Jamaican food!

So big news coming out of the Bay of Palms. I am getting white washed
out. Thats right im out. Getting transferred. Hitting the road jack.
Acting like a tree and leafing. But ya thats a pretty big development.
They are replacing me with sister missionaries so thats kinda
interesting. I feel kinda bad for them. They are moving into an
apartment that has housed Elders for about 5 years. So you know that
the apartment is gunna have so scars to it but oh well. I went over
and cleaned it today so now it cleaner but now i gotta pack. I hate
packing. Like alot.But alas i endure.

So monday was a pretty good day if i say so myself. We did the
traditional thing. Everyone gathers at one chapel and we all play
sports and stuff like that. I convinced one of the Elders too buy me
some subway which was really funny and really good. We had to leave
early because some Elders rode with and they decided to schedule a
dinner at 4:30. You dont do that. Thats still pday time. Also dont do
that when you ride with other Elders. That just makes E. Hanson upset
and aint nobody like it when E Hanson is upset. Nobody. Other than
that it was a good day.

Tuesday was of course my wonderful birthday so that was pretty good. I
woke up and unwrapped some presents and that was enjoyable. I thought
about making a cake but then i was like nahhhhhh! That was a day of
teaching and stuff like that. We also did service for crazy Vashti. I
dont know if i have told you about Vashti but she lives across from me
and shes a Jamaican/Haitian ex-pentecostal evangelist convert. Oh and
shes crazy. Well anyways we did some service for her and usually how
it turns out is you go over for say fifteen minuets you you will be
there for 2 hours. so we do the service and tucker wanting to mess
with me told vashti that it was my birthday she starts  into a schpeel
about her past and how having healthy bones is the secret for having
a long life and about how god talks to her. you know normal stuff like
that. Well we get up to go and i hear "BROTHER HANSON GIVE ME YOUR
HANDS HEE HEE!" What are you supposed to do in a situation like that?
You have a crazy woman asking for your hands. Keep in mind this is a
woman who has told me how to kill people and has called me a fat
spanish man which only half of that is true (its the spanish part
obviously) So being very confused and slightly scared i give her my
hands and all of the sudden prayer is going down and she is praying
over my hands. I was trying really hard not to laugh as she prayed for
my bones and that i will be wealthy. So ya it was interesting. After
Vashti we went to dinner at  the hanna's whom i love very much and you
know what they did? They bought me cupcakes and a gift. How sweet of
them! They bought me this beautiful cross pen. Cross pens i know for a
fact arent the cheapest pens either. They are like 30 bucks so i was
really touched by that. It made my birthday just a little bit easier!

Wednesday was a barefoot day which consisted of visiting old people
and also getting yelled at by old people which is always fun. We also
went and taught the Chiarillo boys about how to be missionaries and i
was "tom" the investigator and they did alright but it was still
awkward. While they were doing it was reflecting on my mission and i
thought "was i that lost and scatterbrained?" I guess i must have been
because man without truly knowing the doctrine its very difficult to
teach and knowing the doctrine and being taught by someone who doesnt
know it is just painful! So later we went down to barefoot and had a
good ole day. We went to a members house for dinner and had some
really healthy ham and stuff like that.

Thursday we had a christmas eve district meeting and then went to
texas roadhouse afterwards and i bought a glorious steak dinner and i
greatly enjoyed it. And then we did the typical teaching thing.

Friday we had some tasty Jamaican food which consisted of Catfish
fritters, fried dumplins, boiled bannanas, boiled white yams, Jamaican
bread, Salt fish, and liver. quite the breakfast and plus it was darn
tasty. Later i did some planning and then talked to my wonderful
family members.

So saturday rolled around and i got the transfer call and my heart
just dropped and i felt super sick to my stomach. it was sooo hard
swallowing that. im getting whitewashed so that majorly sucks but oh
well ill deal even tho im not looking foward too it.

Sunday was kinda deppressing saying goodbye to everyone and taking
farewell pictures but it is what it is.

So love ya'll hope ya'll are doing good. Stay classy!

Hanson

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, - Frosty

It's the holiday season! More importantly my birthday is tomorrow woo
hoo! I'm gonna have a pretty boring birthday though birthdays as
Missionaries aren't quite as exhilarating as it sounds but I dunno.
What are gunna do. This week was kind crazy as far as missionary work
goes and dropping elder husbands off. And I was sick. Laaaaame!

Monday was a decent p-day nothing spectacular happened. It was
husbands last night so he was kind freaking out and packing and
reminding me how awesome it was that he was going home and junk which
got kinda annoying.

Tuesday was just crazy since we had to take elder husbands to the
mission office so that he could get home. We left at 1 and he had to
be there at five after moving my mattress over. So since we couldn't
really teach that day we just went to chipotle and ate some delicious
burritos and then hit the road and that was kinda boring just because
the highway was long and it was surrounded by trees n stuff but I
persevered. So we got to thru that and made it to the mission offic
and kick elder husbands to the curb and that was a little sad. He was
ready to go though. He tried to steal the mission phone and then he
realized while we were on the road and ran out in the road and just
ate it. So I crapped my pants from laughter. And thus began the road trip
back.

So I woke up Wednesday morning in a hot as crap appartment due to
broken AC and also I had a chest cold and I didn't want to be in a
trio but oh well I just kinda took it like a man.  We had a member
take us to Golden Corral and I've decided that Golden Corral always
tastes better when some else buys it for you. Hands down that's my
theory. Then after that we taught a couple of boys how to missionaries
and drove to barefoot bay and man people are cranky! Everyone down
there is 55+ and they can be so rude. Everyone thinks all old people
are sweet and nice. Nuh uh. They can be jerks. Everyone is on edge
down there cuz there's always break ins and kidnappings and murders.
In a retirement village who woulda thunk.

Thursday was a day where we just worked in my area. We some a lot of
less actives and I really felt the stress from running my area
completely utterly by myself but I dealt with it. I felt a lot of
pressure from both of them and still do so pray for this week to be
easy.

Friday I got to drive to Orlando. Again. This time for the mission
Christmas party which was alright. Saw some people I haven't seen in a
while and all in all it was good. Learned that we had another one from
the group go home so now there's only 8/15 left which is sad but hey
what can ya do.

Saturday was pretty fine. Met some people in my area and in generally
nothing spectacular happened so not much there.

Sunday was the church program and that was pretty good. Nothing else
really happened soooo.

So I'll prolly skype on Christmas evening. I don't know when but I'll
let y'all know before. Soo yea. Merry Christmas and happy new year and
I'll have a great birthday. Lovsies.

Hanson

Exchanges with a greenie

Well its been another week and its felt kinda long this go around. I think its the fact that the holidays are in full swing so everything is just seeming to go so much slower because you can always tell what time of the year it is. This past week was pretty busy. i felt like i couldn't keep up with all of the things going on. I have felt stressed as of late just with all of the changes that are happening in the area as of late. Namely the fact that we send Elder Husbands off tomorrow and i have to go live with elders that i am not particularly fond of. Dont get me wrong i like em but if i had a choice i wouldn't hang out with them but as a missionary i have to adapt so best to suck it up now.

Monday was pretty regular. We went to the church and played some dodge ball and other sports and things and later in the day we did some good ole fashioned teaching. Nothing too amazing. Just a normal typical day.

Tuesday somebody that Elder Husbands knows drove down from Orlando and bought us some lunch at Olive garden. I forget how good Olive Garden is but how much they scam you soup and bread sticks and more importantly the food. Like my plate was pretty expensive and it made me kinda glad that i wasn't paying for it because well we had desert too. All and all it tasted good and made my belly happy happy. It also gave me another meal for late which makes a missionary happy. Later that night we ate with another family that Elder Husbands knows and that was good. Some good ole fashioned gator. Ever since ive gotten down to Palm Bay i have eaten a lot more gator which is weird. I dunno. i guess im more in the south. We then proceeded to talk about all of their gator hunting stories which was pretty interesting and some of them very funny. Pretty good food day. Then we went home and i packed up for exchanges to the south area.

Wednesday was exchange day with a greenie. You know ive come to realize that i really dont like majorities of greenies. I dont know if its just the ones ive met or that im becoming and old crotchety missionary but i just dont like em. Saying that, this exchange was like slamming my head into a kitchen counter over and over and over. Namely because he didn't use his resources to the fullest and also it was back and forth and back and forth to places on bikes which is just an irritant too me. And also he just over complicated things for example the explanation of why i was there and why elder tucker was not. Me: we just swapped for the day. The Greenie: Elder Tucker Is a missionary who oversees multiple areas within the Florida Orlando Mission and he goes to check up on them to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do and also so that he can help them become better missionaries. Both answers are correct. One is simple. one is overly complicated. so ya my day was just overly complicated. Also biking around Florida's largest manufactured home community isn't always the most exhilarating 

Thursday was decent. We had ZTM and that was pretty good. Afterwards we ate some pretty good pizza and enjoyed it. Real good pizza.

Friday we did some weekly planning but we kinda mixed it up a little. We turned into weekly tanning with some good ole tanning oil. Yea it happened. We planned in the church parking lot while tanning. Thats the life right there.

Saturday we had our ward christmas party and i got stuck at watching a room. by myself. but oh well i had fun anyways.

Sunday we got to talk to the young women and you know thats always kind of a weird situation to be put into but oh well.

That was my week not too interesting but hey its life. love ya.

Let's insult elder H!

One more year! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Man lets get this
thing going!

So Monday was good. We went on a nature walk through the wilderness
and that was pretty entertaining. I saw some turtles and fish and some
lizards so that was pretty entertaining. Then I ate some good
delicious chick fil a nuggets and so good ole waffle fries. I like
chick fil a. There's surprisingly a lot down here. Pretty guud Monday
I think.

Tuesday we went to lunch with some other missionaries to five guys and
when I came home there was a pile of boxes that were just kinda
chilling out by the front door. The mailman was so thoughtful they
even put the door mat over the Pile. Totally didn't hide anything but
whatever. So I did open all of them...BUT  that's because I didn't
know so you can't get mad at me. Good thing everything was wrapped. I
already started the 12 days to Christmas already and sharing with
elder husbands because well yea. So it won't be super close to
Christmas but that doesn't bother me. Later we went and visited our
neighbor about some potentials. It was supposed to take like 8 mins.
An hour and a half later we finally left. I got called fat and
Spanish. I was taught how to talk in tongues, how to kill somebody,
and a lot of other stuff.

Wednesday I had a pretty good day. We biked around and I got called an
insecure redneck by a less active. Fun stuff. It made for a good
story.

Thursday was that good ole 1 year anniversary. To celebrate I biked in
the rain and got soaked. IT WAS GREAT! Also ate Panda Express and
Cracker Barrel. Good fun really. I love me sum Cracker Barrel.

Friday was planning so not much really went down. We walked like 2
miles just for some pizza. It totally was not worth it. Later we went
on exchanges and I hung out with elder paey. Good stuff.

Saturday while on exchanges I had the wonderful opportunity to wash a
car, a pool, and dust. Good to know that some people take advantage of
missionaries. 👍🏼. It was a pretty mediocre exchange.

So this is the last week with husbands. Kinda happy about that. He's
an ok comp. kinda rude. And super trunks but oh well. T - 18 days till
skype call.

Sent from Elder Hanson's Ipad

ITS THE MOST SOUTHERN TIME OF YEAR!!

Well the mountain has peaked. We are on the downside. Wow. That was
quick. In 1 year to the day I will be stepping off of the plane.
Geeeeeez. That's weird but hey what ever.

So Monday we played some dodgeball and stuff. Ate some taco smell. Ya
know the normal stuff. I really couldn't do much because of my knee so
I learned how to play Jurassic park on the piano instead. Later that
night we went to eat dinner at a member who lives like 45 mins away so
they picked us up and it was mad tasty. Good steak. Good ole wengel
family. Their daughters are super cute and one of em is named lolo. 😱
but it was a good Monday none the less.

Tuesday was a lot of driving around trying to find people who were on
the Referal list which we found most of them so that was pretty good.
Really other than that nothing much happened. Just come boring but I
mean it's OK. Later on we went to the second counselor's house and we
ate Hawaiian haystacks I had never had those before. That or I haven't
remembered having those. We then got a text from Josh saying that you
wanted to move his baptismal date we were a little surprised because
he seemed really solid so we asked if we could come over and see him
but he was kind of busy that night so didn't end up happening but we
were going to see him the next night anyways because we were having
dinner with him and his girlfriend so but we were still a little
concerned.

Wednesday was a lot of the same we visited some less active members
just before Thanksgiving and we also went looking for members that
were less active and we found a few and we ended up getting a few
referrals from some people that were "believers" and it was pretty
cool and so we're going to see them this upcoming week and we actually
found some person who is interested in the Gospel that lives right
underneath another investigator so that was pretty cool. We then had
dinner with Josh and his girlfriend at this really good Asian
restaurant well it was more thai but it was good and we managed to
solve Josh's concerns about baptism and he still wants to be baptized
he just want to make wants to make sure that it's the right decision
and that he has a testimony of it before he jumps into the wonders of
baptism which is actually really cool because he recognizes what it is
and how important it is. After that we went right next-door and there
was a pet shop so we saw a little lemur thing and we sauce and some
lizards and some snakes, Some guinea pigs, some hamsters, some
hedgehogs, and also some ferrets. I would totally own a ferret if they
didn't stink.

Thursday was Thanksgiving I was pretty fun deep-fried turkey which was
totally Southern and totally absolutely delicious we played a little
bit of football which was pretty fun and we also had district meeting
later that night and everyone just kind of brought treats and it was
just fun it was is really just a Tonna fun we really enjoyed it and
then we drove Elder back home and ya. Good thanksgiving.

Friday was weekly planning and we didn't have a car so it's just kind
of boring and nothing extremely eventful happened so I'm not going to
talk to much about this so yeah.

Saturday was a normal day we went around and saw a few less actives we
went and saw T I who is a recent convert and he's Chinese and she's
super cool he told us about how he used to be a communist but now is a
Mormon now and it was just kind of a funny story. He's prolly one of
my favorite people. Later that night we went to dinner at a recent
converts house and I had stuffed cabbage and that was by far the
weirdest thing I have ever ate on my mission or in Palm Bay. It wasn't
too bad but it wasn't good either just cabbage and meat and rice.

Sunday was a good day I enjoyed it everyone is really friendly and we
got a ton of meals signed up since it's the holidays and just overall
was a really good Sunday I enjoyed it and felt like I learned a lot
and we had an investigator there so that was really cool so other than
that it was a good Sabbath. Later that night we ate French toast and a
members house and got attacked by three little girls who are in sane
and must have a diet consisting of maple syrup and chocolate milk and
pixie sticks because they are literally that insane and I feel so bad
for their parents because these little girls are just crazy psychos
but yeah that was Sunday.

That was my week is pretty good I hit my one-year mark this week on
Thursday so I'm kind of excited for that and then I'll just start the
downhill slide as they say but looking forward this week and let's
see what happens love you.

Elder Hanson

Transfers and a bike accident

It's a brand new transfer. A brand new companion. Quite the experience
I would say.

So Monday was the victory run pday. Played some sports. Got nailed in
the face. Good stuff really. We then went around and taught som
people. Went to a buffet at like 8 at night. Got home at like 10.
Because why the heck not. That was pretty fun

So we got a ride to transfer and that pretty fun. Then sent elder
Ostler off to minneola in the leesburg zone. The bad side. He lives
right next to Vaughn. Poor kid. After he found out he came up hugged
me and said pray for me. I FELT SOOOO BAD! Poor kid. He just keeps
getting the shaft on his mission. Oh well. So I got elder husbands as
the new comp. he's got 3 weeks left so I'm babysitting basically
keeping him busy. So I don't know what'll happen to me.

Wednesday we went to work and did some good work. Stopped at a music
store so elder husbands could buy a harmonica because I converted him.
And then we biked to dinner and I got in my very first bike accident.
My foot slipped off of my brand new aluminum pedals and lost balance
and down I went. Actually I walked away with a scratch and a sprained
knee. Fun stuff. So I hobbled for the rest of the week. No biggie. I'm
better now.

So Thursday I woke up and my knee killed! So I called the nurse and I
had to sink 50 bucks into some crutches and couldn't work. Gah it
sucked. But oh well.

Friday we planned. I hate planning. It so boring. Just man it was
stupid. Every week. Blahgh.

Saturday we taught but I was still super restricted and I was on so
many pain pills so I worked and then went and took a nap. Man that was
a needed nap. It felt good.

Sunday was pretty good. I was pretty much good just a little bit a pain.

Sorry not as interesting. Little difficult to do stuff when the dog
don't hunt. But luv ya.

Sent from Elder Hanson's Ipad

The dreaded tiwi

Howdy howdy folks. A nutter week has gone by and well some news.
Transfer news came around and drum roll.....I am staying! I'm actually
relieved. I just sure hope that I don't get a crappy companion. I seem
to get a lot of those. In other news the weather has actually started
to cool down. To like the low 80s high 70s. Supposedly were going to
get a cold front. Like 50s. Look at me. I'm an Idaho kid saying that
50 degrees is cold. What's wrong with me!?but heads up I put on more
pictures due to popular demand

So Monday was good. I ate some Taco Bell. Uhhhhh yea. I mean nothing
too exciting. We played ultimate dodgeball and I got hit in the face
really hard and then the arm really hard and I got bruised so I kinda
decided after that no more of that for the day so I just sent some
emails. Emailed penfold. Emailed you guys. Emailed president berry
that kinda thing. Yeaaaaa.

Tuesday we worked pretty hard. Saw a lot of people. Went into a circle
area where there's gang violence. That kinda thing. Goooood stuff. We
also just kinda cleaned stuff and I got sick off Ostler going "when I
get transfered..." That kinda thing can get pretty old pretty quick. I
was honestly getting kinda annoyed with him this past last week. Like
packing before he's even got the call just rant.rant. Rant. Rant.
Rant. Good stuff.

So Wednesday I got to wake up at 430 in the morning for a zone
conference. En route we got lost. Stupid gps. We also got the
wonderful opportunity to get Tiwi. Tiwi is the whole black box
philosophy. Except more compact and I also have to swipe a card every
time I want to drive. Man there is no trust. I checks speed, turns,
stops, rpm, and where we are at every moment. Always watching
wizowski. Alwaaaaays watching.

Thursday I was suuuuper tired. The whole waking up at 430 thing will
do that to you. I worked some and then I just need some sleep so I
later took a nap. It was really nice.

Friday was planning so nothin major happened. We didn't have the car
so nothing really happened.

Saturday was normal but we got fed a good ole fashioned thanksgiving
dinner. It was goooood. No one has signed up for thanksgiving yet.
What the heck?! If I don't get fed I'm going to a steak house. Plain n
simple.

Sunday we had an actual mission concert with Marvin Goldstein and
Vanessa joy. It was fun but I wished it kinda had a little bit more
substance besides a bunch of songs that I have never heard. But
whatever. So we got home a little late but it's all good.

So yea sorry this email isn't as extensive kinda a meeting fuuuuuull
of meetings. But luv ah.

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