CHRISTMAS SWAG...SIPACATE STYLE

Swag from Sipacate

Feliz Navidad Suckers!!!!

December 24, 2012

hoooooooooooollllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Well first i´m about darles Chicotes cuz i had nothing in my email!!!!!! Puchica hombres. But whatever because I get to talk to you TOMORROW!!!!

This week was really good. It flew by so dang fast i feel like my head is spinning. We had a freaking buttload of lessons and we´re looking at more this week. The only problem that we have is that no one will come to church. And i mean NO ONE. We had 3 investigators in the church sunday. That´s really discouraging haha but it´s okay. We´re working hard and being obedient. And that´s all that matters. 

The President of the branch wasn´t in church on Sunday so me and my companion had to handle all the business haha. Heconducted and i had to give a nice girthy talk about Faith. Thank the Heavens above for Ether chapter 12. or as the people would say here Gracias a Dios. It wasn´t that bad but it was a little hectic and stressful. But we got it done baby!

Tonight I guess is going to be way crazy because the don´t celebrate on the 25 it´s on the 24. Tonight we get to be out of the house until 12 45 haha that´s going to be so dang crazy. But i´m really stoked to see how they celebrate here.

We had a really successful week this week but something really crazy happened. Arnulfo, our investigator that was a sure baptism, just up and freaking left his whole family!!!! Que esta pasando con este cuate?????? Freaking crazy. I guess he got in a fight with his wife and packed his bags and left. We have no idea where he is and we can´t talk to him because he doesn´t have a phone. I guess all we can do is be there for the family and pray like crazy for him. It really just crushed us because he was so sure and seemed so ready for the gospel. It´s one of those things that´s really been hard to deal with. 

Every day is better and better. I´m really starting to get used to everything and finding out the best way to get things done. Also it helps that my feet feel way way way way better. I´m pretty much coating them is disinfecting stuff every night and they are doing way better. 

I got some letters from a bunch of people today and i´m looking forward to reading them tonight and seeing what everyone has to say. Let everyone know to keep writing me and i will write everyone back in due time haha. I didn´t get any packages yet but maybe tomorrow the hermanas are going to have them haha or  maybe at least one. 

But I will talk to you guys tomorrow!!!!!! WHOOOOO that´s  gonna be good. 

I love you all!! Have a great Christmas eve watching Freddy Krugars Christmas and eating chinese food!!! Totes jelly. 

Love, Elder Hanson

Absolutley killinng it with an iguana and my other baptism!

That iguana was something that this family had caught and was going to eat for dinner!!!! Freaking crazy!!! Also, I can now email all returned missionaries and all others in the field.

Sipicate Week 5

December 18, 2012

Mom here are the answers to your questions:

1.  How are your feet?  They are okay. Still hurt like crazy but they are getting a little bit better. I haven't talked to anyone because there isn't anyone around us to talk to haha. But i'll be okay!!

2.  Was that the inside of your house that you were roasting marshmellows? Sadly dad is right haha yeah that's in the part of our house where the shower is and stuff like that. It's pretty wild eh?

3.  Did you get some food?  hahaha yeah we have food. We always find ways to get food. Todo bien aqui con la comida

4.  Do you have enough money down there?  Yeah I do. With the american dollars i have a lot but i can't use very often becuase i have to change them. So i'm just keeping them until i can change them.

5.  I heard you use a little card with mission money down there.  Is that right? Yeah we have a card with all the money that we have for a month.

6.  Are you getting used to the heat at all?  No not at all haha in the mornings it's so dang hot. I'm lucky we're not out muuch in the mornings because we are studying.

Well Hey!!

This week was a stressful one to say the least. We started off the week in our area with another P day NOT hahaha never have p day! that just go t substituted with the day at the Temple. We went to stay with the zone leaders because we had to be at the temple at 6 in the morning the next day on wednesday. We were fasting that whole day and that was a really long fast. Longest of my life for sure, i thought i was going to die haha. On Wednesday we had to wake up at 2 in the morning after a nice long night on a tile floor to be at the temple in time for the first session. No food no water and no sleep. It was a recipe for a great day. It ended up good I just was dead the whole day. In the temple was in spanish and that was really hard. I don't understand it in english let alone in spanish haha. But it ended up good. My attitude just wasn't where it needed to be that day. Just a long hard day haha.

The rest of the week was pretty good. We had a lot of good success in our area with lessons and stuff but not with attendance at church. We called all of our investigators in the morning on sunday and about 15 of them told us that they were going to come. So we were counting on like 6 or 7. It ended up to be our worst attended sacrament meeting that i've had here with only 2 investigators. That was super hard and frustrating. The lady that we were supposed to confirm, didn't show up to the meeting hahaha so we have to do that next week. I think that we just need to focus a little bit more with the importance of the sacrament meeting with our investigators.

It was another frustrating week but I'm trying really really hard to keep my head up and not get down. We are teaching a lot but we just have no one that is really really progressing. We have a wedding planned for Arnulfo next month because he drank again, after a month without he drank!!!!!!! we were devestated. That was a hard one to swallow. But we're still working hard with him and trying really hard to help him. We have a goal of 5 baptisms in January and I know that if we just have faith and are obedient, that we'll get it done. 

It doesn't feel like Christmas at all. It's so weird with no snow and no cold at all but i think it still will be cool. With the call, next week I will email on MONDAY and i will give you our phone number to our house.  The other day we went into a house where they were watching Elf and i was really jelly because i wanted to be watching Elf haha but it's all good. Soon enough right? We're not going to the change meeting this week so I don't even know if i'm going to even get my packages and letters before Christmas even if i have the chance to do so. So I guess i will just have to wait and see what is going to happen with that haha.  Dad your Christmas letter was so awesome. I actually did see a lady with that tat on her forhead. Tu eres un travieso por supuesto hombre. haha I wish i could have been at the B party to see my boy Uncle Gordie totally kill it!! Alwaays a good time at that Party.

Well that's pretty mnuch all for this week. Thanks for all the support and i will email you on monday to let you know what's going on with everything and if i got my packages. I love you all so much and i hope that everything is going really well for everyone!! The rooms are freaking sick too. Geez i want Gus' when i get home haha. Much love to all!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Cooper Tyler Hanson 

With your question mom about the people that can't read..... It says in the scripture that once you RECIEVE these things i would exort you.... yeah so the people aren't held acountable. Everything is according to the faith.

ppooooppppp

December 10, 2012

Hey y´all!

 

I´m just going to start off this one by saying that this definetly wasn´t the best week of my life...Actually it was really really really hard. I find myself more frustrated than happy a lot of the time. And it´s mostly frustration with myself. The language is really kicking my butt and I just have no idea how I am ever going to be able to understand these people. It´s really hard to not understand really well still. I can talk most of the time just fine but I just can´t understand the normal stuff. It´s really hard to concentrate and focus when I don´t know what is going on in the conversation. It also is a big distractor from the spirit. I don´t feel the Spirit at times because i´m too busy being frustrated with myself and the situations that i´m in.

 

We literally have no food in the house haha. And on top of it all we don´t get P day this week and don´t get to go shop for food haha so i don´t know what´s going to happen with that stuff. This week we get to go to the city to go to the temple and i´m really looking forward to that. It´s going to be really nice to have such a big spiritual boost at this crappy time right now.

 

One thing that brightned up the week this week was the Baptism of Gloria Diaz Mendoza. I didn´t baptize her but it still was really really amazing. We found her two and a half weeks ago and she was ready to recieve the message. She totally just did everything we asked and got baptized. It was nice to finally have an investigator like that. We have an investigator named, Arnulfo Lima and he is so amazing! We´ve gotten him off of alcohol and all he needs to do is get married to his wife that he´s been living with for 35 years hahah. His wedding is planed for this Saturday and his Baptism is the following day. We´ve really worked hard with him and he´s been really good for us. I guess that this is a really hard area and we´re having a little bit of good success compared to the other missionaries in this year. We´re hoping to have about 4 more baptisms this month and then we´ll match the number for this whole year. It´s really discouraging at times but when you have an investigator that is really good and just picks up on everything really quick, it is rewarding. 

 

I´m emailing today because this weeks schedule is really screwey with the temple stuff. The whole entire mission in going to the temple on tuesday and wednesday. That is going to be a huge boost for me. I´m really looking forward to that. We have to go tomorrow to stay at the zone leaders house because we´re so far out of the city and we need to be at the temple by 6 in the morning. We would have to leave Sipacate at like 2 in the morning to get there on time haha. 

 

It´s so dang hot here!!!! Even during the night is just way too hot. I honestly didn´t know that I could sweat this much in my entire life. I go back to the house at night and I´m just all sticky and dirty and stinky and normally as all of you guys know I can´t handle being dirty but now it´s weird that I don´t mind when i am just totally nasty. One thing that totally amazes me is the fact that the people that live here practically are camping their whole lives. The live in these houses made out leaves and cement and they wash their clothes be hand and all this stuff. It really is crazy that people live like this. It just shows me that I am so dang blessed to live where I live and have the family that I have and have all the support from people that I have. 

 

We had a couple of dang funny experiences this week... First we were walking down the street and we stopped and talked to this kid that looked a little...different haha. We shared some stuff with his and invited him to church and after all this he told us that he was gay and after talking to his my companion could not stop laughing and saying I KEW IT I KNEW IT hahaha it was so funny. And now we have a gay investigator, so that´s...great. Like five minutes after that we encountered a llama that looked really nice and innocent and my companion wanted a picture with it. So I took my camera out to take one and looked up to find the llam right in my face hawking a huge lougie in my face. Luckily I´m as swift as a tiger and dodged it hahaha it was totes cray.

 

I can´t believe that my little buddy colly wolly polly dog is leaving so soon. It´s crazy how things are changing with everything!! Dad, I need you to get colly some of the pink vans stickers like you gave me. I gave one to Chris and we both have ours on our Plaques so get one to my boy Chode for that. He´s going to freaking kill it. I´m really stoked for it.

 

Send me pictures through email!! I want to see the rooms of the kids and how you guys ruined my room! Puchika!! Ruining all my stuff already! And dad I am no casacero. Siempre hablo solamente la verdad a todo la gente de Guate. One thing is that we can´t use Tu when we speak and so sometimes i want to say something in spanish but i don´t know how to speak in tu yet haha but I´m sure i will learn.

 

Until next time, Elder Hanson!!

My feet

Makin some s'mores

Drinking some cocos

Week 3

December 4, 2012

Hey Fam!!

      First I´m going to answer the questions that you guys had for me....

1. fill us in on your investigators.... Well we have investigators....that´s pretty much all i have to say about that haha. It´s really hard in this area because the people are so far away from civilization and don´t really have a lot of opportunities. Most of them can´t read so that is really hard. They just don´t understand what we´re trying to say a lot of the time so that´s hard. My companion gets frustrated with some people after the 6th time explaining the book of Mormon. It´s pretty hard when we hear about the other missionaries that are having people just come up to them and wanting to be baptized. But we have a baptism this week with a lady that I´ve taught all the way! That´s going to be so awesome. I guess in this area they have only baptized like 6 people this whole year. We have people with dates for their baptisms but they never follow through. We just need to pray and have faith.

2. How involved are the members? They are really great. We only have like 30 but they are all awesome. We have a 20 year old kid that comes with us to almost all of our lessons and that is a really great help to us. He leaves on his mission to Peru just before the end of my time here. 

3.  How is the Branch Pres/Bishop? He´s not the greatest. ¨ánd thats all i have to say about that´´ Forrest Gump

4. DO you eat tortillas or pan frances? We eat tortillas all the time and i love them so much!!!! And my favorite thing here is probably the bread. I almost get it every night haha my companion thinks that it´s so funny that i love the bread in our area. He says it sucks compared to other areas..

5. Have you had Pan de Manteca?  I honestly have no idea what that is so maybe i have had it but i don´t know!

6. Are you acclimating to the calorcito? Nope. 

I am able to send letters our every once in a while and I also sent the package for you guys and Natalie this week.  I think i´m going to get mail and that kind of stuff on the 19th when we have a change meeting in the city. After that i think it´s another 7 weeks till i can get mail.

Well it was a pretty hard week for me. I´m hitting the wall in the language and not feeling like i´m ever going to go anywhere with it. It´s really hard to feel like the awkward one in the conversation for the first time in my life. I can understand everything that my companion says and that is a huge blessing from the Lord. I feel like when i need to i can get my point across but I just am having a hard time understanding the people. It´s frustrating at times to not have any idea what is going on. Like one lady just asked me that if i fell in love on my mission could i stop and get married? Of course I said Si like a retard. My companion told me what happened afterward and I felt like a complete idiot. It´s just hard to be awkward haha. 

We are having a lot of fun through all of the crazy stuff. There are always drunk guys passed out in the midddle of the street and crazy dudes screaming in the churches. Every single person in our area is Evangelica. They are really hard to talk to because they just end up screaming at you. There are so many churches. It´s like every street corner is another evangelico church. And those people never want to listen. It´s way easier with Catholics or with people that have no religion. We´re always working hard through all of the weird stuff. 

Last week I had my first experience with freaky food here. Our cocinera made us soup with cow stomach.... Yeah it was the most nasty thing i´ve ever choked down. I just was praying that i could eat it through all the popping stuff and the nasty slimey texture. It was the most horrible thing ever. Other than that the food hasn´t been very weird. Mostly just rice aand meat and soup. The thing that sucks is we always get burning hot soup when all we want is something nice and cold haha. I LOVE THE BREAD HERE. It seriously is the most marvelous thing in the world haha.

I´m working on teaching my companion English. At times i will just start talking in english to see if he gets it. We sometimes have simple conversations in english and he will tell me stories and I love it so much haha. I like to have him pray in English too. The first time he did it was so amazing. I felt the Spirit so stong when he did it the first time. We just have a ton of fun together.

I´m getting totally wrecked by bugs during the night on my feet. My feet are a mess. I have like blisters on top of blisters haha it´s absolutley brutal. Walking around in the heat is killing my feet. Luckily I have good shoes haha. I am loading up on powder every single morning and afternoon if i can. If you know what i mean dad. If i forget, it's a long day haha. 

It´s really good in my area. I´m just trying so hard to get used to the heat! But this week is going to be really really fun and I´m so stoked for our baptism this weekend. That´s going to be really rewarding. She´s a really big lady so who knows if I´m going to be able to get her out of the water or if someone else will have to do it hahaha. I love you all so much! Have a great week this week and I´ll try and have some cool stories next week! Make sure you get this to all my friends that want it!

Love, Elder Cooper Tyler Hanson

Just killin it with some pigs and my companion

What's hot water?

November 27, 2012

Hello all!! 

This week was a lot a lot a lot better than the first one out in the field. We´re teaching like crazy! We had alomost 40 lessons this week and we want to have more this week! We don´t really do anything but walk from lesson to lesson and sometimes we find a new investigator. We´re looking at 5 baptisms or more in the month of Decmeber and this is an area that only has 6 in the whole year. So me and my companion are looking to double that in this month!

I´m having a lot of fun with my companion and I´m really loving him. My spanish is getting so much better with him and i´m trying to help him a lot with his english. He´s really learning a lot and learning fast. I like to talk to him in English when we´re in the house and he is really doing well with understanding me if i speak really slow haha. 

When i get down and have a pretty bad day, I like to go back to the house and read section 121 of D and C because that just helps me know that i could totally have it a lot worse. Also I read this week in the chapter 40 of Alma. This chapter is about the after life and things like that. And I don´t really know if there is anything more comforting to me in regards to Gabe than that chapter of sctipture. I just love it. I think it´s verse 23 that says that not a hair on the head will be missing. I love that because we all know how great of hair Gabe had. He loved to let everyone know too. Also something that i draw a lot of comfort from is listening to music. There are so many songs that i just love to listen to and love to think about my little brother. I know where he is and i know that he is doing the exact same thing as me.

I had a cool experience with this man named Vinicio Ochoa this week, a inactive member that is struggling to find his way back. He is so nice and is always wanting us to come over and visit. A couple nights ago we were walking back to the house to go back for the night and he rode by on his bike and was histerical. He couldn´t find his family and had no idea what was going on. It was really sad. We talked to him for a while and tried to help him calm down. When he was finally calm i looked him right in the eyes and told him that he needed to say a prayer that everything would be okay....The next day we went and visited him and talked to him. Everything was okay with his family and he was doing a lot better. He had found a job and was really happy and excited. It was so good to see his face and see him happy and cheerful again. A little later in the lesson he looked at me and said ´´Elder Hanson i will never forget what you told me last night. From now on i will always have a prayer in my heart and me and my family are coming back to the church.´´ For me the Spirit was so strong. I was so happy that something that i said had actually made an impact on someone. I just know i´m here for a reason and it´s really hard a lot of the time but i´m starting to love it.

In a family of members there is this kid named Emilio and he literally is a clone of Chancho off of Nacho. When i first saw him i wanted to ask him if he played Chancho. I´m not even joking. Like it´s freaking crazy. I just wanted to ask him if i could borrow some sweats. To Dad...Hay muchas snaked aqui in Sipacate. I hope you know what that means. There are snakes but i´m not talking about the literal ones haha.

I´m starting to love it and i´m looking forward to all of the good things that The Lord has in store for me. It´s hard to be so dang isolated from everyone and everything but i know that will pass and we´re just going to freaking kill it this week in the work. I´m loving the people and they are all just so funny. I just love talking to drunk people for some reason. They are always the most entertaining. Well thanks for all the prayers and support! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Hanson

Pictures of Sipacate

Welcome to SIPACATE!

November 20, 2012

Alright here we go!!! My first area is in the zone Santa lucia and my first area is called Sipacate. It's about as close to the coast as you can get. It's so freaking hot and I'm literally dying out here. It's really hard and frustrating this first week. It's really hard to understand anything besides the gospel. I am happy to be out in the field but it's so hard and discouraging sometimes. I'm trying to stay really really positive out here.

One of the things that is really hard is that there is nowhere in my area to send letters or packages and i'm hardly going to ever get any mail. I'm going to be with my first companion for 14 weeks. Luckily he is a freaking STUD!! Elder Diaz from Honduras and doesn't speak a lick of english. I know i'm supposed to be with him because i already love him to death.

One thing that i have to let you all know is that it is a mission rule that i can't email anyone but family. So you're going to need to get the address of Natalie and forward her these all the her. Unedited please haha. That's been hard for me to take but i know i will be blessed by being obedient. Please write me and i will respond when i can. I will try and send pictures from time to time.

Our area is about a 10 minute car ride from the coast and is took us 4 hours in bus to get there the first day. There literally is nothing in this place but it's all good. We teach about 5 or 6 lessons a day. But don't have a lot of success with progressing investigators. I had my first baptism this sunday and that was an awesome expierence. It was a lady named Maribel Carrera. She is going to be a great member no doubt. We have only a tiny branch in this area of maybe 30 members. But i promise it will grow!!!

Our house isn't the greatest thing in the world but it is better than the mud huts that we normally teach in. It's so DANG HOT HERE. Now i really know hat melt your face off hot means. Haha but when i get to work and am working hard, i don't really notice. Yesterday i challenged my first investigator in the field to baptism! What an amazing feeling!!

I am trying to be exactly obedient and always follow the rules. There are some that i don't agree with but i know that i will be blessed for living them. Exact obedience brings forth miracles!!!!

I tried to send the package for Christmas when we were in the city but the lady saw that i was white and told me is costed 435 quets per poud hahahaha no way lady!! So that will come when i can get it sent out. Maybe next week when we get to go to the Capital.

It's hard but I'm hanging in there. I'm really learning the real way to pray. I love you guys so much and i just want you to know that. Let the kids know that i'm praying for them always and tell them to be good and obedient. Thank you so much for all the support and all the prayers for me. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!

Love, Elder Cooper Tyler Hanson

I don't have any time down here to email and the keyboards are all

screwy so the keys are all over the place so i'll worry about making
my letters look good when i get out into the field and get a normal
gomputer that works. i don't know where i'm going yet we'll find that
out on tuesday when we get to the mission home so stoked!! the quake
was pretty crazy and it shook us for like a minute and a half. It
wasn't a big deal but it was cool to feel. i just thought someone was
shaking my chair haha. My spanish when i talk to the latinos is pretty
good actually. They understand everything thyat i say and i can
understand about 80 percent of what they say. i can get my point
across but the hardest part still is understanding what some people
are saying. My testimony is really growing. It's hard for it not to
grow when we're sitting and studying every day all day. I love reading
the Booke of Mormon and reading Jesus the Christ. it's so awesome to
hear about all the amazing things that Jesus did while he was here. i
think i'm good on things that i need from you guys but i will let you
know for sure. Mom here are the answers to your questions in the dear
elder i got this week. i did have a parasite but i got on some
antibiotics from the President's wife so i'm totally fine now. Don't
worry!! down here we eat a lot of veggies and we actually have a lot
of really really good meat. the food is good here. I guess the food we
get here is comparable to a really expensive restaurant down here in
Guate. The one thing that i don't like is the celantro on every single
ting haha but i'm getting used to it. a lot of awesome fruit too.
That's really good. I never thought that papaya would taste like
straight throw up. it's so dang NASTY!!! A day in the life of a
missionary in the MTC consists of this: we wake up and go to play
soccer for like an hour of so then we go to shower and breakfast.
after that we have personal study for an hour and the we have grammar
with our teacher. then after that it's lunch. after lunch we have
lessons with our teacher and the we teach our investigator (the
teacher). then it's dinner. we switch teachers after dinner and then
we teach our other investigator (the other teacher). then we just have
lessons with the teachers or we practice teaching with the latinos.
that's pretty much it! every day!!! Mom i got the package that you
sent as a test run this week on tuesday i believe. It actually took a
while to get here which was weird because i got the one with the ipod
and stuff in it last week. This week we went tracting out in the
streets of Zona 5 and that was really fun. We got to go with our own
companions and find people and get contacts. the first two people that
we ran into were totally crazy. like they would just groan in our
faces and grab our hands and that was really weird. But that day ended
up being really good and we met and talked to some amazing people. It
was a really good week and i feel like just as i'm g etting the hang
of being here i'm having to leave. i am nervous to be in the field but
i'm really really stoked! it's going to be amazing to help realy
people. I can't wait to see this place and meet amazing people.
AHHHHH!!! here we go! My time of being a 'real' missionary starts now
and i'm going to work my butt off to try and help every single person
i can! I LOVE YOU. I love you all so so so much. have a great wek and
i will email you on my next p day! Love, Elder Cooper Tyler Hanson! <3