Week Nineteen.

Hey howdy!

This was a busy week!  We had transfers (everyone here calls them "changes" which I think sounds funny and pubescent, but if I ever use that word without thinking at least you'll know what I meant to say), and I met my new "oro"--"golden" new missionary, my little greenie Elder Alder!  Say that ten times fast, right?  At least it's easy for everyone here to pronounce--basically just Elder twice.  Whereas my name gives them some trouble.  The closest help we've been able to give people so far to say my name is "you know, like Hansel (Hansen) and Gretl," which seems to work pretty well for an only-slightly-distorted last name.

Anyway, Elder Alder-- a native of Boise, Idaho, Elder Caden Alder also attended BYU before the mission, speaks Spanish with a surprisingly good accent for having so little time out in the field, and sings like a bird.  His favorite is Michael Bublé--but Elder Alder makes Bublé sound like an amateur.  He has a really impressive voice.

Well, this week was the first of the real winter.  I think I've said that a few times now but this time I hope I'm right.  When you start seeing your breath indoors, you start to wonder just how much colder it can get... haha.

I haven't got a lot of time today, but I was really glad to see some progress this week with inactive members--some are beginning to come to church and have some youth that were never baptized before their parents inactivated.  We hope to see some great movement along the strait and narrow for them in the weeks to come.

I have begun a study of church history, chronologically, this week.  I'm reading the Doctrine and Covenants in the order and timing they were received, alongside the Joseph Smith History and the book Our Heritage.  It has confirmed and reconfirmed my testimony that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restored Church of Jesus Christ for this dispensation, and that he received the Priesthood authority from God.  I was able to exercise that same Priesthood this week by giving blessings to a couple of sickly members (in Spanish--yikes!).  I felt its power, and know that it is not mine, but rather Heavenly Father's, and that He acts through chosen servants to guide and direct us today, and to bless us with His love.  How great are our privileges as disciples of the Lord.

Christ lives and loves us.  We can live forever as perfectly happy families through Him.  May we each take more steps toward Him as He ever invites us,

Elder Hansen