February 22, 2016- Staying in Rifle!

Hello world! Yes, we got transfer news, and all three of us are staying in Rifle!

We also had a baptism on Saturday, and it was AWESOME! (see below picture) Jordan arrived to the baptism after having a pretty crappy day, so he was in a bad mood. But as soon as Brother King pulled Jordan back out of the water, the spirit hit everyone so strong, and Jordan started crying with how emotional he was. It was awesome! Even Jordan's non-member friends who he brought to the baptism were getting emotional!

He was confirmed yesterday, and all of the missionaries stood in on the circle. It was really cool! So excited to see Jordan taking these steps, and it's awesome to see how much he's changed since I first met him. And now, we get to transition into teaching him the new member lessons. :)

Other than that, not much has been happening here in Rifle. Juan, Mary, and Christian have all gone radio silent, so we're going to have to try to get back in touch with them, as well as Mike. We went over some goals for this next transfer and we think we can get 2 baptisms this transfer. So, keep your fingers crossed for us, and keep us in your prayers!

I love you all! Thank you so much for all of the support you give to me!

-Elder Hanley

February 16, 2016- Hello world!

How is everyone doing? Elder Hanley here, and we have been good!

First and foremost, no, we didn't get a chance to email yesterday, so we are emailing today. Secondly, Jordan's baptism has officially been set for this Saturday! So, expect some pictures next week of that exciting event.

Rifle has been slow once more. We've had a lot of people either not be home or mysteriously missing when we show up, so that's been a little rough. But we've been doing our best. So, hopefully, we'll be able to find some more people to teach this upcoming week.

We had our last district meeting of the transfer this last week. Transfers are next week, on the 23rd, so I will know by this Saturday night if I'm being transferred or not.

We are officially no longer having transfer meetings. The Presidency has basically said that from now on, we will try to get missionaries to their areas so we have a full day to do missionary work, rather than sitting in a meeting for the whole day. In theory, it's a good idea, but it's going to be a little weird to adjust to no transfer meetings. Plus, we are relying more on the ward members to transport us everywhere instead of driving there with other missionaries.

Sorry this email is so short, we are short on time for emailing this week. Thank you all so much for the support you all give me! You guys are the best!

-Elder Hanley

February 8, 2016- Trapped in Glenwood Springs!

Hello world!

So, first off, I apologize for not sending a letter last week. We were short on time because we were headed to Glenwood Springs to play basketball with some other missionaries. It was snowing pretty heavily on the way there, but our car handled the roads pretty well. And then...they closed I-70. So, we got to stay the night with the Glenwood Springs Elders. So, that was exciting.

Other than that, we had another pretty slow week here in Rifle. We are still meeting with Jordan, and he is doing great. Juan and Mary have gone radio silent, and we're pretty sure they're out of town, because their house has been dark and their car is gone.

We had most of our appointments this week fall through, so we've just been doing our best to keep ourselves busy.

But something cool that I should've included in my email last week if we didn't get stranded. We got another companion! So, we are in a trio now! So, it's me, Elder Vaka, and Elder Tautui. We're gonna translate the entire town of Rifle. Just wait on it. :)

Other than that, we have been trying to find new investigators, mainly focusing on working on members. So far our tracting efforts have been unsuccessful, since pretty much the whole town has been tracted out. Both our Ward Mission Leader and our Bishop have been awesome in trying to find people for us to teach, so that has been great.

Other than that, not much going on. We're just still doing missionary work and doing our best to keep busy. I love you all! Thank you so much for all your support you give me!

-Elder Hanley

My comps!

And my new haircut, in a cheesy mirror selfie straight from Middle School