Called to Serve in Nashville, Tennessee!: Monday, September 15th, 2008

We received our first letter from Jon since he has been in Nashville. He has been in Tennessee for one week. He loves being out in the mission field and is already working hard. After leaving the MTC, he boarded the plane with one stop in Atlanta and then arrived in Tennessee in the afternoon. Jon had high hopes to try to talk to and convert every person on his flight to Nashville but he soon realized that everyone he was sitting next to was already LDS. During a layover in Atlanta, he tried to talk to others about the gospel but found that most were Methodist or Baptist and were not interested. Welcome to the South!

When he arrived in Tennessee, he was greeted by his mission president and the president's assistants. They seemed very excited to be receiving a new batch of "greenies". Jon was assigned to Hendersonville, TN (pronounced Hendersonvul) and his trainer is Elder Geohagan ( pronounced Go-Hagan). When he arrived in his new area he and his companion went strait to do street contacts. Jon first contact went something like this:

Elder Hansen: Hi there!
Man at Krogers: Hi.
Elder Hansen: I want to talk to you.
Man: Oh really?
Elder Hansen: Yes really. I have a message for you here from Jesus Christ.
"Next thing I knew he was in the car and gone."

Things weren't all bad that first day. Jon said that they received a baptismal committment.

It sounds like Jon will be biking a lot in this area but they will also have some use of a car. We already warned people in Tennessee to stay off of the sidewalk!

Jon says, "I LOVE the area and am working really hard."

Here are some picture Jon sent this week: