1st time through changes

here i sit in this dumpy ciber typin an email! We had changes yesterday, I'm still with Elder Mitchell who is so legit, don't worry, we get along no problems! But one of my zone leaders, elder hardman who i lived with left! I was hoping he would die as my zone leader (he only has one change left till he goes home, they call it dying). He is way sweet, he had some awesome stories and he made the house way fun. But elder mayans new comp is sweet, Elder mitchell has also been made district leader. I got the peanut butter this wednesday!! Ah thank you so much, ive almost ate the first jar, don't worry i'll slow down on the next. So this week has been just a touch slow. It was hard to find anyone at home because there was no school so everyone headed down south for vacaciones, but we did have some good lessons and we still have our fecha for the 8th. Miguel and his family came to church again for the full three hours! They really like church, miguel is so ready to get baptized but the rest of the fam lacks in testimony, so we will be patient. I had an interview with president macarthur on wednesday, he's way awesome and im really excited to work with him for the next two years. Weather here has been pretty good, only a bit of rain this week but super super cold. I also have a touch of a cough and sore throat but am battling it with mate and echinacia. Ill send a pic of me next week drinking mate out of a grape fruit! its super good, you just clean out the grapefruit like a pumpkin and eat the insides then put the mate and some juice in and drink away! Yes i'm so excited to get my rope! Ha i showed familia Facondi and Miguel and his family my pictures from home. They asked if we lived in texas cause we all have cowboy hats on! I thought it was prettty funny! So a funny experience, there is this drunk guy that we see a lot, he's always so hammered that you can barely understand him. Well he wanted a blessing so he put our hands on his head and commanded us to talk and we just tried not to laugh, so he said ill give the blessing then. so as he held our hands to he head he proceeded to dance around and say random stuff to God. Yeah it was pretty sweet. Yeah the language is still coming along, sometimes i am lost in a conversation but why get frustrated and make it harder than it is?! The best thing to do is be happy and work, and to love the work. Its awesome to see the gospel change peoples lives and how much it truly helps us. Oh one lesson we had with a family we have taught once or twice the wife said that lots of testigos and other missionaries had passed by but we were the first she had ever let in because she said she feels really good when we are there talking to her. It goes to show that anyone can talk about God, but the spirit is what gets us into people's homes. Without the spirit and gods help we are nothing. Do not worry about me just pray thats all, things are way good here and it can only go up from here as i learn more and more! Well i got to run, sounds like all is well at home, thanks for all you do.

Love,

Elder Roy

Chillin @ MTC

3 Months Down!

Wow it´s been a month here and three in the mission! Where has the time gone. This week was really sweet and really went by fast. We are making great progress with our families that we have right now. Miguel and his family came to church again this week and he has a fecha for the 8th of Aug! Marcela his wife has a few doubts but they all like church, so with a little help from the lord we can baptize the whole family that day. We found another family on Thursday, they are really cool and are interested, we have another lesson with them tonight so hopefully all goes well there. I went on divisions with Elder Mayans on wednesday and had a blast. He is so cool, we were teaching this catholic lady and she was not listening to us, she just didn´t want to believe, she was saying how the catholic church was true cause the pope studied for all his life. So elder mayans said that we can´t have tunnel vision, we need to shake off the chains of hell that have us bound and ask God if it´s true and not man! It was so funny, it´s really sad tho, the people who just refuse to believe, what do they have to loose to ask God? Nothing, i guess they just don´t want to change or something, patience tho right. Then we taught a lesson to a family that has two kids who are getting baptized, it was so awesome. That house was probably the worst i have been in but they were all so happy and such a close knit family. It just goes to show that we don´t always have to have the best of everything to be happy. Spanish is coming along a little at a time, it´s still rough to understand some people and when they start to talk about other things that religion i have a real rough time understanding. But i'm working on and with the Lord´s help i can improve. The mission is great the work is going good and I´m having a good time and learning a lot, not every day is so great, somedays you have all your citas fall through and ya can´t find anyone. Oh which reminds me, Miguel and Marcela bought me a scarf and some earmuffs! It was so sweet, they asked me one night if i had any which i don´t and the next night we were there she gave them to me! It was sweet, we have a really good relationship with this family, i can´t wait till they get baptized, they´re so awesome. I miss my little sis and worry about her! As long as i'm back before she´s dating i'm just fine with that. I really miss you all a lot but i am learning a ton here and i know that if i work my hardest i can do good and benefit as a person.. Oh and next package you send could you send some copies of my rodeo pics, everyone asks what i do so i wanna be able to show them cause rodeo ain´t quite the same here, they do race here tho and i could go bet on some right now if i wanted! Haha ill save the gambling for vegas some day and win a ranch like dad always says. Alright everyone, i´ve gotta run, everything here is fine my health is good, just keep praying and be safe and have fun!! I love you all thank you for your support and love, i can feel your prayers here on the other side, don´t worry bout that.

Elder Roy

1st drug offer...

It´s really almost been one month since getting here, yeah and three months total. The time flies by here like crazy. Yeah so no baptisms for now. Leyla our golden investigator said she can´t believe in a living prophet and all this stuff, but her boyfriend´s sister sounds interested. We found this way cool family. Miguel and Marcela, we had a lesson with them with a member and it was great, he totally threw down and explained things great. Both of them speak really bad so i have the hardest time understanding them but with other people it´s getting easier. So yeah Elder Mayans and Hardman who we live with had a baptism this past saturday so we invited miguel and his family -they have 3 girls, to come and see. So we went to the chapel and it was seven thirty and they weren´t there so we were getting nervous so elder mitchel was like wanna say a prayer? I was like sure why not, so we did and the second we finished he looked outside the gate and was like "they´re here!" It was like that part in the best two years when he prays that the guy will call and the phone rings and its the guy. Hallelujah! yeah i am such a nerd i know. It was really great, i felt like everything that was said at the bap. was for them. They also came to church yesterday! The ward members did great at making them feel at home, we are gonna stick them with a fecha- date for baptism, this week!! Elder Mitchel keeps pressuring me to do the part but i can´t rock it, i just don´t look good and im afraid if i do ill start to lose my hair, it´s just and old man thing to me! Ha, wow skinners with a new baby!! Thats so sweet i love them and little Reggs i miss her and all of my hooper childern, cooper, briggs and quaydo and of course my two princesses holls and launa! Ok so another family we found two weeks ago, they have read and talked about the bom as a family, how tight is that. So we told them they needed to pray to see if it is true. We have a lesson with them next week! Another family Patricio and Melene, they have one daughter who is seven. Really good people, they have some doubts but wtih some teaching and prayer i think we have fixed them. The really cool thing was that patricio´s cousin is living with him right now and he told us that he believes in a living prophet today and that the bom is true! I bout freaked when he said that! So awesome! I guess he met with the missionaries at his house but got really sick and was hospitalized and is living with patricio for the moment. So if he is here for long enough we are going to baptize him. It´s really cool how the lord works. The weather has been pretty nice lots of rain on tuesday, the road was a river, and some on sunday, it was so cold that day. I´ve had a pretty bad cold tho that was draggin me down but i hit the vitaman c and echinacea for mom and drank some yerba maté for chelsea and im doing really good now. Elder Hardman said it sounded like i was going to die at nights cause i would snore and choke so loud. The heads of our beds are also kinda close cause our room is so small so i smacked him in the face, it was pretty funny. Elder Mitchel the other night fell alseep while praying, it was hilarous cause elder mayans told him to wake up and elder hardman was like oracion! Which is what we say in the mornings for prayer when we wake up, so elder mitchel thought it was the morning and started to pray! Oh so you won´t believe what i have been eating, salad and celery which is really good, and potato salad, which ain´t too bad, don´t get your hopes up though. Oh i dont know if i told kiki that i drank some pero for him the other day too. It was horrible. yeah they don´t have ranch here, so the salad is great. The people of this ward are so great, i know i have like 2 changes more in this area but i already don´t want to leave them. Hermano Facondi is helping out a ton and him and Obispo Cofré are getting the help of the ward with our new families. They are all really excited and more that willing to do whatever we need which i´m sure is a blessing from dad helping the missionaries in our ward all those times so thanks dad! Thanks for the saddle pic it looks great, i really miss tooling but, the mission is so great, i know that it´s going to bless me for the rest of my life, and hopefully i´ll come home a grown man who knows a little more than the little chance roy that left! Don´t worry tho i ain´t gonna come home wierd. Which reminds me we talked to a drunk guy the other day and he tried to give us some herbs. I believe it may be the cocaine leaf. People chew it and it numbs their body so they can work all day without stopping. yeah our sector is so ghetto, some are worse tho. Most of the kids here are just wanna be´s they are all scrawny from smokin so much pot. I´ll send some pictures of our sector next week. That´s really awesome that mom´s helping the rodeo out, if anyone can bring it out she can, Mom rocks at finances and things like that! I´m learning that here tho, and to have a good attitude even when things are sucky, think about it, i live in the butthole of santiago and i can barely speak the language here, i should be depressed right? Heck no! The work here is great and with the help of the lord and the spirit i can do anything that i put my mind to!! Alright well my time here is up, i love you all thank you for all your prayers and support!

Love

Elder Roy!!

Another P day

We had a baptism for the 4th but it fell through, Leyla is a way good investigator she is just having some problems. Her mom is way sick so she was gone last week and while she was gone she got robbed, someone stole some clothes and her gas and hook up to her house so she didn't have hot water and she couldnt cook. She´s not progressing because she hasn´t been reading or going to church. We are going to read with her this week and watch the last part of the testiments we´ll see if that helps out. The other possible is Rosa but her daughter jaqualine whom rosa is pretty much reliant on is kind of holding her back. Rosa is reading a bit, she can´t read all that we´ll, she just needs to get to church a few more times and she can be baptized. We found a few sweet families this week, Migel and his family we have a lesson with them tonight, we started the other night just teaching him and his family was eating at the table. By the time i started to recite the first vision they were all standing behind migel just staring in wonder. It was kind of weird but cool at the same time cause they just dropped all they were doing to listen. Yesterday we taught a lady named Carmen and her husband and two kids. They are so great, they were so interested and had so many great questions. So hopefully we can get them to church in the next week or so. Another lady named Erica, she was talking about how she didnt have anytime and she didnt believe in anything so elder mitchel started talking about the plan of salvation and i bore testimony of the blessings that we recieve through a living prophet of god and how this is god´s church and things are done in his way, not the way of some fake. The look on her face was so awesome, she completely changed and was listening all intently. Hopefully we can get going with her too. Saturday we met president MacArthur, he is way cool im really excited to get to work with him. The language is getting better its getting eaiser for me to do contacts and to understand some people, i have a way hard time understanding the bishop tho and hermano facondi, but when i can understand and speak a lot to them ill know ill be good. We figure ill probably be here until october or so then i may get sent down south which is way beautiful. Its in the country so i would feel a little more at home tho. I dont want to leave the people of this ward tho. i know ive got a while but they are all so awesome and always willing to help. Oh we taught a lady named claudia too. she is a ten year investigator who knows its true shes been waiting on her boyfriends divorce to finalize so they can get married. She lives out of our sector but Hna. Molina who is her best friend is in our ward so we teacher her at the hna´s house. We may get to baptize her even tho she doesn´t live in our sector, we´ll see in a few weeks what happens there. My health is great, oh i ate ranch today, it wasnt all that bad, it think all the croutons i ate in the mtc helped, thats what it tasted like to me. Awesome the peanut butter is on its way i got my dear elders on saturday they were great! Things are good, somedays are rough were we have ever single appointment fall through but i am learning and doing my best to just be happy. I´m having a lot of fun too, im gettin used to things here, i just need to keep on the language and studying the gospel and ill be set. Ok well i have to run i tried to up load pic but my computer froze so i gotta go ill try again next week. i love you all thank you for all your support!
Elder Roy

Thug Life!

Busted Toe

Living in the Ghetto

Alright now i can sit down and send a good email. So yeah last p day i either broke or sprained my toe, i am sending pics with this email so you can see. I could not walk hardly that night after, but the next day i walked just fine and had little to no pain. So it just goes to show that prayers truly are answered. So don´t worry. Work is great here, our two baptisms that were supposed to be yesterday have been postponed to the 4th by the way Happy Birthday grandma and happy father´s day Dad!! Oh but we only have one baptism for next sunday- Leyla she is so awesome, last week she was out of town but drove and hour and a half to go to church, i thought that was sweet! She didn´t get baptized this week because her mom is really sick so she went down south to be with her... The people of the ward here are so awesome. The Facondi family is my favorite. Hno. Facondi is the mission leader and he is awesome, plus Hna. Facondi is a way good cook and i always eat so good here. Lots of rice which is good cause i like rice. The bishop is legit too, he came and taught some lessons with us and threw done Last week was kind of rough, we had so many appointments fall through and when we contacted people were jerks and nobody would listen. But we did have a few good lessons that i am grateful for, just not as many as i wanted. Elder Mitchell is way cool, he´s a good hard worker and keeps my spirits up. Yeah ive had the f word screamed at me a few times, i think it´s funny, some guy yesterday was like f america! I just laughed, he looked at me all weird, it was funny. Dogs are everywhere here!! and poop too you always have to watch your step when you are out and about. Yeah im way in the ghetto i guess more up north is santiago is nicer, i´m fine with it cause when am i ever gonna live in the ghetto again? Plus im protected, i heard a story of an elder in the area called los pensamientos which is the most ghetto in our area got shot but the bullet bounced off his garments, there is a bullet hole in his white shirt and another exit hole. How legit is that, he only came out with a bruise!! Don´t worry we haven´t had trouble here just the normal. Haha lets see oh the apartment, mom you would be so proud of me... i cleaned so much grease off of our oven today, it looks like we have a brand new one. Spanish is coming along slowly. I´m getting a bit better at understanding people, especially when they say they are busy, that´s what all of them say, everyone here says that they are never home and they work all day. I just think ok, then why are you home now? I just need to keep speaking to improve. Its all good tho the people here are great even the mean ones!

Soccer, yeah it is life here for everyone, the grocery store is closing early because of the game, everything will shut down for a while. Things were a bit wild on friday when chile qualifed for the word cup, its been 50 years since chile has last qualified but they will probably loose to brazil today. I heard that during the cup the elders in brazil can´t even go outside becasue they get so violent there. Things aren´t too bad here, we only had some drunk guy blow his horn in our face, then he went back into the street and almost got hit buy a bus- that´ll teach him to mess with servants of god! The earth quake really didn´t do much here, all the destruction is more down south, we drove over a bridge my first day here that had to be rebuilt, some adobe houses were destroyed too but elder hardman says they are back up. Elder hardman and mayans are hilarious, they with elder mitchell are helpin me out a lot. Elder Hardman has some cool stories that ill have to write home to ya sometime. Oh if you do send a package sometime, peanut butter would be amazing, they only have it down south and it is way expensive... just that and some sweets for now. Yeah the bread here is amazing, kiki would be in heaven. As far as dear elders they work here, I only get mail about once a month you can email me and i can print them off. We had despididos last week for president resek. he is so awesome and im kind of sad that i don´t have more of an opportunity to meet him he leaves in the next few days i think tomorrow and we have a zone conference with president mcarthur this saturday. Oh and i found out that i will be with elder mitchell for two changes and in this area for three. Which is great with me cause i love the people here and want to get to know them more. Sounds like things are good at home! how is the poco baby doing and my two litte girls! i miss them so much! sorry this place is closing for the game love you all so much ill send pics next week!!! thank you for all you do.

love elder hansen

And so the blog was born...

Hey send this to chelsea, I don´t know if she has been updating my facebook but president resek told us a story about how people will hack into accounts and try to mess up the churches rep, i dont really want that on my shoulders so if you could delete it that would great. oh and my trainer is Elder Mitchell who is way awesome. he is from montecello ut and has been out for 7 months. Thanks everyone love you

EMAIL FROM CHILE

Hey everyone!! Chile is so sweet! There are so many people here. I met with president Resek in Rancagua and now Im in the nothernmost sector of the mission which is in the city of santiago. Our apartment is so ghetto I'll have to send you some pictures. I forgot to bring my mailing address with me so i ll have to wait till next time. Sorry. It was so good to talk to everyone last night i wish i could have had more time! All is well here so far, my p days are on monday so I will email you then. Trucks here are sweet every little truck is a 4 door short bed with a turbo diesel in it. It would be so awesome for a farm truck! The flight was so long but i did manage to get some sleep. I´m way tired tho it´s felt like the longest day of my life but its all good. The circumstances are pretty humbling here. people have money but the buildings aren´t so nice.

Elder Hansen

Roping @ the MTC

Hullo everyone!! Well it's been a pretty good week, Elder Robert D. Hales came and spoke to us on Tuesday night!!! It was awesome, he talked about light and darkness and how the two cannot exist in the same place! So if we bear our testimonies we can bring light into somewhere that is dark. So I got pictures from the primary the other day and they are so stinkin cute! I love them, I opened the envelope up and was like am I seriously old enough to be getting these. I can still remember sending those off to Tyler and others when I was in Primary, it feels like it was just yesterday. Ha so I totally have my teacher Hermano Clover's help on getting my other teacher Hermana Davis married!! You all know I've been trying since ive been here and the other day I found out that Hermano Clover has a twin brother, he showed me a pic and he's a pretty buff guy so asked him what he thought about setting him up with Hermana Davis, he really liked the idea so he talked to her about it and it sounds like they are going a double ( hermano clover will go with his wife) How awesome is that!! I really can't believe that on Monday I will head of to Chile...... wow this is my last Friday in America! for two years!! Just think tho, the next friday im here I'll be with all of you probably sittin on Roy with my Cactus in hand! Oh speakin of I totally got to rope the other night! I loved it. I met an Elder just outside my residence on the way back for the night and he had two play ropes! So we played some left leg and talked bout rodeo.. He was a steer wrestler, and he highschooled but i dont ever remeber seeing him.. It was so much fun tho! I realized that I really miss roping a whole lot! Sorry that I have two periods this computer freakin sucks.. Wow so I have spoke a ton of Spanish this week and I feel like ive really improved.. Last night we had a great lesson, Hermano Christensen doesn't have a district so we taught him and it was way cool.. He was a recent convert and he asked why he needed to wait for a year to get married in the temple with his wife.. yeah way good question right.. I had know idea what to say at first but then the spirit just filled my head and I went on how it is a time to prepare and how when I was younger I was preparing for the temple.. It was really cool.. Temple was great today! Tengo fe ( I have faith).. Oh so reading in the Ensign, read the article about time.. there is an insert in there from President Monson that talks about how we need to make time for the savior.. It shares a scripture in luke about how the fox has it's hole but the son of man hath no where to lay his head, the other is how he was laid in a manger because no one had room for him.. This is still true today.. We all get so busy that sometimes we don't make room.. and i ain't preachin I did the exact same thing.. It's way easy for me to sit here and say that because of all of you I have been blessed to be in the circumstance that all I have to worry about is the gospel and others not a job or what lawns i need to mow... But just try your hardest and you will be blessed I promise! I can't wait to see pics of the gray mare's baby! Hopefully if she does go gray she will go really dark.. What is Kiki gonna name her? Haha I really want to hear that! Oh and no worries about my toe, its healin up really really good.. so all is well there. Crazy that I'm almost finished here, I've made some really great friends, that's something thats really cool about the mission. I've also taken in the Hermanas in my district like they are my sisters. So I have been named the love doctor because i am constantly trying to get hermana Davis married. It's been so much fun here, some of the hardest yet some of the best times. I'm so greatful to be out here serving my Father in Heaven, this is where I should be becasue he has blessed me with such a great family, and friends and good people in our ward. I hope all is well at home gotta go i love you all!!! Elder Roy

"The Lord brings us low so he can lift us even higher"

Hola Family and Friends,

Well I got my travel itinerary yesterday! I report to the travel office at 11:30 on June 14th and head out to Salt Lake where I will fly to Dallas at 2:30! We should land in Dallas around 6:15 ( yes Chels I will be in Texas!!!) and then I'll leave for Chile at 9:10 at night and will arrive in Santiago the next moring at 7:45 in the moring!!! I feel like I just got here but I am so excited to leave. I'm flying with everyone in my district minus Elders Still and Smith who head to Boston the next day. So I'll fly with everyone to Santiago and then spilt off with my roommates and Hermana Finch( we're all going to Rancagua) Hermana Baum, Tauteoli, and Nikolaus are going to Orsorno and Santiago east so we'll will say our goodbyes in the airport there. Time is really flying by! Speaking of its Chelsea's birthday already! Happy Birthday I love you! Well this week was pretty good, no apostle but it was a pretty good talk by a seventy but I cant remember his name. His wife told of story of a little girl in their ward who has a brain tumor- she's going throught the exact same thing as Briggs. Whenever she gets chemo or treatments she says "yay" and thanks the doctors for helping her. Shes only 3 or 4 and yet she knows that with a good attitude she can get through it. It's so amazing how tough these little ones are, I know for sure that I could not go through what Briggs has, or what Rachel did. The Lord gave them these trials because he knew that they can handle it. She told us that yes we will have trials on our mission, but have a good attitude and thank the Lord every single night for all your trials, and remember Talatha ( the little girls name, and remember Briggs). That really humbled me, how could I be so quick to forget what others go through..... It was amazing. My toe is doing good, I go back to the doc today just for a check up, no biggie there. I was made district leader last sunday. Spanish is pretty good, I'm kinda stuggling with the second lesson cause there is so much but the lord will help make up for the rest. I know I'm gonna have a shock when I get to Chile but I'm preped for it! Wow free horse!! Church is true right!! Thats freakin awesome, you'll have to send me some pics of her!! Oh and when the HB mare pops I wanna see what hits the ground from her, I'm sure it'll be breathing fire if it anything like its mother. I finally got a letter from Jaydan back! Im so jealous tho he gets to go teaching for two hours every saturday, Im green with jealous rage right now. I got to host new missionaries again this week it was pretty good, not as sad as the first time, I'm now used to seeing about 300 crying families in the space of about 2 hours. Oh calling card... I wanna call home at the airport if you'd like to hear from me, If not thats understandable I wouldn't miss me either! Just teasing mom please send one. Im gonna start packin this week I'll send feeties and anything I dont need home sometime this week. Oh so I wore my cowtie yesterday for a whole day in the MTC. It was a hit of course, it's the most legit tie in the world. But then Hno. Peterson caught me with it last night and said it wasn't very conservative.... but I still wore it for a whole day. We taught a really good lesson again in English, the spirit was so strong. I'm really excited to go do it for real in Chile! Oh so I was talking with Randy, our service leader and he said one of his comps got a full alligator scripture case with the snaps on it being little baby alligator heads!! It only cost 20 bucks!!! That was in Bolivia but I'm gonna see what they have in Chile so I may send or come home with a hide if I can get one so I can start inlaying with gator for dirt cheap. Well, Im running out of time. Just keep praying, thats what gets me through it!! Remember the Lord brings us low so he can lift us even higher. I love you all and thank you so much for all that you do!

Love,

Elder Hansen

3 weeks left in America!

Well, I've got three weeks left in America. How crazy is that?!! The time has flown by here, It feels like I got here yesterday. So this week we heard from D Todd Christofferson! It was a great talk! I learned that the spirit can't help you take steps until you start walking. So we have to do and work work work then the spirit will help us! I'm hoping that we can see one more apostle speak before we leave! Wednesday I had the opportunity to host for the first time- I would wave at the families as they drove by and they'd wave back at me through a bunch of tears. Helping the new ones out was way fun. Well my district is now the oldest here... I can't believe it. I think we are due for a new district leader but my bets are on Elder Hale, guess I'll find out for sure on Sunday. On Thursday I had the opportunity to teach a lesson- the MTC is thinking about changing the way they do TRC so we got to be the guinea pigs and try out the new way. It was so awesome, we were supposed to teach the first lesson but ended up combining the restoration with the plan of salvation and it went great. By far the best lesson we have taught here, the spirit was so strong and I was sharing scriptures like I actually knew what I was doing for once. I know without a doubt that that wasn't me, I dont know that much but I know the Spirit does. Ok about the ingrown toenail, I went to the podiatrist and had the ingrown part removed yesterday- It was huge!!! Ill send pictures, I almost kept it and taped it in my journal but then I remebered when ty kept all his belly button lint and Shar had him throw it away! The doc was great, after he pulled it he stuck a q tip with acid on it in my toe three different times. That should kill the nail root so I wont have this problem anymore. He also said that I have feet like Shaq, yeah I have feet like a black man, kinda weird. But anyways my joint under my big toe will eventually develop really painfull bone spurs that will have to be surgically removed someday. He said arch supports would help slow the growth of the spurs so Ill see what I can do about that. It was so crazy to go out into the world, I got stared at like I was some sort of zoo animal for the first time, it was pretty funny. But I'm feelin better today, its tender but better. I don't know what causes it my shoes are fine, except Ill probably need new ones after I've been in chile for a while- the ones I bought from big five are wearing fast, i switch shoes every day but they are wearing down, but they have plenty of life left in them so dont go buy any, they just aren't as good as the docs i got from ty- which look great cause I actually take care of them unlike tyler! I've been trying to speak as much as possible, i sound like a gringo but Ill get better when I get there. Sounds like katie kicked butt this week!!! Good job on second place and talking to dillon!!! It was awesome to hear from kiki this week!!! I also heard from the Hill family, Brenn sent such a good letter, it was a pick me up that I needed so tell him thank you so much. All is well here just getting ready for Chile, I should get my flight plans sometime next week so I will let you know when I find out. Im really glad I dont need a visa, everyone here is having problems with them. Thank you all so much for all that you do, I can feel you love and prayers every day. Keep it up cause Chance Roy needs it, getting a bit anxious for Chile, but it will be a great experience. gotta go love you all so much.

Elder Chance Roy

Barn Talk in the MTC

I miss you guys so much! But don't worry I'm not super homesick! Im just fine actually, I'm doing the Lord's work so why wouldn't I be. Well I'm emailing early cause we did sealings today and we were done early so I figured I'd burn up the half hour before study with email. So this week has been great, it's really flown by. The older district is getting ready to leave on Monday which is sad cause I've became good friends with all of them. Now we will be the oldest district in our zone! Pretty crazy. Yeah the zone leaders are leaving so they will call new ones and we are pretty sure it's between Elder Hale and I or Elders Richins and Nicol. I say its Elder Richins and Nicol cause Elder Richins is like the patriarch of our district family. Sealings were so amazing, the temple is truly what this church is about. Getting people there is truly what missionary work is about. It was such a special experience that I will not forget. Our sealer served in the mission presidency in Santiago, he said we will love the people. I can't wait to get to Chile! Spanish is coming along. I have to teach the first lesson in TRC tonight in Spanish and its actually not that bad and I like it a lot. We as missionaries need to simplify the lessons to make the investigators better understand them... this works out so great with Spanish since we dont really know that much all we can say are the simple things, so it makes teaching a lot easier. We practiced contacting yesterday and usually when I got to share a scripture I will write down what I want to say and try to memorize it. This time I just shared and the words just flowed out of my mouth. It was so cool. Nothing can be done here by ourselves, that for sure was done with the Spirit cause I dont speak spanish that good. In gym we've gotten into volleyball and we have given ourselves nicknames like in topgun. It's pretty sweet and of course my nickname is cowboy. We pretty much rock the court during gym.

Just go ahead and get me a dufflebag carry on because I don't need a huge backpack, my little one I bought here works great for walking around with. Plus I heard in south america people like to come up behind you with a knife and cut your straps off and run away with your back pack, so i dont wanna be carrying around a super expensive one if that happens. But I'd probably smite the thief before he ever got away with that. Doesn't Kate have a rodeo coming up soon? Let me know how that goes and Kate I expect a full report of the boys you are hitting on, its my duty as your older brother to watch out for you. Gosh what else has happened this week.... its gone by so fast. The lords time is so much different than our own I swear. It goes by so fast that you have to make every moment count. Oh we get to host this week, ha it will be so great to see all the new kids. Hopefully I can console them as they walk back to their rooms sick to their stomachs. I know I was, but all is well now with the Lord on my side! I'm so excited to go, Im really wanting to get out there. Even tho I know I won't understand a single word they say. I'm already mentally, physically, and emotionally preparing for that one. Not that I'm setting myself up for failure or anything, I just know its gonna happen. Oh I heard an Austrailian Elder say A-hole this week. It was so funny, we were singing disney songs in the shower and a elder came in and yelled at us for being too loud and how we took away the spirit so i told him he did cause he had the spirit of contention. Well it turns out he was just joking and trying to scare us, but he didn't scare me, in fact i could have ate him and not been that fat. Anyways his comp said I know it was just a joke but you did still act like an Ahole! In an austrailian accent. It was hilarious. Nothing like barn talk in the MTC! Well my time is running short. Ill write as many as I can. I hope to hear from ya soon. The church is true, our father in heaven loves us, he really does he gave us the temple and eternity with him and our families.

Love you all so much,

Elder Hansen

The Men of the Miracle

Tuesday was the day of redemption for the MTC tho as we heard from the one and only Elder Holland!!!!!!!! Gosh he is so amazing. He has such a strong testimony and the spirit was so strong there. He's so funny too. He told us that if we go on missions and come home and one day walk up to him with dreadlocks and a tatt that he would punch us in the nose! He told us how PMG started with President Hinckley saying that there was something wrong with the missionary program because Elders were coming home and falling away. He also told us that we should come home with one convert- ourselves, I thought that was really cool. Another thing was that he said that we should be the missionaries that our family, our little brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews think we are. We have agency but we do not have the right to let them down. I thought that was so cool cause I got a pic of Holly and Alauna from Chelsea the other day and i stuck it in the cover of my study journal. So now I am always reminded to be the missionary that they think I am. They are so stinking cute, I love that picture. Spanish is going alright, ups and downs every day but through dilligent study and the blessing of the Lord I'm sure Ill get it down. I really can't believe that I have already been out here one month! I need to get to Chile cause i dont have enough time!!!! Next week is gonna be so scarry because we teach the first lesson in spanish I'm so nervous but elder hale is way good so he can bale me out if I get in a bind. Oh speaking of I met my new mission president yesterday! He is so awesome he named Me, my comp, Elder Richins, and Elder Hale hombres del Milagro- the men of the miracle. He comes to the MTC everyday for classes and then he will get to Chile two weeks after we do. Oh and so we have made it our mission here to set up our teacher, Hermana (sister) Davis with another sub that has taught us Hermano (Brother) West. Hes so legit, he kinda looks like Marc Walberg from shooter and his family has a cattle ranch in Arizona, so he has land and is a good looking man. I'm not gay now just stating the truth. we are gonna play matchmaker while we can. Thats about everything important that has happened this week so far. How are mae and roy holding up I miss riding and roping. Im glad ya got my letters I was worried when i didn't hear from you till yesterday- yet again the Lord answers my prayers. Well my time is almost up! I'll shoot a few letters home and tell ya what I forgot to. The gospel is so true! Be grateful for it cause it's what makes our family so legit. I know that Joseph Smith did see god. He was such a great man and I am so greatful to him. Im so glad that I am here even tho I miss everyone so much. The Lord just keeps blessing me so that i know that this is where I am supposed to be. Thank you all so much for you letters and everything. I love you all so much and miss you. The church is true, and missionary work aint like burger king- ya cant have it your way- Elder Holland.

Love,

Elder Roy

I swear he was NOT speaking Spanish!

Things are great here! We had mission conference this past Sunday which is like mini general conference! It was really good, President Smith's wife gave a great talk! Tuesday night devotional rocked as normal. We heard from Larry Gibbins of the second quorum of the seventy. He spoke on how our church logically just makes sense. Oh and on sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie, what an amazing man, I'm so grateful that he was brave enough to sacrifice all he had to restore this church. Spanish this week has been going pretty good, I cant ever go to sleep till bout eleven thirty so I went to the book store and bought a reading light and I just cover myself with my blanket and study spanish until i get sleepy. Which has proven to have blessed me this week. Elder Hale is a genius and the language is coming easy to him and he has commented on how my Spanish has improved this week! Pretty sure I have set the district record for most dear elders in a day as I was bombarded with a whole crap load! But it was so good to hear from everyone and I laughed when chelsea put the explanation at the top that you were sending them to Rancagua. It was great! I had another really cool expirience at the temple today. We went to do initatories and as I was waiting to go through for the second round I looked and saw that two of the names that I had recieved were from Chile. I felt the Spirit so strongly and it made me so excited that I was able to serve someone from Chile and I'm not even there yet! We are all chomping at the bit to get out to the field even though we aren't ready. I'm in a great district with Elders that work hard but still do know how to joke around. Oh and we wrote a song together to the tune of skater boy by avril lavine, Ill send the lyrics home when we finish it. I thought that was pretty funny.

Mawm! happy mothers day, what can I get you while I'm here, I really have no idea what ya need and I cant make anything legit. Gosh I'm trying to think of what has happened this week, not really too much out of the ordinary, the time passes by so fast that the days just seem to melt together. Oh last Friday at TRC Elder Hale and I rocked our lesson! We had to first practice knocking doors and speak in Spanish which was horrible because our mock investigator was a mission president in Argentina and i swear he was not speaking spanish! Neither of us could understand a single word he said. But we went back five minutes later to teach the lesson in English and we rocked it! He got all choked up and told us that there will be rough times on our mission and Satan will try our testimonies and try to make us question this work. But I without a doubt know that this work is so true, I cannot wait to get out there and share the happiness that this true gospel brings with the people of Chile. My testimony is growing so much and I love this work. I love this gospel, and this work and Joseph Smith, wow that man was amazing. Happy Mothers day to mom and rae and shari and grandma fowers and hansen and whoever i may forget to name! I love you all so much. thank you for being such great influences of me.

Elder L. Tom Perry @ MTC

Another great week at the MTC and my how it has flown by. So Sunday night awesome fireside by branch president Seamons talking about the importance of our name tag and who we represent! Then on Tuesday the great Elder L. TOM PERRY!!!!!!! It was so awesome you could feel his spirit and you knew the second he walked in that he is a man of God. He gave a great talk on the book of mormon and how it is the greatest missionary tool that we have. He also talked about having eye contact and that you wont convert anyone by looking at the floor. So that helped me out a ton. Spanish is coming along, some days I feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off but today i feel pretty good about it. I had TRC last week were we contacted in spanish which i slaughtered and forgot like everything and i was so nervous in the lesson. This week though I feel that Elder Hale and I have improved and we will rock the our lesson. Im really glad im going to a country that doesn't require a visa, so many elders are getting reassigned to other missions because they aren't getting them back. Two Elders that are going to Spain are supposed to leave this Tuesday but neither of them have their visas so they probably will end up getting reassigned. So i totally freaked President Shumway out when he came in to the residence hall and i was running around in my feetie pj's. I told him i was trying to be bold like everyone here tells us to be and that was my way of showing it. All the Elders got a kick out of it and Elder Schiller wants to get a pair too so we can freak out all the new districts that come in. He got here the same day as me but he knows spanish some so he's leaving in 5 weeks vs my 9. Which reminds me i saw Tyrell Bailey- I high school rodeoed with him, hes going to California. If you dont remember him he is the one I shared my extra cowboy prom date with, I told the Elders about that and they though it was pretty legit. I laughed so hard when i got the letter from Rae when Holly said i was a good gurl, gosh I miss her and Launa so much, they're gonne be so huge when i get home. I just hope and pray they remember me. It sounds like Katie is doing pretty good in rodeo, tell her not to pay too much attention to the snot nosed cowboys, she really cant have a bf till im home to approve. I miss home but i really surprised that I'm not as homesick as some of the other Elders have been, I just try to use it as fuel to work harder for the people of Chile. I love this work and I'm having a lot of fun in the MTC but i really wanna get to Chile, im gonna get some sweet white slippers when i get there! Oh and ill send home some bits and spurs if they have any, elder richins also said they have raw hide reattas or however you spell it. So Ill let everyone know what kind of goodies they have and start sending things home that you want. I really cant believe how fast this week has gone by, it's good though, the harder i work the faster it seems to go. I'm trying to do my best to look at it like President Malone said, "i only have 24 months to do this", which I now realize is so true. Oh go on lds.org and watch a testimony of the bom and joeseph smith by Elder Holland, that guy rocks my world with his amazing testimony, we watched it in class and i cried like a baby. I love you all so much, trust in the Lord, he takes such good care of all of us, especially in times of trial, the bom is true out of time i gotta go! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Chance Roy Hansen

2nd letter from the MTC

Hello everyone!

How are things at home! Whats the weather been like? It snowed here yesterday but melted off into a nice day but today it has rained all morning long. I was able to go to the Provo temple today which is just like Odgen- it reminded me of home except for no fam and olive garden! But the celestial breakfast was amazing. I ate some cheesecake just for kiki's sake. This week has been awesome, its really flown by fast. I had to cut my hair again cause they said it was too long. I figure if Im obidient and keep it cut ill come home with a full head so i can regrow my long flowing locks. So tuesday we had the most amazing fireside. Elder Pearson and his wife spoke, he spoke with so much power and authority, it was so amazing. That man was truly a disciple of Christ. There was no denying his testimony. That talk really changed my mission for me, it just made me want to work harder and harder at being a disciple- but still being me. Then on wednesday we watched a talk by Elder Holland, he is so amazing. When Satan goes to bed at night, he looks under his bed for Elder Holland and in his closet for Elder Pearson. The thing is that missionaries are really lucky because they speak with so much feeling and say and do things that could not be said at conference, no offense but these firesides are better that conference. They both had me hanging on to every single word, and i felt the spirit so strongly.

Katie homesick for me? Wow. Tell her that some missionaries gave us a Jacob tin filled with valentines candy, I took a pic of it for her. I was gonna ship it home to her but the other Elders and I have decided to leave it in our Narnia holes- secret spaces in our closet, like the dead space behind our mirror or the plug covers as our legacy for the other missionaries who will sleep in our abode some day. We will also leave the history of ladder golf and individual stats as well- we as a district have really gotten into ladder golf, its like a way of life for us. Haha yeah we are weird but i need something to cope with cause I dont have a good cactus rope and a dummy. I really miss that and riding a lot, but I know that if i came home to do that Roy would probably break his leg and I would lose my pinky for real. I am supossed to be here no doubt. I really thought that letters and emails from home would make me more homesick but they are like manna from heaven, acutally, prime rib for my soul, they make me feel so good and want to work even harder. Spanish can be rough at times, like there is a million uses for the two words para and por which can mean- for, because, through and all sorts of crap, some of the conjugating is hard but Elder Hale is a genius and he helps me a lot. We are gonna finish preparing for TRC which is where we have to contact three people in espanol then teach a lesson in english. Eventually we will teach in spanish as well.

Im really learning a whole lot here and I love this work. I miss you all so much but I know we will all be bless from this. Haha we all sang the song from Nacho Libre the other day, me leading of course. Im so grateful for this work and for all of you. I wouldn't be here without you. I love you all so so much. We had Hermano Nelson sub our class yesterday, he just got back from Chile and loved his mission, he kept asking us if what he was saying made sense in english- i cant wait till iI have to do that. Sorry if I didnt answer all the questions I plan on writing a lot of letters today so you should see them tomorrow or monday. Im just in a race against the clock and my mind is going crazy trying to tell you everything. Thank you so much I love you all!

Love

Elder Chance Roy

1st Letter from the MTC

Hey everyone!

I finally get to write!!! Everthing is going well, Im just doing laundry right now. Yes Tyler and Rachel i am capable. The first day was really weird, it was hard to get in the swing of things and I went to bed sick that night. But i prayed before i went to sleep and woke up to the Spirit and I felt so much peace- it was so amazing. The Spirit is so strong here, it's like being in the temple every day. Durning a random time I'll have the Spirit just tell me, "It's ok elder, you are supposed to be here". My comp is Elder Hale from Boise he's awesome. Elder Nicols and Richins are amazing- i room with them. I had a great talk with the zl- elder thompson, he comforted us and made us feel so welcome, its a brotherhood here. I also met and Elder Jones from Park Valley, his family has a ranch there, we talked and he knows shane oliver and happy hunting so hes my connection to horses and what i love here. My estimated departure date will be the 14th so I gotta learn as much as i can here to help me in the field. One other cool expirience for dad. We went through some classes like mock trials with investigators and at the end we didn't have much sucess with a guy named Daniel, actor or not- im not sure, i felt bad i couldn't do anything. Our instructor then told us that we dont need to go in and preach preach preach, we need to befriend and love the people and that way we can gain their trust. Then we can preach the gospel to them. It just reminded me of what dad taught me with hometeaching and how he was just everyones friend, like how he never taught some people one lesson but just visited, thats what this work is all about, to love and serve. So thanks dad. Gosh I miss everyone so much but I am having a blast, it has its ups and downs but nothing i cant handle with the help of the lord. Also tell chelsea the notes she left with scriptures are awesome they have been so helpful the past few days. Im so excited to get into chile and start working, in my district there are three other elders and two sisters going to the same mission, two others will be in orsorno which is down by the peguins. and just for everyone's info ive only had two phantom vibrations so far, im not crying over losing my phone, its just convenient to have one, im always telling Hale how we can call nicols and richins and tell them where we are going. Yo amo mi famila- i love my family which includes chels and all my friends i wouldn't be here without such great examples. Tell Jaydan good luck tomorrw and let me know how his talk goes. Thank you so much for everything!

Elder Roy Hansen