April 28, 2014: This is me with my awesome walking stick :)This is at the same waterfall, but at the top from last Monday! And one last picture! With much love of course! :)

These are our two baptisms! (Wilmer y Jose Luis) And this is the waterfall that we hiked to this morning!

This week has been full of such excitment and I can't wait to share it with you guys! First off, I had my first Interchange this week with a latina hermana named Hna Fuentes. I was so so nervous, because I knew that I would have to be speaking Spanish the whole time! But, I got there and realized that I know a lot more Spanish than I think I do. I think it helped me realize that the Gift of Tongues is real and God really does bless you when you're doing his work. Ah, also they finally finished repairing and painting our house. I think they are only coming back one more day to finish some painting on the outside and today we speant our morning cleaning out the inside. It finally feels like nice, clean little house. I'll have to take a picture when they're all done and send it so you can all see our cute little house.

This week we also had our first baptism in our District. It was the Elder's baptism and here they let us to baptisms in the Cascadas (waterfalls)! It was so beautiful and only a few people were there, but the service was very sweet and spiritual. I just hope that I get to have a baptism there with one of my investigators one day. But, not worry because Hna. Casiano and I had our first set of baptisms this Sunday! It was of two brothers. Wilmer and Jose Luis, one of them is `11 and the other is 13. There mom can't get baptised right now, because she needs to marry the man she's living with first, but she is so sweet and so supportive of her two boys. It was such a happy day and I look forward to bringing more people unto Christ like that. Also, the boys were so funny when we brought over the white jumpsuits for them to try on. they both went inside tried them on, took pictures, and then came out to show us. They were so happy and I loved seeing them all in white.

Now, for the funny story of the week. This week Maria (the mom of the two baptisms) turned 36. So, Hna Casiano and I bought this beautifully decorated cake to take her to help celebrate her birthday! We got to her house sang to her, and then she said thank you and took the cake and put it on her counter.... Needless to say we were there teaching for an hour and we didn't even get to try one little peice of the cake! It was like torture! But, not to worry it just means we'll have to buy another one sometime. Well, I love you all so much and pray for you. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

 

Much Love,

Hermana Hansen

April 21 2014

Familia,

Okay so last Monday my district got to go hike to a waterfall and it was so so pretty from the top, the only problem was as we started hiking down to the base the Distric Leader decided it was too dangerous so we didn ´t get to go all the way down to the bottom which was a bit of a bummer. But, it was still really pretty from the top. Also, everyday I feel like I´m on some crazy hike with the Graham´s, because most of our investigators live at 20 minutes out of the main city area. My shoes are already starting to wear out a little, but I love our investigators.

The other morning we went to help Hna. Maria make tamales. People here do things so different. It was so funny to see her gutting the shicken and then, instead of cutting it into peices with a regular knife, she pulls out the machete and starts hacking away. It was really interesting to watch and we got to help her grind up the corn, because here everything is made from scratch scratch, it´s pretty cool! Also, this same day another investigator fed us something that was similar to french toast but better. I can´t remember what it´s called right now, but one day I´ll learn how to make it.

The past few days me and my companion have been chased by so many wild dogs, chickens, and geese. And it may be hard to believe, but being chased by the angry geese was probably the scariest of the three. There are always crazy chickens walking around everywhere, but usually they don´t chase us. But, last night we went to visit a menos activo named Hno. Santos Emilio and he took us into his back yard to show us his chickens. And instead of having a chicken coop or just letting his chickens roam free like most people here, he has trained all of his chickens to climb a rail into this tree. So, basically he has this huge tree that is full of chickens! It was one of the funniest things I´ve seen since I´ve been here. These people are great! I love you all mucho!

 

Love,

Hermana Hansen

Liquado to go -in a bag with a straw!

April 14, 2014 Cold bucket shower!

P.S. The language is finally starting to come... more an understanding of the language than me actually speaking it, but Hey! That's a start right! :)

 

This week has been a very interesting one! First off one of our progressing familias dropped us!! My companion said that, that has never happened to her before. They just straight up told us they weren't ready for baptism so unfortunately we won't be going back for a while. But, on a happier note to boys (Wilmer y Joseluis) that we are teaching are progressing very quickly and we are hoping that they will be baptized in the next week or two.

Also this week I decided to be a little adventurous with my cooking and attempted banana bread and peanut butter cookies on the stove top. But, no matter what it is that we cook on the stove top it always ends up being a cakey texture. But, I guess the important thing is that it still tastes good. However, the day that we made banana bread I forgot to clean out the pot that night so this resulted in my companion and I both having to take FREEZING cold bucket showers the next day. All, because I forgot to clean out the pot that we use to heat up our water. I felt bad, but it definitely made us count our blessings and appreciate our warm bucket showers every day.

Starting this week we now have a member that we pay to cook us 3 lunches a week and her food is so good! It's usually some kind of meat with rice and ALWAYS a whole stack of tortillas. It is so good, but she always gives us so much food! Which I am definitely not complaining about. This member and her spouse are so kind and have offered to sit in on a lot of our lessons. They take really good care of us.

This week (if you can believe it) we actually had what is called a frente de frijo, which is when out of the blue it is cold for a few days. But, no worries, because now it is back to being roasting hot again. I love it here so much and the people are great!

 

Much Love,

Hermana Hansen

My first letter!!!! Wa-hoo!!!

Second meal with an investigator! The elders made us a cake and they didn't do this on purpose, but they gave it to me on my 2 month mark!

April 7, 2014 Email

AH! I can´t believe that it´s already Monday again. The General Conference sessions yesterday and Saturday were full of the spirit and much inspiration. However, I only got to watch the Sunday morning session in English, because the internet connection here is not very good. Although I could not understand hardly anything I was still able to feel the spirit and I did catch a few key points from each speaker. Also, between the 4 sessions we had 7 investigators come! And 3 of them were a complete surprise for us. We had just talked to them the day before and casually invited them. Usually when we do that people don't come, but lo and behold half way through the last session they all piled into the chapel. It was so awesome! The church is true.

Also, more exciting news! I got my first letter yesterday and it was from Mariah Moody! What is this family?? I want to hear from you guys too! Ha, but I love you all anyway. So I want to tell you a little bit more about my area. Here having a bike is the coolest thing ever, so all the kids and parents have their own bikes and they ride them everywhere. But not only do they ride them everywhere, they try to take as many people as possible on one bike. Each bike always has anywhere from 2 to 4 people on it. These Hondurans are very creative in squeezing people on bikes. Also as we are walking around there are school buses and other buses constantly passing us. But, these buses aren't for taking children to school. They are the taxis that everyone takes to get from one city to another and (just like the bikes) they squeeze as many people as humanly possible into each bus.

Well I love it here a lot! Despite the constant heat, humidity, and dirt everywhere God does know where his children need to be and he puts us where people need us as well. Keep up the faith and never falter!

 

Love,

Hermana Hansen

A picture of the huge taco's they sell here and one of the hermanas in my district!

My companion (Hmna Casiano) and I, my first shower in Marcala! (bucket showers everyday wahoo!) and our bat friend!

Food, skits and a bat!

So I don´t even know where to begin! But, first sorry my e mail was late we had an activity for the Hermanas yesterday in Tegucigalpa which is a good 3 and half hours away from my area so we had to wake up at 3 in the morning to catch the 4 o´clock bus to Tegucigalpa.   The activity was so fun! We had a little program of musical numbers and then Hermana Fortuna (My mission Pres. wife) spoke to us for a bit and then we had a couple skits. My area of Hermana´s did a skit and it turned out really good! It was definitely a great activity.

Anyway, on Sunday me and my companion woke up to find a bat clinging to the back of our mirror on the wall! But, we didn´t have time to do anything with it because we had to pick up investigators for church. So, when we got home we had a little boy from next door come over to get it out. When he hit the mirror our little bat friend just fell to floor... I guess he was dying and decided our orange mirror was a good place to end his life. But, before we knew he was dying we were freaked out! It ended up being a good Sunday though, because we had 5 investigators with us at church was incredible! And we´re hoping to have that many with us watching General Conference this week!

So the food here is actually really good. So far I´ve had baleadas, papusas, chocobananos, and these really good bananas that have to be cooked before you can eat them. We´ve only been fed once by an investigator this far, but she gave us 3 or 4 tortillas each with beans and this white stuff called Mantequilla. (Mantequilla is similar to sour cream, but has a bit of a different flavor) It was actually really good! Here everyone makes homemade tortillas and they are delicious. Also, one of our investigators told us that sometime she would teach us how to make tamales which I am so excited for!

My area is called Marcalla and it´s way up in the mountains, but despite what you are all used to thinking about mountains it is still so hot and humid here all the time. Our area is huge and we walk everywhere! So I definitely get my good share of cardio in everyday.  Apparently this area has a reputation of being pretty slow and not baptizing a lot, but my companion and I have had lots of luck with finding new investigators and we even have one with a baptismal date! Well everything is great here in Honduras and I love it here a lot!

Love Always,

Hermana Hansen