February 27th, 2016 - Week 29

Here is what we got from Griffin this week:

So this week was interesting to say none the less. So this whole week I was super excited to go to Mongolia the following Monday. Throughout the week is been packing my bags and getting them ready to go. I got all my stuff packed and sent some stuff home. Super stoked! So yesterday night (Sunday) the departing  Missionaries met at the mission presidents house and had a steak dinner, it was super good. All the visa waiters who are leaving got thrown in with the departing missionaries. But when we got there elder Udall and I weighted our bags, and president came out and told us to come inside and talk with him. Go inside the house and he sits down and talks with us and said that our visas still hadn't come in, and that the travel office thinks it'll be another week before they will come in. So right now it's  predicted to come in by March 3rd. So I'll leave on March 3rd probably. But past that the week went by pretty smoothly. One thing I'd like to touch on is how powerful the gospel is when it comes to changing people's lives. We have this investigator who's on date for the 18th of March. Before we were teaching her she had been smoking since she was 8, now she's 65. So we've been teaching her and now she hasn't smoking in over 40 days. That knowledge of the gospel is powerful enough to change people for the rest of their lives. It's amazing to see the growth in her life as she becomes a different person through the gospel. It's strengthened my testimony of the power of the atonement by seeing the change in her life.

Elder Griffin Hansen

February 20th, 2017 - Week 28

Here is what Griffin sent us this week:

Hey everyone! This week has been really good. We went on exchanges this week and mostly did finding this week. All I can think about is how this my last p-day in the USA. Next Monday I'm going to be flying over to Mongolia, so I'm not sure how much of a chance I'll get to email.

Overall this week was pretty slow here in Smithfield we contacted a few people and worked with our current people who we're teaching. We walked a lot this week trying to find people to teach our someone who knows someone else ready to be taught. We also went on exchanges with the zone leaders in preston this week, that was fun, we got to see all the places napoleon dynamite to place at! It's really funny cause a lot of people in Idaho don't like it when you bring up napoleon dynamite, but it's super funny to talk about. But overall my thoughts have been wondering to Mongolia almost everyday this week and the differences from Logan Utah and there. I haven't even started packing for it, but I'm going to need to send a ton of stuff from my suit cases home this week.

Elder Griffin Hansen

February 13th, 2017 - Week 27

Here is what we got from Griffin:

This week was a really average week, we started off our p-day by going shopping in logan. That was pretty fun. The he next day  as not too spectacular. At least until the evening. Elder Rivera and I were tracting late that night, we were walking in front of this house, the house was a little sketchy looking, but they're lots of houses that look like that. It was around 8:00 so it was dark out, and we were just walking and messing around like we usually do. When all of the sudden we saw this thing moving from the side yard of the sketchy houses. We didn't mind it too much, we just right it was a cat. But then this white, it blended in with the snow, mid-sized dog came out of the yard at full force towards us. It was barking but it stopped about 8 feet away and stood barking at us. Elder Rivera then said, "No way, you going in front of me!" and he stood behind me   so I could take the bullet, but I figured if we ran the dog would chase us, so I stood there. We did there looking at the dog for about a minute, and then a scary looking guy came out of the sketchy houses and grabbed the dog and yelled at it, and took it back inside the house. Then on Thursday we were tracting and we ran into this house, when I guy opened the door be muttered something under his breath, closed the door and shut the blinds to his window. It was kind of awkward because we did understand what he said, cause it sound like he was trying to say something to us, but he was hard to hear. So we did there for a moment a little confused, maybe he would come back(?), until we got tired and left. Also on Thursday we had a mission conference and that was pretty cool, we mostly did training, ate breakfast, and talked. My week part that was mostly average. But I feel like I'm forgetting to mention something, something important... Oh yeah  I got my visa!!!!!!!!!!!🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳🇲🇳  It came on ednesday morning. So we had just finished companionship study, when we got a call from the mission office, they told me that I am able to go but I need to do another hiv test for to be valid. They told me to go to the mission office in logan. So me and elder Udall(he got his visa also) met at the mission office, and they told us that we needed to go back to the mtc, which is a 2 hour drive down, to redo our hiv tests. So spent the whole day in the car with one of the mission office missionaries, elder lemon. We stopped at the Brigham mission conference on the way, got to see my first zone again and got to say good bye to them. Then we ate lunch and chilled basically the whole day. So as of right now I'm at to leave for Mongolia on the  27th of February!

Elder Griffin Hansen

Here's some pictures of us on a spooky road at night in the middle of nowhere. The tabernacle in Smithfield. US at the mtc again. The river flowing from all the snow melting. And a towel a senior couple made for me!

February 6th, 2017 - Week 26

Here is what we got from Griffin this week:

Hey this is my weekly letter(it's a legit one this time, so gather around and hear the story and  adventure of a young elder in logan Utah, a land where snow falls in the morning then it melts in. the afternoon, where the air is so green and thick that it warms the air and raises the temperature by 10 degrees! And his struggles in a place where a whole ward covers only 6 blocks!

   So this week started off pretty good. Last p-day we got a text from a potential investigator who wanted to meet that night, we were stoked! The rest of our p-day was really chilled out past that. So we had a lesson with this investigator (who we had been trying to contact for a little while and she called us!) and we put her a date for  baptism on the 18, but she didn't come to church yesterday, so she lost her days.    The rest of the week was not too different. Then we meet with another investigator who's super solid! So she had a really rough life, but she knows the gospel is true! The only thing that kept her from getting baptized is that she smokes, but we committed her to quit and she hasn't smoked in 3 weeks! But she has the rest of the month,then she'll be ready!    So this week I think is exemplified by Alma 37:6 "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." I know that miracles aren't always big things that change our lives, but small things change us step by step and make us change for the better, my testimony of that grown a lot because of the things that I've seen on my mission!    Ps a shout out to Elder Yost, whose format I copied!

Elder Griffin Hansen