Week Fifty Four and 1/2

"this week was filled with blessings! Im writing this letter today because yesterday i was renewing my visa... that woke me up as to how much time i have left! i plan to use every minute of it well. Im short on time but i´ll do my best!

 

there was a family baptised this week. The parents aren´t married but 6 of their children were able to! they ranged from 10 to 18 in age, what a blessing to see so many come to christ! its amazing how much i was able to learn from these children, they understand the doctrine better than perhaps any of the investigators i´ve seen. the two oldest, Rodrigo and Rodolfo, are starting thier preparations for a mission. their parents are working to marriage as well, here the process is pretty tricky so keep your fingers crossed!

 

Irsael, 17 yr old young man was baptised as well. nothaving many role models as child, its amazing how he looks up to us as missionaries. i have no doubts that he is prepared sprirtually for a mission as well.

 

Miracles are happening here in rio. but theres so much more to do!! Robert C Gay visited some of the siants here in Rio this past week. I wasnt able to attend but this is what he started his talk with,"If Christ were to be in this moment, he would say this,'Where are your brothers and sisters?'" he has agreat point, there are so many inactives here. if even half the members were active, we would have had a temple ten years ago. We´re now planning and impleneting a huge reavtivation force in our ward. we visited dozens of names on sunday as a combined ward effort, and we´re doing it again and more untill all of Christs sheep are back in his fold! its incredible how many have left because of silly disputes and big egos. our first focus is to teach the doctrine of christ, because they have almost all forgotten what it is and how to apply it! it requires a lot of faith to reactivate but we´re putting our shoulders to the wheel!

 

Elder Gay left us on an inspiring note, that we were literally preparing the coming of Christ here in Rio. LITERAL. What an exciting work and great responsibility. I love rio, and in so excited for the able brings the blessings of a temple to this city. Hearts and doors are opening for us. only miracles ahead!!!

 

Com Amor, Élder Hansen"

Week Fifty-Five

"I believe in Christ!! that testimony never ceases to grow within me. Im so grateful that he has saved me so many times, and his endless mercy continues to stretch out towards me and the sons of God here in Vila São Luis. Miracles happened this week. I know that i wasnt worthy of them but how grateful i am for them!

This week we completed a family!! Tiago joined his wife Bia in the church, entering into the waters of baptism. They have a little son named Kauã, who has the personality of a little choate!! I love this family to pieces. his conversion was incredible! over this last transfer Élder Branco and i have been working with Tiago to aline himself with the standards of the church. with diligence and patience he was able to confide in Christ to prepare himself for baptism, so when we invited Tiago to make a covenant, he readily accepted. when we returned, however, he was very unsure about the baptism. His father is coming into town this week, and they have the habit of sitting down to have a drink to pass their time. Not wanting to dissapoint his father, he didnt know if he could follow up with the commitment to follow Christ. We felt inspired to open up to first nephi where the legend says "i will go and i will do..." interesting thing about that story is when he was ordered to kill laban. Suddenly Nephi´s conviction falters to keep his commitment to the lord. We explained to Tiago that he like nephi had the conviction to follow the lord when he accepted his baptism date. he then like nephi ran into a trail of faith. It wasnt easy for Nephi to follow the lord in that moment, but he did it and was immensely blessed, we felt inspired to promise Tiago similar blessings according to his faith. Tiago gained the courage to call his father and tell him that he no longer drinks, and this was the fathers reply,"well, if my son doesn´t drink, then neither do I!" What a miracle!! 

Tiago wanted it to be a quiet affair, so we then rounded up his close friends and family for the baptism... at 10:30 at night! Many missionaries would go crazy to be out of bed at this hour, but it was a testimony to me that missionaries need to stop being pharisees adoring thier handbooks and start serving Christ. Christ commanded us to baptise, not to pass numbers and pass time. once we open our eyes to the work and glory of God, baptisms flow! I may say this almost every time but it was one of the most spiritual baptism i´ve seen. He´s been fighting for this baptism for three years now, im so glad to glad to see this miracle come to pass. what a humbling experience. Im getting to know Christ here in rio!! 

Our missions dividing this next week. Because i was transfered i´ll be staying here in Rio. But so much is changing and the work is evloving so quickly that im looking forward to finish out my mission here. We´re here establishing the temple´s foundation. we´ve been called to be masons, and these families are paving the path to eternal blessings for all saints here in this city of God. More miracles to come!!

PS I was talking to Élder Asto last night in my sleep... IN SPANISH!!!!!! wop wop!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Fifty-Four

"this week was crazy! Élder Branco and i have been putting all of our hearts into this thing, and we´ve been seeing the results! we have a list of 40 PROGRESSING FAMILIES. 40. We´ve bitten off more than we can chew. so what happens? we kneel down and the the lord for an answer. and he answers!! the president calls us the next day and asks,"what do you guys think about two more elders in your area?" what a miracle!

the two new elders are Élder Stinnett and Élder Asto. Stinnetts a little machine, he was pumping out tons of results in his other area so now he´s training! Élder Asto is Peruvian, he´s got only a week here in Rio! he comes up to about my thigh but he´s a spiritual giant. Dont know if you´ll believe me, but he knows Élder Wariner!!! he used to splits with matt when he was deciding on whether or not he wanted to serve. theyre really helping us out with the workload! its pretty fun living with three other missionaries, theres always something rediculous going on! we´re really working on our hours, its been pretty hard getting to bed/getting to personal study on time...

This weeks been slow because of the changes here in our area. ive spent the week showing the area to my friend Élder Asto. his portuguese is pretty good despite the fact that he´s new. we are however setting ourselves up for much sucess!!

one of our progressing investigators is Daniela and Vilma. theyre hilarious! such great people o be around. Vilma´s son was robbed and murdered a few years back(something very common here in rio...) and its very clear how it has affected her. shes such a sweet lady. the plan of salvation is helping her a ton. Her daughter Daniela is so ready to be baptised, but Vilma is a bit reluctant, we´re needing to help build her faith! theyre baptismal date is for the 23, but lets see if we can get them into the water before then!!

theres tons of other progressing investigators in our teaching pool at the moment(40 FAMILIES), and i love each and every one of them. my capacity to love increases daily! it truely is a gift from god. im so excited to see the miracles this week has to offer!!!!"

-Elder Kelland Hansen

Week Fifty-Three: 

"Vila São Luis!! heres how i feel- while having hakuna matata out in the country, Rio calls to me, "you have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me." its time to come home to rio!! i loved the vacation out in Resende, but im back to my roots now and im loving it!!

my companion Élder Branco is from Florianópolis in Southern Brasil. this Elder is a baptisimal machine!! Ive never seen someone teach so efficiently. he gets on the level of the investigator and decifers their needs with the spirit. its incredible!! im learning a ton from him. the poor guy has come 5 weeks left in the mission... yes i will be killing him off it seems. but ive never seen someone so focused! not once has he talked about home, which is rare for someone whose one their last legs of the mission. but at the same time, ive never laughed so much in my life!! hes soooo funny, my throat usually hurts in the morning from laughing so hard... hes balanced though, we work hard, laugh hard, and baptise!!

Vila São Luis is a neighborhood in Caxias(pronuonced cash-ee-ash). its pretty close to nilópolis!! ive seen a couple of buses passing in that direction. its a temptation to grab one of these pdays... this area has alot of the same elements as my first area. theres some pretty sketchy areas but we stay in the nicer neighborhoods. our house is on top of the only hill in our area, we´ve got a pretty sweet set up! theres a great view of the ocean the cristo redentor and sugarloaf mountain. as well its the nicest house ive seen so far for missionaries here. the ward is incredilbe!! its the reception ive ever had on the mission, the barbecued to celebrate my arrival. our bishop is hilarious, first time i met him, he said,"oh, i was looking for you guys in the baptismal font... you guys have towels with you?" he´s pretty crazy for baptisms! the rest of the ward is as well. we´ve got some incredible investigators lined up for baptism, i´ll be sure to fill you guys in about them next week!

I figured out that Álvaro, my first baptism in Nilópolis and good friend of mine, died of a heart attack this week. pretty humbling, it felt strange to know that he´s in a different place. his wife Oneida(who took forever to be baptised) has parkinsons disease and wont be able to take care of herself. i dont know what she´ll do. please keep her in your prayers. i took the time to read alma 40 which is such a inspiring chapter, especially verse 12. its so good to know that death is not the end!

well back to work. ive got a tample to build!! miracles to follow. Cristo é meu Redentor!!

Com fé, Élder Hansen"

Week Fifty-Two:

im happy to announce that we´ll be baptising four people this coming week!! we have no truely fixed baptism dates, but im that certain that the Lord will come through for us if we are faithful to him. the Lord revealed to us that if we give EVERYTHING we are into the work this week, that we´ll be blessed with 4 baptisms. Im so grateful for the chance to follow up with this goal; i know its going to happen!

theres been such a change of pace in our mission. due to the temple announcement, mission split, and all of these newly arriving missionaries, we really are ´´catching the wave,`` of missionary work, just as Elder Russel M Nelson invited. Miralce really are happeneing in our area, i´ll share a few!

Lorenço- an older man who´s in his 50´s, but looks like hes in his 80´s due to an addiction he has to cigarettes. the man probably wieghts as much as my leg, ive never seen someone so unhealthy looking and so dependant on smoking. he smokes at least 4 packs a day, and does literally nothing else other than sleep and eat. a really sad case, and i doubted at first if would honsetly help him. but as we started teaching, he showed a huge desire to improve. even through he´s lives a fair distance away, we´ve been passing by everyday to give him the support that his family has never provided. its been really hard to love him, but its incredible how the Lord has allowed my heart to open up for this lost sheep. the week passed, and yesterday we got him down to just 5 cigarettes!! i couldnt really believe it, but he´s quickly turning into a man with more energy and more light in his eyes, its incredible what the gospel can do!! he loved church, the members were so loving and supportive to him. i hope to see him in the waters next sunday, pray that he throws of this addiction for good!!

SOOO many more miracles to relate nut unfortunately im out of time. in short, my companion and i are being immensly blessed. reminf me to tell you guys about Lais and Ivône next week. tiao tiao!!!"