Guinea pig gator chili! ( just kidding)

So 11 months. Huh. You never really thing that you will ever get this
far in your mission. But man when it comes it's comes up and slaps you
in the face. It's hard to believe that I was enjoying my las month a
year ago and on the 29th I start the infamous downhill slide. (Ps the
29th of 2016 is my return date). But aside from that good ole
sentimental crap I have had one of the most bizarre and craziest weeks
of my mission. So join me for a story won't ya.

Monday was probably one of the most craziest, funniest, longest pday's
that I have had while serving. So to begin I got the opportunity to
wake up at 430 in the morning. Why? Cuz I had to go pick up other
elders and buy ice cream. Why? Cuz I was going to the beach. That's
right I finally got the legendary beach Pday. Man it has been a long
time coming. Some missionaries don't even get the beach pday but I
did. So I got the chance to watch the sunrise on the beautiful
indialantic beach off of the island of Florida. I got to eat ice cream
while doing that. I got to play ultimate frisbee, build a sandcastle,
try to defend said sand castle from waves, avoided the waves because
Satan lives in the water, buried a sister, realized that there was
sand literally everywhere. Generally going to the beach was fun.
Caught some sand crabs. Touched a jelly fish. I mean it was just
awesome. Afterwards we went to a diner and ate some super good
breakfast. Man it was good. After that we went and hung out with a
bunch of other missionaries. To say the least I was really worn out at
the end of everything. Like I was just exhausted. I literally at the
end of the day biked home, took a shower, and passed out on my bed at
9:30. It was just killer.

Tuesday was a pretty good day. For the most part we were still
recouping from the day before and a lot of our appointments cancelled
so were scrambling for a bit. But it all worked out in the end.

Wednesday was just kinda like bizarre. So we were going to go help a
family with her two teenage boys with there preach my gospel study.
Kinda doing a mini missionary prep thing. So like an hour and a half
before we were going to bike there we get a text asking if we can come
over asap because a Guinea pig died and needed to be taken care of. So
being the kind gents we are we went early. En route I very narrowly
avoided getting hit by a car, had an attractive girl wink at me by the
college campus, broke my bike pedal and almost got hit again. I think
it's safe to say that I have little to no faith in Florida drivers or
my bike anymore. So we make it and we disassemble to cage and dig like
a 3 foot deep hole which in Florida is no challenge whatsoever. So we
put the little feller in there and just kinda stood there and had a
moment of silence. Then one of the kids pipes up. I hated that stupid
thing. That was like one of the highlights of my day. I about died but
kept my cool. So we did that and had our lesson and it was about lunch
time and were over by the college campus and we had three choices for
lunch. A pizza place, an Indian restaurant, and 7/11. So first of
Indian is out of the question so naturally we mosey on over to the
pizza place. We open the door and...bar. Not the best image. So I
can't got to the pizza place and I ain't gunna eat Indian food while
biking so 7/11. I can honestly say that it was pretty good. I actually
enjoyed it. It was a nice hot meal for the cheap. So I mean faith in
7/11 has gone up and it was already pretty high since I knew they had
slurpees and Arizona on tap. So We got to meet with our gator josh
after him being out of town for a week. So a little bit about josh. So
we had an experience when we had to go to church early to drop the
elders tucker and Mortensen  off so that they could make it to a
branch meeting in barefoot bay. It was a blessing in disguise. As we
sat in the foyer we were approached by a member with her boyfriend who
flat out said that he wanted to take the lessons and learn more about
the church. Josh is now through the first three lessons and has a
baptism date. He has also went from saying "if he gets baptized..." To
"when he gets baptized". Josh is ready to be baptized and is
incredibly solid. He's a legend! He is the coolest gator I have ever
taught and he cooks for us and like wow. He's good at it too. Like
steak. And burgers. Gah he's so cool. Later that night Stephen our
good bud took us out to eat at crack barrel (cuz it's so good) and we
ate n talked and moseyed around the store because you just can't not
do that. And I see a jaw harp and a harmonica for sale. So ya know
what I did I picked em up. One because you don't here many people say
that they have a jaw harp and two I need something musical to do
because I miss music. So after I picked those up Ostler picked up a
recorder and ya know what Stephan bought em for us. Stinker. Though I
do enjoy it. After that we biked on over to Eric a less active (who is
now active I might add) to teach and just talk with him. Turns out he
raps and he's Purty guud at it.

Thursday I had my doctors appointment. That was fun. Not really. I
hated it. A lot. A lot a lot. But I survived and also found that I
feel like a nascar driver on the turnpikes. Elder Ostler also fell
asleep so it was me and the road again. That's always been peaceful
for me. Later that night I finally got to try a food that I have
always wanted to try while serving in Florida. Alligator. I was so
happy when they said they were frying up alligator. And I can say that
I really do enjoy Alligator. It was a little bit tougher because it
was the jowls so it was a little bit chewer. I don't think elder
Ostler was that into it but I loved it. I had seconds. Also found
where to buy gator souvenirs so heads up. Christmas is coming.

Friday we had district meeting and chick fil a afterwards which was
the first time I've had chick fil a in oh I don't know 8 months so it
was a happy reunion. We planned and not a lot of exciting things
happened that day.

So Saturday there was a big ole stake activity and it was a pretty
good. I got roped into being a chili judge. I judge 21 chilies. I
rated them on smell,thickness,color, and after taste. And for heat,
appearance, best meat and non meat, and uniqueness. I'll tell you what
I had a few really good chilies, some mediocre chilies, and some
really really really bad chilies. The best was either a gator chili or
a bbq meats chili. By far the worst was one with doctor pepper in it.
It was spicy yes but holy cow it was bad. It was also made by my ward
mission leader and it won most unique. Mainly because it was bad and
we remembered it. While I was judging there was a big old rain storm
and everyone got pretty soaked but not me cuz I was inside. So side
note. With eating 21 different chilies. They tend to make you not feel
so good. And also well gas. Oh mercy the gas.

Sunday there was the primary program for the ward and I can honestly
say it was the most favorite I have ever seen primarily because I've
gotten to know these little kids and their families and I also think
that they are all adorable. Man I am a sucker. Especially for those
little girls. They actually come up to me just because they know that
I most likely have candy. Women. They getcha.

So this week was a lot more exciting. I get to go buy new bike pedals
and insoles for my shoes cuz man they are worn down also it's a nice
little gift for myself. I'll stay safe and try not to get hit this
week. Love ya!

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Happy Helloween

So the title really shares my feelings for the famous day of
halloween. And that isn't the usual sentiment that I have. This
Halloween was just the worst but we will get to that later.

So Monday was pretty good. We had like 2/3rds of the zone with us and
we did games and such. It was pretty fun. Then yea.

Tuesday was pretty sub standard.

Wednesday was pretty good and it was also pretty sub standard

Thursday we had district meeting and it was pretty normal. Not really
anything has happened this week. Except for Halloween but we'll get
too that.

Friday. We just planned and junk and well that was. Normal. We also
had the good ole trunk or treat. I bought some candy to give and the
children enjoyed and I saw quite a few cute children who dressed up
and they were adorable. And then I went on exchanges.

HELLOWEEN!!! YEAAAAA! So here why it was hell. So normally ya know
biking 10 miles ain't uncommon. 20 that's a little rare. 30? WHO IN
THE H*LL BIKEs 30  MILES IN ONE DAY. ME. I DO. Oh man it sucked. In
the heat. Trying to find specific people. Oh man. I was dead. Just
blah. It suckeeeed. So much. But I survived. I went to bed early. Like
9. I slept for 10 hours. Straight. Like a log. Didn't even stir. Thank
goodness for daylight savings.

Sunday I was still just tired n crap and hungry.

So sorry that it was a short email. Nuttin really happened.

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Apostate...who me?

It's been another week! An interesting one at that. It involved
biking, a new gator and a member trying to get me sent out of Palm
Bay! Fun stuff fun stuff.

Monday was a good pday not much really happened. I played some piano.
Emailed some friends and family. Some jolly good stuff. Then we ate
some killer tacos with some killer awesome members. Overall a good
day.

Tuesday was pretty normal we actually had a pretty kick but new
investigator lesson and we put him on date which was baller. So that's
number 4 on date. We are one fire!!!! And on bikes. We also had
interviews with president and he's happy with I'm doing. Overall it
was an awesome day.

Wednesday was good until the very end of the day and here's why. So
there's a recent convert who we are really tight with and we go over
to his house one night  and he is really not happy in the slightest.
We ask him what's up and he shows us an email. This email was a shot
at me and elder Ostler and it was very directly aimed at me and how
I'm dragging elder Ostler down and how we are disobedient with studies
and waking up and taking stories and making them larger than they
actually are really making me sound like I am an apostate son of a gun
basically just a bunch of BS. And cherry on top he sent it to the
bishop. This is a member who is a ward missionary and has flat out
tried to go over us and teach people without the authority. Just a
pain and the type of member that missionaries hate. So that really
soured my day and was just gah!

Thursday was good. This said email that was put out fell apart purely
because of the falsehoods. It made me happy because in the end the
righteous and good hearted win in the end. So yea go team missionary.

Friday was good. We planned. It was pretty decent.

Saturday we did some service and used my beautiful weed eater (I'm in
the south now) abilities and made it look good when some good old
jehovah witnesses come by and are starting on us and then they saw the
badge. Man I love it when people realize what I am. It makes me laugh.
So the. Of course they ran off because we're right.

Sunday was pretty normal. I actually really enjoyed church it was nice.

Sorry nothing exemplary really happens during bike week. Love yas!


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Strokes for cookies

Oh it's been another week in the land of Florida. The weather is
cooling off and there is more of a breeze. Perfect for biking. Not
going to lie I'm actually enjoying biking. It's something to do and
just helps make my day a lot stressful also makes members take pity on
us so that's always nice. But anyways it was a good past week.

So Monday we drove like 15 miles to go to another chapel to hang out
with a bunch of other elders so that was pretty darn fun. I enjoyed
that mainly because I hung out with elder izatt. Then we drove back
home and cooked ourselves some dinner and went and taught. And then we
did an exchange and I actually had elder Peay with me for a day and it
was just like getting the band back together and that was pretty nice.

Tuesday we were together and we went and found ourselves a Jimmie
johns! I haven't had Jimmie johns in almost a year! It was so so so
good. I then checked their delivery boundaries and unfortunately they
wouldn't deliver out to our house. Talk about heartbreak it was really
sad because I haven't been able to find a good cheap sandwich place
around here. But nonetheless I persevered. Later than night me and
elder Peay ended up having a lesson on top of a parking garage for no
really apparent reason. We kind did it just because hey we could so we
did it. That was just kind of a fun experience.

Wednesday we had district meeting and afterwards all of the elders
squeezed into our car and drove on over to subway and the most
glorious thing happened. They brought back the raspberry cheesecake
cookies oh man I about had a stroke. I was so happy. Like I jumped
onto the counter and sang and did a little jig. Well not really but I
was really excited and weirded the cashier out. The rest of the day
was kinda boring. I was really really tired and just not feeling
myself so I just kinda collapsed into my bed thinking I would take a
30 min cat nap. 3 hours later I woke up. 3 HOURS!!!! IT WAS GLORIOUS
BUT 3 HOURS!! I repented of my wrongdoings very quickly after that.
And went and taught.

Thursday was a pretty standard day we went and tried to meet with a
couple who fell off the wagon towards baptism and guess what. WE
CAUGHT EM! AND NOW THEY ARE BACK ON THE WAGON!! That's one of those
little successes that make you very happy.

Friday we did some weekly planning and ate Panda Express with the
other elders. Friday's usually just aren't all that exciting.

Saturday was pretty good. We went to bass pro shops to see live
alligators that they have there and they were pretty big and were
rather lively. Well as lively as an alligator can get. We then
discussed how the cabellas at thanksgiving point in Utah totally kicks
the trash out of bass pro. Like hard core. Well they did have fish but
they didn't have a fish tunnel. Like cmon. Big fish tank vs. fish
tunnel. Clearly fish tunnel is better. But what can ya do.

Sunday was wild. So after sacrament a sister who is a hard core
feminist (as in women's rights, wearing pants to church, ordain women
hardcore) and also moderately crazy marches up to this less active and
demands money from her about a car over and over and is basically
shouting at her in the chapel. So naturally in off to the side to make
sure nothing breaks out. So then the bishop walks up and she like just
tells the bishop to stuff it and gets the last pay me my money and
storms off. Seriously. Right after sacrament meeting. There is a time
and a place and it's never at church just like cmon. Gah members be
crazy later that night I tried some yuka and so flan at a members
house and both are pretty darn good.

So crazy week lets see what this next one brings

Elder Hanson

A senior comp and broken stuff

Brand new transfer! Wahoo! What a week what a week. It's been a pretty good week as well which I am very pleased with. It was also kind of a warm week so that was a bit of a pain as we biked. We bike like a total of 30 miles or something so that was a good work out. Also broke my bike but more on that later. So Monday we all drove to rock ledge to go hang out with pretty much  everybody in the zone was there including my best bud izatt. If I didn't tell you about izatt or you didn't catch it or you don't remember. Izatt is from rexburg, he's a little older than me mission wise, we were in the same district and we became best buds and I'm one of the three missionaries he cares about in the mission so that's nice and comforting. But anyways me and izatt talked about stuff and other missionaries and who's doing what and blah blah blah but I enjoyed myself. It was good ole team spud. But it was the final day of being with Vaughn so it was real nice. We actually got rid of him that night so happiness. It was just us from then on out and it was nice. Tuesday was kind of a crazy day so we got the car serviced and you'll never guess what they found in the car.

This little guy thought it would be a good idea to go chill out in the wheel. Well he did and the wheel cooked em bad. So in other news since my area got split which was actually a blessing we helped move the new elders into their apartment. So we now have an ex AP and a brand new missionary in the south area. That was a big change. So we helped them and then a senior couple bought us dinner as a thank you for helping us. It 'twas good. Afterwards we had a meeting with the bishop and ward mission leader and the fun thing about was the ward mission leader was kinda glad that Vaughn is gone. Looks like me and ostler aren't the only ones. 

Wednesday we biked. A lot. And man that was not fun. I like biking but not on long roads. It just gets boring. 

Thursday we had a big old meeting and that was pretty good. 

Friday was good up until the evening. So I was inspecting my bike making sure everything was still working and guess what I broke one of my quick release skewers (the part that goes through the the middle of the tire so it stays on). So we ran over to Walmart praying that they would have one  but Walmart so there wasn't anything like that. So I went to bed upset and frustrated.

Saturday we went and managed to find the part I need so  thank goodness. We then got a new vacuum because we haven't had a working one for the past transfer so now the floor is finally clean. And then our dryer decided to stop working. Exactly when I needed to use it. Gah. So I used an iron, a homemade ironing board, a sheet and two fans to make it all work. Basically I made a clothes line out of the sheet and used the iron the dry the clothes mostly and hang em over the fans. Man I am too good at mcgyvering. 

Sunday fetching nobody signed up to feed us this week so dollar menus what what! It's gunna be great. 

So that's been my week I love y'all!

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Service and Chili's

So ya old elder Hanson isn't getting transferred. It's going to be me
and ostler down in the Palm Bay Area. I'm going to be senior companion
and also going to start biking more because we are going into car
share but it's starting to cool off so that's nice but let's take a
look at this past week.

Monday we had a pday I took a nap. For most of the day. It was
glorious. We taught Sally an older lady who had her named removed
years ago but she wants to come back so we've been doing that and it's
been a different experience.

Tuesday we did some good ole fashion normal missionary stuff. Nothing
too phenomenal happened that day except for the fact that we ate at
chilies again. And it was glorious. We were originally going to be
taken to a terrible Chinese buffet but we walk up to the door and it
was closed and It was awesome. So I enjoyed that part of the day.

Wednesday we had district meeting and I gave a pretty kick butt
training no big deal.

Thursday we helped move this non member who isn't in our ward but we
helped some sisters. There super cool. I wish that they lived in our
area so that we could teach them. So clearly you can move a person in
just 2 hours so we left and told them we would be back.

So Friday was just a day full of us doing service for others and that
wasn't too bad and we really enjoyed because for one we didn't have to
wear the white shirts and also it breaks the routine. So we helped
move that person a gain from 9- about 3 and they bought us lunch.
Turns out that uhaul storage places are crazy impressive. And also
elder Vaughan drank some mikes hard lemonade. By accident I might add.
Second companion who has broken the word of wisdom with me as their
companion. After moving we went and helped a sister in our ward with
some yard work and after that we all went and got big drinks at a
circle K and took a breather for a second. Later that night we all
decided that hey let's grab the other set of elders and go to chilies
so guess where we went. We went to chilies again and it was glorious.
And I started using a rewards things so that I can actually get stuff
out of it.

Saturday was pretty cool we got up early and went to the archibalds
residence to help them with some painting or rather prep for painting
and they feed us breakfast so that was pretty sick. We then watched
conference at the church that was pretty good. I learned a lot.

Sunday was conference again so not much happened there. It was kinda
exhausting.

So that's been the week of elder Hanson in Palm Bay and this next
transfer is going to be siiiiiiiick.


Luv ya.

I want my baby back baby back baby back riiiiiiiibs

Wellllll. I can say this week was better. So that is always a major
plus. Uhm having a baptism in like a week. I hit my ten monther mark.
So double digits for days. Kinda hard to believe that in a transfer
and a half I will be on the downward spiral. It's gone by pretty darn
quick. But on to the week.

So Monday was kind of a boring p-day. It's interesting that some areas
just kinda suck at the whole p-day thing. It was a district p-day too
and so it was hecka boring. Like I wanted to scream. There were a few
competitive things and doing that thing with Vaughn is just more
difficult  to play. He played a few sports and so he gets jacked up so
i don't play anything with him anymore. Monday was just gah for me. A
lot of stress. A lot of frustration. A lot of anxiety.

Tuesday was nice. It was just me and ostler and that was incredibly
nice. It really helped me stepped back for a moment and smell the
roses. It's interesting. Less active and convert missionaries are some
of the hardest companions I've decided. We then got taken out to
chilies for dinner and they spent a lot of money on us. Like bought us
Oreo lava cakes which weren't cheap. Buy it was filling.

Wednesday was district meeting. Felt like gauging my eye out with a
spoon. Real good fun. Then they came to the apartment and ate my food.
In short I'm not incredibly impressed with the missionaries out here.

Thursday was pretty mediocre.

Friday we had a baptism interview and he passed so that was fantastic.
And then we pretty much planned for the rest of the day. Then a family
took us to chilies again and it was delicious.

Saturday was a busy day. Elder Vaughn yelled at me again this time.
Fun stuff. You can tell he's a high quality leader. Yells at you
rather than fixing it the mature way. It's ok I made it so that he
won't be going to an area where there is a certain sister. (Sinister
laugh of obedience) 

Sunday was Sunday. Gospel principals makes me want to poke myself with
a fork. Then I ate some steak and saw a really beautiful car. A good
ole Chevelle. It made me happy.

Well here's to week six. Transfers are next Tuesday and there's a high
likely hood that I will be staying. Also a decent likely hood I will
train and also a good likely hood I will become a DL. They will either
bring one in or make me one if I stay. That's all guessing tho. We
will see. Love y'all.

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