April 22, 2013

Hello hello!

How is everything?   22 inches of snow??? are you kidding me?????? crazy colorado weather.  well, while you have all been having fun in the snow, Ive been enjoying the nice fall weather here with nice palm trees =).  

OK sorry...i totally forgot to send my new address.  Were in west vina, so it just sends to the pouch mail address for now=

Chile Viña Del Mar Mission

4 Norte 1112

Casilla 631

Viña Del Mar

Chile

Yayyy now you can send me letters.  My mission pretty much rocks at life.  I don't even know where to begin.  Last Monday, we took a spill at the dunes (no i did not break my cocix thank you napoleon dynamite). It was super epic but super cold and i didn't think we'd need sweatshirts. shoot.  it's okay.  we ate lunch.  i sent a picture. 

My companion is swell!  She has been out 13 months I believe, so she goes home kinda soon.  She's a great missionary.  She has a good what i like to call 'missionary stare'.  whenever we contact, she bears a solid testimony and people usually end up changing their mind to letting us come by.  if that makes sense.  its a good thing!

This week...let's see.  Pretty epic.  We contacted a lot, worked with a few members.  My language is good some days and awful other days.  usually at the end of the day, my brain is fried!  I really want to be fluent! i contacted a few people on my own this week too.  chileans are funny.  they talk really fast as i mentioned last week and talk a LOT.  (its kind of nice sometimes because it means that i just nod my head and say 'si' ).  

Went to my first zone conference on wednesday i think.  it was super good and its always refreshing and motivating to see the other missionaries who work super hard.  We have a really good zone.  They emphasized obedience a lot and i remembered that i need to keep in mind an eternal perspective.  I need to always always have the spirit with me.  i think it took a  few days to adjust, but after that, i felt better.  my time is short and theres a lot of work to be done!  

  We had another investigator at church last week named Juan.  He is probably almost 80 and is our mamita's boyfriend.  He is blind, but a very nice man.  (I went up to him last week and tried to shake his hand but he didnt see it.  you can imagine that was awkward because the bishop was sitting right next to me...)  

Milo our ward mission leader really wants to learn english.  hes definitely a stud and  does his job well.  We read the book of mormon with him in english, just the title page, and he did well.  when he said 'scriptures' he always adds  a 'eh' at the beginning of the word.  'escriptures ', (it makes sense because scriptures in spanish is escrituras'.  If theres anyone we can count on, its Milo.  He looks out for us missionaries.

We went on exchanges this weekend.  I went to a place closer to Viña called Reñacait is super uphill.  I was with Hermana Pereira who is training my pal Hermana Zimmerman.  got to see her again and that was awesome!  Hermana Pereira is the sister training leader and doesnt speak english.  shes from paraguay and they speak slower and more clearly.  i learned a lot from her and luckily, i understand a lot of what she told me!

chile is so great.  the people are awesome and love each other.  they all great each other with a hug and kiss on the cheek.  

oh my goodness. so church yesterday, it was sooo cold in the building.  they dont have heaters or insulation here so we stack on the layers at night even if its nice outside.  my companion pointed out that my lips turned blue at church.  we went to the bathroom and yep they were blue! haha.  

oooo yay and for fleas...i wear bugspray to bed. i feel like im camping when i got to bed.  i didnt think fleas were too much of a problem at first, and they werent but then i woke up and got a ton last week.  time for the spray down.  i have 14 bites just on my wrist and probably like 60 altogether.  yuck.  action time.  i sprayed like crazy in our room and put on the fleacollar and everything and layers.  i dont think i got as many last night thank goodness. 

i also decided to not pet any more dogs.  i didnt pet the strays before, but im steering clear of dogs till i get home.  not worth it at all...

we visited with an elderly membr of our ward named hermano rave and picked a few figs from his fig tree.  ill send pictures.  

i hope you{re all doing well.  the ocean and beach are gorgeous here.  have a nice summer!  we experienced some vina winter which wasnt terrible but still cold.  

chao!

love you.

hermana hanks

April 14, 2013

Hola familia!
¿como está? (would you look at that i know spanish.) ok.... so before i get into anything.....CHILE IS THE COOLEST COUNTRY EVER.  seriously.  i don´t even know where to begin here!
we left the mtc monday morning.  we were going to class to see our teacher one last time and i saw jessica foster walking around the corner! crazy. we were about 45 minutes late because an elder who nobody knew who was showed up.  basically it was exactly like home alone.  it took aabout 6 years to check luggage, but it was okay!  In fact, we were very blessed.  I was the last to get my luggage checked and our second bag was an extra 75 dollars.  we were all kind of rushed and worried that our luggage would be too heavy, but the lady put the tags on mine without even weighing them.  i then told her i still needed to pay, but she gave me a smile and said,"go on a mission."  that´s probably way more than i could have asked for, but i don´t doubt that was a miracle!  i also think making that plane was a miracle in itself because we literally were seated on the plane at 12:58 on a plane that left at 1.  after we got off the plane, hermana call lost her wallet.  i think they said they had already cleaned the plane, but she asked the man if she could go check and a few minutes later, she came out with her wallet.  
i talked to a woman named Myrna on the way to Chile.  She was a native and hadn´t been back to visit for 20 years i think.  we talked about religion and everything (in english :) and i gave her a book of mormon.  she was excited and i hilighted a few of my favorite parts that i encouraged her to read.  i really hope she reads it!  
i woke up right as we were flying over the crazy cloud cover.  legit? uh yes.  
we stayed in vina the first night near the mission home.  it was possibly the most comfortable bed ever.  then the next morning we had orientation stuff all day, then transfers!!
my new companion´s name is Hermana Ortega.  no she´s not native, she´s from Ogden, utah, but people here have no trouble pronouncing her name!  She´s turning 24 this month, so she´s a few years older than i am.  she´s super awesome!  she speaks pretty good spanish and works hard.  we´re in an area just 15 minutes outside of vina in a place called recreo alto.  our first night, we went street contacting.  we also went to meet the ward mission leader, la presidenta de la soc soc and the young men´s leader (whom all live in the same house).  the presidenta de la soc soc (relief society) is hermana sonia.  she´s very kind.  i can´t really understand her, but im working on it!  her son, leo, is the ym president and he knows a little bit of english.   the ward mission leader´s name is milo and he´s actually colombian.  he served in vina 2 or 3 years ago.   we´re trying to help him learn english and it´s fun because his colombian accent is super strong.  he wanted me to tell you all hi.
we speak spanish the majority of the time, but it can be frustrating.  i realize more and more though that i need to just do it because i really don´t like not being able to communicate well.  chileans talk FAST.  and they don´t ever pronounce their "s" or some ¨"l" in words.  i really like the challenge of trying to understand what on earth people are saying though.  at the end of the day, i´ll admit my brain is spanish stewed. 
we´ve done lots of contacting this week which means we have a lot of appointments this week.  a lot of people are pretty receptive, but it depends kind of what part of town we´re in.  we met a guy the other day who was talking about God being an extraterrestrial and stuff like that.  i can sometimes put the pieces together of what is being said in a conversation, but i tell you, i was completely lost in that one.   we´ve met some very nice people too though.  last night, we were contacting in an area of town we´ve never been before.  we went down some steps to some old houses.  we´re right close to the beach in our area.  we talked to a man who really didn´t like people asking him about his beliefs.   it was a little discouraging.  we decided to go to the next house before our meeting, and there we met a man named <sergio and his wife maria.  they both were very nice and said that they had met with missionaries before but i think one of them had surgery and i don´t know what happened.  they said it would be fine if we came back next week.  they also had a little white poodle (can you guess who this made me think of...) im so excited!  i love finding families that are happy like that especially.  
we also met a man named ramon y su esposo erika.  they invited us in and gave us juice (people drink a ton of it here).  we pretty much told them about the book of mormon.  ramon is a christian and his wife is catolica.  they said they would read and pray about the book of mormon and find our for themselves.  im excited to visit them this week too!
we had 8 investigators at church this week.    evwe set an appointment with juan, a newer investigator.  he´s probably in his 80´s, but seemed real excited! 
as for a little taste in the culture here.  our ward is tiny and it probably has about 12 hermanas in relief society.  they asked me to introduce myself in front of everyone during sacrament mtg, and asked me to play piano as well.  i also gave the closing prayer in the next two meetings too.  the piano´s keys were a little sticky, so it probably sounded awful because i missed so many notes, but afterwards, many were excited that i played.  everyone is so kind and loving to each other.  they all greet each other with a kiss on the cheek here.  it´s a sign of respect here.  they´re all so sweet.  they kind of don´t really know how to pronounce my last name and usually it goes ¨"hermana...hahyanks?" 
many people have been excited about my eyes.  one man said "quiero a comprar sus ojos!" which means, i want to buy your eyes i think.  
the food is bomb.  especially coming from the mtc, our first meal here was with hermana wilma.  the members feed us most days.  they give us a lot of rice, and pan. pan is bread, and it´s the best.  we´ve had good sauce with types of meat.  it´s not spicy, but it has good flavor.  their desserts are very light.  we´ve mostly had berries and cream, which is nice because afterwards when we have to walk, i don´t feel like a bowling ball.  we also have flipping amazing fruit.  the apples are the best, and they have avocado trees.  i love the markets here as well.  pretty much....chile is the best!  
the bus rides here are epic.  i have no idea if there is a speed limit, but you get on a bus and the second you´re on, it takes off.  it´s like a roller coaster because it can be very steep and curvy in many places.  it´s the best! 
i forgot to mentino how cute chilean children are.  one of the investigators name is francisco.  he´s been coming to church for 2 years and he´s 14 years old.  he wants to be baptized, but doesn´t have permission yet.  i wish i was that awesome when i was 14!  he´s such a nice kid and we´re teaching him this week i think.  
there are a bunch of dogs here.  it´s like a dog wonderland.  dogs just come and lay in the street dead dog style.  we´re not suppose to touch them because they probably have fleas, but nonetheless, i love seeing all the lazy dogs lay around.  apparently it´s not even this bad here.  we went to the sand dunes today and one dog just came up and slept next to us. didn´t even try and steal our food! i miss my dogs :( but there are lots of them here, so it helps!
sorry for the lengthy letter.  i promise ill try to keep it shorter in the future.  chile is the best.  im psyched to bring these people closer to the Savior!
love you!
-hermana hanks

KSL Missionary Video

On the first segment you can see Emily singing!  at 15 seconds in,

if you pause it... look up the aisle to our left.  She's up pretty high,

but there is a girl in front of her w/ a bright orange shirt on.  Her

hair is down.  They are right on the aisle.  It's so fun

On segment 7 at the end, when they show the choir again, you

can see Emily's friend Diana Briscoe (two different times)  SO FUN!!

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24703772&nid=295&title=a-mighty-band-of-youth&fm=home_page&s_cid=queue-9

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

yep. just had to take one of these classic missionary mtc pictures. ballin'

MUPPET BANDAIDS!!! yeah life pretty much can't get better than that. so psyced.

 took a creeper picture of elder seamons sleeping.  this is just getting started. 

 our class with our teacher hermano avila

our class

remember these "s" signs we did in elementary school?  yeah so cool. 

 I love this calendar picture, and also VINA IN 4 DAYS!!!!!

 

vive chile. our airplane grupo at the temple

hermana call, hermana zimmerman, myself

Hermana Zimmerman and me with our scarf du-rags. Holla

Week 4

Hello!

What a great day.  We went to the temple this morning and came outside with some lovely 65 degree weather.  And here I am chilling in my wolfshirt. yayyyy.

Anyways.  This week pretty much rocked at life.  We're suppose to get travel plans today which I'm super stoked for.  From what we last heard, someone going to Vina del Mar had a 32 hour flight with layovers and everything.  craaaaayzy!

Seriously, I have so much I want to tell about in my letters home during the week, but when P-day comes, I can never remember a single thing.  Sad that Marco's gone!  Hope that went well.  We'll miss him

We're officially the oldest district in our zone.   it seems like we've been here for years, but really it's only been a little over 4 weeks.  On sunday, we watched the testaments after devotional.  Best movie ever?  I think yes.  One of them at least.  We always have really good meetings on sundays.  We got to watch music and the spoken word, and as busy as sundays are with meetings, they're so awesome!!  We got another new district in our zone this week.  Cute little new missionaries.  Crazy that I was in that situation only 4 weeks ago. 

Week 3

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!

hehe. couldn't suppress my excitement for Justin and Jenn!!!! congrats you two!!  and yes i got your dear elders justin! thanks!

ok...and not cool for going to angel's landing without me!!! whose the one who always says let's go to moab and southern utah!???!!!! this girl!!! but yes, congrats to mum!  now maybe you can come skydiving with me and justin when i get home!! :D haha.

sooo this week FLEW by once again.  it's seriously crazy that ill be in chile less than 3 weeks from now...barely. i was telling hermana call yesterday that we would probably be waking up to our first morning there in 3 weeks from that time.  hahaha.  we're all so excited!  we leave on april 8, i believe.  we're not singing at conference, but we were filmed for mtc choir singing "like ten thousand legions marching" and they said it will be playing between sessions of conference...so yeah.  if you wanna look for me...also, we're going to be the oldest mtc district in our zone after this upcoming tuesday. 

Let's see.  we had some good happenings this week for sure.  our teacher hermano avila-the intense one whose just been back from a mission for only a month or two, he gave us some really good lectures!  the first one was on saturday night.  i remember we all went home just in daze because it was so much information that none of us had ever really given much thought too.  it was mostly about the atonement, which was super neat.  it made the gospel seem so much more real too.  his lesson made me want to read the scriptures so much more too.  since then, i've spent a lot of time studying the atonement.  i heard a quote that the more we study and apply the atonement, the more we will want to teach it to others.  i thought that was cool.  on sunday, we watched the "joseph smith, prophet of the restoration" movie.  I LOVE IT!!

the language is coming along.  we have some good funny lines that we say in english, that have now been translated into spanish.  one of the elders name is elder barbosa and he is from brazil, and he's learning spanish from his second language which is english.  we call him and his comp the "capitans" because his last name is barbosa and his comp, looks like captain america.  haha. he's the youngest out of all of us-he just finished high school last semester i think.  we all think he's pretty awesome because he makes us laugh when the time is right!   our district has become pretty good friends which is awesome!!  i know i have a long way to go with the language, but i can't wait until we're finally fluent!  all of us find ourselves in this strange spanglish limbo.  for example, if i have a song stuck in my head, then i usually try to translate the lyrics to spanish.  im sure other missionaries can relate. 

tuesday we sang in the choir and the news came and recorded us singing that song.  so that was cool.  then we had devotional and the speaker and his wife were amazing!  one thing i liked in particular, was when he was saying we're leaving our comforts of home to know the true comforter-the holy ghost.  he's really the only comfort we need.  i know that will be something i'll learn throughout my mission especially.  we had a district devotional after that, and we all got up to bear our testimonies.  people gave some really good testimonies about what they had heard that night.  after that, our district leader got up and closed with his testimony in spanish.  he then looked at each of us and said something that i can't remember.  i know i felt the spirit of God in the classroom that night. 

  i've felt pretty happy this week!  these weeks are flying by, but i can't say how excited i am for going to chile.  i can't wait to be there and put my faith to the test. 

wednesday was sort of a downer...i didn't sleep super well and woke up with a charlie horse in my calf at like 3 in the morning.  the day before i felt super parched in my throat, and figured it was just super dry, but wrong-o.  my throat is super dry and swollen which really kinda stinks...the elder next to me had a cold and i found myself catching a runny nose too. blehhhhhh.  hopefully ill feel better soon!

  i still got to go to the temple this morning which was always a good experience.  i also said goodbye to soster briscoe for the last time for 18 months :( she will do great things.  i will miss seeing her around here! 

i have so much to learn, but i feel like i've learned so much in the past 3 weeks already! 

p.s. this is for justin, first off congrats, and also, i met an elder david heel- he's got sort of a british accent. he's our zl and he said you and him worked together.  crazy right? he's a cool elder.

i love you all.  thanks for the package again.  i know erika would love the showers here...hahahaha. not.  

-hermana hanks

 These pictures are from the temple walk last Sunday.