various ways i bring the rain

January 16, 2012

2012-01-19T19:00:00.003-08:00

oh hiiiiiiii everyone,

so we had another super awesome choir practice today. actually, i found a wayto make it through--every time the choir director does something that irritatesme, i imagine him falling through a trap door. so rather than getting annoyed,i was able to laugh by thinking about him being like oooohnoooooo whoomp!(sound effect for falling through the trap door, duh). probably not the mostchristlike way to deal with the situation, but hey, we all have areas to improveon. anyway, our concert for the arue stake is on sunday, so that'll be cool.the concerts are always good, it's just the practices that make me want to ripmy eyeballs out and throw them at someone.

ANYWAY. so i'm back in a companionship of three--soeur teheiura is with us now.she has been out of the mission for 3 months for health reasons and is nowreintegrating back into the swing of things and got put in our sector becausewe have the car. this basically means that either me or soeur taie are gettingtransferred soon because we don't have enough sisters to have threesomes,especially since 2 are finishing at the end of this month. so within the nextweek or two we'll know what's happening. soeur teheiura is cool so far. she'spretty blunt, which can be funny, but also sometimes cringe-inducing. but sofar things have been good--she's really humble and gives compliments often andsincerely, which is a nice change of pace. i'm sure this week has plenty ofinteresting experiences in store for our companionship. she's currently tryingto talk to me right now but i'm not listening because i'm writing an email. butshe's still talking, so as long as she doesn't catch on that i'm not actuallysaying anyhting other than "mmhmmm" and "huh", thingsshould be ok.

oooh!! guess what!! i got to go to the temple here for the first time lastthursday (and for the first time in 4 months). aaaah it was so good. iseriously didn't want to leave, but alas i had to. the temple is beautiful, asthey all are. the session we went to was in tahitian, and at first i was likeeh maybe i'll try it in tahitian, but then i was like yeah no way gimme thoseheadphones. and i listened in english and it was awesome and beautiful and justwhat my soul and brain needed. i love the temple, and i love being able toteach our investigators about it and help them get there. aah temple.

so now let me tell you about one of the most demoralizing/horrifyingexperiences of my life thus far. if you're easily offended by stories thatinvolve a missionary sittingon the toilet, i suggest you skip this paragraph.so anyway, last night, i was in the bathroom. first of all, you'll need toknowthat the toilet is in it's own little closet that is like three feet by fourfeet. small enclosed space. anyway, so i'm sittingon the toilet, going about mybusiness. and all the sudden i see a cockroach crawl under the door. andi'mlike AAHHHHHHHHHHH! but i can't get up and run away BECAUSE I'M ON THE TOILET.so i'm trying to manuveur as much as possible to get away from the giant roachbut can't really move because i'm in a toilet cupboard and not wearing anypants. anyway, i wish i could paint a better pictureof this but basically itinvolves me screaming, half naked, and my companions laughing their butts off.this is my life.

apart from harrowing experiences with toilet roaches, things are going well.we're working on nailing down baptismal dates for a bunch of our investigators.there are 3 of them that want to get baptized, which is awesome. but the thingis with people here is that a lot of them want to get baptized on a day liketheir birthday, or their parents' wedding anniversary. which are in may. orseptember. and we're like noooo that's too far awaaaaay. so we're working onthat. but we have one investigator, a dad, who is really making a lot ofprogress andit's awesome to see the changes. his wife is inactive, but tryingto come back. last week we had a lesson about setting goals for the new yearand they both set the goal to quit smoking and drinking this year. when wewentto the lesson this past friday, he was like "man we had so manytemptations today! all of our friends invited us to go drinking, even offeredto pay, but we were like no we can't! and we thought about how the sisters werecoming to teach us and we were like yeah we DEFINITELY can't!" haha. andthey've started reading the book of mormon together too, so that's way cool.

anyway, i gotta wrap this up, but before i do, i would like the share a funnyquote from the week. we were teaching a follow-up lesson to the babou kidsabout temple marriage and how they can start preparing now, and their mom, nas,was like: "yeah if you don't work hard in school, you'll have to marry ahomeless person. and homeless people can't go in the temple." haha. sorandom. so funny.

anyway again, gotta go. love you all and i think you're great. have a goodweek!!

love,
soeur hansen

January 9, 2012

2012-01-19T19:00:00.001-08:00

ok as usual i have no time, but for real thistime, i have like 10 minutes max, because of stupid missionary choir. i'm not bitter,i just hate it. we have "encore performances" in a few other stakeson the island sooooo practices have started up again. it's nice that peoplewant to hear us sing, but...let me compare it to this. the first concert waslike the superbowl. we all practiced hard and put on a good show and everyonewas happy with the success. and now it's like they're asking the winningsuperbowl team to go play a couple of pick-up games with the local high schoolteams. does that analogy make me sound incredibly conceited? well get over it.the point is, nobody is really in it anymore so it becomes a 3 hour session ofthe choir director yelling at us to sing better on our pday. bleh. oh well.

anyway, in other news, it's literally beenraining non-stop (when i say literally, i mean literally) for the past threedays. hasn't stopped. i've actually been COLD here, because my feet areconstantly soaked and the wind blows and it's just miserable. but it's therainy season apparently, so it is to be expected. i'll do my best not to drownthis week.

let's seeeeee...this week we're going to focuson recontacting some old investigators to see if they are still interested inthe lessons. last week was slow--we had a lot of references that we contacted,but every single one of them told us no! i don't know what the deal is. sowe're basically on the search for new investigators, and still trying to helpthe investigators we have now progress. it's been hard not to feel like we'rein a slump--especially with this weather, but as always, trying to keep my chinup and do my best. i'm working on being better about following the impressionsthat come to my mind and seeing what happens afterwards, rather than wonderingwhat would have happened if i would have done it. sometimes nothing happensimmediately, but other times i recognize right away why i had that thought. i'mrealizing more and more that i just need to be brave and open my mouth--withthe people around me, with our investigators, and with my companion. i alwaysjust thought that i didn't want to be imposing or demanding, but there's adifference between being bold and being overbearing, so here's to finding thatbalance this year.

well, my time is about up. we have to takeback the sisters from another area, and we have two family home evenings toteach tonight, so time is short! sorry this update is so skimpy. next week wehave choir practice again, so i can't promise anything better. but know thatyou're in my thoughts and prayers and i love each and every one of you!

love,

soeur hansen

January 2, 2012

2012-01-19T18:59:00.002-08:00

herro everyoneee,

first off, let me just say: happy 2012! supposedly the world is ending thisyear, so i suggest you all start repenting and reading your scriptures andstuff. as a missionary,it's my duty to warn. so there you have it--you've beenwarned. anyway, how crazy is it that it's 2012? in reflecting on the year 2011,i have to laugh a bit, because it was last january where i was asking myselfthe question "should i go on a mission?" and voila, january 2012,here i am a third of the way into said mission. crrraaaaaaaazzzzyyyyyy. here'shopin' that 2012 will be a good one.

anyway, we just got back from the best pday activity ever!!! going to abirthday party at the pool! oh wait, did i say the best pday activity ever?because i actually meant THE WORST!!!! do you know how awful it is to besitting next to a pool, in a skirt, on a blazing humid and hot day watchingeveryone swimming while you sit there, hating your life? IT'S THE WORST! why mycompanion thought that this would be an enjoyable way to spend pday is totallybeyond me. whatever, now i'm sittingin front of a fan doing my emails, so allswell that ends well i guess. (grumble grumble stupid pool stupidpeople that areallowed to swim grumble i'm not bitter)

back to new years (can you tell i'm scatterbrained??)--it was actually prettyfun. although we had to be in back in our house at 9:00, we got permission fromour mission president to stay up until midnight to watch the fireworks. and wehave a reallygood view from our house so we got a good show. and we just satout on the terrace and played the guitar and ukelele (i'm getting pretty good,just so you know, but apparently my sense of rhythm is seriously lackingbecause when i play i may or may not sound occasionally handicapped--but i'mworkingon it) and ate food and drank martinelli's. so that was cool. but thenon sunday church started at 7:30 which was pretty uncool. and since it wasjanuary 1st on sunday, out of our three wards only2 of our investigators cameto church. bleh. in one of our wards this past sunday there was a couplevisiting from the cook islands (part of new zealand, so they speak english) andi got to translate for them. dude, translating is hard! my brain was all mixedup and didn't know what the heck language i was trying to speak. and then whenpeople would start speaking french i would just listen for like 30 seconds andthen remember that i was supposed to be translating and i was like ah crap andwould try to catch up. and i'm pretty sure i was speaking a whole lot offranglais (french and english) sooo...whatever. it was fun and in the end,everyone was able to communicate which is the point right? right.

this week we had another service project where we went and planted a garden ata potential investigator's house. it was actually pretty cool because when westarted, the dad wasn't there. the second day when we went back to finish, thedad was there and he started talking to us and was like "i'm catholic andpretty involved in my own religion, but i gotta say that this is just amiracle!" and started telling us about how a few weeks earlier he wastalking to some members and how they were telling him about planting gardens,putting together 72 hour kits, being prepared, etc. etc. and he had thought tohimself about how he wanted to do that, but he didn't know how. and then bam!he comes home one day and there's a garden started in his backyard! he wassuper into it and wanted us to teach him how to plant and take care of it andstuff. hopefully we have enough of a confidence built up between us that we cancommit him to take the lessons. we'll see what happens--we're supposed to goback tomorrow.

anyway. as fun/weird/hard as the holidays were here, i'm kind of glad thatthey're over, because maybe now we can actually get back to the normal groove.i think i said this last week, but lessons are hard to come by during theholidays. we got a bunch of references for people to teach but all of themwerefor after the holidays. but! now we can go find them. i'm anxious to getback into days filled with lessons. when we don't have lessons, life justbecomes really heavy and i hate that. so here's to a new year and a new chanceto digin our heels and get down to business.

welp that's pretty much all i got for now. transfers will potentially behappening in maybe 3 weeks or so. i'm never quite sure when transfers happen.but, whatevs. i kinda hope that i will get to be on a bike soon (i knowi'mgoing to regret saying that after my first day out on a bike) so i can stopfeeling so dang faaaat all the time. the car has its perks, for sure. but ifeel like missionary work is better on a bike--easier to stop and talk to people.anyway, we'll see what happens.

alright i love you all and think you're all great. i wish everyone a very happynew year!

December 26, 2011

2012-01-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

heeeeyyyyy everyone,

so the computer i'm on doesn't have a great relationship with the space bar, soexcuse any lackof spacing in this letter. merry christmas! i hope everyone'sday was absolutely lovely. as for me, the best present ever was gettingto skypewith da fam. loved every secondof that. i loved seeing everyone's smilingfaces--it's so good to see something familiar! i definitely missed eatingchicken salsa soup on christmas eve though, but don't worry--i definitely atewell here, as usual. on christmas eve we were at the babou's house, and we ate"raclette", which is like...fondu. with potatoes and meat. andit wassoooo good. except i burned my mouth off because it was so good i couldn't waitlike an adult to shove it into my mouth. on christmas day, we ate and ate andate, and skyped. i told everyone this on skype yesterday, but whateveri'm goingto repeat myself--i ate oysters for the first time last week. theywere...gross. i tried to swallow as quickly as possible so as to have as littletaste asp ossible in my mouth. but number one, i was creeped out by how itlooked. number two, smelled funny. number three, slimy. but, i ate two andcalled it good. now i can say i did it. uhn.

so my brain is a little bit fried right now because i spent the day HIKING INTHE TROPICAL JUNGLE. ooohhh yeah. we were supposed to hike up to thiswaterfall, but when we were twenty minutes away from our final destination,everyone was like "nah i'm too tired let's go back." andi was like"what??" but no one wanted to keep going. which i personally thoughtwas....the stupidest thing ever, you might say, but whatever. the tail cannotwag the dog i guess. in any case, the hike that we did was awesome. there wasone point where i kindof just laughedto myselfbecause i was like "dude.i'm hiking in the jungle right now. i just picked some wild fruit off of a treeand ate it, and I'M STILL ALIVE." it was legit. it's nice to have realpdays now that the missionary choir thing is over, so we can actually do stuff.hopefully i can discover more cool things.

anyway, missionary work during the holidays isn't ideal, because no one is homeand everyone says they're too busy to talk to you. so this past week has beenkind of slow, and it's hard to keep your chin up on days where most of yourlessons fall through. but, we're still trying to be effective. hopefully afternew years things will be able to pick back up. but we have one baptism set forthis week--the brother of the 15 year old boy that got baptized in november.he's getting baptized on the 31st and confirmed on the 1st--he said he wantedtobe the last for the year and the first for the new year. so we're excited forhim and hopefully things will go well this week to prepare him for the blessedday.

welp, i don't have too much more intelligent things to say. love you and missyou! happy new years, everyone!

love,
soeur hansen

December 19, 2011

2012-01-19T18:58:00.001-08:00

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

ok this week was pretty much AWESOME. first ofall, we moved into a new house and it's amazing. all the pictures are on mycompanion's camera so you'll have to wait for those, but the house is great. somuch better than our dumb apartment before. we have a beautiful view of theocean and moorea (neighbor island), and there are 3 big bedrooms withAIRCONDITIONING. except i'm so unused to airconditioning now that i'm likefreezing all the time. funny. AND there's a mango, grapefruit, and coconut treein our yard. is that not the most picturesque thing you've ever heard or what?my life is kind of beautiful right now. my companion is super happy too. shehated the old apartment and complained about it all the time. it was actuallyher complaints that got us the new house, so i guess for once i'm actually kindof glad for her whining. aah silver lining...

anyway, some really beautiful experiences thisweek. on friday, we had SEVEN baptisms--the babou family got baptized, andthree other people in one of our other wards got baptized too. i was sooo happyfor the babous. we had been pretty worried about nas (the mom), because wedidn't know if she was really ready to get baptized. we had the feeling thatshe was just kind of going through the motions and not really in it. we weren'tsure if she really had a testimony, so we had some reservations about thebaptisms. but we prayed and prayed and prayed that she could get a testimonyand really have the desire to get baptized and moved forward with faith thatGod would help her and us. it's hard to explain the change that we saw in herthe day of her baptism--she was...a different person. before she treatedeverything really lightly and joked about everything, but on the day of herbaptism, you could really feel the spirit around her. she was serious, but in agood way. and she cried and cried because she was so happy! and the day afterher baptism, something really amazing happened. i saw her and she pulled measide and she told me about this dream that she had where a man in white cameto her and told her that she had a long road to travel, and then he took herhand. call me crazy, but i seriously think she had a vision. and after that,she's like totally in it to win it. i taught a lesson to their family the dayafter their baptism about lehi's vision and the tree of life, and compared itto the temple and how there was a lng road to travel to get to the temple, butthat with the Lord's help they could get there to be an eternal family. and shegot up in the middle of the lesson and hugged me and kissed my cheeks and toldus that that was exactly what she wanted and she was willing to sacrifice toget there. ah! i was so happy! and then they all got confirmed on sunday. man itotally cried, i wasn't even embarrassed. it was so beautiful to see thisawesome family take a huge step forward towards being together forever. i'mreally hoping that next year i can be there when they go through the temple.anyway, it was really just such a testimony to me that God hears out prayersand that this is his work. i saw a beautiful change of heart in ourinvestigator, and i feel really grateful to have been a witness to thatmiracle.

also, cool experience this week. we've beenteaching this lady joanna for about 2 months. her husband is an inactivemember, and we usually teach them together. anyway, this past week her husbandcouldn't be at the lesson but we decided to still just teach her (duh it's whatwe do). anyway, i felt like i should teach the lesson about the temple. it wentpretty well. normally she doesn't have anything to say during lessons, but shereally opened up during this one. i asked her if the temple was something shewanted for her family and she was like uhhh YES. and then i was like so what'sstopping you from getting to this goal? and she was like "steve" (herhusband). and she told us about how he's not really ready to give up his habitsand she really wants to change and come to church and go to the temple to sealtheir family, but she can't do it alone. anyway, it was really cool to havethis discussion, because normally she doesn't really say a lot. and i felt likewe got such a better look into whatshe was thinking and wanting. anyway, thisweek i prayed a lot that her husband's heart could be softened and thattogether they could have the desire to move forward. and on sunday i totallypeed my missionary skirt BECAUSE THEY BOTH CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAH IWAS SO HAPPY! seriously i cried. i was so happy. i know it doesn't really meanthat tomorrow she's going to get baptized or whatever, but still, it was alittle thing that really meant so much to me. it meant so much to know that Godhad listened to my prayers, that he helps his missionaries.

anyway, i don't have a lot of time. but i justwanted to talk about those two really awesome things that happened this week. ithink about them, and i just smile. i love our investigators, and now that i'veseen how much they can change, i feel like a little fire has been lit under meand i want all of them to have those changes! lots of testimony buildingexperiences this week. the gospel is true, guys. it's legit. it makes youhappy. i'm glad to be out sharing this message. i hope you all have an awesomeand beautiful christmas. i love you!!

love,

soeur hansen

December 13, 2011

2011-12-13T16:07:00.001-08:00

EVERYONE! I'M NOT DEAD! last pday we didn'thave time to write because we had a big all-missionary activity after choirpractice. it was nice to get to know some of the other missionaries a littlebit better and have some fun. but i'm glad this week to have the time to writesome stuff. i have things to say.

first off, we have SIX baptisms this week!weeee! the family babou is getting baptized on friday and we're pretty stokedabout it. everything went well with their interviews and so we're all set togo. and last week this lady who takes care of two kids that we inherited fromthe sisters before us that have been taught for like a year but have never beenable to get baptized because the parents never gave permission (this isbecoming a really long run-on sentence DEAL WITH IT) anyway she called us lastweek and she was like "hey i need parental consent forms for the two kidsbecause the parents gave their permission for them to get baptized and theywant to come to the baptism and la la la everything is so great!" and wewere like whaaat?! ok! so we're pretty excited about that too. so we have 6baptisms in one day. it's going to be insane but awesome. all of the elders inour district are super jealous and we're like yeah suckers if you were awesomeyou could have a bajillion baptisms too. except not really because we didn'treally do anything to get these baptisms--we just taught them, and Goddefinitely did the rest. i'm realizing more and more that i don't actually do awhole lot--i just try and do my best and trust that their hearts will beprepared to accept the message. and lookee there, it kinda works! i'm reallyhappy about the babou family though. their two kids that are gettingbaptized--samir is 13 and nasra is 12--they are cool kids. i love nasra--she'salways super excited to see me and runs up and hugs me and kisses my cheeks. iknow i can always count on her to show me some love. when we were preparing herfor her baptismal interview, i was like "hey nasra, why do you want to getbaptized?" and she was like "because i love God and i know thischurch is true!" it made my heart happy. every time i see her she tries totake my tag and wear it because she wants to do a mission too. she's justprecious and i love her.

oh yeah. guess what guys. I'M GONNA BETAHITIAN FAMOUS! freals. on wednesday, we get this call in the morning from theassistants and they were like "hey the news people from public affairscalled and they want to interview a missionary for a program they're doing andgonna put on the teeeveeee" (ok they didn't really say it like that butwhatever) basically they wanted to interview and american sister and out of thechoices they had, they had the most confidence in my french (to be fair, i didkind of study it in college and the rest have only had 9 months max so it's notreally a fair comparison) so i got picked. so i was like uhh ok coool....andthen later that afternoon they called us again and were like "oh by theway it's tonight in like 3 hours soooo...okbye!" and i was like aaah myhaaair (which is always AWFUL, just so you know). anyway, i did my best to lookpresentable and we went so i could talk into the camera. apparently it's somesort of christmas program where they wanted me to talk about christmas inamerica and how it's different and how i'm going to keep the spirit ofchristmas with me during the mission. my response wasn't super profound, it waspretty much like "welp i think i'll try to keep the spirit of christmaswith me by TEACHING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS EVERY DAY." UHN. nah i said otherstuff too and tried to sound intelligent. not sure if it totally worked, but inany case it will be broadcast on national tahitian television next sunday. sobasically, i'm a celebrity everyone. you can tell all your friends and feelreally cool.

so this week i had a great blessing come intomy life for four days--the sisters serving on raiatea came to stay with us.they're american. choruses of angels were singing in the heavens. my heart wasfilled with joy. i can't even tell you how refreshing it was to have people whounderstand my culture--who laugh at the same things that i laugh at, who don'ttell me that everything i do is wrong, who don't expect me to read their minds.they reminded me that there IS happiness! but seriously, it was so awesome tohave them with us. we got to do splits and i taught with soeur buswell, (who bythe way, was in one of my french 101 classes at byu, go figure!) and it was sogreat! i felt so comfortable and at ease and the spirit was super strong and iwas just super happy. and we had a really nice conversation that helped me alot and gave me hope for the future. having them with us was really an answerto my prayers. they helped me to feel less alone and now i feel like i actuallyhave friends here. when all the missionaries get together, i have people totalk to now, rather than just standing next to people and listening toconversations.

which brings me to my next point: we finallyhad our missionary choir program on sunday. it was so great! there were abajillion people who came and so many of our investigators showed up too! itwas awesome. the spirit was super strong and it turned out really well.apparently the stakes on tahiti want us to do like a tour or something andre-do the program in their stakes, so i guess we're gonna do that. again, we'refamous or whatever. haha. anyway, i kind of have a love/hate relationship withthe missionary choir. sometimes i'm like yeah this is awesome wee! other timesi'm like I HATE THE MISSIONARY CHOIR because it takes up pday and the directoris kind of a tool (ok but he's really nice and works really hard but sometimeshe seriously acts like he's craig jessop and i'm like DUDE YOU'VE NEVER TAKEN AMUSIC THEORY CLASS IN YOUR LIFE). anyway. the point is, it's cool but sometimesmakes me want to punch myself in the face. but i will admit, it was reallygreat to have our amis there to feel the strong spirit.

this week i had a cool experience. i was withsoeur buswell on a split and we had taught a lesson and went back to the houseto pick up the other sisters, but apparently my companion thought it would be agood idea to start straightening the other sister's hair so they weren't readyto go yet. so i was like "hey i was thinking about going to visit nella(one of our investigators) and see how she's doing and invite her to theprogram tomorrow night." no response from my companion. me: "soo...isthat cool?" she shrugs her shoulders. me: OK LET'S GO SOEUR BUSWELL SEEYOU LATER HAVE FUN BEING A JERK!| just kidding i didn't say that last part.anyway, so we go to see her and she's at the house and she's way excited to seeus. to give a little background, the last lesson we had with her and her sister(18 and 16 years old) i gave them the committment to baptism and they were like"yeah we had talked about it but we're not sure because we want our wholefamily to follow too", which is legit of course. anyway, so i was like heywill you pray about it? and they were like yeah! and i gave them ether 12 toread too. anyway, back to the story. so we go see her and she's like "heyi read that chapter you gave me. and i want to get baptized." and i'm likeAH! OK! REALLY? and she's like yeah! and i was so happy. it was a moment wherei really felt joy in the fruit of my labors. i'm so excited for her and excitedto see her progression.

anyway, this is long and i gotta go. but ilove you all! have a good christmas!

love,

soeur hansen

November 28, 2011

2011-12-13T16:06:00.001-08:00

oh hey everybody!

exciting things happened this week. first ofall, it was thanksgiving! we organized a little feast with some of ourinvestigators and our DMP and his family. we didn't end up doing it on theactual day of thanksgiving, because they didn't have friday off like good ol'america, so we did it on friday. remember how i've never cooked a turkey in mylife? and how everyone was like "soeur hansen...we thought you knew how todo this..." because turkey isn't exactly the most common thing here intahiti. there's not even a word for it in tahitian--they kept calling it the"big chicken". haha! it was so funny to watch them open up the rawturkey and be like uhh...what the heck are we supposed to do with this? anyway,it all worked out in the end and we had a nice little thanksgiving with turkey,mashed potatoes, rolls, and pie and stuff. and we had to have rice, becausetahitians have to eat rice with everything otherwise it's not a real meal. wheni told them what we normally eat for thanksgiving they were like, "soo...whatdo you eat the rice with?" and i was like "...there's no rice inthanksgiving." and they were like "...no rice?" it was a hardconcept to grasp. but i decided to ahve a little bit of a multiculturalthanksgiving and include rice in the menu. hopefully i can get pictures to yousoon, but i forgot my camera cord today so no pictures of thanksgiving. there'sa really funny video too that we took, but i don't have it with me either. soyou'll all just have to imagine. anyway, i hope thanksgiving was wonderful foreveryone. i'll admit, i felt a little homesick thinking about everyone aroundthe table eating mom's good thanksgiving cooking. although, i am proud to saythat everyone LOVED my rolls. weena (dmp's wife) even wants me to teach her howto make them. weee!

also exciting thing: i had my first baptismwith our investigator that we taught start to finish on saturday! ariinui isone of the brothers we're teaching--he's 15. actually it's pretty cool that hegot baptized, because when we first started going to his house, it wasn't evenorginally for him, it was for his older brother, and ariinui would always gointo his room and not come out. but then one day he came out and sat through alesson and we asked him if he wanted to receive the lessons, and he was likyeah i do. what? ok! since then he has made so much progress. the baptism wasreally good, and i was so happy! he bore such a good testimony at the end too,i was even a little bit surprised. he remembered so much from the things thatwe taught him and he spoke with such confidence and surety. (is that a word? idon't even know.) i felt proud and grateful for the chance that i had to teachhim. we have more baptisms coming up on the 16th and the 31st, and possibly oneor two others for december or january--we're still trying to work with our amisto get them there. getting amis to commit to baptismal dates is an awesome andterrifying thing all at the same time because you want them to do it, and whenthey do, you're really happy, but then afterwards you're like oh crap now satanis gonna work super hard on them to try and stop them from getting baptized. sowe really have to pull out the big guns to help protect our amis, haha. butwatching the transformation that happens once they commit to getting baptizedis really amazing.

this week, although there were many excitingthings that happened, was also a super weird week. we called it the week of"cacaboudin." what is cacaboudin, you ask? roughly translated,grumpy. cantankerous. ill-humoured. bleh. yeah. bleh. i think that sums it uppretty well. here's an example--on tuesday, we had 8 lessons planned and wewere stoked because we had set a goal for 30 lessons total for the week. guesshow many of those 8 got canceled? SEVEN. seven lessons fell through in one day!guhhhh! it was the worst! and then the rest of the week was just weird.everyone was in a weird mood, our amis were cranky and flaky, me and s. taiewere cranky, dmp and his wife were cranky. everyone was doing their cacaboudin!it was the worst! but this week is going to be better.

i've been reflecting a lot lately on the ideaof happiness, and how we can be happy. admittedly, the reason for thisreflection is because i often find myself feeling unhappy, and i'm not surewhy. i'm trying my best to be obedient and to work hard, to pray aallllll thetiiiiiiiime and to read my scriptures, and to try and serve people, basicallyto do all the things that i know will help me to be happy, and yet, there issomething missing. i kept thinking to myself, "ah maybe when i gettransferred i'll be happy, maybe when i go to a different island, maybe thismaybe that..." waiting around for happiness to hit me in the face orsomething. i came across elder uchtdorf's talk from the general relief societybroadcast, and i think it was exactly what i needed to hear. he talked aboutchoosing to be happy now, and not waiting for the "golden ticket"like in charlie and the chocolate factory. if we just open our eyes, we have somuch to be happy about. and it's true, i really do have a whole lot to be happyabout.

anyway, i was struggling to keep my head aboutwater, bogged down by discouragement and loneliness, when the words of the hymn"count your many blessings" came into my mind: "when upon life'sbillows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost,count you many blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you whatthe lord has done." i decided to say a prayer of gratitude, and instead ofasking for things, to just say thank you for the things that i did have. itprobably sounds super cliche, but as i prayed, i felt a warm peace wash overme, a sense of satisfaction and happiness. i finished my prayer, and looked upwith a smile. i know that things are still going to be hard--missions are superhard. everyone told me that it would be, but i didn't understand what kind ofhard it was oging to be until i got here. i know it will still be hard, but ialso know that this is the thing that is most valuable for me to be doing rightnow. and i have a lot to be happy about.

i'm going to end there because my time isabout up, but i love you all and miss you! i hope everything is going well backhome. oh and i'm the worst at writing letters, but i made myself the promisethat i was going to be better, so expect some hand-written goodness from mesoon! love!

love,

soeur Hansen

November 21, 2011

2011-11-23T22:21:00.001-08:00

hey everybody,

sorry to be MIA last week--believe me, i was sad about it. it's never fun not to be able to have news from home. even today i'm super rushed, all because of the choir practices. but, after the 11 december i should be able to write my emails in peace--hopefully. anyway, time is FLYING by--i can't believe it's almost december already! we've been pretty busy the past week or so, preparing for activities planned for our investigators and what not. i had my first zone conference this past week, and it was really good. there were a lot of things that we talked about during the conference that really helped me and boosted my spirits. the past two weeks, to be honest, have been super hard. i feel like satan has been working pretty hard on me lately to get me down and discouraged and weaken my faith. there are times when it's really difficult not to feel totally inadequate, like i have nothing to offer people here. i know that's not true, obviously, but constant feelings of failure are hard to shake off. but, little by little, things do get better. i had a good scripture study experience this week--i woke up one morning, dreading another day of feeling insecure and inadequate. i didn't know how i was going to face the day, to be honest, but i knew that i had to try, obviously. so i just said my prayers and prayed that i would be able to feel the spirit and receive the strength i needed to keep going. i got ready, and then went to do my personal study, and opened up to 2 nephi 4--nephi's psalm. this chapter was an answer to my prayer--even nephi had moments of despair and self-doubt, but he knew how to place his confidence in the Lord and move forward with faith. i felt like my spiritual batteries were recharged after reading that chapter, and i was able to go throughout my day feeling confident and excited to work. it's true that it's hard to teach some of our investigators, because they aren't really making progress, but there are others that are moving forward and getting stronger in the gospel every day. just the other day, the two brothers we're teaching were like "man the gospel really brings changes. we used to fight all the time, and now we hardly ever do!" anyway, things are still rolling along. i know that God doesn't give us trials that he knows we can't handle--there's always a purpose behind the hard times. we just need to have faith that if we do our best, after the refiner's fire we'll come out even better than before. hopefully this doesn't sound too depressing. don't worry, i'm not like crying in the shower or anything.

good news! the babou family set their baptismal date--december 16! we had to pray a lot for them, because they originally wanted to wait until february and we were like whaa? because they're so ready NOW. anyway, after fasting and prayer, they decided on the date and there was much rejoicing in the land. this family is way cool. honestly, they were ready even before we started the lessons with them, so i don't really feel like i did that much, haha. but i'm happy to be able to witness the process of their conversion and baptism. i know they'll be a strong family in the church.

this week i gave my first committment to baptism to one of our investigators--he's been taking the lessons for a long time and there's not really anything standing in the way of his baptism, he just doesn't have enough confidence in himself. he's scared of falling again after taking the leap. but we had a really good lesson with him and i invited him to be baptized on the 14 of december (your birthday, mom!) and he was like "haha whaa?" and i was like yeah man, you can do it. he didn't say no, so it wasn't a total bust. but he's going to ponder and pray and all that good stuff, so hopefully we'll be able to see some progress with him soon.

tahitian is still kicking my butt, guys. it's insane how such a simple language can be so dang hard. but, i'm really grateful for our DMP because he is really trying to help me learn. unfortunately during lessons in tahitian, my companion thinks that the best way to help me is to not help me at all, so i kind of have to learn trial by fire. but the DMP is really awesome and is working with me a lot to help me progress. i was super stressed this past week because we had a lesson with one of our investigators and it was my turn to teach the spirit world, resurrection, judgement, and kingdoms of glory. in tahitian. what?! yeah. i was kind of freaking out, but i really did my best to prepare. i put the promise in D&C 11 to the test--seek to obtain my word, and your tongue will be loosed. i put my all into preparing for that lesson, and said ok let's do this. and i tried to walk in with confidence and faith that the Lord would keep his promise to me. honestly, i don't even remember what i said, but at the end of the lesson, our investigator understood what i had taught and started talking about how she wanted to get baptized. what?! ok! obviously i'm not fluent. and i still have a loooooooooooong way to go before i feel confident in speaking and understanding, but it was an experience that strengthened my testimony that God keeps his promises and is there to help us when we need it.

anyway, i gotta go. no time. but i love you and miss you and keep you in my prayers. happy thanksgiving this week!!

love,
soeur hansen

November 14, 2011

2011-11-19T19:49:00.001-08:00

hi everyone

i have no time to write today--we've been playing taxi all day and now pday is over. i'm pretty bummed that i can't write. just know that i love you all and you have been in my thoughts much this week. keep praying for me and for missionaries everywhere. sending my love!

love,
soeur hansen

November 7, 2011

2011-11-19T19:48:00.003-08:00

Nov. 7
oh hey everybody,

first things first. remember last week when i was like "hey me and my companion are going on a diet!"

that was a joke.

except, it wasn't really a joke in the beginning. but in reality, the concept of a diet as a missionary in tahiti is the funniest joke everrrrr. our diet failed so hardcore that there aren't even words to describe it. so yeah, we abandoned that pretty quickly. it's just difficult to be on a diet when you're not incharge of what you eat, but you're at the mercy of members and investigators who feed you. and who take pleasure in feeding you, and are offended if you don't eat their food. eh. the point is, i'm not on a diet. but i'm trying to be more moderate in my eating habits, so hopefully i won't be a candidate for "biggest loser" by the time i get home from my mission.

in other news, guess what! we got two committments to baptism this week! the two brothers we're teaching chose their dates. we were actually pretty surprised at one of them. two weeks ago we committed them to pray for a baptismal date, and we followed up afterwards and they still weren't sure. one of the brothers is really solid, and the other one we had thought was kind of just following his older brother's footsteps. but this past week, we asked them if they had chosen their dates and the older brother was like "yeah, december 31st." and we were all really happy and then we asked the younger brother and he paused for a long time, and i was like "ah he's not responding maybe because he doesn't really want to..." but then, he was like "yeah. i chose my date. but it's kind of soon...november 26th." whoa! what?! but ever since then he has been totally on fire! asking all sorts of questions and participating really well during lessons. and he asked me and s. taie to speak at his baptism too. so we're pretty excited about them and are working hard to prepare them so they'll be ready for the baptisms. it's really cool to see the changes they're making, even as teenagers. sometimes i think we doubt that people can do it--like, oh he's 15 there's no way he's going to be interested in this. but then at the same time, if you think about it, hey, joseph smith was 14! why not? i'm learning more and more the importance of casting aside doubt and having faith that people can change. of course it puts you in a bit of a vulnerable position to have faith in people, because there's always the chance that they won't change and you'll be disappointed. but at the end of the day, if you don't believe that they can change, who will? i know that this gospel is for everyone, not just for a chosen few. it is something that can bring happiness and fulfillment to each and every person in the world, if they will chose to accept it. seeing the changes that our investigators have been able to make, and the light that is coming into their countenances is really amazing.

one of the investigator families that we're working with, the babou family (i've talked about them before--we did halloween with them, and service project planting a garden) is doing really well too. we fasted with them yesterday about baptism so they could pick their dates too. we ran into a roadblock with the dad though, jean-marc. he was really uneasy about paying tithing and didn't know if he would be able to do it because of all the financial responsibilities he has on his shoulders right now. but we had a really good lesson about the blessings of tithing and the importance of faith, and he seemed much more comfortable with the idea and committed to live the law of tithing. we're going to continue to work with them, obviously.

oh yeah, something really cute happened at our appartment this week--our water got cut! oh wait, did i say cute? because i meant to say THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER! guess who learned how to bathe using a cooler and a water bottle? this girl. we didn't have water for about 3 days, and even now it's a little bit of a russian roulette on whether or not we'll have water when we get home at night. luckily we have a good DMP and his wife who let us shower at their house sometimes. they have a son who is 5 and who loves us too. he's seriously one of the most adorable kids i've ever met. so funny. weena (DMP's wife) was telling me the other night how he was talking to his grandma, who was sleeping:

kuhio (lil' boy): "mami (that's how they call their grandmas here)!"
mami: *sleepy grunt*
kuhio: "mami, am i handsome?"
mami: "yes, kuhio. go to sleep."
kuhio: "ok i'm going to hit on the sister missionaries."
mami: "huh?!!"
kuhio: "nigh-night mami!"

hahaha. so he loves us, no big deal.

anyway, things here are going alright. although i gotta be honest, being a foreigner isn't always the most awesome thing ever. either i'm a constant novelty, like "oh ha look at the funny american and the funny things she says, do you know lots of movie stars, do you know john who lives in america, la la la", or i'm automatically inferior because i'm not from here. i get almost constant directives on how to do simple tasks and i'm like yes thank you, i'm not an idiot. it's frustrating and has been quite the test of patience and humility for me. i'm afraid i'm not passing the test quite yet. it's pretty exhausting to always feel like i'm doing something wrong, and to not have any idea exactly what it is that i'm doing wrong, because feedback is kind of a foreign concept i guess. anyway, like i said before, i just need to be more humble and learn how to adapt a little bit better. the scriptures have been a great comfort to me this week--they are not culturally biased and speak to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. this week i studied moroni 7 and rediscovered some really good verses about faith, and charity, and how miracles have not ceased. in preach my gospel it warns against discouragement, because discouragement weakens faith. so, even though this week was pretty discouraging, i can't let it get me down. the mission really is a refiner's fire--your weaknesses become very apparent, and satan really tries to make you forget your strengths. but as it says in moroni 7:33, through our faith we can accomplish all that the savior would have us do.

anyway, this email is getting way too long, so i'm gonna sign off. love you all and miss you! you are always in my prayers. thanks for all the support you send my way!

love,
soeur hansen

October 31, 2011

2011-11-19T19:48:00.001-08:00

Oct. 31
hey errbody!

first of all, happy halloween! let me explain how halloween goes down here in tahiti: it doesn't. yeah. halloween is an american holiday. i was talking to my companion about it, and she was like dude, candy is already expensive enough here, we're not just gonna buy it and give it away to dumb kids just because they're in a spiderman costume. haha! but we're going to have a little halloween party with our investigator family tonight for FHE. we already have our orange shirts and black skirts (the one that still fits) ready to go. and then today is the last day that we get to eat candy because from november to christmas, we goin' on a diiiiieetttttttttt. yup. wanna know why? because this week, all the sisters had a super special meeting with our mission president and his wife so that they could tell us that WE'RE TOO FAT.

not kidding.

seriously. that was the topic of the meeting. our clothes are too tight because we're gaining too much weight, and the mission president's wife told us "don't write home and tell your parents to send you bigger clothes. that's not fixing the problem. you're all going to get even more massive if you do that. if your clothes don't fit, it means you need to lose weight." don't worry, i burned plenty of calories that night CRYING MYSELF TO SLEEP!! just kidding. i didn't really feel too targeted in the meeting because she was like "the american sisters aren't fat. the tahitian sisters are." she was pretty blunt. although admittedly, i can't comfortably wear about half of the clothes i brought here. whoops. anyway, so my companion and i were like "welp, guess it's time to stop compulsively eating candy..." we were gonna start the diet last week, but then it was our investigator's birthday, and then it was halloween....sooo....we were just like "hey why not start fresh in november? yeah ok!" haha. i have a feeling i'm going to be really really grumpy until christmas.

good news though--my companion is totally teaching me how to dance tahitian style. before her mission she was in a dance group that participates in a nation-wide competition called the heiva (i think that's how you spell it)...so she teaches me all kinds of stuff. and one of our investigators is a professional dancer--she dances so crazy good it's unbelievable, and she made me a cd with tahitian music (mostly just the drum type stuff) so we could do that for our daily exercise. it might sound like light stuff, but seriously, my legs are crying by the time our 30 minute exercise time is up. if i keep this up, i'm going to have the quads of a thoroughbred by the time i get home. anyway, s. taie and i prepared a dance for our investigator nass' birthday and then performed it for her at her party. it was hilarious. i look borderline handicapped dancing next to her, haah! but nass was all about it, which was the point, so i can't be too prideful. hah. oh and we did a service project this week for nass and her family--planted a garden. i felt legit. hopefully the stuff i planted will grow.

anyway, this past week was pretty solid. are investigators are cool and most of them are making good progess, which is really cool to see. we're teaching two brothers right now, 18 and 15, and for a while things were touch and go with them because their parents were threatening (are threatening, actually) to kick them out of the house if they get baptized, so we were nervous that they were going to back out on us, but actually they're even stronger now than they were before. it's pretty amazing what prayer can do. at our last lesson, they were so awesome! they asked tons of questions and had lots of things to say, and they had even prepared a song to sing for us--"the army of helaman." it was the greatest thing everrrr! i loved it. it's awesome to see the changes in their countenances. they are so eager to learn. i couldn't help but picture them as future missionaries as they sang that song, and it made me happy. i was talking to my companion about the challenge of the parents not wanting them to get baptized, and she was like "yeah it's always like that. when they get close to deciding to get baptized, there's always something that comes up to try and stop them." satan definitely tries to stop people from progressing, but like it says in 1 nephi 3:7, there's always a way to accomplish what God has commanded us to do. we just have to keep moving forward with faith, because it's not until after the trial that we get a witness. scripture talk, uhn! but seriously, these boys are solid and i know that they will be strong in the gospel. i'm grateful for all of our investigators. i love going to teach them. obviously some days are better than others, and i don't have miraculous experiences every day, but each day i do have things that strengthen my testimony and my resolve to spread the message of the gospel.

anyway, i gotta wrap this up. hope everyone is doing well. thinking of you and sending my love!

love,
soeur Hansen

October 24, 2011

2011-11-19T19:47:00.001-08:00

hi everyone,

this is going to be a fast and furious email because i only have a few minutes to write. pdays are going to fly by for the next month or so because we have choir practice in the morning for our missionary program in december, and then we have to be the chaffeur for some sisters becuase we're the only sisters with a car. so by the time we get done with practice, and then take the sisters back, and do our grocery shopping, bleh! no more time! so sorry for the lack of a really well thought out and clever email. you'll just have to deal with this.

anyway, this was an exhausting week--it's transfer time, which also means more chaffeuring for us. we had to pick up sisters from the airport, drop them off, pick up sisters from the boat, drop them off (at 4:30 in the morrrniiiiiiinggggg), and then take s. harline to get dropped off at her new secteur. woof. it was tiring. but other than that, things are going pretty well. our amis (investigators) are cool and we're starting to get pretty attached to them. we're hoping to get some committments to baptism this week, because there are a few that seem like they're really ready. i think i might have said that in my letter last week. whoops. remember how my life is pretty much the same every week? oh right. ok.

we had a really good experience this week teaching a new ami--he's a 12 year old boy who has cancer. his dad is an inactive member and his mom isn't a member, but his grandma is and that's how he got into contact with the church. he's really really cute and comes to church with his grandma on sundays. anyway, we had our first lesson with him this past week, and both of his parents were there and it went really well. the spirit was so strong! hopefully through his desire to go to church, he can touch the hearts of his parents too. his mom actually seems interested--she tried to stay off to the side but you could tell from her body language that she was listening. anyway, they seem like a really cool family so i'm hoping we'll be able to make some good progress with them.

anyway, we're getting two new elders in our district this week, which is good. i'm hoping they'll bring some life into our district because right now it is sooooooooooooo borrrrrrrrrrrring. the elders aren't fun at all! all they do is whisper to each other during district meetings and i'm like "oh right i forgot we were back in 4TH GRADE." what the heck? bleh. no fun at all. i even try to joke around with them and it's like blank stares all the time. i'm starting to suspect that they've never spoken with a female before. i'm glad that i have s. taie as my companion though, because we have fun together. she is a really good people person and is so good at starting up conversations and being friends with people. it has really helped us get to know the ward members and our investigators. i don't know what i'm going to do when i have to start being socially capable on my own again. meh.

in other news, i look like i have a disease on my legs because i have so many mosquito bites. seriously. people are starting to stare. i don't know what the heck the problem is. well, maybe it's because i sleep outside every night. BUT THERE'S NO WHERE ELSE TO SLEEP! and i put on bugspray! whatever. it kind of makes me hate my life sometimes, but i'm working on being disciplined and not scratching because otherwise i'm seriously going to look like a leper.

welp i think i need to sign off. we're getting kicked off the computers pretty soon so i'm gonna wrap this up. sorry to be so brief. love you!!

love,
soeur hansen

october 10, 2011

2011-10-12T20:07:00.002-07:00

oct. 10

hey everyone,

another week, another 5 pounds gained. just kidding. but seriously. i'm getting fat. it was kind of an exaggeration before, but the rolls are starting to muliply. this week was a particularly brutal food week because EVERYONE WANTS TO FEED US UNTIL WE CRY. seriously. the past four days, we've eaten 4 dinners. please kill me. guhh it feels so wrong but it tastes so right!! haha. there's this ice cream that they have here called taro ice cream--now taro is a type of root that is kiiiiind of like a potato but not really. how they came up with the idea to make ice cream out of that, i have no idea. (like "oh hey, here's this potato thing, that'd be a good dessert, right?" ooook...)anyway, it's the color of purple playdo. not sure how that happened either. but it is seriously the most delicious thing ever. i can't even explain what flavor it is. but IT'S SO GOOD. s. harline and i made a BTS cake (or as mom calls it "better than almost anything" cake) to take to one of our dinners, and it was quite the success. everyone was very impressed with our skills, especially since we didn't mention that we used a box mix for the cake. haaaWHOOPS. anyway, long story short: i eat a lot of food, and it is starting to show.

BUT. i'm going to learn how to tahitian dance this week! they're having a cultural night this friday with dancing and singing and story telling and duh, food, and we got invited to go to the practices, because there are investigators who are participating. so it'll be a nice double-whammy--supporting investigators, and learning how to shake it. UHN. i'm way excited though--the dances are so cool! i'm sure i'll look like a handicapped wild animal, but whatever. it'll be fun. and members love laughing at americans doing stupid stuff, so it'll be a great way for me to win affection by my stupidity. maybe if i get a video and figure out how to send it via mail you all can enjoy the show too. and then you can see how fat i am! haha.

this week was an AWESOME week. we taught like a bajillion lessons and got 5 new investigators who all seem really cool and ready. it's pretty amazing how you can see how peoples' paths have been prepared for them to receive the gospel. like this one family that we just started teaching--the dad is from france, and he met the missionaries when he was 24 but it didn't really stick, but now he's married and has three kids and is living in tahiti and they've all been coming to church for a month and he's like yeah i know this is true. i mean he comes to church in a shirt and tie and looks like he's been a member his whole life! and they prayed for the first time in our lesson without us even having to prod them along. it was so great. and their kids are super cute and funny--it makes it all the more awesome because they'll all get to go to the temple together someday. we just started teaching these two brothers too--18 and 15. the 15 year old is a little reluctant, but the 18 year old is totally solid. he really surprised me the other day in our lesson, because he was like "so how long do these lessons go for?" and was like "well there's 4 lessons that we have to teach you...what are you sick of us already?" and he laughed and was like "no i just wanted to know how long it was going to be before i could get baptized." WHAt?! OK! and he told us about how he prayed to know this was the true church and he got an answer and felt really good about it. hooray! he's a cool kid. and he trains roosters. so that's cool. haha.

so one of our recent converts is an old guy who only speaks tahitian, and he doesn't know how to read or write. so we're teaching him. it's really hard, but i love it. he's really eager to learn and it's really awesome to see his face light up when he gets a letter or a word. i made up little cards with the letters (luckily there's only like 13 letters in the tahitian alphabet and everything is phonetic) on them and a picture of something that starts with that letter to help him remember the sound. so we've been working a lot with that. it's slow-going for sure, but it's really cool. it feels good to know that we're really helping him. and since we started doing that, one of his daughters (not a member) has been sitting in on his lessons and she seems to like us a lot. i invited her to come to the cultural night, so hopefully she'll take up that invitation. our other investigators are doing pretty good. hahaha, we have one who's a 9 year old girl and she seriously has the memory of a goldfish. i'm not kidding. we'll tell her something, and 30 seconds later she can't remember what it was. for example, we were teaching about the spirit world and how the body stays in the earth and the spirit goes to paradise or prison, and every time we asked her "so where does the body go after you die?" and EVERY TIME she was like "...to paradise?" NO! GAH! seriously. at least 10 times. hahahaha. sometimes it makes me want to punch myself in the face. but she's really really cute and is starting to be less shy with us, so patience is just an attribute i'm going to have to work on. haha.

anyway, things are rolling along here. it's really fun to get new investigators, and it's definitely thanks to our ward mission leader who works hard. i'm learning more and more that ward members are really crucial to missionary work--without their references, we wouldn't have any of these new investigators. so this is my missionary pitch for this letter--help the missionaries! give them references! be brave! you don't need a tag to be a missionary. you will make the missionaries in your ward SO happy if you help them with references. it helps us to be more effective for sure. anyway, just remember that. other than that, things are good. transfers are coming up and we think that s. harline is probably going to get moved since she's done being trained and there are a few sisters going home in other areas that need to be replaced. it'll be weird to just be in a two-some like it should be normally. but s. taie is way cool--she is really funny and laughs so easily, so it brings a happy and optimistic spirit into our work. and she laughs at my jokes, which obviously makes me love her. we have private dance parties in the car driving from lesson to lesson, listening to church music. oh, did i ever tell you how contemporary church music makes me want to set myself on fire?! but i'm getting used to it.

ANYWAY. this is long, and harline is waiting for the computer. i love you all, and think you're great. OH BY THE WAY. written letters would be lovely, if you get the chance. i haven't gotten any since i've been here (a month, weee!), and i'm starting to feel neglected. boo hoo. write me.

Mission Mormone, B.P. 93
Papeete, Tahiti 98714
Polynesie Francaise

much love,
soeur hansen

october 3, 2011

2011-10-12T20:07:00.001-07:00

oct. 3

hey everybody,

not too much time to write because we're sharing the computer between 3 people. but i do have some exciting news: today i became a real woman. i drove for the first time in tahiti, even into the city. and it was raining. i was cool as a cucumber, zooming in and out of lanes, just like a native baby. haha not really. but in any case, i made my debut driving in the mission, and i am alive to tell the tale.

anyway, how 'bout that general conference, eh? so great! definitely just what i needed. although i will admit, it made me a little homesick to see temple square and the conference center! just thinking about going to kneaders to get french toast before heading up to the session....sigh. it was weird not to be there! but oh well. i really loved president monson's talk, but all of them were good. i was disappointed not to be able to hear elder holland's talk, but i guess i'll just read it when it comes out in the liahona. oh yeah by the way. remember how conference is at 10am in the US? oooh right remember how tahiti is 4 hours behind america? guess who watched conference at 6 in the morning? THIS GIRL. and believe it or not, this was the first conference where i didn't fall asleep in any of the sessions. i've got special missionary powers, man. but no, it was way good. and i was so excited to hear about the tabernacle being rebuilt into a temple! that's so awesome.

hmmm what else. oh, we got a new trainer. her name is soeur taie. she's way cool, and has definitely brought a little more life into the house and our companionship. this past week was pretty hard in the beginning--it's been kind of slow going with our investigators who weren't making any progress. but we just got a new ward mission leader in one of our wards that we're over and he is WAY motivated and enthusiastic about missionary work. we had a meeting with him and he was like "yeah we're in the process of preparing like 14 people for you to teach." whoa! and the other week doing contacting we found two sisters, 16 and 18 interested in receiving the lessons and we've met with them twice so far. they are really awesome! they actually participate in the lessons and share their thoughts and are excited about the message--it's a nice change of pace, haha. most of our lessons are in french, except for a few in tahitian. mostly all the old people prefer to speak tahitian so luckily s. taie speaks it and helps us, ahah. but i'm getting a little better at understanding and speaking. so little by little, as with all things. anyway, so things are picking up here, which is nice. the three wards we're over are puurai, pamatai, and oremu. they're all good wards and the members feed us very well. thank goodness for elastic waists. this week was pretty awkward with the ward members because everyone kept asking us where s. terooatea (my old trainer) went and we were like "errr...well...she's not with us anymore?" and they're like "oh did she get transferred?" and we're like "uhh...yeah but...permanently transferred...to her home." whoops! seriously. had that conversation like fifty million times. still just as awkward every time. there has been quite a bit of drama surrounding that, which is weird and makes me feel like i'm in a soap opera or something. oh well, i guess it keeps life interesting, especially when you can't watch tv. but i really like the new trainer. soeur harline has been like deathly ill this week, which sucks. she's kind of a teeny bit of a whiner, so being sick does not help that at all. i love her though.

anyway, i don't really have too much to report. things are pretty constant here (except for the whole my trainer getting sent home thing...whoops!)--still trying to work hard, still getting fat. it's funny, because i get more sleep than i've ever gotten in my life (8 hours a night! who does that?? infants??), and yet i'm still more tired than i've ever been. i guess that just means we're working, haha. we have two baptisms coming up next week--the couple that got married that i sent the pictures of. that should be exciting, my first ones since i've been here. ummmm i really can't think of anything else, hopefully next week's email will be a little more exciting and witty. sorry! but i love you, and miss you!

love,
soeur hansen

september 26, 2011

2011-10-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

oh heeeey everyone,

another pday has arrived and i am still living, no longer barfing. i'm even starting to toughen up so i don't get as carsick anymore! although i have to sit in the front every time, and i don't think i've gained enough trust to be given the keys to drive yet (even after crawling up through the bathroom window to open the door!). maybe this week i'll be inaugurated into the wonderful world of tahitian driving. anyway, this was an interesting week. there were a lot of things that seemed to keep coming up that messed up our plans every day, so we didn't get to teach as many people as we wanted to, appointments kept falling through, just random stuff like that. it was pretty frustrating a lot of the time because we'd come home and be like "gaah what did we even do today??" but there were some really awesome things that happened this week. apparently a few weeks ago (before i got here), my companions were at the gas station filling up, and this guy was like "oh you're the missionaries? what do i have to do to come back to church?" (cue the drooling and panting). so they set up an appointment with him to come visit. anyway, when we went to do our tracting last week (i might have mentioned this already in my letter last week), we met some girls and one of them was like "oh yeah i'm already meeting with you with my husband next week" so we were like whoa! anyway. we went to see both of them this week, and it was honestly just incredible. it was such a testimony to how people are really being prepared to hear the message of the gospel. we started talking about the plan of salvation, and how it is a plan of happiness, and the woman just like started crying and telling us about how that's exactly what she's looking for. the spirit was really strong--it was awesome. and then we started talking about the temple and eternal families and they were both like "yeah we totally want to do that!" gah! it was so great! all three of us walked away and we were just like giddy. it was a really refreshing lesson to have, because with a lot of the people that we're teaching right now, there's just...no progression, and it gets pretty discouraging sometimes. although i did have a pretty humbling experience this past week--i was kind of griping mentally (i know, i'm a terrible person) about going to teach this one investigator, because we see her every day and have been seeing her every day for a long time even before i got here, and there's no progression. anyway, so i was kind of just thinking to myself, "guhh what's the point she doesn't care about what we're trying to teach her blah blah blah i'm a bad missionary person blah blah." but i prepared my lesson and tried my best to make it apply to her. anyway, so we're teaching her, and at the end of the lesson, she totally opens up and starts telling us about how much our visits mean to her and how much they're helping her and started telling us about some of the trials that she has in her life right now and how much our lessons and our committments have been helping her to get through them and i was just floored. i felt so ashamed for thinking that our visits were pointless. it was a very necessary reminder to me that i need to practice a little better what i'm preaching about perservering, patience, and charity. so that has helped me shift my perspective a little bit since then. admittedly, it is still hard to go to the same peoples' houses every day, see the same problems, and not see anything change despite their promises to do so. but that's life, right? all we can do is continue to try and support them and help them understand the importance of the gospel and how it can help them.

anyway, some funny stuff happened this week. our investigators are really cool, and for the most part our lessons are simple and they ask questions that we can answer with confidence. but this past week, one of our investigators, totally out of nowhere (we had been talking about nephi making two sets of plates in 1 nephi), he was like "why do i have to get married if jesus didn't get married? why didn't jesus get married?" and was just like EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO PUNCH MYSELF IN THE FACE REALLY FAST, I'LL BE RIGHT BACK. oh my gosh. i just about died. LUCKILY, during my moment of total panic, my companion s. terooatea offered a good answer (although in retrospect i'm pretty sure it wasn't doctrinally sound, but whatever, milk before meat right?) and satisfied the question. we all got back into the car afterwards and were like WHAT?!! hahaha. it was so great. we're still teaching our two people that only speak tahitian (they recently got baptized so we're just doing the follow-up lessons), which, being translated, means i sit there and smile and nod while s. terooatea teaches and then i bear my testimony in tahitian. although i have tried to do my part by preparing lessons for them, which goes over just fine while i do it and then s. terooatea reteaches the lesson after me because the people don't understand me. hahahaha. anyway, it's funny but at the same time makes me want to set myself on fire. and earlier this week i was just like WHATEVER I SPEAK FRENCH I DON'T NEED TO LEARN TAHITIAN GET OUT OF MY LIFE! but then God took out his spiritual bat and smacked me around a little bit and i realized that i was called to preach the gospel in the tahitian language. that doesn't mean that poof! i'm magically going to be fluent. but that does mean that there is someone out there that needs to hear this message from me, in tahitian. so then i was like OK FINE I'LL KEEP TRYING. it's getting better, little by little. i'm starting to understand some words that people say, but mostly it still just sounds like aaoaoooiiieeeuooowahheoooojalkjads! and i'm like yeah ok brain just turned off. it's so funny though because the people here keep telling me "oh yeah tahitian is easy, it's just like english!" and i'm like "i'm sorry, have you ever heard the english language before??" they're just so adorable sometimes, these tahitians.

other notable things of the week: i played with some puppies, ate mcdonalds for the first time here, saw a mouse in my house, got some more mosquito bites (seriously. kill me now.), went to a wedding for two of our investigators--oh yeah did i mention that NO ONE here is married? no one. unless they're members. everyone else just lives together and calls the other person their husband or wife but they're just fake married as in no marriage certificate. so i think i will be going to many marriages during my mission. at least i hope so. and i ate a lot of food this week. i think people are really surprised by the quantity of food my body can hold. at one of the investigator's houses where we were eating, they were all like whoa you can eat so much more than the other american sisters! and i'm like yeah, white girl knows how to throw it down. and that's when i tried to explain to them that i am a fat person in a skinny person's body. but i have the mild impression that by the end of my mission, i will probably be a fat person in a fat person's body. but the food is soooooo gooooooooooood. mom, you would be totally freaked out by it though. lots of raw fish. like the two most popular dishes here are all raw fish. but it's sooooo good and i want to eat it all daaaaaaaaaay.

ok ok ok. i do have one fairly big thing to report. but i wanted to save it for the end because it makes me sad. the past two days have been particularly weird because my trainer got sent home?? actually i shouldn't put that in a question mark, because it's actually a statement. on saturday night s. terooatea was crying up a storm and me and s. harline (other american) were like "aah what's wrong?!!" but tahitians don't talk about feelings ever (seriosuly, i've never felt so sensitive in my life) so she wouldn't tell us but the next morning she was like "k we're going to president's house" and we were like ooooooook....and then we went and they talked and president came out and was like "oh hey you two go do whatever you're supposed to do today and i'll let you know what's happening later." and was like ooooook....? so then s. harline and i just get in the car and we look at each other and kind of start hysterically laughing, but that kind of laughing where you have to laugh to stop yourself from hyperventilating and going into the fetal position. but really, in one sense it was kind of funny. two american greenies trying to hold down the fort in three different wards! ha! seriously. ridiculous. but, we definitely were blessed yesterday to be able to have made it through the whole day without any disaster or mishap. it was hard through because s. harline is not confident at all in her french and doesn't really take the reigns very well, so i was like welp ok let's do this. but in the end, it was ok. it was good for me i think to have to step up to the plate to get things done. trial by fire i guess. anyway, s. terooatea came back and packed up her stuff and told us she was going home. it was really sad. i have no idea what happened, all i know is that she was a great example for me and i have only good things to say about the 2 weeks i spent with her. i admire her a lot for her courage. now s. harline and i are by ourselves, and we still have no idea what's going on. hopefully we'll be clued in on that soon...in the meantime, at least it's pday! we're going to carrefour later, which is like the french walmart. actually, it's this magical and evil place that you go to with every intention of buying good groceries but end up coming out with a 12 pack of coke, chocolate, and no self-respect. hopefully i'll be able to be more of a grown up this week.

anyway, this is sooooooooooo loooooooooong. but yeah. i'm doing well, and hope everything is going well back home! you are in my thoughts and prayers. love!

love,
soeur hansen

p.s. pictures are as follows:

--at the birthday party of one of our investigator's daughters
--at our investigators' wedding
--puppies!
--i got a legit coconut from one of my investigators
--view from my apartment, that's moorea

september 19, 2011

2011-09-20T09:29:00.001-07:00

hiiiiiiiiii everyone,

oooh you know, just sitting here NOT IN AMERICA writing my email. that's right everyone, my mission was NOT in fact to the MTC. i'm in TAHITI!! travels and everything went smoothly, except i was a little congested so it kind of felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head during some parts of the flight. and despite my legitimate phobia of flying over the ocean, i made it safe and sound. it's really surreal flying over the ocean, by the way. it kind of looks like you're upside down because EVERYTHING is blue. anyway, i pretty much had to sign a contract with my own blood and promise my first born (sorry mom, no grandkid fun for you) just to get my luggage over here though. whew. but. the point is. i am here. it is awesome. in order to give you a better image of tahiti, i would like you to imagine in your mind the most beautiful place you've ever seen. then, multiply that by approximately...A BAJILLION. and then, you might understand the beauty of this place. seriously. my companion is probably tired of me gasping audibly and oohing and aaahing over everything. and the stars are different here too! i tried looking for the big dipper and then i was like oh wait. i'm below the equator. WEIRD.

anyway, my first morning here i was awoken by the sounds of roosters crowing. they were just cockadoodlin' it up all over the place. yeah. there are chickens and roosters everywhere here. all over. and dogs. and the dogs are freaking disgusting. they're like some canine zombie army that roam the streets. bleh. sooo i try to avoid them at all cost so i don't get zombiefied too. and/or lose my hair and get rabies or things like that. ANYWAY. my mission pres and his wife are cool and nice. i don't actually remember anything that i said to them the first night because i was suuuper out of it. i do remember trying to speak tahitian to them but i dont' remember what i said. probably something insulting. so i'm in my first area on the island of tahiti, near the city faaa (yes, that is the actual name of the city, my keyboard did not break or stutter). i got put in a trio with one tahitian sister who is my trainer, and another american sister that got here about two months ago. both are very nice and very patient, and i have been able to learn a lot from both. we're starting to get to know each other a little bit better and break the ice so meals and car rides aren't totally silent anymore. ha! oh yeah. we're not on bikes, we have a car. guess who's gonna get SUPER FAT? THIS GIRL. i actually really hate the car. because the roads here are INSANE and windy and uppy-downy and there are speed bumps every 20 feet and guess who gets car sick super easily? THIS GIRL. so i feel like i want to barf about 100% of the time, and then i do about 50% of the time. oh yeah, did i mention that i've been barfing like somebody committed me to it this week? it's been really cute. NOT. i dont' know what the deal is, but i've been pretty sick lately. it's not the food or the water. but i'm feeling better the past few days, so hopefully it's just some weird "hi i'm your body and i hate living in tahiti" thing that i'll get over. by the way i'm terrified to try and drive here because i think evreyone takes speed or meth or some kind of drug before they go on the road. seriously. i get scared.

let's see.. i have like a bjillion things to say but i can't organize my brain. the other day we accidently locked ourselves out of our house so i won the love and adoration of my companions by climbing up through the teeny little bathroom window so i could open the door. in retrospect, i'm not quite sure how i fit, because it's a pretty small window and it was really high. carried by the spirit or something, i guess. haa oh yeah, i met one of the ward members (the ward mission leader, actually) and he was like "hey soeur, did you take a picture the day you got here? you know, like of yourself?" and i was like "...no..." and he was like "oh you defintiely should. that way, you can see and compare how fat you get on your mission." HAHAHAHA AND THEN I PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!! not. i just laughed. little did he know, my stomach's recent rebellion has prevented my from gaining weight despite the MASSIVE PORTIONS OF FOOD people giv eyou here. it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooood though. even when i was barfing i still wanted to eat because it's just so delicious. the fish, the fruit. oh my gosh the fruit. so good. and i had my first steak-frites the other day, which is basically just a huge slab of meat served with fries and this really incredible sauce. gaah! so good! but everything here is really really expensive so it kind of sucks. but still so pleasing to my palate.

anyhoo, we have quite a few investigators right now so we stay pretty busy, so it's good. yesterday we went tracting fo rthe first time and it was actually way fun! well, maybe not fun. but it was good and we were able to talk to some people and set up some lessons. the people here are all super nice so i wasn't afraid of getting spit on or anything. we have two people that we're teaching right now that only speak tahitian, and they're really old. and i don't understand anything they're saying. i taught my first lesson in tahitian the other day, and i felt good about what i was saying but i had NO IDEA what the heck the lady was saying back to me so i just kept looking at my companion, and she'd nod to me to say yeah go ahead, ahha. she's a saint, my companion. anyway, the lady is really cute but she talks like she has a mouthful of food that's she's chewing with no teeth. and thens ometimes she'll laugh and cover her face with her hands and she just looks so cute that i start laughing too so she thinks that i understand by i'm like NOPE FOOLED YOU I STILL I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON! haha! it's frustrating. but i know it will get better. i just have to keep trying.

anyway, my companion is waiting to use the computer so i think i'll wrap this up. i forgot my camera cord but i will remember to bring it next week so i can send pictures! oh yeah, one more thing: people don't use toilet seats here! it took me a few days to realize that. every time i would go into the bathroom at our house, the toilet seat would be up. and i would be like what the heck? is there secretly a man living here? is one of my COMPANIONS secretly a man? who knows. so i asked my american companion about it and she was like yeah they just don't use toilet seats. some places don't even have them when you go. so that was interesting. anyway, on that note i guess i'll end. i'm happy to be here. adjusting has been interesting, but it's been good and the people here are very warm and generous. i love you all and hope everything is going well!

love,
soeur hansen

September 6, 2011

2011-09-12T11:03:00.001-07:00

oh HAAAIIIIIII!!!

soo....guess what? THIS IS MY LAST PDAY IN THE MTC! this time next week, i'll be IN TAHITI OH MY GOSSHHHHHH!!!! so insane. so awesome. i got my travel plans, so it's all official and everything. i leave the mtc at 8:00am on monday (september 12) and my flight leaves from slc at 11:30. then i fly to LA, have a 4 hour layover, then i'm off to the south pacific. ooohhh yeaaaah. so i'm pretty STOKED OUT OF MY MIND about that. it's very surreal to think that i'm actually leaving. although the sister that i wanted to punch in the face for telling me that she was supposed to leave before me even though she's been here 5 weeks less than me is still leaving before me, which i was secretly still wanting to punch her in the face about.

asa side note, the spacebar on this keyboard is very sub-par, so excuse any lack of spaces.

ANYWAY. i have some important/sad/whatever you want to think news. this weekwas the week that i cracked. hold on a second i have to go yell at an elder for stealing my washer. ok justice has been served. anyway, on the topic of yelling at elders, yes. this week i cracked. i for real, in a sincere righteous indignation yelled (literally) at a pair of elders in my zone. let it be known that it was merited. i (and the people around me, fyi) was totally disgusted by their behavior and conversation. let's just say that sometimes elders think that sister missionaries are called to be the visual entertainment for the elders. so yeah. i got pretty heated. and i yelled at them. and told them to shape up or get the heck out. one of them got really scared and immediately apologized, the other one got really mad and stormed off like a child. but then he apologized later. i kind of felt bad for yelling, so i apologized for the yelling later, not for what i yelled. some elders really are just idiots. they might actually have brain damage. anyway, it's all good now. but i was so fired up it was ridiculous.

also, let me just tell you about the best day of my life yesterday. mrs. holli hale robinson is probably the best human on the planet. imagine my surprise when, as i'm getting ready after gym to go to lunch, i heara knock on the door in my residence hall and open it up to see her smiling face. WHAT?!!!! SHE BROKE INTO THE MTC TO BRING ME CAFE RIO WHAT?!!!! not that i'm condoning breaking into the mtc. that girl has guts. but seriously. it made my day. no. it made my mtc stay. it was so awesome to see her and hug her! it was like unreal though. i think i've become one of those socially-awkward-around-normal-humans missionaries. which is unfortunate. but i was so happy to see her. and then when i walked back into the room with that pork salad (i'll be honest, i very briefly considered running and hiding and eating it all by myself in the bathroom or something, but i decided to try and be christlike, and also the mental image of me eating a pork salad by myself on the toilet was just too pathetic), there was much rejoicing in the land. everyone went crazy. it's like we were on drugs for real, we were all so happy. so holli, if you're reading this (i'mgoingto write you a letter anyway), just know that you made a lot of people happy that day. i'm pretty sure you will be exalted for that. and you freaking snuck into the mtc. respect forever and always.

anyway, i have to go switch my laundry and i'm almost out of time. i should be able to email a little bit later this week since i won't have a pday next week, so i'll try to make the next one a little more exciting. i love you much and still think about you often!

love,
soeur hansen

August 30, 2011

2011-09-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

hi everyone,

i'm titling this email "sister hansen laments" because I'M SAD. my district is gone--i said bye to the last half of them this morning at 4 am, which indicates two things: i'm tired, and i'm all alone. well, i'm not all alone. now i'm just paired with the other solo sisters in my zone. who are just such special spirit daughters of god and i'm determined to love the crap out of them by the time i leave the mtc but that has yet to happen. actually, i thought i was just going to get lumped with the new sister coming into our zone tomorrow, but at branch council on sunday, my branch presidency informed me that i was getting placed with the sister that's having some big drama in her district in the hopes that i will be a (and i quote) "calming influence." and i was like branch president says whaa? basically i'm getting assigned to be a babysitter, so this will be fun. the sister that i'm getting paired with is...well...let's just say she has one of the strongest personalities i've ever encountered IN MY LIFE. she prides herself on speaking her mind because it's her culture or whatever, but really i think it's just an excuse for her to be tactless and rude. and she presents all of her opinions as hard facts and refuses to let other people have differing ideas. it's really really adorable.

can you tell i miss sister sandoval? saying bye to her was really hard. saying bye to my district was really hard in general, especially since literally EVERY PERSON in my zone thinks it's suuuucchhhhh a funny joke to be like "oh yeah sister hansen, you realize that by the time YOU leave, 3/4 of these people will already be gone! ha ha haaa!" and i'm like oh man, is that joke STILL funny for you guys? it's definitely still funny for me, even after the 40th time! no really! tell me again! did you all coordinate this, or are you all just in the possession of such uncanny senses of humor? oh i can't even stand it. you slay me. all of you.

cough. i'm not bitter.

anyway, i can honestly say that i love every person in my district. we had some really rough patches, and i can't say that i loved everyone all the time, but i can pretty confidently assert that we had some miracles occur during the mtc in the way that we all grew together so much and by the end of our time, EVERYONE was sad to say goodbye. so let me just tell you--prayers work. if you want to love someone, and you work hard enough to get there, god will help make up the rest. so i guess i'll be putting that to the test again in these next two weeks. it's my goal to be sad to leave my dear new companion by the end of my time here.

yesterday a returned sister missionary who served in tahiti came to talk to me during one of my class times about her experiences--it was sooo cool! except i'm kind of freaked out now because she told me that she got proposed to like...15 times on her mission, by members and investigators, married and single. she was like "yeaaaah because you're american and you have an accent, you instantly become about 40 times more attractive than you ever thought you might have been. so basically....any friendly interaction that you have with a male under the age of 40, he'll fall in love with you. and if you're really nice to them, they'll think you're in love with them." she advised me to NEVER let any of them play the guitar for me. i was laughing, but also kind of peeing my pants. so am i just not supposed to talk to people? haha. i don't know. i'm exaggerating a little, but actually not that much. it will be interesting though. it was way cool to hear all her stories though, and it just made me even more antsy. the other day, sister sandoval and i were talking, and she was like, "you do realize that when you came into the mtc 9 weeks ago, you had no idea how to speak tahitian. and now you're teaching 45 minute lessons in tahitian all by yourself." and i was like huh i think you're right. THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL, PEOPLE.

oh yeah, i had to go to in-field orientation (which is basically like what all the departing missionaries have to go to the few days before they leave, i had to go with my district even though i'm not leaving yet). it was pretty boring. some of it was cool though. i mostly just drew cartoons throughout it, because i'm 6 years old. at least they were pertinent to what was being discussed, although i would be lying if i denied that one of them was me walking up to a guillotine. whoopsie.

i wish i had more exciting things to report this week. mostly i'm just tired and depressed right now because i was suuuuuuuuperrrrr disobedient last night and went to bed at midnight (don't judge, haters) and then got up at 3:30 to help ss get ready, and then went to bed at 4;30, then got back up at 6:30. and mostly i'm just sad my district is gone and i'm all alone without my friendz. guhhhh making new friendsssss nooooo funnnnnn.....whatever. this is so whiney, so i'm gonna leave now. i still love everyone quite a bit, and miss y'all bunches and bunches. hopefully this email doesn't make you want to go eat your feelings or anything. i'm still happy and excited about being a missionary. i'm just REALLY ready to fly over the ocean to my pretty little islands. okiloveyoubye!!

love,
soeur hansen

August 16, 2011

2011-08-16T11:48:00.002-07:00

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

August 9, 2011

2011-08-16T11:48:00.001-07:00

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

August 2, 2011

2011-08-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

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

July 26, 2011

2011-07-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

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

July 19, 2011

2011-07-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

i just spent a bajillion years typuing out a really awesome email onto my study journal, but now it won't let me copy and paste it onto here and i'm filled with righteous indignation. so this'll have to do.

anyway, another week! i've almost been here for a month. i feel like i've been here my whole life. like...parents? what are those?? just kidding. time is funny at the mtc. it drags and yet speeds by. my schedule is pretty much the same every day, get up at 6:30 class, study, eat, class, study, eat, class study, bed. bam. and we have an hour of gym which i'm sure you can imagine i love. actually, i've started to kind of appreciate it. i teach sister sandoval how to do cartwheels which mostly just ends up with me getting kciked in the face. actually, i've been teaching her a lot of things, like how to kick a soccerball, cartwheels, french, and how to sing becuase she only ever lip syncs when we have to sing hymns in the district and i'm tired of being the only female voice in the room. in turn, she is teaching me about the brain and the body because she is a ridiculously smart neuro-science major. mostly this teaching just involves her being THE MEANEST MOM EVER because she makes me eat fiber cereal and i cry and whine the whole time because it looks like hampster poop and tastes like dirt. AND she makes me exercise. like the other day, we were having a wonderful time sitting in the grass in teh shade during gym and she looks over at me and says, "we should do some ab exercises." and i was like "why are you always trying to ruin my life?" and then she made me run a mile and afterwards was like "i thought that was great, didn't you?" and i was like "i probably would've liked it more if i wasn't thinking about how much i HATED it the whole time!" we love each other, but seriously. we have so much fun together.

this week was particularly hard for both of us because of some district drama involving our little friend i mentioned last week. he has not been checking himself, and thus continues to wreck himself. he pretty much hates everyone now, but reserves his really rude and insulting behavior to me and sister s, which is cute i guess. i do love getting special treatment. it has been a struggle for me to be nice and loving, especially since any attempt to do so is met with insult and disrespect. the branch president has got involved because he also has a lot of problems with his companion, but i think it's only made his attitude worse. so it'll continue to be a struggle, but i kind of came to teh realization that my committment to follow christ and be his represenative is not dependent on others' behavior. so basically, even if he deosn't make any effort to be nice doesn't mean that i can stop trying. but i am happy to say that i really think my prayers to be able to grow in love for the people in my zone have been answered--i feel like i know they a lot better and love them so much more.

this week, in honor of harry potter coming out (tear sob sob!!), sis s and i made the sisters in our district dress up like harry potter characters and take pictures. we made one girl wear nude pantyhose over her head to be voldemort. it was awesome. and i was bellatrix, because if you could see my hair at the MTC that decision would be self-explanatory. i just ordered pics today so i'll send some next pday!

anyway, things are going well, but still pretty stressful. sometimes i feel like the MTC is like drinking from a fire-hose--i get some water, but mostly it just hurts my face. i really do feel like i'm learning and growing so much though. i got a bloody nose htis week, probably because my BRAIN is exploding on a regular basis, so now it's just starting to hemmorage out of my face. so that's gross, but cool too. and i started reading "jesus the christ" which is awesome but takes sooo much concentration. like whoa, informative and lightbulb moment inducing. i'm really enjoying my studies and honestly scriptures have become my favorite things (WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MEEE AAAAH CHRISTLIKE ATTRIBUTES!!!) the funny thing about the MTC is that you're doing gospel stuff all the time so it's pretty much always on your mind. sis s and i were laughing the other day because she was like, "sister hansen, remember how the first few days you were singing lady gaga in the shower and now you only have hymns stuck in your head?" ha! or i just make up songs about the mtc and sing them to her and she LOVES IT.

yeah the mtc is funny. the other day one of the elders in our district got chastised by a teacher for flirting because he told sis s and i that it was so cute that our outfits matched (but srsly it WAS cute). we were cracking up--poor lil elder. oh! and we started this language training thing where we talk to volunteers that come in who speak the language and i got to see lindsay! (o'rourke) i felt like such an idiot because i was so happy that i just burst into tears and she was like "what's wrong?!!" and i was like I'M JUST SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU! and then i clung to her like an orphan. it was just so nice to see a friend, but hard at the same time because it reminded me about real life when normally the MTC veil is tightly drawn. but it was good!

anyway, i'm not sick anymore. i'm happy, and i love this work. i love hearing from everyoen, so keep the letters comin'. hopefully my email will stop being glitchy, but dearelder is always a good alternative since i can read those during the week. OH! and thank the jeffires for the treat!! it was so great and made my day! (and my roommates). i'm still so perplexed as to how they got it into my room though. do they know the house-elves that work here at hogwarts?? oh and mom, EVERYONE always compliments me when i wear the skirts you made for me, so you should feel good about that. you help me to be a stylin sister missionary. and dad, i squealed with happiness when i got your letter, so keep those coming too. i have to go now, but give my love to everyone! the gospel is true and makes you happy. that's just what i want to share with the world, so i'm working hard on learning how to do it.

ua here au ia orua! te mihi nei au ia orua! (i love you and miss you)

love,
sister Hansen

amy's first two letters!

2011-07-19T12:07:00.001-07:00

hey guys! sorry it took me so long. had difficulties signing in for a couple of weeks. here are amy's first two letters!

Mom and Dad and family and everyone I love and even people I just like!!

I only have a half hour and the clock is literally ticking right before my eyes so excuse any typos that I make because I"m not turning back. I'm at the MTC! I've almost survived my first week. The first day and a half was really crazy because tehy didn't really know what to do with me, since I already speak French. They put me in the distrcit that's leaving in trhee weeks but it was awful because they all knew how to teach and do everything, and I had no idea what was going on even though I understood and could speak better than ayn of them. So it was really discouraging and probably not the best foot to start out on. So I talked to them and asked to be switched back to my original district that just came in with me so I could learn how to teach and what not before I go on to Tahitian in 3 weeks. I feel a lot better now, and it's good--I love my district. I"m sure it's just teh honeymoon phase or whatever, but I seriously love all the elders in my district. They are just so precious. I have spiritual crushes on all of them! Ha. But we have a lot of fun together and then get down to business in class. My companion is Sister Sandoval, she's from San fran and going to Montreal on her mission, Spanish and French speaking. When I first found out taht she was going to be my companion I was a little apprehensive and mostly like "Are you kidding me with this?!" because we have a certain mutual male friend. But actually, I realyl really like her and I'm so glad we're companions. We get along really well and laugh a lot. She puts up with my almost constant play-by-plays on when I need to go to the bathroom.

So far, honestly, the MTC is really hard. I feel liek there are only extreme versions of emotions here. I'm either sooo happy or super discouraged, wide awake or unconscious, starving or about to burst. It's hard to be tired almost all the time, hopefully I'll be able to adjust soon. It's a little worse because I've been having a hard time falling asleep at night, even though I'm exhausted. But today I got to take a nap and it was the BEST THING OF MY LIFE. I feel like a zombie missionary a lot. But I think it's just the adjustment and I'll start to get used to it soon. But yeah, it's hard here. It's hard to not feel like I'm good at this yet--it can be really discouraging to not feel like an effective missionary. But I feel like already, my awareness and testimony of God's love for me has been really strengthened because every time I felt like giving up this week (I know, I've felt it already), I was almost immediately blessed by some little thing that boosted my spirit. Like once, I was trudging back from the longest day ever, feeling discouraged and like I'd just gottent the crap kicked out of me all day, and there were some other sisters in the stairwell and I asked one of them where she was from and she was like "I'm from Tahiti" and i was like WHAAAT?!?!! And I got SOOOO excited and we talked for like half an hour and I was just so happy afterwards. I've met a few other people from Tahiti too and it seriously makes me soo so happy! I love talking to them. It's kind of crazy how much love I already feel for that people. I can't wait to get there.

There have been some cool things happening so far too--on Saturday we had a special 4th of July fireside that was full of patriotic stuff that made me proud to be an American or whatever (actually it was pretty funny because tehre's an elder from England in our district that we were sitting next to during all of the Declaration of Independence talk and we were like, "Oh yeah, remember when we declared independence from you because we hated you and stuff and then our little podunk army beat you and stuff? Yeah that's so weird huh!" He is really funny though, but you probably had to be there to appreciate it. Just know that I'm funny and laugh anyway.) But at the end of the fireside they did this really awesome thing where they put up a map on the screen and all of the missions came up one by one and everyone cheered so loud when their mission came up--I had to cheer extra loud since I'm literally the only person in the MTC right now (actually until September) going to Tahiti. It was insane though--the room was seriously ELECTRIFIED and it made me so happy. It just reminded me that this is a great work and that I'm here for a reason. Am I talking like a sister missionary? Gross! Anyway, afterwards they fed us haagen-daas ice cream and let us watch the fireworks and I was pretty much as giddy as a 5 year old to be able to do something other than sit in a classroom. Normally we have to go to bed at 10:30, but our teacher was like "Yeah I think they're going to let you stay up late tonight to watch the fireworks!" And Sister Sandoval and I were like, "uhhh are they going to let us sleep IN later too??" And he was like "...No." So then our excitement was diminished a little bit. But all in all, it was pretty fun. And this past Sunday, Jenny Oaks Baker came to play a musical fireside, and it was really great. I was mostly thinking the whole time how jealous you would be, Mom. And her 3 little daughters played a little number for us on the piano, cello, and violin and it was adorable but also like "Oh cool this 6 year old is better at the piano than I am." But we all gave them a standing ovation at the end and they were so happy and it was really cute.

I'm going to try and figure out how to upload pictures on to the email, but I didn't have time this week. I did order some pictures so I'll send them to you as soon as I get them. Also, Mom, I'll write up directions to teach you how to scan stuff. I think I can remember how to do it, so hopefully it'll work. Anyway, I feel like this letter is super boring. This past week has honestly been a blur though, and I feel like I haven't had time to do aanyyythiiiiiinggggg. But just now that I'm happy to be here--it's really hard and can be discouraging a lot, but I know that this is where I'm supposed to be and I know that it will get better. I'll try to write down funny things when they happen so I can remember to write them in emails, because seriously the elders in my district are hilarious. Every time we leave to go back to our room, Sister Sandoval is like "Sister Hansen, they're all in love with you." And I'm like, "No, they're just in love with my brain." Because pretty much I'm just a walking dictionary for them. It's fun to be able to help them with their French though, but I had to tell them to directing their questions to me when the teacher is in the room because I feel embarrassed and like I'm going to get struck by lightning or something. I can't wait to start learning Tahitian though--I've been looking through my materials and it is INSAAAANNNE!!! C,d, g, k,s, x, z and a bunch of other letters are actually pronounced as T's, and then L's are pronounced like R's and I'm like are you kidding me?!!! But it sounds sooooooooooooooo cool and I think I actually figured out how to pronounce my name tag and I learned how to say Hello! Weeeee! I'll probably feel like even more of an idiot when I startt those classes but bring it on.

ANYWAY I ONLY HAVE FIVE MINUTES LEFT BUT I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU A LOT!!! Please write me letters. You have NO idea how much it brightens my day to hear from you. Give everyone my love. Seriously. I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I'll think of more exciting things to tell you next week, and I'll write more letters in between then hopefully. So much love!!!!

Gros bisous,
Soeur Hansen

Hiiii everyone!!

I've officially started my third week at the MTC and my time is ticking on my email so I'm typing fast and just now decided that i no longer care about making capital letters. deal with it. anyway, i've finally fallen prey to the nasty incubus of germst hat is the MTC. i feel like a zombie--my head is totally stuffed up and i have to blow my nose every 30 seconds. it's really adorable, lemme tell ya. but also, it's really disgusting because one elder in my district LITERALLY FILLED THE TRASH CAN WITH HIS TISSUES. a trashcan, filled with nothing but snotty tissues. that, and scripture study, is my life right now. also, i'm a zombie because i have to get up at 6:30 every morning, and i generally wake up wanting to kick puppies. and to make matters even better, one of my roommates gets up at 5 IN THE MORNING to curl her hair and then PUT IT INTO A PONY TAIL. why?! whyy do you do this?!! and then, as my alarm goes off and i wonder if i really have a will to live, so says "you can do it sister!" and i'm like I KNOW I CAN DO IT GET OFF ME!. so yeah, the mission hasn't reallly brought out my happy morning-person personality quite yet, but i'm qorking on it. i'm definitely starting to get more settled in though, i still get up when i'm supposed to even though it makes me sad in my heart. and mom, i will assure you that i'm drinking plenty of water. my companion can attest to this, because she has to go with me to the bathroom about 40 times a day. there's an elder in our zone that's from england and apparently there, in order to ask to go to the bathroom, you say, "can i spend a penny please?" because it costs a penny to use the "loo." anyway, we learned that and now sister sandoval always says, "oh my gosh sister hansen, how much money do you have?!!" i'm really rich, i guess. so yeah. don't worry. i'm drinking plenty.

in other news, i got called/assigned to be the coordinating sister for our zone. i don't actually know what that really entails yet, but i'm pretty sure it means that i'm going to have to start liking girls. oooooh god knows us so well...but no, it is a little bit of an overwhelming thought. our coordinating sister right now is like SUPER sister missionary and i'm like really? i still laugh at fart jokes. i don't think i can do this. but i'm sure there is something that i'm suppposed to learn from this experience and it will work for me good. right? our branch presidency is way cool though. i like them a lot.

my district is still really great. i just want to laugh all the time that i'm with them, but we've been getting better about being focused. they seriously say the funniest things sometimes. although i did experience a bit of a culture clash/silent battle this week. one of the elders in our district is from peru, and apparently the culture down there is that women are supposed to be inferior and only for making babies, because he has some serious beef with me. during language study and stuff, elders will ask me questions about frnech and i'm more than willing to answer them, but apparently this is very displeasing to him, since i'm a woman. he tells his companions in spanish not to ask me questions or makes fun of them when they do, and he refuses flat out to ask me anything, or even talk to me. i think he thought that i didn't understand him when he spoke about me in spanish, but i cleared up that misconception pretty quick by explaining to him, in spanish, that i understood him just fine. at first, i was really mad and was like "elder you better check yourself before you wreck yourself," but i'm pretty much over it now. i know it's hard learnning a language, so it can be really frustrating. but i'm not going to apologize for the hard work i've done to learn french. the language classroom is not a place for pride, you just have to accept that you're going to feel like an idiot a lot.

which i have experienced frist hand in my tahitian class!! i started on saturday. it's seriously insane. we have computer language training programs where you learn vocab and prhases and listen to them speak and record yourself, and i seriously just laugh the whole time because i'm like WHAT?!!! for example, one of the prhases i had to listen to and learn was "did i understand you corerctly?" which is "ua maramarama maitai anei au i to oe mana'o?" and i was like uhh.....did i understand YOU correctly?! i've started writing down some of teh crazy/funny words i come accross like faahanahanahia, which means "glorified", and faaho'i-faahou-hia mai, which means restoration. and popoti which means cockroach, which i call my companion. she LOVES IT. but seriously, i love learning tahitian. i'm the only one in calss, so it's just me and the teacher, which can be kind of awkward sometimes, but mostly because i think he thinks i'm a CRAZY person because i'm so overly excited when i learn how to say something or get something right. i might have to simma down so i don't totally weird him out. i'ts better than complaining the whole time or refusing to ask questions though, right? i just feel legit now that i actually know how to say what's on my name tag.

when i'm not learning tahitian, i'm back in my district with my companion practicing teaching and role playing and stuff. my favorite evil not christ like thing to do to my companion (other than call her cockroach, endearingly), is to give her really outrageously difficult things to address during role play. like this one time, she was like "i know god loves you and you're his daughter." and i was like "but...i was born a boy..." you should have seen the look on her face. it was so bad of me, but i could not resist. anyway, we had a good laugh about that but most of the time we really do take it seriously and it's a good experience. she's a little boy crazy though, and is "in love" with one of our teachers, which is simultaneously funny and exasperating. the elders in my district call me "mama llama" because i'm so old. they all try to get me to say whose tie i like the best, and i tell them, as a good mother would, that i love them all equally. we have a good district, although i've heard that it's around the 3rd week that everyone starts hating each other, so i guess we'll see what happens.

anyway, we finished last week with our first "investigator" and felt pretty bummed out about it, because we really felt like we failed. but when our teacher who was playing the investigator came to talk to us about it, he said, "none of you failed. people have their agency. as long as you care about them and you're teaching truth, you cannot fail." and that helped me a lot--we can't MAKE people believe and accept out message, but we can testify of what we know to be true and do everything we can to help them feel the spirit to know it's true too. i read 1 nephi 1:1 the other day, and kind of filled in my own stuff: "i, amy, having been born of goodly parents, therefore i was taught somehwat in all the learning of my faither; and having seen many affliction sin the course of [my mission], nevertheless, having been highly favored of the lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowlege of the goodness and mysteries of god, therefore [i keep on trying to be the best missionary i can be and move forward in faith.]" that's one of the things that keeps me going, i think. to know that i KNOW what happiness the gospel can bring into someone's life, and if i can be the person that helps show someone the way to that, even if it's just one person, it will be worth every struggle.

anway, a few items from your letters to reply to: first of all, mom: what the heck is a "blackballed man"??? are you allowed to be saying stuff liek that to me?? i'm a sister missionary!!

the dearelder letters are great. puh-LEEEEEZ keep them coming. i said it once and i'll say it again, you have NO IDEA how much getting mail means to me--even if it doesn't even sound exciting or important to you, it is importnat to me.

i got your note about the plaque pic--i'll get one to you as soon as i can. my p-days are on tuesdays, which i found out is the only day we're supposed to write letters, so don't be sad if i dont' reply right away. keep writing me. just be happy i'm being obedient! normally we get to go to the temple on tuesday mornings, but the temple is closed for another week or so. anything you'd like to send in a package would be awesome. but i would like my black cardigan--our classroom is freezing and i end up loooking like raw chicken because i have so many goosebumps. and my pillow case would be cool too. other than not, no specific requests. just send me some lovin.

the food here is fine, not great but not usually terrible. i mostly end up eating the various assortment of salads they offer. and sometimes sister sandoval will force me to eat an apple. but i'm well-nourished and hydrated, don't worry. i still hate eating breakfast, but i do it.

anwyay, i'm almost out of time! please write letters so that i don't have to spend my precious 30 minutes reading emials! not that i don't want them, but i have so little time to write you and so much time during the week to read emails. dear elder is great!!! i love you, think of you often, and pray for you always. pass along happy belated birthdays to tim and andrea, and happy 40th to you, mom and dad!! hoooweee! long time.

ua here au ia outou! (I LOVE YOU!!!)

love,
sister hansen

p.s. i'm goign to try and see if i can't figure out how to record some of my tahitian for you--i learned how to bear my testimony! wee!

amy out.

2011-06-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

welp, the moment has arrived. this will be my last blog post before the mish. from here on out, my blog will be managed by the lovely alison, who will be posting letters, hopefully photos, and maybe even a cartoon or two if i can figure out how to work that from across the ocean.

it's been real, guys. write me and stuff.

Sister Amy Hansen
MTC Mailbox # 154
TAHI-PAP 0915
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

amy.hansen@myldsmail.net

gros bisous!

2011-06-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

gotta love my pops.

2011-06-19T22:40:00.001-07:00

let me tell you about why i love my dad.

there was this one time, when i was like 17 i think. i was doing something that i knew i shouldn't have been doing, but in my teenage omniscience had decided that the rule was stupid because i obviously knew better. anyway, i was la-dee-daing my way around, flouting my parents' rules when my dad got home. he walked in, took one look at me, and calmly said, "that's not ok." and walked away. and that's all he had to say--my heart immediately sunk to the floor, and with those simple words, i knew what an idiot i had been.

i'm not trying to say that i love my dad because he can make me feel like an idiot in 3 words or less. i'm trying to say that i love my dad because he has such a no-nonsense "you know what's right, so do it" attitude.

he is unfailingly honest and has an incredible work ethic--every labor day, he would make us go out and work in the yard all day instead of going out to play with our friends. ("that's why they call it LABOR day.") my dad has taught me so much, like how to make a budget and change a bike tire, but also how to do what i know to be right and good, even if it might not be fun or easy. my dad taught me that people make mistakes, but it's not the mistakes that make the people, but rather what they do afterwards to change.

my dad is a good man, and i love him.itty-bitty (angry) baby paul!

i can't stop watching this.

2011-06-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

brought to me by mitchell, the same person that this conversation occurred with:my life is pretty funny right now.

oh you know, just learning practical skills.

2011-06-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

today my dad taught me how to change and patch bike tubes. he thought it would be irresponsible to send me off biking in the tropical wilderness without this knowledge, and i agreed, considering i had no idea that bike tubes even existed.

i used some tools and muscles and sweated and grunted and stuff. first i did my bike, with new tires, and i thought i was pretty hot stuff. then i had to do my dad's bike, and his tires are old and hard, so it took longer. but i did it, so the moral here is: i still think i'm pretty hot stuff. first i took the tire off the bike. then i took the tire off the wheel (which is harder than it might seem, hence the grimace in photo 2). then i took its guts out. then i put new guts in. then i put the tire back on the wheel. then i aired it up. then i put it back on the bike. then i rode away.

buh-byyyyye!

boom BAM bébé

2011-06-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

guess who's officially licensed to be a professional educator?

this girl.

also,

2011-06-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

i'm entering a stage where i either feel like i'm constantly on the verge of throwing up, or bursting into tears.

am i pregnant? or am i just going into the MTC in 13 days?

coincidentally, it'll be about 2 weeks until we know for sure.

hair.

2011-06-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

so i found this thing that teaches people how to do a crown braid and decided i needed to immediately try it, since it would help me fulfill my secret dream of looking like a von trapp child. guess that dream ain't really a secret anymore.

i got about halfway there and then i couldn't figure out how to make my left arm suddenly become my right and vice versa, and things got complicated. excuse the squirrel tail that seems to be coming out of my head.

anyway, i'll try again, of course, so i can make my dream come true. in the meantime, let's focus on how adorable this picture is:weee!

around the internets

2011-06-15T17:23:00.000-07:00

this is funny and adorable: *i suggest actually watching the video on youtube, because for some reason you can't click out of the ad on the blog. and the subtitles are prrreeeettty necessary sometimes.

happy to be misérable

2011-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

so i went on a date with my dad last week to go see a production of "les misérables." describe it in one word, you ask?

OHMYGOSHITWASSOGREATILOVEDEVERYSECONDOFIT

no spaces. counts as one word.

but seriously, it was incredible. i didn't take my camera with me, but here is a basic recap of my face during the play:

loved it, loved going with my dad, love my mom for giving me her ticket.

amy in nature.

2011-06-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

so this weekend, i went with my parents up to camp verde, az. we got up at 6:30 in the morning to go out hiking in the desert and doing some geocaching, which my dad is really into.

i know what you're thinking--amy, getting up early, to do physical activity...in nature? obviously you're perplexed, because all of these things are so contrary to my fundamental principles. it's a new day, people. a new day. not really, because i still hate getting up early, doing physical activity, and nature and i have yet to form a really close bond, considering most of the sounds coming out of my mouth during the hike were "ew," "oh my gosh...", "ahhh!!", and various forms of whimpering.

like the one time my dad decided to play a joke that there was a rattlesnake next to us. which was especially funny since i had grilled him on the way there about what to do if i saw one. if screaming and peeing my pants was the standard procedure, i passed with flying colors. just kidding, of course i didn't scream.

then we kept finding these little burrow holes in the ground with which my dad was fascinated, saying that "ant lions" lived in them. right? we couldn't ever get one to come out, so i was forced to go home and google it to see if it really existed. it does, and it looks like THIS: SO GLAD THAT THINGS THAT LOOK LIKE THIS EXIST. NOT.

also, there were bugs that sounded like the first part of this led zeppelin song. i kid you not. just imagine hearing that aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhAH! in nature.

all in all, it was a great day for some fambly bonding, and my dad was able to find his milestone cache. way to go, pops!

4:59 a.m.

2011-06-07T04:59:00.000-07:00

i decided it was time to try and go to bed around 1 a.m. then i proceeded to lay in my bed until about 4:15. then i got pretty hungry and mad that i wasn't asleep. so then i ate some pasta and sat at my kitchen table for a half an hour, still mad about not being asleep but feeling good about not being hungry anymore.

oh, did i mention that i'm going on a mission in 22 days? i feel pretty great about that.

i have no idea what the crap is going on with pretty much everything else in my life, but at 4:59 a.m., it's not really having too much of an effect on me. actually, i don't think too much is currently having an effect on me considering i just spent the last half hour contentedly staring at my kitchen cupboards. when i finally do fall asleep, i'll probably wake up and delete this post, because i'm pretty sure it's worthless.

whatever. i'm going to tahiti.

I'M A GROWN-UP

2011-06-05T20:24:00.001-07:00

recent conversation with my mom:

mom: "do you want some lunch?"
me: "nah i'm not really hungry right now."
mom, indignantly: "well did you eat breakfast?"
me: "...yes."
mom, skeptical: "what did you have?"
me: pause, "cheese, a haagen dazs bar, and a tortilla." (run away)
mom: "AMY!!!"

today,

2011-06-04T23:31:00.001-07:00

i got stung by a wasp in holli's pool. and i was sad.

2011-06-02T23:15:00.001-07:00

wanna know what tahitian sounds like?

listen to this.

fuh-reaking out...now.

i...might need these.

2011-06-01T11:47:00.001-07:00

i could totally tract in these, right? RIGHT.

camping recap.

2011-05-31T23:10:00.001-07:00

so i went camping with my two brothers, sister, and their respective famblies for memorial day weekend. here is some stuff that happened:

i wore a cowboy hat one day and sang a medley of disney songs by a river.

i made friends with a child out of fear that if i didn't, he might kill me in my sleep. turns out he was a funny little kid who has a dream and the best kool-aid perma-stache i've ever seen.
kid: "when i'm twelve, i'm going to change my name to justin."
me: "oh cool. like justin bieber?"
kid: "no. i hate him."
me: (crap please don't kill me)
i drank a lot of soda and ate some stuff made over a fire.
i had a good time with the fam.

let me tell you about why i'm funny.

2011-05-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago i had to go to san francisco with a group of young elders to get our visas from the french consulate. after spending a day with these 19 year old boys, i questioned my sanity in deciding to go on a mission, but in the end i left with endearing feelings towards them. they gave me their address at the MTC and made me promise to send them a package.

"and send pictures of you and your friends too. your girl friends."

yeah ok.

oh i sent them pictures of girls alright.

i think they're gonna LOVE it!

pointing fingers

2011-05-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

this is my dear friend megan's baby. this is a video they took while messing with him. apparently he does NOT like it when people point at him. it makes me laugh EVERY time, especially his outraged scream at 0:44. so funny.
rest assured that they're good parents and they love lil' e.j. (YEAH I SAID IT MEGAN!!) very much. as do i.

that's just how my face is.

2011-05-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

sometimes the internet decides to freeze when you're in unfortunate facial expressions during a video chat so that the last image the other person has of you makes you look like a crazy person. no big deal.

probably will make you feel uncomfortable.

2011-05-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

here are some questions i've posed to gmail recently:
wait what? people still chat on AIM? AIM still exists? i wonder if i can log into my old screen name from 9th grade...(bluejeanbaby373, by the way, inspired from a legacy growing up listening to neil diamond)

wait what??? what in my emails is prompting these ads? i'm pretty sure i've never mentioned anything about my cervix, to anyone, ever. in fact, i'm pretty sure before this moment in time, i've ever even thought about my cervix.

now that i've brought it up though, i guess it's pretty safe to say that gmail forced me to think about my cervix, ergo forcing all who read my blog to think about it as well. am i allowed to say cervix (4 times) on the internet??

...sorry.

in other news

2011-05-21T19:17:00.001-07:00

got my diploma in the mail today. it's official, i graduated college.

and my nephew gave me a little baby tomato from his garden.(please excuse my lack of make-up. the only living things i've seen today have been dogs and my parents, so i didn't really feel super motivated to get ready.) the race for favorite niece or nephew is on, and gavin is throwin' down the gauntlet with this first offering. so far, surprisingly enough, this girl is in last place, because she refuses to play with me. also, my 16 year old nephew locked me out, so he's on thin ice too.

just kidding.

but seriously.

dogs.

2011-05-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

so dogs have been on my brain a lot lately, namely because i'm consumed with a fiery hatred of my neighbor's dogs, which bark incessantly. (remember this? yes, well they still exist. and i still hate them.)

also, i've been taking care of my sister's dogs while she's out of town. she has two big ones, their breed escapes me, but they're large enough to scratch the living daylights out of my, ahem, future baby feeders when they jump on me. and then she has one little one, that might actually be capable of levitation. she got so excited to see me that she peed on me. which was cool.

not.

here's the thing. i love the idea of having a dog. in my fantasy, i have this great dog that i take on walks and play fetch with, and it lays its head in my lap as i read, and eats robbers when they try to steal my stuff. but this said dog wouldn't smell (i'm sorry, regardless of how recently you've washed a dog, it still smells like a dog. a clean dog, yes, but still a dog), wouldn't jump on me, wouldn't bark inconveniently, wouldn't pee on me/my floor, and wouldn't lick or slobber on me. the problem is, this dog does not exist, so i would be left with...this:

fancy nancy

2011-05-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

i have very tender feelings in my heart for the wonderful woman i call mother, and today i had the chance to reflect on the things that make her so great--they are many, but here are just a few.

my mom always used to hold my hand when we crossed any and every street. before we even set foot on the pavement, she had a good grip on my lil' fingers. this continued until i was about 11, and probably only stopped because i refused to be seen holding anyone's hand crossing the street. ("moooom i'm not a baaaby!") in thinking back on this, i have to smile, because i know that she wasn't holding my hand to baby me--she just has a natural instinct to nurture and protect. something as simple as holding my hand to cross a street was her way of saying to me, "i'm here, and i love you."

my mom also always used to make me (and all of her children living at home) do chores and clean my room. every saturday was "good clean" day, where the havoc wreaked during the week (in my room only, because she somehow kept the rest of the house immaculate) had to be rectified before any sort of play could happen. every time, i thought i could outsmart her by shoving everything under my bed, in the closet, under my sister's bed, wherever--every time, she found me out (seeing as how i was the youngest of 7, she'd pretty much seen it all by the time she got to me), and always made me go back and do it right. after living with some roommates who honestly just didn't know how to take care of a living space, i am immensely grateful that my mom taught me how to wield a vacuum, a toilet brush, and those novel little things called hangers.

i've learned some stuff in college, that's not being disputed here. but at the end of the day, the things that i really need to know i learned at home, due in large part to my mom. whether it was her dragging my butt outta bed for early morning scriptures, telling me "no you cannot eat dinner at so-and-so's house because we eat as a family" for the fifty bajillionth time, coming to my 2nd grade play to watch me in my break-out role as a pancreas (digestive system unit), or firmly standing behind me in my good decisions while gently redirecting me after my bad ones, my mom has always tried to teach me what is important in life.

so here i raise my glass to nancy hansen--my mother, my teacher, my friend. i couldn't have asked for anyone better to hold my hand throughout whatever roads i cross in life. i love you.

well lookee there

2011-05-03T11:18:00.001-07:00

when i read in my mission packet that i was allowed to bring "closed-toe sandals," i thought "yeah i think in america they call that a shoe. a closed-toe sandal is impossible."

doubt not, fear not, amy hansen. urban outfitters will provide.

new best friend

2011-05-02T22:33:00.001-07:00

OH I MAKE IT WORK, TIM.

**post edit: this is not a depiction of dieter f. uchtdorf. even though i love him too.

here's to you, provo summer

2011-05-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

lazy mornings
air-dried hair
watching project runway like it's my religion
reading in the sun
bike rides
roasting weiners and makin' smores
getting said smores alllllll over my face and couldn't be happier about it.

so hats off to you, provo summer. let's make the next two weeks unforgettable.

prepare yourselves.

2011-04-30T21:46:00.001-07:00

so most of my posts from here on out are probably going to be about food. not that that's a huge change from how it was before, let's be honest.

made these, as promised (going to the grocery store to get ingredients was my productive task o' the day). even made a chocolate ganache to go on top. legit.

good thing my roommates are gone so i will be forced to eat THE ENTIRE PAN MYSELF. pre-mission weight gain, here i come!

the return of summer baking

2011-04-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

so last night i had chicken nuggets for dinner (-2 on the adult eating scale). however, before you judge too quickly--i made them from scratch (+3 on the adult eating scale).
enlarged to show texture.

that puts me at a 1. i have yet to determine what exactly the scale is out of, but that's not the point. the point is, summer baking is back. i'm making these next. uhn.

in other news, i'm thinking of starting some kind of poll or something where people can place their bets about how much weight i'm going to gain on my mission. because apparently that's everybody's faaaavvvooorite new thing to talk to me about.

really cool guys.

a revelatory gchat

2011-04-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

a few things:
1. i'm obviously doing really well with my post-grad-total-lack-of-structure schedule. (although let's be honest, this isn't really a huge change of behavior from if i actually had things to do.)
2. sorry i said prostitute, mom.

recap

2011-04-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

graduation weekend was absolute perfection. i was well-fed and well-loved, and i walked away with a cum laude diploma. (yeah, i'm bragging. get over it.)

and more.

2011-04-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

hey everybody, look at more pictures of me graduating college!
this is what i would like say: thanks, mom and dad. i could have never done this without you. i love you.

also, just to show that i've been doing things other than being obsessed with graduating, here's this video of a penguin being tickled.

i am a creature of consistency.

2011-04-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

my senior picture from high school vs. my senior picture from college:

good to know that in five years time, the only thing that has changed is that my skin has gotten PALER.

**i realize that i'm going overboard on nostalgic posts here. GET OVER IT.

anonymous recaps.

2011-04-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

you have always been the greatest friend to me, regardless of my failure to be the same to you. i love how much you have grown into yourself and found things to be passionate about. i admire your fire.

you terrified me, you awed me, you pushed me, and you inspire me still. the reason i am where i am now is because you believed in me.

there was a definite period of time where i thought you had definitively ruined me. obviously that’s not true, i was just young in a lot of ways. i wish you every happiness in life, but i’m so glad it’s not with me.

i have no doubt that you were put into my life at the exact time that i needed you. you have subsequently become one of my favorite people. thank you for always listening to me, and actually caring about what i say.

you saved me. most of the times that i have laughed the hardest in my life have been with you. my greatest wish for you is that you will wake up—i want you to be able to see just how incredible you are, and be happy with what you have.

i love the new things that i discover because of you. you are so strong and intelligent. i hope you will always remember who you are and not let yourself be tossed about by every wind of whatever comes your way.

you. what do i even say to you that we haven’t already said a million times before? i want it to be you. if it’s not? well, that will be hard (possibly the understatement of my life).

if only i could express to you the example you are to me. you know my brain, and i can’t hide anything from you.

you are absolutely impossible to dislike. everything about you is endearing, and although i occasionally i shake my head in frustration over things you do, i cannot help but smile at the same time. you make me happy, and i hope to call you my friend forever.

you are also someone who came into my life at just the right time. you helped me remember how to be happy and have fun. i know i can tell you anything, and i value your frankness.

i miss your friendship. i wish you hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth. you were always a good example to me.

i’m surprised at how quickly we became friends. i’m not mad about this. you are one of the most entertaining people i have ever met, and i have the biggest girl crush on you. bigger than tina fey, maybe.

the end.

2011-04-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

of course i’m growing nostalgic as my college years are coming to a close. it’s strange to me to think that after this week, if i so choose, i never have to go back to school again—ever. i never have to do homework, or take a test, or get a grade. it’s almost unfathomable, because i’ve been going to school for almost literally my entire life. it’s all I know. it is my security blanket.

as cheesy as it might sound, when i think of my time at BYU, one song comes to mind: “je ne regrette rien.” it’s a french song, of course, but i think the connection is fairly obvious—out of all my experiences these past 5 years, the good and the bad, the bitter and the sweet, i regret nothing. even the things i look back on and still wince a little bit, i wouldn’t change, because those things have shaped me into who i am today.

each year i met people that i will never forget, that i will never stop loving. people that i will be friends with for my entire life. people that stood by me when i was at my worst, and who always encouraged me to be my best. i've had experiences that have opened my eyes, made me cry, made me laugh, and overall, made me grow.

i think some of the most memorable and rewarding experiences have involved my school career with french (shocking, i know). going to paris, for one. i will always, always, always treasure the time i spent abroad, albeit short. it solidified my love for french, and also boosted my language skills enough to land me the job as a french student instructor for the 101/102 classes at byu--a job that i've had for two years, and i have absolutely loved. it made me fall in love with teaching (no, student teaching did not entirely break me), it gave me the assurance that someday in the future, i'll have a job.

because this is already way too text heavy, here's a photo recap of my five year college career (because 5 is the new 4, guys).

freshman year: marked by intoxicating freedom, systematically breaking the honor code curfew, and having the most solid group of friends ever.

sophomore year: marked by an interesting transition to not having any male on campus actually being my age, still having ridiculous amounts of fun while still somehow managing to get good grades, and one traumatizing disaster of a relationship.

junior year: marked by getting over paris and heartbreak, getting my teaching job and the resulting mind-boggling stress but ultimate satisfaction, and being more responsible.

senior year, the first: two words: french house. i adored living there, and i will never forget the bonds forged there. this was one rollercoaster of a year.

senior year, the second: marked by recovery, discovery of cooking, student teaching misery, the worst apathy concerning school i have ever experienced, and taking the biggest leap of faith i have yet to make.

so byu, it's been real. proud to be a cougar.

happenings today

2011-04-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

while talking with my friend adam today, he told me a story. here it is:

adam: "yeah, i walked into the JKB (building on campus) today and i was about to go up the stairs and i heard a little voice behind me say, 'hey!' and i thought, 'amy's here!' so i turned around to say hi to you, and i looked and it was a two year old."

hahahaha.

also, for my french theater final, katherine and i had to perform a ridiculously long scene together. at one point, i was supposed to hit her on the head with a book. as it so happened when we were performing, i ended up hitting her directly in the face with the book. i went about my lines, looking down at her about 30 seconds later and realized

SHE HAD TEARS STREAMING DOWN HER FACE. I MADE HER CRY. FOR REAL.

I'M A MONSTERRR!!!!!

just stop.

2011-04-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

my brain feels like this:
which apparently makes me look like a basset hound.

oh, mitt.

2011-04-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

for a better explanation of why this video gets me all riled up, refer to this.

food.

2011-04-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

today i was my office, on the phone with my roommate liz, talking about going to lunch. i was really excited on the phone. here's what everyone in the office heard:

me (reacting to liz saying she got done with her obligation early and could go to lunch right then instead of in an hour): "I LOVE THAT SO MUCH!!!"

girl in the office: "you're going to eat food, aren't you? i knew as soon as i heard you say 'i love that!!' that it was something about food. i love your blog about cupcakes."

i think i really need to get some hobbies other than eating.

que bueno

2011-04-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

all i want to do is:

a. listen and dance around to this song
or better yet,
b. join this group and make music videos with them. there's gotta be some made-up instrument that could be incorporated.

a few things.

2011-04-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

school is really killing me right now. i know. I KNOW it's almost over. i'm just dying.

all i want to do is put my hair up in a pony tail, but i CAN'T because i BURNED MY NECK WITH MY CURLING IRON and it looks like HICKEY but it's NOT. i'm a little sensitive about it, and also it hurts.

i'm so behind on grading.

i'm so beyond caring about my grades.

i think that's about it.

i think i found my graduation present...

2011-04-10T18:01:00.001-07:00

not to go crazy on the blog posting today, but my roommate found this website: Penguins 4 Sale. even though it looks totally sketchy, i think i like this idea.

and illiteracy abounds

2011-04-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

just saw this on my 13 year old niece's facebook, a comment from one of her friends:

Aww why were yhuu tryinq to hitt hemm!sister..!so mean enhh lol yhuu shuld havee huqqed hemm anywaysz/!

is this real? is this how the kids these days are really talking? is this english? what is happening?

say goodbye to these knee caps

2011-04-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

so i'm starting to venture into the realm of sister missionary clothes. this is the thing that i have been dreading ever since i even put in my papers, because there is only one word that comes to mind when i think of sister missionary clothes, and that is:

woof.

the overly structured shirts...the frumpy skirts...the shoes, oh the shoes...each item just kills my spirit a little more at the very thought of wearing them. i realize that missions are not fashion shows. but i really don't think it's asking too much to not look like a backwoods polygamist when i go out.

anyway, i found a skirt. my first reaction was obviously to dislike it, because it went to my mid-shin. not really my style. but whatever. in the spirit of humility (obviously one of my fortes), i tried it on. it grew on me. i had assurance that it was in fact a nice-looking skirt. i bought it.

it fulfills all the necessary requirements, actually. long enough, high-waisted to maintain some sort of style, belted, and is still slightly reminiscent of that "sister wife" spirit that we know and love. (just kidding. the LDS Church and its members do not support nor practice polygamy. but we do have a sense of humor.)

2011-04-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day."

got it.

irene

2011-04-04T15:54:00.001-07:00

so my friend irene, who i really love a lot, is really funny. when she found out i was going to tahiti, she was really happy (let's see how many more times i can fit "really" into this post). this was her reaction, really:

irene: "I'M SO EXCITED! I JUST WANNA THROW YOU ON THE GROUND AND PUNCH YOU!!!!!"

everybody reacts to stuff differently, i guess.

salute to french toast

2011-04-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

so my parents were here this weekend, and per tradition, we went to breakfast at kneader's on saturday morning to eat the french toast.

it is so good. thick cinnamon bread, loaded with fresh cream, strawberries, and caramel syrup. no, i'm not getting paid for this. although i probably should.

let it be known that i was the only one to finish my entire plate. obviously i'm just trying to stretch my stomach to be ready to eat like a tahitian. (right?)

watch this.

2011-04-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

and make everyone you know watch it too. it's a video my team made for a competition (we got an honorable mention $1000 prize), but now there's a people's choice award competition, and we really want to win it. obviously.

one point for each unique view, ten points for each region we get (i.e. if you live in california and watch this, we get 11 points--one for the unique view, ten for it being in california).

so all you people in france, australia, malaysia, marshall islands (i know you, actually), russia, canada, germany, and yes, iran that google stats says are reading my blog, I'M TALKING TO YOU. and i'm talking to everyone else too. everyone. watch my video. help us win.

Ua fa'a'ino 'oe tō mātou pereo'o

2011-04-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

"You broke our car."

wanna know what language this is?

It's Tahitian.

wanna know why i put that on here?

because i'm going to learn tahitian.

wanna know why i'm going to learn tahitian?

BECAUSE I'M GOING TO TAHITI ON MY MISSION.

funny story: two days ago, i for real had a dream that i got called to tahiti on my mission and i got there and thought it was incredible. and then i woke up and thought, "huh. tahiti. that would be awesome." and lo and behold--"You are assigned to labor in the Tahiti Papeete mission."

huh.

OH HEY MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE WORLD! see you soon!

patience is a virtue.

2011-03-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

call arrived today.call will be opened on friday.

noga.

2011-03-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

so i got pretty ambitious yesterday. i went grocery shopping and bought vegetables, and then i thought hey, maybe i'll exercise. my roommate liz was doing yoga so i decided to join her. i was feeling really good about it.
let me give a brief overview of my exercise routine:

i don't do it. ever.

feelin' good.
feelin' ok.
feelin' pretty not ok.
feelin' like i just remembered why i don't do exercise.
not really feelin' the namaste.

bacon is GOOD for me!!!

2011-03-28T12:50:00.001-07:00

i am this child.

(thanks to amber for finding this)

no-brainer

2011-03-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

so my roommate brielle is in the advertising program at byu and is currently working on a (really cool) project in which she needed someone to be audrey hepburn. she was just adorable when she asked me to do it. here's how the conversation pretty much (and when i say "pretty much" i mean i'm embellishing) went down:

brielle: "amy...i know it's asking a lot and it might be unpleasant for you, but i need a really big favor. we're going to have someone do your hair and makeup and put you in pretty clothes and have someone take pictures of you. i know it's a pain...but could you do it?"

amy: "doi."

here's a little peak of the transformation process. and i got to wear fake eyelashes.
in all honesty, it was a blast. so thanks, brielle!

f.y.i., b.a.b.

2011-03-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

(for your information, bangs are back.)

goo goo for gaga

2011-03-25T22:29:00.001-07:00

last saturday i went to the lady gaga concert with katherine.as you can see, my excitement was just about on par with the percentage of teeth in my smile (100% teeth, 100% excited).this is the only photographic evidence we have of it, because we thought we couldn't bring cameras into the arena. because of this, i have decided to illustrate some highlights of my experience for your viewing pleasure.

i actually think the experience can be summed up in a few words, or rather one: trannies. never seen so many trannies in my life. i felt like dorothy in oz.katherine and i had quite the time trying to figure out who was actually a woman. eventually i even began to question whether or not i was actually a woman. it was a confusing night.

also, we were seated in a pretty interesting section. to our left was a father with his two young children. in front of us was, i'm pretty sure, a family ward relief society presidency (in non-mormon speak, middle-aged moms). behind us was, i'm also pretty sure, the ya-ya sisterhood. the father quickly escorted his children out after about 5 songs, the relief society women were on their smart phones texting and facebooking for the duration of the concert, and the sisterhood hated me and katherine for standing up and dancing the entire time.

as for the rest of the show, it was great. although i'm not necessarily a huge fan of gaga as a person, i really get down to her tunes. her finale of "bad romance" and "born this way" were to die for.

also, for those of you not familiar with lady gaga, don't look up her music videos. probably ever.

cranky pants.

2011-03-22T16:30:00.001-07:00

this is how i have felt all day. i think the only cure for this might be taco bell. or the end of school. i would willingly accept both, or either. preferably both.

no politics, just love.

2011-03-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

had a dream where i was kissing mitt romney.

i kind of liked it.

(picture chosen especially for you, james brown)

also, i'm famous.

2011-03-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

apparently BYU decided to pitch in for my birthday. their present was putting my face on a poster for the "choose to give" campaign and plastering it everywhere on campus. time to cross "being on a poster for a non-criminal reason" off of my life goals list. the thing is, i don't really know what to do when i pass by one of them. do i pretend like i don't see it? do i acknowledge that it is, in fact, me? being famous is really stressful guys, lemme tell ya.

mission: best birthday ever

2011-03-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

this week i came one step closer to my mid-twenties: i turned 23. although my age may indicate "adult," i negated that by eating pretty much only sugar every day this entire week. thanks to everyone for knowing me so well as to provide me with days worth of treats--nothing makes me happier.

anyway, i got the best pre-birthday present ever: amandine judas came to my house. seriously one of my favorite people on this earth, and someone i hadn't seen for a year since she lives in france. however, she's starting her mission in temple square, so i got to be her companion until i dropped her off at the mtc.

first order of business was to go to mcdonalds (french people, believe it or not, really have a thing for mcdonalds. don't ask me why) to get a snack-size mcflurry.
amandine: "...this is a snack size? this is like a medium in france!"
amy: "welcome to america, little frenchie."

the next morning, i made sure she was well-fed before dropping her off at the MTC.

and obviously jimmy johns, because 1. duh, and 2. it was my birthday and thus a tradition. i just really love sandwiches. deal with it.

lastly, we dropped her off at the MTC. i felt like a proud momma, and didn't even cry [that much]. it was kind of weird to go to the MTC and think, "whoa, i'm going to be here in like 3 months..."

oh yeah, did i mention that i'm going on a mission? papers go in tomorrow.

birthday hangover

2011-03-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

not to turn this into a food diary or anything, but
things i have eaten today, and i'm speaking literally here:
-3 cupcakes
-a bag of skittles.

did i mention i'm 23?

p.s. more birthday stuff to come, i just have to do massive amounts of homework and probably not sleep tonight. i'm getting too old for this.

red-blooded american woman

2011-03-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

so i'm working on a project for an instructional design competition. to make a long story short, we had to take some pictures for it where three of the people are supposed to be french, and i'm the american.

during the "shoot," i was instructed, "ok, now be american." i was confused. i thought i was being american. you know, since i am american.

after reciting the pledge of allegiance and the preamble to the constitution, i felt more prepared to channel the american spirit. i think this embodies it pretty well. (USA! USA!)

nothing new, but still horrifying

2011-03-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

i get it. everyone complains about going to the dentist.

it doesn't make it any less true that going to the dentist is awful.

hey mister. when i figure out how to respond to information-seeking questions with both of your hands as well as sharp pointy things in my mouth, i'd be happy to engage in conversation with you. in the mean time, stick to yes/no interrogation.

or better yet, let's just not talk at all. we both know you don't really care. and really, i'm already pretty busy trying not to drool all over myself in front of a total stranger.

good news though: i'm cavity-free. i celebrated by eating sugar.

2011-03-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

i think this might be a preview of my life...

Cupcake Rage

if this doesn't make you happy, you are not a human and i don't want you reading my blog.

2011-02-28T11:01:00.000-08:00