Week Thirty-Two

"This letter will be breif, I´m heading into Rio today so I´m already pressed on time. Transfers were today, and im staying here with my boy Élder Moraes! We´ve got a ton of work to do here and i wouldn´t want to do it with anyone else.

 

We´re really stuggling to find investigators in the ward here in Resende. the city is very well off, so the people are very content and its hard to find open hearts. Meanwhile in Itatiaia, our branch, the work is exploding! we had 6 families ready for baptism here, one problem is that 4 of the 6 aren´t married... another is that we only ´´take care of`` Itatiaia, its expensive to work there because it costs time and money each time we visit. Luckily, theres some members in the branch that are hepling us a ton, theyre the danas and lindas of brazil!

 

One couple we met is called Pedro and Jéssica. theyre pure gold!! Pedros already helping us with our teaching visits(even though he´s still an investigator), and the background of Jéssicas cell phone is the tample of Campinas. They really understand the doctrine of eternal marriage, there a match made in heaven! Only they hace started their papers for marriage this week, so they´ll be ready for baptism at a minimum of 2 months... i really wanna be here for that! Theyve become our good friends, on our last visit, Jéssica tearfully said that we(Élder Moraes and i) would never be forgotten, and would always be a part of their lives. I guess thats what happens when we live worthy of the spirit. Miracle happen! Im so excited for these future saints. i hope i get the privelage of seeing them sealed in the temple. they´re a part of me that will never leave!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Thirty-One

"Loving life here in Resende!(spelt with an s, sounds like a z, he-zen-gee) tons of Progress this week. We have about 5 families who are ready and want to be baptised... what were the other elders doing?! there hasnt been a baptism here in months but theres so many golden investigators here. my blood boils when i think about all the blessings that these righteous future saints have been missing out on all this time, but at least we´re get to help them now! The Ward members are really trusting us now, With elder Moraes´s charisma and my goofiness we´re really winning back their hearts. we´ve actually done a ton of work with the members this week, especially in the branch we watch over. the few members in Itatiaia (ee-ta-chai-ya) are giants in faith. on couple brought 4 investigators to stake conference that Élder Moraes and i had little knowldge about(we´re still getting to used to the area). there´s tons of potential and tons of work to be done. Caution: Baptisms ahead!!

 

One miracle happened this week as we were making street contacts near the chapel. My companion and i spotted a young woman and the holy ghost said,´´eliete!`` but before we could stop her she stopped us! she quickly explained that much of her family is active in the church, in fact her brother is serving up in Fortaleza. shes just moved in to the area(in fact lives RIGHT behind the chapel), want to attend church but lacks the courage to go alone, so we set a date to visit her and her family. we returned and found out shes a wife and mother of two, and has always seen/felt that the church was different from all others. the spirit in the lesson we taught in that visit was so strong, the poor girl was waterworks the entire visit. she explained to us the only other time she felt this way was when her brother went off on his mission, we explained to her that is was the holy ghost and that he was testifiying of the validity of her brothers mission. Never felt the spirit stronger than in this moment! shes so ready to be baptised, shes just scared of what her husband might think(we havent met him yet). we´ve got some work ahead of us but i love encountering the elietes!!

 

ps to anyone interested google Itatiaia national park, i did some crazy jungle hiking there today! im out of time so maybe i´ll type more aout it next monday, craziest p day of my mission!

 

EU AMO ESSE TRABALHO!!!"

Week Thirty

" Tons to write with little time. may the spirit of the Lord be with me!

 

Emergency transfer! i´ll begin with a quote from my last letter,´´ i know why ive been kept here in Nilópolis until now! to witness the completion and comencement of a family united in the faith.`` literally an hour after typing this, i get a call that im being transferred. the Lord acts in marvelous ways!

 

So ive said goodbye to Nilópolis and now im here in Rezende! We´re closer to São Paulo than Rio now, it seems like im in a whole different country! Where to begin. the accent is goofy, the food is different, the culture is foreign, its like im startin the mission all over again! its beautiful here though, the best way i can describe it is hawaii mixed with switzerland... cant wait to show photos!

 

The area was whitewashed, which means taking out both elders and putting in new ones. apparently some sisters caught the former companionship breaking some pretty serious rules, so an emergency transfer was required. now my companion and i are having to start the work over here(there hadn´t been any area book enteries for months). its like opening up a new area, only its worse because the members here are pretty unconfident in us because of the other elders. this has been the hardest week of the mission, knocking on doors from lunch til nine is hard enough, but fixing a problem you didnt cause is even harder still!

 

Luckily i have THE greatest companion at my side. Élder De Moraes is a Gaúcho from Porto Alegre, ive never seen such a perfectly rounded missionary! Hes hilarious, good lookng, humble, inteligent, charismatic, hard working, a born leader, and best of all, fluent in english!(he speaks better than i do...) he says he discovered that he speaks english in the CTM, what kind of person discovers that they speak another language? its beyond me but anyways i love this guy!

 

we´ve really been bleeding out here in Rezende, im honored to think though that the president has enough trust in us to put us into this suffering area. he must have seen our sucess because we both baptised/completed a family in our former areas this last sunday, and now hes sending in the titans to do work! haha i think we´ve both been pretty humbled though, its difficult starting from scratch, we look at eachother frequently thinking,´´what the heck to we do now?`` we somehow always find a way to laugh it off and keep on pushing. and because of the lords patience and understanding with us we´ve actually picked up many families to teach! many of which have the potential to be baptised this transfer. we´re going to be spending a lot of time on our knees for sure!"

Week Twenty-Nine

"ONEIDA WAS BAPTISED! what a miracle!!! earlier this week, the zone leaders called us, telling us that they had a strong impression that we needed to revive our efforts with Onieda. we were still visiting Álvaro every once in a while to strengthen the faith a bit, but Oneida had been on the backburner for a while. she had such a fear of leaving her old church that she disregarded all the answers she had been recieving from God. we prayerfully meditated on how we could show that these answers she had been recieving were direct revelation from above. Álvaro wasnt helping much though, he gets everyone so sidetracked with random conversation that the spirit kept leaving throughout the lessons. very frustrating! until one day we felt prompted to promise her that she would recieve an answer that she could discern with ease. we left their house confident that she would get the answer she was looking for.

The next day, she related to us that she found her answer! she had a dream that she was sitting with Álvaro in the church, she took that as her answer and the very next day she was baptised. I cant describe the feelings i had that day! Oneida was all smiles and Álvaro couldnt hold back tears. i know why ive been kept here in Nilópolis until now! to witness the completion and comencement of a family united in the faith. the next step is the temple! And im going to do all that i can to help them get there.

Another miracle happened this week as well! while leaving a lunch visit, i felt impessed to take a different route to our area of concentration, rather than the ordinary road we usually use. by doing so, we saw a family i didnt recognize all dressed up in sunday clothing, flagging us down by waving their hands. we approached and learned that they were members from Niteroi, who used to live in oue area, and were visiting some less actives in our area. We didnt have any plans so we went with them. Throughout the day we contacted tons of fallen away families and new investigators. right before they left however, the dad looked me straight in the eyes and said, ´´i need you to give my son a blessing.`` slightly startled but ready to serve i obliged. The son was about my age. as we placed our hands on his head i immediately felt the spirit. as i opened my mouth, i was instantly guided by the spirit to promise blessings and consel fairly out of the norm. i had never met the kid, but i was giving him consel that i felt was way beyond me. after the blessing i found that the entire family was in tears. apparently they were going through some really hard times, their son was going pretty wayward and the blessing that the spirit gave through me were exactly what they needed to hear. it was one of the most spiritually rewarding exeriences of my life. i know that preisthood power is real. i love being an instrument of the lord!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Twenty-Eight

"this week has been incredible! Lots of changes. first of which would be my companion Élder Sutto. He´s a Paulista(from São Paulo) with an Italian background, hence the last name. its always a big change when a companion transfer comes. i went from Élder Carvalho, an energetic playful charismatic kinda guy to a companion who is very quiet and introverted. during the first few days together i worked really hard to serve and get to know him, but he wasnt really opening up. So i decided to play on the things that he likes! hes really into Japanese cartoons, so i asked him a lot about it, but it was hard to relate. i had a hard time relating to anything that hes into, so there was a bit of a barrier between us untill i figured out his taste of music, but its hard to talk about our favorite bands because it´ll turn the best missionary trunky real quick!

i guess we have a better relationship now because of the work we´ve been doing. he´s not super outgoing so ive taken the reins in almost every aspect of the work, which is strange to me since he has almost doulbe the time out here in the field. Ive grown a ton though! untill now ive always been the follower, but this week ive been applying all the lessons ive learned into the work and i have faith that we´ll have sucess.

Our ward activity however was less than sucessful. ´´Coração para Coração`` was an activity in which all of brazil participated in their own wards. it was supposed to animate the members about missionary work, but no one showed up! i went home and that night i wrote on the most powerful talks ive ever written. perhaps it was the spirit, perhaps it was my own indignant spirit, or maybe just my fluency in portuguese, but the talk was power! I explained exactly what is the gospel, why we preach it, and how. this sunday i presented the talk to the ward. i cant descibe what happened! i was so filled with the spirit that the very words i spoke were guided by him. the shockwave of my conviction hit the members like a hurricane. i dont say these things to boast in my own strength, i say them because through the hand of god ive turned sinner to saint, follower to leader , and doubter to believer! All credit to our creator. the ward looks to me now as a source of strength, im so grateful for the opportunity i have to be an instrument of the Lord!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Twenty-Seven

"Transfers! Seems ive got even more lessons to learn here in Niló, because im staying for another six weeks! i couldnt be happier, i love his place! But as for my companion, he´s already going out the door! He´s off to Agra dos Reis. Im pretty upset about it too! he´s my good friend and taught me a ton about missionary work. he´s helped in ways that have eternally altered my course, i´ll miss him a ton! meanwhile im getting another Brazilian, Elder Sutto. i hope hes as animated as my prior companions because theres a great work here to be done here in Nilópolis!

As for our investigators- the confirmation of our miracle baptism fell through. Mateus was all set for the confirmation, but the day of we swung by his house, only to figure out he was in the hospital! poor guy almost lost his thumb. hopefully he´ll be well enough for next sunday? Only the Lord knows i guess!

Florlinda and her family have been hard to contact, but the ward is really pulling together to make them feel welcome! the bishops wife(whos the young womens president) passed by with a couple of young women to make the daughter feel like a part of the ward. hopefully there´ll more interaction this week so we can set a date for baptism.

It appears João has had some talk with his very concerned mother, because hes not been answering the phone, and his friend Morôni(member) related to us that hes been avoiding the topic of baptism. its been difficult to work with him since our only connection to him is through Morôni, so we´re having to deal with three different schedules! im hoping we´ll have the opportunity to clear things up with the kid.

Our miracle this week though was an amazing family we contacted in the street! Luisa is an older woman whos grandson took a stray bullet to the head in a gang shootout that he wasnt involved in. just one of the tragedies here in the slums of Rio, so many families are broken here. all we did was listen to her. She cried to us all the pains we here having because of the loss. we told her she would see him again, and set a date to return. a couple days later, we were introduced to the rest of the family. it was heartbreaking to see the impact of thier loss. Ive never seen such sorrow manifested in the eyes of the mother of the fallen son. Silva is an incredibly intelligent women, and despite her loss continues to spead charity and love in her community. but i can that inside her thats shes hurting more than i can imagine. the lesson we left with them was incredible, we were so humbled by their circumstance that we completely submitted ourselves to the will of the spirit. i dont really remember all the things we said, but i firmly believe that this family is elect, and that we´re helping them return to their beloved son. A lot of responsibility, but im putting all my confidence in the lord so we can have the strength to help them enter into the waters of baptism!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Twenty-Six

"miracles! they happen more often than we often expect. this week was filled with them! i think the greatest was the change of pace here in the little ward of Nilópolis. Morôni, son of the stake president, has really stepped up to the plate in helping us with our visits. it helps a ton when the investigators see that people with normal lives can live the teachings of the church! the young guys been prvoviding us with a lot of references as well.

perhaps the most promising is his friend João Guilherme(try pronouncing that...). hes a young kid who loves the Book of Mormon. hes been attending church and mutual, and so far has been progressing well. we met with him and his grandmother this week, and invited them to be baptised this sunday. they agreed and the date was set. But only two days later, we recieved a phone call from a very upset mother! we had never met with the mother of João due to her busy work schedule; she was under the impression that we were sent from the devil to convince her poor child to be baptised! we then had to back track a ton, explaining to her that the baptism was entirely his choice and that our sole purpose is to help others come unto christ. she understood and accepted another date to talk more fully, but still wasnt comfortable with the idea. so my companion and i started to pray. we fasted and prayed fervently that the heart of jaqueline(joãos mother), would be opened so that we could continue with the baptism as planned.

Sunday arrived. it was stake conference here in Nova Iguaçu, which detracted from the probability of him showing up at church. we waited hoped and prayed that he would show up, but he never did! it was a big blow knowing that we probably wouldnt have a baptism this transfer. but then the miralce happend! right after the conference ended, a young man named Mateus that we´ve been teaching ran up to me, hugging me saying,´´today im going to be baptised!!!`` it was a miralce because Mateus was already baptised a while back, but was never confrimed! he then fell away due to some serious sin. his baptism therefore wasnt valid. we´ve picked him up recently as a new investigor, helping him over these past few months overcome almost every addiction in the book. morally speaking his was clean, but we werent thinking he had the spiritual witness that was required for baptism untill that point. apparently he recieved that spiritual witness during the conference! we scambled to get him interviewed and get some baptismal clothes, our mission president was even there so he delivered a powerful message on the fly! His baptism was incredibly spiritual, ive never seen such a bright smile on somebodys face! i have confidence in the lord that he will revcieve the holy ghost this time, hes already talking about serving a mission!!! it was not only a miracle to see a young man taste the sweet taste of forgiveness and renewal, but to see the answer to earnest prayer and fasting answered, in a way that i wasnt expecting! The power of prayer and fasting is real im witnessing its power in my life and in this work!!

Com a humildade de minha alma, Élder Hansen"

Week Twenty-Five

"Finally progress! Oneidas baptism fell through again (suprised?) but we´re feeling things turning around here in Niló. we´re really struggling with the spirit as described in Enos, and the lord is manifesting his hand-

Our listening campaign is really working! we´re spending much more time probing for the needs of our investigators, its been paying off. but because of this im really getting to know the darker side of Rio. I heard too many sob stories to count, almost everyone here has a son deceased son or brother due to gang violence, police brutality, or other tragic deaths. its made me really look at my life and the inumerous blessings that i have, principally the gospel centralized family that i have. so many blessing fall upon the righteous! Its really been driving me to preach this word, this message is a cure for the sick in spirit.

We´ve been doing a lot of service as well! The miracle this week was with an investigator called Andrea. we contacted her in the street with her daughter Rafaela, but in our initial contact they seemed less than interested. but they live near the church so we decided to stop by anyways. we passed by but only Florlinda, the mother of Andrea was home. we asked if we could share a quick message but she declined, describing to us some major renovations going on in their house. We offered to help out with the work, but when she said no something told us to push the subject. She finally accepted, frustrated that we wouldnt accept money so we settled on having lunch with them after the service.

we arrived the next day early and got to work. we helped them demolish a wall that needed to come down, but they were lacking proper tools so we went at the wall with hammers! reminded me a lot of my breif ´´deconstruction`` work with ben a while back. it was thouroughly enjoying! we worked quickly and efficiently, blowing away the other hired workers (who actually showed up drunk). by midday the work was completely done, and as we lunched with them the family had changed. Andrea was soon laughing and joking with us, the at first reserved husband was opening up about his work, beliefs, hobbies etc, we were in! we then shared a quick verse and invited them to church. the husband responded, ´´i cant believe your guys willingness to serve without anything to return, if only the world worked this way! church starts at 9? you can count me there from now on.`` the next sunday we arrived at church to find all of them already seated and ready to learn! we´re heading there tonight in hopes of setting a baptism date, miracle happen when you srtive to live like christ!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen, October 29, 2012

Week Twenty-Four

"This weeks been a roller coaster! Huge ups and downs. We´ve had to cut a lot of investigators again, our biggest challenge right now is helping our investigators have a spiritual change, like in Mosiah 5:1-2. They just aren´t getting it! Our entire district is having struggles, we´re really having to analyse our teaching approaches because the people arent eating what we´re feeding...

we´re really concentrating on listening to our investigators. all of missionaries have the bad habit of giving a memorized lesson and then taking off. Something that we´re putting more into practice is the uasge of our ears! If someones just lost a son to gang violence, theyre going to have little or no interest about Joseph Smith and the line of authority. Theyre going to want to hear about the plan of salvation, and how they can not only see their son again, put that they can help him here in this life through vicarious baptism. teach people, not lessons!

Something we´re also focusing on is obey the letter and the spirit of the law. We´re obeying the letter by keeping with the missionary standards: each missionary contacting more than 10 people in the street. That number usually ends up to be 150 or more street contacts each week. the blessings we´re manifested one night when we were heading home: my companion had his 10 contacts and i had 9, but no one else was out in the street! i prayed a simple prayer, that i would complete the commandment we were given, when from behind me a man said,´´hey i was baptised in your church twenty years ago!`` the mans name was marcelo, a single guy from portugal with a funny accent. he hadnt attended church in many years, and said,´´ya i think coming back to church is a good idea.`` how golden! we´re now visiting with him and preparing him to come back to the fold. it´s my tesimony that we were blessing because of our strict obedience!

We´re striving to obey the spirit of the law as well, or in other words- listening to the spirit instead of the manual! we´ve recently picked up Oneida, the wife of Álvaro, again as an investigator. manual says that our visits should pass over 45 minutes, but one night we were invited to eat some pizza with the couple (Álvaro is a bit of a cozinheiro). After the grub and some good jokes, we had felt that we really won the heart of Oneida, so we dove into some deep religious discusion. We cast out many doubts and disagreeances that she had about the church; our visit with them lasted over 2 hours. She now has the desire to be baptised this sunday, so you be the judge!

My companion and i are doing everything to listen to the promptings of the spirit. some of the most life changing lessons happened this week. I know that thought the Lord we can save this dying area! In striving every day to cast out my pride and fill my soul with the spirit. i am purifying my heart so that i can be an instrument of the lord!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen October 22, 2012

Week Twenty-One and Twenty-Two

Week Twenty-Two:

"I dont know where to start this week! The companionship change has thrown me through a loop. 5 months with the same person was pretty strange, i wonder what marriage will be like! 

Élder Carvalho is awesome though, he possibly the most humble person ive ever met. Hes and Indian guy from Belém(Northern Brasil), he doesnt have much but what he lacks in temporal blessings he balances with spiritual ones. He´s constantly giving service. We spend a lot of time just listening to our investigators and establishing relationships with them, rather than just giving a spiritual message and leaving without progession. He has an open heart wand hes ready to work. We´re determined to revive this dead area! One of our goals is to reestablish our relationship with investigators who have fallen off the radar.

One of the investigators that we´ve picked up again is Patrícia. She is a single woman with one daughter, and a ton of potential. She remembers all of the lessons we´ve tought and really loves the church videos since she cant read at the moment(shes due for surgery). the only reason we discontinued our work with her is because she was in the hospital for a few weeks, but shes still wanting to learn more so we´re there for her!

We reactivated another family this week! Our search for the lost sheep has been pretty sucessful. Our baptism number isnt too hot but its not about about the numbers! Working with the less actives is just as important as our work with investigators. Im glad we were able to a fallen away family return to the fold and renew their covenants with God.

How great was Gen. Conference? I dont think ive ever been so spiritually filled in my life. While i wasnt able to race offf after preisthood session to Red Robins and grab a bite, i was able to recieve the strength and knowledge necessary to continue the work. My favorite talk by far was given by Jeffery R Holland. SO powerful! I asked myself the same question that christ asked peter- do you love me? Its something we should ask ourselves every day. Do we really love Christ? Our desire to follow him will increase when we look deeply in ourselves and ask this question. If ye you me, Keep my commandments(john 14:15). Im so glad i chose to answer the call and represent Christ. sweet is the work!"

Week Twenty-One:

"Transfers! Big changes happening here in our zone, including here in Niló! Elder Rumsey will be transfered to Petrópolis, the coveted interior during the summer. While he labors in the mild temps and scenic mountains, i get to melt here in the favelas of Niló! Im excited though, my companion will be a Brazilian! Élder E.B. Carvalho is coming down from the interior as well, i hear hes a way good missionary so there should be good work up ahead.

By the end of this coming transfer i will have served 6 months here in Nilópolis, and its been overall a great experience. Elder Rumsey and I have gotten pretty settled in to our routine, we´ve been working here as if Christ will come tomorrow. i hope Élder Carvalho is just as animated.

Our area is needing a new element. earlier this week we had 6 baptism dates marked for the 14 of october. that number has now cut in half, and the three remaining investigators have been evading us it seems! we´re struggling to find people who are capable of making the necessary changes in their lives to live the gospel. Its become extremely apparent how wicked the culture is here! Satans got grip on the hearts of the people, its been a pretty dificult task finding the elietes. I havent lost hope though! Faith and obedience are our tools and we´re going to have sucess through the Lord!

Diana and Flávio, the family we´ve been visiting with frquently, have lost their progression. They related to me that they feel content with the faith they have now (evangelical). I asked them if they read from the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, and of course the answer was no. I explained to them that no matter what we do or say, we cannot gain a conviction of the validity of Book of Mormon without reading, pondering, and praying about it. I gave them Morôni 10:3-5 (Morôni´s promise) to read and asked them if they would recommit to read and pray to recieve an answer about the BoM. They then told me that it would be dificult to squeeze 3 VERSES into their busy schedule this week. How lazy! Our week was filled with many more annoyances and derailments, but i´ll save my breath for now. I have big hopes for this coming transfer, Im way excited for General Conference! Maybe they´ll announce a tample here in Rio? I sure am praying, cross your fingers!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Nineteen and Twenty- Baptism!

Week Nineteen:

"This week has by far been the fastest week of my life. Im sad to report that our district is completely broken! theres been a huge discord between the Brazilian and the Argentinian Elders(I´ll leave out the details), and since my companion is district leader, we´ve had to run around our entire district and sort out the mess. We have a lot of new blood in the district, lots of new missionaries that dont know whats right from left... so as Élder Rumsey played judge, i played babysitter! It was frustrating having to cancel our oppointments just to satisfy the needs of the other elders, but overall it was a cool experience...

One of the new elders i worked with was Élder Sepúlveda. Hes an elder that has a lot of adversities in his life. He has an extreme case of OCD(He spent two hours one morning cleaning our shower), and doesnt have a trace of social skills. the whole day of the split i worked and encouraged him to open his mouth and teach, knowing that we had a promising investigator to visit before we returned home. i worked patiently with him as he stuttered through our street contacts, he progressed little if at all throughout the day. i soon found ourselves walking to our final appoinment of the day, thinking to myself how we could be sucessful. our visit was with a young and fairly wealthy coupple named Diana and Flávio. as soon as we sat down, Diana asked,´´I want to know exactly why your church is the only true church.`` I knew from our first contact with her in the week prior that she was extremely inteligent, and that she´d nail me if i said anything but the absolute truth. I took a deep breath and dove into the lesson. Through the spirit, i was able answer any question and satisfy any doubt she had, but something was off tune. Every time i turned to Élder Sepúlveda for an answer, comment, or testimony, he turned beet red and looked to the floor. he was scared to death to testify of what he knew! i knew that our investigators would not be able to feel the spirit with our two testimonies, missionary work is not a one man show! I gave Flávio a scripture to read, while he read i earnestly prayed to our heavenly father to bless ever one of us with the spirit. I prayed for the courage and faith in Élder Sepúlveda to grow, so he could contribute to the lesson as well. When it came time to explain the Book of Mormon, i looked to the elder and said,´´can you explain the Book of Mormon for us elder?`` Something not short of a miracle happened. His mouth opened, and the terstimony flow without hesitance or stutter. The talkative Diana was silent for the first time, and tears brimmed their eyes a the spirit worked within them. My jaw dropped so hard im surprised it didnt hit the floor! The new elder was an enitrely different person, truely an instrument of the lord. they anxiously marked another visit with us, and thanks to Élder Sepúlveda and his courage to overcome his shortcomings, we planted a strong seed in their hearts which will hopefully blossom to baptism."

Week Twenty:

"
Wanna know how to say ´´baptism`` in portuguese? thats right, we broke the near 3 month dry spot here in nilópolis with the baptism of Juciara! Her road was hard, a great ammount of faith was required of her to permenantly leave her source of income to atteand church and be baptised. She actually lives on the same street as us, so naturally we visit her often; her and her mother Solange are pretty much family. Shes a funny lady, shes always whispering, convienced that the bandits are always tuning in on our conversations... shes really does have great faith though, it was great to see her follow through with her committment to change.

the baptism was awesome! Once again the members wrapped their arms around their soon to be newest member(confirmation is next sunday). they already have had many family home evenings and other events hosted soley for the purpose of welcoming Juciara into the ward. the day of the baptism we were busy cleaning the font for the baptism, when Álvaro busted into the chapel, with two big cakes and a big grin on his face. he anonymously placed them in the kitchen, so happy to contribute. its strenghtened my testimony to watch him grow and flourish in the gospel, the fruits of the gospel are delicious!

Its really been heating up here, in more ways than one. the winters not even over technically and it feels like im melting in the streets. something to get used to i guess, its only gonna get worse! the politics here are heating up, every canidate has a theme song, which they blast at full volume as they drive down the streets. im really getting annoyed, it wrecks the spirit when they drive by during our lessons. the one good thing the heat does bring is the season of churrasco! We´ve had several barbeques these past two weeks, im sending some picctures for everyone!

the conflicts in our district are heating up as well, once again we spent a lot of time our of our area fixing problems. I worked a lot with Élder Alves in Nova Iguaçu, one day we spent our whole afternoon in a remote part of is area called Miguel Couto. it sits right in the forset, so we did some hiking in some serious jungle, very different from my urban enivronment in Nilópolis! plenty of cows and horse drawn chariots, very third world.

Despite the lack of work in our own area, God ahs blessed us with tons of sucess, besides the baptism of Juciara. We are currently working in 48 households! and thats only counting the investigators that are progressing. i still dont know how were able to contact and teach that many people in the time we had, our challenge now is to give all of them the attention they will need... trabalho trabalho trabalho!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Eighteen

"General Letter (the enter button is broken again...) Commitment: not a word in the portuguese language! We had 9 people committed to come to church this sunday, guess how many came? it was pretty embarrassing to explian to the zone leaders that not a single person showed up. This week was racked with appointements that fell through, investigators who dont have the desire to progress, and problems within our district companionships that we had to work out(my seniors still district leader). it hasnt gotten us down though! in fact we crushed all of our other numbers this week! Not that work is all about numbers, but the numbers demonstrate how the work is progressing so they are important and a part of the process. We definitely ´´sharpened the sword`` this week, not only did we work hard but we developed, reviewed and revised our tactics of teaching, contacting new investigators, and involving the members in the work. our planners are now booked untill near the end of semptember, with this new teaching pool theres bound to be an elite in there somewhere!     One of the potential elites we´re teaching is Patrícia, a wealthy young woman whose fascinated by the book of mormon, and the story of the early saints. she was up to 2 in the morning one night watching films and learning on mormon.org, she hangs on to everything that we say! its tricky contacting her though since she has an uncertain work schedule, but its been such a joy teaching some with... inteligence! Dont get me wrong, its great to share the gospel with the humble people in the favelas, but with her everything clicks! its great to see a factual testemony grow within her, as well as a spiritual one! We´re expecting to see great progress from her.     Juciara and Solange bailed on their Baptisimal date again, frustrating! Their work schedule is really impeeding the flow of blessings! Juciara committed to leave her work, which will require a great ammount of faith but we´re with here every step of the way. she rescheduled her baptism date for later this month, whereas her mother promised to leave of change her work schedule by the end of the year... looks like we still got some work ahead of us! The work will progress though, my faith is in Christ and thats all that matters! Com amor, Élder Hansen( pronounced Hum sang in Português)"

-Elder Kelland Hansen, September 5, 2012

Week Seventeen

"Happy Nilópolis Day! Here in Nilópolis we celebrated the 65th anniversay of the cities foundation. The entire city was decorated in blue and white, the cities official colors! We got some great proselyting done in the Mirandela(Nilópolis´s equivalent of the 16th street mall), grabbed some great street grub, and watched for a moment the city parade, very cool!

More about Nilópolis: the best comparison i can make is if Denver was Rio, Nilópolis would be Littleton. Its not officially a part of Rio but the buildings never stop, so it basically is! Our area covers Mesquita and Pavuna as well, we calculated that if our area was in the states, that a stake would easily fit within the boundaries(three or four stakes if we´re talking about Utah...) City is just like any other city, it has slums and nicer areas. We focus our efforts in the favelas, however, as long as theres cops around!

My feet are doing a lot better this week. We had to work extra hard to make up for lost time in the week prior. We´re pretty much starting fresh, but we´re excited to get to work!

Two baptism dates fell thorugh this last sunday partially due to our inabililty to work. Juciara and Solange, daughter and mother, are our progressing investigators. They have an established faith in the Bible, and we´ve been helping them understand and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. they are really struggling to find new work, they both work on sundays and asking them to find new income is asking them to risk everything! they dont have a lot of money, and great faith will be required of them if they wish to come to church. It also doesnt help that a memeber we brought with us to teach started telling them all about his personal revelations and false doctrines! Its definitely been a step backwards with them, let alone all of our investigators. But we reestablished the baptism date for this sunday, hopefully you guys will seeing a picture of us in white!

During my downtime i cooked like crazy! Im turning myself into a little chef, its something that i am thuroughly enjoying! Thanks to all of those who gave me recepies!

Pretty short e mail this week, hopefully i´ll have some great stories and progress for the crowd next week... Até o Próximo!

Ps the pics are of me, Juciara and Solange, and me in the kitchen!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Sixteen:
"Progress has decided to take a nap... not much sucess this week! The first few days we actually backtracked, we had to cut many families that weren´t progressing. One of these being Oneida, the wife of Álvaro. We devoted so much time to her but she never committed to baptism. It was funny seeing her though sitting with her husband the next sunday in church, i dont think she quite gets the big picture!

Another family was really hard to cut, Maria Do Ceu and Sérgio have been investigators for 15 years! Missionaries have always found refuge in their home, theyre even on the ward lunch schedule for the missionaries. theyre a sweet old couple, but devout to the catholic faith. it was difficult explaining to them that we couldnt visit them more and the work must continue. Maria replied, ´´i understand, now what would you like to have for lunch tomorrow?`` its very difficult to cut investigators who have become your close friends!

the second half of the week was even slower. i figured out that my feet arent made for walking... i have pretty bad tendonitis on both feet, and its really put a dent in the work. At first i thought that my feet were just sore and theyd work themselvers out, until one morning i literally couldn´t put weight on them. the walk to the doctors wasnt the funnest experience. Doc says my feet are unnaturally flat and theres not much i can do to change it. so instead of work my companion and i sat in our house. We tried our best to be productive, but its amazing how distracted the mind can get when its not at work! we ate all of my precious american junk food, discussed deep doctrine, and for really the first time we swapped stories about pre mission life. he wouldnt believe half of mine! i guess in retrospect ive had a pretty crazy life so far, im grateful for all my crazy adventures!

I hope i didnt sound like i was putting down my companion in my last letter, i love the guy and we´ve developed a great companionship, neither him or i was transfered do 6 more weeks of work!

I was able to study a ton this week due to my feet. how ture are the words of Nephi- my soul delighteth in the scriptures(2 Ne 4:15)! I really enjoyed studying Alma 5 (coinciedence that My sister shared the same scriptures in her farewell talk?). I counted 47 questions that alma asks in the chapter, and i asked myself the same questions. it was a great exercise, i was able to evaluate my faith; i complimented myself on my strong points and made goals to strenghten the areas in which i am lacking. i encourage everyone to do the same exercise!

I forgot about one experience i had that i forgot to mention the in week prior. One of our recent converts called us one night and told us that she wanted nothing to do with the church. we were baffled, shes one of our strongest members! as we walked to her house, we talked about what we planned to say. my companion had the idea to simply bare our testimonies, rather than address whatever personal demons she was facing. we arrived, sat down, and dove right in. we testified of our personal conviction that The Book of Mormon is true, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and the the Church of Jesus Christ is indeed his church here on the earth. We reminded her that great things are expected of us since we are members of said church. we reminded her as well that if shes having a lack of faith, that the only way to regain that faith was through prayer. she was a bit suprised by our approach, we invited her to pray that night and she accepted. the next morning she called us and told us to come back over, we accepted, not knowing what to expect.  she told she didnt recieve an immediate answer to her prayer, but that she had a dream during the night. during the dream, one of her co workers was making fun of my compaion and i. the sister then ´´rebuked`` her, telling her that we were sent from god, and that we represent the only true chruch on the earth. she then realted that she woke up, feeling the spirit of god wrapped around her like a blanket. she knew that the church is true, and now were even teaching her boyfriend the discussions. it was a blesssing to bring this once uncertain sister come back to christ!"

Week Fifteen:
"This week was awesome! this last week was one of the final parts of the twelve week training program that i am undergoing with my trainer. This week was my turn to be the senior companion, meaning that i got to make all the decisions, lead and plan all of our lessons, and many more responibilites. It was pretty difficult at time deciding who to visit, what to teach, where to procelyte, etc. But I think i did pretty good! My knowledge and my confidednce in my knowledge increased, and im overall a better missionary this week. i learned as well that its definitely a lot easier to lead than to follow!

I realised i havent shared much about my trainer during these twelve weeks... thats because there isnt much to share! hes a hard worker, which is exactly what i prayed for while in the CTM. Our personalities however, are almost exactly opposite. I struggled to biuld a strong relationship with him, its been hard partially because we never speak a word of english(not an exaggeration, not a single word of english since ive arrived in rio), but as well hes more interested in talking about the work or the gospel than swapping stories. During my first weeks out in the field, it felt like he wasnt concerned about making friends or getting to know our investigators, whereas i was trying to make friends a little too much! Missionary work requires the right balance, of course you need to have a good relationship with all people you contact, but with your investigators a little firmness is needed. We´ve been learning a lot from eachother, ive learned how to be more firm when the occasion arises, and hes opened up to be a little more charismatic. it was hard at the beginning, trying to get to know someone who didnt really want to get to know me, but as we worked together i realised some of the things he liked, opinions and other characteristics that he had that i didnt my best to relate to. after work and prayer on both of our parts, we have a great relationship, contantly perfecting our teaching strategies and bettering ourselves as missionaries.

We had an interesting experience this week. We´ve been teaching a man named Edilson for over a month now, and its been hard to get him to progress. during our lessons, hes always spoken about how he feels he was some purpose here in Nilópolis. During our last lessons with him we were really emphasizing the importance of church attendance, but then for about two weeks he dropped off the map. When we went to his house to see what the situation was we found something not quite expected... he started his own church! He transformed his house into a mini chapel, bought himself a new suit and a big preachers bible. his body language was completely different, he greeted us his ´´children`` and was constantly looking a little behind us, as if angels were putting ´´bunny ears`` with their two fingers behind our heads. he even had a little congregation(mostly comprised of family members). apparently we didnt a great job on explaining the importance of church service, we only forgot to mention that it was OUR church that he needs to attend. we decided to attend thier little service, just of pure curosity of what would happen. Pastor Edilson comenced the meeting...using the same scriptures we use to teach him the weeks prior! truely baffling. we then had the opportunity to share some scriptures of our own, so we were cheeky and shared some scriptures about authority to preach and baptize. the people didnt quite understand, but after the meeting my companion and i had a good laugh about the change of events. Im not sure where to go from here though its gonna be heart wrentching to tell Brother Edilson and his flock of sheep that their pastor has absolutely no authority... o the life of a missionary!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Thirteen and Fourteen Letter

Week Thirteen:

"This week flew by! theyre getting faster every week, its unreal! It was a good week though, Élder Claudio R.M. Costa visited us here in Rio this week. The guy was a stud! he taught simple doctrine, but clarified it in ways i never thought of before hand. the theme of the day was: who are we? we then were asked to study D&C 138 and think about the question further. this study was more for missionaries but it can apply to anyone! Our mission president spoke to us as well, he is a man who walks with the spirit. he always speaks in soft tones, and always approaches us with love respect. A lot of missionaries arent a fan of him though, any rule that he has the power to enforce, he does! One rule in particulaar that the brazilians arent enjoying is no fútebol, i guess a lot of brazilian missionaries were getting distracted haha but i love our president! He truely is prepping Rio for a temple.

This saturday we had our ´´Festa Junina,´´ it was a big ward party, and it was a huge sucess! All month we´ve been spreading the word about the party, and it paid off: we have tons of new investigators! The party itself was fun as well, there was a ton of food that i had never tried, and all the little girls were dressed up like porcelin dolls. the atmosphere was great, they had a lot of games set up for the kids and they had a dance floor for anyone who wanted to cut loose! We, however, spent all of our time with our investigators. we refused to be those missionaries who sit in the corner eating sweeties while theres people to be taught. at first they were a bit uncomfortable, but by the end they were all laughing and having a good time! the night was a big hit, the ward was pretty incredible for putting it together. It reminded me of the cottage meetimgs back home, and the sacrifices that my parents made every month to host the parties. the ward is learning and growing, i´ll talk a bit more about them next week!

we had a pretty interesting teaching experience this week. we made a street contact last tuesday and the following day we scheduled an appointment to return and start the lessons. he was a middle aged guy, nothing out of the ordinary. we planned to teach the restoration since its the foundation for the other lessons, but after the opneing prayer the spirit informed me that he had other plans. i looked to my companion to verify but he was already a step ahead of me, he asked him what the role of god was in his life. the man explained that he believed in God but didnt belong to a church. The spirit took over the lesson and we continued to ask inspired questions. He realized that we were there to help him and he let down his guard. he then explained that he felt that God didnt love him... because he was gay! that one threw us through a loop! He described to us how his family and friends had deserted him, and how hes been through psychiatrists, tests, and all manner of experts to ´´cure him of his disease,´´ but to no avail.  He said that he knows his lifestlye is wrong but doesnt have the tools to change. We continued to listen, we cared to hear what he had to say and we could see the pain in the mans eyes. he explained that god must hate him for creating him this way. he then looked at us for an answer: talk about pressure! We shared with him the first half of the plan of salvation, about how we are spirit children of our heavenly father and he loves every one of us. we shared as well 1 Ne 3:7 how the lord never gives us a commandment that we cant follow, and how the very first command adam was given was to multiply and replenish the earth. we explained that through christ we and do all things. he wasnt quite convinced, he explained that he had faith in christ but not in himself. we then tesified that we had faith in him, and that christ loves him and will help him if he has faith.We also just happened to have a copy of the proclamation to the world, which we gave and asked him to read, and if we could return to share more. he said yes and that this was the first time men of churches has come to him with love and understanding, rather than approach him as if hes someone inferior or not worthy of another chance. it was such a blessing to watch as the spirit taught this man, had we ingored the holy ghost, im convinced that we would not have recieved an invitation to return. the spirit is a missionaries best friend. i love being an instrument of the lord!"

Week Fourteen Letter:

"this week has been full of ups and downs. The shooting in Denver has reached our ears, and now everytime i say where im from, people look at me like im some kind of survivor! its pretty sad that my city has this kind of reputation, even here in rio.

We´ve been striving to work with our ward a lot more, we´ve pretty sucessful! Our bishops awesome, hes a really young guy who fell away from the church, but is fully active now and excited about our work. hes learning a lot, after a three year gap without a bishop hes got his work cut out for him! hes got big goals, he wants to spilt our ward before his ´´term´´ is up. our first step is reactivating the elite. we spent a lot of time chasing down old records and fleeing from agitated apostates... its been tough work! 

one day in particilar was extremely dificult. every single one of our promising investigators fell through, so we turned to our ward records. we worked all day trying to find the less actives. tons of walking and tons of rejection. at the end of the day i rememeber thinking to myself, why the heck am i doing this? they fell away for a reason, they dont want the blessings the church of christ has to offer. we absolutely wasted todays efforts, what am i doing here?! i wasnt in the most optimistic mood to say the least. before we called it a day however we stopped by a home where half the family is inactive. the mom is especially stubborn, but we stopped by anyways! we gave a quick message about the book of mormon, and how if the book is true, that everything else concerning christ and his church follows. we then asked her son, whos preparing to serve a mission, to bear his testimony concerning the book of mormon. his testimony blew everyone away! tears rolled down his cheeks, but his voice was constant as he testified of the validity of this sacred book. it was incredible to watch as he moved his mother in a way that we never could, there was a change in her eyes as her own child testified that her way of living was wrong, and that she needed to come back to church. she said she would go, and as we returned to our house, my trainer looked at me and said, as if percieving my previous thoughts, ´´this is why we´re elder.`` for the first time in 15 years we saw her happy face sitting next to her husband in the chapel, it was worth all the trails and difficulties we´ve passed through to have sucess!

thats all for this week, pretty short especially since i have so much to share! i feel like in the scriptures, when the prophets write ´´and not a hundreth part can be written,`` haha i have so many more experiences to share! maybe i´ll have more time next week...

ps to clear up any and all confusion once and for all, write to the address with the street Dois de Dezembro in the address. most people have been sending them here so no biggie!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Twelve Letter

"Blessings! they continue to flow. my most recent blessing: My mission here can continue! I was really worried this week and the last about my future here in rio as a missionary, due to some legal complications back in the states. Ive spent a lot of time on my knees and had several sleepless nights, but the lord has blessed me with more time here in the work. 

More about the work: we had to put off Oniedas baptism again... ahhhh!! Its been difficult to reach her, shes really sick so shes been spending a lot of time in Caxias, we´re being understanding but really... get in the water already! 
yesterday we met with those pastors that have been talking smack about the Book of Mormon. Theyre actually pretty nice guys! theyre church is pretty new, and i think theyre genuinely trying to follow christ. When we arrived, however, we quickly noticed that they had an attack plan for us! it was a bit intimidating, the only preparation we had was a quick prayer! they had all their scriptures ready for us, but the one thing they didnt have was the spirit. We were guided by the spirit and carefully calmly explained every point of attack they had. after answering one of their questions concerning authority, one of the pastors was ready with another question when the other pastor stopped him! He wanted to hear more about the book of mormon. the tables changed! instead of rebuttaling and defending our honor, we were now teaching them! it was incredible to see the spirit work inside this learned pastor. it reminded us not only that we can only teach thorugh the spirit, but that no one is out of the reach of change. after we bore testimony of its validity, the pastor asked how much the book of mormon costs! we of course gave him a free one and we´re going to return more to talk about our meesage. such an incredible turn around! im pretty sure my jaw was still dragging on the floor when we left. i dont know how much will come from this, but im just glad it was a positive experience!
Sacrament meeting was pretty cool too! we had a lot of investigators attend church, and the entire meeting was focused on missionary work. I spoke on baptism, it was a bit choppy since im not entirely fluent, but they got the message! then my compaion talked about establishing Zion and retaining the lost sheep. after the meeting the bishop handed out paper for everyone to write a refrence for us to teach, the works gonna pick up speed real quick! Next saturday we´re having a ´´festa´´ in the chapel, theres gonna be lots of food and even more investigators, so excited to be a part of this work!
in other news we fixed our hot water this morning! after 2 months of cold showers, we decided we´ve had enough haha we actually knocked out all of our plumbing for a bit but im happy to report that ´´all things have been restoredto their proper frame´´ hahah it was a good week!
ps i hear my moms spreading my emails to some new people? If so, write me some time! id love to know what everyones up to! also no photos this week for these reasons:
1 forgot the camera at the house...
2 its been really difficult to get good photos! ive had a lot of requests for some pics but im not serving in the nicest area, let alone the nicest city haha robberies are common and if im running around taking pictures im marked as a tourist.
3 mission rules. we can only takes pictures on pday, and on pdays we can only stay in our area, so dont expect pics of me with the critsos haha and since we´re a walking mission only, we use all our time on pdays to walk from place to place buying the stuff we need.
im gonna try my best to get you guys better photos. until next week!"


-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Eleven Letter

"I am filled with joy! This sunday was the baptism of Álvaro, it was a marvilous experience! I was able to preform the ordenance, it was an incredible day. We first contacted him when we were ´´clapping houses,´´ it was my turn to talk, and when he came out of his house, i called ´´Bom dia Senhora!´´ you know that means, i swore he was a woman from a distance! pulled a Brian Regan for sure. But we ended up baptising him so no worries! It was a joy watching him transform from someone who was content living out his years with no change, to a man who has a firm faith in Christ, and desires to bless his home with the preisthood. Him and i are a lot alike, we both love to eat and love a good laugh! during his batisimal service, he couldnt hold back his tears. He´s an older guy and i think for the first time he took a step towards his god, the spirit was tangible there! it was incredible to the ward wrap their arms around him and take him into the fold. im comfortable with leaving him in their hands, they are a people of great fatih! Theres more work to be done with him, his wife Oneida is looking to be baptised this next sunday so cross your fingers!

This 4th of july was actually pretty awesome too! Not that i celebrated much(besides wear my American flag like a cape around the house of course) but i was able to work with another elder. Under some weird circumstances, this elder never recieved MTC training, and it was only his second day! My companion and his had a meeting for district leaders so it was just Elder M. Souza, the newbie, and i. at first i was pretty worried, im still pretty green and my portuguese isnt fluent(hes a Brazilian), but i soon found it a joy to work with him. I got to teach him our daily routine, and the daily life of a missionary. He didnt know how to teach the lessons, so we worked all morning practicing the message of the restoration. We had a lot of new investigators scheduled for that day so we really prayed for help that we wouldnt botch our first meeting! Most of our appointments fell through(as usual) but we were able to teach a family what we rehearsed. It was a great lesson! We asked inspired questions, shared appropiate scriptures, and had great chemistry and fluency teaching together! It was cool to see the Lords hand in our work, and to see two greenies pull off a lesson! That night, we were able to collect our mail for the month of June... I had 21 letters and a package!! I had more letters than my entire district combined, thanks for the support everyone! Letters bring more joy than i would have guessed in the past. there one of the very few things a missionary has that connects him to his past life! But as always, I stumbled directly into the the Lord needs me to know. the next morning i was reading in Luke chapter 9, and the last verse talks about how the servant who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. I quickly refocused at the task at hand! Overall it was incredible week, my testimony´s stronger than ever!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen, July 10, 2012

Week Ten Letter and Pictures!

"(the ´´enter´´ key inst working on my keyboard so this´ll all be squished together haha) I got a haircut today... i stick out like none other! i chopped off the majority of my hair to reveal white blone hair, with my tan i look like an entirely different person haha. This week was bittersweet for our investigators. We had to drop André this week, we asked him to pray about the validity of our church, but he´s confident his evangelical church was more for him. it was pretty sad leaving his home for the last time, I was convinced he was ready for the gospel. But the work moves on. We have a baptism set with Álvaro this sunday! So far all of our baptism dates have fallen through, but im excersizing the christ like attribute called hope! Álvaro has great faith, but never really applies it. He knows the things we have thaught are true, but doesnt really understand what he needs to do because of this knowledge. His baptism should help haha i hope he follows through! In my personal study im finally understanding the pride cycle we see in the scriptures. I realized how much i am a victim to it! It seems like im being consistantly humbled. The most dangerous part about pride is you never know its there until its too late! Im really working on getting out of that vicious circle, i´ll keep everyone posted!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen July 2, 2012

Elder Hansen and his companion

Week Nine Letter

"Work work work! the days here blend together, when you lose yourself in the work time flies! Our investigators are progressing, we had two come to church this week! André is in his 40s and had tons of questions for us, primarily why are there so many interpretations of the bible? we´ve been teaching him how the book of mormon and the bible work together to testify of christ, the missionary pal book that papa gave me is really helping! Álvaro is another porgressing investigator, hes about 70 years old, and immedately believes whatever we say! we´re explaining to him that he needs to pray about it, but if he beloieves right off the bat then fine by me! Both of these guys are champs, now we just need to get their wives on board! 

I had a really cool experience this week: last wednesday we worked in the street all day in the heat, and that night we had a meeting with our bishop. after the meeting, we usually swing by the relief society and gorge on their sweets, but as our meeting closed, we got a call from a sister in our ward whose little boy was extremely sick, and needed a blessing. we agreed to come over, but after hanging up we realized we would not onlt not be able to eat the delicious cupakes and other goodies, but we would have no time for dinner as well. this sister lives near the end of our boundries and we had no money for a bus, so we began hiking our way to her house. over rivers, bridges and highways, and the enitre time is was thinking about my gut. then it started raining on us.  when i say rain i mean buckets! i was miserable, i completely regretting leaving the safety and comfort of the chapel. after more than an hour of trudging through the storm (she lives way far away haha) we got to the house. we came inside and i saw the condition that this child was in and i was completely humbled. this small boy was very ill, and needed our help, but all i could think of on the way over was how much i didnt want to answer the call for aid. i immediatly prayed for repentance and asked for the spirit to return. the blessing we gave was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences ive ever had. I would walk across all of Rio to help that child of God again. lesson learned: quit thinking about yourself!

PS i gave my address to my house the other week, dont send letters there! not only will i not get them, i´ll get in trouble. send them to my missions address!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen June 25, 2012

Week Eight Letter

"This week will be short since i want to send you guys come pictures, but things are starting to become routine! Im getting to know our investigators better... theyre pretty flimsy for the most part! hahaha we teach thyem and the spirit is there, and we commit them to read, ponder pray, etc. And in our next lesson(if we can even contact them again) theyver completely forgotten their commitments and the things they learned in the previous lesson! Its dificult to deal with, but im learning to love the people even if they dont love me! But every time we put our backs into the work, the Lord blesses us in some way. 

We have an aweosme ward! They just got a new bishop... they havent had one in three years!! Almost everyone is a convert, so it puts a twist on the way things operate. Todays been really annoying haha i forgot all my stuff at the house so we had to go all the way back, and then i was printing off photos to send and they charged a boat load! But Im not letting too much get under my skin, it drives the spirit away! I am eating three meals now, thanks to all for the concern! haha We dont have bikes or cars... that would be a funny joke! Icant even take pictures around here in fear of getting robbed, i can get shanked for much less than a bike! 

But im doing well here, i filmed a little video of our house this morning, hope everyone enjoys! Vai com Deus!

the address to my house is:

Rua Lauro Sodré, 148 Casa 2

Nilópolis, RJ

Brasil

i dont know the address of our church, but its in olinda on Roberto Silveira. If youre using google earth, check out Beira Rio, thats where we do most of our tracting!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen, June 10, 2012

Week Seven Letter

"Ups and downs for Elder Hansen! First off is the language, my companion and i ALWAYS speak Portuguese!! i mean always, we study, teach, converse, joke, write in my journal and even think in portuguese! Its honestly awkward right now typing in english haha. its a blessing and a curse, im picking up the language really quick! But when im stressed, or have an important question, or anything, we never use our native tongue. Ive got a pretty hard working trainer, he expects a lot outta me and we work with everything we have every  day! 

Our eating schedule is really weird, we have a tight budget, so we only eat lunch, no breakfast or dinner!! we go to all you can eats or members houses to stock up for the day. im either starving or stuffed!! Nilópolis is really cool, its got everything from nice neighborhoods to some really ´interesting´ areas! our area is huge, apparently we have around 200,000 people in our area!! our daily routine is like this:  wake up, study, eat, work, sleep. thats it! its difiuclt at times, but such a blessing when youre serving others all the time!

 The Manaus temple here in Brasil was dedicated this week, we got to watch the dedicatory sessions here in Rio! it was really spiritual, my testimony was strengthened and i recieved strength to continue the work!! i got  couple letters this week too, that helped a lot! my new address is

Elder Kelland Hansen

Brasil Rio de Janeiro Mission

Rua Dois de Dezembro 78 salas 703/704

Flamengo

Rio de Janeiro

22220-040 RJ

Brasil

Thanks for the support everyone!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen June 12, 2012

"Can someone say.... RIO?!?! Haha im finally here!!! i awoke at 3:30 in the morning to catch a bumpy bus ride to the airport, and i said my goodbyes to my companions, the comforts of the MTC, and São Paulo! the flight was great, i slept through it haha went i awoke i saw to my left the famous Cristo de Redentor, way cool to see in real life. its beautifulç here!!! we were picked up by our mission president and travelled to the mission home. the mission home has perhaps the most stunning view a house can have, we could see the Cristos, the bay, and sugarloaf mountain all in one extravagant view, i´ll send some pics! There we had lunch with the president..... im still thinking about it!!! it was filled with meat, mashed potatoes, italian dishes with a brazilian twist, and other delicacies!

then i met my trainer, Élder Rumsey! Hes from Seattle, hes way cool but we havent spoken a word of english to eachother! its a bit weird at times but im learning the language really quick!! Élder Rumsey is a really good companion, hes on task, teaches with the spirit, and i very patient! We´re serving in a suburb called Nilópolis, about an hours busrided from downtown Rio. Its very different here, houses are the size of small bedrooms, trash is everywhere and horse drawn chariots are common! I really like it here though, the foods good, the people are humble and the members are giants in Spirit!! Im really honored to serve here. the language has thrown me through a loop, the people here speak with a `carioca,` an accent that throws a spin on portuguese! Its really dificult to understand, and even more dificult not to zone out when you have no idea whats going on haha. Ive learned so much though! my language skills have grown exponentially, my trainer does his best to involve me in the lessons.

We have some awesome Investigators! these people have definitely been prepared to hear the gospel. on my third day we ran into Mateus and his family, and tought them of the restoration of the gospel. We commited them to baptism in our first lesson! theyre set from the 24th of June.... i cant believe its already june! we have other progressing investigartors as well, i´ll talk about them in another update haha i love this work. We´ve already had some dificult days, but the payoffs are worth it! every day i become more of the man that ive always aspired to be, my progression cant be charted! I dont know if you´ll recognize me when i get back haha im excited for my end product!!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen June 4, 2012