Bike fest!

Hey look my 5 month mark is coming this Sunday how crazy is that? I don't feel like it's been almost five months. But heck it's close to the 6 month and then I'm a quarter way done. But this week has beeeeeen interesting.

So Monday was pretty low key because we are low on miles and that really stresses me out and shoots my anxiety through the flippen roof but it is what it is so ill bear it. Not much that I can do.

Tuesday was the beginning of week one and we didn't have to go to transfers so it was a pretty normal day. Pretty much my whole district is the same except that we lost one sister and got two other sisters.

The two new ones are alright I'm a little partial to the old one because she was part of the old first district but oh well it is what it is.

Wednesday was district meeting nothing much happened there besides the whole having to drive to another town to have district meeting.  But one thing sure happened and it was pretty awesome. So we had a RM from lake Mary drive down to help us out with a lesson with Fredrick. Now normally I wouldn't make a big deal about this but this RM serves in the Marshall Islands. Fredrick is from the Marshall Islands. So we had half of a lesson in English and half of the lesson in Marshallese. It was cool, didn't understand a word being said half of the time but it was cool. Marshallese is one of those languages that sounds like gibberish mixed with another language or two.

Thursday was the beginning of bike fest. The Harley Davidson and the city of leesburg every year hold the bike fest. And guess where the church is. Right behind the Harley Davidson. So our parking lot was being used by bikers and such. They had permission and everything but they had the shuttle running and also some of these bikers are not as courteous as others.  We spent some time walking the parking lot picking up coffee, beer cans, soda cans, and other alcoholic beverages. It was a mess. And it only built up as the week went on.

Friday was pretty good we went to go help president Matthews. So we drove to his sons house to help guide a tree as it was getting cut down. One problem. They started without us. This being said it resulted in an unfortunate side effect. The tree fell on the house.

Florida houses are pretty strong. Usually the walls are made of stone or cinder blocks as to fight against storms and usually the roofs are stronger than non tropical storm areas. But this tree decided to change all of that. So the tree fell on the roof and boom punches a hole through the plywood and breaks 3-4 trusses and made it so you could see daylight trough the roof inside. It was no Bueno for them.

Saturday we did service for president Matthews this time at his house.

And this time we were cutting down trees. Again. Luckily this time nothing was harmed in the process. It was hard tough work though. I have never sweat so much in my life but then I came to Florida. But it was all worth because he cooked ribs for the troops and oh mah gosh.

These suckers had been smoking for a while and they were the type of ribs where you don't have to have sauce on them so you just eat em dry and oh goodness it was good. It was a southern barbecue lunch. Ribs, smoked chicken, potato salad, homemade baked beans and rolls. It was the works and I demolished a half rack by myself after all that. The rest of the day was lame because bike fest destroyed our appointments because either everyone was there or traffic was to thick to get anywhere but we got through it.

Sunday we only went to sacrament meeting cause Wilson has been sick so it was a low key day yesterday.

So that's the email. Everything else is good. I'm going to go cast out evil spirits of a home now( no joke that crap happens out here)

Love elder Hanson

P. S. Next weeks email will be a day late we are having a training so that we may receive Facebook back. Yay!

Cheesecake and Cinnamon Rolls

So its the end of the third transfer and drum roll.......im staying in leesburg with elder Wilson. That means a total of 6 months in my first area. A quarter of my mission spent in sleezburg. I mean im happy because we are only loosing one person from our district this transfer and that's sister Jensen. Its bitter sweet this transfer because im staying but hey I got driving privileges today so awesome stuff.

So Monday we had a nerf gun war and that was pretty sick. Nothing like shooting people in the face with nerf darts. Its super awesome. And also somewhat of a stress reliever to shoot your friends in the face. good stuff really. Everything else was pretty normal with that p-day. And then we went on exchanges

Tuesday we were on exchanges and I was in Apopka and it was super fun and we messed around and I made three cheesecakes! THREE! it wasn't that hard especially because sister western just flat out gave me a mix so that's gunna stick with me but back to the cheesecakes. I made three different kinds. I made a newyork chocolate covered strawberry, a double layer pumpkin cheesecake, and then finally I made a orange dreamscicle  cheesecake. They all turned out pretty darn good.

Wednesday we had district meeting and president interviews and turns out that my cheesecakes were a huuuuuuuuuuge success and president berry loved all three of them. Sister berry loved all three of them and now wants me to be transferred to the hunters creek zone so that I can bake for her little parties and dinners that she hosts. Wouldn't that be a missionary story. I think thatd be awesome. We also found some super awesome family that were going to start teaching this super awesome family and he used to be a gangbanger so thatll be super cool. Me and Elder Wilson were asked by the sisters to do some blessings for a less active. I think that was the mostspiritual blessing I have ever given in my whole life.

Thursday was pretty normal

Friday I made some home made cinnamon rolls and I had to let them raise and so I made a nice little deal for them to rise faster. The rolls turned out super good and then I made the home made icing that turned out really good.

Saturday normal day

sunday was sunday

not too many interesting stories beyond that really

Love Elda Hanson

So I've been super tired lately so I must be doing something right lately. Everything time wise feels like it's speeding up. Pretty soon I'll just be home. That'll be an interesting experience.

Monday we had a super legit district p-day. Elder Hanson grilled up some pork tenderloin in his classy apron. Played some awesome volleyball. Gave Wilson a haircut. Almost rescued a kitten. Now that's a story. So we are driving back from district p day and were stopped at a light and Wilson looks over and sees a kitten in the middle of the road. The poor guy was a newborn. His eyes weren't even open. We were going to rescue it but the light turned. So we're driving and we feel terrible. So we get down the road a little bit and then all of the sudden we make a u turn I'm ripping open a box to use for the kitten. We get there and the kitten was gone so someone picked him up.

But it would have made a difficult time explaining to president why we had a kitten in our apartment.

Tuesday we started cleaning like crazy and what do ya know we didn't even get a apartment check this week. Talk about annoying.

Wednesday we had our usual Eustis district meeting. I made the strawberry cheesecake cookies and it was a huge success. We have really thrown the hammer down on the work lately

Thursday pretty much normal stuff.

Friday was pretty fun. We did a lot of golf cart contacting and racked up a lot of lessonss. Not everyone can say they do golf cart contacting.

Saturday there was a baptism.

Sunday. Blah.

That's all that has happened this past week so.

Conference rocks!

So sorry that I'm sending this one out so late. Busy day.So Monday we had a boring stay inside p-day because we have no milesTuesday was extremely limited mainly because we had 10 miles to usefor the whole day but thankfully it was the last day of the month soit was fine.

Wednesday was pretty good because we had miles again so we went andtaught people and me and Wilson have this goal now to get 20 lessons aweek and 70 contacts so we are going to kick trash this upcoming week.Oh and I got a package. That was ok I guess. Yea.

Thursday we had ZTM which is where the whole zone gets together and welearn from each other and of course I baked for that. I made somecookies n creme cookies and peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies. To saythe least elder Hanson is popular in the zone. After the ZTM all theelders from the zone went and ate at firehouse subs and it wasdelicious. And then had the normal daily events of a missionaryhappened. Got another package from grandma. Kinda made Wilson a littlemad but he got over it.

Friday we did the normal stuff nothing to exciting.

Saturday was conference and it kicked butt. Ate a lot of snacks. Andright before priesthood session we got fed by the ward. Oh my gosh Iate a real southern meal. Biscuits n sausage gravy, pancakes, hotsauasage, cheesy grits, and a big glass of milk. I'll tell you what.Grits set like concrete in your belly. All of the missionaries thatate that got wrecked afterwards.

Sunday was conference again and that was real good. It was alsoEaster. Sadly no one fed us for Easter. So I ate sandwiches all day.Not complaining. And then after I made 3 dozen chocolate lava cookies.With my handy new apron I might add.

Love ha lots!Elder Hanson

Stairs hurt

Miracle filled week. But also a trial some week. But all in all I'm glad that I went through and heck I got some good stories out of it.

Monday we sat around the apartment because we had no miles. Like barely anything.

Tuesday I was on exchanges with the district leader in good ole sleezburg. Pretty good time. Did some service by pulling a butt ton of weeds for the husley family. We got lunch out of it today and that made me happy. It was good lunch. It reminds me why I like them. And then we did the typical missionary work and it 'twas good. Also ate at a super good pizza restaurant and that twas good.

Wednesday was a good. Went to district meeting and then the westerns bought us Steak 'n Shake after because they like us more than everyone else and that was pretty darn tasty and then we did the usual missionary thing.

Thursday we had service with the sister missionaries and we raked leaves and filled up 62 large bags with leaves. That's right 62.

That's a lot of leaves and also a lot of being attacked by insects and a pit bull. Also I now want to own a pit bull. Not a mean untrained pit bull. But a nice trained one. But yea it was a lot of leaves. It took us 5 hours to do it and afterwards me and Wilson took advantage of the shower in the church that no one knows about.

Friday suuuuuuuuuuuuucked. So we went to a crappy Chinese buffet with a member and then we had to bike. Up a hill. In the wind. Also I almost wrecked on the bike. And then Wilson popped his bike tire and he has no money to get a replacement tube. So then we had to go home.

And then we got home and I went to mail a letter and I fell down the stairs! It was one after another. But by falling down the stairs it put us at the mailbox at the right time to meet a less active so the lord knew I had to fall down the stairs. Unfortunately. But hey later I also saw my first alligator and we got 4 referrals so not all bad.

Saturday we walked everywhere. We ended up walking like 8 miles I think. We also helped this dude who ran out of gas. Imagine two missionaries walking along the freeway with a gas can. That was us.

But I did see a restored xr7 cougar and that made me happy but everything hurt afterwards. Especially my ankle from falling down the stairs.

Sunday was pretty low key nothing exciting happened. We went to the hospital for the sacrament. The westerns fed us. Drove their golf cart around. Had an overall really awesome Sunday.

So my goal this week is to not fall down the stairs. Hoping. And praying for that.

New iPad! New gators! New potentials!

So I'm not going to lie. This past week has been pretty flippen fun and everything is going great. Sure I still have the ups and downs going on right now but I'll survive and push through. But I feel tons better than what I felt before.

Monday was a good p-day. We went to steak and shake with elders jurges and Willard and Willard bought us all food. I like steak and shake mainly because it's so flippen cheap like 4 bucks for a tasty burger and also the milkshakes are fantastic but free meal and then we met up with other elders at the stake center to do the usual basketball and volleyball. And we went back to lees burg.

Tuesday was kinda wild. Also we had zone conference and received trainings about a bunch of stuff and then we got new phones and NEW IPADS! Yeah the new ones are waaaay better than the old ones. And then we drove back to the stake center to set them up and since I'm such a nice guy and super good at doing screen protectors I ended up putting on all of the sister missionaries screen protectors and a few of the elders. And then I ended up staying in Eustis for exchanges and ate at chipotle. Decent day I do say so my self.

Wednesday I was in Eustis and bought a gun pen. It looks like a bullet and has a wooden barrel and has a little bolt action to use the pen.

Super cool pen.

Thursday felt like every appointment that we had got cancelled everywhere we went and after all of that we went to firehouse subs and all of the sudden this baptist guy walks up and invites us to his home. Apparently he's had missionaries over before and he liked em so that was way cool.

Friday we had to go back to Orlando. I hate going to Orlando. It's just a solid hour and a half drive and it's just blah. We've managed to go all different routes on the way there. We've been through the countryside, turnpike, freeway, amusement park way, downtown way(that's a cool way you see all the skyscrapers), and of course the ghetto. But I wasn't to impressed with the counselor this go around.  She was more concerned with getting on vacation than actually helping me. She also thought that nothing was wrong with me and my visit with her was half an hour. And after all that we got stuck in traffic and slowly made our way back home.

Saturday we had to have the westerns help us out because we are so low on car miles and then they realized that the only way we eat is if we are at home so they took us to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. They also helped us get our 5 new gators which is helpful even though it's not in the best of neighborhoods and they were iffy about going in.

But all went well.

Sunday we went to church all the sudden we meet this lady named Taylor and she said that she was investigating the church and we get talking and she just got out of the army and Afghanistan and then we let the sisters take over at church because she's a woman. The sisters aren't happy because she lives in our area so we get her as a gator if she chooses to take lessons. Go us! And also we asked our neighbor for his wifi password so now we have wifi in the apartment! Go us!

That's what has primarily happened here in lees burg pretty good stuff

Elder Hanson.

Organ mover

So. Another week. Another month. Another lots of other crap. I swear everything is out to get me.

So Monday was p day and it was a elder zone PDay so we had all of the elders from the zone at the stake center and we played volleyball and basketball and had a tie trade and I came with 3 and left with 7 ties. Sure some of em are ugly but that's the fun part. Still trying to find a really really unique one. After that we went to husleys and had dinner and then we sped off to do a exchange.

Tuesday wasn't too bad. It was actually my most favorite exchange I've done because I came out with the kid. Elder chidister Is from alpine and he's my most favorite diabetic. He's down to enjoy a 16 dollar pizza more than a 4 dollar pizza which was good. Also he just can make friends really easy. So had a good day and we taught Lynn's husband and found out that we have to go the long way with getting him baptized with his past. We also taught brother allicock who is one of my favorite less actives because he's just super cool.

Wednesday was ok. It was a really hard day for me even tho we had a baptism which I just don't get but none the less it was the beginning of the journey.

Thursday we had a ZTM (zone training meeting) and that was good nothing extremely interesting happened. Ate at chipotle. And then had a double dinner appointment. We've been having a lot of meal appointments because pututau is getting transferred and everything so everyone wants to feed us. I literally have cooked for myself in the 2 weeks. It's been great.

Friday was Friday. Nothing amazing or noteworthy occurred. It was just the beginning of the end of me and pututau which was kinda sad. We started the goodbye chain.

Saturday morning we along with elders from the Sumterville district moved and organ. This wasn't a little baby one either. This was a 60,000 dollar organ. It was cool because afterwards we got to mess around with it. It's got a banjo, chimes, all the pretty lights, and just for fun it has a light show button. Which is kinda cool when you have it going. All it cost was nothing. We moved it for the branch president of Sumterville whom is a really cool and nice guy and every time we do service for him he feeds us a meal a lot of the time he feeds us breakfast. Later on that day we called a less active family to check up on them and found out that the husband whom I've become friends with tried to take his life. Talk about a slap to the face.  He's doing better now but what a slap.

So Sunday we had Ward conference. I don't know why but every meeting that the stake invites us to is the biggest waste of our time.  Literally most of the stuff doesn't even apply. So I did my first confirmation. That was nerve racking. Baptism isn't super nerve racking because you have the pray right there. But confirmation since it's all from your head. Yikes. So a slap to the face again was with the bishops son in law. He's a nonmember and at times even though he doesn't take the lessons he participates and is really good. But yesterday he laid a challenge on me. Help him be able see the connection between the bible and Book of Mormon. No easy task. And then we go to do the sacrament for bro jozitis and we were late so we go there at 8 and he flips me off. And then opens the door and yells at us and then slams the door. We don't know what his deal is but I'm still angry about it. Someone calls you his brother and then we go to give him the sacrament and he yells at us. Talk about being rude. He doesn't realize that it was going to be the last time he was going to see pututau either. Sucks for him.

So that was this week. Transfers are tomorrow and I'll get my new comp and Thursday I'll be going to orlando. Fun stuff.

Love ya.

Elder Hanson