MTC 1/26/2012 Another Week Another Something or Other

Ah, family.  I give greetings unto you.  Today is probably the most tired I've ever felt, especially here at the MTC, where everyday is tired.  Give me a few minutes of free time where I'm not focusing on something and I'll just fall asleep.  Either way, it's good here.  Spanish is coming along well enough. I'm learning about the future and conditional tense, along with relearning reflexive verbs and other things.  As cool as it would be to type to you in Spanish, I don't think it would be coherent because my mind feels elsewhere.  It's weird.  It snowed last week, or earlier this week.  Not a bunch, but enough to make things white.  I like it when it snows here because I don't have to deal with the annoying parts of snow, I just get to look at it on the mountains and on the ground around. 

I enjoy the devotionals here at the MTC.  Every Tuesday and Sunday night we have guest speakers come and talk to us.  Sometimes they're from the Seventy, sometimes other people, and sometimes one of the Twelve, but that hasn't happened yet.  Since next week is the 50th anniversary of the MTC or some such thing we might hear from one of the Twelve, or such.  That'd be pretty awesome.  I'd take good notes for that one.  One thing I'm learning is that it's more than just the speaker that makes the talks good.  I mean, I already had heard of it and I knew it to some degree, of course, but if you're focused less on the actual presentation of the talk and more on the message it gives, and what the Spirit is giving you you definitely will get more out of it.

What's also pretty funny here is how crazy some people are over BYU sports.  I think I'd heard the name Jimmer three times before coming here, but apparently he's something of a big deal.  Plus all the other athletes, sports, blah blah.  I understand it can be fun when you're in college to go to games and stuff, but the way some people go nuts is just weird.  Also, if there's another thing I've learned in the MTC, it's that bad days will come, whether you're on your mission or just in the MTC.  Today really hasn't been bad, just slightly unfocused.  Earlier this week I was just not feeling it.  I wasn't sick or anything but I couldn't focus very well.  My advice, of course, is to just get over it.  Stop the bad day before it starts, change your attitude.  Plus you have a companion with you for a reason.  More than just one reason, in fact.  You can figure out that cryptic message on your own.  Now I'll start writing little individual paragraphs about what you sent me.  I actually did get your emails and your Dear Elders, but I forgot to respond to the letter last week.  I had what I was going to write in my email all written down, bullet-pointed, because we only have 30 minutes to read and send emails.  But I forgot to include anything from your letters, so it appeared as though I just hadn't received them.  Whoops.

Mom & Dad- You're going to rub it in about Elder Nelson's talk, huh.  I very much heard here how they got to listen to one of the Apostles the day before I got here.  But it's really nothing, because they never mentioned anything about what he actually talked about.  So your message was nice.  It's weird thinking about teaching again.  I think if I was to go back home and teach I'd do it a bit differently.  Not a huge amount, but I'd certainly try to prepare more.  If I do get that handout it might be cool.

Matt- That is a wonderful mental image - Alice punching a robot and calling it a crunchy zombie.  It's funny in many ways, like the fact that she's even punched a zombie before.  And about your social evolution.  Dragonflies are pretty cool.  They look cool, they fly cool, they have a cool name.  They have big eyes.  But I think you'll evolve into a preying mantis, honing your wife-hunting skills.  I would include more but that sentence already sounds a bit weird.  And about my weight. So far, I've remained in my general 205-210 range.  I really don't think it will change, either.  I feel like I eat a ton, but it just doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Sam & Matt- You really can't just say Matt shot himself with the nail gun and leave it at that.  There's a large amount of body that can be shot by a nail gun.  The mental image I get from it isn't very fun, if it's actually the truth.  I need some clarity here.  And also, what in the world is Duplo's?  Some kind of... something?  And of course, it would be Alex that would think the lemon juice was lemonade and drink it.  I'd think the plain smell of sour lemon juice would be enough, but that seems to be untrue.

Alex- Boy, you need a job to support all your women.  And that whole green pastures phrase is a bit creepy.  Please don't use it ever again.  And if there was one piece of advice I would give to you, it would be to read your scriptures and pray daily, morning and night!  Technically, this applies to all in the household or other households.  How can you expect to establish an investigator's connection with God if you don't have one yourself?  It's the magic triangle.  Also, you should tell Bro. Huso about me.  I forgot.  And finally, you'll have to play ultimate for me for two years.  It's banned here - even without the snow you can't play it on the field.  Probably too competitive.

Ty- Memory of a goldfish... that's hurtful.  I do have a journal, and I do write in it daily, but I don't generally have time to go back and read my journal to relive the past week.  So what if my short-term long term memory is being filled with Spanish grammar and words.  It's pretty cool you sent thoughts on the Atonement also, because it's the sacrament talk topic, the district meeting topic, and I studied it up for real on Sunday pretty much the whole day.  It is good.  I'm glad you're getting all set up.  It seems pretty exciting.

I have 15 seconds left, so I'm just gonna cut it off here.  Love you all, you're great.  Say hello to Grandma and Gpa for me.

Letter from the Family 1/22

January 22, 2012 

Hi Nick,   

Tonight I read a talk that Elder Nelson gave in the MTC on the 10th - just before you got there.  One of the lines I liked the most was "I love this from Isaiah 18: 'Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled.' Who are the swift messengers? Any swift messengers here? That's you!" 

Are you feeling swift?  How has the week gone?  We have received your e-mails and 1 letter.  I sent you 2 emails through Dear Elder.com.  Hopefully you have received them.  I also printed them out and sent them by snail mail in case you didn't.  I'm going to order your contacts.  Please confirm your MTC mailbox number so they will go to the right Elder Nicholas Hansen.   

Am just finishing the 4th night in a row, and my thoughts are a little fuzzy.  Not much new going on here.  Matt and Sam continue to work on their bed with Dad.  We haven't had any news about the house.  Ty tells us he's settled in Boston.  Wants to have a skype phone call to show us his rooms and how they are set up.     

Dad & I teach our lesson next week.  It's about Nephi receiving the vision of Lehi's dream.  I have this cool handout that compares Lehi's vision with Nephi's and some of the differences.  Maybe I'll send it to you.  I'm afraid Dad will try to pawn most of it off on me this time since he had to teach the entire lesson himself last week. 

I put you picture on my locker.  Lots of comments about my handsome son.  It makes me smile when I see it.  Have a good week.  Love you Lots, Mom 




Nick, 

MTC life is quite different is it not? I always found my emotions closer to the service and felt the spirit more often than I was use to. I have enjoyed your emails and am quite pleased to see you having positive experiences. I think you have tremendous potential. You know what you need to do, but enough preaching. House is quieter since you left - I hadn't known you were that noisy. I also hate writing letters, but like getting them. 

Love, 
Dad 


Nick, 

Mom finally caught up to us. Matt and Dad are building a bed frame. Matt shot himself with the nail gun and bit dad. We are surviving our calling in Nursery. They spilt our class so now we only have 10 kids instead of 18. We don't have to teach lessons any more, they called a teacher for the two nursery classes who teaches both of them. We setup, eat snacks, play, have a lesson, and do singing time, then clean up and we're done. This week the lesson was on our hands, deep I know ;-) Matt hasn't decided if the best part is snack time or Duplo's. We are still pawning lemons off on people, if you were around I would force feed them to you. The other day Alex put lemon juice on the table thinking it was lemonade. Well after he poured himself a cup and drank a mouthful he realized it was not lemonade but straight lemon juice. Hee Hee. There is your happy thought for the day, Alex with a sourpuss face.  

Sam & the Best Matt 

Little bro. WaSSAUP! Life is good down here and i hear from you that life is good up there! that makes life good! but not in a hippy sense. Me and kevin have been messing around a little more often as of late. The can of axe you gave me is gonna blow up. Death by machete. I don't know bro. I have been having fun. I went on two dates this weekend. I bought QT for a girl named Caryn and i took jasmine tydying ----- is that how you spell it? Weird. Uhmmmm. There are lotsa green pastures around here. I know that you or anybody else doesn't know what that means and i find it funny. I played some good ultimate Frisbee yesterday. Play practice is cool. I asked Mary Jarman to Mormon prom. It  was ingenious I came up with it all. It was a little search through the BoM using different references and she would basically find ' Would you go to homecoming with me?' Then underneath it I put look to the heavens to find my name.  Then i was supposed to go into her room and put my name in glo
 w-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling. I tried but basically extraneous circumstances made it not nearly as cool... Darn. Oh well though. Beauty and the beast is going great. Still singing every five minutes. yea. Well that should be it. If you find my life incredibly fascinating you can ask me about it. Otherwise I shall start telling you about what my experience of the week would have been. Boogers! -Alehandronoso 

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Jorge, 
I think you need a Spanish name. Mi amore Jorge, tus patalones olor con limon. Mi corazon es verdad en las estomago y la lechuga bailamos con sus zapatos. You'll know your fluent when you can translate that - good luck. Anyways, I have become somewhat of a star on America's Got Talent lately. Turns out people like to watch me diffuse bombs onstage. All I use are spaghetti noodles and hair gel (a more versatile combo than you'd think).  I only failed once, but they chose not to air that episode. Too bad you don't have a TV to see for yourself. Guess you'll just have to take my word for it.  
Also, a great Travesty has occurred. Yes, even one so great as to warrant a capital T. Jorge, I have reached the end of all known Dilbert. Over 20 years of Dilbert! My days are just lacking the same lustrous quality granted them by Alice punching futuristic robots and comparing them to crunchy zombies. Alas, I still have my daily Dilbert and so I suffice. 
Currently I am also working from 2 in the afternoon and getting off at 1 in the morning and going to school in there as well. I don't know how I even fit in all my other shenanigans with those hours. It'll get busier once they start giving homework too.  Luckily though, I now have Monday's off both school and work. It is a beautiful thing. I'll even get to be a social butterfly again and attend Family Home Evening for my ward, but instead I think I'll go for more of a dragonfly or maybe preying mantis.  
Lastly, know that the war with the Yeerks is going well. I hope you are taking advantage of the blessed daily buffets and putting on some weight. You'll need it to break even from all the tapeworms I'm sure you'll be getting. Ciao!  -The Supreme Matt    

MTC January 19, 2012

Well, time flies by here.  It seems like there are two days in one day, but that they go by faster than they should.  But it's aight.  I stopped worrying about that a while ago.  The investigator that we started with, Tomas, we are now finished with.  It was interesting.  It definitely got easier as we went along.  But it still wasn't easy.  Mainly we learned how to teach rather than the content.  Because we're teaching people, not lessons.  That's important.  Figuring all this out.  By the way, I still want Bryce's address.  Maybe you just didn't remember, or maybe you just haven't received an email yet.  I'm really not sure what you've received because I've sent one letter and one email.  Some verification would be appreciated.  By the way, it really isn't just some gimmicky saying when they tell you that you will learn the language of the Spirit in the MTC.  It's true, if you put yourself to work.  The phrase forget yourself is quite appropriate.  One thing that always bothers me is the elders who are just loud, irreverent, who just don't think.  Thinking is also important.  Just be obedient and you don't have to worry.  No problem.  It really isn't hard to do.  Also, my district is awesome.  As I said, 11 elders.  We can get slightly loud, but we've been doing much better at actually studying personally during personal study time.  They are also hilarious.  We've got Elder Nilsen, my companion, Elders Beck and Weiler, our roommates, Elders Turbovsky and Gatherum, Elders Hernandez and Hunter, and Elders Jellen, Lindsey, and St. Martin.  Elder St. Martin is from Mesa as well, but Mountain View.  All of them are pretty cool.  I can dig it.  What's also great about the MTC is the great talks you get to hear.  Sunday fireside, Tuesday devotional.  Plus all the other things you get to hear from teachers and such.  Plus, today was my first real Preparation day, so we were able to go to the temple and do a session.  If I do happen to use your names, Mother, what do I do with them?  Mail them to you?  Apply fairy dust?  Back onto talks.  We were able to listen to a talk from 2006 where Elder Holland laid down the law.  I understand how he can affront people sometimes, but in the MTC it's fairly clear cut what you should be doing, so he just reinforced that.  He also laid out how our time as missionaries is about as close as we can get to being apostles, called to be missionaries full time.  So for these two years, you better capitalize on what you got.  Gym time at the MTC is great.  Basketball it up.  Volleyball I haven't tried but looks good enough.  Foursquare isn't for me but I can see the attraction for people who aren't really as great at the other sports but still like playing some kind of game involving movement with other people.  If you were wondering about which meal is best, it's definitely lunch.  The food is just generally better.  At dinner, if they happen to serve some kind of meat it's always dry, or tastes a bit funny.  Lunch is just consistently good, with two soups.  The hawaiian burger today was quite good, with teriyaki sauce and pineapple on it, and sweet potato fries, which start out good but get more bleh as you continue.  A goal I achieved on Sunday, is that I memorized D&C 4 in español.  I've also memorized the missionary purpose in Spanish.  I just have to memorize the First Vision in Spanish to have it all down.  It isn't near as hard to memorize in Spanish as I thought it would be.  Of course, I'm getting some heavenly help with it.  Weird coincidence, the Branch President, President Tyler, knows Bro. Freestone from his missions.  He's a cool guy.  He knows a ton of scriptures by memory.  I count about ten scriptures every time he talks to us, impromptu.  One thing I'm loving about my mission is how clear things are.  Even when I'm praying for something, the Spirit will just tell me what I have to do to accomplish it.  The language of the Spirit is coming along.  Oh, and mother dearest, my companion asked something about some kind of missionary mom website (probably with that name).  If you want to link up on that you're free to.  I didn't think you were quite that gung-ho, but you might be, so I'm mentioning it.  I have 6 minutes left to write this, but I'm pretty much already done.  Things are going well.  The food takes a while to get used to.  I actually might gain weight here.  I haven't weighed myself though.  I ate 3 bananas this morning.  I haven't grown or shrunk.  I have to dry clean my first suit already because I spilled so much food on myself the first week here.  The new suit we bought is pretty sweet.  I enjoy it.  It is the one that needs dry cleaned, however.  The old one isn't bad, it's just heavier and seems to attract lint with relative ease.  I'm figuring out the rest of the Spanish language well enough.  I will figure it out more and more as time goes by.  It's kind of entertaining to do this because I'm just picking random facts.  The Provo temple right next to the MTC here looks like a cupcake.  A pretty cupcake.  It hasn't snowed on the ground here, really.  We could barely see snow yesterday, or maybe two days ago.  The mountains just got snow last night.  It would be cool if it snowed once before I left.  It should.  Either way, time is now up, so I'm going off.  Adios, familia.MT


From the Family 1/16

Well Nick, a lot has happened since you left. I got burned, so I had to quit the CIA and the family all knows I've been leading a double life as a spy for the past few years. It's been interesting getting back into the normal life. I'll be able to go back to school and stuff. That'll be nice. Plus, I have this nice severance package from Uncle Sam that I can invest. I think I'll put it all into space exploration and nanotechnology. I'm expecting to double my investment  within the first ten years and then reinvest it at all levels of the same industry. Long term.... I'll control space and have a huge leg up on all the competition due to my advanced nanomaterials. By the time I hit 80 I should be the President/Dictator of the moon, with significant holdings on Earth. Around 125 I think I should have been able to absorb all the world governments into one conglomerate and have a worldwide government.  I will of course sp
 end my remaining years spear fishing, eating cheese, and bowling. By the way, MTC food is great but try the temple food if you can. I'd give you more advice but I need to go do some consulting work for MI. Oh yeah, watch out for Yeerks.... 

(I'll let you guess who that was from) 
Subject: To my bro 
Hey man. You are a lucky kid. I want to go on my mission now. Like right now. I went to mission prep tonight and it was great. There were so many people there and people are starting to get their cars. It's been a bit empty since you left but I have been keeping busy. School's still school. Life's still life. But you know the real process. You live you work you party and finally you party some more. I went on a blind date the other night and it was way fun. We actually played bowlo and it was legit. Me and my date won of course. Anywho it sounds like your having more fun than I am. The next time I go to Argentina i expect to see converts everywhere. Your goal is to convert all of argentina. K? K. Keep it up bro. Later.  
Alehandro 

Nick, 
Did you get the first e-mail I sent?  I didn't have your box number and I just sent it.  The other Elder Hansen in Buenos Ares west probably got it.  I get points for trying though.  We've had a long weekend with the MLK being today.  Friday your dad took me out to Texas Roadhouse for my Master's diploma.  I never got much of a celebration on that.  Saturday and today Matt S. and Dad and Sam have been building their bed frame.  I've just been feeding them and kicking around.  We had stake conference.  We streamed it to the house again so Grandma and Grandpa could watch it with us.  Some good talks.  One in particular talked about a sister who made a commitment to attend the temple weekly and the blessings she had seen from it.  I've kind of had it as a sort of goal but never really committed to it.  I'm thinking about it.   
Made won tons and doughnuts last night.  Sorry you missed it.   
So, what are Sundays in the MTC like?  Matt and your dad weren't very helpful in answering that.  I expect better from you.  I'm glad to hear that your experience there is going well.  Don't ruin your knee playing basketball.  (That's what Uncle Bill did).  We all thought you were kind of a quiet kid.  But then you left and it's even quieter.  Who would have thunk.  Have  a good week.  We love you and are praying for you.  Mom (and Dad). 

MTC January 14, 2012

I'm fairly certain that this is your email address.  I remember it from Netflix.  Either way, throughout all my emails, especiall in the MTC, I'll probably repeat myself.  I'm already getting confused timewise, and it's way too much to think about what I wrote a week ago, let alone two days.  I've been busy, naturally.  Just yesterday my companion, Elder Nilsen, and I taught an investigator, Thomas, all in Spanish.  Holy cow.  Yeah.  Vaca santa.  That's a bit weird.  Either way, it was an experience, no doubt.  We were able to get our point across, and even did fairly well.  We aren't entirely sure if he's an investigator or not.  Actually we are, but we very much believe he isn't.  His actions don't really point towards him not being an investigator.  It's kinda cool.  We have a main teacher for Spanish, Hermano Litzenberger.  He is cool.  After the nerve wracking experiences of teaching in Spanish when we aren't completely certain whether to use preterit or imperfect, what the proper conjugations are, let alone what the imperfect subjunctive or who knows what is, we are able to chill a little and learn at a bit more basic pace.  I am really grateful that I have my three years of Spanish experience.  I am sad I didn't speak more, because it would have helped.  My companion is a bit better than me, which is good.  Also, we are both going to Buenos Aires West.  There've been something like 5 of us, probably more, that I've heard of leaving to my exact mission.  To Argentina, in other missions, there's a bunch two.  Also, I've met two other Elders named Nicholas Hansen.  One is going to the same mission as me.  He's in the advanced class, however.  Our district is big.  So far we have 11 elders.  Elder Nilsen is district leader, which is cool.  I realize that reading this in a block form is probably fairly difficult.  I also realize that some of my sentences are probably weird.  Hopefully this continues.  It entertains me.  But I'm striving to avoid misspelling words.  Hopefully misspelling is spelled like that instead of "mispelling."  I think I'm right.  We taught Tomas again today, and will continue to teach him on Monday.  I will continue to learn more Spanish, among other things.  I'm a word or two away from having the missionary purpose memorized in Spanish, but I'm really close.  I thought it would be more weird (weirder?) to memorize something in Spanish, but as long as I understand the words it isn't terribly hard.  Similar to English.  Saying prayers is still a bit tough.  I'm getting down the form, however.  The district I'm in is good.  There aren't any elders that only want to party or do dumb things.  It makes life better when that happens.  I'm loving skipping around topics like this.  I can only imagine it would make it harder to read, but it's great.  One thing I've noticed is that the MTC seems like a completely separate place from the rest of the world.  Minus the weather and basic use of English, we could be anywhere.  The elders that attended BYU say that everything is pretty similar.  The way the buildings are constructed, the food, the washing machines.  But even though it's like a half mile away, it doesn't seem like it.  It does feel a bit restrictive, but I know that the purpose for the restrictions well outweigh the wants I have.  By the way, the food isn't wondrous, magical.  It's better than a cafeteria, but less good than a restaurant.  The good thing is I can get as much as I want.  I never really need much more than an entree and maybe a bit more.  Gym time is fun.  We played basketball yesterday, and it was good.  You can tell who has played ball in high school because they are generally good.  Good exercise.  Security here, so I've heard, has gotten a bit more intense than in the past.  We have key cards to use to open residence hall doors, get to the cafeteria, and, well, basically everywhere.  Because I never had it otherwise it doesn't really bother me.  My companion came from a family with four girls, he being the only boy.  Despite this, he is not girly, thankfully.  He is pretty good at ball.  I know that it was the right thing for me to go here, for sure.  It might be hard to teach in Spanish now, but by the end of these nine weeks, I will be a pro.  I just have to avoid getting distracted and keep focused.  How's that for redundance.  I'm doing pretty good so far.  Goal setting is definitely important.  It's a bit weird to have goals to accomplish each and every day, as well as each and every week.  Plus the ones for being at the MTC.  There are plenty of goals.  But as I hinted, or quite plainly said, I will be here for 9 weeks, about.  I think I heard that March 12th or 13th was the date they were going to ship us off.  You can count the weeks for sure because I know that it's 9 weeks, but it should be around there.  I've seen a few people from home, like Elder Fleming and Lesuer, and Gray.  Mom and Dad will only know Elder Fleming.