December 28th, 2016 - Week 20

We got to Skype with Griffin on Christmas Day and I took a few screen shots. I also included all of the pictures that members have sent to us. Here is a little note and a picture we got from Griffin yesterday.

Христийн Мэндэлсний Баярын!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Hey I'm just checking in for this week. This last little bit was really awesome. Me and my companion, Elder Bower, are getting along pretty well. He's from Michigan so he's pretty used to the snow. We've been having a pretty successful last couple of weeks and we've been making progress in our areas so that's pretty good!

Elder Griffin Hansen

Griffin's caption was: That amazing smog

December 12th, 2016 - Week 18

Sorry I dropped the ball and am getting this up late this week, I was in the process of packing and moving and completely forgot to post the letter and pictures we  received this week.

So this week was the first week of this transfer and it was
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got put in a trio with Elders Laughlin and
Bower, and now I cover my old area, YSA, and Chinese work in the area.
And with Chinese we're allowed to go out of the mission to teach
Chinese people. We also have been blessed with a car, and all warmth
it brings in the winter. Two days ago an elder in another part of the
mission got sick, and Elder Laughlin was called to go and fill in for
him, he was also the one of us that spoke Chinese. Now it's just me
and elder bower covering all of it, and we don't know Chinese!!!! So
it should be an adventure this transfer. We got one investigator on
date for baptism this week and two more by the end of this week!!!!!!!
This week was really interesting, the first day of the , Tuesday, we
had to go shopping, and while we were shopping a guy came up to us and
gave us 100$ we were pretty surprised, usually it's like 10$, but we
continued to shop and he found us again and gave us another 100$, so
we got 200$ in one day, it's crazy how much people around here love
the missionaries. Then the next day, Wednesday, we contacted a
referral that we had gotten. We walked up to the door and a teenage
girl opened the door, her father then came over and let us in, he was
a half middle eastern and half Hispanic man. We went in and talked and
the girls and his wife were in the kitchen cooking up dinner, his wife
was Hispanic. We talked with him and he is Muslim, and we were like
"okay, this is going to be interesting." And Sayeed (the dad) started
talking about how he's religious, we talked about the Book of Mormon
and Joseph Smith. Then he started talking about how he's seen Jesus in
a vision and the end of the world and how he's had dreams where he
seen Moses, Mohamed, and Abraham. And by the way he's a direct
descendant of Abraham. But we ended up getting a return appointment,
we mainly wanted to talk to his daughters cause they're ones we got
the referral for. At the end of the lesson we said prayer and he said
a Muslim prayer. Then the next day was when Elder Laughlin left, and
it's been pretty normal sense then. Then earlier today we were
shopping for groceries at smiths and a lady was in the parking lot
selling tamales, so I bought a few. And over all it's been a pretty
productive week. It's awesome being out during Christmas time and
seeing how awesome the season is because we celebrate Christ's birth.

Elder Griffin Hansen

Here are the pictures and video he sent

December 5th, 2016 - Week 17

Here is Griffin's letter from today. It's pretty short.

Okay so I'm going to stay in the same area. I got two companions, and now my area encompasses Chinese, north Ogden YSA, and cold water(my old area). So I'm going to cover all of North Ogden for Chinese and YSA but we don't have a car. And we cover Ogden also, so we get everywhere in the southern part of the mission. So tomorrow I'm getting transferred. This week has been really slow, we had a baptism, that was super awesome and was definitely the highlight of the week. Most of this week has been Elder Waite packing and getting ready. I also have two companions now.

Elder Griffin Hansen

November 28th, 2016 - Week 16

Griffin didn't write a whole lot this week, but it sounds like he had fun in the first real snow of this winter here in Utah.

This week was pretty good overall we've busy with a lot of farewell stuff for elder Waite, passed that it's been pretty slow. It (Thanksgiving) was awesome. We ate with this member family and the dad was just like the dad from Christmas vacation, he looked like him and everything. Nope, I still haven't heard anything about my visa, so I'll probably be here another transfer. Yeah we've been playing in it (snow) all day. Thanksgiving was really fun. We had dinner with a really awesome member family, and ate a lot. It's soooooooooo nice to hear from you guys!!!!!!!!!!! We have one person on date for baptism for December, and they're pretty solid for it. I'm thankful for having my family and having the friends that I have. It just snowed up here and it's pretty fun.

Elder Griffin Hansen

Here is a picture with the caption: "Elder Richardson found this in his pocket after our snow ball fight."

November 21st, 2016 - Week 15

Here is what Griffin had to say this week:

This week was okay. Non of our investigators came to church, so they're all getting pushed back. We're probably going to drop one, and the other we're unsure of. It's really hard on Elder Waite(my companion) cause it's his second to last week, so this is his last chance to baptize people on his mission. So yesterday(Sunday) and today we feel down in the dumps. We've been yelled at by a bishop, told that we were wrong, called and told by ward mission leaders that we aren't doing things right. It all around kind of stinks.

Elder Griffin Hansen

Here are some pictures and a video he sent:

November 14th, 2016 - Week 14

Here's what we got from Griffin this week:

This week is really good. We've gotten 5 people total now on date for baptism which is pretty awesome. I gave my first blessing this to someone, which was really awesome. Obviously I went to get sushi on my birthday with Helen and Julie and Sean and Dusty, that was super nice to see them all. This last Sunday kind of sucked because non of our investigators went to church which pushes them all back to December 3, but they're all still on date. Overall this week was really good. Yeah the weather has been really warm here so it's not to bad. On Friday and Saturday we had a blitz, which is where we go exchanges and go into an area that's not having success and help the missionaries there. The elder I was on exchanges with and I were over two wards and we got two new investigators for them.

Elder Hansen


Here is a picture someone in his area sent us:

November 7th, 2016 - Week 13

Today was Griffin's birthday and P-Day, so a few of us got permission to take Griffin and his companion out to lunch! We went and got sushi because that is one of Griffin's favorite things. Here is the letter that he sent this morning. It sounds like he is having a really good time.

So this week was really awesome. First off p-day was on Halloween, so
we had a full day of p-day, which was amazing. We weren't allowed to
go out passed 6 so we meet at a church building and chilled in there
until 9, we played games and watched inside out, which was really fun.
Then we did missionary work this week, so we got a whole family to
commit to baptism, another investigator, and then we met this awesome
family this week. So this family we found has a single mom and two
young boys, and we were talking about the the plan of salvation and
they all agreed that they wanted to be baptized, and are basically
ready, all they need to do is go to church three times, same thing
with this other investigator. This other family has an inactive dad
and a nonmember mom, and the mom really is considering baptism and the
dad is fully supportive of it, and the dad is trying to reactivate, he
just struggles with some word of wisdom stuff, but pasted that he
could baptize her if he wanted. So this week we had four investigators
come to church with us, and I'm going to guess that the other went
also to sacrament, but they live a different area and can't walk that
fast. Then yesterday after church I gave my first blessing which was
awesome, then I had to go on splits with the zone leaders and I helped
them commit someone to baptism and reading the Book of Mormon. And
today is my Birthday, overall this week has been amazing and I've
really started to see the hand of the Lord in my life.

Elder Hansen

Surprise Text!

We got a text message from someone in North Ogden where Griffin is waiting for his Mongolian Visa. The message said:

Thanks for sharing your son with us! - Sister Harmon

October 31st, 2016 - Week 12

We got an email from the family in Ogden Griffin and his companion are staying with and today is Griffin's P-Day. I'll update this as I get letters from him.

Letter from Brother and Sister Montgomery:

We are the Montgomerys. Elder Hansen along with his new companion Elder Waite are now living in our basement apartment.  We know Elder Hansen is waiting for his visa.  We live in the Coldwater Stake in North Ogden, and have been truly blessed to provide a home for the missionaries for over 6 years.  We have a small farm homesteaded by my husband's ancestors.  I'm attaching a photo of your son with his new companion at the entrance to their apartment, and a few of the yard surrounding the house. We have tried to provide a beautiful,  peaceful surrounding in and around our home.  We truly love the missionaries! 

With love,  Sister Dianne Montgomery

Griffin's letter:
Yeah it's pretty good here. We got someone to commit to baptism yesterday. I'm definitely excited for Halloween. Tonight the zone is getting together and we're watching a movie. I'll ask president Allred if they can come up on my birthday, that day is also p-day. I'm also in north Ogden right now. I'm pretty good we actually have two baptisms, but the other still needs to do some stuff so she's not on date. Overall it's good, the sisters who had this area before us weren't very organized, so we've been doing a lot of stuff to get to know the area. We've had a few doors shut in our face's, a made apple cider, helped someone move, walked our whole area in the rain, and got to go to cafe rio with a member. Yeah it's really nice we practically never pay for anything because the members are always offering to pay for meals. So what's been going on out in the world?

Elder Griffin Hansen

October 27th, 2016 - Week 11

I got this email late last night. It sounds like he is doing good.

Hey mom I'm doing great in Logan. Yesterday I helped give two
blessings, they also gave me an iPad. Going into the future. I've been
doing language study a lot and just been getting to know the area, the
people here treat the missionaries like royalty. But I still am
longing to got to Mongolia as soon as possible. 🇲🇳 When tell people
that I speak Mongolian they're always really confused and say,
"there's a Mongolian speaking mission here?!" Then they look at my
name tag and are either amazed by it or they see sorry for me. And
it's really a blessing when they feel sorry because they treat me
really well, like yesterday this high council member bought me a milk
shake after I told about the language.

Elder Griffin Hansen

October 22nd - Week 10

So we received this email from Griffin earlier this week:

So today was our last day in the ELC. I said goodbye to my students today, I did an evaluation based on a video they made of me teaching, I'll send you a video of it when I get a chance. Then the ELC coordinators had a ceremony and gave us our certificates at the end of day. Then we get back at 3:45 pm to the MTC, so we get out of the van and go check. We check the mail, I look in the mail box and there's a bunch of paper in it. It wasn't too surprising because we haven't been able to check the mail all day. So I look at the mail pass out personal letters to people and then I look at the bottom of the pile and me and three other people got letters. And it turns out that my visa hasn't come in, so I'm being reassigned to Logan, Utah with my companion until my visa comes in. But I still have hope because we leave for Mongolia on the 25, and I have until the 24 to get my visa, and if I get in Logan, then I still just have to go through a transfer or two. I'm not to worried about it, it's just really hard on the district. And it worries that my language skills my not improve past that.

Elder Griffin Hansen

As of this morning Griffin still has not received his visa. I'll update this when I get more information.

These were students in his English class

Here are a bunch of pictures from Griffin that he just sent me: