August 16, 2011
dearest friends and family,
it is with shame and sadness in my heart that i write this weeks letter to report to you that despite my best efforts (ok, let's be honest, there hasn't been too much resistance on my part), i am turning into a 19 year old boy. it's true. my sense of humor, if ever it might have been at all superior to that of an adolescent elder's, has now officially digressed. here's an example: one day our meal time turned into a "how many bites will it take to finish this" day. it was instigated by me. i also won. i'm a disgrace to the feminine race, i think. i think i simultaneously won the respect and disgust of every elder in my district that day though. anyway, yeah. it's kind of sad, but i'm ok with it. i just thought i should warn you in case you were expecting me to come out of the MTC a really refined and dignified person. i'm pretty sure the opposite has happened.
anyway, aside from that pretty pathetic turn of events (let's be real though, most of you probably saw that coming given my affinity for fart jokes), things are going really well here. i had a interesting meeting yesterday--i got a note saying that i was needed at the front desk IMMEDIATELY. my first reaction was excitement, because i thought someone had someone managed to drop off cafe rio to me. then, i was confused. then, i got really nervous because i couldn't think of a legitimate reason why iw ould get called up to the front desk, so i was scared that someone had died and i was trying to figure out who it was and how to make the quickest exit so no one would see me have a total mental breakdown. anyway, the president head honcho guy (not the MTC president, but someone important nonetheless) called me into his office and i was super nervous, but it just ended up being about my VISA and going to TAHITI!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyway, i've been recommended for EARLY DEPARTURE!! gah! dreams come true! but they didn't really know if i was going to be able to do it, because they weren't sure about the status of my visa. anyway they were like, "so if it were possible, would you want to leave the MTC early and just head straight to tahiti? your teachers have said that you're ready and they've taught you pretty much all the tahitian and then some that they've taught to previous missionaries and that you speak better than any of the missionaries they've sent out before (toot tooooooot!) so would you be ok with that if it were a possibility?" and i was like "AM I A 19 YEAR OLD BOY??! HECK YESS SEND ME NOWWWW!!!" BUT. i talked to the important man today and he told me that my visa is in fact gone through and all is set, but the problem is that it's not active until september 10th. sooooo i will only get to leave 5 days early instead of 2 weeks. which i was sad about, but hey, 5 days is 5 days! so unless there's any definite change, i'll be heading out to paradise on september 10th instead of the 15th. weeee! ua oaoa vau! (me happy!)
so i'm pretty happy about that. i feel pretty good about my tahitian. i'm nowhere near where i want to be, but i feel like for the time i've had, i can hold my own pretty well. although i will say that i'm pretty sure once i actually get to tahiti and real people start talking to me, i'm going to be like "WHAT LANGUAGE ARE YOU SPEAKING?!!" so that'll be cool, but i think that's how everyone is once they get out of the mtc and into real world. but i'm way excited to learn. i want to OWN this language by the time i'm done with my mission. i'm just so excited to go to tahiti. can you tell i'm excited? i might have just peed.
ANYWAY, we got another new sister this week, so the threesome companionship has been split up and now there are four of us. the world is right again. we were all a little nervous because we knew that she was from brazil so we didn't know if she was going to speak english or not, but as it turns out her english is awesome so a great sigh of relief was heaved throughout the land. i will say though that i have definitely been replaced in terms of most innappropriate humor. brazilians are bawdy, apparently. she even made ME blush once. so that's kind of interesting. both her and the other old/new sister are companions now, and they both have super strong personalities, so sometimes it's pretty interesting to watch. they're both great sisters, but sometimes i'm just like "man oh man i love sister sandoval." the other day, we were talking about how i might get to leave early and one of the sisters piped in and was like, "What?? You get to leave early? why?!" and i was like "well, if my visa comes they're going to send me early because i've kind of finished my stuff here." and she was like "noooo you can't leave before i do! i'm supposed to leave before you! you have to stay until i leave!" i dont' think i've ever wanted to punch someone in the face so much as in that moment. SHE'S BEEN HERE 3 WEEKS!! BUT, i tried to be very nice and gracious and told her kindly with a slightly pained smile on my face that i think i've been here long enough. the end. la la laa BOOM punch in the face. i really love sister sandoval though. i'm going to be REALLY sad when she leaves, especially since i'll have to have someone else as a companion until i leave the mtc, but also just becasue we've become such good friends. on sundays, we all have to prepare talks beforehand and they announce who's going to speak during the actual meeting (surprise!), so this past sunday we placed a little bet about the speakers, because we knew it was going to be one of us. we decided that whoever had to speak, the other person had to buy them a pen of their choice from the bookstore (seriously, it's kind of sad how obsessed we've become with pens. it's like our currency). anyway, that made me kind of wish i was speaking because i really wanted a new pen, but she ended up giving the talk. she did a good job though, and i was smiling up at her like a proud mama llama the whole time. we went to choir on sunday too, mostly because intially she forced me, but it ended up being really fun and uplifting, and it will guarantee us a seat in the devotional on tuesday.
let's seeeee what other new and exciting things can i tell yooou....OH. i played volleyball the other day in gym. this may not seem new and exciting to you, but considering that most of my gym days consist of me sitting under the shade of a tree while watching and harrassing sister sandoval while she does crunches or something, me actually doing an activity is pretty earth-shaking. anyway, my district wanted us to play with them outside, but i made sure to warn them that i was athletically challenged. they were all really good sports though and we had soooo much fun. except this one elder in our zone but not in our district was playing with us and he was the biggest fun sucker i've ever met in my life. totally took himself waaaay too seriously and would like yell at people when they missed the ball. and the thing was, HE TOTALLY SUCKED TOO. i wanted to ask him how that beam in his eye was feeling while he was pointing out everyone elses motes, but i didn't know if that scriptural reference would be lost on him or not. HA I'M SO SPIRITUAL WAAAAAHHHH. just kidding. anyway, we all told him to chill out and kept on having a good time. my district is great. everyone just loves each other. except for elder peru, but i had a little bit of a break through with him this week--we were all talking and having a nice conversation and i was trying sooo hard to talk to him and be nice, and then one of the other elders started talking to me and he immediately started talking about me right in front of my face to another elder like he always does and finally i just looked at him and i was like "I CAN HEAR YOU. I'M THREE FEET AWAY FROM YOU. DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID? I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING." and he just started laughing like i was joking or something, but i was not having it. so then he stopped laughing. but after that, he tried really hard to be nice to me. so maybe once he realized that i wasn't a deaf doormat, things changed a little bit. we'll see how long it lasts though.
anyway, i'm about out of time, so i'll wrap this up. i'm loving my time here at the mtc, and every day i get more excited to be able to go out to tahiti. i love being a missionary. i love the things that i learn every day, the spirit that i feel, and being able to share what makes me happy with the people around me. i was thinking about why missions are so hard sometimes this week, because they really are, but they're so worth it, but anyway, i was thinking about that. and you know why one of the reasons they're so hard, in my opinion? i think it's because satan knows that missionaries are bad butt-kickin' mamma jammas. and we can do so much good. so he wants to stop us and make us think we're worthless failures. that's his problem though, because i know i'm not a failure. sure it's discouraging sometimes, but if it were easy it would be dumb. so with that obvious profundity (probably write that down in your journal or something), i'm signing off. i love you!!
love,
soeur hansen
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
August 9, 2011
Aug 9
Iaorana eerrbody!
and now we meet again at this week's blessed pday. i'm still alive and preaching the gospel and stuff, so things are pretty good. tahitian is in full swing now, i'm teaching two "investigators" (aka both of my teachers pretending to be a person that they taught on their missions and i have to teach them), and then i have two french investigators too. so four total, and it can get purrrrty crazy sometimes. but obviously that's what i'm going to be doing in tahiti anyway, so it's not like i'm crying about it or whatever. it's going pretty well. i don't feel terrified every time i walk into a lesson anymore, which is a nice change. actually, sister sandoval and i committed one of our investigators to baptism, which was really awesome. even though it's not REAL, we still feel really invested in it, so we were working really hard to support him and stuff, and then we were like "sooo...wanna get baptized?" and he was like "yeah, i think i do." and i felt like such a goober because i was SO HAPPY that i just wanted to start crying. ha! dumb. but i held it together and just smiled really big so he probably thought i was a crazy person. anyway, so i teach my tahitian investigators by myself, obviously, since i'm the only one in the class. but it's going well. one of my lessons was like an hour long (which really isn't supposed to happen because that's way too long for anyone's attention span, but whatever), and it went really well and then by the time i got out i was like "holy crap. i just spoke tahitian for a solid hour." i probably didn't say holy crap at the time though. but it was cool. i didn't even think i knew enough words to talk for an hour. apparently i do. or maybe i was just saying the same things over and over for an hour. that's also a distinct possibility. regardless, my teacher told me "good job," so whether or not that was out of pity or genuine congratulations, i don't really care to know. so one of the days last week (monday? tuesday? who cares. they're all the same), i went to this presentation that a senior missionary couple gave, because they've served 3 missions in tahiti and i was just like transfixed throughout the whole thing. anytime someone talks about tahiti i eat it up. i'm so excited to goooooooooooooo! ahbleh. i haven't really heard anything about my visa, i'll probably start asking more when september rolls around. oh! funny tahitian word/cultural note of the week: in tahiti, a lot of the animals that are there now aren't really native animals. pigs are like the only animal native to the island (ok not really but for the sake of this example just go with it), so when other people brought other animals to the island, they would just use words they already have to name the new ones. this example would be more effective if i actually remember what the words were, but the translation is really where it's at. so a pig is "puaa", and a horse, being translated, is: "pig that runs on land," and a goat is: "pig with teeth." haha!
anyway, because the MTC has become a little monotonous (every day is the same, what? we can predict what we're going to eat for every meal based on the day of the week? yes. and it's not because of inspiration.), sister sandoval and i decided to take the advice of my friend nathan who told me that when he was in the MTC, they just made up stupid holidays for every day to make it more fun and interesting. one of our holidays was "scare the crap out of elder szuch day", in which we did everything in our power to make elder szuch scream like a little girl. it was fairly successful, and i think it strengthened our bond. and by "strengthened" i mean totally destroyed it by making him hate us. just kidding. he thought it was funny after we told him it was our honorary holiday for him. and then another day was "take as many awkward pictures of your companion in weird situations/positions and you're not allowed to delete any day." i might have hated that holiday. but it definitely made the day more interesting. our zone is finding other interesting things to spice up life, like making up nicknames for everyone. for example, this week, they're on a "hook" kick. so the elders have various "lost boys" names, and since i'm the oldest person/one of the token girls in the zone, i'm "wendy lady." oorrrr they just call me mom. which is funny. but then they started calling another one of the elders "dad" and i was like hey, i really don't remember having kids with him soooo one of us has to stop being your parent. this is how rumors get started in the MTC and people get sent home. ha just kidding. but seriously.
anyway, things are good though. devotionals and firesides have been really good lately (not like they aren't usually though)--we had gerald lund come speak at one of them, that was pretty cool. actually that was a funny fireside because i was sitting next to this elder who just stared at a picture of his (what i assume to be) girlfriend the ENTIRE TIME. i was dying. he would take it out, stare at it for like a full 5-6 minutes, put it back, and then like 2 minutes later, take it out again and start the process over. oooh elder. so precious. we went to the temple today and it was really great. it's so crazy how i can actually FEEL it when the people pray for the missionaries. i can't explain it very well, but it's like WHABAM! my heart feels good. and i feel good. i'm a big fan of that. i've noticed more and more that my ability to recognize feelings and promptings from the spirit is really increasing. like the other day in a lesson, we were talking about ether 12:27, and being able to overcome our weaknesses when we pray for help, and it was seriously so crazy--i just busted out this promise to our investigator that he would be able to overcome the temptations in his life if he would pray with faith for help, and as i was speaking, i felt the power of what i was saying. i honestly don't even remember what i said, but it's like i was on steroids or something. and i was like "whoa." and our investigator was like"'whoa." and then we walked out and sister sandoval looked at me and she was like, "whoa." obviously that doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it's incredible. it's funny how much a good lesson can make me feel like a bajillion dollars, and then a bad lesson absolutely destroys me. i dunno. i guess i'm just invested in this work. WEIRD.
thanks for the package this week, mom. those cookies were excellent and everyone loves you, but i love you the most, so their love is insignificant in comparison, just keep that in mind. i took a picture of the people in my district eating them with joyous looks on their faces, so i'll be sure to send that on. they are all singing praises of "the nance," haha. happy belated birthday to zoey twinkle toes, and happy almost birthday to erik! gaah. he's soooo ollllllllddddd it's weird! oh! i saw sean o'rourke in the MTC! i thought he was going to the MTC in england, but i heard his name get called over the intercom and i was like uhwhaaa? and then i saw him the next day. it was really funny, and cool. he's waiting for his visa to be able to go over there, so i'm not sure how much longer he'll be around here.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. i hope everyone is doing well and being happy and stuff. i love you and miss you and think you're the best everrrr. go read your scriputres and stuff. bye!!
love,
soeur hansen
Iaorana eerrbody!
and now we meet again at this week's blessed pday. i'm still alive and preaching the gospel and stuff, so things are pretty good. tahitian is in full swing now, i'm teaching two "investigators" (aka both of my teachers pretending to be a person that they taught on their missions and i have to teach them), and then i have two french investigators too. so four total, and it can get purrrrty crazy sometimes. but obviously that's what i'm going to be doing in tahiti anyway, so it's not like i'm crying about it or whatever. it's going pretty well. i don't feel terrified every time i walk into a lesson anymore, which is a nice change. actually, sister sandoval and i committed one of our investigators to baptism, which was really awesome. even though it's not REAL, we still feel really invested in it, so we were working really hard to support him and stuff, and then we were like "sooo...wanna get baptized?" and he was like "yeah, i think i do." and i felt like such a goober because i was SO HAPPY that i just wanted to start crying. ha! dumb. but i held it together and just smiled really big so he probably thought i was a crazy person. anyway, so i teach my tahitian investigators by myself, obviously, since i'm the only one in the class. but it's going well. one of my lessons was like an hour long (which really isn't supposed to happen because that's way too long for anyone's attention span, but whatever), and it went really well and then by the time i got out i was like "holy crap. i just spoke tahitian for a solid hour." i probably didn't say holy crap at the time though. but it was cool. i didn't even think i knew enough words to talk for an hour. apparently i do. or maybe i was just saying the same things over and over for an hour. that's also a distinct possibility. regardless, my teacher told me "good job," so whether or not that was out of pity or genuine congratulations, i don't really care to know. so one of the days last week (monday? tuesday? who cares. they're all the same), i went to this presentation that a senior missionary couple gave, because they've served 3 missions in tahiti and i was just like transfixed throughout the whole thing. anytime someone talks about tahiti i eat it up. i'm so excited to goooooooooooooo! ahbleh. i haven't really heard anything about my visa, i'll probably start asking more when september rolls around. oh! funny tahitian word/cultural note of the week: in tahiti, a lot of the animals that are there now aren't really native animals. pigs are like the only animal native to the island (ok not really but for the sake of this example just go with it), so when other people brought other animals to the island, they would just use words they already have to name the new ones. this example would be more effective if i actually remember what the words were, but the translation is really where it's at. so a pig is "puaa", and a horse, being translated, is: "pig that runs on land," and a goat is: "pig with teeth." haha!
anyway, because the MTC has become a little monotonous (every day is the same, what? we can predict what we're going to eat for every meal based on the day of the week? yes. and it's not because of inspiration.), sister sandoval and i decided to take the advice of my friend nathan who told me that when he was in the MTC, they just made up stupid holidays for every day to make it more fun and interesting. one of our holidays was "scare the crap out of elder szuch day", in which we did everything in our power to make elder szuch scream like a little girl. it was fairly successful, and i think it strengthened our bond. and by "strengthened" i mean totally destroyed it by making him hate us. just kidding. he thought it was funny after we told him it was our honorary holiday for him. and then another day was "take as many awkward pictures of your companion in weird situations/positions and you're not allowed to delete any day." i might have hated that holiday. but it definitely made the day more interesting. our zone is finding other interesting things to spice up life, like making up nicknames for everyone. for example, this week, they're on a "hook" kick. so the elders have various "lost boys" names, and since i'm the oldest person/one of the token girls in the zone, i'm "wendy lady." oorrrr they just call me mom. which is funny. but then they started calling another one of the elders "dad" and i was like hey, i really don't remember having kids with him soooo one of us has to stop being your parent. this is how rumors get started in the MTC and people get sent home. ha just kidding. but seriously.
anyway, things are good though. devotionals and firesides have been really good lately (not like they aren't usually though)--we had gerald lund come speak at one of them, that was pretty cool. actually that was a funny fireside because i was sitting next to this elder who just stared at a picture of his (what i assume to be) girlfriend the ENTIRE TIME. i was dying. he would take it out, stare at it for like a full 5-6 minutes, put it back, and then like 2 minutes later, take it out again and start the process over. oooh elder. so precious. we went to the temple today and it was really great. it's so crazy how i can actually FEEL it when the people pray for the missionaries. i can't explain it very well, but it's like WHABAM! my heart feels good. and i feel good. i'm a big fan of that. i've noticed more and more that my ability to recognize feelings and promptings from the spirit is really increasing. like the other day in a lesson, we were talking about ether 12:27, and being able to overcome our weaknesses when we pray for help, and it was seriously so crazy--i just busted out this promise to our investigator that he would be able to overcome the temptations in his life if he would pray with faith for help, and as i was speaking, i felt the power of what i was saying. i honestly don't even remember what i said, but it's like i was on steroids or something. and i was like "whoa." and our investigator was like"'whoa." and then we walked out and sister sandoval looked at me and she was like, "whoa." obviously that doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it's incredible. it's funny how much a good lesson can make me feel like a bajillion dollars, and then a bad lesson absolutely destroys me. i dunno. i guess i'm just invested in this work. WEIRD.
thanks for the package this week, mom. those cookies were excellent and everyone loves you, but i love you the most, so their love is insignificant in comparison, just keep that in mind. i took a picture of the people in my district eating them with joyous looks on their faces, so i'll be sure to send that on. they are all singing praises of "the nance," haha. happy belated birthday to zoey twinkle toes, and happy almost birthday to erik! gaah. he's soooo ollllllllddddd it's weird! oh! i saw sean o'rourke in the MTC! i thought he was going to the MTC in england, but i heard his name get called over the intercom and i was like uhwhaaa? and then i saw him the next day. it was really funny, and cool. he's waiting for his visa to be able to go over there, so i'm not sure how much longer he'll be around here.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. i hope everyone is doing well and being happy and stuff. i love you and miss you and think you're the best everrrr. go read your scriputres and stuff. bye!!
love,
soeur hansen
August 2, 2011
hiiii everyone!
and again, this week has just flown by and i'm back at pday writing another email, trying to think of things that have stood out from the ordinary in these past seven days. things are going well here! we officially reached our one month mark in the mtc, and the rest of the missionaries who came in with me get to say that they leave this month--they head out on august 30th, but i'm here til september. AND the newest district that just came in like two weeks ago, i was talking to the sister that's in our companionship now, and she was telling me that HER departure date is september 10th. mine is september 15th. they came in after me, and they're leaving before me. i kind of wanted to punch myself in the face when she told me that. oh well. the mtc is good, and there are definitely still a lot of things i need to learn and prepare before i can be ready to head out to tahiti. but sometimes, when i look at the posters of tahiti and hear the stories that my teachers tell me about it, i'm just like GAAAH WHY AM I STILL IN AMERICAAAA!!! but then i try to teach my lesson in tahitian, and i'm like OH THAT'S WHY. whooops, thanks perspective!
anyway, this has been a good week. on sunday, for relief society, mary n. cook came to speak to us (i can't remember if she's still in the young women general presidency or not, but regardless, her talk was pretty much about young women stuff). it was good, and i thought of you, mom, and how much you would've enjoyed it. we've been having really good devotionals and firesides lately too, one most recently about charity--huh imagine that, right? :)
anyway, my days are mostly focused around tahitian now, since that's where i am for class, and preparing for outside of class. sometimes, being the only one in my class is cool, but also kind of awkward. like, for example, when we sing hymns to start and finish class, with, you guessed it--just me and the teacher, and only one of us knows tahitian (hint: it's not meeeee!). and also because neither of us are great singers. so it's cute. and painful. probably drives the spirit away more than it invites it, but hey, our hearts are in the right place. things are coming along though--my teachers always tell me how much progress i'm making, but then i'm just like, "yeah in reference to WHOM?" haha. but yesterday i illustrated and explained and answered questions about Lehi's dream (1 nephi 8), all in tahitian. i felt pretty legit. even though i may or may not have made up some words. and the other day, i started teaching my first tahitian "investigator" (where the teacher will role play and i have to teach them the lessons). anyway, the back story about him was that he had already received all the lessons from previous missionaries, and really liked the missionaries, but only because they were bad and broke all the rules, so then they got sent away and i'm the new missionary. anyway, so we started the lesson and he was like "oh you're the new missionary! what happened to the old ones?" and i was like huh. i have no idea how to say that they got sent away, nor do i want to be like yeaaah they were naughty so had to go bye bye, so i was just like, "uhhh....they went back to america. yup!" and he got this confused look on his face and was just like "hmm ok..." and the lesson went on. and then afterwards, my teacher was like "yeah i didn't know if i should throw you for that curve ball, but one of the previous missionaries was tahitian so he wouldn't have gone back to america." haa! note to self: probably don't just make stuff up when talking to investigators. haha, it was funny (maybe you had to be there? i'm imagining you laughing right now regardless) and my teacher made fun of me. good times. but we also talked about the missionaries in tahiti, and he told me that there are pretty much two groups: les Babylons (ones who break the rules) and les prophetes (ones who try to keep the rules). sooo i figured since i'm a girl and not really allowed to be a prophet or whatever, i'll just have to be a babylon. hee. just kidding.
also, funny tahitian story: the word "mahu" means like a fog or a cloud, so when i was studying lehi's dream, i had to use "mahu poiri" which is like mist of darkness or whatever. and then my teacher was like "yeaaah be careful with that word, because it can also be an insult. it means 'transvestite' too." so i'm like COOL. one day i'm going to be explaining to my investigator about the dream and instead of telling them about the giant mists of darkness that they have to walk through, i'll end up telling them that they're going to have to walk through a GIANT GROUP OF DARK TRANSVESTITES!! adorable. juuuust adorable. that's one really cute thing about tahitian--one word has like a bajillion different things it can mean, or holding the vowel for slightly longer can change the meaning completely (i.e. fog vs. tranny). but apparently there are also a lot of transvestites in tahiti. who knew.
so this week i've been trying to work on changing my default face. because apparently my default face makes people think that i'm going to MURDER them. aaand that's not REALLY the message i'm trying to send people as a missionary. you know, murdering vs. trying to save their soul or whatever. there's kind of a big difference. but sometimes, i really just don't pay attention, and so i don't have any particular expression on my face. but apparently my face is so constructed that when i don't think i have any expression on my face, i look like i'm in a fit of rage or something. so i've been trying to work on having a more pleasant default face. the other day, i was trying to have a happy look on my face, and i was like "hey sister sandoval what does my face look like right now?" and she was like "i dunno, like melancholy?" and i was like DANGIT!!! and she was like what?!! because apparently she thought melancholy meant content. haha! i dunno. sometimes it's kind of irritating because i'm like I DON'T WANT TO SMILE ALL THE TIME. but then i think i probably should. anyway. that and my posture, i am trying to change. so i don't look like a homicidal hunchback. seriously. i get made fun of. and then i see some of the senior sister missionaries, and how they're like hunched over and i'm like, "oh my gosh. that is a vision of my future." and i immediately try to stand up straighter.
anyway, i just realized how much i've been rambling in this letter. this week has honestly been a good one--full of highs and lows, as usual. but there is starting to be more of a rhythm to them, where after a low, immediately comes something to lift me back up. oh by the way, there was one day this week that i didn't get any letters at all and it was the saddest day of my life, and my district made fun of me because normally they hate me about how much mail i get. AND SISTER ISRAELSEN SENT ME BLONDE BROWNIES!!!! i love her. i'm going to write her to say thank you, but i'm sure you'll be able to relay my elated gratitude sooner. they're gone now, of course, but i thoroughly enjoyed them. i averaged about 4 a day. no big deal. coincidently, i weighed myself this week: gained 4 pounds since i've been here. anyway, back to spiritual things: we had a workshop this week about learning to teach by the spirit. and honestly, in the beginning i didn't really take it seriously because i was feeling a little ADD and just drawing pictures of super mario brothers and dinosaurs (yeah i know, i'm REALLY mature, get over it), but in the end, we did a little demo where the teacher was role playing and we were all teaching him together, and honestly, it's like i had spiritual word vomit (but in a good way). i don't even know where they words came from, but they just spilled out of my mouth and i felt like i was on fire. it was a little surreal. but it was so great, and just an even greater testimony to me that i've been sent here to do God's work, and He's going to help me to do it. i was reading my patriarchal blessing a few days ago, and there was a line in it, warning me about satan's awareness of my purpose and how he will try to cloud my vision of who i am as a daughter of God with power and purpose. and i think that is true--one of his main tactics is to get us to doubt ourselves, to forget who we are and what we are capable of when we put our faith and trust in the Lord. so then i'm like "get the heck out of my life, satan, i've got a job to do." and go to work. i rejoice in the scriptures, for they are mighty in coolness.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. so i'll stop rambling now. oh, by the way, mom and dad, your tales of biking a bajillion miles have inspired me to maybe do something other than lay on the grass during gym time--i biked 7 miles on the machine the other day--weee! also, pass on my congrats to erik and ally! i can't believe i'm the aunt of champions! that's so awesome. tell wendy to give me her address so i can send her stuff too! i love you all and think about you so much. i miss you, and hope you are doing well. thanks for all your love and support--it means everything to me.
love,
soeur Hansen
and again, this week has just flown by and i'm back at pday writing another email, trying to think of things that have stood out from the ordinary in these past seven days. things are going well here! we officially reached our one month mark in the mtc, and the rest of the missionaries who came in with me get to say that they leave this month--they head out on august 30th, but i'm here til september. AND the newest district that just came in like two weeks ago, i was talking to the sister that's in our companionship now, and she was telling me that HER departure date is september 10th. mine is september 15th. they came in after me, and they're leaving before me. i kind of wanted to punch myself in the face when she told me that. oh well. the mtc is good, and there are definitely still a lot of things i need to learn and prepare before i can be ready to head out to tahiti. but sometimes, when i look at the posters of tahiti and hear the stories that my teachers tell me about it, i'm just like GAAAH WHY AM I STILL IN AMERICAAAA!!! but then i try to teach my lesson in tahitian, and i'm like OH THAT'S WHY. whooops, thanks perspective!
anyway, this has been a good week. on sunday, for relief society, mary n. cook came to speak to us (i can't remember if she's still in the young women general presidency or not, but regardless, her talk was pretty much about young women stuff). it was good, and i thought of you, mom, and how much you would've enjoyed it. we've been having really good devotionals and firesides lately too, one most recently about charity--huh imagine that, right? :)
anyway, my days are mostly focused around tahitian now, since that's where i am for class, and preparing for outside of class. sometimes, being the only one in my class is cool, but also kind of awkward. like, for example, when we sing hymns to start and finish class, with, you guessed it--just me and the teacher, and only one of us knows tahitian (hint: it's not meeeee!). and also because neither of us are great singers. so it's cute. and painful. probably drives the spirit away more than it invites it, but hey, our hearts are in the right place. things are coming along though--my teachers always tell me how much progress i'm making, but then i'm just like, "yeah in reference to WHOM?" haha. but yesterday i illustrated and explained and answered questions about Lehi's dream (1 nephi 8), all in tahitian. i felt pretty legit. even though i may or may not have made up some words. and the other day, i started teaching my first tahitian "investigator" (where the teacher will role play and i have to teach them the lessons). anyway, the back story about him was that he had already received all the lessons from previous missionaries, and really liked the missionaries, but only because they were bad and broke all the rules, so then they got sent away and i'm the new missionary. anyway, so we started the lesson and he was like "oh you're the new missionary! what happened to the old ones?" and i was like huh. i have no idea how to say that they got sent away, nor do i want to be like yeaaah they were naughty so had to go bye bye, so i was just like, "uhhh....they went back to america. yup!" and he got this confused look on his face and was just like "hmm ok..." and the lesson went on. and then afterwards, my teacher was like "yeah i didn't know if i should throw you for that curve ball, but one of the previous missionaries was tahitian so he wouldn't have gone back to america." haa! note to self: probably don't just make stuff up when talking to investigators. haha, it was funny (maybe you had to be there? i'm imagining you laughing right now regardless) and my teacher made fun of me. good times. but we also talked about the missionaries in tahiti, and he told me that there are pretty much two groups: les Babylons (ones who break the rules) and les prophetes (ones who try to keep the rules). sooo i figured since i'm a girl and not really allowed to be a prophet or whatever, i'll just have to be a babylon. hee. just kidding.
also, funny tahitian story: the word "mahu" means like a fog or a cloud, so when i was studying lehi's dream, i had to use "mahu poiri" which is like mist of darkness or whatever. and then my teacher was like "yeaaah be careful with that word, because it can also be an insult. it means 'transvestite' too." so i'm like COOL. one day i'm going to be explaining to my investigator about the dream and instead of telling them about the giant mists of darkness that they have to walk through, i'll end up telling them that they're going to have to walk through a GIANT GROUP OF DARK TRANSVESTITES!! adorable. juuuust adorable. that's one really cute thing about tahitian--one word has like a bajillion different things it can mean, or holding the vowel for slightly longer can change the meaning completely (i.e. fog vs. tranny). but apparently there are also a lot of transvestites in tahiti. who knew.
so this week i've been trying to work on changing my default face. because apparently my default face makes people think that i'm going to MURDER them. aaand that's not REALLY the message i'm trying to send people as a missionary. you know, murdering vs. trying to save their soul or whatever. there's kind of a big difference. but sometimes, i really just don't pay attention, and so i don't have any particular expression on my face. but apparently my face is so constructed that when i don't think i have any expression on my face, i look like i'm in a fit of rage or something. so i've been trying to work on having a more pleasant default face. the other day, i was trying to have a happy look on my face, and i was like "hey sister sandoval what does my face look like right now?" and she was like "i dunno, like melancholy?" and i was like DANGIT!!! and she was like what?!! because apparently she thought melancholy meant content. haha! i dunno. sometimes it's kind of irritating because i'm like I DON'T WANT TO SMILE ALL THE TIME. but then i think i probably should. anyway. that and my posture, i am trying to change. so i don't look like a homicidal hunchback. seriously. i get made fun of. and then i see some of the senior sister missionaries, and how they're like hunched over and i'm like, "oh my gosh. that is a vision of my future." and i immediately try to stand up straighter.
anyway, i just realized how much i've been rambling in this letter. this week has honestly been a good one--full of highs and lows, as usual. but there is starting to be more of a rhythm to them, where after a low, immediately comes something to lift me back up. oh by the way, there was one day this week that i didn't get any letters at all and it was the saddest day of my life, and my district made fun of me because normally they hate me about how much mail i get. AND SISTER ISRAELSEN SENT ME BLONDE BROWNIES!!!! i love her. i'm going to write her to say thank you, but i'm sure you'll be able to relay my elated gratitude sooner. they're gone now, of course, but i thoroughly enjoyed them. i averaged about 4 a day. no big deal. coincidently, i weighed myself this week: gained 4 pounds since i've been here. anyway, back to spiritual things: we had a workshop this week about learning to teach by the spirit. and honestly, in the beginning i didn't really take it seriously because i was feeling a little ADD and just drawing pictures of super mario brothers and dinosaurs (yeah i know, i'm REALLY mature, get over it), but in the end, we did a little demo where the teacher was role playing and we were all teaching him together, and honestly, it's like i had spiritual word vomit (but in a good way). i don't even know where they words came from, but they just spilled out of my mouth and i felt like i was on fire. it was a little surreal. but it was so great, and just an even greater testimony to me that i've been sent here to do God's work, and He's going to help me to do it. i was reading my patriarchal blessing a few days ago, and there was a line in it, warning me about satan's awareness of my purpose and how he will try to cloud my vision of who i am as a daughter of God with power and purpose. and i think that is true--one of his main tactics is to get us to doubt ourselves, to forget who we are and what we are capable of when we put our faith and trust in the Lord. so then i'm like "get the heck out of my life, satan, i've got a job to do." and go to work. i rejoice in the scriptures, for they are mighty in coolness.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. so i'll stop rambling now. oh, by the way, mom and dad, your tales of biking a bajillion miles have inspired me to maybe do something other than lay on the grass during gym time--i biked 7 miles on the machine the other day--weee! also, pass on my congrats to erik and ally! i can't believe i'm the aunt of champions! that's so awesome. tell wendy to give me her address so i can send her stuff too! i love you all and think about you so much. i miss you, and hope you are doing well. thanks for all your love and support--it means everything to me.
love,
soeur Hansen
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