There and Back Again, a Sister Missionary's Tale : Week 5

Buenos Dias!

How goes?

Well this was quite an eventful week. For starters, we DID get travel plans so I'm super stoked about that! We're reporting to the travel office 10 a.m. (us Chileans.) the sad thing is, our stateside friends leave on tuesday and only four of us are going to Vina. We really became a family, and I always feel a great deal of unity with everyone. Our flight leaves at 1 p.m. and goes straight to Santiago. Yep...16 hours folks. No layovers surprisingly. I'll hopefully call before we leave, so maybe like 11:30 a.m.ish? Sometime around there. I can hardly WAIT!! It's seriously crazy how fast time flies here. I'm just excited to put all we've learned and felt here to test in the real world. Once we get to Santiago, we have a 2 hour bus ride to Vina Del Mar. Basically that'll be a crazy day. I think it's four hours ahead there, and we land at 9:20 a.m. Chilean time, (5a.m. our time). I can't wait to meet my mission president and his wife too. We've heard lots of good things about them!!!

Friday, we had TRC which is the training resource center. Basically, volunteers from around here come and we give them a short lesson and talk to them. This time, our volunteer was a returned sister from Paraguay. It was really fun to talk to her. My Spanish is definitely improving, we even spoke it all one morning this week. It still has a long way to go though..haha.

my comp is awesome! we're both really sarcastic, and i think once we both realized that we both warmed up. we're both super good at whistling, so during breaks or walking, we always whistle songs that we both know like "do you hear the people sing" and different church hymns. it sounds cool, but really it's hilarious and half the time we crack up cause it's so funny. we have a good time. all of us hermanas have gotten into the habit of scaring one another. hermana call is easiest to scare. the other day, hermana johnson hid in her suitcase next to her bed. then, i hid under her bed once or twice and grabbed her ankle. bahahaha. she got me pretty good by hiding in the closet once. luckily, it keeps us all pretty entertained...haha. shennanigans.

On Sunday, we had Bishop Causse and wife-the presiding bishopric come speak to us on Easter Sunday. Which brings me to another matter. Happy (late) Easter!! I forgot last week. Bishop Causse was awesome, and his french accent just made it so much better. He talked about Christ being resurrected, and especially the story of Thomas and "blessed are they that have not seen and believe." or something like that. He talked a lot about how love is a motivating principle in life and it's obviously essential to being a missionary. One thing I've heard over and over at the MTC is "As your understanding of the Atonement grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase." I've mentioned before I've tried studying the atonement more. it's just so important to understand it and why carry burdens when you can give them to the Savior? I can't wait to be in the field and helping others come unto Christ.

Sunday night devotional, we had Sheri Dew come speak to us (yes i bet mom is jelly) She is a rockstar. i got to shake her hand too. She's awesome and an amazing teacher. She talked a lot about our focus : Christ, of course. She also said that right now for missionaries, we know exactly where God wants us to be because we've been called by a prophet of God. I thought that was super cool. I realize more and more everyday that we have that spirit and knowledge to use that power. One thing she said that I liked as well was "we have enlisted for the full time service in the batallion of the Lord." The message of the gospel is simple and it is to come unto Christ and have hope, happiness, power, and peace.

Sunday, we also found our Vina friends at the temple walk. They had a Chile flag, so we all took a picture which I will send. I think that was the majority of them, but there were a few other Vina people in our building we haven't yet met. It got us all super excited to go on Monday! Seriously. As creeperish as this sounds, it's always fun to see little kids and families at the temple because a. little kids there are so cute. b. families can be together forever c. we seriously never see kids here. haha.

Tuesday was our last day of normal class and we had Michael Ringwood from the seventy come and speak to us. Solid. He spoke a lot about self conversion to the gospel. It really makes sense because we can't teach what we don't feel ourselves. We can't teach successfully without the Spirit. The Lord expects to much from us and we all have so much potential! Hermano Avila gave us a lesson before about enduring to the end, and Elder Ringwood also talked a lot about it. In spanish, they say 'perseverar hasta el fin'. I like the world "perseverar" (perservere-if i can spell right). it's sounds so positive. He said our missions are like miniature versions of our lives and we need to perservere to the end and apply the tools we gain to our real lives to endure to the end on that spectrum as well.

Yesterday, we got to host. It was a really nice day outside as well, so of course it was nice to walk around for a few hours leading the new missionaries to their residence and classrooms. I hosted probably 5 or 6 girls.

Oh by the way! I met an Elder Lindsey this week. We randomly made the connection of both living in Fort Collins. And his sister in laws sister is marrying my brother. The amount of connections made at the MTC is crazy, like you can literally find a connection with anybody here. it was fun. I also had the pleasure of seeing Sister Kovach, Montgomery, and Kearl as well.

Funny story from yesterday...kinda. So they called the chilenos down to the travel office for something. We all were afraid we were getting reassigned for some reason, but really they were just giving us something for the airport. we came back and convinced the others that we got reassigned. i told them I was going to ogden and they definitely believed us. We felt kinda bad though, so we told them the truth. So maybe not that funny, but still!! We have some good laughs in our classroom though. I don't remember if I told you last week, but one of the elders has a really hard time staying awake in class and his eyes always twitch as he falls forward to the front of his desk. then, his eyes were doing some weird triangle dance half opened and it was literally the weirdest thing i've ever seen. He also had his hand smashing his cheek and eye. i was confused how the heck someone falls asleep like that??? me and one of the elders took a few pictures of him doing some goofy faces. im sure we could have an excellent photoshoot during general conference this weekend. it's seriously hard to keep a straight face in class sometimes, even for our teachers!! it's so funny. he's going to be on our 16 hour flight to vina, so rest assured, i will have my camera at the ready. just kidding. hahaha.

Ok package came today...muppet band-aids = hilarious. Wow I am not even going to use them because I'd rather put them on my planner or something as decoration. Thanks for the bandaids though, they're well needed because I have some lovely broken in shoe blisters. yayyyyy. The skirts are awesome too!! I love the blue one especially. getting packages is like christmas. and usually whatever comes, it's super exciting! Jessica also sent me cookies! It was awesome.

Tomorrow we have in field orientation! We've heard a lot of good things about it, so that'll be good. Tonight is our last class with our teacher Hermano Bailey. It's sad. Our teachers are seriously da best!!! We all decided we want to have a district reunion when we get back because we're seriously like a family here. Saturday and Sunday, we have general conference, and luckily, we get to watch the young women broadcast during the men's priesthood session on saturday night. We'll probably do some packing today and saturday, then Sunday, we'll have testimony meeting, devotional, one final night in the luxurious MTC beds, and off to Chile we GO!

Hermana Call and I decided that we're so excited to see animals again too when we go out to the field. I for reals miss my dogs :( i'm sure we'll meet some dogs down there though to help ease the pain!

I love being a missionary. When i think about it, it's hard work, but I know with the Lord anything is possible and I can enjoy it! I never really thought I'd enjoy being in a classroom 9 hours a day learning a language and all, but the spirit here is so real. All the same, I'm ready for the field. Without realizing it, we've all grown so much, and it wouldn't be possible without the Lord. I love our teachers here. I love the gospel, and I see everyday how much it has effected my life and influenced me. I would encourage anybody to go out and serve a mission! Fo realz.

WOOOOOT. can't wait!!!!! talk to you on monday. andddd might i add, I can't wait to not eat the MTC food anymore.

hows the wedding planning going?

write me letters!! i love getting mail. seriously is da beste. and dear elder is free.

tell justin i sent him a letter, but maybe it got lost in the mail...even if he lives five minutes away. fail.

the engagement pictures brought me much pleasure. kinda obsessed.

love you family! paz y bendiciones.

-Hermana Hanks