Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tyler Oct 27 2009

hello family,

Thanks for the emails. I hope everything is going well. This week has been ok. We were able to see many lives progress as they have read from the Book of Mormon. I just wish more people would take the time and read from it to feel of its spirit and help them to walk in greater obedience to Gods commandments. As we have continued to follow up with many families in Rockys Crest we had the opportunity to help Karina this past week overcome some of her difficult situations in her life. We have been teaching her husband End a little bit but one day when we followed up with the family there was a little bit of spouse abuse going on. Karina was in tears and basically sleeping outside the house. We helped her through using the Book of Mormon in using Alma 13 and 14 and really emphasized on the family proclamation it was kind of depressing. I hope that we shared something with her that could help her throughout her day. We have been following up with a lot of less actives and trying to help reactivate them. There is a lot of members in the branch with about 300 members, 120-140 actually come to church each week. We have really put an emphasis on Edison who is a recent convert of a few months who is starting to go less active. He is really dodging us but we hope we can help him in his life. A lot of the less active members that don't come actually live out of Windhoek and live in the northern parts of the country so it is difficult to track these people down where there are no missionaries in the rural areas. It is neat to see the growth of Tswano as she continues with her desire to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and continue to progress towards baptism. She has talked with her family in Botswana, and she knows this is the right decision she is making in her life so she continues to be a champion. Well transfers is coming up this week, and we look forward to the upcoming zone conference of having Elder Hinckley come and visit us. Well have a good week.

I love you all
Elder Tyler Hansen

Monday, October 26, 2009

Regan October 26, 2008, Transfer to Mobile Alabama

On Monday we had a great visit with Sister Woodard and continued to help her desires to be focused on the temple. We had dinner at the Toolan's and made dinner for them. I great spiritual thought was shared and the spirit was strong.

On Tuesday we had District meeting in Defuniak and had some great role plays and learning really come to me. We then went to visit Sister Mercer but she wasn't home. On the way back to Crestview we visited quite a few less active members. We had a few visits fall through so we tracted which went pretty good. We went on trade-offs that night and Brother Parker and visited the Monroe's.

On Wednesday we went to Holt and delivered a referral and visited a few other members as we were there. We came back and tracted a bit and it went alright. That night we started to teach the Parson's the lessons again and they really opened up to the questions of the spirit.

On Thursday we did service for allot of the day for non-members. They really were grateful for our help. We cam back and planned for the upcoming week. That night we had activity night. We had a few less-actives and a few non-members there.

On Friday we got to a little bit more planning because it was down pouring rain and lightning and we couldn't tract. We then visited less active members and invited all of them to the Halloween Bash. We had dinner with the Wing's and had a great visit. We then went and visited the Walkers and invited them out to church.

On Saturday we went and visited a referral and tracted but didn't have much success. We went with President Miller and visited allot of people in Paxton with President Coleman and Brother Blocker. We went and visited the Reeves and invited them to invite their neighbors to church. We then visited less-actives and invited many of them to church.

On Sunday we had Junior at church but we also had allot of less actives and non-members there. I went on a trade off with Brother Bond and visited the Carr family. We had lunch at the Tews and dinner with the Fisher family. In between we saw the Royce family and also visited a few less active members.

Love Y'all

Elder Regan Hansen

Oh and I am getting transferred back to the Mobile Area. I know quite a few members there and I am going to Mobile. I am also going to be a District Leader again.
my new address is

Elder Regan Hansen
157D Norton Place
Mobile, AL 36607

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tyler Oct 19 2009





Hello

Thanks for the emails. I am sick of the white people around here with the Germans and Afrikaner's. They are ignorant people but they are making me more patient in my life. Our area mainly consists of large houses fenced with large electrical walls and fences. We have no townships to go to. We speak to a lot of people through their intercoms. The sin of apathy as I see around here and the world just continues to widespread. I had exchanges with Elder Louder from my transfer and we had a pretty nice day we were able to have some good lessons with visual aids that helped the people understand the primitive church of Jesus Christ. We taught Bro. Morroro and his wife Abigale who is a member with Elder and Sister Jones. He was stabbed in the hands a few weeks before I came but he seems like he healing up quite well. He is a teacher at a university and so I think being taught by a couple of young guys he is a little prideful about. We were able to clear his concerns about authority and so we hope we can resolve his issue with him being baptized in another church. He attends church just about every Sunday with his wife so through his faith and obedience he will someday be baptized. I often look at the many women who lead the church and a lot of the reasons this branch functions is because of them, their husbands are to prideful. We have been working with a girl name Vivi. She is from Angola and she is going to the University of Namibia here. She speaks mainly Portuguese and doesn't know English to well. She has such a great desire to learn but we are having a challenge since she can't understand English to well. There are a few people in the branch that speak Portuguese and we have brought Ozario with us frequently to help. I believe the greatest thing that we can do for her is get Sis. Mahitu who knows the gospel and Portuguese to befriend her. She has a copy of both the English and Portuguese Book of Mormon, so we hope we can help her more this week. On Saturday the zone had two baptisms which was really neat to see. Toini Amunyela and Loini Ndahalele they were very excited for the ordinance and they were very happy, since it had taken them years to make this step in their life. Toini Amunyelas sister and I actually went to the mtc with last year and she said her sister has been a great impact on her life so it was pretty cool to see. We hope to follow up with some good white families that we were able to see last week so I hope things go well. The only concern that I have is if the white people are a little racial since most of the branch is black, but if they develop a strong enough testimony it should not matter I just hope that we can find these people who will be strong members in the future. Tswhano continues to be a champion and so she is very excited I just wish all of our investigators were like her. Well this week should be pretty fun on Tuesday I get to on an exchange with Elder Cobia so it will be a lot of fun. The Book of Mormon is amazing I just wish more people would except it and read it and not shun away from it, and despise it as something not from God. Thanks a lot for the emails have a good week and send some pictures.
I love you very much.

Love Elder Tyler Hansen

Monday, October 19, 2009

Regan, October 19, 2009




This week as been really great. Every evening after our service throughout the day I was exhausted and tired and really felt the great Joy of working hard and effective throughout the days. Whether or not success came abruptly or very slowly the Love was truly felt. This week we decided if we didn't have teaching appointments that the time we had open we would tract and show our love of serving the lord through the diligence of knocking on doors.

Monday we had a great opportunity to travel with the Ward Mission leader in the 2nd ward Brother Beattie and went and toured a few gunships at Hurlburt Field and a few other things on P-day. We came back and started with some service at about 4 for some less actives who have been struggling and there was great ward support. We immediately then went to a lesson with Liz. We discussed Obedience and Baptism and committed her to continue to read and pray. We asked her to specifically pray to know if Baptism is the next step for her. She has been attending seminary a few times a week with friends. We then had dinner with Holly Tew and family.

Tuesday we had a great district meeting. We were able to Role play teaching which really prepared us for some situations that we ended up having. Immediately after we tracted Sikes, Tyner, and Hampton drives and we talked with Roger, Kelly, and Maria. We were able to set up return appointments with all 3 of them. We traveled and visited Brother Brant and helped him with a few things. We then went and continued to tract on the same streets and were able to talk to many of the Lords children. That night Brother Von Jones and I went on a split and visited Jody and Tina Johnson. We had a great visit and answered some concerns they had as we were reading in the Book of Mormon. They are less-active and have strong desires to go to the temple.

Wednesday we started the day by tracting near a less active members home and didn't have any success. I was just happy being out there and serving the Lord even if it was just knocking on doors. We had lunch with some part member families in the 2nd and 1st ward who are related and were able to talk with Clyde who we had previously been teaching. We went and discussed with Curtis and Vanessa the Restoration and asked them how they felt but they didn't open up to much. They have been busy because they will be moving soon. We then went and tracted on Candlewood ln. and part of Lake st. We talked to a few people we had contacted around before and had a few promising results but no return appointments. Later that night Elder Barlow and I went out with Brother Shepard and visited the Taylor's, Dunn's, and the Meek's families. We have set up to teach the Taylor's the lessons.

Thursday we went to the Wood's and taught Brother Wood a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. He was not very receptive so we decided that it was time to drop him and we are going to let him know that this week. We then went to a few appointments which ended up falling through so we continued to tract Forrest ct, and lake dr. We talked to some great people and had some great discussions but weren't able to set up appointments. We then went and planned for the day because of everything that we had going on and that went well. We had dinner at the Hatch's and they are a part-member family. I then went on trade-offs with Brother Wing and visited Sister Monte and tried to visit President Hill but he was working at the time.

Friday we had an appointment with Jo but she had an emergency that came up so we visited the Hutchins and made sure that they were doing alright and to see if they needed anything. We traveled to the Fehlman's and split more wood and it was great because of the cooler weather. We discussed Joseph Smith - Mathew with Brother Fehlman. We stopped by Devon Brown's home who is a recent convert of the Sister and had been struggling but we were not able to get a hold of him. We visited the Royce family and they are doing pretty good. They are getting ready for Maeson's birthday party this coming Saturday. We had dinner with the Seager's which was good and we will be taking a Spanish Book of Mormon to Brother Seager to give to a friend. We stopped by the Walkers quickly to see how they were doing and invited them to church.

Saturday we traveled to Paxton. At 10:30 President Miller came up and he and Elder Barlow went and visited less actives, while Elder Jensen and I tracted around the main city of Paxton. We talked to a few people that said to come back but didn't get any return appointments. We left and traveled back to the Royce's house to do some service to help them get ready for Maeson's party. We finished the night and visited the Parson's and have set up to teach them the Lesson also.

Sunday we had our normal meetings with correlation and church. The Gorby's came to church with their grandson and we also had Junior to church as well. We then left church and visited with the Royce family and discussed a few scriptures. We had Lunch with the Coleman's and then traveled with no time to spare and visited the Devine family. Brother Devine is a perspective Elder and they are working their way to go to the temple. We immediately traveled to Brother Junior Dukes home and taught him about Tithing and Fasting. It went really well and he committed to doing those things. We came back to the apartment for dinner and talked with a neighbor about the church and answered some questions that he had.

Love Y'all

Elder Regan Hansen

Tyler Oct 12 2009




Hello,

Thanks for the emails. The colored people have a fair skin color. Many years ago the blacks and whites started breeding and so it is a mixture of black and white. The people throughout the years have now just prospered as a colored race of people. Their primary language is Africaans but they are pretty funny people. Well one of the many things I learned this week is a task that takes a just few minutes in America takes all day to do in Namibia. On Saturday we cleared out a grass pile with shovels and so we loaded grass into a small bakkie truck. It took us pretty much the whole day but tools in America makes things a lot easier. As you know moving grass with a shovel is not easy, so it took patience. This week has been good I don't look forward to the 100 degree weather though. We have been reactivating the Simataa family, this family is pretty sweet. We went and seen them Monday night and we reviewed the plan of salvation with them. The mother who has been struggling to find an interest, we shared many things that was interesting to her. The family mainly consists of three single adult girls and two boys. All the girls have been baptized but we hope to find some interest in the father who is away a lot. Even though he is not a member of the church he is still a great person who has a deep abiding care for his family. The night that we were there they told us of an incident that happened the night previous. The father was gone away on business a lot and he was away in Botswana. Sis Simatta last Sunday evening that during the night she felt that something was behind her from her feelings. All of her family was home and she was really concerned about the promptings that she was receiving. As she looked out the window of her house she saw a man at the corner of her eye get jolted off of her fence ran away from the house. She has some big dogs and they were barking furiously and she has security fences all around her yard but the person that was trying, to break into her house or something. As she was frightened minutes later she received a reassuring call from her husband in Botswana who had a feeling to call the family and see that everyone was alright. I am amazed at the unity of this family and how they support each other even though the father is not a member. Natasha will say that there dad asks them if they have read their scriptures each night before they go to bed. It is just neat to see how the family works in unity as they continue their lives and the spirit of comfort they feel. This week I have also learned a little bit about obedience and the blessings that come from it. Usually our lunch hour ends at 2 and sometimes we can be disobedient and don't go until 2:30 but this particular day we went to a less active guys house named Edison just right after lunch at little before 2 o'clock. We taught him a short lesson on eternal marriage and as we were teaching him, his roommate came in the door and went into his room and he said he wants to get some rest. He said as he walked by us he said he was prompted to come and talk to us. He was an Africaans white guy named Eyen he came in the room and we just started talking about beliefs. He said he had made some mistakes in his life, but he was a humble guy to speak to. He had some strange doctrines and beliefs, but was willing to hear what we had to share. We had a good lesson and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon in which he said he will read. I know that if he reads the Book of Mormon his life will change because he thinks logically. It showed me that day that If we would have been late we wouldn't have been able to speak to Eyen, so it was a testimony to me about being obedient with exactness to the rules will bring blessing that cannot be seen. We have been teaching a girl named Tswano from Botswana. She is about 22 years old and going to nursing school here in Namimbia. She has finished 3 of her 4 years of her nursing and is going to return back to Botswana with her family at the end of November. She found the church in Windhoek because she couldn't see how her baptist church was true and so she came in for a visit. She is probably the one that has brought the greatest excitement to the work because she is humble and willing to learn. To often we try to find people to teach instead of teaching so she is pretty sweet. We have a baptismal date set for the 7th so we look forward to that coming up. She talked with her family and has prayed about it and she said this is what she wants to do with her life. She didn't know if there was a branch in Botswana or not but we told her their was and she was able to speak with the branch president their in Botswana and so she is very excited. Well next transfer is coming up and I have heard that President Hinckleys son Elder Richard Hinckley will be coming to the mission. I am pretty excited about it. I hope he comes up to Namibia But I am sure he will. Elder Haugen said he want to ask him the question what did Christ write in the ground twice when he was speaking to the adulterous women. Well I hope everything is well. Have a good week and send some pics.

Love
Elder Tyler Hansen

Monday, October 12, 2009

Regan, October 12, 2009

On Monday we had a great P-day and ended the night by going to the White's for dinner and are working with their family on inviting their friends to the Gospel.

On Tuesday we talked with Brother Wroten who is 19 and been less active since he was about 9. He opened up and let us know that he has a hard time understanding the scriptures so we are going to help him with that and he said he would start coming back to church in a couple weeks. We then went and talked with Sister Mason a less-active member who has been having some health problems recently. We stopped by Brother Brant who is a great example of a truly dedicated member because he is 98 and still drives himself to church every week. We then went on trade offs that night and Brother Horst and I visited Sister Ward and taught the 1st lesson. She ended up coming to church and enjoyed it.

Wednesday we had a great Zone Conference which I was very uplifted and it left me pondering over many great things. We then had dinner with Sister Holly Tew's family and talked about a part member family they are wanting to invite over to dinner the next time we come over. We then went on trade-offs and Elder Jensen and I went and visited Brother and Sister Reeves while Elder Barlow and Brother Beattie visited Brother Matt Sheppard.

Thursday we were able to plan a little bit before we went and visited Sister Atisme and she is trying to see how she can help her husbands heart be softened to where he will accept the Gospel. He has had a few difficulties in the past with things that he has either heard or read. We then went and taught Debbie one of Sister Toolan's friends but we are still not sure how well she is going to commit. We had activity night that night and had 5 non members there and are working on setting up appointments with 3 of them.

Friday we went and visited Jo Nguyen and discussed questions and the topics that the spirit directed as we asked her about how she felt. We discussed Alma 32 and asked her how she felt about the story within. She felt that it was all true and we committed her to continue to read and pray. We went and visited Curtis and will be setting up an appointment with him later this week. We then went and visited the Ballards because they have been having a rough time and helped bring some peace into their lives. We also tracted throughout out the day and found some great potentials and also found Agnus who we will be seeing this week.

Saturday we spent most of the Day doing allot of great service. We were able to get out and help the Pearman's, Robard's, and the Jones families. We also went and continued by helping Brother Toolan with allot of different things that needed to be done around the yard that he needed help with. That night we visited the Walker's who are being re-activated. They are doing well and it is great.

Sunday we had our normal meetings and had 4 investigators at church. Brother Dukes, Brother and Sister Gorby, and Chris. We also made a few calls and were able to set up appointments with Liz, Johnson's, Sister Ward, Steele's, and Brother Hunt. All of which are either investigators and less-active members. We had a fireside that night which Liz one of our investigators went to. It went really well and the spirit was so strong.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, October 5, 2009

Regan, October 5, 2009

This past week has been really great even with all the sicknesses and trials that have been thrown right at us. I am especially grateful for the commitment that I made to read the Book of Mormon while marking the Promises in the 2 months that was asked. I feel such a deep compassion and love for the Book of Mormon. I have felt my faith increase and my understanding grow as I have dove into it's pages. I have felt the firm understanding of the importance of Prophets and Apostles and the Priesthood Power. I can truly say as Elder Holland so testified yesterday that I know without a shadow of a Doubt that the Book of Mormon is the most Powerful and Rewarding Book that brought me closer to the Saviour and I now that it is True. This past week as you know has been a little different as Elder Barlow was in the Hospital but the Lord always prepares a way for us to do his Will.

On Monday we did a little bit of service during our P day and had quite a few great visit with members.

On Tuesday we had district meeting which went well and we continued to personalize and apply Book Of Mormon stories to help investigators. That night we went on trade-offs with Brother Beattie and Brother Corbin and got to visit many less actives that we are setting up to teach the lessons to again.

On Wednesday we talked with the Gorby's and had a really great visit and were able to discern a few of their needs as we are going to continue to teach them about this great gospel. I ended up going to Doctor Roberts office and found out that I had the Swine Flu so we had to go back to the apartment and I rested and studied for awhile.

On Thursday we picked up Elder Barlow out of the hospital and went back and planned for the upcoming week. We made calls within both wards to try and set up appointments with less active and part member families. We were not able to leave the apartment until about 5 when I got permission to go out because I had to wait out the Contagious period. We had some great visits with members and had a good activity that night.

On Friday we started of the day visiting Jo one of our media referrals and had a great discussion with her. I truly do feel that the Lord has prepared her to do something special. She is truly knowledgeable and ready to accept the gospel as she receives that confirming witness from the spirit. We tracted for a few hours and had no success but it was great just being able to enjoy doing the Lord's work. We visited Sister Price a less active member and will be teaching her the lessons again very soon. That night we went on trade offs and visited less active members and invited them and our investigators to conference.

On Saturday we enjoyed conferences and the messages were great. God's Love was apparent in the talks and in our hearts. We visited a few of our investigators who had been watching from home and just followed up with them on some of the talks and questions they had.

On Sunday we enjoyed conference once again and I loved how the messages of Obedience struck into strengthening all aspects of our lives including all the different traits involved with Virtue. I received so many great promptings and only wish that conference could just continue. I received a great confirming witness of those promptings and have already begun to really apply and deepen my understanding of them. We taught Junior later that night the 10 commandments and the Word of Wisdom and he committed to them with no hesitation.

Love Y'all

Elder Regan Hansen

Tyler Oct 5 2009

Hello,
Huie mora is good morning in Africaans. I love the Africaans language but I am moving to much with different kinds of people to pick much of it up. Well this has been alright I finally made it to Namibia and I was able to watch the conference on satellite broadcast. I don't have to pay for the time on the computer so I can type a little bit more now. This week has had a lot of things happen though. On Monday we had a combined p-day with both the Cape South zone and the Cape North zone where we played some dodgeball at the Mobray chapel in Cape Town. We also watched a great movie that tied in with zone conference the next day called, defeating the giants. We did some work that night in Maccassar with the colored people and Elder Hajarijoana spent some time with the Conrade family. On Tuesday we had our zone conference at Somerset West where we talked about aligning our will with Heavenly
Fathers and how Moses did such as in the pearl of great price. President Probst ceases to amaze me with how he applies principles of the gospel. We discussed a lot in just the first book of Moses how many principles in the gospel can be applied and how especially we are blessed to have this extract which Joseph Smith translated during the difficult times that the church was facing in 1830. I am grateful for Moses and the man he was to give up his earthly possessions to see all that the Father has and the glory that was given to him by the Father, when he was willing and most especially how we apply his teachings into our lives. It was a great lesson and I was able to participate in both of the zone conferences with Cape South on Tuesday and the Namibia zone conference on Friday. Elder Hajarijoana and did find a nice family the Cats family, we were able to teach them that night after the zone conference and then go to the ward correlation in Sommerset with Brother Andrew White. On Wednesday in the morning we went to the doctor Elder Wilson had to get a hep shot, I had to go to the eye doctor I had an infection in my eye that was getting bad. We had some difficulty finding a doctor that I could just see to get some droplets but we finally found somewhere that wasn't booked. I was hoping I would never have to see a doctor but it was still something pretty minor that could of gotten worse. We got the call Wednesday afternoon saying our visas had come and we would leave the Thursday afternoon. We did some tracting in the Ferngrove area by Macassar and we did bless a lot of people in the area and set up some return appointments for the other Elders when we would leave. On Thursday we had to go shop with the other Elders and then meet at the Somerset chapel so we could go with the office elders to the airport. Our flight was at 3:20 and the three of us me, Elder Hajarijoana and Elder Cobia that went to Namibia. We made it to Windhoek at about 5:30. their was a lot of turbulence and it seemed like their was a sand storm outside, it was the bumpiest plane ride I've ever been on, even the flight attendant said it was pretty bad with all the flights she has been on. President and Sister Probst was there to welcome us and we went from there straight to the chapel in Windhoek. Windhoek is basically in the middle of a desert and it is a town of about 300 thousand people. The country itself has only about 2.2 million. It is hot here and I got here just in the start of summer so it will hit about 100 degrees. Since I have been here, I am surprised that there is not one member of the branch that was really white or africaans. There are a few coloured people in the branch but it mainly consists of blacks. In Namibia their are the two branches one in Katatura and the other in Windhoek. They are both mission branches and President Charles is our branch president he is a returned missionary from Johannussburg and has a young family. Bro. Licious is our branch mission leader and the guy is pretty cool. The Namibia zone is smaller with only 12 elders in the country and 6 missionaries per branch. Elder Haugen is my companion and he is from San Clemente, California. We have a sweet area. The Windhoek South area and the President of the country is just a few miles from our flat. Since I've been here there are a lot of different languages that are tribal, from Shona to Portuguese but not any Xhosas. I will have to update you more on the languages and people as we continue to visit and see them. The food here is more expensive and it is a little more high class than South Africa as I see the wealth distributed. We had our Namibia zone conference on the Friday and then watched on Saturday at 6pm the Saturday morning session. On Sunday we watched the priesthood session at 11am and then the Saturday afternoon session at 2 pm. We taught some investigators like Swano from Botswana at the church from the time of 4-6 and then watched the Sunday morning session at 6pm. We weren't able to watch the Sunday afternoon session unless we could of stayed until 10 so I will just wait and buy the dvds. The conference was sweet though I can apply a lot of things in my life. Well have a good day.

love
Elder Tyler Hansen

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Tyler Sep 28 2009

goie mora,
good morning,

Well it sounds like you had a good week. This week hasn't been to bad. we are still in Somerset West just helping the Somerset Elders. Elder Hajarijoana and I are still waiting for our visas to come and I have a feeling I might be in Somerset West for some time I wish I could go back to Hermanus. Elders that have gone to Namibia have waited almost the whole transfer sometimes for visas to come. Things are going well though. We are in a small boarding in Sommerset with the four of us here. The area is huge that we cover and this week we have tried to get more of a teaching pool so all four of us can stay busy all of the time. We basically have half the area of Somerset West and also the town of Stellonbosch to cover. Somerset West area is considered one of the wealthiest parts of the whole cape so it makes white area tracting more difficult. We have mainly been working with the coloured people in Maccassar. It is a rougher part of town but through being guided we can find the prepared people who will hear our message. In Stellonbosch we have mainly been working in the township of Khaymandi and working amongst the coloreds. a lot of people in Stellonbosch are either retired or university students so we don't spend much time in the commercialized area. It is great to be able to work with the recent converts of the ward and see how they are converted to the atonement in their lives. Brother Delouw is a champion. He used to be a Muslim but he has been forsaken by his family and friends to be apart of the Church of Jesus Christ. He doesn't have a job or anything to do so he stays home and reads church literature. He works with us quite often to help us teach the people in the area. This upcoming week we will have zone conference where we will learn how to set goals to help benefit the people in our areas and how we can use our time more effectively in Somerset West chapel. well I hope you all have a good week.

Love
Elder Tyler Hansen