Monday, August 31, 2009

Tyler Aug 31 2009

Hello,
Sorry last week something happened with the computer so I wasn’t able to send it. Well if your going to ask how the week went it was pretty rough. I'm just trying to be optimistic about life. Our golden investigator who we have set a baptismal date for the 13th, came intoxicated to our last appointment. We have taught him all the lessons but with the Xhosa traditions they believe in worshipping their ancestors. He has grown up this way and sacrificing animals so there ancestors can take them to god, is what he continues to believe. The date obviously will be postponed. Even though many miracles have happened in his life from reading the Book of Mormon he continues to believe in the traditions of his fathers. We committed him to take it to God and pray sincerely to know if the things we teach him are true. The eternal principal of agency is what he must learn and use wisely, it is sad to see but many people are not acting for themselves but being acted upon. Pray for him that he can find an answer. Pray for the Beals family as well. We had a fast with them this past week to help them find job opportunities and good health for their baby. They have been one the great blessings in my life for being in Hermanus. Please if you will, call the missionaries and feed them something cheap this week or next and give them referrals. After zone conference last week Elder Burridge and I received the call that Elder Manuwere will be with us as well. He came from Mdantsane but he is from Zimbabwe so we are in a threesome. I like it for the most part but it is very tight quarters and hard to be on time to appointments. We have been pretty sick this last week but we are better now. A lot of people who we come in contact with have been sick but it is just part of the end of the winter. How is the family doing? Send some pictures.
Well tell me how things are going? Always doing well no matter what things are tossed at us, just have to smile at the times. It will be a blessing in my life. Love you very much-

Elder Tyler Hansen

Regan August 31, 2009

On Monday we did a lot of cleaning in the apartment and got rid of a lot of things that we didn't need anymore. We had dinner with Bishop Roberts and it was great. We shared a little family home evening with them and we all sang beautiful songs with not much harmony. But the spirit was so great and to see the smiles on their children's faces brought me to a deep compassion. We went to Misty's home to start evening prayer with their family daily. We also administered a Blessing to Maeson because she wasn't feeling well.

Tuesday we had district meeting and the spirit was very strong as we bore our testimonies and strengthened each other. We started trade offs and Elder Jensen and I went with Elder Gudmundsen to Defuniak. We biked about 15 miles and tracted. We talked with some great people. We had dinner with the Howard's and after did some service for them.

Wednesday we did some Arts with some of God's precious disabled children. We then biked another 18 miles and tracted. We found a few potentials and I hope they are excited to learn. We had dinner with the Cosson's and then ended the Trade off.

Thursday we planned for this upcoming week and then went right out to visit all the referrals that we had been receiving. We set return appointments up with 2 of them which was great. We did service for a member at his sisters home who is not a member. I was grateful to be able to help with that. We had trade offs with the High Council that night and visited less active members in the 1st ward. We had a meeting with Brother Strickland about the missionary work in all the areas.

Friday we went for our return appointments with the referrals and they weren't able to talk at the time so we tracted and found Telisha a Lapitre. We taught Telisha the 1st lesson and she loved it. We visited Robin Owens on of our referrals and taught her the stop smoking class and she is doing good.

Saturday we taught Telisha again and it went great. We went and did service at the Fehlman's and it went well also. The 2nd ward had an activity and there were 30+ non members there. It was great.

Sunday I went to Paxton and gave a talk on service. They only had 10 people at the Branch today. We then taught Junior Dukes and Clyde the Plan of Salvation and it went great. There were 9 investigators at church in the 2nd ward.

This week has been great because we have been able to teach and help our Heavenly Father children.

Love Y'all

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, August 24, 2009

Regan August 24, 2009

Monday was a really good p day for us. We were able to go to a members home and make them and there family some great food. They really enjoyed that we did that for them. We then had dinner at Bishop Price's home with his kids and grand kids. The message for family home evening was a strengthening in my life. Such simple but profound verses in the Children's Songbook allowed me to see the examples of Missionary Work of those diligent servants in the Book of Mormon.

Tuesday was a great Zone Conference. I never have felt more peace while giving a blessings than being able to be a participant with Sister Stowers blessings. I know that the Lord was present and was strengthening all of our testimonies. There were many things that I learned and have applied throughout the week now. I have strived to be even more obedient and I have felt the power and strength that has come into my life. I was astonished on how sudden and powerful that experience was and I am not going to turn away from it again. We went on splits later that night and Elder Jensen and I went and visited the Toolan family. There daughter is going to be baptized this Saturday.

Wednesday we went and mowed a Sister Thomas's yard because she has been feeling ill. We shared a message with Sister Henderson who is less active but has a grandson that is 8 and wants to be baptized so we are going to be working with her to come back to church and bring him with her. We then went on splits and Elder Barlow and I went and visited Martin with Brother Ballard. He had many questions concerning the Priesthood and then asked us if we could give his wife a blessing. The spirit was very strong and we all felt the spirit in our hearts. Elder Jensen went with Chris Mozina and taught Brother Phillips. He is doing great and progressing well towards baptism.

Thursday we started off planning and it went really well. Companionship Inventory with how it is set up now is really a strengthening tool behind Unity. We stopped and talked with the Reeves family and they invited us to have dinner in a few weeks and will be inviting their non-member friends so they can introduce them to us. We went and saw the Royce family and they are doing alright. They have been having struggles but with scripture study and daily prayer as a family they will only get stronger. We had activity night and had a few investigators there and it went well.

Friday we had a lot of service planned our but quickly had to change everything because it all got canceled. I have now gained a testimony on how important backup plans can be and that they are so important. We went and tracted for quite some time, but didn't find anyone. We went to the Walkers and shared a message with there family.

Saturday we had breakfast with the Sanders and then went to Kennedy Toolan's baptism. There were around 75 people there and about 15 non members and we are teaching 5 of them. Hopefully we will teach a few more. We are getting the appointments set up this week. We went and taught Junior Dukes with Sister Toolan and it went well. He has committed to baptism but has December 31st or September 15 in mind. His brother in-law Clyde was there and he sat in the lesson and has agreed to the return appointment the next time we go over. We will be talking with him in a few days on what he decides. We tracted for a few hours and found a potential that we will be visiting today and hopefully be able to talk with his wife.

On Sunday we had a great day at church. We had 9 investigators at church . Misty and Maeson were there and also Junior and Clyde. Chris was there and we taught him later that night at Sister Toolans on how to read and mark the Book of Mormon. He caught right on and we are having him and his girlfriend who is a member do a chapter a day. He seems to be very eager to learn and accepting of the Book of Mormon. We also had quite a few Part member families that came. We had dinner with the Coleman family after we went on splits with Grant and visited the Perdue's. They are doing great and are now back in to full activity.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, August 17, 2009

Tyler Aug 17 2009

Hello family,

Whats happening around in Utah? Well this week has been pretty good, it has had its ups and downs but it has been well. We have found a lot of new investigators this week since the excuses are getting old. We were able to find 12 new investigators this past week. Our golden investigator is Sibulele Ntida and we have good news that he wants to be baptized on the 13th of September, with the time that we have, it will help us to teach him clearly so he understands everything. He has grown remarkably since I have known him and he has experienced miracles in his life from reading the book of mormon and praying. He is originally from King Williams town and he came from some rough places but Awonke his cousin is taking him underneath his wing. Through his prayers he is going far and a couple weeks ago he was able to find a landscaping job in Voeklip where all the holiday homes are located. He loves to read the book of mormon and has a great interest of learning more about the gospel. The mormon helping hands is coming up this Saturday and we look forward to attending that. President Mackinnon’s son will be teaching some of the kids who are in townships how to preserve the waste of their food to use for compost. President Mackinnon is a master gardener and he hopes it will help these people, to grow there own food and use the food that they waste that is laying on the roads. It is going to be in Stanford and there is going to an estimate of about 70 kids at the project. It is an African wide project but this is what particularly the Hermanus branch will be doing. This winter has been unusually warm for the most part but Hermanus is getting more packed as time is getting closer to the whale festival. The whale festival lasts for a few days but will give us the opportunity to speak to people from all across the world. A couple of weeks ago their was kids in high school from England who was watching the whales. Portia was able to be transferred to the Hoosta hospital which was good news for her but we must now find another place to do our family home evenings. We are leaving today to travel up to Kyalitcha to stay at the zone leaders place for the upcoming zone conference tomorrow. My trainer Elder Sheasby is one of the A.P.s now so I will be able to see him since I was trained. Today Elder Burridge and I are buying a dog annoyer, we are getting tired of the township dogs chasing us around. The south African dogs are not small either they eat raw meat for their meals.

Well hope you have a good week.

Love
Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler Aug 10 2008

hello family,
Well this week has been good but unfortunately me and Elder Pauna had to separate our ways. He is going to be working in Bellville and I will stay in Hermanus for another transfer. My new companion is Elder Burridge he is from the land down under as well. President Probst must know that I hate these auzie people. HaHa. There are only four Astrailian missionaries in all the South Africa missions and 3 in Cape Town. I have been able to serve with the two of them in the mission. Elder Burridge though is a friend of Elder Paunas and he is from Sydney Australia. Things are going pretty good though. We have continued to work with Thomas and he left again for another tour in Nambia but we set the goal for him to eventually be baptized and receive the Aaronic Priesthood and baptize his son in the future. Hopefully it will help give him some encouragement to keep the word of wisdom and have the honor of baptizing his boy who turns 8 soon. He feels like he cant do it but I know that he can because he is humble. We have been working with Sibulele as well and he wants to be baptized. We don't have a set date with him yet but we hope to set one this week for 3 weeks coming so we have time to teach the him all lessons. Mama Galicapa left to Eastern Cape this past week but will be back in a months time. Sometimes it is hard to teach a lot of our progressing investigators because they're leaving all the time. We have been having family home evening at Portias home but this past week we found she had TB. She is trying to be admitted in a hospital around here but their crap, but she is being referred to the Hoosta hospital for TB patients but beds are full, please pray for her to be admitted into a hospital. We have been spending a lot of time at her home, Elder Pauna thought we should be checked but I don't think its to much worry because we've been vaccinated. We were able to give her a blessing which hopefully will help her in her recovery. She is a strong member and you can see through her faith and scripture study anything is possible. A recent sickness around the area is the swine flu and we just hope we don't come across it with all the people we meet. There is miracles that we see everyday some you really have to ponder and reflect upon but they do happen when you put forth effort. Elder Burridge and I have been studying Jesus the Christ and today we also have been learning about listening. I believe the most important tool you have as a missionary is listening. I can truly get better at it but it is tough, I have realized that everything you do as a missionary, people are looking and watching, even with preferal vision. You may think they're not watching but they see all and they don't care about how much you know but how much you care. Well have a good week.
love

Elder Tyler Hansen

Regan August 17, 2009

On Monday we went and visited Sister Nitsche in the Hospital. She seems to be doing a bit better and is able to start to eat a little bit. We then went and visited a few members and got appointments set up at their house later on in the week.

On Tuesday we had District meeting here and we had some great role plays that Elder Tolley had us do. We have started to try and use them when sharing a message with members. We tracted on Skyline Drive with Elder Brian from Niceville. We had some great contact but no one was interested at this time. Later we had splits with the High Priests. Elder Barlow and I went with Brother Horst and visited Martin and also Gavin and he accepted the Book of Mormon that we gave him.

On Wednesday we went to Sister Woods and did service at her house for about an hour. We then went to the Toolan's home and taught Ben and Regan the Restoration and it was great. Ben was very attentive and was excited to learn more. We then talked with Brother Bond for a a minute and he brought us over some food. We then went and visited Brother Hutchins and he has started smoking again so we will continue to work with him.

On Thursday we started off the day planning because we were not able to do service because it got rained out. We then went and visited less actives and visited Dexter Marchman. He came to church last week and enjoyed it. We were able to answer all of his questions he had. We then went to activity night and talked with a few investigators that came.

On Friday we visited Sister Nitsche and she is doing really good. We then went and tracted and stopped and talked with the Drysdale family and chase is doing really good. We will hopefully be able to go to his house and talk with his family. They are planning on coming back to church when his dad gets back from his business trip. We then spent another couple of hours tracting and talked with a couple of great people that we are hopefully going to be able to go back and visit them. We then went and talked with the Kimball's and will be visiting them in a few weeks when he gets back. We also visited the Sheets family. They are having allot of family problems and we keep them in our prayers daily.

On Saturday we did service all day at it went really well. We were able to help other accomplish things that they have been hoping to do for weeks. We had dinner with the Colvin family. They are really great. We then visited Brother Sheets in the 2nd ward and also talked with Martin and he wanted to come to church.

On Sunday we had 9 investigators at church in the wards. We had also allot of less actives that we have been inviting and other ward members. We also got an appointment set up with Junior Dukes and he wants to get baptized. His wife has been a member for years and he just told us that he wanted to get baptized. It is way awesome and was kind of a shock at the same time. We visited a few less actives that live close and found out that 3 of them have moved so that really helped the ward out. We had dinner at the Mozina's home and then went and gave Sister Thomas a blessing because she has been feeling under the weather.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, August 10, 2009

Regan, August 10, 2009

Monday started of real well with our studies and really trying to get down into a better system. That way we will more effectively be taught by the spirit and be better prepared for each and every new day. We received a call and we were able to administer a blessing to Sister Nitshce. She has been having some complications. Her faith is very strong and she has such determination and Love even with her trials of being blind.

Tuesday we had district meeting in Defuniak. It went real well and we were able to look over and discuss some of the new things for this upcoming Zone Conference. We visited Marty and he is doing well and has now committed to the stop-smoking program that we will be teaching him this coming week. I am very excited that he is willing to take this step. We had dinner at Patriarch Hansen's home and it was great. We then went on trade offs and visited with a few less actives and set up appointments for the next week.

Wednesday we had transfers and we split up and some of us went tracting and others went and talked with others. We did not have any success but our desires were there. We then went and tracted and as we stopped at the road we had some great divine intervention. As we were walking to our first house to knock Martin walked out and asked us to come back later that week to teach him. I knew that God directed us specifically to him that day. We also found Julius but his parents told us no when we called back yesterday to see if the appointment with his family was still good. We then went on splits and Elder Jensen and I went to a less active member and they needed some help putting some stuff together.

Thursday we planned and figured out some goals that would be good but would still stretch us. We then went and did service for the Fehlmans and discussed in Moses 6 after. We also helped the Sheets with some service.

Friday we went and finished tracting all of the street by Martin and that area and we found Henry and Gavin. We have appointments set up with them and are looking forward about teaching them the Gospel. We went on trade-offs and visited more less actives with member and it went real well.

Saturday we started of with service and helped members and non-members who were struggling at that time. I felt such a great peace as I was able to give Christ like service to our fellow brothers and sisters. We visited less actives for the rest of the day and we ended up with 3 of those families coming to church the next day.

Sunday we had 3 less active families and church and 2 of them being part member families. It was exciting to see the spirit touching their hearts as they were there. We then went on trade-offs and Elder Barlow went and taught Martin with Brother Beattie. We visited Misty and her family and talked with them and also with Brother Hutchins who is struggling really bad at this time. We are trying to set up a pattern in their lives of better daily scripture study so they can have the spirit stronger in their lives.

This week has been really great and the Lord has continued to lead us even at times everything was falling through.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Tyler Aug 3 2009

hello,
This letter will be short, we are going to help the Beals on a project in Sandbaii with helping paint a home. Things are still going quite slow for their business, but the few projects they have this month will help keep food on their table. This week went really well. Lungiswas and Cokiswas confirmation went good to. Transfer week is this week. Thomas Pechen got back from his latest trip and we look forward to teaching and helping him this week. We hope to set a goal for him that he can be baptized soon and then receive the Aaronic Priesthood to baptize his son Benjamin who is turning 8 in December. Pray for him if you would. He has come a long way and We are looking at a potential of about 4 baptisms by Oct-Nov. We also look forward to helping Class Pheiry put in doors in his home this week. We have many great appointments this week to help our investigators keep progressing and to help them along. hope all is well. have a good week.

Love
Elder Tyler Hansen

Monday, August 3, 2009

Regan August 3, 2009




Well this week started out with a few doubts concerning Kevin's Baptismal interview but by the end the Lord's peace and comfort was surrounding us all.

On Monday we had a good p-day getting things prepared. We went to Misty's house to confirm with Kevin about his Interview the next day. We visited with the Parson's later that night and discussed the families needs and how we could best help them with service and letting them feel of the love the Savior has for them.

On Tuesday district meeting went well. The spirit directed me and everyone really was uplifted and the spirit edified us all. I then went with Elder Tolley and Smith to Kevin's for the Interview. It went real well and he is ready to be baptized. We then went to Defuniak and spent the rest of the day visiting less active and past investigators. We tracted a few streets and there were some who we found as potentials.

On Wednesday we came back to Crestview and helped a member with service because they were moving from the Crestview 2nd ward to Niceville ward. We were able to help them accomplish all that was needing to be done and they were grateful. I love feeling the love of our Savior as we give Christlike service. We visited Brother Hutchins who has been participating in the stop tobacco class we did and he is one day short of a week without and doing great. We then went to Misty's and talked with Kevin about the baptism and we were able plan out the whole program. We had dinner with the Linares family and will be offering service to them here shortly. She is a single mom who is working 3 different Jobs. I went on splits that night with Brother Horst and we visited Sister Dukes and her husband who is not a member. He did end up coming to church.

On Thursday we planned and talked with everyone for the baptism and everyone was more than willing to accept. We visited Sister Woodard and had a great lesson on temples. That is her goal is to achieve to go to the temple. She is still working with her bosses to get Sundays of so she can come to church. We visited the Walkers and answered questions they had concerning things they had heard. They have been less active but are excited to begin their habit of coming to church again. We finished to night of with Activity night and had some investigators there.

On Friday we had Lunch with Brother Fisher which was great. He always has some great experiences to share about his mission. We then went and tracted through some awesome rain. I enjoyed doing the Lord's work of tracting even when the rain was falling. We found Dennis Bottman as a potential and he seems very open to learning. We went on splits later that night and Elder Jensen and I visited with Michael for a few minutes and then talked with our Ward Mission Leader about the Finalizing touches for the Baptism.

On Saturday we traveled up to Laurel Hill after the Conference Call. As we were there we decided to visit those strong potentials we received from last week as we tracted. We were able to set up appointments with Virginia and also the young family of Jeff & Jessica Brown. We then had Kevin's Baptism that went well. Misty invited many non-member friends and we received a few potential investigators. The spirit was very strong and Misty's fiance's heart is continuing to be softened.

On Sunday Kevin was confirmed which was great. We also had Brother Phillips at church and they have decided that probably around the 2nd week of September will be when he gets baptized. We had Sister Fehlman at church for her 2nd time now which is very exciting. We will be setting a date with her next week. Sister Toolan had a few friends at church and she is setting up times this week that we can teach them in her home. We had dinner with the Coleman family and after went out with Grant and visited a few less actives and set up appointments with a couple of them.

I thank the Lord for allowing me to learn and grow. I enjoyed being able to be a district leader and learning how to better love and serve the Sisters and Elder I have been able to serve. I am so Grateful for the Opportunity that I also have to serve her in Crestview for another 6 weeks. It may be my last but the experiences and love that I have felt here of those I have been able to serve and serve with have truly touched my life in so many ways.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen