7/8/2024 - Week 51 - Elder Hansen speaks Spanish (not clickbait?!?!)

What's good brothers and sisters?

This week was pretty crazy, but sadly I'm running out of time to write this email so it will probably just be random thoughts with no real connection (or is that just what I normally write?)

For actual missionary work:
-we found two sets of 4 Venezuelans on Monday in the space of 10 minutes and they are all mad chill. One of them is actually a member from Venezuela that was baptized in 2019, but he had almost no recollection of church beyond basic stuff and that he was baptized. We're meeting with 2 of them today!
-stopped by a PMF (Part Member Family) and they are super cool, they just work a TON. They also showed us their gecko.
-we had an exchange up in Downtown Dayton (my ol' stompin grounds) and had an amazing lesson with their friend on date about Prophets and that we have a prophet today! There was a baptism in the English YSA ward directly afterwards so we all pulled up to that (including the friend on date) and she cried the whole time because she felt the spirit so strongly (even though there was some funky YSA doctrine being preached from the pulpit — but thats okay) and then she was interviewed for baptism afterwards and passed! Prayers up for Yulissa!
-We taught this super cool young couple in their home twice this week and they are super cool! We talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of Baptism with them and they said they understand why we need the Book of Mormon and why we need to be baptized! They also have a VERY young daughter who loves Elder Kirkham and kept stealing his tag.
-Lastly, we had a friend show up to church who didn't give us a solid commitment so that was a miracle, and whats even more of a miracle is that she participated a ton in the Sunday School and it was all about the importance of being Baptized by the proper authority (and at/after the age of accountability). She loved it and told us this church is the only place she's felt peace and acceptance in the United States!

Not necessarily missionary work:
-made some 4th of July Lava Cake Pancakes and they weren't bad! Rating 6/10
-learned how to make arepas with Elder Subero on exchanges (he only speaks spanish so it was a real struggle for us to communicate because he wanted to practice English and i need to talk in Spanish) Rating 10/10
-made Chocolate pupusas (with Nutella filling) Rating 8/10
- made my own sopes with shredded chicken and queso blanco. Rating 8/10
- I was gifted a nice pickleball paddle and an electric piano by two different Elders in the zone
-We played some 4th of July Pickleball with the district

Cool moment of the week:
Guatemala is a crazy country because they have somewhere between 24-32 Spanish dialects (which are nothing like Spanish at all) but I've learned how to say "how are you?" in a few of them (because Cincinnati is practically Guatemala City with how many Guatemalans there are) and I came across a guy who spoke Ixil in Dayton on exchanges and bro was beyond flabbergasted when I hit him with a "kam tal ax?"  Made me feel good for real!

Thats pretty much all I got this week.
Peace out. It'd be pretty chill if you wrote me an email this week.
-Elder Hansen aka Parker

















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