Montego Bay...Finding!

This week has been so so good! I got to Montego Bay on Tuesday and since then we have been working really hard! On Wednesday we had to drive to Savannah La Mar for a district meeting, then on Thursday to Ocho Rios for another district meeting, and then back to Kingston for Missionary Leader Counsel! So, we did a lot of driving! But it was all very good and we have learned a lot from the different meetings we've been to! 

Our area here in Mobay is really awesome! Super beautiful! Since we have a truck we have a huge area that goes through all the surrounding mountains and into a bunch of little villages in the middle of nowhere! 

The branch here is also really strong! There were about 90 people at church on Sunday and they all have really great testimonies! I am super excited to be working with them!

My companion, Elder Walker is a really great missionary, he just got done being the assistant to the president! I have already learned so much from him and look forward to continue that! 

Something that we have been focusing on is finding! Wherever we are, whether at district meetings, in Kingston, or wherever, we talk to EVERYONE! It has been so good and makes us feel like we are really doing our part to talk to everyone and share the gospel with them!

Elder Hansen

Back to Montego Bay!

Well, we got the call and I will be going back to Montego Bay in Jamaica as the north coast zone leader! I leave here in a couple hours. Super excited but I also am sad to be leaving the Turks!! The Turks has been a great place and I have learned so much from being here!! The Haitians are such a humble people and it has really influenced to just be grateful for what I have! The Turks has definitely been my hardest area I’ve had just because of the different and unique challenges such as not speaking the main language, or contacting for 8 hours every day! But you know what; I enjoyed these challenges because it has helped me to become a more patient person and just being able to do Heavenly Fathers will no matter what!

Also Patrick our recent convert was able to receive the Priesthood yesterday and that was really good to see him keep moving forward in the gospel! i am so excited to see where this branch is in a couple years as the Priesthood continues to grow! 

Well as normal we had a great week! I am excited for the future and what is still to come and I know that whatever it is, I will be sharing the gospel with everyone!

bless up yu self!

Elder Hansen

The sun is shinning and the water is still blue!

We had a great week this week! We did a lot of contacting! Contacting is great,its hard, but its great! Getting to go out and talk to every single person you see about Jesus Christ is enjoyable. Some people we talk to are less excited to see us and others more excited! But we are here to find those that will receive us so we will continue until we find them!

Patrick, the guy who got baptized a couple weeks ago was finally able to be confirmed this week! I had the opportunity to confirm him and that was a wonderful experience for me! 

Other than that the sun is still shining and the water is blue!! Elder Shepherd and I are having a really good time together and we are excited for the upcoming week!

Elder Hansen

Wonderful week!

Well this week has been a pretty interesting and wonderful week! Our Zone Leaders have told us that we should really try to learn Creole since that's where most of the action for missionary work is here in the Turks. So we have been taking a language study this past week... And let me tell you it's rough! Trying to learn a language from a couple books that say "Teach yourself Haitan Creole in 1 Month". So we have been trying to do that and we are coming along alright! The grammar is the hardest part! But hopefully we can start to speak halfway alright just to know if someone is interested or not. Other than that this week has been pretty normal! We had Zone Conference and learned more about obedience, teaching more naturally not by presentation, and some more on the Book of Mormon! So that was really good and Elder Shepherd and I have been applying the stuff we learned from that into the work! We have a few investigators right now that are doing really good! They are reading from the Book of Mormon and are coming to know that it is true! I am excited to keep finding these people who are ready to live the gospel!! I love the Gospel and I know that it will bless each of our lives as we each live it and come closer to our Heavenly Father!!

Elder Hansen

Patrick's baptism!

This week was so so good!! Patrick was able to be baptized and almost all the members came to the baptism as you can see in the picture! There was even a family of tourists that came to the baptism also!! That was really so good for Patrick because he is lonely here with nobody but now he has a family in the church and that's all we could ask for!! Patrick was super happy and just loved the experience he had. Also another one of our investigators named John came to church and the baptism after and knew Patrick from when they were kids living in Haiti! I guess they were friends and lived right down the street from each other! So that was another blessing we had seen this week!! Then on Sunday after the baptism we went to go see this next guy that was originally from Jamaica and he was asking when he could get baptized!! He had been "considering becoming a Mormon." So we are super excited for all of the blessings we have received this week! The Lord has really been blessing us and I am so grateful for that because I know that we couldn't accomplish anything if it weren't for HIM!

Also the picture with our car by the ocean, did some exploring on P-day and we found our selves right on the beach. We aren't aloud to actually go on the beach unless for a baptism so we had to just drive around!

Elder Hansen

Fasting and Prayer Work!

February 6, 2017

This week something really awesome happened! Our investigator Patrick had been struggling not really knowing if he wanted to be baptized because of all his problems financially and everything. He kept getting down and down and was losing hope but for fast Sunday I fasted very specifically for him to feel in his heart that he needed to be baptized. When we saw him last night, he started to tell us how he felt in his heart that he needed to be baptized!!! It was really such a great experience for me because I KNOW THAT FASTING AND PRAYER WORK! He had felt exactly what I prayed and fasted for! So we have Patrick on date to be baptized on the 18th of this month! I am really looking forward to that because Patrick is very lonely and has a lot of financial problems but the gospel will help him to deal with those problems! 

The Branch is still going pretty slow! This Sunday we had probably 20 tourists at church and maybe 10 locals... So we are also really trying to work with the branch to get church attendance moving forward! Other than that the work is rolling forward! I am doing great! Have a great week!!

Elder Hansen

February 13, 2017

A pretty normal great week we had! We did a lot of contacting! Talked to a lot of Haitians and also able to find some new people to teach that speak English so that is a great blessing!! Our investigator Patrick who is going to be baptized this Sunday came to church and he is so awesome! He was participating and everything! Also with all the commandments we have been teaching him he sometimes doesn't understand why but he has the faith to follow them! He is great! At church we also had 3 Priesthood Ordinations! That was so good! 2 of the 3 being recent converts and it was really a good time being able to help the people know how to ordain someone to the priesthood! It's really enjoyable to watch someone learn and practice the gospel! Other than that Elder Shepherd and I are doing really good! Just moving forward and really trying to help the branch be more self reliant! 

Elder Hansen

Training, Preaching, Repenting and Baptizing!

January 23, 2017

This week was pretty great! We got to skype into a training done by one of the Caribbean Area Seventies named Elder Gamiette! He is way cool and a very powerful speakers as all General Authorities are! The training was for church leaders and missionaries and talked a lot about how we need to be preaching repentance and baptizing converts! It really makes sense that when an investigator has repented, he will feel the joy that brings and he or she will want to continue to feel that by coming to church and partaking of the Sacrament each and every week! As for us members the same thing applies that when we understand repentance we will be truly converted to the gospel!!! 

Then also we were meeting with one of our investigators last night named Patrick and he is doing pretty good! However last night he started telling us about his life and how hard it is! It was pretty awful to sit there and listen to him tell us about how he has NO family here on the Island, they are all in Haiti. He told us that he has nothing; he doesn’t even have his own wooden home... He has no true friends, gets paid practically nothing and works 6 days a week all day long! It really just made me think about everything that we have! Sometimes we may think we have it hard but we don’t. Hopefully I can continue to be more humble and grateful for what I do have rather than what I don’t have! I love this gospel and the Gospel provides us with the love that we need to continue! 

January 30, 2017

We had a really great week this week! A lot of learning! We had the worldwide Missionary Broadcast and I learned a lot about Preaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts! It was really great and they also announced how there is a new schedule for our days and that has been really good also! Gives us more of a choice as to when we want to do our studies and planning so that is very nice! 

Then our mission president and his wife were able to come to the Turks for a few days at the end of the week! It was really good having them here to try and help the branch and to help figure out more with the language barrier we are having! We talked a lot about maybe bringing in a Haitian missionary that speaks English also and just being in a tri-companionship! That would really be so good for this area because the Haitians are ready for the gospel but we just can’t give it to them because we don’t speak the language! So President will be working on that but other than that we had a really good week! We were able to help more people come to know Jesus Christ better and start helping them to repent and change their lives! So I am excited about that and excited to continue to help these people!