1/27/14

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                   January 27, 2014

 

Every week, we write by starting out, dear family and friends.

Has this become an unchangeable habit to go on forever?

Must we go on repeating forever this common song?

Can we not rearrange the furnishings and décor of our homes?

Can we not change our daily apparel and put on new clothes?

Must we continue this same greeting forever and evermore?

Can you tell I’ve been reading this week in the Book of Psalms?

I cannot refrain from expressing myself in this style of prose.

It has overcome me and entered into the creases of my mind.

It has consumed me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.

I am helpless before this form of expression. I cannot refrain.

 

This week passed, has been the longest of our mission.

Not because of the work has been slow and tedious.

But because so much has happened, within these seven days.

It started out with the most spiritual district meeting of our mission.

Our district leader changed the pattern of our district meetings.

Raising and lifting us to new heights and a spiritual level.

We were immediately overcome by the scariest event of our mission.

Our dear Sisters found themselves in great peril and distress.

By the hand of the Lord they were able to “get themselves out”.

Followed by night of much sobbing and many tears from the sisters

And comforting assurances from Sister Hansen and very little sleep.

Since the Elders were without a car this week we became their escorts.

Escorting them to a myriad of homes,

Most of which were filled with smoke and dogs and one hamster.

Mom’s lungs which are already heavy from all the moisture

Were filled to overflowing with all the smoke and dander.

A new policy has been declared.

Where there is smoking, we are staying in the car.

The branch had a youth temple trip this week,

Which we were able to participate in, even though it is two hours away.

Great to be dressed in white. Great to be within the walls of the Temple.

Sunday was a special Stake Conference held three hours away.

We took Danny VanFleet and the Sisters with us.

For the first time in 30 years there was a new stake created in Arkansas.

The new stake got the old stake president.

The old stake got a new stake president.

We are part of the new stake, the Searcy Arkansas Stake.

We met in a very elaborate high school auditorium in Lonoke, Arkansas

Basically there were two stake there.

We sat next to a couple

That were brought into the church by Daniel Perza from Weiser.

 

 

 

 

I do not write Poems so this will just be a regular letter from me nothing poetic.  Since Dad has been reading Psalms he has been waxing in prose.

We spent one week taking the Sisters everywhere and then the Elders everywhere.  Elder Bluth is very sick but thinking that he was invincible he kept right on going until he had to admit that he was way to sick to continue going out.  I was very glad that he finally decided to get some help.  The mission Doctor lives in Georgia and follows Sister Peterson’s  prescription suggestions, then he will call in the prescription to Walgreens.  The drug of choice is always a z-pack, I suppose it is because it is relativity in expensive and in five days the infections should be basically cleared up.

     Last Tues. was eventful.  We had probably one of the best District Conference’s ever.  I think all of the missionaries found it to be inspirational and uplifting.  It was a breath of fresh air blowing through the room.  The day ended not so good.  The Sisters even though they had been prompted not to go to a certain apartment did not heed the prompting and went anyways.  These naïve girls saw up and a little to close the seamier way of life.  They were able to get out of the situation that they found themselves in but they were scared out of their wits and hysterical by the time we got here.  Sister Hill refused to sleep anywhere else but here.  They had decided not to tell the President what happened but they didn’t remember that Elder Bluth is the District Leader and responsible for the missionaries under his direction, he called the mission President.  They had a good learning experience one that I don’t think that they will ever forget.

     I told Elder Bluth that if I had to go into those homes  where you could cut the smoke with a knife I would wear a mask so all the smoke could be filtered out.  Look funny oh yes but health wise a good move.  Everyone here that can barely support themselves have dogs.  The have big, hair shedding dogs.  

     We got up super early and drove 3 hours to attend stake conference and then drove home for 3 hours.  The Sister just went to sleep in the back seat and I joined them.  Dad had Bro. Van Fleet to keep him awake.  The conference was good even with the speaker system blowing up and scaring everyone listening.  All the babies were crying, children were trying to find protection and the adults were stunned and covered up their ears like I did.  Dad was scared badly enough he thought he would wet his pants.  Good thing that the janitor was there and saw and heard what happened.   I had packed a little lunch which we ate at a gas station.

     I don’t believe in coincidences but we sat right next to a couple that had joined the church because of a missionary from Weiser.  What a great experience to be able to visit with them.  The man asked where we were from and I told him Idaho then he asked if I knew where Weiser was Why yes I do.  We live there.  Did I know Elder Perza?  Yes I do his parents live in our Ward.  They have not forgotten him and are so thankful that he taught them.  So the conference was extra good because we were able to visit with them.  What is so amazing there was 1,700 people there and we were sitting next to Bro and Sister Wirt who knew about Weiser.

     The temperatures are so crazy here yesterday it was 67 degrees today the high is 28 degrees.  That means that we have to go to the church and check the water and make sure that it doesn’t freeze.  I’m not sure why the church didn’t put in insulation around the pipes especially in the kitchen area.  We have had to fix faucets more times then we should have to.  So tonight we will go back and let the water dribble in the kitchen.

     Yes indeed it was wonderful to be in the temple.  It was like coming home  It was only the second time that I have helped with youth baptisms.  We combined with another branch and a ward so that there would be enough to make it worth while to fill the fount.  We didn’t have to drive so that made it even better.  The Memphis temple is about the same distance away as the Boise one is so it is about the same except for the traffic.  It is so much more traffic then Boise that driving makes Dad very tense.

Well my dears I have written enough.   We pray for you and we move forward doing our Missionary work.  Love you all

                              Dad, Mom, Papa and Grammy, Elder and Sister Hansen

1/20/14

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                   January 20, 2014

 

            Since it is Marty’s Birthday today, the seniors center is closed today. So we get to sleep in. As if that would every happen. I woke up at 4:30 am, read the Book of Esther. I started the Old Testament after Christmas, so I am averaging 26 pages a day. I ought to be done with the Old Testament by Valentines Day. Then it is on to the D&C and The Pearl of Great Price. That would make all the standard works in a 5 month period. Never done that before. However, I do have a greater appreciation for the Lord’s dealing with His children here on the earth.

            Yesterday after church, there were three baptisms in the branch. Melonie Goodwin, a woman about 42, she found the sisters and was taught the lessons. She had to wait to get 1^st Presidency approval, because she is on parole. After her final interview she was so excited about being able to be baptized, that she was jumping up and down. She has a long time friend that did not like her learning about the church, so he gave her an ultimatum, either me or the church. She told him without hesitation, the church. The other two baptisms were a father and son. Dad about 40, the son twelve years old. Really nice people. Good understanding of the church. There were at the baptism about 5 non members. One of which was Judy Dunn who we are working with towards baptism, she has set the day of March 9^th (her mothers birthday) as her baptismal day.

            The branch here really goes out of their way to make converts feel welcome and important. The branch president leads the way in making that happen. He has been the branch president here for over 6 years, he is only an Elder, but he really cares for his branch. Next Sunday we drive to Lonoke, Arkansas where they are going to create another new Stake in Arkansas. First time in 30 years that that has happened. Long drive, but neat to be here while history is being made. I’m afraid we might lose some branch leaders in the creation of the new stake.

            We just keep plodding along, we continue to meet new people and make new friends. This past week the sisters have been without a car, so we had to drive them around a lot to their appointments, They are a couple of dizzy young ladies, but one just has to love their crazy ways. They are so intent and focused on missionary work.

            Yesterday at church we were assigned to give a lesson on gaining a knowledge about God and sharing that knowledge with others. As I prepared, I thought of this statement to make at the being of the class. “I know all there is to know about _______.”

I gave the class time to think about what they considered themselves to have a great knowledge about. (No takers) I then shared with them my knowledge about siphons, I do know a lot about siphons. I know what they look like, what they are made of, what sizes they come in, I know now to gather them, I know how to bundle them, I know how to scatter them, most importantly I know how to set them, I know how to adjust them for different flow, I know how to set the appropriate amount to handle the flow of water into the ditch. I don’t know everything about siphons, but I do know a great deal. It was my father that taught me about siphons and how to set them, I in turn taught my children about siphons and how to set them. I then bought the discussion back to the knowledge we have about God. Who he really is, what he is like, how we can learn about him and how we can share that knowledge with others. It ended up being a very fun exercise  and learning experience for the class.

            This Mom now:  The class that Dad was talking about was Priesthood.  Since we had investigators at church I taught the Sunday School class and he took the investigators to Gospel Principles then I had Judy in Relief Society and Dad had Lloyd in Priesthood.  It was a very long day for Judy especially since they stayed for the baptisms.   Judy wanted to see what was going to happen to her.  We will go and see them today and see how she is doing.  Judy and Lloyd are in poor health and so we try not to over do things.  But they did get married and she set her own baptism date long before she was asked to be baptized formally.

     We are enjoying the sunshine and somewhat warmer temps.except for the winds.  If we didn’t have a wind it would be very comfortable.  I would rather have winds then socked in fog all the time.  When we have sunshine it tends to be cooler then when it rains.  The rain here is heavy and can cause floods in no time.  It is deceptive in our apartment because the sun shines in and warms up the apartment then we go out side and it is cold.

     I have prayed that hearts would be pricked so that less actives would feel a desire to come back.  We have some that have said that they will come back but it is hard to come back after not being in church for awhile.  We only have a little over a 2 months here and that will go by very quickly.  We continue to visit all that we can catch at home or will let us come and visit.  We really try to be a friend and support them as best we can.  There is one lady who informed me yesterday that she was going home with us.   No, no and no.  She has problems and is slow so, she and her husband have already wrung the branch dry and now it is the missionaries that are slowly but surely being wrung dry.  It is only Dad and I that can actually do anything but if we do to much then they think that we will bail them out of their millions of problems.  Sometimes we walk a very thin line to help the members help themselves without enabling them more then what we should.  It is so easy to get caught up in lots of drama.

     The branch President has called certain members to take over from where we left off.  Almost everyone that we can get in to visit we have done so.  But I am really hoping that they can keep the ones that have come back and keep them active.  Who knows we may be sent back here and maybe not so the branch members will have to step up to the mark.

     For the last week we had the Sisters.  We take them to their appointments and sometimes we are invited in especially if they want some moral support.  Usually tho’ we drop them off and do our own things then go and pick them up.  On Tues after District Meeting they will have a car again but then it will be the Elders with out a car.  They are usually not as dependant as the Sisters are.  The Sisters had exchanges with the Training Sisters last week.  The Sister Trainer decided that they would ride their bikes.  Sister Cooke got major lost and the trainer did not realized that Paragould sits right on top of Crowley’s Ridge  with little narrow roads that go up and then down.  The Trainers thought that the Sisters were far to dependant on us, after that experience nothing more was said.

     I have started to pack up things that we really do not need to take back home in the car and sending it home.  One of the Senior couples that were in Blythville did that and I thought what a good idea.  We were so jammed pack coming here that whatever we can do to be a little less jammed packed would be good.

     Well my dears we must close     Love Dad and Mom, Papa and Grammy, Elder and Sister Hansen

1/13/14

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                   January 13, 2014

            Woke up at 3:30 am, couldn’t fall back asleep so I got up and read in the Old Testament. Started into 2 Kings this morning, got to the part about Naaman the leper. Went back to bed still couldn’t get back to sleep. So instead of looking at the ceiling and the wall, I’ll get up and start a family letter.

            Last Saturday we had the branch manly dinner. The Elders Quorum President didn’t like the term manly dinner, so he referred to it as Game Night. Not like a night of playing games but a night were by we bring food we had shot or acquired, and fixing it to eat. None of the sister or young ladies were invited, it was just a man thing. What a wonderful evening it turned out to be. The menu went like: Fried frog legs, fried alligator tail, fried rattle snake, buffalo roast, turtle, sword fish, deviled eggs made with potted meat, corn dogs made with little smokies, macaroni and cheese,  and baked red potatoes. I brought a jello salad made with shredded beets, crushed pineapple, chopped celery, mayonnaise, sour cream and raspberry jello. I had it on my first mission and loved it, so I found some recipes on the internet for it and made up my own concoction and named it Elder Hansen’s Manly Exotic Salad.  I skipped lunch so I would be good and hungry. And I didn’t waste my time with a baked potato or the macaroni and cheese. I had some of everything and then went back and had seconds of everything. What a wonderful meal and evening, some of the brethren wouldn’t try anything new and different, some only had a baked potato, some only had macaroni and cheese. It was just a good time eating and teasing each other, we had about 20 brethren in attendance. I’ll have to admit the next day I had what Evan refers to a “runny belly”, but it was well worth it, I would certainly do it again.

            It was announced at church yesterday that they are creating another new stake in Arkansas, right now we are part of the Memphis North Stake. The new Stake will be called, I believe, the Searcy Arkansas Stake. In two weeks we are to meet at Lonoke Arkansas for a special stake conference where the new stake will be created. I have a feeling we might lose some of our branch leaders as the new stake is organized. We have some really sharp men that have served a long time in their present positions. We love the branch here in Paragould, we love the full time Elder and Sister Missionaries, we have come to love the members and investigators, and just plain friends we have got to know that are not members or investigators. We love our apartment and our little branch building. However we miss home and miss family and friends, we miss grandchildren, we miss the farm, but we still don’t miss the cold weather in the winter time at home.

We have had just enough cold weather to remind us what it is like.

            Jill sent an email of a picture of the first and second grade class at the Sunnyside School 60 years ago. I only went to one year at Sunnyside, because we rented the house on the Roehl place. Second grade we moved back into town. I think Jill posted the picture on her website thing. If you see the picture I’ll tell you who I can remember from my one year there. Front Row: left to right Unknown Spanish girl, unknown boy, Lonnie Wheeler,  Neil Zaugg, Ronald Jacobs (all 3 my LDS friends), a Caine boy lived in the Wandery house. Nancy Sue Micheals (Ricky’s older sister and a second grader), unknown girl, unknown girl. Second Row: Denny Campbell (second grader, lived the other side of Stodards house  right where the runway is now), unknown girl, unknown boy, Brad Roberts, another Caine boy, Dee Peterson, Glenna Macomb (Both second graders) Yours Truly, Mike Carpenter, Steve Eisenbarth, unknown boy.  Third Row: Lynn Stone (Alan Stones oldest brother) , unknown girl, George Kyle (Jack Kyles little brother), Roger Anderson (second grader, LDS, lived on the Marc Anderson place, his father built the yellow house that was finally burnt down),  unknown girl, unknown boy, Karen Pennington (Darci Thompson mom & second grader), unknown girl, Arden Dunker (Diane Jurries’ high school lover), Raleen Jordon, Dale Irons. Our Teacher was Mrs. Cook I believe. I’m sure Brad knows every person in the picture, he has always been a people person, I was like Grant Eggli, just tooling around in my own little world. (I am the youngest one in the picture.)

Thanks for the picture Jill I never remember having that photo. I went and got some full page Photo Paper and with the help of Dan, printed up a nice sharp copy. Jill the second picture is Brad pulling the wagon and Sid is in the back of the wagon, but the other boy is not Spencer, it must be a friend or neighbor of Brad’s. The building behind the boys to the right which doesn’t exist any more, I still have dreams about that building even though I don’t ever remember that building being there. The picture lets me know the building in my dreams really did exist at one time.

Mom here  The jello salad that Dad (made) was really put together by me.  I don’t like every bowl and spoon is be used and then I have a lot of dirty dishes, so with one bowl and measuring cup and a spoon I made the salad.  I stayed home last Sat.night and worked on the lesson for Sunday School.  But I only had Lissette and Dad had Floyd and Tyrza so we combined the class.  It made Lissette a happy camper.  I don’t know what she will do if the General Authorities send them back to Jonesboro ward.

We are having a warming trend but that always means that we will have cold weather next.  The rain is something that I am used to but freezing rain not so much.

Tomorrow we go to Searcy for Specialized Training.  We take the Sisters to the meetings so they can save on miles except this week they are without a car so we will be going where they go as they will go with us.

We have a birthday visit to make today.  A Sister in the Branch offered to help me make the birthday cards but they are all sick today and I’m not keen on getting sick so we will wait until they are well.  Last night we had a dinner appointment that was next to impossible to find in the dark.  None of us had been to Sister Weston’s home so we finally had to text her to get better instructions on how to find her.  I think that we should some time try to find where we are suppose to go in the daylight so by the time it is dark we know where to go.

We visited with a Sister on Sat. that is a less active.  She has been in the temple and has her temple clothes hanging in her closet.  But now she is smoking and drinking coffee.  What a disappointment, she knows that she needs to come back to church.  The thought that popped into my head was that Christ didn’t necessarily  come to bless those  that were already righteous, but to help those who were the back sliders, and sinners.  So that is what I told her.  I know that her heart is being pricked if we can now take advantage of that and invite her to come back.

Well my dears I need to close.  Know that we love you and pray for you.

                          Love

                        Dad and Mom, Grammy and Papa and Elder and Sister Hansen

A Special Treat

You are going to thank me for this.  It will make you smile all day long from cuteness overload.  It's like walking into a room full of cute (and totally housebroken) baby animals.  The best part?  I'm pretty sure that some of those boys of yesterday are sporting haircuts that the men they are today still cling to.  (ahem, Dad) 

1/6/14

Dear Family and Friends                                                                    January 6, 2014

 

            Since Dad did not sleep well last night he has made a date with the pillow on the bed, just now.  I usually sleep through all of his wanderings in the night.  I irritated my scatia (don’t know how to spell it) nerve by sitting on the heels of my shoe while cutting out wrapping paper for my SS class visual aid.  I should have done the cutting on the table instead of thinking that I could cut the paper on the floor.  So now I don’t sleep well if in my sleep I try to turn I wake up to a very painful bottom and leg.   I know that it will go away but for right now it is very painful.

     We helped with the wedding of Lloyd and Judy Dunn.  We tried not to get so involved that we excluded their family.  So our job was to get the church cleaned up and get the Relief Society room cleaned and to rearrange the chairs.  I was putting things in closets I hope that when they want something that they can find it.  The Sisters helped with cleanup and putting things back but they didn’t know where things went either.  Dad wrenched his back because we were stacking chairs in the back hallway and we were also stacking tables that were not needed for the reception.  It was a nice reception even Pres La Vetter was duly impressed.  Judy’s sisters really came through with flowers, wedding bouquet, table clothes, and refreshments.  Then of course we had to put all the chairs back into the cultural hall.  The Elders were really good about helping with the clean up.   So all the missionaries, did the set up, the clean up, and giving support.  Since Judy has already committed to being baptized we now can set up a date to do that relatively soon I hope.  The Branch Mission Pres. is now asking people in the Branch to aid and support everyone that we have activated and now baptized.  All this will not work unless the members of the Branch extend a welcoming hand.  They have been so far really good about making Cowboy and others welcomed.  Because as the Mission President has just reminded us our time here is short. 

    We are over the hump for our mission.  We have met all but about 10 of the less actives.  Some of these are the hard cases as is the birthday visit today.  I’m pretty sure that she will take the cookies but won’t invite us in but at least she will know that we do care about her.  Anymore we have been increasing in attendance which is good.  There are so many youth that with the permission of the Branch President we split  the youths into an older class which I still teach and the younger class which Dad teaches.  I should have at least six that would be in my class but three come occasionally and that leaves me always teaching two.  I could go into Dad’s class but his lesson is for twelve and thirteen year olds and not for fifteen or sixteen year olds so they would be bored if we tried that.  I already know how that goes.

     Arkansas is having the coldest January since 20 years ago.  They are afraid that Feb. will be the same and that is the month that they plant potatoes.  Branch members tease that we missed the cold temperatures so much that we brought the frigid air with us.  We are glad for our coats, gloves and warm clothes.  The sun is warm but the air outside is freezey cold and it isn’t warm enough to melt anything.  We were suppose to have snow yesterday, everyone at church were in a dither about snow.  When we went to church it was 49 a little warm for snow but three hours later the cold wind dropped the temps to 32.  It was still raining but is was also quickly turning to ice.  The rain stopped so no snow or freezing rain just plain cold.  We were on the far east of that storm so we didn’t get the full brunt of the storm.  I was just getting ready to start dumping  the water I have been saving  in case that we have a power outage I think that I will save it a little longer.

          Dad here, Just finished a few minutes ago the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. Started reading the Old Testament 2 weeks ago, hopefully I can finish it by the end of the month. Last Friday the sisters missionaries received a revelation, while out visiting branch members, of how we can better do missionary work in the branch. The sisters called the Elders and us and we all met at the branch mission leader’s home for a late meeting. They explained their revelation, which is what has already been outlined by the brethren, but to them it was a new revelation. So we dutifully got excited with them and we now have a new impetus to drive the missionary work forward in this branch. We really have a fun branch here in Paragould the branch leaders really back the missionaries and often express their gratitude. The Sisters are so darn cute about the way they go about their work. We just got a brand new Elder from Amalga, Utah this past week, which brings new excitement to the work. We have the Elders Quorum Game Meat Night this Saturday, which hopefully brings out the men in the branch.

            Sunday, we had six new kids coming out of primary into Sunday School. So far in the Sunday School there has only been one class for all the youth. But because of the new influx, the youth SS now has two classes. Some young people have resisted the change, because it has never been done that way. I think in the long run it will be for the best. Our lessons for January are on the Godhead, and since there is going to be a youth temple trip on the 25^th of January, we are slanting our lessons to help prepare them for the temple and know the Godhead better through temple worship.

            So very, very sad to hear about Clayton Beesley. He has been a faithful Home Teacher for many years. We got a Christmas letter from him two weeks ago. He said it was the first letter he had written in 30 years. When mom and I moved back to Weiser from college, mom’s first calling was to teach the 12 years old in Sunday School. Clayton was one of the kids in her class, he has been dear to us ever since.

            Tomorrow is a zone meeting in Searcy, Arkansas. I really dislike those 2 hour drives to Searcy, 2hrs down, 2hrs of meeting, 2hrs back. Shoots the whole day. And there is really nothing for the senior missionaries, except furnish missionaries with a ride down. It is nice to visit with the missionaries, which makes it kind of redemptive. 

            Got down to 10 degrees this morning, kind of chilly, our car seemed to say: “What are you trying to do to me? What did I do to deserve this? Where’s my nice warm garage?”

            Well bye for now. Love you all. Elder and Sister Hansen.