Going to Kaposvár... Dec. 20, 2010

Well, Im going to Kaposvár its in the south west, with Elder Miller, i dont really know him but yeah. i am pretty excited actually about my new comp i know that he is a pretty straight kid... follows the rules, and is a really humble kid.... I think it (Kaposvár) is a little bit smaller town. We have to find some people who will stay strong to influence those around them.... that way, it can slowly spread.... but for now, we just gotta do some work, and do what we can.... This mission is an awesome place, i feel like its my own little mission that no one will ever experience, im excited....
It’s kinda like i tried to explain to one of our investigators... just because we are in the church doesnt guarantee simplicity, it doesnt always change the situation the way we want it to... it changes our perspective.... and even though its hard, there is this unexplainable joy that we receive from this knowledge even when we are outwardly unhappy..... nothing in life is easy, in fact nothing in life really is not hard.... but its all worth it, and you feel better when youre on the right path, even though your back hurts and you have to pack up for the 3rd time in 3 months. Nothing in life worth having or gaining is easy to get. Its like your just wandering in a dark world, no aim no goal. With this you still have the darkness and you fall but you get to see that light up ahead that you know that eventually, if you keep going on the path, the Savior will meet you and get you there with path He trod.
I get this picture, a mountian, we are at the bottom, Christ is at the top, He has already walked from where you were, we begin to walk forward, he begins walking down, sometimes the path gets a little tricky, we cant see Him, so we call out for help, we hear His voice, and continue, sometimes we fall, we get lost, He tells us how to get out of it, He's been there and sometimes we sit, but we get back up and we walk towards Him. Eventually, we meet, tired, worn and ready to collapse. He picks us up, he carries us like a lamb upon his shoulders bearing all that we are, with us, and takes us to the top. And we see it all, we look funny at the trials or the bushes that we tried to walk through, and we watch Him again start the journey to gather the rest.
Some good progress was made this last week... we got let in for the first time in Pest, we decided to try tracting, which is wayyyy hard in pest, and this kid talked and had a good program with him.... and streeted a guy who said he knew it wasnt by chance that we met.... it was cool to hear. i also got to partake in a blessing so yeah but that was cool haha
How is it there: Snow? what?

I will be back to Budapest on the 23rd for zone conference to get the packages to... have you got anything from me yet???! i have sent everything, and i have a few things left to send, but the bulk is out, (We asked him if there was anything he would like for Christmas or his birthday.) i havent thought of anything, oh a new spine.... my back has been killing me lately..... i still speak better than i understand though hahaha which is usually backwards... hahaha

December, 6, 2010

Hello
Yeah its just way cold. the inch of snow is frozen solid now... haha how is Christmas coming along??

We bought a strand of lights, well a loop of lights, i cant even explain , its not a dual stranded light set, but a one stand that loops all the way around to the other side of the plug in.... ?? who the heck thought of that??? I have bought a few things that are christmassy, like i bought some candles that i have already used up....... hahaha there isnt a lack of Christmas stuff here, and i bought a place mat that is red with white reindeer on it... hahaha it was like a buck.
I had an idea to try a basketball day kinda thing and we advertised it in place of our sport day because we just play basketball anyway, so it wasnt gonna take out anymore time of our week if it was a flop, and President said to give it a try and so we played it safe and it worked. The first week we had 3 come, but left before we even got there, someone got there number, called them back one was on his way back, then we got kicked out even though we have sport day every saturday at the same time so we had to call the kid back and anyway.... he came the next week, and said he will bring more next week. SO.... I was way excited, people coming to us and working them into the real reason we do this stuff....
"Dont keep the faith!!! SHARE IT!!!!" and "One who selfishly keeps his testimony loses it, but one who openly shares it gains strength"
I know, the Savior was the perfect teacher and didnt convert everyone, in fact they killed him.
You got any pictures for me? Its kinda my out and relax and unwind time. How is dad gonna build that TV stand?? I wish i was there to help, i miss wood. Everything is stone cold here.
Has anyone payed any attention to my sled yet???? i also got a letter from trevor and Ryan well you knew about Trevor. Havent heard from Wickel for a while.... hows he doin?

We went to church and 2 complete strangers showed up, a guy from nigeria and a hungarian girl. they just decided to come, out of no where he stayed the entire time, he speaks english, she is mostly Hungarian but english too.

This is the best i could belt out last night,(he recorded a song for usand attached it to an e-mail) i was still pretty dehydrated from fasting. I sent a pre Christmas package so it should hopefully get there before Christmas, i will finish the Christmas gifts today when we go to the chinese piac (market)

Of course we proselyted. one night we went to go caroling at one of the Christmas fairs, and couldnt find it for 2 hours. Its a huge humbling period and it is but there has to be a way to reach these people. I know these people are extremely scared. We knocked on an old ladys door who was terrified of us. Thats why we do services like english class and basketball class, because they have to approach you.

I know exactly why they dont accept it, but my problem is figuring out how to teach, talk, find, so that they will accept it.... I just feel like one of my favorite song says, stare straight into the sun and i wont close my eyes, til i understand or go blind. ehhh.....

Thanks well, i have to get going to buy those other Christmas gifts, i will try to find something for Jeff but this has been a lot harder to find presents than i thought it would be.... so sorry if they arent like wayy cool Hungarian presents....

I know that things will work out, its just hard right now. I love you and am inexpressibly thankful for you both, give the family my love and my email address… hint, hint....

Elder Hansen

8 Months down...Snowed...I'M SO HAPPY!

Well, im on. Its cold. Im really really glad i bought that coat hahahaha wow. It finally snowed!!!!!!! IM SO HAPPY I CANT EVEN DESCRIBE!!! But its not a whole lot it like melts and freezes at the same time here, its weird. And the humidity really doesnt help. Whats the snow situation like there?
how is the family?? and how was THanksgiving???? Oh, jó étvágyat??? it means like good appetite! Thanksgiving was amazzzing hahaha wow. THe senior sisters almost got your rolls right.haha Very close but A little different baking soda kinda taste i dunno. Haha
(The missionaries went skating) haha awesome :) yeah, except my skates were terribly loose hahaha oh well still way fun to just mess around! I got the leggings and the stuff, i keep wanting to save the food hahahaha but i ate one of the Baby reds last night with some A1 sauce on it.... hahahaha wow... wow.... yum.
Ok i got the Pictures to work!!! woohoo keep em comin!!! hahaha
Hey i want you to put a different song on my blog please :) i just found it... O Holy Night by Dustin Kensrue... its amazing, in fact i encourage you all to download it :) its soo good and is centered on the reason we have Christmas.
So we finally got our 2 investigators to read and pray. The other is a lady we met through english class, just had a baby, has a "life partner" and we have been hoping to get them together everytime and our focus has been on her. the last time when we went over there, we asked, did you pray, and the dad was playing with the baby on the floor and the lady was sitting on the couch and she said no but at the same time we heard a yes.... ? huh? and he said he did... and the mom looked at him, and was like really? why? and he said he prayed for their baby, because it has some health issues so we uh were happy enough.
Haha everyone has an élet társ (life partner) he read a pamphlet we gave them and prayed?? so who knows?? so yeah. i hope it all works out.
Yeah, the church is still i little shaky here..... im not gonna lie. thats why the kids that go on missions from here get sent to Utah and Idaho, so they can see how the Church really should work and be the leaders later.So i went to one of the Christmas Fairs by us, its pretty cool, little trinket shops and hot chocolate and alchohol. haha but its way cool we plan on guitaring and singing at all of the Christmas fairs to advertise for the concert. i got a few tabs and chords to play :) so we will do what we can hahaha
Well, i gotta go i love you all sooooo much, thanks for all the prayers, and support, i gotta go buy some presents :D my favorite part of Christmas WUHOO!!!
Elder Hansen

Aaron & Elder Hansen in Pest Ward

Recognize this kid? That was at church today in Budapest, about 4 hours ago.
Aaron

Aaron is our backyard neighbor, he and his family currently live in Switzerland. They moved there in July. He served his mission in Hungary in the early 90's and later went back to a baptism and met his wife, Agi. He sent this email to us at 7:37 a.m. Utah time. We are thankful for their family and appreciate the time and concern they have for Elder Hansen.
Elder Hansen is wearing Grandpa Wayment's tie. He selected it while he was home in June to take with him.

NEW Apartment now we can WORK :)

November 2, 2010
Doing alright, found an apartment,
we are moved in, its brand new, and the most expensive one in the mission, and i feel really bad, but pres approved it. but there are some things that are holding it all up right now, but we can work now. Health. Still hate my face. Especially my nose. The stomach thing might be going away. Sis Baugh called the area DR because nothing has worked so far. He told me to get this stuff that they give to the island missionaries before they go home to kill worms and parasites and stuff like that. And it might be working. I will know more as the week goes on. But this might have done it, we will watch it. Im mobile and fine but thats my health update.
We have loads and loads of finding time ahead of us.... haha we have had programs and good things happen but nothing serious.... yet... haha one really cool story i wanna share with you is this: so it was saturday, went to sport day, on the way home sis baugh (Mission President Mom) called and told me to go get this stuff (medication). Tried to get it but they wont do it with out perscription, so i called First Med, the hospital i go to, and asked if that were possible, they said that they were closing (because everything closes at like 1 on saturday here) so we went home, ate and as we were getting ready, got a call, talked to the Dr explained, said he has it sitting on the front desk because it stays open for emergencies like an on call doctor. so we had a dillemma, 2 hours out of our day, or what? because we had a combined finding activity planned, but instead, we knew it wouldnt work out, so we went to the other Elders tabling spot at a train station to trade tables. We got there and decided to setup. 5 minutes later, this guy gets off a bus, walks right up to us and in near perfect English says, Hey ive been looking for you guys. and explains he lived in the states and has a lot of mormon friends and wants to go to church and learn more. he is also a lawyer so this guy seems way legit, while we are talking to him, this lady walks up and of course hungarian, and is looking and i ask if something interests her and she started talking to me while my comp was talking to the other guy and this lady was just fascinated about the BOM... she was like i cant believe i havent heard of this... More scripture? how much is it? of course its free.... and she was very interested and it was just me and her talking and said she would read the entire thing, it was cool. After that the other elders were there by now. and we traded and left to get more medicine!! YAY!!! and my comp said that the guy he was talking to was absolutely impressed with how well i spoke as a foreigner, and he had never heard it that well from a non hungarian. He obviously hasnt been around us much but it was really nice to hear. Not bad huh?
Well, that package was great except the pumpkin pie poptart was really broken but still amazing and the other one for some reason wasnt really broken haha i would take a couple of those pumpkin pie tarts and that could be my pumpkin pie haha oh, before i forget how do i make the skor cake?
still havent bought my coat yet, was gonna yesterday but everything was closed for day of the dead, they just honor the deceased, kinda like our memorial day, but at night. im still waiting and watching for coats. but it gets pretty cold here at night now. haha no snow though. just cold humidity...
This is where i live, where i was yesterday.... the river is right next to us.... um yeah, its really nice.
Yeah, tabling in the city is really good to do with so many people in one place.
i wanna send some little presents back to the family, who do i have this year for Christmas???? I dont have a clue what Christmas will be like with the phone things. i do know that if you are in the city, you get to watch BYU football games with president.... hahahaha
Oh hey right now i need you to send me some christmas pictures, of our tree of the house from the outside, if you could do that, wow, youd save my life, because we are talking about our holidays in english class now and they love to see pictures of our stuff. I showed them a picture of homes in Utah lit up, no one believed it was real. hahaha so yeah, like 5 pics would do. i would love to share them. Especially of the house and how i like decorate for Christmas.... hahhaahah
hahaha um has Devin come got my sled yet??? he needs to oil it up hahah
Love you all too, take care, sorry i havent written, i wrote a million letters to everyone last week and got pictures out to them but you will get one written to you next Monday... I love you. I hope you are enjoying the home. It looks so warm and cozy there right now! wow. haha thanks for your love. I wrote amber an email that i wanted to write to you also but didnt have time to re write but you can talk to her about what it was about. i love you all. put up ALL the Christmas lights for me :D hahaha
Oh and i pretty much could understand all of the last part in Hungarian you wrote, one part was a little unclear but the rest was perfect :) keep learning and where did you get that??? who helped or taught you? how? haha impressive.
Love you guys. You really do mean the world to me. My toes are cold right now so im missing a warm hug more than usual haha. Be good. Cherish Christmas, and watch the Grinch and Polar Express for me :)
Sok szeretettel,
Elder Hansen

A Plea from the MH to the Hungary Elders...

Dearest Missionaries!
Because of the recent hazards that have been happening around Europe, we would like to remind you to email your parents once a week. This will make sure we receive no more emails worrying about their child being shot, maimed, blown up, sold to the circus, turned into mud, attacked by wild gorillas, turned radioactive, or struck by lightning. For our sake and for your parents sake, please check in once a week, THANKS A TON!
Love...in a missionary kind of way,
The Office Secretaries

We waited all night ... and finally this :)

hey, everything is closed today except for mcdonalds, ill be on tomorrow morning. love ya!!!