September 27th, 2016 - Week 6

Here is what Griffin had to say this week. Don't worry, he's getting a package of cold/flu goodies tomorrow. Also, our neighbor's house was broken into and my mom asked what kind of dog he thinks we should get so that is why he talks about a dog.

It's nice to hear about home. Honestly it's been a pretty boring week here. My companion and I had this investigator that we've been working on for the past couple of weeks, and he dropped last night, so that was kind of a downer. But we did just get a new investigator so it's kind of a relief. I'm starting to get sick here, I think I may have a cold or a fever. I went to the clinic to talk about the vaccines and they said that I didn't need anything else, and that if there's anymore requirements that the government needs that I'll just be given them over there. This week has been a pretty challenging one for my companion and I, the language learning seemed a little slow this week, the investigator, and I've been feeling sick. It's honestly been kind of frustrating this week, but still worth it. Honestly if it were my choice I would get a full sized schnauzer, like a mix that is at least Shasta size, that is mixed with a full sized poodle, just because the dog would be cute, decent sized, and part guard dog.  Hey so I'm going to send back some clothes that I don't need, I have too much stuff to carry in my suit cases to go over there with. Also in the next package I need some shaving cream, at least 6-8 small locks that I can put on my suitcases and bag. Some coke would be fantastic. Our investigator isn't a real investigator, he's just one of our teachers. But it still sucks.

Elder Griffin Hansen

September 20th, 2016 - Week 5

This week's email is a little short. If I get more I'll add it:

This week was pretty average. On Wednesday my district was asked to host (greet new missionaries coming into the MTC and show them around) and this Wednesday we're also hosting, that was pretty fun I was able to get out of class for a bit. Last Tuesday we had a devotional and got to see Elder Cook, that was pretty awesome. This week has been kind of frustrating, just the stress has built up overtime and being in a classroom all day can be stressful. Our new investigator can be a stickler sometimes and is a little hard to teach. You don't need to send the flute, the harmonica I got is perfect.

Elder Griffin Hansen

September 13th, 2016 - Week 4

Here are a couple of things that were sent late last week from last week:

We've gone through the temple twice. I see Isaac almost everyday. I don't know who my sponsor is yet.

сайн байна уу - that's Mongolian for hello.

Here are the letters this week, we condensed them into one.

Here are some pictures of my district, my companion, my room, and of Elder Williams. Elder Williams is going to Malaysia for his mission, he's Samoan. He didn't know how to read when he came into the MTC, he was here for 6 weeks, and learned basically how to read in those weeks, and also learned Malay. That Elder in my room is one of our new room mates we got this week. Elder Glaesener (the one in the pictures) is from Luxembourg and Elder Yost is from North Carolina, they're both going to California Lao speaking.

This is President Moon, he's our branch president. I went to Thailand on his mission, I think he knows uncle John.

So this week was pretty quiet. I've been getting better at that language, like a lot better. A lot of the people in the Asian speaking zone have been leaving this week, so our floor has been really quiet. So there was this Elder named Elder Smith who can do this awesome thing, he can pee over two stalls in a bathroom. So told everyone on our floor to come into the bathroom one night just before bed. Like 30 people show up in the bathroom, he walks over to the sink, takes a drink of water, and starts doing stretches. He gets done stretching(he didn't want to pull somethings) he walks over to a urinal and he says, "watch this", and while standing facing the urinal a steady stream flies over the next to stalls to the left, and all over the walls of the far stall. He's now in Indonesia.. – This is a prank…

For the pictures just send some of like wildlife, the potholes would be great, maybe the animals. Apparently Mongolians really like to share pictures when they first meet people, so its good to have a lot of pictures of home. And honestly you could probably just find some pictures online or something in Moses Lake and Washington area, Mongolians really like to what type of wildlife other places have.

Also within this last week, Elder Christofferson came to the MTC and Elder Ballard came to give devotionals. That was pretty awesome. This is what my name tag looks like, but they haven't translated 'Hansen'  yet, but it will look like 'хансэн' which literally means 'was king'. But there's another way to spell it has no meaning.

So yesterday in one of our lessons my companion wasn't feeling well, so we were talking about how families can be together forever, and I pretty much just described the whole thing in Mongolian. So I think I'm definitely getting better at the language. And at one point she asked when families could be together forever, and a I said was after death, so casually, and her reaction was just funny to see, but I didn't know what else to say.

Elder Hansen

This is President Moon, he's our branch president. I went to Thailand on his mission, I think he knows uncle John. (Our uncle does know him)

September 6, 2016 - Week 3

This week we got two letters from Griffin so I condensed them into one. Here it is:

Hey this week was great. We had a devotional on Sunday and the guy speaking was a BYU football player who was named Cody Lewis, he jumped over someone in a game. My district is getting along pretty well, my companion, Elder Udall, is still the district leader and its really weird. Everybody else in our district are older, or have been to college, they're also from bigger cities, so its really intimidating to be in the class because we're both small guys who are younger than everyone else, but then it comes to learning the language we're coming along pretty well. My biggest fear right now would be becoming district leader when we switch out leadership, because our district has some some people in it that don't get along very much and I don't want to deal with that.  I didn't take any pictures this week, there really isn't a lot of things to take pictures of. The first week or so of the language I was able to start reading in Mongolian, now I've gotten to the point where I'm starting to use simple sentences on a daily basis. Okay so past all the mushy stuff, in the next care package could you send me some pictures of home like; people, friends, places, family, the pothole, the lake, and lots of pictures of animals, not just our animals but also pictures of deer and other wild life; next send me either that wooden flute or another instrument that's small and instructions on how to play it and easy, simple songs too with it. It's nice to see you guys. How's everything been back home? What's Campbell up to? What's everybody up to? Love all you guys.

Oh yeah I forgot to tell you all of the funny things taht have happened in the MTC, so the first week we were here me and my companion both took showers after exercising and got locked out of our room (it was like our third day here), so we were stuck in only towels for an hour and a half, then someone had a birthday and the whole floor make a present made from old stuff, but someone had smuggled in a road flare (we couldn't find any candles) so we lit it when he walked into his room where we were hiding, he freaked but the flare was going for a bit, then exploded in the room, it was pretty awesome. So the other day me and my companion were giving a lesson and the girl we were giving it to, her name meaning "my light" but it sounds really similar to "will you marry me" in Mongolian, so I said her name (wrong) in the lesson, she just looked at me and was laughing, she said she already had a husband. Then the other day I was giving part of a lesson and I said "to seek for the gospel of Jesus Christ" but the words for seek and kill are literally only one letter off so what I actually said was "To kill for the gospel of Jesus Christ" he just laughed at what I said, a lot. Finally an Elder going to Vietnam broke his tailbone falling down the stairs, and now he sits on a pool floaty all the time. So he's in a lesson with his pool floaty and the investigator asks why he's sitting on it, well it turns out in Vietnamese brake and violate are very similar words, so the Elder meant to say "I broke my butt" but he actually said, "My butt was violated" and the investigator just laughed for their whole lesson.

Elder Griffin Hansen