Sunday, May 31, 2015

New Mission President

Our new mission president comes in in about three weeks. His name is President Spendlove. He's something really high up in the Tesoro gas company, and he's serving out of San Antonio, TX. This is his first time in a mission presidency. President Hansen will be sticking around for about a month to make sure the transition happens smoothly. That's about all we know
 
 
From Deseret News:
George Scott Spendlove, 51, and Kariane Christiansen Spendlove, five children, San Antonio Texas North Stake: Utah Salt Lake City Mission, succeeding President Stephen W. Hansen and Sister Carol V. Hansen. Brother Spendlove serves as a stake president and is a former stake presidency counselor, bishop, stake Young Men president, ward Young Men president and missionary in the Italy Catania Mission. Retired chief financial officer, Tesoro Corp. Born in Salt Lake City to George Paul Spendlove and Louise Prestwich Spendlove.
Sister Spendlove is a former stake Young Women presidency counselor, ward Primary president, ward Relief Society, Young Women and Primary presidencies counselor and ward nursery leader. Born in Portland, Oregon, to David Glen Christiansen and Julianne Prude Christiansen.

God Needed Sister Hansen, Farewell to President Hansen, Going Back to Layton and Stromboli




Hey

So yeah, this week was a little different. Sister Hansen's passing was pretty unexpected. I guess God needed her. President's doing really well, though. I saw him briefly at the funeral today. I don't think he's been formally released, but for all intents and purposes, he's finished. A member of the mission presidency is acting mission president right now. It's still up in the air as to when we'll get a permanent replacement. If there's any other questions I can answer, let me know.

Did you get an email about iPad's yet? They announced this week that our mission's getting 'em, and they said they're sending an email home about it. I'm pretty indifferent about it. It'll make afternoon's more effective, but it's also 400 bucks that I don't have that I gotta dish out for it for only six month of using it. 

Transfer info! I'm going back to Layton.  Layton's the second biggest city in the mission, and the second most diverse. My companion's name is Elder Devantier, and he's from Denmark, but is serving out of St. George. 

So, tonight we're having dinner with one of our ward mission leader's family. He's probably the coolest ward mission leader we have. His name is Brother Glance and it's his family we spent Christmas at. It was his ward that had dinners for us last week, and we ended up over at his place for two of those nights. I forget how it came up, but we ended up volunteering to cook dinner for them tonight. I love to cook. There's something satisfying about eating something really good knowing you made it. It's even better when you cook for someone else and they enjoy it. My comp and I talked about it, and we're cooking Stromboli for them. I'm positive I know how to make it. Don't you just roll out the pillsbury dough, put a bunch of cheese on it, and some pepperonis, then roll it up, cut slits on top and cook it until it's not doughy and the cheese is melted? If I'm missing something, let me know.. I'm just gonna guess on the amounts, unless following the official recipe really matters. 
 
Love you guys. This work is absolutely amazing, and is totally inspired. God is love. 

Elder Jake Lusk


Wife of President Hansen Passes Away

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SALT LAKE CITY — The wife of the president of the LDS Church's Utah Salt Lake City Mission died unexpectedly Wednesday after she collapsed at the mission home.
Carol Vaughn Curran Hansen, wife of President Stephen W. Hansen, was 69. She was in excellent health and actively serving as she fulfilled a lifelong dream of serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"It's surreal," said her oldest child, Ken Hansen of Cedar Hills, Utah. "This was completely sudden."
"She loved her mission," he added. "She loved the missionaries. She loved serving here, so close to the heart of the church. She had not served a mission as a young woman and she had always wanted to serve and was thrilled to be doing so alongside my dad."
A statement released by the church described her passing as quiet, and Ken Hansen confirmed that it was peaceful and without trauma.
The church expressed condolences.
"President and Sister Hansen have served together as he has presided over the Salt Lake City Mission since July of 2013," church spokesman Eric Hawkins said. "They are deeply loved by their family, church leaders and their missionaries. We pray for each of them at this difficult time and extend our love to President Hansen and his family.”
The mother of eight raised her family of four boys and four girls in Minneapolis, Minn. The Hansens retired to St. George, Utah, where they enjoyed golfing together and where she served as a Sunday School teacher and temple ordinance worker when the call came to serve in Salt Lake City.
The wife of an LDS Church mission president plays a major role in the mission. The average mission has about 200 missionaries, most between the ages of 18 and 22.
Carol Hansen worked closely with the sister missionaries and managed the health and physical well-being of all the missionaries, said Ken Hansen, who described part of his parents' role as being like the mother and father of a very large group of young adult children.
Carol Hansen also trained the missionaries in conferences, standing in front of mission leadership meetings and providing spiritual instruction.
"She was a wonderful and powerful teacher," Ken Hansen said.
She also was a creative force. Musical by nature, her son remembers her as always involved in a production when he was growing up.
For the past 19 months, her creativity centered chiefly on missionary work, her son said.
"She was always busy creating graphics, posters, bookmarks and handouts for the missionaries to use and to see and understand their goals."
Previously, she served in many church callings, such as stake music chairman and director, ward Relief Society teacher, ward Young Women adviser and seminary teacher.
Hansen was born in Washington, D.C., to Philip Douglas and Frances Adelaide Metcalf Curran.
The LDS Church has more than 84,000 missionaries serving in 406 missions worldwide. The church recently announced another 11 missions will be open in July.
Each mission is led by a mission president whose wife, depending on individual and family circumstances, has responsibilities for training and caring for sister missionaries.


Sup Guys?, Rock Solid, and We're Rolling With It

Sup guys. 

Things are going really well here. This week has probably had the most lessons I've taught since being in Glendale. We met with our investigator, {}, who was put on date for baptism before we got here. He's rock solid. He referred himself on Mormon.org. He's been reading the Book of Mormon on his own and coming to church. He's also been reading the Gospel Principles lesson manual on his own without being invited to. He's been taught everything by now except for tithes and offerings, which we're teaching him this week. At this point we're just keeping in close contact and making sure he stays on date. His baptismal date is March 6 and normally we would try and push that forward so he doesn't fall off date, but that's the date that came to him while he was praying about it, so it's what we're rolling with.

Love you guys. God is real, and this work is true. 

Elder Jake Lusk 

A White Christmas and a Baptism

hey guys!


couple things... it snowed on Christmas. I know that was a week and a half ago already, but i forgot to mention it. It hadn't snowed all year, but we woke up Christmas morning and there was snow on the ground, and it snowed all day Christmas, so that was pretty cool. 

{} got baptized! Remember him? He was the little man that Elder Clark and I met in Farmington. he got baptized on Saturday, so I got to go back down to Farmington (all three miles down the road!) for that. I met him during my last couple weeks in that area, so I never really taught him and didn't have much at all to do with him getting baptized, but it was still cool to see someone I met in that area get baptized.