemed to calm down a little after that. She's happy as can be now haha! Now the next step is to get her to the temple! :) I baptized her and Elder Christensen did his first confirmation too!

CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:

HOW DO I GET CLOSER TO GOD (part 4)? Speaking of temples, one of the greatest ways that you can feel truly close to God is by attending the temple frequently! I cannot tell you how much I miss the temple! When you attend the temple, you can hear the Lord so clearly. There's no distractions. Just you and the Lord. I strongly encourage all of y'all to attend the temple at least ONCE this week! You will feel so much closer to your Heavenly Father and you will learn so much more about his loving plan for each of us I promise!

FUNNY MOMENT:

So for district meeting, we played a game where I brought over "Harry Potter: Bertie Bott's every flavor beans" and there's a lot of nasty flavored jelly beans in that box. There's vomit, booger, rotten egg, dirt, etc. And so we all had to close our eyes and pick one out of the box and put it in our mouths right away no matter what the flavor was! When I popped it into my mouth....I realized I had rotten egg. I went to the closest trashcan and basically threw it up haha! Sorry it's kind of a gross funny moment but I guess that's what I get for trying to torture my district with this cruel game. 

Thank you all for your amazing support and love! I truly love all of you so so much! Hope you all have a great week and stay safe :)

"We must remember how much our Heavenly Father and His Son love us." - Vern P. Stanfill

1 Nephi 8: 11-12

- Elder Hanson

Noah on Skype!

Laughing with his brothers on Skype

Noah loves Harry Potter!

With Elder Aubrey

Vanessa's baptism

Skype with Elder Christensen and Noah

Week 40 - May 8, 2017 - Princeton, West Virginia

Hey y'all! So wow this week was full of crazy events because of transfers and all that good stuff. But I got to meet my trainee on Thursday! And guess what?? His name is Elder Christensen from West Jordan, Utah! I got ANOTHER Elder Christensen haha! That was like the first thing I said to him when I met him. "You're my second Elder Christensen!" Haha! He's adjusting to the missionary life pretty well so far! We're having a blast! Ever since we've met each other, we've been able to be really really diligent in the work and see the blessings that come from it! We got SIX potential investigators yesterday just by knocking on doors for an hour! It was awesome! And I am still the District Leader here.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PADRE tomorrow!! Love you!

UPDATE ON INVESTIGATORS:

Vanessa. She's on fire!! She passed her baptismal interview and she is getting baptized this Saturday!! Wahooo!!!! We still have some lessons to teach her but she's fully ready to make that sacred covenant :) thank you for all your prayers and support for her! Please continue to pray that all goes well with the baptism on Saturday :)

CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:

So throughout my mission, I've been telling people, when I invite them to church, to bring a question in their mind and write it down before they come. Then I promise them that their question will always be answered! And it seems to work for a lot of the people that I ask to do that so I decided that I should try that this week. And oh man. It works!! I thought of a question that I've had for a while now and wrote it down and brought it to church with me. I got an answer almost right away during someone's talk. It was incredible! So my challenge is that each of you think of a question that's been weighing on your mind and write it down and pray about it. Then bring it to church. I promise you that that question WILL be answered! No doubt in my mind!

FUNNY MOMENT:

So during the first day with Elder Christensen, we went tracting (knocking on doors). And he was a little bit nervous, as was expected. But after the very first door that we knocked on, the lady slammed the door in our faces. Haha. I turned to Elder Christensen and said, "Your first rejection! How does it feel?" He paused..."IT WAS AWESOME! LET'S GO GET REJECTED AGAIN!" Hahaha! I died! We're having a blast together!

Thank you all for your love and support! I cannot thank you guys enough for your examples and for your testimonies each week! Love you so much! Have a great week!

2 Nephi 32: 8-9

Elder Noah Hanson

My old District before transfers

My new companion Elder Christensen from West Jordan, Utah!

Week 39 - May 3, 2017 - Princeton, West Virginia

Ayyyy y'all! It's your boi Elder Hanson! Hope you guys haven't forgotten about me yet ;) okay so transfers are this week and it's been pretty crazy finding out who's leaving and who's staying. So Elder Roberts is leaving and I'm staying here in Princeton! And guess what?? I'M TRAINING!! Pretty crazy right? My new comp is gonna be coming fresh outta the MTC! I'm honestly so humbled and honored that the Lord and my mission president trust me enough to show the ropes of missionary work to another missionary. It's gonna be a great experience :)

UPDATE ON INVESTIGATORS:

Christel....so I got some bad news. And y'all know I don't like sharing bad news but I just thought I'd update y'all. She dropped us. Her boyfriend didn't like the law of chastity lesson that we had with her and he told her that she couldn't visit with us anymore. She really really wants to live the law of chastity but she isn't in a good circumstance where she can do that on her own right now. She was sad to turn us away but I was weirdly not too sad about it. The spirit comforted me during that time and assured me that we had planted a good seed in her. Hopefully missionaries in the future will be able to teach her again :)

Vanessa. She's doing great! So we had to push her baptismal date to May 13th just so that we can be fully sure that she's ready! And she said that it worked better for her that way anyways so it all worked out :) Her baptismal interview is on Friday and I'm so excited for her! On Sunday at church, she asked me to baptize her. I'm, again, very humbled and honored that I get the privilege of baptizing her. She's been prepared for so long and now she finally gets the chance to do what she's been wanting to do for a while! Please please pray for her that everything will go well for her baptism :)

CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK:

HOW DO I GET CLOSER TO GOD (part 3)? Service. Literally, you are CONSTANTLY serving other people on missions. There's a reason they say "Called to SERVE"! If you haven't started already, look for opportunities to serve other people! It doesn't even have to be a huge thing. Any act of service is great in God's eyes. Because, "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." Mosiah 2: 17.

FUNNY MOMENT:

Okay so we were walking into an appointment with this older lady who we hadn't seen in a while and she answers the door and says "HURRY! Come in!" So we walk in and she walking really fast to the other room for some reason. She yells, "My favorite movie is almost finished!" So I yell back, "Ok, we'll just chill here for a sec!" And right after I yelled that, I heard the familiar and wonderful theme of Harry Potter coming from the room she ran off to. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me tell ya. I've never fangirled so hard in my life than in that very moment. I was kinda freaking out but it's fine. But eventually it ended and we were able to sit with her and teach her haha!

Love you all so much :) I hope all y'all have a great week! Keep on keepin' on!

1 Nephi 13: 37

- Elder Hanson

On splits with the Zone Leaders

Elder Hunsaker and the Zone Leaders

Double Rainbow