Monday, December 28, 2009

Regan, December 28, 2009

This past week has been really good but also slow at the same time because of the Great Holiday season that we had and those that are still coming.

Tuesday we went to visit a few of our new investigators if we were by the area. They told us they probably wouldn't be home but they wanted us to check up on them. We then headed up to Prichard and delivered a few referrals that we had before our appointment with Willie Brown. We traveled to Saraland and gave Sister Wilson's son a blessing. We also visited a few less actives we weren't able to see the week before. We finished the night of with FHE and that went great.

Wednesday I went on a trade off with Elder Burnham. He is one of our Zone Leaders and needed him for a baptismal interview for Kimberly. We went to visit Latasha but she wasn't awake when we stopped by. We then went to our Backup plan of doing some 5v5's around some less active members and we found a few strong potentials. We then went to Prichard on our way to Kimberley's and delivered another referral and as we were doing 5v5's we found Jessie Moore who we will be teaching this week. Kimberley's interview went really well after her Neighbors who are Mezonite Jews stopped trying to bring in the wrong spirit. We nicely talked with them and wished them the best of luck. Kimberly will be getting baptized on January 3rd. We ended the Trade off and went to the Baylor's for dinner which was great. They are a less-active, part member family.

Thursday we had a good time as we planned and had a really great companionship Inventory. Throughout the day we did some tracting and visiting to members. We spent the evening with Brother Serrano and Brother Adair. Brother Adair's non-member parents came down and we shared a message about Christmas with them.

Friday we had a great morning by serving at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen. It was great to see the smile on every one's faces as we were able to serve and help so many. After we went over to Bishop Parkes home and spent some time with them and there family over lunch. We followed up with District Meeting that afternoon and really pressed forward in trying to work hard and effectively throughout the day by planning well. We finished the night with phone calls to our families.

Saturday our day went pretty downhill you could say. We had good plans but allot of them fell through so we did allot of tracting and contacting. We had a good time thought showing the Lord that we were willing to work whether certain plans went through or not. We also worked on updating the progress record and making calls to recent converts to set up the new member discussions.

Sunday went really well. We were able to have a great lesson on the Life of Jesus Christ with Kimberely and she was able to attend Sacrament meeting which helps her on the way to her baptism. After church we visited with a few less active members. We had a few great gospel discussions with them and invited them to come back.

This week even though it seemed as if it was going to slow down for the Holidays we were still able to press forward and keep our eye on the prize of working hard and helping others receive the same blessings that we are able to receive each and everyday.

Love Y'all

Elder Regan Hansen
Thank you for all your Love, Support, Encouragement, and Gifts.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Regan, December 25, 2009

Christmas Day Elder Regan Hansen was able to call home and talk to several Family Members. His mother spoke to him for over two hours, I just listened and made the occasional comment now and then. He was in good spirit, and is enjoying his time in Mobil Alabama. Attached is a picture that he sent of his Christmas Day Meal. In the morning they volunteered at the Salvation Army Soup kitchen and then visited ward members and the other missionary's in his district the rest of the day.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Regan, December 21, 2009

This week to me seemed as if one of the most effective weeks that has been so thoroughly planned. It has been amazing at the effective work ethic it has wrought and I am going to share it with the entire District.

This past Monday was a great P-day. We were able to get allot of different things done for the week and were able to get the car all cleaned up for Zone Conference. We had an evening at the Hearns and had some great gospel discussions with them.

On Tuesday we went to the Mobile Infirmary and gave a less active Sister in the Ward a Blessing. She has been having some complications from a Knee replacement surgery. We updated our referral binder and continued to set them up with also including member pages for each zip code so we know what referrals and less active members live by where we are working at so we can effectively see them and do 5v5's. Zone Conference was such a boost for me. All the questions that I had were answered because of the spirit and I really received a strong witness that what we have been doing allot of is what the Lord would have us do. I did receive some great things to work on that will continue to help our area grow even more. The Christmas Party the ward had was amazing and the Love was felt by and through all the missionaries.

Wednesday we had a great lesson with Latasha Tucker. We taught the Restoration and at the end of the lesson we were kneeling with her in prayer. It was such a beautiful experience. We then left her house and tracted for about and hour and found Tracy and Angie. It is amazing at how great 5v5 really are. That day we tried to visit 11 less active member and were able to contact 5 of them and do allot of 5v5's. We had dinner with the Applegate family and talked with Brother Holyoak about his farewell on Sunday. We then went and contacted a few more less active and made some referral calls and we were able to set up and appointment with Annette Shelton.

Thursday we had some great planning that I feel has been the best planning session of my mission so far. We were able coordinate and set up allot of things that will allow us to be more effective though out the day and also with helping our investigators. We then went and visited some less active and found Davis by doing 5v5 around them. We also had a great Restoration with Lennona and Gerrard who we delivered the Lamb of God DVD too. They were excited about the message we shared and have an appointment in a few short days.

Friday was an exciting day. We traveled up to Saraland which we only make it up to about every couple of weeks. We first visited Ryesha and Andrew Henderson. We are still working with him and he has accepted the invitation to learn more. Throughout the day in Saraland we visited 31 less active members and 5 active members homes. We found out that a about 6 had moved and quite a few of them had joined other churches. We had dinner with the Mathie family which was great. We then continued our visits and delivered a media referral to a less active member.

Saturday we had the Bishops Storehouse. It is amazing being able to see how the church is able to help so many of it members. It was great being able to do service and really see the joy in having a great fellowship with those members. After we went and visited some more less active in the 18 zip code and tracted around them. We were able to meet allot of great members and also some great people that we were able to contact through 5v5. Even though they were not interested there stories of overcoming trials were strengthening to my Testimony.

Sunday we had a great meeting at church. We didn't have any investigators at church but we had one of the families that we visited and invited back to church came back. She knows President Spencer and was able to see him. We are going to re-teach the discussions to her and give her son a blessing tomorrow. We had a potluck after church and many of the less active members stayed and joined in the fun. We then went and did more less active visits and also had a great lesson with Brother Serrano and Adair. Brother Serrano has come back into full activity and his desires are so strong and he has been learning at such a rapid pace in the short past 2 months. We have moved Kimberely's Baptism to the 3rd of January and will be teaching her this week and finding out why she wasn't able to make it to church.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, December 14, 2009

Regan, December 14, 2009

I forgot to bring my planner for this past week because of the new transfer but I will update everything that we were able to do.

We taught Kimberley a great lesson on the Law of Chastity, Tithing, and The Sabbath Day. We also reviewed the Word of Wisdom with her and she committed to them very strongly and has been living by the Word of Wisdom strongly for a week.

We have continued to teach Nick Barbela and he is doing really well. He came to church last week but was out of town this past Sunday. Brother People brought a friend to church so we had a great priesthood lesson with him and after Sacrament meeting we talked with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We set up an appointment with Terrence and I am excited because he really enjoyed church.

We applied the prompting that I had received for every block of the Day to have some one's name who is less active or if we were teaching so we could constantly have a backup plan and stay busy. It worked really well and we are still continuing to work on it to allow it to flourish the work even more.

I can't wait to continue to have the Spirit of Christ in this Christmas season build up the Love and Joy this season brings. I am grateful for the opportunity to share the great message of our Savior Jesus Christ and about the Restoration in such a marvelous time of the year.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, December 7, 2009

Regan, December 7, 2009

Monday we had a pretty go P-day and were able to make a few calls as we were out and about. We were able to set up a few appointments and also confirm some. We had dinner with the Hearns which was really good. We went and visited the Byrd/Hughett family and they seem to be doing allot better since everyone is over there Sicknesses.

Tuesday we were able to prepare ourselves for the day by having a District Meeting and preparing for Zone Conference by using the new Packet that we received. We visited Latasha Tucker who is one of our Media referrals and had a really great visit. We are going to be teaching her family again this week. We visited with Trennese Hunt and delivered her Book of Mormon and had a great 1st lesson. We delivered a few more referrals that night before our Dinner appointment with Bishop Parke's family. We finished the night with Brandy teaching us with the Articles of Faith and had FHE with Sister Byrd and a few of the other singles.

Wednesday we started by updating our referral binder because we received quite a few more. We then went down so I could get my Flu shot because they were able to get some more in. We went and visited less actives and potentials in the Prichard and Chickasaw areas. We didn't have much success talking with members but we found Jesse Edwards and Carlene Sims who had been taught in the past by the Wards. We had our lesson on the Word of Wisdom with Kimberley Evans with Sister Quinn there. She committed very strongly to the Word of Wisdom. We are working on some times so she will be able to talk with you. We finished of the night with Nick Barbella who had just moved in. He is very prepared and opened to learning and as we asked questions back and forth the spirit directed us to read scriptures that really brought him allot of peace.

Thursday we had a great session of planning and were able to get a few appointments set up for the next few days. It also allowed us to update some formers that had been dropped or other that had moved away. We then went and delivered a few referrals and as we were out we did some store contacting when we were getting a few things. We had missionary correlation that evening and had allot of the PEC members there and set up how we are going to start the new member discussions for the Recent Converts this upcoming week.

Friday we helped the Theodore Elders with moving to there new Apartment. We were able to talk with a few people as w were out and had a few good talks. We delivered a few referrals as we were traveling to dinner and we were also able to visit a few less active member after.
Saturday we had a great day with helping with the Bishop's Storehouse. It always feel great being able to serve those who are trying to do what the Lord needs them to do. We visited with a few less active members and also were able to do some more service for a few other members. We then went and visited Michael for a few minutes and were able to set up a time to come back and visit with him some more.

Sunday we had a great meeting at church and Nick was at church with us. He had a great time and he was able to meet allot of members and also hear some great testimonies. We then went and visited with some less active member and referrals that we had some appointments with. We made a few calls and stopped by Michael's to invite him and his family out to the Christmas Devotional. We ended the night with the Devotional which was a very spiritual uplifting evening.

LOve Y'all

ELder Regan Hansen

Roll Tide!!!!!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Tyler Nov 30 2009

hello family,

Well this week has been pretty interesting and kind of fun with the people that we have come in contact with. It seems like a long time ago but we had our zone conference with Elder Hinckley last Monday. I was disappointed how long we were able to see him because the plane flight from Capetown was postponed because it needed some parts so they weren't able to make it until about 4:30 in the afternoon. It was great though we had to do some ten minute role plays with him and also commit the individual for baptism. I think everyone was quite intimidated when there was a general authority right behind listening. He came down to see all of the MTC's and stopped at the MTC in Johannesburg before coming to the mission. He was a missionary with The MTC President Cannon of Johannesburg in the Germany mission. I enjoyed the stories that he and his wife shared and shared a lot of their experience being mission president in Salt Lake City. He asked a lot of questions and we asked a lot of questions to the work and you can tell that he just eats, sleeps and drinks the preach my gospel. That night we had a little family home evening after the first session where we invited all the young single adults to attend. There was quite a few who came but Elder Hinckley talked for a short time and really encouraged Windhoek to get going and encouraged the youth to invite their friends and send referrals to the missionaries. I was really impressed with the love that he has for the missionaries and his devotion to the work. I wish I would of had some more time for personal interaction with him and also to hear from President and Sister Probst and talk with them. But it was really short because of the delay. Well I believe with all the things that have happened the highlight for the week was to be able to speak with Antione Lutombi and see his progression in the Book of Mormon. We left a Book of Mormon with him last week and he has read up to 1 nephi chapter 12. He had some questions about the vision that nephi had so we were able to answer the questions precisely. We have many new and improving investigators who want to read the Book of Mormon so it made the work here go a lot easier. I need to be going but we had exchanges this week where I was able to go with Elder Oleole and Elder Mbatha from Durban, S.A. We had a pretty fun day with all the crazy individuals that we met tracting but I will have to share the experiences at another time. Well have a good week.

Love
Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler Nov 23 2009

hello.
It is just getting hotter and hotter here every day. This week has been good a lot of the people who live in Windhoek who are from Botswana are going back home. The exams in school are done for those going to university of Namibia so many people are leaving for home like Tswano. Well this week has been pretty normal teaching and progressing people. It is nice now to be able to have good investigators who will hold appointments and we have appointments booked clear until Friday so it is good to keep effective. We have left commitments for Sakhie and his family to come to church for the past three weeks but he never shows so I believe were going to leave the drop lesson next. I was excited about him because he said he has some good questions for us concerning the Book of Mormon but we can never stay in touch. We hope to set a baptismal date with a guy named Techafara but we cant seem to find the concerns that he has about being baptized because he has been taught everything. This week the senior couple held a YSA activity for the people of Katatura branch and Windhoek branches. We spent quite a bit of time handing out fliers to members who would be able to attend but they said it was really nice to have at the chapel to hold dances and parties and basketball to help the people get married who are members of the church. I miss that kind of stuff. This week there was a big fire in ext. 1 where the Jones live and it is a good thing that many of the houses have cemented walls which held the fires out of peoples yards. It was directly behind the Jones house but it jumped one the wall and burned someones bry/barbecue area. I am grateful for the the American emergency crew of America but it took Windhoek like twenty minutes the Jones said to get to the fire with the two fire trucks that they had. They do a lot of burning around here for one of the reasons is so criminals cannot escape and hide in the bushes but this fire got quite a bit out of hand. I think the miracle for the week was to see a young kid named Moses take the Book of Mormon and read have the excitement that he has. He loves the bible stories but when we brought the Book of Mormon by to him he was really excited to dig into it. Well today is our zone conference with Elder Hinckley they said the plane was a little late coming from Cape Town this morning so the meeting might be postponed a little bit. I look forward to seeing him and am excited to feel his excitement about the gospel so we will see him this afternoon. He is also holding a family home evening with the Windhoek branch so him and President Probst are pretty busy people teaching missionaries and eating, sleeping preach my gospel. well have a good week
Love
Elder Tyler Hansen