Pday

Ice Skating on Pday

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving with the Martinez, Varela & Fernandez Families!

A visit from Haley & Adam

Haley was in California at the in laws for Thanksgiving so she made a visit to Nate.

New Companion

With Elder Angeletti at Potato Chip Rock

Here we go again!

Hey everyone! I apologize it has been so long since I wrote a big email, pdays have been packed and I'll be completely honest, writing weekly is hard.

I promise if you email me personally you will almost always get a better email than what I send to the group in response.

But, here is hopefully a good one.

The last few weeks have been some of the best of my mission! My companion Elder Lewis and I are really close and he makes each day a blast! We have been driving around all over the place doing things for the zone and the stake, and just trying to stay on top of it all. We have been coordinating service projects, planning and attending different meetings, training missionaries on new things that president Stubbs has asked us to do and all types of things like that. On top of that we have been trying to help those we are teaching progress.

The main person is Londi. Londi is awesome! She is the sweetest soul and we have been meeting with her and her boyfriend, who is a member, trying to help them grow closer to Christ. The only reason Londi is not baptized is because she lives with her boyfriend, so we are trying to help them progress towards marriage. We would suggest that they maybe find different living arrangements, but they actually have recently become parents, and as missionaries, we are seeking to help families be united for eternity, not divide them. But its okay, they have actually planned to meet with us at the temple this Saturday to tour the grounds and watch a few videos that they have in a room in the lobby. I have never seen them but my companion says they are amazing.

The MCRD has been awesome as well, since I last emailed I have been meeting with a recruit whose last name is Letendre, and he's awesome! He has a girlfriend back home that is a member of the church and he came to the MCRD wanting to learn more about us! He has accepted a baptismal date of January 12th! He will have also earned the title of U.S. Marine by that point as well! A lot of good things are happening in this area and it's awesome!

But here is the bad news... I actually wont be around to see it. As I'm sure you could have guessed now by how my mission has been, I got transferred haha! Unfortunately I wont get to spend this holiday season with the wonderful people I have met here in the Bonita 3rd ward and in National City. The funny part though is, I actually wont be spending the season anywhere new... I'm going back to Poway, the place I got transferred to right before Christmas last year, isn't that pretty weird?

I'm not going to lie, i'm pretty bummed, but I know I will adjust and have a good time in Poway again. My new companion will be Elder Angeletti, and I will be right where I was last Christmas. He and I will be the zone leaders for the zone, and it will be his first time with that assignment.

That's my update for this week guys, I love you all and Hope you have been doing amazing! 

Elder Hanna

PICTURE: with Elder Trump

Mission Leadership Counsel

Elders: Russell, Hanna, LeBaron, Dudley, Campbell & Payne

Companion pics

With his companion, Elder Lewis

Short Update

Hey everyone, just a short update. I'm alive and well!

Today, because Halloween is on Thursday, me and my companion, and some other missionaries bought and carved pumpkins!

Here is a picture of a family Elder Lewis and I are teaching at the Mormon Battalion.

Love you guys!

Hey Guys

Hey guys it's been a while! Sorry I haven't written in so long. It's honestly really hard for me to think of what to say.

This Sunday one of the marines i\I have been teaching at the MCRD was baptized! It was really exciting! It actually took a few tries to baptize him because he is 6' 07" and barely fit in the font.

I also got to go out to El Centro for another baptism! It was for someone I taught a little while I was out there. So I drove a van full of 9 missionaries out there and we got to see some members some of us knew and go to the baptismal service.

Not much else has happened this week, love you all!!

Transfers

Hey everyone how have you been? Sorry it's been so long since I have written home, it has been a crazy couple of weeks with transfers and what not. The Pday before transfers we got to go to the zoo with some of the missionaries in our district. It was super fun and I'm glad I got to go, I've been wanting to go since I got to the mission.

We had transfers last week and for the first time I have stayed in my area and got a new companion. His name is Elder Lewis. He is from Florida and has been on his mission for 7 months.

We have been doing a lot of administrative things because Elder Lewis and I are the zone leaders, and neither of us has been a zone leader before. So that has been fun.

I don't have much time this week,  but I love you all and hope your week is great! 

All the zone leaders and STL's

Plan of Salvation

Hey everyone how have the past few weeks been? It has been a little tough, but also rewarding here.

To start, unfortunately in our area, we don't have much at all going on... so that means Elder Schulz and I just knock on doors, just about all day long. The few times we have had a good conversation with someone and they told us we could come back, they haven't been home at the time we set to meet with them again.

Luckily we have had success at the MCRD. This past Sunday, a recruit I have been teaching, recruit Burke, was baptized along with another recruit. They were both confirmed members of the church in sacrament meeting right after the baptismal service. After sacrament, I met with recruit Munn, with whom I set up to be baptized this coming Sunday. Although we are not seeing much success in our individual area here in National City, we are able to get the success we are looking for with the soon-to-be marines.

Other than that not much has happened this week worth mentioning. We have biked up a lot of hills and knocked on a lot of doors. Yesterday we drew the plan of salvation in a parking lot at the park by our apartment so we could do something other than knock on doors at 1 in the afternoon, you know, the time when everyone is at school and work. But that's about all.

Love you guys! 

Pictures

Translation of street sign: Leave if you can

The MCRD is awesome!

Hey everyone how is it going?

This week has been a lot of knocking on doors and wondering the streets. The area I am in is a biking area, and there are a LOT of hills. We don't really have many people to visit, and most of the ones we are visiting are moving in the next few weeks, so it is kind of tough to find things to do other than tract.

But that's okay, my companion Elder Schulz is hilarious and we make it a good time!

Something you all may have seen from facebook is that someone I met in El Centro was baptized! His name is Joseph Smith (yes i know) and he is awesome! We met him at the college IVC out in El Centro and he was mainly taught by the other elders, but we attended YSA events and I got to know him well and help answer doctrinal questions he had. Last Wednesday he messaged me on facebook and invited me to be there for his baptism! It was such a cool experience to be there for him and see some of the missionaries I'm friends with as well as members I got close to in my short time there. It was also interesting to get out of the car and feel like I was at home (it was 115 degrees).

Then of course, as my email subject line tells us, I am now able to go onto base at the MCRD and teach the recruits! I had an amazing first week! I was introduced to two recruits, Recruit Munn and Recruit Burke. Munn was being taught by some sister missionaries before he left, and told me he really wants to get baptized, and Burke has been going to church since he was two and isn't baptized because his birth mom wouldn't allow it. So long story short, I am teaching two recruits that will probably be baptized in the next few weeks! It was an awesome first Sunday there!

I hope you have all had an awesome week! I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Barrio Bonita 3

Hey everyone, how have you been? It's been a strange week for me. I have actually been transferred to my sixth area so far on my mission. I'm now in the Bonita 3rd ward. It's in National City, which is directly south of Barrio 20.

I have to say, I was really sad to see I'd be leaving Barrio 20 again, especially this time around. I built really good relationships with many of the people I was teaching there, as well as the missionaries and members I got to work with. Saying goodbye is hard, but it helps you cherish the good memories you've made with people more.

One exciting thing though is that I am still in the same district with the missionaries in that ward, so I'm able to continue working with them and being involved with their work.

My new companion is Elder Schulz, he's from Riverton, Utah and he's been on his mission for about a month and a half longer than me. We are the only missionaries on bikes in our entire zone (yay).

It's been a weird week, but I'm adjusting slowly. I've been able to meet some of the members of the ward so far and they are good people and I'm excited to get to know them.

I hope you all have an awesome week!

PHOTOS: Found some treasures in my new apartment (left by previous Elders)!

Short this week

Hey everyone this week has been super fun and pday was really busy, but I want to send some pictures for you guys this week!

Love you all!

Pictures

Baptism

Hey everyone how's it going?

We have had a pretty busy week! To start, we practiced a lot for some special musical numbers that the missionaries sang throughout the week. Saturday, Elder Yates and I had the chance to see a women we have been teaching named Georgina get baptized. It was a really special experience and I am so happy she has made this decision to follow the Lord and take his name upon herself. In the service, Elder Yates and I sang a duo. It started with me singing a SOLO! Like why me?? But that's besides the point, the baptism was amazing and I am so proud of Georgina!

The next day we sang in sacrament. We sang the Army of Helaman and Sisters in Zion medley in Spanish. It was really awesome and a lot of members in the ward really liked it. We also confirmed Georgina a member of the church in that same sacrament meeting.

We had zone conference yesterday. It was pretty long, we were there from 9-3, so that was a little tough. But we did have some good training's, and we found out that this coming Sunday Elder Rasband of the Quorum of the 12 apostles is coming to meet with all of us missionaries here in San Diego! So I'm super excited about that!

I hope you guys have an awesome week! Love you all!

Zone Conference