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
Monday, September 12, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
August 16, 2011
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
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
Aug 9
Iaorana eerrbody!
and now we meet again at this week's blessed pday. i'm still alive and preaching the gospel and stuff, so things are pretty good. tahitian is in full swing now, i'm teaching two "investigators" (aka both of my teachers pretending to be a person that they taught on their missions and i have to teach them), and then i have two french investigators too. so four total, and it can get purrrrty crazy sometimes. but obviously that's what i'm going to be doing in tahiti anyway, so it's not like i'm crying about it or whatever. it's going pretty well. i don't feel terrified every time i walk into a lesson anymore, which is a nice change. actually, sister sandoval and i committed one of our investigators to baptism, which was really awesome. even though it's not REAL, we still feel really invested in it, so we were working really hard to support him and stuff, and then we were like "sooo...wanna get baptized?" and he was like "yeah, i think i do." and i felt like such a goober because i was SO HAPPY that i just wanted to start crying. ha! dumb. but i held it together and just smiled really big so he probably thought i was a crazy person. anyway, so i teach my tahitian investigators by myself, obviously, since i'm the only one in the class. but it's going well. one of my lessons was like an hour long (which really isn't supposed to happen because that's way too long for anyone's attention span, but whatever), and it went really well and then by the time i got out i was like "holy crap. i just spoke tahitian for a solid hour." i probably didn't say holy crap at the time though. but it was cool. i didn't even think i knew enough words to talk for an hour. apparently i do. or maybe i was just saying the same things over and over for an hour. that's also a distinct possibility. regardless, my teacher told me "good job," so whether or not that was out of pity or genuine congratulations, i don't really care to know. so one of the days last week (monday? tuesday? who cares. they're all the same), i went to this presentation that a senior missionary couple gave, because they've served 3 missions in tahiti and i was just like transfixed throughout the whole thing. anytime someone talks about tahiti i eat it up. i'm so excited to goooooooooooooo! ahbleh. i haven't really heard anything about my visa, i'll probably start asking more when september rolls around. oh! funny tahitian word/cultural note of the week: in tahiti, a lot of the animals that are there now aren't really native animals. pigs are like the only animal native to the island (ok not really but for the sake of this example just go with it), so when other people brought other animals to the island, they would just use words they already have to name the new ones. this example would be more effective if i actually remember what the words were, but the translation is really where it's at. so a pig is "puaa", and a horse, being translated, is: "pig that runs on land," and a goat is: "pig with teeth." haha!
anyway, because the MTC has become a little monotonous (every day is the same, what? we can predict what we're going to eat for every meal based on the day of the week? yes. and it's not because of inspiration.), sister sandoval and i decided to take the advice of my friend nathan who told me that when he was in the MTC, they just made up stupid holidays for every day to make it more fun and interesting. one of our holidays was "scare the crap out of elder szuch day", in which we did everything in our power to make elder szuch scream like a little girl. it was fairly successful, and i think it strengthened our bond. and by "strengthened" i mean totally destroyed it by making him hate us. just kidding. he thought it was funny after we told him it was our honorary holiday for him. and then another day was "take as many awkward pictures of your companion in weird situations/positions and you're not allowed to delete any day." i might have hated that holiday. but it definitely made the day more interesting. our zone is finding other interesting things to spice up life, like making up nicknames for everyone. for example, this week, they're on a "hook" kick. so the elders have various "lost boys" names, and since i'm the oldest person/one of the token girls in the zone, i'm "wendy lady." oorrrr they just call me mom. which is funny. but then they started calling another one of the elders "dad" and i was like hey, i really don't remember having kids with him soooo one of us has to stop being your parent. this is how rumors get started in the MTC and people get sent home. ha just kidding. but seriously.
anyway, things are good though. devotionals and firesides have been really good lately (not like they aren't usually though)--we had gerald lund come speak at one of them, that was pretty cool. actually that was a funny fireside because i was sitting next to this elder who just stared at a picture of his (what i assume to be) girlfriend the ENTIRE TIME. i was dying. he would take it out, stare at it for like a full 5-6 minutes, put it back, and then like 2 minutes later, take it out again and start the process over. oooh elder. so precious. we went to the temple today and it was really great. it's so crazy how i can actually FEEL it when the people pray for the missionaries. i can't explain it very well, but it's like WHABAM! my heart feels good. and i feel good. i'm a big fan of that. i've noticed more and more that my ability to recognize feelings and promptings from the spirit is really increasing. like the other day in a lesson, we were talking about ether 12:27, and being able to overcome our weaknesses when we pray for help, and it was seriously so crazy--i just busted out this promise to our investigator that he would be able to overcome the temptations in his life if he would pray with faith for help, and as i was speaking, i felt the power of what i was saying. i honestly don't even remember what i said, but it's like i was on steroids or something. and i was like "whoa." and our investigator was like"'whoa." and then we walked out and sister sandoval looked at me and she was like, "whoa." obviously that doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it's incredible. it's funny how much a good lesson can make me feel like a bajillion dollars, and then a bad lesson absolutely destroys me. i dunno. i guess i'm just invested in this work. WEIRD.
thanks for the package this week, mom. those cookies were excellent and everyone loves you, but i love you the most, so their love is insignificant in comparison, just keep that in mind. i took a picture of the people in my district eating them with joyous looks on their faces, so i'll be sure to send that on. they are all singing praises of "the nance," haha. happy belated birthday to zoey twinkle toes, and happy almost birthday to erik! gaah. he's soooo ollllllllddddd it's weird! oh! i saw sean o'rourke in the MTC! i thought he was going to the MTC in england, but i heard his name get called over the intercom and i was like uhwhaaa? and then i saw him the next day. it was really funny, and cool. he's waiting for his visa to be able to go over there, so i'm not sure how much longer he'll be around here.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. i hope everyone is doing well and being happy and stuff. i love you and miss you and think you're the best everrrr. go read your scriputres and stuff. bye!!
love,
soeur hansen
Iaorana eerrbody!
and now we meet again at this week's blessed pday. i'm still alive and preaching the gospel and stuff, so things are pretty good. tahitian is in full swing now, i'm teaching two "investigators" (aka both of my teachers pretending to be a person that they taught on their missions and i have to teach them), and then i have two french investigators too. so four total, and it can get purrrrty crazy sometimes. but obviously that's what i'm going to be doing in tahiti anyway, so it's not like i'm crying about it or whatever. it's going pretty well. i don't feel terrified every time i walk into a lesson anymore, which is a nice change. actually, sister sandoval and i committed one of our investigators to baptism, which was really awesome. even though it's not REAL, we still feel really invested in it, so we were working really hard to support him and stuff, and then we were like "sooo...wanna get baptized?" and he was like "yeah, i think i do." and i felt like such a goober because i was SO HAPPY that i just wanted to start crying. ha! dumb. but i held it together and just smiled really big so he probably thought i was a crazy person. anyway, so i teach my tahitian investigators by myself, obviously, since i'm the only one in the class. but it's going well. one of my lessons was like an hour long (which really isn't supposed to happen because that's way too long for anyone's attention span, but whatever), and it went really well and then by the time i got out i was like "holy crap. i just spoke tahitian for a solid hour." i probably didn't say holy crap at the time though. but it was cool. i didn't even think i knew enough words to talk for an hour. apparently i do. or maybe i was just saying the same things over and over for an hour. that's also a distinct possibility. regardless, my teacher told me "good job," so whether or not that was out of pity or genuine congratulations, i don't really care to know. so one of the days last week (monday? tuesday? who cares. they're all the same), i went to this presentation that a senior missionary couple gave, because they've served 3 missions in tahiti and i was just like transfixed throughout the whole thing. anytime someone talks about tahiti i eat it up. i'm so excited to goooooooooooooo! ahbleh. i haven't really heard anything about my visa, i'll probably start asking more when september rolls around. oh! funny tahitian word/cultural note of the week: in tahiti, a lot of the animals that are there now aren't really native animals. pigs are like the only animal native to the island (ok not really but for the sake of this example just go with it), so when other people brought other animals to the island, they would just use words they already have to name the new ones. this example would be more effective if i actually remember what the words were, but the translation is really where it's at. so a pig is "puaa", and a horse, being translated, is: "pig that runs on land," and a goat is: "pig with teeth." haha!
anyway, because the MTC has become a little monotonous (every day is the same, what? we can predict what we're going to eat for every meal based on the day of the week? yes. and it's not because of inspiration.), sister sandoval and i decided to take the advice of my friend nathan who told me that when he was in the MTC, they just made up stupid holidays for every day to make it more fun and interesting. one of our holidays was "scare the crap out of elder szuch day", in which we did everything in our power to make elder szuch scream like a little girl. it was fairly successful, and i think it strengthened our bond. and by "strengthened" i mean totally destroyed it by making him hate us. just kidding. he thought it was funny after we told him it was our honorary holiday for him. and then another day was "take as many awkward pictures of your companion in weird situations/positions and you're not allowed to delete any day." i might have hated that holiday. but it definitely made the day more interesting. our zone is finding other interesting things to spice up life, like making up nicknames for everyone. for example, this week, they're on a "hook" kick. so the elders have various "lost boys" names, and since i'm the oldest person/one of the token girls in the zone, i'm "wendy lady." oorrrr they just call me mom. which is funny. but then they started calling another one of the elders "dad" and i was like hey, i really don't remember having kids with him soooo one of us has to stop being your parent. this is how rumors get started in the MTC and people get sent home. ha just kidding. but seriously.
anyway, things are good though. devotionals and firesides have been really good lately (not like they aren't usually though)--we had gerald lund come speak at one of them, that was pretty cool. actually that was a funny fireside because i was sitting next to this elder who just stared at a picture of his (what i assume to be) girlfriend the ENTIRE TIME. i was dying. he would take it out, stare at it for like a full 5-6 minutes, put it back, and then like 2 minutes later, take it out again and start the process over. oooh elder. so precious. we went to the temple today and it was really great. it's so crazy how i can actually FEEL it when the people pray for the missionaries. i can't explain it very well, but it's like WHABAM! my heart feels good. and i feel good. i'm a big fan of that. i've noticed more and more that my ability to recognize feelings and promptings from the spirit is really increasing. like the other day in a lesson, we were talking about ether 12:27, and being able to overcome our weaknesses when we pray for help, and it was seriously so crazy--i just busted out this promise to our investigator that he would be able to overcome the temptations in his life if he would pray with faith for help, and as i was speaking, i felt the power of what i was saying. i honestly don't even remember what i said, but it's like i was on steroids or something. and i was like "whoa." and our investigator was like"'whoa." and then we walked out and sister sandoval looked at me and she was like, "whoa." obviously that doesn't happen every time, but when it does, it's incredible. it's funny how much a good lesson can make me feel like a bajillion dollars, and then a bad lesson absolutely destroys me. i dunno. i guess i'm just invested in this work. WEIRD.
thanks for the package this week, mom. those cookies were excellent and everyone loves you, but i love you the most, so their love is insignificant in comparison, just keep that in mind. i took a picture of the people in my district eating them with joyous looks on their faces, so i'll be sure to send that on. they are all singing praises of "the nance," haha. happy belated birthday to zoey twinkle toes, and happy almost birthday to erik! gaah. he's soooo ollllllllddddd it's weird! oh! i saw sean o'rourke in the MTC! i thought he was going to the MTC in england, but i heard his name get called over the intercom and i was like uhwhaaa? and then i saw him the next day. it was really funny, and cool. he's waiting for his visa to be able to go over there, so i'm not sure how much longer he'll be around here.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. i hope everyone is doing well and being happy and stuff. i love you and miss you and think you're the best everrrr. go read your scriputres and stuff. bye!!
love,
soeur hansen
August 2, 2011
hiiii everyone!
and again, this week has just flown by and i'm back at pday writing another email, trying to think of things that have stood out from the ordinary in these past seven days. things are going well here! we officially reached our one month mark in the mtc, and the rest of the missionaries who came in with me get to say that they leave this month--they head out on august 30th, but i'm here til september. AND the newest district that just came in like two weeks ago, i was talking to the sister that's in our companionship now, and she was telling me that HER departure date is september 10th. mine is september 15th. they came in after me, and they're leaving before me. i kind of wanted to punch myself in the face when she told me that. oh well. the mtc is good, and there are definitely still a lot of things i need to learn and prepare before i can be ready to head out to tahiti. but sometimes, when i look at the posters of tahiti and hear the stories that my teachers tell me about it, i'm just like GAAAH WHY AM I STILL IN AMERICAAAA!!! but then i try to teach my lesson in tahitian, and i'm like OH THAT'S WHY. whooops, thanks perspective!
anyway, this has been a good week. on sunday, for relief society, mary n. cook came to speak to us (i can't remember if she's still in the young women general presidency or not, but regardless, her talk was pretty much about young women stuff). it was good, and i thought of you, mom, and how much you would've enjoyed it. we've been having really good devotionals and firesides lately too, one most recently about charity--huh imagine that, right? :)
anyway, my days are mostly focused around tahitian now, since that's where i am for class, and preparing for outside of class. sometimes, being the only one in my class is cool, but also kind of awkward. like, for example, when we sing hymns to start and finish class, with, you guessed it--just me and the teacher, and only one of us knows tahitian (hint: it's not meeeee!). and also because neither of us are great singers. so it's cute. and painful. probably drives the spirit away more than it invites it, but hey, our hearts are in the right place. things are coming along though--my teachers always tell me how much progress i'm making, but then i'm just like, "yeah in reference to WHOM?" haha. but yesterday i illustrated and explained and answered questions about Lehi's dream (1 nephi 8), all in tahitian. i felt pretty legit. even though i may or may not have made up some words. and the other day, i started teaching my first tahitian "investigator" (where the teacher will role play and i have to teach them the lessons). anyway, the back story about him was that he had already received all the lessons from previous missionaries, and really liked the missionaries, but only because they were bad and broke all the rules, so then they got sent away and i'm the new missionary. anyway, so we started the lesson and he was like "oh you're the new missionary! what happened to the old ones?" and i was like huh. i have no idea how to say that they got sent away, nor do i want to be like yeaaah they were naughty so had to go bye bye, so i was just like, "uhhh....they went back to america. yup!" and he got this confused look on his face and was just like "hmm ok..." and the lesson went on. and then afterwards, my teacher was like "yeah i didn't know if i should throw you for that curve ball, but one of the previous missionaries was tahitian so he wouldn't have gone back to america." haa! note to self: probably don't just make stuff up when talking to investigators. haha, it was funny (maybe you had to be there? i'm imagining you laughing right now regardless) and my teacher made fun of me. good times. but we also talked about the missionaries in tahiti, and he told me that there are pretty much two groups: les Babylons (ones who break the rules) and les prophetes (ones who try to keep the rules). sooo i figured since i'm a girl and not really allowed to be a prophet or whatever, i'll just have to be a babylon. hee. just kidding.
also, funny tahitian story: the word "mahu" means like a fog or a cloud, so when i was studying lehi's dream, i had to use "mahu poiri" which is like mist of darkness or whatever. and then my teacher was like "yeaaah be careful with that word, because it can also be an insult. it means 'transvestite' too." so i'm like COOL. one day i'm going to be explaining to my investigator about the dream and instead of telling them about the giant mists of darkness that they have to walk through, i'll end up telling them that they're going to have to walk through a GIANT GROUP OF DARK TRANSVESTITES!! adorable. juuuust adorable. that's one really cute thing about tahitian--one word has like a bajillion different things it can mean, or holding the vowel for slightly longer can change the meaning completely (i.e. fog vs. tranny). but apparently there are also a lot of transvestites in tahiti. who knew.
so this week i've been trying to work on changing my default face. because apparently my default face makes people think that i'm going to MURDER them. aaand that's not REALLY the message i'm trying to send people as a missionary. you know, murdering vs. trying to save their soul or whatever. there's kind of a big difference. but sometimes, i really just don't pay attention, and so i don't have any particular expression on my face. but apparently my face is so constructed that when i don't think i have any expression on my face, i look like i'm in a fit of rage or something. so i've been trying to work on having a more pleasant default face. the other day, i was trying to have a happy look on my face, and i was like "hey sister sandoval what does my face look like right now?" and she was like "i dunno, like melancholy?" and i was like DANGIT!!! and she was like what?!! because apparently she thought melancholy meant content. haha! i dunno. sometimes it's kind of irritating because i'm like I DON'T WANT TO SMILE ALL THE TIME. but then i think i probably should. anyway. that and my posture, i am trying to change. so i don't look like a homicidal hunchback. seriously. i get made fun of. and then i see some of the senior sister missionaries, and how they're like hunched over and i'm like, "oh my gosh. that is a vision of my future." and i immediately try to stand up straighter.
anyway, i just realized how much i've been rambling in this letter. this week has honestly been a good one--full of highs and lows, as usual. but there is starting to be more of a rhythm to them, where after a low, immediately comes something to lift me back up. oh by the way, there was one day this week that i didn't get any letters at all and it was the saddest day of my life, and my district made fun of me because normally they hate me about how much mail i get. AND SISTER ISRAELSEN SENT ME BLONDE BROWNIES!!!! i love her. i'm going to write her to say thank you, but i'm sure you'll be able to relay my elated gratitude sooner. they're gone now, of course, but i thoroughly enjoyed them. i averaged about 4 a day. no big deal. coincidently, i weighed myself this week: gained 4 pounds since i've been here. anyway, back to spiritual things: we had a workshop this week about learning to teach by the spirit. and honestly, in the beginning i didn't really take it seriously because i was feeling a little ADD and just drawing pictures of super mario brothers and dinosaurs (yeah i know, i'm REALLY mature, get over it), but in the end, we did a little demo where the teacher was role playing and we were all teaching him together, and honestly, it's like i had spiritual word vomit (but in a good way). i don't even know where they words came from, but they just spilled out of my mouth and i felt like i was on fire. it was a little surreal. but it was so great, and just an even greater testimony to me that i've been sent here to do God's work, and He's going to help me to do it. i was reading my patriarchal blessing a few days ago, and there was a line in it, warning me about satan's awareness of my purpose and how he will try to cloud my vision of who i am as a daughter of God with power and purpose. and i think that is true--one of his main tactics is to get us to doubt ourselves, to forget who we are and what we are capable of when we put our faith and trust in the Lord. so then i'm like "get the heck out of my life, satan, i've got a job to do." and go to work. i rejoice in the scriptures, for they are mighty in coolness.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. so i'll stop rambling now. oh, by the way, mom and dad, your tales of biking a bajillion miles have inspired me to maybe do something other than lay on the grass during gym time--i biked 7 miles on the machine the other day--weee! also, pass on my congrats to erik and ally! i can't believe i'm the aunt of champions! that's so awesome. tell wendy to give me her address so i can send her stuff too! i love you all and think about you so much. i miss you, and hope you are doing well. thanks for all your love and support--it means everything to me.
love,
soeur Hansen
and again, this week has just flown by and i'm back at pday writing another email, trying to think of things that have stood out from the ordinary in these past seven days. things are going well here! we officially reached our one month mark in the mtc, and the rest of the missionaries who came in with me get to say that they leave this month--they head out on august 30th, but i'm here til september. AND the newest district that just came in like two weeks ago, i was talking to the sister that's in our companionship now, and she was telling me that HER departure date is september 10th. mine is september 15th. they came in after me, and they're leaving before me. i kind of wanted to punch myself in the face when she told me that. oh well. the mtc is good, and there are definitely still a lot of things i need to learn and prepare before i can be ready to head out to tahiti. but sometimes, when i look at the posters of tahiti and hear the stories that my teachers tell me about it, i'm just like GAAAH WHY AM I STILL IN AMERICAAAA!!! but then i try to teach my lesson in tahitian, and i'm like OH THAT'S WHY. whooops, thanks perspective!
anyway, this has been a good week. on sunday, for relief society, mary n. cook came to speak to us (i can't remember if she's still in the young women general presidency or not, but regardless, her talk was pretty much about young women stuff). it was good, and i thought of you, mom, and how much you would've enjoyed it. we've been having really good devotionals and firesides lately too, one most recently about charity--huh imagine that, right? :)
anyway, my days are mostly focused around tahitian now, since that's where i am for class, and preparing for outside of class. sometimes, being the only one in my class is cool, but also kind of awkward. like, for example, when we sing hymns to start and finish class, with, you guessed it--just me and the teacher, and only one of us knows tahitian (hint: it's not meeeee!). and also because neither of us are great singers. so it's cute. and painful. probably drives the spirit away more than it invites it, but hey, our hearts are in the right place. things are coming along though--my teachers always tell me how much progress i'm making, but then i'm just like, "yeah in reference to WHOM?" haha. but yesterday i illustrated and explained and answered questions about Lehi's dream (1 nephi 8), all in tahitian. i felt pretty legit. even though i may or may not have made up some words. and the other day, i started teaching my first tahitian "investigator" (where the teacher will role play and i have to teach them the lessons). anyway, the back story about him was that he had already received all the lessons from previous missionaries, and really liked the missionaries, but only because they were bad and broke all the rules, so then they got sent away and i'm the new missionary. anyway, so we started the lesson and he was like "oh you're the new missionary! what happened to the old ones?" and i was like huh. i have no idea how to say that they got sent away, nor do i want to be like yeaaah they were naughty so had to go bye bye, so i was just like, "uhhh....they went back to america. yup!" and he got this confused look on his face and was just like "hmm ok..." and the lesson went on. and then afterwards, my teacher was like "yeah i didn't know if i should throw you for that curve ball, but one of the previous missionaries was tahitian so he wouldn't have gone back to america." haa! note to self: probably don't just make stuff up when talking to investigators. haha, it was funny (maybe you had to be there? i'm imagining you laughing right now regardless) and my teacher made fun of me. good times. but we also talked about the missionaries in tahiti, and he told me that there are pretty much two groups: les Babylons (ones who break the rules) and les prophetes (ones who try to keep the rules). sooo i figured since i'm a girl and not really allowed to be a prophet or whatever, i'll just have to be a babylon. hee. just kidding.
also, funny tahitian story: the word "mahu" means like a fog or a cloud, so when i was studying lehi's dream, i had to use "mahu poiri" which is like mist of darkness or whatever. and then my teacher was like "yeaaah be careful with that word, because it can also be an insult. it means 'transvestite' too." so i'm like COOL. one day i'm going to be explaining to my investigator about the dream and instead of telling them about the giant mists of darkness that they have to walk through, i'll end up telling them that they're going to have to walk through a GIANT GROUP OF DARK TRANSVESTITES!! adorable. juuuust adorable. that's one really cute thing about tahitian--one word has like a bajillion different things it can mean, or holding the vowel for slightly longer can change the meaning completely (i.e. fog vs. tranny). but apparently there are also a lot of transvestites in tahiti. who knew.
so this week i've been trying to work on changing my default face. because apparently my default face makes people think that i'm going to MURDER them. aaand that's not REALLY the message i'm trying to send people as a missionary. you know, murdering vs. trying to save their soul or whatever. there's kind of a big difference. but sometimes, i really just don't pay attention, and so i don't have any particular expression on my face. but apparently my face is so constructed that when i don't think i have any expression on my face, i look like i'm in a fit of rage or something. so i've been trying to work on having a more pleasant default face. the other day, i was trying to have a happy look on my face, and i was like "hey sister sandoval what does my face look like right now?" and she was like "i dunno, like melancholy?" and i was like DANGIT!!! and she was like what?!! because apparently she thought melancholy meant content. haha! i dunno. sometimes it's kind of irritating because i'm like I DON'T WANT TO SMILE ALL THE TIME. but then i think i probably should. anyway. that and my posture, i am trying to change. so i don't look like a homicidal hunchback. seriously. i get made fun of. and then i see some of the senior sister missionaries, and how they're like hunched over and i'm like, "oh my gosh. that is a vision of my future." and i immediately try to stand up straighter.
anyway, i just realized how much i've been rambling in this letter. this week has honestly been a good one--full of highs and lows, as usual. but there is starting to be more of a rhythm to them, where after a low, immediately comes something to lift me back up. oh by the way, there was one day this week that i didn't get any letters at all and it was the saddest day of my life, and my district made fun of me because normally they hate me about how much mail i get. AND SISTER ISRAELSEN SENT ME BLONDE BROWNIES!!!! i love her. i'm going to write her to say thank you, but i'm sure you'll be able to relay my elated gratitude sooner. they're gone now, of course, but i thoroughly enjoyed them. i averaged about 4 a day. no big deal. coincidently, i weighed myself this week: gained 4 pounds since i've been here. anyway, back to spiritual things: we had a workshop this week about learning to teach by the spirit. and honestly, in the beginning i didn't really take it seriously because i was feeling a little ADD and just drawing pictures of super mario brothers and dinosaurs (yeah i know, i'm REALLY mature, get over it), but in the end, we did a little demo where the teacher was role playing and we were all teaching him together, and honestly, it's like i had spiritual word vomit (but in a good way). i don't even know where they words came from, but they just spilled out of my mouth and i felt like i was on fire. it was a little surreal. but it was so great, and just an even greater testimony to me that i've been sent here to do God's work, and He's going to help me to do it. i was reading my patriarchal blessing a few days ago, and there was a line in it, warning me about satan's awareness of my purpose and how he will try to cloud my vision of who i am as a daughter of God with power and purpose. and i think that is true--one of his main tactics is to get us to doubt ourselves, to forget who we are and what we are capable of when we put our faith and trust in the Lord. so then i'm like "get the heck out of my life, satan, i've got a job to do." and go to work. i rejoice in the scriptures, for they are mighty in coolness.
anyway, i'm almost out of time. so i'll stop rambling now. oh, by the way, mom and dad, your tales of biking a bajillion miles have inspired me to maybe do something other than lay on the grass during gym time--i biked 7 miles on the machine the other day--weee! also, pass on my congrats to erik and ally! i can't believe i'm the aunt of champions! that's so awesome. tell wendy to give me her address so i can send her stuff too! i love you all and think about you so much. i miss you, and hope you are doing well. thanks for all your love and support--it means everything to me.
love,
soeur Hansen
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
July 26, 2011
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
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
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
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
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
amy's first two letters!
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!
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!
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