Hi errbody,
i tried very hard to think about what i should say in this letter, but then i was like "oh wait, remember how my life is the same EVERY DAY??" oh yeah! right! so basically this week has been a blur. a good blur, but nonetheless a blur. i'm trying to think back to last pday, and then the week in between, and i'm coming up blank. i feel like all i do here is laugh, study, and accidently fall asleep sometimes. i'm sad to report that the mtc has started to take it's toll on me. not necessarily in terms of my weight (although my skirts tell me that my derriere may or may not have slightly increased in size, everything else seems to be pretty constant), but mostly in terms of my internal organs rebelling against anything i put in my body other than candy. internal organs still like candy, so i obviously have not changed that much. mtc food...meal times have become such a chore, because i know i have to eat, but i want to cry when i do. and after i do. but...whatever.
today i got to go to the temple for the first time since i've been here (which, by the way, my monthiversay is this week--weeeee!!)--it has been closed for maintenance or something since june. so we went, and it was soo so good. definitely needed, and definitely made me feel great. and then we ate at the temple cafeteria afterwards, which to be honest, i was expecting some heavenly stuff but i'm pretty sure it's the same food as the mtc, so i cried inside again. a new sister came into our zone this week, going to new caledonia--she's a solo sister too, so now sister sandoval and i are in a companionship of three. it's interesting. because it's already a bit of a challenge trying to align two peoples' wills throughout the day (although luckily sister s and i are morphing into the same person so we generally do the same things), but now we are adding a third...strong...will....to the mix. i think it'll be ok though.
let's see....ooh yeah the fire alarm went off in our building last night at 2:00am. very jarring. and one of the sisters in the room starting fuh-reeeeaking out like "WHAT IS THAT WHAT IS THAT WHAT IS THAT?!! WHAT DO WE DO?!" and i was just like "stop yelling. get your shoes. there's not a fire. let's go." so we sat outside for about 15 minutes then went back inside and back to bed. then when i woke up this morning i had completely forgotten it even happened--it felt like a bajillion years ago. like i said before, time at the mtc is super weird.
so i started tahitian full time last week. can i just tell you that i love tahitian? because i love tahitian. i love learning it, and speaking it. i love slightly less when people speak back to me in it, because i seriously have no idea what they're saying, but it's actually gotten a lot better. reading scriptures makes me want to punch myself in the face though. we have a hour of individual language study time every day, and i was sitting with my district and everyone was just doing french stuff lala la and they were all complaining about verbs and whatever, and i had been slaving over 2 LINES of scripture for the past 40 minutes, and so i just looked up and i was like, "I HAVE TO LOOK UP EVERY SINGLE WORD IN THE DICTIONARY AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS." there was silence in the room, and i think everyone understood anew the meaning of "righteous indignation." and then they were all greatful for their mission language full of latin roots and cognates and familiar sentence structures and tenses. i made it through my first page of the book of mormon though--it only took me two days! weee!! because i literally do have to look up about...97% of the words. but my teacher helps me and it's actually really good. and the masochist linguist inside of me enjoys it. i feel so legit! and i taught a few things from the first preach my gospel lesson to my teacher in tahitian and it was cool. i just like it. and then sometimes i look at the pictures of tahiti in the room, and i'm like I'M GOING THERE!!! and i feel great about that. and then my teachers will tell me stuff about tahiti sometimes, like how they feed you almost cruel amounts of food, and i get happy and even more anxious to go. actually, funny side note, the days of the week are really logically named. like tuesday, for example, is called "day two" and so on for the rest of the days of the week. except saturday is "mahana maa", which being translated is: FOOD DAY. when i found that out, i was pretty pleased. i think i will like tahiti.
other than that, i really have nothing exciting to report. i'm sorry this letter is so so boring, but just know that i'm happy and really enjoying my time here at the mtc. other than the food,i think i actually really will miss it. my district is so funny and we seriously just laugh all the time. but we're spiritual too, so it's ok. and we work hard. the other day, we were doing some scripture study, and (i don't even know how this came up but whatever), we started talking about "song of solomon" in the bible and one of the elders was like "this is how i'm going to get through my mission without girls. just read songs of solomon." i was dying. scripture jokes are the best when you're in the mtc. although i discovered that i'm pretty sure i'm not going to be successful with my humor in any other culture except america, because my teacher told me that tahitians do not get and thus do not like sarcasm--they just mostly end up thinking you're mean. so basically all my companions are going to think that i'm a jerk unless i can find some other way to express my humor. also, latino people do not think i'm funny. for example, we have cards to swipe to get into our residence, and these girls (one latina) were in front of us, and the door denied the girl's card, and i was like, "oh yeah, i think it denies it when you've like sinned or something..." obviously kidding. everyone else laughed but i'm pretty sure the top layer of my skin got melted off by her DEATH GLARE. sooooooooo maybe i'm just going to have to monitor myself a little bit better.
anyway, i got the cookies you sent, mom! and i shared them with everyone and there was much rejoicing in the land. thanks also for the page of pictures, dad! loved seeing those. i love hearing news from home about your adventures and the funny things about the kids. it makes me happy. i have about 8 minutes left on my time and i'm still trying to figure out something fun and exciting to tell you........coming up blank....i'll try to keep a better list throughout this next week so i can have things ready. basically it comes down to this--i am happy to be a missionary. i'm happy to be learning more about myself and this gospel, and how it makes me happy and fulfills my life. i learn new things every day, and even though it's really hard sometimes and i want to spiritually punch myself in the face, it's that kind of "hurts so good" type of thing that i know is doing me so much good in the long run. we read something out of d&c 58 this week in class (i don't remember the exact verses, but whatever go read it yourself! uhn!), and it was pretty much like this: as a missionary, i'm here to bear testimony. i know these things, and god knows that i know them. so if i do my part and work hard, he will fill in the rest and give me what i need to have in order to share my testimony. and at the end of the day, that's all that matters, really.
i'm almost out of time. i hope everything is going well. i love getting your letters, so keep on doing that stuff, ya hear? i promise a more entertaining email next week, but if it's not, get over it. i'm here to serve the lord, not be your circus monkey! just kidding. i love you, and miss you!
love,
soeur hansen
