Fast Week

Yeah the Bryson’s are pretty amazing!   I feel pretty blessed to be in their lives and yeah, I will probably always know them as my Irish family.  This week went by really fast and it was just really good!  We won’t be able to see Zarah until later this week because she’s been on holiday in London.  We got to teach Bernice and we were going to show her the Joseph Smith Story but Sister Tracey only had one of the super old versions and it was kind-a weird but I just laughed because it was like a seminary video.  I think other than that it all went well though. 

Today I’m super sore from zone development because we played sports all day, I love it!  I learned rugby and got to play a lot of football and American football.  

I think if you find the Forsythe’s on FB, that they post a lot of pictures. We had a ward BBQ and I just love watching European people try to do a BBQ, it’s pretty funny. 

I also got to go on exchange with Elder Tarbet and I was his first exchange (his Godfather) and I love being around greenies, they make me feel so old and you can tell when someone is one. It’s still crazy that Luke is married, but keep the pictures up.  I love seeing all that’s going on. Hopefully I’ll have more to tell you next week. I love you! This week I read the talk “Being Perfect in Christ”, and I’m pretty sure that’s one of my favorites right now, especially with how much it applies to missionaries.  

Love, Elder H.

I found some hair gel so I thought I'd try it out.

Elder Simpson and I had a 'hankerin' for a Kabab

Pretty good bang up in zone development sports but it was worth it!

A small quad just like I want with a tartan cover and my name tag.

Zone Development Day.

Another note from the Bryson's

Facebook post on Sunday, August 24, 2014

 "Good Morning on this beautiful sunny Sabbath, just back from church and wanted to let you know how amazing Elder Hanson was this morning. He gave a talk on faith and told the story of his Dad's conversion.  It was so great, he had given us a copy of the story a while ago so I knew how beautiful it was going to be, but the spirit he brought into the chapel today was just the best. Russell and I were so proud of him, When he spoke about his Dad and Brother, he got emotional and I wanted to go up and hug him like one of my sons. I know you are both so proud of him and he is doing so well, he will be in our home on Tuesday for teaching, We are going through the Book Of Mormon, reading it from the start and it has been amazing. We still have a long road ahead of us, but with your son's help and his spirit, we know and hope we will be OK. He is a great example to our 17 year old son Carter who thinks he is really cool. Thank you once again for everything, for trusting us with your precious son, we love him so very much. Have a great Sunday, lots of love, Bernie & Russell Bryson xoxo"

From Sweet Sister Bryson

Posted on Elder Hanson's facebook page on August 19, 2014
"Hi to Elder Hanson's family, Elder Hanson and his companion have been with us this evening teaching. We have been inactive for a long time but we have been working with the Elders for the last few months and it has been amazing. I just need to let you know how thankful and blessed we are to have your son teaching us. He is a remarkable young man. My husband served his mission in the US over 25 years ago and I have been a member for around 22 years. We have 2 sons, Kel is 25 and Carter is 17. Elder Hanson has been in our ward for over 3 months and we need to thank you for the sacrifice your family makes everyday he is with us and not with you his family. He is an outstanding missionary with an amazing spirit.  I can't begin to tell you how much he means to us , We look on him as one of our sons and make sure he is fed, warm and safe. Heavenly Father blessed us when he sent him to us. We were at church on Sunday and loved being there. Your son has helped us gain the strength and hope to get our lives back to Heavenly Father. I hope you are all well, you and Elder Hanson's Dad are in our prayers and we are here for your son if he needs anything,  We treat him like our own and he has an Irish Family forever here with us, we love him very much. Thank you, may God Bless you, Lots of love Bernie, Russell, Kel and Carter Bryson. Xoxoxo"

People Came to Church!

​The Bryson's came to church! 

On Sunday I was showing David White who just became a teacher this week (the only teacher we have, haha) how to prepare the sacrament and I looked out to a bunch of people walking through the door and I see a person waving at me and I noticed, "Oh, that's Bro. Bryson!" and I walked over with just the dumbest smile ever. They both made it and they have made it just so far and when I went over to their house the day before they were talling me how I'm one of the missionaries that they have gotten closest to.  I can already tell I'm going to miss them, another thing, Zarah also came to church also. I'm not sure if I've already told you about her, she has been taught off and on for a couple months, but because of work, she has just been too busy and she's just super prepared, it's awesome.  It was also kind of sad thinking that it's been 10 months since I've had an investigator at church. ahah that's nuts! Since at the end of this moves I'll be at 6 months in Holywood, I'll probably end up moving after this six weeks and it's going to be hard. We are also teaching Bernice still and it's also going great. I can tell she knows everything we teach is truth. Things are going really well and I've been really blessed. Tell Dad I'm just really proud of him and I'm amazed at how strong he is. I love you!

Elder H

YW/YM Activity

Busy Week

Wow, Zoey and Ivy have gotten so big!

This week was really good, just really interesting.  On Monday we got to go to Giants Causeway!  It was pretty awesome.   Earlier on in the week we got to do service for a member that was renting out their house while they lived in Germany and the woman that they rented it out to just disappeared.  So we had to help clean out the house after it was pretty wrecked and we found a bunch of witchcraft books and things that were pretty creepy and so as you would, we burned all the books haha.  Then we also gave a blessing on the house but it was an interesting experience.

We also had a pretty amazing experience with the Bryson’s and I can see how missions make you love random strangers.  Another thing is that we got a new investigator named Lucas and his two brothers.  They are Romanian and they are pretty great.  They all three have their own families that we are teaching and Lucas played Happy Birthday to Elder Simpson on the 9^th.  They all came to church.... well they actually went to another church haha!  They ended up going to another church on the same road because they got the wrong directions, so... we have a little clearing up to do haha, but the work is going well.  

This week I really have realized just how much I love studying the scriptures and learning. I just love it and want to continue to do it for the rest of my life. I am really excited that I can officially say that I'll make it to next year.   I'm also excited to get back to warm dry summers.  It's been pretty cold this week and really rainy. I'm pretty sure I won't be affected by rain for the rest of my life.  Dad, I love you and hope you just keep getting better. 

We got moves call last night and we are staying the same for another 6 weeks!        

Walking through Dark Hedges

Dinner with the Senior missionaries, the Forsythe's

Giant's Causeway

Referrals!

This week was an interesting one! 

For starters, the Rosetta sisters (the sisters in our ward) needed to move to Lisburn because they had an investigator that was a sex offender with a criminal record who had found out where they had lived and stuff like that, so they were emergency moved to Lisburn.  So at the start of the next transfer, we will get two new Elders to replace them. This Sunday was the first Sunday of my mission where I had an entire ward to myself and my companion. The Bishop sat us down, knowing that the sisters have had a huge amount of success non-stop for years, and said that we had to work pretty much overtime to catch up.  We were more than happy to take it on. So far we have gotten 3 referrals from members and two more from other missionaries in Bangor.  We are a lot more busy or we will be until the new Elders come in and I just love being busy, it’s awesome!  We taught a woman named Bernice IN A MEMBER'S HOME!  I have never gotten a referral on my mission so far where a member has invited the person to take the discussions, they are usually just members pointing at houses, telling us to go for it, but it’s pretty much worthless at that point because the person has no idea why we are there. We taught Bernice in Sister Tracey’s home. Sister Tracey has been friends with her for years and Bernice has had a lot of questions that needed answering and Sister Tracey said,  “Well, I think I can help you answer those.”  We will be teaching her every Saturday and this is probably the most golden investigator that I have had on my mission!!  I am so thankful because we really did nothing, it was all the member’s work and Bernice being prepared by Heavenly Father. 

As for Sunday, I just bore my testimony on how thankful I was to help sister Tracey and to be a missionary. I could tell it set the mood for the rest of testimony meeting and it was just amazing. I think just having so much discouragement for the last four months, or even the last year, has just made me so thankful for the little things.  I’m just thankful to teach one person and some missionaries baptize like 10 people a week, but I feel like I understand joy the way that I could only learn it through this way. Things are looking up, we are working with a lot of people and I am thankful to be a part of these miracles.

I love you!   

The wrong end of a BIG gun

Monk-eying Around

AGHHHH!

      

A text that Sister Tracey sent this week