Interesting Week

So this week was an interesting one. On Wednesday we had zone interview training and when I was interviewed by President Brown, it was like a movie, like it didn't really happen, but he read to me the email Mom sent him saying that Dad has cancer. I didn't really react to it or it didn't really hit me but it's all I could think about all day, but through it all, I was just really calm and knew everything was going to be OK. 

I also got sick on Friday night and was throwing up all the time and I was still sick until Sunday, but now I'm a lot better. 

We also got a new investigator whose name is Sam. He started off reading the Bible, just to bash with religion but since he had kids, that changed things for him. He knew nothing of the Book of Mormon and agreed with everything we said. He just said "You know, it would make sense for there to be prophets still" and he said he was going to read and we are going to see him again on Saturday.

-Elder Hanson 

  

A Blessing

So this week we went on a bunch of exchanges and one of them was with the zone leaders. When I was with them, it was just a day of everything falling through, even our back-ups fell through. I was with Elder Brown for the day and he just came from Aberdeen. It was a pretty long day of tracting non-stop.  But, it was ok, I’ve learned how to make anything a good time. At the end of the night what we did was in Bangor they challenged the members to write their testimonies in a Book of Mormon and pray about a name or street and the missionaries will give it to that person. Well, at about 8:00 that night. a member, Bro. Peacock, prayed about a street and we just went and chapped it.  When we got there it looked like we were just going to be getting a lot of doors in our face. the odds weren't really looking good.  The zone leaders already chapped the entire side of one street and so when we got there, there were only a handful of houses left.  I was pretty doubtful because I haven't had a lesson on a door step in a long time, let alone given a person a Book of Mormon.  Just right on the door step. we started chapping some doors and it looked like everything was going as I thought it would.  But, I was more than happy to be proven wrong. We knocked on a door and a woman answered and we just said "Hey, we are sharing something that will improve your life." and I just thought right after saying it ‘Who in their right mind says that?’, it’s pretty much telling her that we think her life sucks.  She just answered "Actually, yeah that's interesting because I’ve just been going through a lot in my life and that's just what I need."  Every single word we said was exactly what she needed. We gave her a Book of Mormon and we explained that we actually had a member pray about this street to find her individually and that his testimony was in the back. I haven't seen someone so promising and needing the gospel. I know that she might not be in my area and I may never see her again, but I know I needed to see that miracle. 

Continuing

So they are having us do family history for an hour a week so have Dad check on his side because I added people and I’m not completely sure if its correct so check it so I don’t screw it up.

Tell Devin he needs to message me. 

So this week was pretty alright, right now I have one of my knee braces on because I twisted it during zone development when we were playing sports.  I’ll be fine, I just need to keep the brace on.  I also hurt my back falling on it after an Elder threw me over his shoulder. It knocked the wind out of me and I was having that 10 second freak-out moment where I thought I would never breath again, haha.  Other than that it was a lot of fun. For zone development other than sports, we did an old western murder mystery and we all dressed up and it was a lot of fun. My character was Ol'Bar, an old crazy trapper from the hills and my goal was to pretty much just act crazy, it was pretty funny and I found a pretty gnarly beard at a costume shop. It turned out McDonald was actually the killer, haha.

As for the work, it’s been the same with this area probably being the slowest area I have been in.  I think that every area I go to the slower/ harder the work has gotten. The ward is amazing though and it just sucks because I want to help them so bad and they are always willing to help us but there is nothing to help us with haha.  Oh well, no work is wasted just as long as we are trying and working hard, then it’s ok by me because I’m not really in complete control of what happens.  The Lord is.  

I found another one!

Come-on Members! Drop Us a Bone Here!

Sorry for not writing until today.  We had ANOTHER bank holiday so all the libraries were closed. Well, we just finished a five week transfer.  That only happens once a year in order to match up with the MTC and how it needs to get cleaned and all that stuff. So it went by incredibly fast.  I can’t even believe it, just to show you that missions aren’t easy, we only got one other lesson in all the 5 weeks and we still don’t have a single investigator!!!  That’s crazy! The other day I was down on myself because we literally have nothing to show for all our work and the ward probably thinks we are just wasters even though we are finding like mad, but that being said there really isn’t much we can do.  It's okay, it's really not that bad.  When you get used to a hard difficulty all the time, it becomes the norm. There is no reason to get upset about something you can’t control and I’m still having a blast. The ward still loves us and we work with a lot of less actives and it's nice being there for them. 

Some cool stories: we went over to the Bryson’s and found out that the day before, Bernie (the mom), works as a special needs teacher and was in the middle of a school stabbing.  She was not stabbed, but she was covered in blood from one of the students that did the stabbing.  The student didn’t fully comprehend what he did and it was all too much for her.  The other kid that was stabbed was in critical condition.  When she told us and we just were there and she just vented to us.  When we got there, she was just shaking with stress but after listening to her, in the end we were joking and having fun. 

Another story, we went over to a part member family and their son is deaf but he went on these crazy adventures in Africa and told us all about them.  After our visit he gave us a ride to family home evening. You wouldn’t have been able to tell he was even deaf unless he spoke, which wasn’t even that bad, but he could just read lips so well and he could drive!  I would be terrified. 

The other day I was looking through my T book.  It’s pretty much just like a year book where you have missionaries write in it when they leave, and I noticed that all of them told me that I taught them how to have fun and enjoy their mission and not to be so stressed out, but I would have never seen myself as fun or stress free. It’s nice to reflect on all those things. 

On Wednesday we went to a castle for p-day because it was moves week and it was a lot of fun.

Love you!

P-Day Visiting a castle

A balancing act

Me, Sister Brand, Elder McDonald

It's Good to Talk to People

This week has been pretty good.  I’m just having a blast. Our neighbor is doing well, we say hello every time we see her but every time we do, one of us is always in a hurry. We had a lot of really good conversations with just a bunch of random people, but none of them really ended up going anywhere, but it was still nice to just have a talk with people and get to know them.

Kilts are more of a Scottish thing, but we have seen a couple of kilt shops and a guy in the ward wears one on Sundays. It’s the same with bagpipes.  I’ve just gotten so used to potatoes that I’m not sure if they eat a large amount, but yeah, I guess they eat a lot more than us. Just send anything and everything to the mission home and they will get it to me. It might take longer but it’s just easier.

Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week.  We were stalled by a march again, so we sat behind it on the bus.  So a 10 minute bus ride took over an hour.  We also went to the Bryson’s and Berney, (Sister Bryson,- they don’t like being called Brother or Sister) started going in a panic attack when she heard Elder Mcdonald might be moving on Wednesday.  Then she also went off saying "I’m going to call the mission president and tell him that his Irish mum says that he can’t leave." It’s pretty funny how much she loves us. But we got moves call today saying that we are both staying! So I’ll be killing him off.  We also did service with Brother Goodie and put together a motor cycle and we actually finished a project on one of them and I was pretty happy with myself.  We also played football (soccer) with some YSA and just got schooled.  They went pretty easy on us but it was still a lot of fun and every time we messed up, we just blamed it on being American because everyone here is amazing at football and that’s like, all they ever do.  

Entrance to Holywood [Suburb]

Belfast District

I did the table challenge where you need to climb under and over a table... its really hard. 

Service

Great talking with you!

I’m not too sure what to tell you about this week since I just told you yesterday.  It was great seeing you!  I love you so much and I know you love me. Things are going well and I know they can only get better.  Today for P-day we are just going to play sports at the church with some of the other elders and have FHE later tonight and we are planning the game so we have some work to do but I’ll think of something.  Last week we had an all Ireland conference and it was awesome.  Seeing all my friends and seeing what they have been up to was great also. This week we are just going to do some of tracting.  Not much else to do, but I know I’m going to have fun! 

Love you!

My Dad (trainer), Elder Holbrook and I

Elder McD and I on train on the way to Dublin

They like to get their point across

Belfast 

Letter home written on the days posted                             Belfast, North Ireland

Monday, May 5

Well for P-day we pretty much played sports at the stake center.  That's pretty much what we do on P-day here and the other Elders come down sometimes.  Today there was a marathon going on through town so we saw hundreds of people running by the street next to our house.  It was also a bank holiday so a lot of things were shut down.  Football was a blast and I got an American football down from the ceiling with a pvc pipe I found and we stacked a bunch of chairs while Elder McDonald directed everything.

Tuesday, May 6

Today we helped Brother Brockgad move and the rain would stop but we got all the big stuff.  They have a huge damp problem like mildew because it's so humid here.  The Lisburn Elders need a de-humidifier in part of their flat to help out but it still smells damp.  After moving, Br. Brockgad took us to a Chinese place and it was a good time.  We ended the night street contacting people around Queens College.

Wed, May 7

Today we had District Leader Correlation.  So all the companions to District Leaders just waited in another room and we just talked and kept ourselves busy.  After we dropped off some packages the Zone Leaders gave us from the mission home to the Sisters, they got a bunch.  We also got taken by Sister Tracie to an Italian restaurant that was pretty good.  Later we went to YSA doors and gave them invites to an activity.

Thurs, May 8

Today we just were outside all day pretty much knocking doors.  The buses took forever.

Friday, May 9
Today we had an All Ireland Conference and we had four other Elders in our flat spending the night and we all woke up at 4:30 A.M. to go to Dublin.  It was really great.  President Brown gave good instruction and I was just really tired at the end of the day.

Saturday, May 10
It was Stake Conference today and because there was some famous bike race going on in town, almost everything was shut down because the course went through the middle of it.  So, we had Conference in Port-a-Down and it was like an hour drive.  All the speakers talked about family and marriage and all that good stuff.

Sunday, May 11
Well, I talked to you today, Mom.  We went over to Margaret and Jay's, two member's home.  We also brought Robert, this recent convert and the Sisters were there too.  It was great!

The work is picking up

Send me your skype usernames and Tyler’s facetime and same with Melissa so I can skype everyone. I have no idea when we are doing it so we could do it anytime from 7 in the morning to like noon. I’ll try to call you a little before I skype if I can.

This week was a little better.  I’m still having a blast. We started teaching our neighbor and she asked some really good questions while we walked around a park. We are also teaching Travis, a referral from the sisters, and James from a part member family and all of them are just great! It will take more time than we would like but that’s not a problem, everyone has their own pace. We are also going to do some more little things here and there that should help us out a little. 

Elder McDonald and I are trying to eat healthier this week because we have just gotten a bunch of sweets from members and Elder McDonald also wants to lose weight before he gets home we are also going to work out at night when we get back at the flat.  So I’m pretty excited. We are also just having a lot of fun while doing the work and I just love it, I love going out every day and just doing work!  I can’t believe I’m already close to being half way done!  Well I’m only looking forward to the future.  

About the suitcase, I think it would cost less to just get a new one.

Love you!

Belfast sketchy humor

There was a marathon today...or a walk-a-thon

Belfast Flute Band banner

Handwritten letter home written on days posted                          Belfast, North Ireland

Thursday, May 1
Well, I haven't written in a week so I'll just catch you up.  We've had zone development which was super fun.  But I'm super sore.  The zone got together and we played lots of sports and did a talent show.  Right now we are working with the Bryson's, a less active family that I love to death.  The Goodies and us did service helping put together the Bryson's motorcycle.  We have taught our neighbor across the hall about the restoration and we were the first Elders to have a dinner appointment at a part member family's home.