Again, I had to take out money because i ran out and needed food. We use a lot of money for traveling and paying for more stuff here. Both of my companions have told me all of the other areas are not this expensive... so sorry about that!! 

Elder Jara.... haha this is a good change. Im learning more of the language and of the mission because he has 20 months! so that is good. Its definitely a challenge though... only spanish 100% of the day! fwah! but its good! I really am learning more and Im talking more in lessons and the street! Im starting to get a little comfortable speaking. Like I can walk up to a house and start a lesson or contact. I also teach half of the lesson! We go back and forth and tag team lessons. He always shoots me a wink when its my turn and I do the same. hahaha hes a pretty big jokester too. He speaks a tiny bit of really not good english. so when Im stressed or thinking hard or something. He will break out in an english song or something and just butcher it... hahaha the thing he loves to say is "prairie dogging it" hahahaha I did not teach him it! It was his trainer! I laugh so hard sometimes when he says it! hahahaha! we also have sometimes where we argue a bit.... just out of frustration. Me with my spanish and him with his english. Trying to communicate some times is hard. But for the most part we do fine! so we talk it over, and fix it, and keep going!Definitely a challenge!! 

The heat is coming and the humidity is coming with it! wow! hahaha it is definitely like hitting a wall walking outside.... haha 

One thing they stress out here is asking inspired questions. Really opening your mouth and letting the spirit fill it with inspired questions. There was a lession we tought yesterday. a 17 year old eduardo and his cousin Ericka who is like 20 and is apparently baptized. Ericka wasnt really paying attention and we knew going into the lesson we wanted to invite eduardo to be baptized. And before Elder Jara could say the words I asked Ericka about her baptism. She openned up a bit and it struck a cord and she cried and told us what was going on. Really cool and the spirit was strong. We asked Eduardo to be baptized and he said no. We kept pushing and described to importance of baptism and invited again. He said no. so then I bore my testimony. I just simply said that I am only 1 year older than him and that I was thousands of miles away from everything I love and I find comfort in. I explained why I was here. How we came to be in his house. Why we do what we do and how we do it. I explained the love God has for him and how he is waiting for him. The spirit was reallllllly strong. It was dead quiet in the house and the spirit was almost burning it was so strong. He had a few tears in his eyes. Elder Jara asked the 3rd and final time and he said yes.... We were so happy and the spirit was there. We said that we would help him and that he was doing the right thing. We were really excited and happy. we now have 3 baptismal dates for the middle of November!!! I hope and pray they all continue to progress! 

Everything is going great so far. It is an adjustment having to show my comp around when I dont even really know where everything is! Its hard to be patient with myself sometimes, but I am continuing to pray and try so Im doing great!! haha Im really starting to settle into the culture and stuff here which is great! Elder Jara told me that training is always hard and slow. he said that once I get out of training and my first area. Time flys by really fast. So I am really trying to focus and enjoy it along the way. I mean I have like 20 months left. I am scheduled to come home the 16 of july. I dont know why its like that, but I guess they just like to keep it organized like that. Also this is when the transfer is. So Its almost like a whole month early... Weird... So I am really going to try hard to enjoy it! 

Thanks for all of the letters always. and thanks for sending that package! I cant wait to see it and Ill keep my eye out for it! Thanks for all of the prayers and updates from home! I love hearing it all! This is about all of the time I have today! Ill write next week! and its only a matter of time until we can skype! Love you guys! God is Great!

Elder Hansen

So this week was good, started off normal and ended insanely. Started off great with lessons with members (which we never have because there are 13 active in church), finding investigators, we gave two blessings this week. I anointed both of them, because Im not comfortable giving the blessing yet, annnnnd Abraham passed his interview!!!! We were so happy! 

Im sending pictures of the baptism that we had on saturday for him! I was able to do the baptism! Elder Bean basically made me because he said that there was nothing more he wanted to see than his "son" in the water with his blind convert. haha He is great. The baptism was great! I was able to memorize the words and say it right and perform the baptism right all on the first try! So that was relieving... I was a little stressed.. The cool part was after when me and Elder bean were helping him change. Right after Elder Bean had to do something, so I was in the bathroom with Abraham helping him around and stuff. He stopped  in his shoes and just stood there in the bathroom I was busy grabing his towel and stuff not to notice what he was doing. I heard a few sniffles and looked up. It was a really cool spiritual, quiet moment. I asked if he was ok, and he said he was fine. I went over to him and he pulled me close and gave me the biggest hug. He just sat there and cried on my chest for like 3 minutes, pouring out his heart saying, "Im clean. Im clean... thank you so much for helping me. Without the help of you guys I wouldnt know any of this. Thank you lord for saving me and helping me. Thank you for everything." Theres a lot more that he said too. I just simply responded that "God loves you so much and that he is so happy you chose to be baptized."But he was just crying and hugging. It was a really cool minute. 

The night we had a different experience... We got the call that Elder Bean was getting transferred and that we needed to get him packed and ready to go monday morning. We needed to be in the offices at 10;00. That was a big hit to us both. From cloud 9 to ground 0. Which means that I am finishing my training with my new comp Elder Jara. He is from Chile, hes 26, he has 20 months in the mission, and knows like 4 words in english... haha so it will stretch me a bit but I know I can do it. God doesnt give us problems or scenarios without a solution or reason. So Im excited to have this transfer with Elder Jara and do some work. Things will be a little hard because I am to lead the area for the first week or so. Showing him where everything and everyone is. haha so that will be interesting!! haha but it will be good for me to do! Im really excited! Elder bean left to be a Zone leader in a different zone!! so thats way cool for him! 

anyways Im about out of time! I love you guys, and love getting your letters! Thanks for all of the support and love! know that Im working my hardest and love my savior! I will write next week!

Elder Hansen

This week was really good! sounds like the weather there is amazing... haha here I feel like this week was Utah weather x10... we would wake up and look out the window and see nothing but dark clouds, by 3 oclock, nothing but the sun in the sky! There was one day where it rained the entire day pretty hard. We still went out and worked anyways, but it was crazy! haha some streets were pretty flooded which means the sanjas were flooded as well.... No me gusta... haha But it was fun to see. 

We also had the best freakin ice cream Ive ever had on the face of this planet... GRITOS! haha Elder bean and I were walking back to the pensh one night and we always passed Gritos on the way. I finally asked if it was any good, and he just looked at me... haha hes said that it was a little pricy though, I said I didnt care and that I would pay if its worth it. He just looked at me again... haha So we went in and I bought 1 Kilo of Ice cream! They let you pick up to 4 flavors to put into this tub. So we picked 3, something like cookies and cream, dulce de leche with brownie, and alfajor sundae.... haha We ate the whole thing in one night! well, I ate the whole thing... Elder Bean had some, but I ate it so fast and he didnt want a lot... Haha best thing ever.

This week we will most likely have a baptism!! This saturday, good old blind Abraham is going to get baptized! I just hope he can pass the interview... haha hes 71 with like 4 teeth and seems to forget and mix up the law of chastity, law of tithing, and the word of wisdom... haha its actually kind of funny to listen to him rant about why smoking and drinking is breaking the law of chastity... So we have been working with him on that!! Hes also wayyyy funny, so he cracks jokes just randomly. Like we were explaining what you cant drink or do pertaining to the word of wisdom. After a long 40 minutes of trying to get the word of wisdom straight he finally just says, ¨all I do is eat soup... and drink Mate... this is all¨ hahahahaha we all just laughed for like 5 minutes. After a while I think he started to get them straightened out... We will find out thursday when he has his interview! I love him! haha when we taught him last Elder Bean said that we were going to teach him a little something. He asked who I was... We have taught him like 3 times before! haha but then he remembered and said ¨ohhh hes the elder who doesnt talk alot but eats alot.¨ haha weve had a few lunch lessons with him at one of our lunch appointments. 

Lately this has been a rough week for us elders. We had 13 people in church last sunday, and almost 80% of our lessons fell through, especially because we teach alot of inactives. So they run from us haha. But its all good. We walked A LOT this week, and were shut down by old and new people alot. But, we just keep going and trying everyday knowing that eventually we will find and teach who we are supposed to. As long as we are out and about doing and trying what we are supposed to be doing, that is all that is important. The lord can direct us and show us where we need to go as we are out. 

I have 5 weeks in Argentina from tomorrow! This transfer ends next monday! So we find out if Elder Bean leaves or not. I guess theres a chance I could leave and he stays, or we both leave or stay. Its more likely that Elder Bean leaves than me though. Hes been here for a while, but he said president doesnt usually like to split up the companionships in training... So most likely he will stay around for another transfer then he will leave and I will direct the area. Confusing, but its all good. 

This is about it! I have a few pictures for you. Im learning how to cook! I can cook a lot of Argentine stuff! Which is awesome. Made myself some mate this morning and chilled. Life is good. The Mission is good. Thank you for all of your prayers and support, I feel them! Love you guys! Be safe!

Elder Hansen

I dont have a ton of time now, but I will write as much as I can! First off to answer  questions.... Yes I have tried mate multiple times and the first time I HATED it... But a week later I like had a craving for it... Made no sense right? Now I love it! hahaha weird how that works.... second, My spanish is continuing to improve. still way not good but building every day. My english is starting to go and I cant speak spanish... haha so I am in a terrible position... hahahaha but I like it a lot. I can understand almost all of what is being said. or at least 85% of the time but still cant say much. I try to and bear my testimony and stuff. But ya, that will come in time. Members are nice and other missionaries too and say that I speak like Ive been out for months.

how is everyone doing?? hows back home? hows the weather and the ward? Its starting to reeeeally warm up here and get hot and humid.... haha no me gusta....  

So this week I had 2 intercambios(exchanges) and 1 entrevista(interview) with president. I went on exchanges with Elder Tolman! Hes my ultimate favorite missionary out here. Hes from Logan, UT! Pretty big kid with an even bigger testimony. So they lasted a day. So we switch during the day, sleep over, then switch back. His comp went with Elder Bean to Ensenada and I went to his area. Really cool and we taught some REALLY powerful lessons and stories. I talked so much those days and learned a lot. 

Next at the end of the week I went with Elder Lencina. He has about 17 months in the mission and is from argentina. Yup, hardly any english speaking went on... So he is a Viajero(or traveler) he and his comp travel over the whole mission and stay at your pensh, eat your food, mooch off of you hardcore and you go on exchanges during one day. we did some WORK!! we had a challenge as a mission to give out 20 BOMs that day and between us 4 we gave out 20 on the dot! As a mission over 1200!!! haha our mission is tiny too! Way cool.

Interview with president was great. We all met at the stake center as a zone, and one by one had our interview. Everyones lasted like 10 to 15 minutes. People from the states were telling me how its a little intimidating because he asks direct questions and what not. But they said that he will interview me in english because its my first one. Thats what happened to them at least! I went up there and it was all spanish! I understood everything, responded how I wanted, and left! 5 minutes was all it took. He gave me a big hug, thanked me for everything and that was that. Really cool guy. Later that night, I talked with Elder bean. (Who was just made district leader FYI...) and he said that president said I am a great missionary. That he knows I work hard and doesnt have to worry about me. Really comforting to hear that. 

Now for a funny story to wrap up... Me and Elder Lencina were walking down this street. (He talks to everyone) So we were walking and this guy is just staring at us blankly... suddenly my comp is gone and is talking to him. I hurry and run up and start listening haha. This guy smells like hes had 20 beers.... haha sooooooooo drunk. we talk for a bit and hes cracking us up non intentionally. Elder Lencina breaks out laughing hardcore and turns to me and says in the little english he knows, "Hes sooooo drunk" This guys is just smiling and smiling and looking off into nowhere.... haha next thing you know he starts trying to do math trying to figure out which age was higher/older 20 or 18... Next thing you know 2 more buddys come out of the house.... hahaha both drunk. I just said we will pass by another day and teach you guys. They responded to teach them now. My comp turns to me and says laughing "lets teach them something" so we go in and have an opening prayer holding hands in a circle. And my comp whips out these pictures in these pamphlets and is asking them what the pictures are of... they went off ofr like 10 minutes... hahaha we actually ended up teaching a little lesson bore our testimonies said a closing prayer in the same manner and left. One of them found out I liked basketball and wanted to play me right there... To bad he didnt have a ball or hoop.... hahaha so we left and that was that. Lucas and the drunks. Haha sooo funny. 

Anyways, I am out of time, I love you guys! Thanks for writing me every week. Sorry Im not too personable, I will try a bit harder with that next week! Keep up the good work. im so proud to wear my familys name on my chest right next to our saviors. Love you guys! Be safe!

Elder Hansen

Yes, Elder Bean and I made Empanadas one day for lunch... Im going to make so many when I get back Home!!

CHORIZO. SO GOOD.

Donut like things filled with dulce de leche with sugar on the outside!!

How is everyone doing? I was able to watch conference live as well... in english!! waaaaaaat!  Me and Elder Bean both didnt want to go at all to watch in in castellano so we went into the bishops room and pulled it up on the computer, plugged in my JBL flip thing and watched it. Really cool to be able to do that! I was mad about missing ablesceevers and scones.... buut elder bean felt the same about his family traditions at general conference time. So we made some fancy french toast in the morning.... and bought snacks and stuff for conference. I bought a kilo of pepas (jelly cookie things) and animal crackers!! So conference was a success! Oh I saw Eric in the choir! The human mess!! haha I was telling Elder Bean all about him... hahaha really fun to see him again!

To answer some questions... Dad: we meet with the zone every tuesday, eat breakfast, split into our two districts and someone teaches a lesson! I love my zone and district! I dont see him much. Like everyother transfer we have an interview with him. I interview this thursday I believe... haha I dont know the days are mixing together!! But hes a way cool guy!! There are approx. 180 missionaries in my mission! Bigger than I thought!! 

Mom: we have twin beds. We expand our sleeping bags into blankets. But my head and feet touch both ends at the same time... thats great hahaha but the beds are rocks and ya! haha thats about it with that!! Our area theres not a lot of members... or active at least. Active there are 12 i think... But we eat a meal with the members about 4 times a week if that.... other areas you eat about every meal.... so ya, we do alot of cooking and elder bean is a good cook so we are doing fine!

Im glad you told me about brandon! He didnt tell where he was going! he told me he got his call but not where to!! So thank you! Its crazy to think that I will be gone almost 6 months by the time he goes!! Time is flying here! days are mixing! Im really starting to love it here! I stick out soooo bad for my height and cury hair haha but its a good conversation starter!!

Now I want to say a few things before I forget... haha Theres a kid here I ran into while I was staying the night in Quilmes, for paperwork, that I met. I stayed at his pension. His name is Collin Smith and he grew up in American Fork. Hes like 20 and really big and tall. I was talking with him and turns out he knows the Blakes! Hes like "Are you freaking kidding me, I know your brother way good! I even Played some football with him and the other Blake!" Small world! Way cool guy and awesome missionary.

Other thing. I took out some personal money for some stuff, so I just wanted to run that by you.

Mondongo.... Mondongo.... mondongo... No me gusta... hahaha right before conference on saturday we went to Marias for Almuerzo. She pulled out this weird rubber flabby thing and slammed it on the table and cut it up into bite sized peices... yup its the cow stomach! haha she put it in this stew and it was like chewing gum with these weird rubber appendages on it. No joke. I looked at elder bean after a few minutes into the meal and he was half done!! haha I was like what the heck? I ate it all. haha somehow and just pounded a ton of bread with it! It was the only way to get it down! Anyways mark that one off the list.

I also bought a mate cup!! It is soooo sweet I will send pictures! But Its way sweet! 

As far as what I would like in that package... hmmm haha anything! Something that I can munch on for a while! Just whatever you would think I would like! I dont remember a lot of candy and stuff from the states already... haha so as dad would say "surprise me"! Thanks for doing that!!

Anyways, it was a really good week. One thing that Ive tried to do more is be thankful in general in my prayers, but also for the tiny things in life. Something really small that day that blessed my day or made my life a little bit better. I have found that through this you are able to feel Gods love more, and you are blessed with more of those moments throughout the day. I love doing that because it helps me focus more on what I say and ask for. I want to challenge you back home to do this. Family prayers and personal as well. At least do it for this week. Another thing I do is before I leave, throughout the day, and when we come back I repeat in my mind, "have more faith than fear" This has helped me a ton too. Being able to manually control my thoughts by this phrase. I already have stories written in my journal about how this phrase has helped me in every moment throughout the day. 

I love you guys a lot! And Im so grateful for the knowledge I have that I can live with you guys forever. I get to share that with this people! How cool is my job! I finished 3 Nephi last week and I love that book. I encourage you guys to read it and mark it up. God is so great. He is everything, and everything to me. His mercy and love is always there. How cool is it that in any moment of the day we can talk to the greatest person there ever was and is. and he HEARS us. He cares about all even the ones with metal roofs and cement floors here... How cool is it that I can share that with conviction and a firm belief in that. 

Love you guys! I will write next week! Thanks for all of the emails each week! They help alot!!!

Love,

Elder Hansen