April 11, 2017 - "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass"

Hello Everyone,  

It seems like I say this every week but it has been a very busy week! Lots of stuff happened. First of all, I will be transferring back to my Greenie area of Hollywood, but as an English missionary so that's sort of a bummer. My companion is Elder Foster from SLC, Utah.

In other news, this past week we had a Zone Activity where we played "Quidditch" basically Ultimate Frisbee with water balloons. Then the next day we had Zone Training and I think it went well. Afterwards, as a prize for the March Madness competition, all the Areas that got 4 points got to hit us with water balloons so that was pretty cool. 

Also this week we amassed all of the recent converts from the last 2 years in the Stake and made a report for Stake Missionary Correlation meeting we had Sunday. It took like 6 hours but hopefully it will help the stake leaders and bishops be informed on where to focus their efforts. In addition to that this week I went on 3 exchanges, I think. And I used the Sacerdocio (the Priesthood en espanol) twice this week! I did a baptismal interview in Spanish and then on Sunday I gave a blessing to a cute little Paraguayan lady also in Spanish so that is pretty exciting. Also we went to Natacha's house and she gave us some good food! It was great. Then after that we went and visited a member that moved from Haiti and when we were walking back we got stopped by one of Elder Jean-Louis' former investigators from his time in Palm Beach so hopefully we can work with him so he can get baptized. As for our Investigators, Fadens and Sterline came to church and they are pretty solid, they are super cool so hopefully the new elders coming in can baptize them on the 22nd of April.

I'm going to be transferring and I don't really know what to say so I will just finish with my last thought. I thought I would just send you all a portion of Zone Training.

• “How can I have a better experience at church?”

"Years ago I was sitting in a sacrament meeting with my father... [and] he seemed to be enjoying what I thought was a terrible talk. I watched my father, and to my amazement, his face was beaming as the speaker droned on... Our home was near enough to the ward that we walked home…I finally got up enough courage to ask him what he thought of the meeting. He said it was wonderful…. Like all good fathers, he must have read my mind because he started to laugh. He said: “Hal, let me tell you something. Since I was a very young man, I have taught myself to do something in a church meeting. When the speaker begins, I listen carefully and ask myself what it is he is trying to say. Then once I think I know what he is trying to accomplish, I give myself a sermon on that subject.” He let that sink in for a moment as we walked along. Then, with that special self-deprecating chuckle of his, he said, “Hal, since then I have never been to a bad meeting.”... He could listen to anybody... Dad would say: “Look, I can learn something from anybody. They have had experiences I haven’t had.” (Henry B. Eyring, 1988)

• Now why is it so important that we make our prayers, studies and church attendance more meaningful?
• “Our devotion to the Lord is equal to the depth of our discipleship” -Elder Hansen

Hopefully you can take something out of this. It makes more sense in a training situation.

I love you all and Hope that you have a great Easter this week

-- Love

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work

Saying good-bye to Elder Jean-Louis and 

to their investigators Fadens and Sterline.

 

The Zone throwing water balloons at the ZLs.

That's Elder Hansen cowering on the far left!

Playing Ultimate Quidditch... action shot!

Elder Jean-Louis getting drenched!

April 3, 2017 -"...whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants..."

Bonjou Fre'm ak Se'm yo (Hello Brothers and Sisters)

Well, this week was super busy but there isn't a whole lot to tell you guys! On Tuesday, we had District Training in Elder Rackham's district and then after that I went on exchange and stayed with Elder Martinez because he is sick and has been sick for a while so we gave his comp a chance to go out and work... And It gave me an opportunity to do some planning for Zone Training, so for the first time in a long time, I studied the scriptures and words of the prophets and apostles for 5 straight hours, it was pretty dope. 

Then on Wednesday, we had 2 more DT's and when we finally finished we came home and taught Luc Edouard, Elder Jean-Louis' recent convert that moved into our area. After that we had Less Active visits with the Elder's Quorum and it was a train wreck of colossal proportions! Elder Hansen couldn't watch the whole Elder's Quorum drown so he took matter's into his own hands and sat down with the Elder's Quorum President and organized all of the people on the ward list geographically so that one companionship would have a clustered group of members to visit. So, that went well except for the part where the Elders Quorum Pres. just peaced out and left me at the church alone... but don't worry, I found a responsible adult to watch after me. ;)

On Thursday, we started making Zone Training, afterwards we went and visited Sterline and Fadens and set them with a baptismal date for the 15th, we will see if they will be ready by then. 

Friday we had Mission Leadership Council and that was really good, and then to finish off this weekend we alternated between watching General Conference and preparing Zone Training. So it was a pretty good week, but like I said, very busy.

My last thought, "Search these commandments [and conference talks], for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled. What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." (D&C 1:37-38)

We have had a bounteous opportunity to listen to the prophets of God this past week end, however I invite you to not let their words pass by you but rather to have them pass through you. If you are wondering what God wants you to do over the next 6 months, I promise you that if you study them and prayerfully and humbly look for correction and guidance, that you will hear the voice of the God speaking to you and you will know with a perfect knowledge what He would have you to do.

If I had to pick one theme from this conference I would say that it is this, “Our devotion to the Lord is equal to the depth of our discipleship”. As we find small ways to deepen our Daily Discipleship, we will see the Book of Mormon promise "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" and we will overcome the seemingly insurmountable trials and difficulties. That is a promise.

Love you all!

--

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work

P.S. Desculpame! No hay ningun fotos esta semana ;( (Sorry, there are no photos this week)
So, I have a challenge for you guys, when I get home the whole family will all be able to go to the temple to baptisms for the dead. So when I get home we should all go together and in preparation for that I give you all a challenge to find 30 names (five a piece) for us to take to do baptisms for them. Do you accept this challenge??

The twins at Zone Training, a surprise photo from Sister Burdick in the office!

We sent them some money for a nice dinner, they got Haitian empanadas or

Haitian pate, made with "egg and onion and chicken and peppers and stuff"

Elder Jean-Louis was very grateful and wanted to know 

if you were looking to adopt any other children, haha 

March 27, 2017 - "Do not spend [time] for that which is of no worth..."

Hello all,

This week was pretty busy so nothing has really changed. So to start off the week we had a dope MPL with our best member missionary Sister Carline Pierre-Jules. We taught Gertude and her kids Sterline and Fadens. They accepted the message of the Book of Mormon well. They are a super cool family and we were able to teach them many times this week and they fed us a few times too. The kids are cooler than the mom unfortunately, but they have been reading and praying! The crazy thing is that Sterline just moved from Belle Glade and she had lived there almost her whole life. I definitely knocked on her door (we checked) about a year ago when I was there. Pretty cool, I guess she gets a second chance to hear the gospel form Elder Hansen. :)

Sterline and Fadens came to church on Sunday but Gertude did not because and I quote, "I just gave birth so none of my shoes fit", lamest excuse ever! Anyway, we can tell that she is super comfortable with us because she has no hesitance on breast feeding her baby during the lessons, maybe it's just a cultural thing... I don't know.

Anyway, we had more exchanges this week as normal, I went to the Brazilian branch again and got fed a large Brazilian meal and I ate chicken Heart. It was pretty good.

Then on Thursday, we took one of the young men out with us, Paul Valcin, and he spent a whole day with us for a "mini-Mission". He seemed to have a good time, him and Elder Jean-Louis talked a lot of trash, also probably a cultural thing. 

Then on Friday, I went on Exchange with Elder Lyons, the newest AP and we had a good time together. He is from Logan and will be going to USU so we will probably be seeing a lot of each other.

On Saturday we prepared our Stake Report for our early meeting on Sunday. Apparently we did a better job than we should have because they asked us to do the same report but going back over the last 2 years... But miraculously on Sunday we had 2 miracle member referrals that came to church and so they became new investigators! It was great! Then we got fed 3 times randomly, none of them from our ward... so we were very full.

Okay enough of the boring stuff here is the less boring stuff, my last thought: 

"Time is the property we inherit from God, along with the power to choose what we will do with it... so great an inheritance that we should feel it is our capital... Your inheritance is time. It is capital far more precious than any lands or stocks or houses you will ever get. Spend it foolishly and you will bankrupt yourself and cheapen the inheritance of those that follow you. Invest it wisely, and you will bless generations to come. "

"...I've come to understand something that happened to me long ago. I must have been in my early teens... And I was in a hurry... but i felt, not heard, a voice. It was an impression, which I knew then was from God. It was this thought, and close to these words: "Someday, when you know who you really are, you will be sorry you didn't use your time better." I thought then that the impression was odd, since I thought I was using my time pretty well, and I thought I knew who I was. Now, years later, I am beginning to know who I am, and who you are, and why we will be sorry if we do not invest our time well...

"One of the things that makes you a child of promise is that you know God’s promises, and you know their purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. You will invest your time wisely if you value the promises. And you will value the promises when they work in your life and in the lives of people you love. And they will work when you invest your time in accepting them and offering them to others. And real investment of time happens only with sustained effort motivated by faith... 

"You will gain confidence in your ability to invest your precious time well by gaining three other confidences. First, you must gain confidence that God keeps his promises. Second, you must gain god's confidence that you will always keep the promises, not that you choose to make but that he asks you to make. And third, you must help others gain confidence that God keeps his promises." (Child of Promise, Henry B. Eyring, 1986)

There are so many things that are vying for our attention especially in this media and tech age. We have so many "conveniences" that are supposed to make our lives faster and more efficient and therefore give us more time, however they often do the very opposite. There are so many "good" things that we could do, but that doesn't always mean that they are what we should do. Like Elder Eyring said, time is the property that God has given us and it is up to us to decide what to do with it. It is important for us to be constantly evaluating how we're are using our time because in the words of Elder Maxwell, "Sometimes hearts set so much on the things of the world must be broken."

-- Love​

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work

With Paul Valcin their Mini-Missionary 

Elder Hansen and Elder Lyons, future Aggies!

Checking out the sunrise on the pier

Matthew's creative ZL folders

March 20, 2017 - "...but his hand is stretched out still."

Hello family, 

We had a whirlwind of a week here in the FFLM! To start off, last P-day we played some sports and I cut my hair, which has apparently, unbeknownst to me, been the cause of grief across the nation. So that happened and then, on Monday we went out with President Valcin our Branch President and all our appointments fell through... To give you the overview of the week, we had 15 scheduled lesson's and only taught one.... So we were stood up 14 times which is higher than average.

On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference which was super boss. We are making a big push to hit our goal of 100 baptisms in #TheRiseoftheFFLM for April, it's finna be dope! We all signed a Florida State Flag to commit to the goal. (Elder Hansen didn't realize it at the time, but he made the front page of the Mission Newsletter! It was a fun surprise for us to receive this email message and photo from the Mission Secretary, "I thought you would enjoy seeing photos of your fine son at Zone Conference yesterday. He is signing the mission flag, pledging his diligent effort towards April baptisms." Sister Burdick.) 

On Wednesday, I went on exchange with Elder Burton, one of the Greenies and we had a good time knocking. Then for mutual we went out contacting Less-Actives with the young men. As we were waiting for everyone to get there we played some 4 on 4 Pros-ball with some of the young men and we blew there minds with our skills. The Three-Master lives on... :)

On Thursday, we helped a white family move and we were the only ones to show up and it took like 4 hours... we were tired after that. Then all our appointments fell through again so we visited some less-active members and gave them blessings because they are sick.

On Friday, our appt. fell through (shocker) so we took some time to tape our bumper back on because it keeps falling off. After that we gave a comp study to the Palm Beach North Sisters on Charity and Selflessness. Then we ate with the Jean-Robert family and then we knocked some more doors and found a family! Gertude and her family have been looking for a Church since they left Haiti... 8-years ago. They seem pretty cool.

Then on Saturday, we knocked doors and then went to another Haitian party which was lit. Food, Haitian music, dancing, the works... The best part though is that half the people there were non-members so we are hoping to get some new investigators out of it!

On Sunday, we had to teach primary and that was an adventure! Then for singing time your's truly was the pianist (for reals this time). That was about it for the week.

My last thought, "Alas, many stay at arms length from Him whose arm is outstretched" -Neal A. Maxwell

Sometimes we blame God for being far away when it is actually us who refuses to grasp the outstretched hand of the Savior!

-- Love 

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work

Teaching Primary and playing the piano in the Haitian Branch

This little cutie is Junior Exalus :)

Another Haitian Party, this one is to celebrate the Relief Society

Signing the mission flag 

The entire Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission 

March 13, 2017 - "That's a Clown Question (irrelevant)"

Hello y'all

This was a very busy yet fun week. To start off we had Zone Training and that was pretty great. We introduced "March Madness" into the Palm Beach Zone and the goal is to get 2,500 quality contacts in order to hit our Baptismal goal of 25. So for 3-4 days each week two companionships go head to head in order to see who can get the most contacts and the companionship that does gets a point and at the end of the month the companionship with the most points gets lunch on the Zone Leaders aka Elder Jean-Louis and I... It has been going pretty well. So far, we have 492 quality contacts between the 13 companionships so we are well on our way to 2,500! 

After Zone Training I went on exchange with one of the "Greenies" Elder Hantz, a convert from Hawaii (No, he was white if you are asking) he is a super cool guy and we went super hard contacting people. Then the next day we exchanged back and then we went out to go finding. Funniest part of the day (the clown question part) was the last door where this crazy Haitian guy was "proving" to us out of his French bible that the Catholic Church is the only church mentioned in the bible by name. In case anyone of you have had your faith shaken by this, the Catholic church was not mentioned in the Bible, but we had a very entertaining discussion with him. :)

The next day we went on exchange with Elder Rackham and Lantor. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings together and they brought out a magical timer that counted up to 15 minutes and then told us our food was free, so that was miraculous! On the exchange we knocked doors for a solid 4 hours and found a couple peeps and then we went to help out with the Movie Night their ward was having. On Saturday we exchanged back and then went to Ward Council and then got fed by one of the members and then went to a very extravagant Haitian Party and that was fun. Then I went on Exchange again with Elder Rackham, this time was so I could do a baptismal interview for them on Sunday morning. I had to stay and go to their church and during sacrament meeting Bryce Harper the famous MLB player showed up, so that was pretty cool. There was also a talk given in Farsi by an Iranian Family.

That was about it for the week. My last thought, "A youngster was assigned by his father to see to the moving of a large rock. He tugged and pushed, and he lifted and struggled without avail. Some friends were enlisted, but together they could not move it. Reluctantly he reported to his father that he could not budge the rock.

“Have you done all you could?” asked the father.

“Yes,” said the little boy.

“Have you tried everything?” persisted the father.

“Yes,” said the boy. “I’ve tried everything.”

“No, son, you haven’t,” said his dad. “You haven’t asked me.”

Why do so many of us, “heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ,” fail to go to him, to keep in touch with our Father? He is anxious to help. But he wants us to learn our need for him, to open the door to him."
-Marion D. Hanks (Joy Through Christ, April 1972)

Sometimes we forget that our Father in Heaven has promised us divine heavenly help when we ask for it. We forget that we are never unworthy to pray. We let our own pride get in the way of the divine assistance awaiting us from a loving Heavenly Father who is waiting to help us.

--Love

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work

Palm Beach Zone Training

At the Haitian Party

That's quite the fancy party! 

Reenacting the Waters of Mormon painting