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