April 7 2009

hello family
It sounds like everything is going well and the conference was great. It was also great here too, we watched all the sessions except the Sunday afternoon session. On Saturday @ 6 we watched the Saturday morning session live and then on Sunday we watched the 3 sessions @ 11 we watched the priesthood session, @ 3 we watched the Saturday evening session by satellite broadcast which had some minor difficulty but was quickly fixed and then, @ 6 we watched the Sunday morning session so it was like Christmas for us. Now that conference is over I just look forward to the next conference in six months. This week was a long week though with it being transfer week. With me and Elder Marshall requesting to stay together another transfer I knew that President Probst was going to move us. I really enjoyed the first area that I was in and had a bond with a lot of the members there and on Thursday I had to say my goodbyes to as many people as I could before I had to leave which was difficult. I really learned a lot from Elder Marshall and hope by the end of my mission I can be where he is at. He knows how to interact and show the charity that he has to others I truly learned a lot from him but I got to move on. I am now in Mdantsane with Elder Smith who is from England he has been out for about 20 months now and he is extremely smart. He also likes star wars and harry potter and just one of the random facts that he shared with me is there are 15 thousand and one guns on the death star in star wars in the 4th episode so ya he likes his star wars. I really enjoy being around him and he has a lot of knowledge and wisdom that I can learn from especially some of the deep doctrine that he likes to share with me. In Mdantsane it is very poor and the people here are in very humbling circumstances with some families even not having a car. The pump shed in our back yard is larger and in better condition than some of their homes. Many of their homes are concrete walls with a tin top and tin door with concrete floors. Their average income is of probably 400 rand (40 dollars) a week and even if that. Many of the streets are dirt road and toilets are just basically a hole in the ground in some areas with a metal shack to cover yourself as you go to the bathroom. The only thing I can relate to back in America is like a trailer park but a little worse. I just don't see how the extremes of rich and poor can be so close together in a society, and work together. It is just a few kilometers inland from Beacon Bay but the missionary work here is a lot different. We wont be able to give very much service at all which I really miss and I will be entirely with the Xhosa people, for the next transfer or so. I will probably learn a little bit of Xhosa. They know how to speak English very fluently but when you speak their language is shows how much you really care about them as a people. Our boarding now is in Cambridge and everyday we stay in our boarding til 12 and then drive out to Mdantsane and the elders with the car drop us off until 9 o'clock that evening. This week will be very interesting meeting some of the new people and especially remembering names that are Xhosa. The game drive was excellent we went there with the Christians (the older couple) and they leave at the end of April, but we were able to see many of the animals there. We seen cheetahs, white lions, zebra, giraffe, coutu, springbok, warthog, iguanas, elephants, ostriches and other stuff but It was the best p day that I have had and I don't think anything else will really top it. When we got there we went to the lodge first and checked in and then went to do the 1 hour elephant interaction afterwhich we went on a 4 hour game drive through the 5000 acre Inquenzie land. The only things that we weren't able to see was the cape buffalo, rhino and jaguar but it was a fun time with the Christians who leave @ the end of this month. The A.p.'s told us to pray for senior couples because the numbers are becoming scarce and for the hearts of the leaders of Namibia to be softened because some missionaries going there were having rough times getting visas. I hope you all enjoyed conference because there were answers to my prayers through the messages that were said. I really liked the all the talks but the one that I like the most was by Deiter F Uchtdorf "the story of the light bulb" and how he talks about what he enjoys in life and how he relates it to the gospel. I thought he did a fabulous job and like I say I enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for all the messages every week, They help me get through the week; it sounds like a lot is going on. I would of sent some pictures of this last week but I left the usb cord with Elder Marshall.
I love you all and have a good week.

Elder Tyler Hansen