~Baptisms & National Day of Service~

Hello family and friends and faithful blog-followers,

This week in my life has been an adventure just like the past 9 months. It was full of struggle, happiness, stress, joy and all the other emotions you can think of... That is really one thing about being a missionary, its very demanding emotionally. So yeah, I'll get right into it.. Last Monday we really didn't do much except CALL OUR FAMILIES!!! Woot!! I had such a great time talking with all of you and Chris you look and sound the same lol.. It was good to talk and hear from all of you!

notice my paragraph usage!! woot!

So, on Tuesday, it was work as usual, friggin hot up the yin-yang of course. We went to a place called Longos and taught a blind lady which was weird, but she was very receptive and willing to learn. The only thing is that she said she is always busy so Idk(I don't know)when we'll be able to get back to her. Then on Tuesday, we Pre-Interviewed our 3 baptisms, Lorenz, Paolo, and Christian. They are all teenage boys and way cool! We have been teaching them for the past month or so that I have been here, they are my Barkada (clique) here in Paete. So that was way fun. Then we stopped by one of the Members houses and taught some new member discussions. The member that we went to is Brother Dino, he is an animator and helped animate "The Little Mermaid".. He is so amazing at drawing, so I think I might have him sketch a picture of our family for you Mom. It is way cool.. And he is fluent in 4 Languages, including english, and is an amazing scriptorian. So, yeah we taught the new member discussions to Brother Dino's sister in law, they went really good!

Then on Wednesday, we went to work again as usual.. We stopped by Nanay Carmen, the one whos children died and all that.. We found out that she has a word of wisdom problem with smoking so we taught her the word of wisdom and the importance of the Book of Mormon and stuff like that. I just hope that she can overcome her word of wisdom problem.. we have a return appointment with her this week, so we'll see!

Then Thursday, we had our Zone Interviews with President Anderson, they went really well. I love chatting with President Anderson, he is such a good guy and he really is concerned about the mission and the missionaries. He seems to like me as well and he expressed his gratitude to me for being a good missionary and for doing all I can to help move the work forward. That was basically the highlight of my Thursday.. After Zone interviews, President Anderson gave me and my companion a ride back to our apartment and we were beat so we went to a couple appointments and hit the hay.

Then Friday!! WOOT!! Guess what!! 7 Baptisms in our branch!! That is the most baptisms simultaneously that Paete-Pakil branch has ever seen! We have 4 missionaries in our area and between us we baptized 7 people.. 3 of the baptisms were me and my comps, and 4 of them were from the sisters. It was so amazing to see 7 people at once accept the ordinance of baptism and bear their testimonies.. In a way, when you baptize someone you kinda feel like they are your kid lol.. Like all of their knowledge of the gospel is coming from you, and it's even more amazing to see them as the weeks go on and to see their own knowledge blossom and grow with the help of the spirit. Its amazing!!! So, yeah, that's what we did on Friday! basically spent the day contacting people and setting up the baptism. It was cool! I have pictures too! I will upload them kaagad!

Saturday, we had our National Day of Service, in which we went around town taking down all of the campaign signs and such.. it was so tiring and hot and I wanted to die, but it felt good to serve. After our National Day of Service, we spent the rest of the day cleaning up a school and repainting it and the whole shebang.. And naturally I got the most smelly and hot job ever.. Burning the trash lol.. Yeah, they would.. They totally would give the worst job to the American lol. But it was fun nontheless! I got pics too! So that was our Saturday, spent in the service of my fellow man. It was a good time.. but you better believe I took a long cold bucket shower afterwards haha.

Then Sunday we went visiting teaching and we went on splits with some of our ward missionaries and just went around visiting members. They are all so nice and amazing!! I loved it!

So, yeah, this is getting a little bit long and I gotta get going soon so I will just leave it at this. Thank you for all you do for me and for your support and such!! I love you all!
Eldah Hansen