Transfer's Baby!

Iakwe!

Well I made it through my first transfer in Majol. It's crazy here. I'm on an island less than a square mile and 15,000 people live here. I'm surrounded by the ocean and by people who speak a language that I barely know. People here don't really have anything. A lot of people live together in small plywood shacks with tin roofs. Something I  have noticed though is that they are always so happy and love to see the Elders. Whenever we are walking around on the street kids will come up to us and ask us to play a game with them or to do a magic trick. Most people really respect and love the Elders.

This week we taught a bunch of lessons. One of my favorite lessons we taught was with 2 of our investigators, Luann and James. Luann and James are dating and we have been studying with Luann for a while now, but we recently started studying with James. We taught Luann about the sacrament and James about the Book of Mormon. During the lesson the Spirit was so strong so I decided to talk about how if we read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true He will answer our prayers. It was super spiritual and I was able to bear my testimony in almost perfect Marshallese. 

Another cool experience from this week is that me and Elder Nelson had the opportunity to give a blessing to a member who was sick. I was able to anoint in Marshallese which was super cool. The Spirit was so strong and I know that the member will be blessed. 

On Friday our investigator Moriann had her baptismal interview. She passed so she will be baptized on Saturday! I am super excited about it because her husband is an RM and he really wants to get sealed in the temple so now they will have that opportunity.

Saturday it rained all day. We had some lessons and then went to a baptism that the South Elders had. Whenever it rains here the streets flood. After the baptism we were on our way to a members birthday party and we were walking in water that was up to our shins. Me and Elder Jepsen were walking together and he stepped into a hole, lost his balance, and fell into the water. I just started to die laughing. It was so freaking funny. He had to go home shower and change before we could go to the dinner haha.

I think that is about it from this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Thanks for all the emails and support!

-Elder Hanson

One Month in Ebeye

Elder Hanson and Elder Nelson

This week was good. President came to Ebeye so this was the first time I got to meet him. He is a great guy. We taught a lot of good lessons this week, and Louanne and Morianne came to church. A funny experience from this week was last night we had a family home evening and we were singing the closing hymn and two of the members (Pedro and Marlene) just started laughing so hard because one of the elders is kinda tone deaf haha. Pedro and Marlene would just look at me and start laughing so hard. Some Marshallese people are just brutally honest so after the song they told this Elder that he sucked at singing but he just played it off and told them that he knew. It was kinda sad but pretty funny. Then everyone just started joking around. People here don't really understand American humor but there are some RM's who do. One of the Rm's was at dinner last night and just started roasting everyone in English and it was so freaking funny. A lot of people here understand English but they don't understand sarcasm. So the Rm was being so sarcastic and the missionaries were just dying because all of the Marshallese had no idea what was going on. Also it rained super hard on Thursday night and our house started to flood so we had to put out 13 buckets to collect the rain. Then in the morning we got a call from the District Leader. The church had flooded so we spent 3 hours cleaning out the water that was in the church. Overall it was a good week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Hanson

The King's Funeral

Iakwe aolep!

This week was crazy. The iroojlaplap or king died so this week was basically just a funeral with little work. It started on Thursday. His body came to Ebeye and there was a parade. Then everyone went to the protestant church for his funeral. Every church on Ebeye has a funeral service for him and ours was last. On Friday we went finding but no one wanted to study because of the funeral. On Saturday it was the burial. So no one wanted to study on Saturday. Sunday morning we woke up at 4 and watched the Saturday morning session of conference and then we had church. People don't usually like to study on Sundays. Yesterday was a solid work day. We had some good lessons. One of the main people we are studying with is just gone. He went to an outer island to jambo. I have no idea when he will be back. Today is the last part of the funeral. I'm not really sure what it is but i guess I'll find out. On Saturday we had a great kajota. We got steak and it was amazing. Overall this week was good! I love you all and hope all is well! 

-Elder Hanson

Kingdom of Ebeye

Another week in the heat of Ebeye. It rains quite a bit but I can't tell if it is a blessing or not. It cools down when it rains but then it gets so much more hot and humid. Also when it rains no one does anything. All the marshallese just go in their houses and sleep, so the work slows down. It rained all day on Thursday. Thursday was also manit (culture) day. It was super cool. We got invited to a celebration at the school we teach at. It was cool to see all of the cultural dances. During the celebration they brought us mõñã in Majol, which is the cultural food. It consisted of a whole cooked fish that I just had to dig into, some raw fish on the side, some hermit crab, breadfruit, and coconut. If you know me then you know I don't like sea food but I'm not soft so I ate it. I'm starting to like it more and more each time I eat it. The AP's came to Ebeye this weekend. We went to Kwaj on Saturday to pick them up. It's always a good time when you get to go to Kwaj. Also this weekend was Stake conference, so we greeted Elder Johansson who is a pacific area 70. At stake conference he talked a lot about how we must minister to our neighbors. His talk was super good and applicable because 66% of the stake is less active. Stake conference was a great time. I think that's about all that happened this week! I love you all and hope all is well. 

-Elder Hanson

Ebeye Boi

Another great week on Ebeye. It is so hot and humid here. As soon as I get out of the apartment I start sweating. I am still getting used to not seeing the mountains wherever I go. So this week we did a lot of studying and finding. Ali and Peter have baptismal dates for the 12 but we're still working with them on some things so we will see what happens. We are studying with an Rm's wife but every time we go to study with them the power is out. So we have been going back almost everyday to try and find a time that works with them. Marshallese people will never say no. Even if they don't want to study with us they will set up an appointment then just flake. So this week when lessons fell through we would go finding. We picked up some new investigators this week so that is good. One of the people who wanted to study with us is a deacon at a different church here. We taught him the restoration and he wanted to know who had the authority today so we told him about President Nelson and showed him a picture. He was in awe. It was a super cool lesson. One night we were walking back to our apartment and this guy just calls us over. He starts saying he wants what we have. Elder Nelson and I thought he was trying to rob us. We asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted the glory that we had. He said he had been watching us walk around for a couple of days and said that there was something different about us and that he wanted it. He lives in the Central area of Ebeye so we reffered him to the Central elders. It was such a cool experience. Another thing happened yesterday. We were going to a dinner appointment with Elder Garr and Elder Jormeia and this guy starts talking to us. Elder Jorby is from Majol and the guy we started talking to lived in Utah for a while. Turns out this guy and Elder Jorby are cousins. So we give him a book of Mormon and he said that he had been looking for us for a long time. He says he knows a lot about our church because he is from Utah and he is very interested. He works at the US military base on kwaj so he can only study on Mondays and Saturdays so we have an appointment for Saturday. This week was good. I am loving the work. The language is getting better day by day. I hope all of you are doing great! I love you all and thank you for the continuous emails and support!

  

With love,

Elder Hanson

pictures will come soon. I don't know when, but soon.

First week in Ebeye

I finally made it to the Marshall Islands!

Iakwe aolep. 

Man I can't believe I am in Majol. It's been a pretty crazy week. 

On Thursday we got to Majol. I was on Majuro for a couple days. As soon as I stepped off the plane I realized how hot it is. It is so hot here. The AP's picked us up and took us to the mission home. President and Sister Foster are in Fiji so I haven't met them yet. I met up with Elder Peterson and it was so good to see him. I figured out I was going to Ebeye. I'm pumped. 

Friday we just chilled in Majuro, went shopping, and packed for Ebeye. 

Saturday we got to Ebeye. It is even hotter here than it is in Majuro. Also the power will just randomly go out. The past 2 nights it has gone out right before bed so we have no ac. 

Sunday we just went to church. That night we had a dinner. We ate sashimi and it wasn't too bad. Most of the time we just eat chicken rice and potato salad. 

Monday we had some lessons. Peter is one of our investigators and has been taught all the lessons. He just needs to throw away cigarettes. One of our other investigators is Ali. She's super quiet but seems pretty receptive. Since I don't know that much Marahallese I usually just pray and bear my testimony haha. 

Today was p day. We went to this island called ñeñe. We took a taxi to it. We ate some coconut and walked on the beach and just chilled. Then we walked back. It took us about 2 hours but it wasn't too bad. 

Anyway all is well here in the Marshall Islands. Thanks for all the emails! I love them. I will talk to you all soon!

With love,

Elder Hanson

Me and my trainer Elder Nelson

Week 6: Last week in the MTC

Elder Jepsen, Elder Halliday, Elder Taufa and Elder Hanson.

Wow I cannot believe I leave in just 3 days. Me Elder Jepsen, Halliday and Sister Ameto will be leaving the MTC on Tuesday at 3 am. We are going to fly to Phoenix, then Hawaii, and then to the Marshall Islands. We stay a night in Hawaii and then in the morning we have a flight to Majuro. I am so excited. 

This week was good. Honestly it was kind of a long week but it was worth it. Pretty much we had class and that was about it. This week I tried to learn as much as I could and made sure to take advantage of the MTC. I started reading the Book of Mormon in Marshallese and it is pretty rough because it uses a lot of ancient words that I have to look up in my dictionary. I have noticed that ever since I have started to read the scriptures in my language that I can speak a lot better. 

We had a TRC yesterday and we prepared a lesson on families. Right when we were about to call we realized we were teaching the same person and that we had already taught on families. So we had to improvise and come up with a lesson on spot. We decided to go with faith. We quickly found a scripture and jumped right into it. It was super rough, but during the lesson I said a prayer in my heart that I would know what to say. She asked us a question and I had no idea what she was saying. I had a feeling that I should bare my testimony on faith and how it helps our lives. So I did. To be completely honest I don't even know what I said. Something along the lines of how if we have have God will bless us and how God has blessed me here in the MTC and how God loves all of his children. It was such a cool moment. After the TRC my teachers told us that she was asking us how we started our faith haha. So I guess I answered her question wrong but my teacher said that what I said was super good and how even though I answered her question wrong it still applied to her life. 

Not much has happened here. I am so excited to get to the islands. I promise I will have better stories haha. Everyone should go read Mosiah 26. It is a super good chapter and I love it. I read it a couple of weeks ago during study but I keep coming back to it. I love you all and am praying for you. I'm not sure how much I will be able to email in the Marshall Islands but I will do my best hahah. 

Jerraman!

Elder Hanson

Me with Elder Taufa and Halliday.