Changing it up

Elder Marin and Elder Hazeslip

Ok. Maybe I'll switch this up a bit. Just some general information instead of the normal daily format thing. Meh, I might go back to it next week.

So Hansen is really small. There is a school, a park, a gas station, a library, and a restaurant called T and T.  Also there are two churches, a Baptist church and an Assembly of God. We cover the Hansen Ward and the Murtaugh Ward, both of which meet in a building in Murtaugh (about 15 minutes from Hansen) that really doesn't have much parking space. The other wards in the stake are in Kimberly which we only cover for Spanish. 

The Light the World initiative is what we spend all of our non-teaching time with. We try to talk with everyone and give them a card because we have a goal to talk to 17 different people each day. We have made it every day so far, even the days when we don't really have that much time. I like teaching more than finding, the days that we have no appointments drag on. 

It gets dark really early. And when it does get dark, it gets pretty cold. Yesterday was also REALLY windy, it felt like the house was trying to blow away. 

Pretty much nobody knows where Arkansas is, nor what it is like. Other people nod, but they are actually imagining Kansas. (Really windy and snowy and there aren't many trees) There actually was a lady today who joked that I had shoes on. She knew what Arkansas was.

I haven't been fed nearly as many potatoes as I thought. There are a lot of them, and they are really good, but it isn't nearly the daily potato fest that I thought it would be.

OH YEAH. I actually had spicy potatoes yesterday. We had dinner with the branch and I had mashed potatoes with salsa!

Dad chastised me for only putting this in the letter I sent home this week, so I guess it can go in the email too. We have 4 investigators with a baptismal date! 3 of them are in Murtaugh and the other is in Hansen.

The three girls we have been teaching in Murtaugh we found while we were in Murtaugh the first Sunday of the transfer. Their grandpa came up to us and asked us if we could teach his granddaughters and get them baptized. That was probably the easiest question to answer this year. Everything is going well and they should be baptized on the 16th.

The other investigator is in Hansen. His baptism date is in January and he is doing well too. We haven't been able to meet with him very often but he has finished the discussions. 

Ok, now back to today! So far I got a haircut and cleaned the house a bit. We actually have an appointment at 5:00 so Preparation Day is ending early today. 

LOVE ALL OF YOU!

oh yeah, and Zone Conference is tomorrow, so you should see some more pictures of me then @mom.

-Elder Hazeslip

Q & A

1. Why no blurry pictures of your FACE last week?

HI MOM! Sorry we are writing emails late, this is going to be sent from the Hansen Library. I only have one picture of my face (I got a haircut today), but I guess it is better than none. Now that I'm the driver, picture taking opportunities are few and far between.

2. What was your talk about last week? Share some highlights with us? 

My talk was about how Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. It went pretty well. I filled up the time I needed to and used a lot of scriptures since I can't just use LDS.org. Speaking of that by the way. MLC was last Tuesday and we are getting smartphones and Facebook. Soon. They said it was like the second coming, we are in the 11th hour, we just don't know how long an hour is.

3. Do you have a picture to send that you would like me to hang on the tree this year? (In the annual ornaments of 3)

Hmm. Yeah, I can send one, it will probably be next Monday, but I'll make it a good one!

4. Did you get your tree decorated Dec. 1? 

Elder Marin noticed that the tree had 25 ornaments, I'm doing a count up with them and putting one on each day.

5. What is your house like? Does the train wake you up?

It is very small. The heater shakes the whole house when it turns on, so that and the train woke me up a few times when we first moved in. We don't have a mop or toilet brush so keeping it clean is a bit difficult but I'm managing.

6. Do you think/guess/speculate that you will stay there another transfer? It looks like they sent Sisters back to Burley - based on my blog stalking. 

Yes, but you never know, they could whitewash sisters in. I got an email from Elder Hodge today, so I think they still have them in Burley. There were two sets of missionaries there before, so they have Hermanas and Elders.

7. How many transfers has Elder Marin been in Kimberly? 

This is his second transfer

8. Need anything? Still doing good, thanks! About mailing stuff home, I greatly overestimated how often I would use T-shirts, we don't exercise like we did in the MTC, and I may send some of those home.

LOVE YOU TOO! Very much. BTW, 21 days till Christmas! And SKYPE CALL!

Two Christmas Trees! 

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The view