letter from Elder Hanes

So this past week was a spiritual high... lol First the week started out horrible. We were having zero success and not much was happening and to make things worse and to add to the frustration I had wait for it.... 4 flat tires up to Thursday. But the weekend came and it was better.

Friday we went to the temple for a sealing(marriage) and that was awesome, it was really cool but also made me really trunky(homesick). Then after that we went to a party here in Norman. It was crazy; it was for a wedding and two anniversaries. Oh yea and it was for Spanish people so it was so fun.  Friday was really good. Oh wait did I mention that I got a flat on the way to the party... YEAH.

Saturday was so legit. TWO BAPTISMS! Our investigators made it! It was really cool. I felt bad for Juaqin, he is 56 and he had to be dunked 3 times. The first time his hand did not go under water. The second time his hair did not make it under, but the third time was the charm. Saturday was awesome.. Oh wait I got a flat on the way to the church... NO JOKE!!!

Then Sunday was really good as well. We had a fast as a mission and it went really good and then after church, we worked really had to make up for the bad week and then at night I gave my second blessing in Spanish! It was awesome!! So the week ended really well. WAIT! I forgot to tell you;  I got another flat when we biked to church.... I HAD 7 flats in the week... NOT KIDDING! Count it. lol I was so mad on the last one I wanted to pick my bike up and chuck it into the road. But I didn’t lol

We have 4 more baptisms coming up! On April 7!! Crazy!!

But yep all is well. I am looking forward to conference this Sunday.

Hope all is good at home.

Love you,

Elder Hanes

2 letters from Elder Hanes

2/27/12

 Okay, Where to begin... I guess I will start with transfers. I AM SHOT GUNNING AGAIN!(shot gunning:covering a new area to get to know all the members and knocking on doors to get new people to teach) Crazy! I am excited though. I am going to be shot gunning with an elder named, Elder G. I know him. He served in my zone these past two transfers so I know him from playing b-ball. He is so funny and I hear he is a good missionary. The only bad/fun part about this is his Spanish isn’t very good so it will be hard the first few weeks getting to know everyone there in the area. Oh yea, I will be serving in NORMAN!!! That is near Oklahoma University and right down the road from T(cousin)! I hear it is a really awesome area to serve in. But the hard part will be shot gunning it and the other part will be; we are the only Spanish in the whole zone so our area is huge and we are still on bikes! It is going to be so fun! I am super excited!!

Norman is beautiful and it is old school, a lot of 50s Diners and there is an old city on Main Street. It is way cool and we got the college! lol We will be biking by it every day.

  Now to my heath, I am doing great!! Not too much pain, I can breathe 24/7. The only thing is it has messed up sleeping a little bit. It is really hard to fall asleep with breathing through my nose. But I’ll figure it out. Something funny; my comps said I have the nose of a prego girl, lol,  I can pick up so many scents, lol.  I said it’s like a hound dog.

But yeah everything is great! I am doing great!

Love you, miss you,

Elder Hanes

3/5/12

This past week has been pretty awesome! I have deff not worked this hard yet in my mission. It has been awesome. Norman is so nice. I am a lot safer here, but the college kids are annoying. They always flick us off or some bad stuff. It is annoying but it’s nothing that Christ had to bear and go through so I am okay with it.

My comp is awesome. We get along great and we speak Spanish and only Spanish. It is crazy how much better it has gotten since I have come here. We had dinner the other night with the family D. They are awesome, he is your typical Okie, born and raised here and she is from Spain. After we had dinner he took us and we picked up an investigator that we are baptizing on the 24th of March and we taught him the Plan of Salvation and Doctrine of Christ. It was an awesome lesson.

So far, this transfer, if everything goes to plan and Satin does not come into play, we will have 5 maybe 6 baptisms this month! That would be awesome and help the branch(congregation) out. We only have about 25-30 members. It is very small, but they are all really close it feels like a family.

We have had a lot of fun, been getting lost and stuff like that. The other day we biked about 45 mins away to an investigator and we left his house about 8:35pm and ten mins later I got a flat and had to walk our bikes ALLLL the way back. It stunk. But I am having a lot of fun out here.

    My nose is doing great! I had a check up today. He got the stitches out and some scabs; it hurt but after it felt good. He said everything is healing so much faster than most people. I can blow my nose now!! It is awesome. He said give it another 4 weeks and it will be 100% healed. I am pumped.

Love you, miss you,

Elder Hanes