MTC Letter #8

Well hello there family!!!

 

How is e'rybody?? So it has been such a great week! First bit of new...I got my travel plans this week!! WOO!! I am so pumped! only 12ish more days and then this alll gets real! So I fly out of salt lake at 11:12 and arrive in Burbank at 12:15. I have to go to the airport at 8 so sometime before 11 my time I will be giving ya'll a call! I am so excited to hear all of our voices! I am gettting myself mentally prepared to not cry so I don't waste any precious time. My whole district is going to Salt Lake except for me, they all leave at 6 in the morning so I am going to be a solo sista for 2 hours. I am SO excited. I'm not sure if I have made this clear.

 

In other news let me tell you about my Tuesday night devotional. We had an apostle! Finally!! We have been waiting oh so patiently and finally we got one. But before we get into that let me tell you how awkward my life is. So we have joined the choir as I have mentioned before. Mostly we joined so we can get a guaranteed seat in the Devotionals..it gets crazy. Well during practice before they do a run through of the camera shots they are going to use and it is the number 1 rule in choir to never look at the big projectors because its distracting and we aren't unified...blah blah blah. Guess who got a most wonderful close up, yours truely. Shocking I know, my life is just awkward like that. So I knew that I was going to be on the big screen during the real deal so I am just trying to prep myself to not start lauging, or smiling, or coughing or yawn or anything like that. During the real deal I'm sitting there singing my little sister heart out trying my hardest not to look at the screen however in the corner of my eye there i am. This was not just a nice picture of my face the people stinking explored my pores. They could not have gotten any closer. I'm pretty sure by the time the zoom buttom was alll the way in place all they could see was a one of my freckles. It was uncomfortable. I held it together that whole time though I made it through and laughed as soon as I was off the camera. Lucky for me appartently I was shown throughout the whole thing, especially when I was laughing. (I am just so happy I didn't sneeze and have another really awkward snot toucing my lip incident, becuase that would have been embarassing:) Afterwards I had so many people come up to me saying "gees it was like the Hermana Hansen show" "I'm pretty sure I saw all your pores"  my favorite "I didn't think it was appropriate to be that close to an Hermana on my mission" nice. I have got to pick a better seat next week.

However we had......Elder Andersen come! It was so great! We have been dying for an apostle and since they take July off we haven't had my much luck until this week. Our church is so amazing, I don't know if I can say that enough. This really is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and He for real calls Prophets and Apostle today. The minute you are in the room with one the spirit testifies of it. Tuesday was President Monson's birthday so Elder Andersen gave a talk about everything Pres Monson would say if he were here, it was really great. I have such a testimony of our church leaders being called of God. I know they are His servants.

 

I got to be a host this week for some of the new Sisters who came in this week. I got to show them around, take them to their room and give them all the deets. Ok not all of the deets because its not all great news :) But it was really fun for me to be able to do what I can to make her feel welcomed and loved. They all looked pretty scared but excited, just like I was. I can't believe is have been more than 7 week since I was one of them. I can come a looooong way! I love being a missionary! I don't always, let's be real this is so hard and sometimes I think I am crazy for being here but I am always so quickly comforted by a scripture or a talk or just my good friend the Spirit. I was thinking yesterday how scary it is that I will be out soon speaking not-spanish and getting laughed at and who know what else. I was reading in Hebrews and came across in verse 6 in chaper 13 and it say that we may boldly say the Lord is our Helper and then we won't fear what man can do. Its amazing to me when I am in need of comfort and then something amazing like me coming across the perfect scripture happens and I know I am being looked after and taken care of.

 

Well family that is all I gots. Its been a great one! I only have one more full week here and then I am peacing out!! I love you all so much and appreciate all your support. I am going to really miss DearElder when I am out in the field, I get at least one letter a day from ya'll and it just helps me so much! I love you all!!!!

 

paz fuera!

 

Hermana Hansen

MTC Letter #7

O hey heyyy!!

 

Oh family. I just love you all! You are all so great! I will have you know when I went to collect my mail from the elders on Tuesday I had 10!!! DearElders. Its safe to say my family and friends are the BEST!! Oh how I love those letters! They just make everything so much better knowing you are all still a live and well! It has been just another great week here at the CCM. Its getting hard to come up with stuff to write home about because the weeks are all kind of the same. However I will try my best to thrill you all!

 

First thrill I have to share hasn't even happpened yet, however next week I get my TRAVEL PLANS!! I can't believe its getting that close! I was talking with Hermana Bragg last night about how little time we have left here. We were freaked out a bit when we had the thought that in 3 weeks from right now we are going to be REAL missionaries. WHAT??? That is a bit much for me to take in right now. I am EXTREMELY excited to get into the real world and get all the "firsts" over with and get into the work but it is intense! I get my plans on Tuesday (usually, hopefully) and then I will know when I will be able to call home from the airport and all so I will give you all those deets next week! I am pumped.

 

Spanish is alright. I feel like I should know more than I do but it will come when I need it. Most of our language studies are on our own. We kind of have to just teach ourselve Spanish, not my favorite method of learning but I have the spirit on my team so I know it will come when Heavenly Father needs me to have it.

 

I am racking my brains for something interesting this week...Oh. So a couple weeks ago on Pday the Hermanas and I were outside writing our many letters home when a big group of Elders walked past us. One of them was exclaiming his love for spoons. He noticed we were there and so we tried to explain is spoon love and then told us when a man goes on a mission his religion is no longer women...blah blah blah and then he did a flip and walked away. Now the Hermanas are big Harry Potter fans and they went on how this Elder was just like James Potter. They just loved him after they made this connection and everytime they saw him they would get super excited and say hello and he didn't remember who they were, and acted really annoyed by his new fans. This went on for about two weeks. Then on Sunday we saw him at the fireside and Hermana Bragg really wanted to talk to him but I told her no, Hermana he's not really James, also I think he is weirded out by the constant hellos. As I caught a glimpse of him that night I thought to myself...He looks a lot like the young Jospeh Smith. As it turns out he totally WAS! After the fireside we left to go to a different movie and as soon as we left apparently somebody recognized him from the movie and a swarm of people got to him and took pictures with him. We missed it. He left the next morning for North Carolina. I have been dying all week that our Spoon guy/ James Potter was Joseph Smith for the new movie. Also he hated us. Its been this weeks hearbreak. It has been rough watching the Joseph Smith movie while I work out everyday since.

 

So I don't feel as if this letter is blog worthy. I have really nothing brilliant to say today. Please forgive me. Just give me a few weeks and I can tell you all about my converting Taylor Swift in Burbank. But for right now I am doing really well here. I learn so much everyday about my Savior and His gospel. I know that what I am doing here is His work. I know that He is the Redeemer of the world and that through His atonement we can all have peace and happiness in our lives. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! LA IGLESIA ES VERDADERO!!!

I love you all soo much and I appreciate all that you do!

 

Hermana Hansen

pictures!

she wanted me to clarify that this one^^ was a joke :)

MTC Letter #6

Hola hola familia!!

 

So it has been a pretty normal week. I keep a list all week when something good happens so i remember to write home about it but i had nothing by last night so get ready for a super thrilling email!

 

First big news is Hermana Obrigawitch is gone! :( It was so sad to see her go! She got her visa wednesday at lunch and left thursday at 3 in the morning! So fast! She was a bit freaked out but she is so awesome and is going to do so well! So its just me and the Braggster now. Its kind of weird, we are the only Hermanas in our district and we have our room to ourselves. Its nice to not have to gather up the troops everytime we go somewhere now though. Its amazing what adding just one person to a companionship can do!

 

We joined the choir! Mostly because Hermana Obrigawitch had bit of a melt down during a study session and said she couldn't study for one more second, so we went to choir. The choir performs on tuedays at the devotionals. I am so paranoid the whole time they are going to do a close up on my face on the big screen while I am singing. There is no way I will be able to not bust up laughing and ruin the whole spirit of it. It was only slightly on me the other night I couldn't control myself. I am awkward.

 

I have a cold all week. I have been good about making oil pills (thank you mother) and have been drinking emergenc-c like its nothing and have been feeling a lot better. One of the coucilors in the branch presidency was in a meeting with us when I was the most sick and he so kindly informed me last night it sounded like I was hacking up something real special. Ha what can ya do?

 

One thing we do every Thursday now is go teach a lesson to a member in spanish. I have really learned to love it. You can't do much prep for it beacuse you have to just teach to their needs. We always get somebody really awesome and have really felt the spirit work through us while we are there! The spanish and I have had an off week though. I will be in lessons and suddenly have no idea how to say anything. I can usually understand people just fine (until they direct anything at me) but I just have had a hard time this week getting the spanish to come when needed. All well I am learning and someday I will be able to say whatever I want in Spanish...hopefully. You will all be proud to know we have only gotten the giggles during one of our lessons this week. I don't know what it is, we have never had this problem before, but now its like a time bomb, no one knows when it will come! Hermana Obrigawitch is usually the one that starts it. We both had a cold this week and at one point during our lesson we both sniffled at the same time, which you would think, was just about the funniest thing that had ever happened to us and we lost it. again. Victor was going to have none of it! He is one of our teachers that shows zero emotion. He is just a few months older than me (weird to have teacher my age) and just doesn't have a loose bone in his body. I try very hard to pull it out of him though. little by little everyday. He has started to show a little bit of who he is lately.

 

That is pretty much all I have. Sorry to not have a lot to report on. Its been a great week though! We had a new district come into our zone last week so last night the zone leaders and I had to go in a teach them some orientation stuff and give them a tour of the MTC. I can't believe its been a month since I was in their seats! I have changed and learned a lot!! I am so blessed to be here! This place isn't always my favorite and I get really excited about getting into the field but I know this is exactly where Heavenly Father wants me! That is such a great feeling! He is so aware of all of us. He is with all of us every step of the way no matter what we are doing! I love this gospel and I love being a missionary!!

 

Love you allll!!!!!!

 

 

Hermana Hansen

 

MTC Letter #5

Heyyoo Familia!

 

Its early! I am sure only Dad is up at this hour of the morning however we have to get up real early so we can get our laundry done before it gets super crazy in the laundry room! Laundry is probably the least best part about Pday but its all good because we get to go to the temple now! We went last week and it was so great! Nothing beats the temple! Nothing makes me feel more "at home'' than the temple! I was surprised by how pretty the Provo temple is too! It was great! I really look forward to it today!

This week has been a good one! The weeks are starting to go by fast now. WOOOOT! We are half way through the MTC on Sunday! We are so excited! Not that we want to get out of here but...we wanna get out of here :)

I am so excited to be able to go out and teach real people, oh and to learn spanish that would be great too! Most of the time when we ask questions about spanish in class the response is ''Oh, you'll get it once you start hearing other people and start using it more'' ....por favor bendice nos con el don del lenguas! But spanish is coming along though.

On Sunday I was given the assignment of the Coordinating Sister in my zone. I know...its hard not to let my head get big :) just kidding, Its been a good assignment for me. Its makes me be more aware of the other Hermana's in my zone and focus on their needs rather than my own, this is something that I have discovered is key while being out here, everything is SO much easier when I focus on others! I love all the Hermanas in the zone so this will be fun for me.

We have been having a lot of subs in our classes lately because one of our teachers is getting married. We have had a few that I have just LOVED! They have helped me so much! Its also nice to hear someone else's spanish, sometimes they are way easier to understand. Oh but not Hermano Black. Ohhhh Hermano Black. He was here last week just for one night and decided he was going to be an investigator that we all needed to teach. We quickly went over a brief outline of what we could teach him, making sure we could remember all the spanish we needed. Now I'm going to be real for a moment the Hermana trio does pretty well in lessons, not perfect but we are pretty good, so we weren't too stressed. (first sign a humbling experience is coming our way) We go in there and first we cannot understand a WORD this man was saying, he served in Hondorous (can't spell that..awkward sorry David) and he had a crazy accent that we just could not pick up. He also had a name that we had to repeat roughly 1000 times before we just decided it wasn't going to happen for us and we moved on. Well we start teaching him about the book of mormon had him in Alma 7 and he was really loving it, and then my dear sweet companion told him we got the record from our son and the gold plates. Eraiaidfnaksjdhfn---his name..we think, gave the craziest, rubber, confused face and I lost it. I could not stop laughing, and Hermana Obrigawitch started in on the laughter as well. It was NOT good. Then he asked what happened to these gold plates and nobody answered and all I had was ''...uhhhh con Dios'' again we lost it and it took a few moments to get ourselves together. Needless to say it was not a great lesson. I just can't help the awkward laugh, its definitely something for me to work on!

We went to an old broadcast of a talk given by Elder Holland on sunday and it was so good! I just love him! He is so powerful! His talks are always really funny too, we were saying as we walked out how amazing it was and that it was just what we needed, but we were also laughing that you know you have been in the MTC too long when Elder Holland is your favorite comedian. :)
I am learning  so much and I am so grateful for this experience! I am so blessed to be here changing the way I am! I can't imagine not coming on a mission. It has been the hardest, most tiring, most amazing experience I have ever had! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Christ is our savior and He knows exactly how we feel and what we are going through. God is so mindful of us! I see that every minute of everday here! I love you all and I love all your letters!! You guys are the best!

 

Hermana Hansen