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!!!"