September 30, 2024 - 58th Email - It's back

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen (idk what timezone youre in but its afternoon here so its now afternoon for you too)

Yeah so the fire came back and it smelled like smoke outside this morning so thats pretty great (not really) i think theyre getting it under control a little better this time (i hope) idk how burned land is burning again it doesnt really make a lot of sense but here we are

This week blew by pretty fast ngl but at the same time i look back a week ago and am super confused how this all happened in the same week

So we went to the temple tuesday morning and honestly that feels like it was a month ago it was great to go to the temple and stuff since we live so close we dont get to enjoy the long drive but its ok we chillin anyway

Some cool good news if you serve in the inland empire from now on we are going to be able to go to the temple once a transfer so thats super cool (so if i serve in fontana, rialto, san bernardino, redlands, or yucaipa)

Uhhh tuesday evening we started up soccer night they had done it in the ward before but they had stopped for whatever reason before i got here (idk why it was bumpin apparently) it was fun but we also played inside and these hispanics are professionals and hitting the ball super hard so the ball is hitting everyone in the face (and it doesnt help that this one guy that got invited kinda acted like he owned the place) so we decided we aint gonna do it again this week to give it a pause and control better who is actually invited and stuff

Uhhhh monday evening we had an interesting event happen

We were driving un downtown san b tryna visit a referral and there arent really great places to park so we found an empty lot and i overshot the entrance on accident so i had to back up and turn in and as soon as we turn in theres another car in there that flashes its lights at us (its pitch black bro) and the person starts to get out of his car so im just like nah bro i aint dealin with this rn so i just drive all the way around the car and drive out of the lot i probably witnessed a drug deal or somethin idk but we outta there fast

We exchanged on wednesday and it was fun i went with elder godfrey he cool and junk i had to carry in my area because bro dont speak spanish but it was super fun lol i tried to teach him a lil smth

Thursday were president interviews but for some reason we had to go to the mission home in redlands this time and we have a little interview with sister pinnock too and i basically told her i was feeling physically tired and maybe i have to eat better or something so the entirety of my interview with her was making egg sandwiches she was like "wanna cook up some eggs" and im like "do i ever" so we did and it was absolutely gas im something of a chef myself

We had a friend kinda disappear but now we teaching the rest of his family so theres that i guess thats cool they were like "ayo so he aint here no more idk where bro dipped to but we'll talk to you" (except in spanish) so they chill and junk we went over like three days in a row and the guy wasnt there so we just chilled with the fam

Oh yeah also thursday we were visiting friends and this lady walking her dawg was like "ayo da mishonaries" (except in spanish) and was like "bro i got baptized in oklahoma but i here now living right there i want to come to church sunday" so that was epic

Saturday there was a baptizm for the hermanas, and then we had stake conference (but there wasnt any steak so i was a little disappointed) and elder pizarro translated for the spanish speakers (the turnout saturday night was really depressing like nobody from the ward came but sunday morning was way better

It was super fun so this weekend the zone actually had 7 baptisms (none from us but thats ok)

Funny story

One of the hermana's friends randomly appeared in our area book so we were like "maybe the hermanas referred this friend to us" so we visit him and hes like "naw the hermanas be teachin me" so we hecka confuzzled but we ask if hes ever thought about baptism and we just taught him about baptism and put him on date for this weekend and then we call the hermanas after and we're like "hey we just met your friend" and theyre like "oh cool weve been working with him forever he just wont get baptized" and we were like "hes getting baptized this weekend" and they were like "wait what" so he got baptized and stuff so it was a cool miracle

We went tracting like all sunday afternoon and also a member gave us chicken nuggets for dinner (they were gas even tho its not really hispanic food)

And yeah it was a good week overall im interested to see what happens with the fires again but i think we'll be chillin so yeah

Also october literally starts tomorrow idk how thats possible it's literally like still may

Also pray that it doesnt actually reach 105 degrees this week like the weather says it will im tryna get some good weather soon

In stake conference they talked about missionary work because a returned missionary and our recent convert whos about to put in his papers spoke too and it was cool seeing how much a mission changes both the returned missionary and the convert and we can all be missionaries even if we're not serving full time just by being a friend and stuff

Ok thats basically it lol bye

Pics

-temple

-more temple

-goats

-sunset

-chillin at stake conference

-fire

September 23rd, 2024 - 57th Email - I'm cooked

Hola buenas

So basically this week was weird

Dont worry Im not actually cooked this week was actually really nice weather wise

Someone in english class on thursday said "im cooked" instead of "im good" and we all had a good laugh about that

Idk what even happened this week it was kind a blur but also super long i wasnt feeling too great (probably from going to McDonalds twice and in n out and Wendy's and taco bell all in the same week) but we still were cookin with gas on the missionary work (see what I did there that was really funny huh)

Ok im not even joking i have no clue what we did this week

Pretty sure we went up to the mountains on tuesday

The fires are basically all gone

Did a cool exchange on wednesday holy cow wednesday feels like ten years ago

It was a good exchange tho the guy i went with is about to finish his mission this transfer so i got cool insights and all that fun jazz

We did a ton of contacting that day with some good lessons

We went tracting for the first time in forever on thursday and ran into this guy who has 9 kids and he said hed be down to meet with us again

He's lowkey one of those christians that just talks a lot that actually knows a lot about the bible but also rambles sometimes about stuff that doesnt really make sense

So we set up a return appointment cuz he was lowkey interested and we go back on saturday and bros like "yeah so i invited my pastor" and elder pizarro and i were both like oh boy this boutta be a bash and his pastor pulls up and we sit down and its all cool and it was actually a really cool conversation it was like a civil bash but not really bashing we got through the whole plan of salvation and restoration (we were there for like 3 hours and honestly i have no idea why we didnt leave earlier) and we only used scriptures in the bible the whole time and we actually got him pretty good on some things where he was doing some in depth research on the verse and its meaning and he was like "dang i dont know what that means" and we were like "well we can tell you" and the guy we were actually intending to teach was just kinda listening from the side so we finish up not really convincing anyone of anything and then as we get into our car we get a text from the guy saying "yeah you guys know a lot i learned a ton we'll keep in touch for sure" so i think we locked in with this guy something came out of that extended interaction

We also got invited to a ysa sermon at their church on friday lol we'll see if we have time for like ten minutes to check it out

Also on thursday we pull up to a recent convert's house and he's like "im hungry wanna go buy some food" and we're like "sure" so bro drives us to stater bros and we buy some chicken (like a cooked whole chicken) and then we go back to some park benches by his house and we just talk for like an hour while eating this chicken from the bag with our bare hands and using slices of bread as plates it was kinda a vibe honestly but probably not the most sanitary

Our baptism that was planned for sunday fell through which was super sad because apparently the guy doesn't know if he believes in God (idk how that one slipped through the cracks) but he still wants to come to church and stuff so we'll certainly see where this goes

Same guy comes to church on sunday with a hockey mask on his shirt and we were all super confused but he said it reminded him of his dad so we were like whatever but the stake president told the bishop who then relayed the message to us to tell him not to wear it to church meetings because everyone was asking about it lol so thisll be fun

Also in elders quorum a mini argument broke out over something goofy about the upcoming ward temple trip between two hermanos and it was all in front of our friends and it was getting kinda heated so i hope our friends didnt get turned away or anything but there was definitely contention

Saturday evening we had a cool culture night activity for the stake where there was good food and some cultural songs and dances from different countries like the us, mexico, american samoa, the philippines, and peru it was hype

Overall good week! I've been studying my patriarchal blessing tryna translate it into Spanish and it's been really cool learning new things as I'm looking pretty in depth into every sentence maybe a little more than I normally would so if you got one then study it because personal blessings are sick

Aight im outta here hasta la próxima

Elder Hanson

Pictures!

-ran into other missionaries that were tracting while i was on the exchange on wednesday

-live lion king reenactment

-elder pizarro's new best friend

September 16th, 2024 - 56th Email - Sweater Weather

 Hey everybody

So this week was the craziest week of all time and i dont have too much time to write an email but i wont skimp out on any details

(You know me)

First off you will all be pleased to hear the fire has not spread down to the city instead its destroying the high desert lets hope the winds dont turn around again

Also we found out from a friend in the mountains the fire was caused by a drug addict homeless dude who now was sentenced to 30 years in prison

So basically we started the week rolling on monday evening where one of the sisters planned a meeting with the bishop without telling us but it actually ended up being a very productive meeting and then we went out to eat with a member but most mexican restaurants are closed by 7 pm and so we were lucky to find a place thats still open

Lowkey we kinda sucked at reporting this week so this is all coming from the old noggin

Tuesday was where sister pinnock (the mission mom) (mission president's wife) told the zone leaders they needed another companionship to go with them to man a shift at a food donation place from 7 am to 12 pm so that was crazy (they picked us cuz we live with them lol) and we proceeded to do absolutely nothing for 5 hours because nobody brought any food and it wasnt like we could leave so it was the best morning of my life fr (good break)

I dont even remember what happened the rest of that day lol but we got dinner from one of the hermana's recent convert who we later learned had tried to sign up to feed the hermanas but accidentally signed up to feed us instead and she called the hermanas all confused "why did the elders call me" and they were like "lol you signed up for them" and she was sad but im not complaining she made some bomb pupusas

Uhhh wednesday was a day we watched a movie about joseph smith with a member and his nonmember wife (its over an hour lol) and then went to visit a recent convert (who wasnt home) when we were stopped by a random dude who was actually from ogden utah or somethin and he was door to door selling pest control he had served his mission in colombia and his mission president was elder pizarro's (my companion's) bishop when he lived in utah

Anyway we went tracting with him and it was fun now we're friends on facebook

Thursday was zone conference which is always a really fun day

Like it was actually a really good zone conference we were chillin with missionaries i know from surrounding zones and i left feeling like i was going to baptize everyone and everything but i was also a little worried about the fact that our car was absolutely disgusting

So we had the plan of washing it before zone conference that morning, we were going to wash it at about 8:15 and get to the mission office church building here in highland for zone conference about 8:30 to be ready for it to start at 9

Well that didnt go to plan

Elder pizarro gets a text from the zone leaders saying "oh yeah be there at 8:00 it starts at 8:15" and sent us the address of the church next to the temple in REDLANDS so we were like "crap" and we run outside just to find that it rained the night before and with all the smoke the car looked terrible

After zone conference we got a lovely note on our side mirror in orange dry erase marker from the car senior missionary that did not sound very pleased so we immediately washed it and luckily we saw him at the office on friday and we showed him that we do in fact take very good care of our car and his heart was softened and he thanked us (we love elder peterson he's the best)

Friday was also a day because we had to do our friend william's baptism interview but there arent any spanish leadership here to do it so we call up my boy elder jones in redlands to drive up here to do his interview (and he's comps with elder Allen) and i was comps with both of them and elder pizarro knew both of them too so after elder jones did the interview we literally stood outside talking for like twenty minutes lol

Good day overall good lessons and stuff

Also its weird how a week before friday it was literally 117 degrees and on friday it was like 80 in the morning lol

Saturday was funny

We originally were supposed to do a service at 8 am but then the whole zone pulled up and the stls get a text at 8:20 saying the service was canceled and we're all confused like what so we all go back home and we go over to william's place to make sure he's ready for his baptism (give him his baptism clothes and stuff) and we're about to leave and then his roommate mauricio pulls up and he's 100% drunk and he starts getting all up in our face like "in two minutes tell me what is mormon" and he guides us back inside and we're like uhhhh and he goes to another room for a second and we look at william like bruh whats going on and he's looking super confused too we're all kinda laughing at each other and mauricio comes back out with his phone and starts asking a bunch of questions it was weird because bro gave us watermelon the other day like we were homies and now he like hates us (dont drink its bad) anyway he calls up his pastor to explain to him what mormon is and the pastor obviously starts talking trash about us (without knowing we were there) and then elder pizarro absolutely destroys him after he hung up like "bro why did you call your pastor why are you going to other people for answers why not just ask God in prayer" so we were like lowkey scared about william not wanting to be baptized after that but we left and william told us like "yeah that doesnt faze me i already prayed that if it was the right thing for God to let it happen and look where we are now im getting baptized tomorrow" and guess what if you follow my facebook i posted an epic picture (ill put it here too) of his epic baptism he was a little scared when he found out he was the only person getting baptized but it was dope

Also friday we public contacted in the university it was fun just to help out the ysa missionaries

Also saturday our recent convert who works for the el salvador consulate invited us and the hermanas to get food at a cool little activity (it meant more pupusas) and the line was so long we were literally there for two hours (but the food was good so it was worth it)

Sunday was cool after eating dinner with a member (and talking about the church to some dude in front of his apartment) we went up to the mountains to visit our friend up there and took a little detour to lakr arrowhead to take pics there are some GIANT houses up there but the driveways are a little sketch (it's like driving up a 90 degree angle fr) and it was super cool and then after the lesson it was pretty dark and really foggy too it was nearly impossible to see anything but obviously we're okay because im writing this email according to the mountains elders the fog was even worse this morning that they couldnt see their neighbors house so thats pretty crazy

Today for pday it was pretty uneventful lol but ready for another epic week, probably got another baptism for next week for our boy Cristian so stay tuned

Alright picture time

-sunset

-mountains

-squirrel

-pupusas

-baptism

September 9th, 2024 - 55th Email - September snow

Hey

Bro members give us so much coke its insane like two days this week i drank like two cokes and then there were two other days where the cokes were after 8 pm so the next morning i woke up absolutely exhausted and i just could not do anything but its like i dont want to offend the members or anything and its just so good yknow i just cant turn it down

Also probably more important was the fact that the city was literally on fire all weekend

(It didnt actually snow that was just a lot of ash)

So it started thursday and they proceeded to be very unsuccessful in putting it out and theres still a ton of fire and smog after 5 days

But it was really funny cuz on thursday (we were doing exchanges) and elder godfrey was like "hey its a fire" and i was like "oh sick" (ive seen like two or three since being here so its like nbd)

But then we woke up the next morning and the fire was like

Still there

The smoke was massive it was actually lowkey sick

But we visited a family up in the mountains that evening and we kinda forgot about the fire and we ended up being at their house until super late (they fed us and were the source of a coke after 8 pm) and so we were driving home and it was hecka dark and so i was driving carefully (i also mightve gotten lost) because idk how to drive in pitch black mountains theres probably like bears or something and all of a sudden we see the entire fire from above it was insane and literally looked like a volcano it was only for a split second but elder pizarro and i looked at each other like "danggggg did you see that" and we pulled up at a turnout spot and took some pics and our phones are potatoes so the pics suck and we get back home and we dont know if we gonna get evacuated or not but we wake up the next morning and everything is like all yellow and smoky and the minute you step out the door you smell all the smoke and basically saturday and sunday are the same story the smoke was really bad and you could see the fire coming down the side of the mountain looking like lava and the missionaries living up in the mountains did get evacuated but down here most of the problems are in east highland (which is part of the redlands zone, they did get evacuated too) but we live in west highland so we chillin (at least faring better than them) and we are still alive so at least we have that it also made for some fun conversations with our friends

Two sacrament meetings yesterday got canceled because of the fire so thats crazy

Also this weekend was literally the hottest weekend of all time it got up to 117 degrees on saturday it was a historically hot and dry weekend like july and august are supposed to be the hottest months but it never got above 110 here but suddenly september comes around and the temps skyrocket and im like dang no wonder the fire started but it also probably lowkey was part of the heat problem i feel really bad for the bike elders

Elder pizarro had to give a baptism interview for the zone leaders on friday and there wasnt enough room in the lady's house so we just stood outside for like 20 minutes and i was dying just from that 

It did sprinkle a little bit yesterday but because of the smoke in the air now our car is absolutely disgusting

If im being 100% honest i dont really remember anything else that happened this week the fire was just such a disaster but we somehow still got really good numbers so we chillin but the fire is still like really bad over in redlands and even reaching yucaipa so thats pretty crazy and they still havent been able to contain it like at all so maybe we are gonna get evacuated this week idk but we have a baptism set up for next week with our friend william so pray that at the very least that happens without interruption because bro is reddy to get baptized

We actually have a lot of progressing friends and had some really good lessons last week so we chillin

Yeah i dont have much more to write about im mostly just surpised everyones just going on with their normal lives driving into very heavy smoke areas like nothings happening its literally like a giant live filter that makes everything yellow but we dont need a camera to make it literally just you go from highland to downtown san bernardino is like moving biomes in minecraft in the morning and evening theres just a lot less smoke there

The worst smoke is probably at those times during the day its mostly gone but you can definitely still see the fire

Cool little scripture real fast brought to you by the prophet alma from the book of mormon in alma 5:60 it talks about how Christ is a Good Shepherd which is cool cuz we're His sheep and it says He won't let a ravenous wolf enter among us we just have to listen to him

Alright bye lol

Pictures

-big dog

-me driving in the mountains

-outside our apartment friday morning

-more fire pics lol

-our car had ashes on the window when we got in it

September 2nd 2024 - 54th Email - Dancing in September

This week was wild just so much happened that im just like dang this was all one week

So I'm going strong with three transfers in all three of my areas still in san bernardino rn

Its weird tho because elder bryan got transferred after one transfer here lol rip he back in indio tho where i served so thats epic he was sad to leave but honestly he's with a really good companion rn in a really good area so he'll be chillin

So funny story on tuesday morning we were going to a lesson and our car's alignment was like wayyy off and we get out and wow we had a flat tire that was fun so we fixed it and then went to our lesson and we had to call the car senior missionary

We ended up having to go to a pep boys in redlands because there arent any pep boys in san bernardino and we were there about a half hour when they told us "hey yeah btw we found you had a second tire leaking air so we gotta fix dat too" and then it took them another hour and a half i took a fat nap that was great

Wednesday we found out transfer news and elder bryan left but the other companionship in the apartment stayed the same so thats crazy

Oh yeah also on wednesday after going home from a lesson we get a call from a member telling us he needed a favor and it turns out he w a working really close to where we just were which is like 15 minutes away from the apartment so we had to drive all the way back lol that was fun we like just drove a ton that morning

Said bye to a lot of people for elder bryan it was pretty sad

But then thursday came and i got an epic new companion his name is elder pizarro (elder pizza roll) and he's from peru but he lived in utah for a year before his mission so he speaks really good english

He was in barstow for four transfers and he got like 22 baptisms up there so he's boutta bring that fire down here hopefully we already got a lot of baptisms lined up

Also its cool to have a native spanish speaker help me a lot with my spanish

Had a funny lesson on thursday with a ginger mexican who basically told us he didnt believe in God but was still down to come to church with us

We met with him again on saturday amd it was funny even tho he said he didnt believe in God after we prayed he did the catholic cross thing but he did it literally like 20 times over it was really weird lol

Also apparently bro has a problem with making jokes at the pulpit which is weird since he makes a ton of jokes all the time when we talk to him lol but he came to church so theres that

Had zone council friday got to know everybody in the zone was pretty cool we got a good group

Also im not district leader anymore and that makes me happy elder pizarro is

They also put missionaries up in the mountains again (finally) (they can actually start doing some work up there)

On saturday too we had a karaoke ward activity lol and me and elder pizarro sang i want it that way in front of the ward i think we're famous now or something

Uhh sunday was good got a lot of people to church and then had great lessons including with an inactive member (we watched a super spiritual movie with her)

The movie was super cool because it really showed everything Jesus did for us when He died and I really think its so crazy how hard it mustve been so I think I can give up a couple hours of the week to go to church or even me here on a mission I can do this looking at how hard it was for Christ this isnt so bad even tho its hard sometimes

And so the inactive member said she'd try to be there next sunday (she told us she was retired from the church lol)

Good week overall and its crazy its september already like wut

Like just yesterday it was september and i was in mexico aint that nuts

Ok bye lol picture time

-flat tire

-mountains

-mountains again

-me and elder pizarro