Monday, July 19, 2010

Tyler July 19 2010


Hello,

Well the picture pretty much explains it. Minki was baptized this past Saturday and bro. Duncan Olshig was the one who baptized her. Bro Lopez is our ward mission leader and he is just to the right of me. He is author of a book get better in 90 minutes which I just recently read through. It is pretty good but he is a psychologist and so their is some interesting things printed their. He is a motivational speaker and is from Mexico just hanging out in South Africa of all places in the world because he loves the beauty here. Minkis baptism was a great success and she was even willing to be baptized in the cold water since the hot water heater wasn’t working. I was just impressed to see that Zokiswa and Ndende both came to church it made it a real highlight since we weren’t really expecting Ndende to come and since she is quite lethargic. Zukiswa could definitely be baptized soon since she is reading quite a bit of the book of mormon each day. We hope to find some more father led families which bishop really purposed and I am really impressed with bishop Human and his determination to find with us as well. He said this past week he would find with us a little so he is really a champion. I was able to go with Elder Cooney this past week on exchanges and he is doing quite well. They could definitely have quite a few baptisms in the ward in the next couple of months. We were able to see Jenny, Phillip, and also bro Banda and I saw that they all came to church yesterday. I was really impressed with how he works with the members because sis Vonbrugen came to Jenny's place and helped fellow shipped. I could also see that bro Banda is moving along as well and had some good questions about the Savior being Jehovah so we shared a little out of Ether Ch 3. It is a nice father led family and I just noticed that Elder Cooney has a great love for the area and so there is much success in the old area of 1st ward. We have a lot of good district leaders but Elder Kambeva in Gramstown every time you call him to give reports he just says, We are good. How is the work ethic out there? good. How is your companion? good. Did you have any spiritual experiences? good. Some of these African elders are pretty funny. Well we will have zone conference this upcoming Tuesday and I only have 3 including this one left. It is entitled how do I work with my ward and branch leaders more effectively. For our zone report we are going to do an hour presentation on progress records and how to do them properly to present them to a ward mission leader. I have some good questions that I am going to ask president so that is something I look forward to sharing. I sent the package it is on its way. you will like it but hopefully it gets there. I talked with Elder Cannon and he said his package that he sent took 8 months to get home to Moab, UT. But I insured it so I believe they will respect it. I will send some more stuff out this week though through airmail. Thanks have a good day and send some more pictures.

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Tyler July 12 2010

Hello family,

How was your week? It was a good week. Brother Lopez had a missionary fireside that tied into a motivation speech and their was quite a few people who attended and we committed them to find 3 people in the next 3 weeks to give to us as referrals so we are excited to see the results of that. We are finding more and more people that like the family proclamations when we find near Egoli and we have also been able to do a few business approaches to places like Wimpys in Vincent using the family proclamation. We followed up with this white Africaans family who we gave a book of mormon to the (Wanrensburgs) and they have read through about 40 pages of it and he says that it is really interesting, It is just very exciting when you can give a white person a book of mormon and they are willing to read it. Minki postponed her baptism but will be baptized this Saturday, We don't know why she postponed but she just said it was because of lady problems. Well This week was transfers and both me and Elder Heydenrych will be staying together until August 19. We haven't really been able to watch any of the games at all, but all day the people are usually in their home watching the games. Since we are in East London and there is no stadium cups their just isn't as much noise. I wish that I was kind of serving in Cape Town or Port Elizabeth to hear some more excitement. A lot of the zone hasn't changed much at all with this last transfer. We only had two people that changed in our zone and they were based in Gramstown and so we sent them off and picked up Elder Kambeva and Elder Motsephe from East London airport on Thursday. well have a good week.

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler July 6 2010

Hello family.

Well happy birthday throughout the week Cassandra. I wasn’t able to get the letter through yesterday but all is well for the both of us here. This past week has been good with the members being able to come out with us. We took out Bro. Jikejela on Saturday morning after setting a few appointment during the week and most of them held. We were both just very impressed with Bro. Jikijella and the confidence that he had as he was answering the questions of the people, I think that he just got promoted to be a ward missionary but it was good to have him because a lot of fellow shippers you have to prod and poke to get them to say something but he was very open with the lessons that we taught. Bro Lopez the ward mission leader is going to do a ward fireside with the members of the ward and will do that on this Sunday. He will do a power point presentation to help excite the members to get the gospel to everyone around. Minki we finally was able to help her to baptism and she will be baptized this Sunday so that is really a highlight. We went on exchanges with Elder Cannon and Elder Fozard and Elder Fozard came over to our area. I was very impressed with his teaching skills and his dedication to mission even with the resistance from his family. We had some good appointments that still held and also handed out some of the magazines throughout the day to different business around East London mainly in the Vincent area. I am impressed with the responses that we get of just handing out magazines because a lot of the people that we meet are working class people and usually have some good questions. I was thinking of stapling some questions to the souls onto the magazines to create some more interest in the people, but it is quite nice to get some good responses from different business around. Have a good week.

Love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler June 28 2010

hello family,
Chris you had a question about some advice on mission? read the book of mormon and everything will work together for your good. Love the book of mormon because you will have to read it for two years. Well this week has been full of peaks and shadows but this week we had the opportunity to visit Port Alfred and Gramstown. Thursday we came back to do some interviews with President. Sometimes I don't like to write what happens during the week because life is interesting here in South Africa. On interviews I told president I said you know president it seem like mission getting harder as you near the close how do keep up the spirituality and just keep on climbing? He says well it is a lot like the saviors ministry he said the most difficult time was during his last week that is when he went through most of the suffering and temptations and everything to accomplish the perfect atonement. Well I thought about the words that he said throughout that day. Anyways that evening we were headed back to the boarding it was a pretty hard day a lot of the appointments had dropped and things couldn't really get any worse for the most part. We started filling up the car at the pump and Elder Heydenrych said here can you come with me I need to go to the bathroom. So I said alright lets go. He went inside the store and asked the cashier where the toilets were, she said they were just around the corner. So we walked around the corner and all of the sudden something was going on that I had least expected, there was this lady that was crouched down taking a wiz on the side of the building. We walked silently past her to the bathroom and as soon as I got in we both just started laughing, from the looks of it someone was in the woman's bathroom and she couldn't wait to go. I wish she could of at least went to the men's restroom but she didn't even seem embarrassed for the most part or anything. As we came out she was finishing up and just standing there. Well after that incident I was just like what in the world is this place coming to saying to myself well you don't see that everyday and trying to think of the saviors last week. Well it doesn't look like things are going to get any easier and you probably know why I don't give full day reports with all the tribulations that we face around here with these people. Well other than that we have had a pretty good week and we have a baptism on the 10th of July with our investigator Minky. Sounds like everything is going well back at home, just don't tell Kevin that story and tell him that Cape Town is the best mission really in this world. I told president Elder Farley was coming and he asked me if he was related to the Farley that came before. Transfers are coming up next week and so it will be a pretty busy one. Has the summer been pretty hot? Well have a good week have a good day.

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler June 21 2010

Dear family,

Hello, happy fathers day yesterday dad. I hope everything was good. I need to send a package home but it is like 141 rand just to slow boat it home per Kg. and like 271 per kg with the flight, but I do have a lot of world cup stuff and Namibia stuff to send before I go through East London airways again. This zone leader stuff is quite a job sometimes getting all the information from the elders and then sending it to Cape Town. I would have to say the blessing of this mission is the cell phones that every companionship has but it can also be a problem as well. This week we are going on exchanges to Port Alfred and Gramstown today and so that will be a three day journey and then we will be back to East London on Thursday morning with the interviews with President Probst. You asked what the zone leader stuff is like? Well the zone leaders are together as a companionship and so you do the responsibility together. I think that I like it more than district leader because you can work together and just not as a one person. Every Friday we have to get reports back from the district leaders Cannon and Cooney in East London and then on Sunday night we get reports back from Elder Buthelezi and Elder Diphala who are in Port Alfred and Gramstown. Every other week we either call the ap's and send the information to them or it is done by typing the information in which we did that today. We also email all the statistics to the mission office in Cape Town and then give a zone leader workshop every six weeks when president is here and the zone conference is going on. The world cup is going pretty well their are a lot of families that are always home and some of them are willing to shut off the t.v. so that we can teach something. It is funny to get emails from home because they have no idea what being on mission is like. I haven't seen any soccer games but I hear that the USA is tying all their games and South Africa isn't doing the greatest. We have one girl for baptism, her name is Minki and she has been taught now for the past couple of months. We keep giving her dates and she just wants to keep postponing them to the next week. We went to the Kaschula farm this past Friday and Minki was able to attend but I was able to see a lot of people from the other wards because they had a triple ward sausage sizzle. The ap's came this week and we did the exchange with Elder Tanner and Elder Msimango and so I went with Elder Tanner for the day. We have had a hard time finding new investigators lately and so we have been doing some different business tracting. It is really small world, their is this girl that just walked into the email cafe and she said that she is from Mapleton, Utah and she is doing some research for Byu and has been in the country for like a month. Well you will have to send some pictures of the summer because I need some. have a good week.

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler June 14 2010

Dear family,

How are you doing, are you still alive? I didn't get anything from you guys for a first. Sorry I am sending some pretty lame letters and stuff , it seems like I cant send some decent emails with all this zone leader stuff you have to send to Cape Town. Well this week has been good. The world cup started up this past Friday and so there has been vuvuzelas that people are blowing day and night. I hope I can buy some flags of South Africa and world cup stuff to send back home. This past week we had our zone conference on Thursday and it was really good. We focused on the book of mormon and how we can better teach it to confirm the message of the restoration. Elder Heydenrych and I did our workshop and sister probst shared on being prepared. With the death of Elder Zulu a few weeks ago and things that are going on in the mission it was a good lesson. President Probst shared the incident that happened this past week. In the area of Queenstown there was a boarding that caught fire and the elders that were in are safe but all of there clothes and scriptures and everything that belonged to them personally was all destroyed. The elders got back home in the evening from proselyting the day that it happened and they found everything ruined and burned but they found one thing that was not destroyed and that was there area book with the records of the people that were in it. President Probst summarized the reasons why some things were burned and why that wasn't. Scriptures can only be good if they are used for someone else, garments can only be good if they are worn on the body for protection, It was a neat miracle that happened were the area book was completely untouched by any fire or flames. Well the Ap's are coming Thursday to do some exchanges with me and Heydendrych. Well have a good week!

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler June 7 2010

Hello,

Happy birthday Mom!!! I hope that your day goes well. That is pretty sweet that Kevin is coming to s.a.c.t.m. in October. Maybe I will be able to see him at the Johannesburg temple before I leave to home. He is lucky to get a mission president like the probsts they are champions. I have never met a harder working guy that can take so much into his mind like President Probst. Well this week is going to be busy and I don't have a lot of time to type but just know that I love you mom and that I care for you and what you do. I pray for you and the family daily. have a good week.

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler June 7 2010

Hi Elder Hansen, this is Ndapewa Nepaya.... how are u doing? am doing very well indeed. i believe you are doing great and coping in your new place of service, wat is it called again, i knw Elder Probst told me but it jst slipped my mind.

So further? i should really thank you for the wonderful gift, its beautiful and i really love it, thank you so much, am telling you am going to know all hyms from now on...hahahaha.
Am grateful for the time you have been here, for all the good news you have shared, continue to do the good work, and to bless the souls of many.

Alright then i think you must start learning how to write wth your right hand.....lol am jst kidding....i first sent the mail to the wrong address, so the way you wrote the full stop, it looks like -, so they returned it, so i hope this one really finds you as it is.

Cheers Tyler, take care and be blessed!!!!

Tyler June 2 2010

hello family,

Thanks for the message. We got back from Cape Town safely and everything went very well. I cant believe how much responsibility there is to being a zone leader, I thought it would be easier then the district leader stuff but it is quite different. The zone leader council went really well and there was so much discussed, I have never had so much to eat and sat on a chair in such a long time. The world cup is coming soon and so there was a lot that was discussed in respect to that and how the work will go when that happens. I can see that there will be an opportunity for a lot of foreign people to be taught. President Probst mentioned that when the salt lake winter games were going on the missionary work really exploded and so maybe it could be the same for here in South Africa but I think the concerns was just the safety of the missionaries since there was just one not to recently who died. Well things are looking good for the future the exchanges will be something to look forward to. We get to go to Port Alfred and also out to Gramstown to see the district leaders. The work here is going a little bit slow as far as having investigators but hopefully we can find some more through working with the members. Well nothing to new to report on just traveling around a lot. How is everything going at home?
Have a good week.

love Elder Tyler Hansen

Tyler May 28 2010

Dear family,

I thought i would just write and tell you that i will most probably write to you back on next Wednesday. This week was transfer news for us and so President asked me to be a Zone Leader in East London and so I will be doing the zone leader stuff in East London. I will be in the 2nd ward but It is good to get back to see some acquaintances since this is my first area. We spent most of the day yesterday to get here from George on bus which was like a good 9 hour bus drive from George to East London, Elder Bradshaw and I ended up getting here at like 11 o'clock Thursday night. We are going to fly back to Cape Town to have a zone leader council with President Probst on Monday and so me and my companion Elder Hydenrich will be flying to Cape Town on Monday and then come back to East London on Tuesday, so I will most likely email you back on Wednesday. Elder Hydenrich is from Johannesburg and so he is pretty cool. There is four districts in East London and there is three new missionaries in the zone. Two of them are from England so that is pretty cool because I like the English elders. Well take care have a good weekend.

Love Tyler Hansen

Tyler May 24, 2010

Dear family,

This week has been kind of a strange one. There was actually a tragedy in the mission this past week. President Probst has been going around to the different districts and zones telling about the death of Elder Zulu from Zimbabwe. We had our interviews on Saturday and it was nice to seek some counsel from a very wise man who knows how to handle situations because my patience is running low. He told us about the death of Elder Zulu. Have you heard it on ksl news or anywhere? I really felt bad for President Probst on having to deal with that situation he said that he hopes that he doesn't have to have another week like this past week. On Monday while President Probst was at a mission seminar in Johannesburg he got a call from one of the Elders announcing the tragedy. I never met Elder Zulu but he was located in Mtatha which is the furthest east in the mission. They decided that they were going to go to the sea on this past Monday p-day. He said that they started to take some pictures on the rocks and basically one thing led to another and they were on the beach and a wave submerged them he said. Elder Zulu was carried out to the sea and he could not get back. They had the search crew after him but it was to late and so he drowned. President Probst didn't tell the details of everything but they must have been swimming in the ocean. As you can imagine it was very difficult for President Probst to tell the family and I think the mission as well. He gathered zones together to tell each zone about it but we didn't go because we are out in banishment and we are kind of our own small zone out here. but I heard he compared it to kind of like an emergency transfer on going to the next area except to the spirit world. Heavenly Father can do many things but wont take away someones agency from them so he compared it to an emergency transfer where things happen to create it such as someone in the branch that is extremely attractive and a distraction or companion problems or anything of that nature. I think that a majority of his family is not members and so hopefully it will provide a way for them to accept the gospel. President Probst just wants us to pay a tribute to him by working harder in mission but I am wondering if he is going to buckle down obedience even more since this incident happened. This past week we went to Mossel bay and located some less active members out there. We went to go see bro Goodger who is a counselor in the branch presidency but on our way out there we received a prompting to see the Meyers and so we were able to see the Meyers family who live in great brak river. I was glad that we went out there because when we got there they were living in some pretty bad circumstances of poverty. Eric and Loraine have been super less active members for quite a while but they have been pretty scarce for money lately. Eric was gone on a trip to Port Elizabeth since he is a truck driver but he hasn't been very busy at all lately in the last couple of weeks. There house didn't have a roof cap and the place around them really looked like a hole. She said that her baby Ersula has been sick over the past few weeks and has gotten to the point where she is constipated and cant go to the bathroom. Elder Jordan (a zone leader from port Elizabeth) and I were able to give her a blessing on Thursday and so hopefully everything will work out well and I really applied the council Elder Oaks gave in the last conference on administering a blessing. I just wish more of these type of people would give us a call because I would love to come and help fix up there house and help them at their home but they are to self-dependent and wont ask for some help. We have been tracting out some of the richer white areas of George lately and we were able to meet up with a guy named Joe Hall who is from near Pretoria. He said he was an owner of a diamond mine and he has a couple of cottage homes in the denneoord area. We will meet with him this Wednesday and so I am pretty excited about that since getting into white peoples homes it is a little more difficult especially when your with a black companion and a lot of white people around here are very racist. Well thanks for everything. have a good week.

Love Elder Hansen

Tyler May 10, 2010

Dear family:
I don't think your server is accepting much of the messages that I send across. Your server thinks that is must be junk mail or something and so it is just kicking everything back that I send, so maybe i will try to make it sound as if it was as junk mail or anything. I will send some pictures of some past things that we have done like being with the Odells and going to the cango caves.
I really look forward to this upcoming week because we are going to do some exchanging and I will be going with Elder Bradshaw of the district, and president will also be coming to George this Saturday, so I look forward to that. On Wednesday the zone leaders will be coming and staying with us and I will be going with Elder Jordan who is from Johannesburg. We might be able to go to Mossel bay and see bro. Goodger of the branch presidency. Mossel bay is about 50 kilometers away from George and so it will be good to go out in that area and also look up some less active people who reside in the area. With our finding efforts we have been able to find quite a few people who work here in George and reside in the Mossel bay area. We met this lady a couple of weeks ago and she works for a safety firm and she was very accepting to what we had to say. She attends the dutch reformed church and she just got recently married and she said her husband is currently unemployed at the moment. We were able to give her a book of mormon to help her and her husband get through the crisis and provide the spiritual strength to endure. We have a couple that is near to baptism that stay in the coulered area and they reside in pacelsdorp. I met them tracting there and they are just loving the book of mormon at the moment so we just hope that they can progress towards getting a testimony and being baptized and being a strength to the George branch. Well thanks for everything have a good day-

love elder Tyler Hansen

P.s. hey grandma it was good being able to speak with you. thanks for the email and the birthday wishes, have a good week. Can you please tell my parents they need to fix there email it isn't excepting any mail. Thanks alot grandma and grandpa for being there always! have a good day! love Tyler

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Regan's Home

Elder Regan Kay Hansen, is now home and has been released as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Florida Tallahassee Mission.

his Homecoming address will be July 25th in the Nibley 8th Ward Chapel at 10:30 AM

Monday, July 12, 2010

Regan, July 12, 2010

Well this past week had a lot of changes but it saw us through adjusting and changing to accomplish those things that the Lord saw fit for us to do.

Monday we started off the day with Elder Bawden finding out that he was getting transferred to Daphne. I really felt that it was coming and I hope that his adjustment will go well with being here for so long. We were also able to spend sometime doing are emails and helping him to get prepared for having to move. We were able to visit with the Parkes family and let others now about the changes. We had dinner with the Fairchild's which went really well and then Elder Bawden began packing and getting things all in order.

Tuesday we had a really good district meeting and were able to focus on how we can become more successful missionaries in His service. We talked about different things that come through be a successful missionary and about how we could all individually improve to become better. We then had lunch with the Parkes, Odom's, and Jordan's over at the Parkes home. It was a good time and Elder Bawden was able to say his goodbyes. We then headed to visit Dayton so he could say goodbye and talked with him about a few referrals that he has for us. We stopped by the Martyn's and talked a bit about the Elders Quorum with him and will be working with him closely about doing service in the future. We visited a few other members that Elder Bawden wanted to say goodbye to and then had dinner with the Madison family. We had a really great dinner and were able to share a few thoughts with them. We finished the night by Elder Bawden saying goodbye to Brother Serrano and the Fairchilds.

Wednesday we began the day with Brother Blackburn taking us up to the Theodore building to see Elder Bawden off and a few other missionaries. As we waited for Elder Marshall to arrive we did some cleaning. Elder Bawden had been there for a long time and we cleaned up a lot of things that had collected since the apartment had opened up. We had a lesson with Kimberly Evans who is a recent convert and talked with her about how reading has been going. Ever since she was able to get a Quadruple Combination she has been very consistent with reading and you could see the change that it has made. We came back and met Elder Marshall at our apartment and allowed him to unpack and get things set up before we took him shopping. We had family home evening at the church and had a great lesson on testimony with Sister Byrd. Elder Marshall was able to meet a lot of ward members there and most of the leadership of the ward.

Thursday we went with Brother Cogsdell up to visit with Brent Taylor who is one of our investigators. We had a really good lesson and Elder Marshall and I stayed with one of his friends, while Elder Mackay and Brother Cogsdell taught Brent. We had to split because his friend wasn't interested in the church and just wanted to argue so we just talked and listened to him and allowed him to just talk. We stayed up and Saraland and visited with Allen Peoples and found out that he is transferring back down here for school, so we will be seeing him a lot more. We visited with Sister Coker and her grandson's were there Mathew and Keith. It was great because Mathew is one of our investigators and it allowed us to also see how their family was doing. We visited with a few referrals and found Chrissy and Jeremy Weaver. We were able to share a bit of a message and set up a return appointment with them. We stopped by and visited with the Juarez family and Sister Juarez has been really busy with school. We then went up with the Brother Martyn and Brother Hearn to finish a service project for Sister Mathie.

Friday we started off the day with Planning which went really well and I was able to help Elder Marshall understand and become more comfortable about the area. We were able to update records and talk with a lot of referrals and get them all worked out. We went out and did a little bit of tracting as we around a few less active families that we have been trying to see. We talked with Sister Thompson and invited her to church and activity night. We also visited with the Johnny's who are a recent convert family and they have been doing really good. We then had dinner with the Parkes and Jordan's at the church before activity night which went really well.

Saturday we started off by going to the flea market and visiting Sister Bross and we talked with her daughter. They are both less active but we are hoping to get them back. We then had lunch with Sister Seats and talked with her about how she has been able to help Melissa. Melissa is one of our investigators and we thanked her for her help and support for her. We went and visited with the Blackmon's and found out that Brother Blackmon is in the hospital so we decided when we got back down to visit him. We visited the Wyser's also and were able to talk with them and invite them to church. We visited with Brother Rosales and were able to help him feel a little better because he was dehydrated and he had been having a hard time and we helped him about by listening to him. We had an appointment with Caroline and had a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were able through the Spirit to commit her to baptism on August 7th. I am sad to say I won't be there but everything will go well.

Sunday we had a really good day at church and the spirit was very strong and the lessons all taught us many new things. We were able to have Melissa and Mathew both at church and there were quite a few less active members that showed up to church. Sister Fairchild taught Gospel Principles for us and we were able to spend more time interacting with our investigators through a discussion setting. After church we came back and after lunch visited Brother Blackmon in the Hospital and gave him a blessing. We then came back and did some studies and while we were studying we received a phone call from a member in Birmingham asking if we could give his a grandson who was in the hospital in Mobile. We were able to visit and administer and everything will be alright. We then went to dinner over at Dayton's and talked with him a little bit with doing service and inviting him to church. We ended the night by visiting with Brother Serrano and I said my goodbye's to a lot of people.

It is sad that my time has now come to a close but everything is in God's hands and he will bless his children continually. I know that the Gospel has been Restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and he brought forth the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and gives us a witness that truly brings the Gospel to us in the fullest. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is powerful and it doesn't only redeem us but it enables us. I know that President Monson is the Modern Day Prophet in these latter days and he is guiding Christ's true and living church. I know that my mission in his hands and strength will always carry me through anything with the patterns of success I have been able to receive in his strength.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen

Monday, July 5, 2010

Regan July 5, 2010

This past week was a very trying week for all of us because we were able to go out and do even though not to many things happened for us. We were able to set up an have some great lessons that really allowed us to feel the Love that our Heavenly Father has for his Children.

Monday we had the normal p-day stuff with shopping and doing our emails. We stopped by Brother Martyn's and talked with him about things in the Elders Quorum. He just got all of his counselors called and they are working on finding those that they can bring back into full activity. We continued after by having dinner with the Fairchild's which was really good and we were able to do some service for them after.

Tuesday we started the morning off by tracting for a little bit which went well. We were able to testify and ask for referrals, which allowed us to stay in the right spirit and be focused on what our purpose is. We stopped by the Campbell's in the afternoon and talked with them for a little bit. They have some family members that are hoping to do the stop smoking program in which we hope will peak their curiosity about he church. We continued with a bunch of tracting throughout the day and talked with quite a few people that we picked up as potential investigators. We visited Sister Hall for a minute and invited her to church. She has been busy with her courses she teaches up at University of South Alabama. We then went to family home evening which went well and the spirit was able to share with me some great insights. We then went and had dinner with the Fairchild's which was great and helped them move a few things.

Wednesday we went to the church and helped set up different things for Sister Jett's funeral. We were able to get a lot of things accomplished which helped take pressure off of the family. After lunch we visited with Kimberly Evans and read in 3 Nephi with her. She has been able to get back in the routine of reading everyday and the change in her life has been great to see. We went and taught a lesson to Melissa and answered allot of questions that she had from reading. She was able to read 1 Nephi 2-3 and she personally learned tons of new things. We focused with her to continue to read and pray which she committed to do. We stopped to see how Sister Mathie has been doing. We were able to catch her at home and she has been doing pretty good since Brother Mathie passed away. We visited with Sister Thompson and invited her to church but she didn't make it. We then went to Sister Jett's wake and talked with a few family members and were there to support in anyway that we could. We then finished the night over at Tyler and Chelsa Colvins home which went well. We were able to give Chelsa a blessing before her surgery tomorrow which really helped her.

Thursday we attended Sister Jett's funeral service which went well and the spirit and the messages shared really touched every one's heart. Sister Jett was truly an example of one who serves and never complained about anything. We had lunch with the Parke's which went well and then we came back and started planning. We were able to set some great goals that will help us to continue to focus on being diligent in the Lord's Service. We visited after with the Weatherington's which went really well. Brother Weatherington has finally gotten to slow down at work and it sounds like they will be able to attend church more often now. We then tracted for a bit and went to Brother Serrano's. Brother Serrano is doing well and even though he has been having to work on Sunday's he has really kept his focus on reading everyday and it has helped him out a bunch.

Friday we went with Brother Cogsdell to visit an investigator in Mt. Vernon but he wasn't home at the time and we set up a new appointment with him. We visited with the Cogsdells for a minute which was great. We then visited with the Christianson's which went well. They have both been really busy with a new child and work which has really kept them from being able to do allot. We then came back and had a great Zone Conference. It was wonderful being able to meet President and Sister Jensen and I am sad to say that I don't get to meet and talk with them more. The spirit was very strong and there was a strong sense of unity throughout the entire zone. We had dinner with the Curtis's after which went well and we are now going to share with them the home teaching message each month. We visited with Sam Smith after and invited him to church. He said that he would be there and we were excited.

Saturday was a pretty busy day all around for us with service and visiting with many people. We started the day with Bishop's storehouse which went great and even with the truck being late we were able to get all the orders out and on time. We then had dinner with the Morris's which went really well. We then went and tracted and talked with some really great people and taught a few lessons but we weren't able to set follow up appointments with them at the time. We had dinner with Ryesha Henderson and her family which went well and we were able to invite them to church. Ryesha's husband isn't a member and a lot of her family there are less active. We finished the night with a little bit of tracting and had a great lesson with Caroline. We answered her questions and shared a little bit more in detail some of the principles about the Restoration. We should be able to set a Baptismal Date with her this week which is great.

Well we definitely stayed really busy today and had a really great turnout at church even with the Holiday. Melissa was able to make it to church and we had a lesson with her and some of our recent converts which went really well. The spirit was very powerful and the testimonies that were shared touched my heart and strengthened my testimony in so many ways. After church we tracted foro a few hours which was great and then we visited with a few members. We visited the Blackmon's and they are doing pretty good. Brother Blackmon told us that he would be at church next week. We had an early dinner with the Hearn's which was great and we were able to spend few moments with them. We then left and visited with a few potentials that didn't end up panning out but that is just fine. We finished the night after a few more visits and tracting by spending sometime with the Parkes and watched some fireweorks.

This week even with the many opportunities that didn't show anything in numbers means nothing compared to the spirit that we felt being used through us and around us. I know that this week that everyone that we saw was able to feel the spirit that we always strive to carry.

Love You

Elder Regan Hansen