1st week in San Jose

Tomorrow we get to video chat with her! We are all very excited.

Here is how her first week in the mission field went:

Hola mi familia y amigos de San Jose California!

I would like to start out from arriving here in San Jose because I have a lot to say and not that much time to say it.

Right after our 2 hour flight to San Jose my mission president, President Mella and his wife picked us up and took us to lunch at Olive Garden. We were able to talk about what we would be doing for the rest of the day and also about the mission. After lunch we had some boring orientation and safety stuff to do and then we got to go to dinner at the Mella's home. They had this adorable golden retriever who totally reminded me of Sundance because of the way he acted. I was so happy to be able to pet an animal again! We were able to watch "Meet the Mormons" as well. Which was pretty cool because it was only first day in the mission and I got to watch TV!

The president had us take a video of ourselves so that we can watch it on our last day here! That will be cool to see in a year and a half! Except I was crying the whole time!

The next day I got my companion and my area! Her name is Hermana Killian (she's Irish... like her ancestors are not like she was born there)! I am in Menlo Park! It is a pretty beautiful place, even though it is a huge city! We first planned our day and then went out to various appointments. It was raining all day! Poor Hermana Killian's feet were soaked through! Luckily I wore my boots! I got to meet Isabel who is a less active with 3 little boys! She was so sweet! Also I go to to meet Humberto who is a recent convert who has an amazing testimony of the gospel! He is really funny and teases Hermana Killian a lot! We also contacted one man named Osmand (we think) but we haven't been able to see him since because he hasn't been home. He is from Guatemala!

One embarrassing moment that I have gotten over now, so I will share it is that I peed my pants! Or my dress... It was terrible! Hermana Killian was in the bathroom and all of a sudden I had to go! I hope you all get a laugh out of this! It was so embarrassing because it was only my second day knowing her! But she was totally cool with it. She even apologized for hogging the bathroom! She is great!

We met a cute older lady who is German and moved to Chili when she was little! She was so happy to find out that I was German too! I got to meet Hermana Killian's most recent convert who she taught, Arturo! He is so awesome and funny! I wish I could understand what he was saying better!

This day just kept getting better and better because first of all we had trouble with the parking meter not taking our money, just to find out it was past hours that we needed to pay! Then I was texting the wrong Arturo so some random person was getting our texts about where we were going for dinner so Arturo was late! Then we were going to talk to a man who would be waiting for the crosswalk with us and he ran into the street instead... I was happy we didn't kill him! Then we texted Arturo the wrong address, so he was still running late (he was in a small neighborhood walking around... in the dark... alone! I felt so bad!) Then Hermana Killian walked in on someone in the bathroom! Then I found out that the word that one of the Branch Presidency in the MTC that was supposed to mean groovy DID NOT mean groovy! And then our waiter asked us if we wanted Cocaine! Ya that was an interesting day! Arturo said that I was a white Mexican because I didn't know the word for goat so I said Una Chupacabra come estos (A chupacabra eats these). He thought it was cool how I knew what a chupacabra was!

On Saturday we helped Ann Minnie move a couch. All I will say is that she is an interesting person... but that is who Ann is! :)

We met an old man named Jesus who is totally adorable! He has great faith is God! We are going by to visit him and give him the first discussion sometime this week!

We had an amazing ward party! There was Mexican music and dancing! Amazing food! Those paper decorations and piñatas! I had a blast!

On Sunday we had a ward council! I barely understood anything that was going on. But one cool thing that happened was that the English ward had a giving tree to give money to and they raised over $8,000 dollars. They bought a ton of Target and Safeway gift cards for everyone and we get to hand them out to the poorer families in our ward! I can't wait!

I didn't have to speak in Sacrament or anything and that made me happy! We did have to go to two Sacrament meetings because Arturo can only make it to the English meeting at 3. So I got two Christmas programs :)

Humberto fed us dinner last night and we had to eat on the back porch, in the cold because the other lady that lives there wasn't there! It was fun to talk with him though! He taught us how to tie a tie so that we could teach Arturo how.

Well that is all I have time for right now. Hope you have a Merry Christmas, I love you all!

Last week in the MTC

Hermana Hansen leaves for San Jose tomorrow, which is my birthday! She will be able to call me, what a perfect birthday present for me. I can't wait!

Here is her letter for this week...

So my whole entire district left this morning to go out into the mission field. The only ones left here at the MTC are Hermana Sanft and I. It was a really sad day yesterday when we had to say goodbye to one another. It was really weird having to stand to the side of the Elders when we took pictures though. Usually in pictures you put your arms around each other but we had to stand a foot away... I don't know I just found it weird. Then when we said goodbye we shook each others hands. I just wanted to give them all a big hug! They are all going to be amazing missionaries! Hermana MacDonald also left with the group this morning. I felt bad because I wasn't feeling well last night so when she woke me up to say goodbye I gave her a big hug, said good luck and fell right back to sleep. I know that she will be just fine! I hope she has a blast in Louisiana! I hope I will see some of them again one day. 

For our Tuesday devotional last week we had Craig C. Christensen from the Seventy come and speak to us. He gave a really good talk about the things that you should be yoked to. You should be yoked to the Savior, knowledge of the missionaries who came before us (PMG and the White Handbook), your companion, and the members of the wards we serve in. He was a really good speaker. 

On Wednesday for breakfast I decided that I really wanted a bagel. So I went over to get one, but they only had raisin bagels. So I sat down waiting for them to re-stock the bagels. After 10 minutes I gave up and got the main meal. And of course it was just my luck that right as I sat down with my food they restocked the bagels! I was so mad! My companions made fun of me!

One of my best friends from the Hill Cumorah Pageant arrived this week to the MTC! Michaela Jones! Since I was getting over a cold, during gym time we just hung out around the residence waiting for new people to come in and see where they were going. I thought that I probably wouldn't see her at the residence hall, and that I would have to wait for dinner to see her. Then randomly the elevator opened to drop someone off while she stayed on to go to the 4th floor. We saw each other and totally freaked out! It was fun to see a friend that I hadn't seen in a long time!

At choir practice last week there was an Elder who gave the closing prayer who said he was going to Germany Turkish speaking. Hermana MacDonald wanted to know if he already knew German since he is going to a foreign country and learning the less popular language for that area. So she decided to ask him! "Do you speak German?" He said yes. Hermana MacDonald thought that was so cool, but as she continued up the stairs and I passed him, I heard his companion ask if he just lied... And he said YES!!! I told Hermana MacDonald and she was so mad! Every time she saw him after that she would say, "There is the Elder who lied to me!"

So as ya'll know my companion is Tongan, so the other day our district decided to ask her what our names would be in Tongan. Here they are!

Taryn: Teleni

Kody: Koti

Miles: Malie

Gabriel: Kepiolo

Katie: Kaati

Landon: Leiteni

Brandon: Panitoni

Christian: Kilisitoni

Diana: Taiana

Kawan: Kavani

Our names our different in Tongan because the Tongan Alphabet only have 16 letters in their alphabet, so some letters have to change. I also learned how to say Hello: Malolele, How are you: Fefehaki, and Thank you: Malo.

One of the Elders in our district apparently has a huge problem with sleep walking and talking. The Elders said that one night this week he got out of bed and put his bed sheet around his shoulders like a cape, and walked around in circles for about five minutes. Finally he stopped, walked over to Elder Mooney's bed and stared at Elder Mooney for about another five minutes. Elder Mooney was sleeping and didn't even know that was going on! Finally he took off his "cape" and started stuffing it into his laundry bag. "DISGUSTING!" He said. Apparently his cape got dirty and he needed it washed!

We had an infield orientation this past week to help us prepare for going into the field. A lot of people said that they were not excited for it and that it was going to be really boring. I prayed to my Heavenly Father that I would be able to pay attention and get some things out of the orientation. It worked! We talked about the Doctrine of Christ that we will be teaching about while out in the mission field. Then we talked about goal setting. And lastly about working with members. The members are the best source for us to find people to teach.

On Saturday, our last day in class, I told Hermana MacDonald that she could straighten my hair and do my make-up. She had been pestering me for quite a while to do it! So I finally gave in! It was so weird seeing my hair strait for the first time in more than 6 months! It was funny to see all of the Elders faces when I walked in with my hair being totally different!

On Sunday, you know how they always announce the people who are going to be giving talks at the last second (right after the Sacrament). Guess who had to give a talk! ME! I totally knew it! I was so nervous and I could hear all of the "ums" I was saying! The only good thing about it was that Brother Nay (one of the people in our branch presidency) said that my conjugations were right on!

For the Sunday night devotional we had the BYU Mens Choir come! What an amazing opportunity! They sang beautiful songs! Right as they came out I noticed on young man that looked exactly like Elder McCombs in our district! I pointed him out to my companions and they agreed. Later that night we asked the Elders if they had seen McCombs's twin. They had seen him too! So it was a fact that he did look a lot like McCombs!

So I am headed out tomorrow to San Jose California! I am so nervous, but I know that the Lord will give me peace. I hope that I will be able to catch on quickly to what I need to do out there! We leave at 6:20 a.m. and fly out at 11:20 a.m. I also get to call home, which I am so excited for! I get to call my family on my sister's birthday! I bet she thinks that that is a great blessing and miracle! Then in about 11 days after that I get to Skype them! It is crazy how these little things make you so excited! 

I love you all so much and can't wait to write you next Monday about what is going on in the warm weather of San Jose!

Almost finished at the MTC!

Hermana Hansen is doing great. She has almost finished her stay at the MTC! She will leave for San Jose California on Dec 14th. She has finally got a cold, she has been able to stay healthy amongst the sickness sometime now. She is happy to have all the medicine Mom insisted she pack:) One of her roommates had to go home to get her gallbladder removed. She says they are hoping she will be able to join them in the mission field after Christmas. So her companionship has become a trio. I am getting excited to talk to her on Christmas! Here is her letter from this week:)

So if ya'll didn't know already, Hermana Taylor has been sick over the last few weeks and ended up having to go home on Thursday morning. The doctors were able to finally diagnose her. Her gall bladder is only working 5% of the time! For a gall bladder to be considered alive it needs to be working 30%. So she has a dead organ in her body. She is not able to process food well and that is why she has been sick. Her surgery is sometime this week and hopefully she will be able to join Hermana Sanft and I in California soon after Christmas. On the bright side she got to go see Moana! I am totally jealous! 

So we had this thing called a Skype TRC on Wednesday. That morning Hermana Sanft woke up without a voice! I was freaking out so much! We went to teach the lesson and she still had no voice. I had to teach the whole lesson by myself! He asked halfway through the lesson why my companion was not speaking to him. I struggled to explain why and finally after five minutes of me pointing to my throat and saying "Ella es Infermo," he finally understood! We learned about the importance of teaching the gospel two by two because that lesson was terrible!

Hermana Sanft, MacDonald and I are now a trio! At first it was really hard, but now I can see how much of a blessing it is. We have come closer together as companions. And also I don't have to speak as much during the lessons! :)

Hermana Sanft was really sick on Thursday. We ended up having to take her to the Urgent Care Clinic just down the street from the MTC. She has had a Sinus infection, and she was throwing up, and then her heart started to hurt. She does have a heart condition that she has to be careful with and it was acting up at the worst moment possible! After about a half an hour she felt better and the doctors don't know what happened. So they told us that she needed to rest back at the rooms. Hermana Mac Donald and I just hung out in the main living area while Hermana Sanft slept. 

While hanging out, I had put on a jacket that my mom sent me from home and found one of my cat's fur on it! Now, if you know me you know I love my cat! So to be funny I taped the piece of fur into my journal! My companions thought I was so weird! It was hilarious! Now I have a little piece of my Kitty while I am away!

Hermana Sanft got a huge package from her family on Friday full of food! One thing inside the package was one of her favorite desserts which is a Jelly Roll! She had us try some of it, and it was delicious! Hermana MacDonald has been trying to speak more Spanish outside of class so she told Hermana Sanft, "Gracias por compartiendo su gato con nosotros! Muy Delicioso!" One thing you need to know is that gato means cake in french, but it DOES NOT mean cake in Spanish. For you who don't know Spanish she said, "Thankyou for sharing you cat with us! It was delicious!" Just so you know I did not eat what Hermana MacDonald ate... I just had the jelly roll! Haha!

Hermana Sanft was still sick on  Saturday and Sunday! So we had to do exchanges through out the whole day so that she could rest! The STL's were really helpful! They had to make many trips back and forth to pick one of us up and drop the other one off! Hermana Sanft got a blessing on Sunday morning from President Hyde. In the blessing he said that she would be healed from her illness! Ever since then she has been feeling a lot better! I am so thankful for priesthood blessings and the blessing that we can receive through them!

Just so you know... I have caught the cold finally! I was so surprised that I had lasted this long without being sick! I have been treating it for the past few days with Airborne, Dayquil and Nightquil! Yesterday was the worst day ever and I ended up going back to the room with Hermana Sanft to sleep. I got a full twelve hours of sleep last night and I feel so much better today! I thank my Mom for sending me with so much medicine that I didn't think I was going to need!

I am so excited for tomorrow though because one of my Best Friends from The Hill Cumorah Pageant will be arriving here tomorrow afternoon! I am so excited! But I am also sad because I don' t get to be a host while I am here :( I don't know why, but there must be some reason why.

So that is about it for this week! I love ya'll!

Week #4 at the Missionary Training Center

First off, Taryn wanted me to tell all of you how easy it is to write to her while she is in the MTC! This is because of a website called "Dear Elder" which allows you to write her free next day letters. So you write her one day, and by noon the next day they have it printed out and sealed in an envelope to give her! It is such an easy to way to write her while she is in the MTC... She only has 2 weeks left in the MTC so take advantage of this soon, she will leave for the mission Dec 14th. I am sure she would love to hear from you.

Here are some simple instructions on how to use "Dear Elder"

Step 1- Click on this link: www.dearelder.com
Step 2- On the left hand side of the page click on PROVO MTC FREE
Step 3- Fill in this info... Taryn Hansen 2005 N 900 E Unit 18 Provo, UT 84602
             Unit # is 18, Mission Code is CA-SJO, and Departure date is DEC14
Step 4- Fill in your email address, and if you want her to receive the letter by email as well you can put her email address below yours.. which is: taryn.hansen@myldsmail.net
Step 5- Type up your letter is less than 7900 characters and then click send! Easy as that:)

As for her letter to us this week, it seemed very up beat and positive. She is having a lot of really cool experiences and it sounds like she is ready and excited to get out into the mission field! So without further ado... Here is Hermana Hansen's weekly email:)

Starting off where I left off last week... Hermana Sanft and I had a TRC investigator that we were supposed to teach on Wednesday, but at our leadership meeting one of the leaders told us that we had to be at the meeting and that we would have to miss the meeting. So that is what we planned on. We had no lesson planned or anything! Then the next morning right before our meeting, we both had the impression that we needed to teach Maribel! So using up the full five minutes that we had before we had to be there we prepared a lesson. We decided to teach her about prayer. I told her my "Lost Cat" story, and she loved it so much. She thought it was weird that I prayed for my cat, because in her religion they only say a memorized prayer. She thought it was amazing that she could pray for anything! We then asked her to be baptized, because she has such wonderful faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She said... YES! We were so elated! The Lord really blessed us with our lesson! 

Thanksgiving was this week! We first started out with choir practice in the morning which is always fun! For Devo we had Neil L. Anderson come and speak. He spoke about being thankful, of course, and how we should be thankful for our trials and even more thankful for our blessings. As you all know I am a pretty picky eater when it comes to Thanksgiving and so I did say some things like how I  don't like stuffing. My companion pointed it out to me that it is Thanksgiving and I should be grateful always even if I don't like something. I really appreciate her and her example.

So Hermana Sanft and I were table leaders for the service project. We got to be in charge of making sure everyone knew what they were doing and that they were kept out of trouble. We got to make bags of food for the hungry people in Utah. Each tiny bag was able to feed 6 people! We filled up 12 boxes which held 48 bags. And that was just our table! There were 54 tables in the whole room and 2 shifts! So do the math!

We got to watch Ephraim's Rescue, which is such a great movie! It was a lot of fun watching it with a bunch of missionaries because during the romance scenes everyone would be ooo-ing and laughing!

They showed us videos at the evening Thanksgiving event, and Hermana Sanft and I were in one of them! A lady had stopped us a few days before and asked us if she could record us saying what we were thankful for! It was really cool to see myself up on the screen!

Elder white had a wonderful idea to have us write notes to each other anonymously. My letter was so sweet! I was able to guess my person right away because the person said I had pretty hair and eyes... I did not think that an Elder would write that! Hermana MacDonald wrote me the note!

On Saturday we were studying when the Elders started to rap to Sponge Bob Square Pants! It was so hilarious! It was the perfect 5 minute break! Everyone was laughing and I even got it on video!

Choir on Sunday was the best choir yet! We sang a Christmas song and the choir director talked about how Jesus came down as a normal child. He could have been made fun of, he could have fallen down and scraped his knee. The most important person came here, to be like us, to grow up like us! It was just so amazing to think about!

For the Devo I had to give the opening prayer. It was in front of more than 2000 people! My heart was pounding so bad!!! When I got up to say it I thought, "Crap! I can't remember how to start a prayer!" I stood there for what felt like forever trying to remember and finally I was able to get the words out and say the prayer! I was so glad when it was over. Hermana Sanft said I did good and she didn't even notice my pause!

Yesterday was the first day of a lot of snow, that stuck! It was a lot of fun for us to walk around the MTC while it was snowing! It has been cold but I have been warm. We had another lesson with Maribel. We were going to print off a Spanish Family Proclamation, but it wouldn't print for some reason. I got really stressed. My companion helped me out by saying that we could teach a different lesson and to put my trust entirely with the Lord. It worked! Our lesson went fabulous again! I was so happy to be able to put my trust in Him and have everything turn out OK!

So for the past few days one of the Elders in our District has been acting really mean towards Hermana Taylor, when in the past he has been really nice. He started acting overly nice to her after she gave him a note just saying that she appreciated him sharing a personal story. We believed that he had this huge crush on her! So she started to ignore him so that he would not think that anything was going on between them, and that is when he started acting mean. I believe someone is really jealous! It is kind of funny to see how angry he gets when she pays attention to to the other Elders and not him. We hope that he can get over it because he is here to serve the Lord not to create romances!

I only have 2 more weeks in the MTC! We get our flight plans tomorrow! I am so excited to get out in the field and serve the Lord by finding his sheep in Cali!

I love you all and miss you so much!

Hermana Hansen 

Another Week in the MTC

The report this week sounds like this past week was a little tougher than the rest. She has been surrounded by sick missionaries in her district including her companion. So far she has managed to miss it, and I hope she is still feeling well. She has also dealt with some stress, and some mean words from others... I am glad she has a good companion to be there for her. She also must have picked up on some of Dads nursing skills, who was recently in nursing school. She had already ruled out appendicitis when a fellow missionary had sharp stomach pain and had to go to the ER... I am sure Dad is proud! Also, if you know Taryn at all her weakness is cheesecake... but apparently the MTC can't get cheesecake right! We got some pictures again this week, it looks like she is enjoying the beautiful paintings at the MTC and took pictures of some of her favorites to share with us. She also included a video of her and her companion making the trek to the temple... It was so nice to hear her contagious laugh! Hope you enjoy her letter as much as I did... It sounds like she is really working hard, and putting her trust in the Lord. Love and Miss her!

Hola mi familia.! Y mis amigos tambien!!!

This week has been a little more stressful than the others. It started out by Hermana Sanft and I being assigned to do both the District meeting lesson and the Relief Society lesson on Sunday. They both had to be about 40 minutes long and I just did not know how we would be able to do both with all of the other stuff that we had to do as well! It did make me feel better that the two Hermanas in the other district had to do the same thing.

While studying for our lessons this week for our lesson with Javier, I remembered an idea about teaching him about Alma the Younger. Hermana Sanft and I were so excited to teach him, but we have yet to for reasons I will explain later. :(   We didn't plan as much for our lesson with Carlos, so as to be expected the lesson did not go as well as we would have like it to. I was in a really bad mood after that and had a meltdown after someone I didn't know said something that I don't think was supposed to be rude, but was. Hermana Sanft was so kind! She comforted me and helped me feel better. I am so grateful for such a great companion. It just goes to show that you shouldn't say anything that could be considered mean. You never know what people are going through. 

I now have the first vision and my purpose memorized in Espanol!!! Be proud!!! It was so hard to memorize! I would walk around the track repeating it over and over in my mind. I am now working on the baptismal invitation.

The week was going good until Hermana Taylor got sick with the flu. She was out all day Thursday. Then the next morning Hermana Sanft came down with the flu as well! I was so nervous about getting it. I had to stay at the rooms all day! I was so restless! I did take several naps though :)

Hermana Taylor ended up staying with her the next day, because she wasn't feeling so good again. I ended up staying with the STL's one night because I just couldn't stay in a room with a sick person making sick person noises. I do feel bad for not being more of a comfort to my companion though. 

We have become really good friends with the other Hermanas in the other district. Hermana Landrin, and Hermana Maw. They really kept me entertained while we were all stuck in the residences with sick companions. I was so grateful they kept me happy!

For dinner on Saturday Hermana MacDonald got the last cheesecake! I was so sad!!! I really wanted some! So after begging, she said that I could have a bite. I waited as patiently as I could for this delicious bite... finally I was able to put my tiny morsel into my awaiting mouth... EWW! The worst cheesecake that I have ever tasted!!! HOW CAN YOU MESS UP CHEESECAKE! It tasted like warm Sherbert. Yuck! I know never to get the cheesecake here again.

On Sunday Hermana Taylor had to go to the ER because she was having this sharp pain on her right side right below her ribs. I ruled out appendix already because it was way to high of a pain. They gave her a lot of pain medication and she has had to go back for several tests over the last few days. They still don't know what is wrong but has a hunch about her gall bladder. I am really worried but I have this feeling that she is going to be OK. I just hope that they can figure it out and get her feeling like her normal self again.

So during the Sunday Devotional they gave us a challenge to choose a Christlike attribute every week and work to gain that gift. I decided that I would work on Charity. It takes me a little bit longer to trust people and show my love. I am trying though. Yesterday while it was raining I gave two sisters my umbrella because they didn't have jackets or umbrellas. I was able to put my hood up. Even though I hate the rain it made me feel good to give away my umbrella so that those girls didn't have to get soaked. I know that it was something the Savior would have done.

So we now have a TRC (I have no idea what that stands for). It is a person who is a member that we teach about the gospel, but they pretend to be investigators. Her name is Maribel and she is from Mexico. I believe our lesson went really well! Our teacher told us that we should have asked her to be baptized! That was only the first lesson! I find that to be a little weird, but he said it gets you an idea about what they need to learn about the gospel to get them prepared to be ready to be baptized. 

This week we have a service project for Thanksgiving and guess who got volenteered to be one of those in charge? ME and Hermana Sanft! Ahhh! So scary! I know that the Lord will help me so that I will be able to do the job correctly and to my best ability. I also got asked to give the opening prayer at the next Sunday Devotional!!!!!!!!! WHY! I guess the Lord wants me to get out of my comfort zone.

Well, that is about it for this week! I love ya'll so much (It is a rule not to say guys, but I can say ya'll). I know that the Lord is helping me and blessing me during my stay here and that he will continue to bless me through out my whole mission. I am so thankful for the gospel and how my family is being blessed while I am serving. It is so comforting to know that he is watching over them! 

Until next week!

Hermana Hansen

First Couple of Weeks

Hermana Hansen seems like she is doing really well! We got a nice letter and some pictures from her this Tuesday. While in the MTC her P-Day is on Tuesdays, so I will try and keep her blog updated as she updates us! Her Companion is Tongan but moved to Colorado when she was 11, her name is Hermana Sanft- and they get along really well.

Hola!

My second week here has been a lot less stressful than the first week! We now have 2 investigators that we have to teach, but my companion and I don't feel stressed about preparing the lessons. We listen to the spirit and then teach with love. We try to think of things that will make our investigator want to read the BOM, or repent etc. 

The sisters and I get a long so well. We have fun all of the time. There are points in time that we are laughing and can't stop. I love them all so much!

Every Tuesday we have a guest speaker come and teach us during a devotional. Last Tuesday it was Jenny Oaks Baker! She is so amazing! Her music can make anyone who is having a bad day smile. 

So Flourentin (our investigator) ended up getting "baptized"! He is so active in the church now. He now goes by Brother Johnson and he is teaching us how to be better missionaries! Yes he became our teacher! So I  was right and he was not a real investigator, but it was still really fun to teach him. We ended up teaching he 4 times. We now have 2 new investigators, One is Carlos and the other is Javier. Carlos is our other teacher Brother Tuft and Javier is Brother Johnson. I feel more comfortable teaching them because they can help my companion and I learn how to teach better!

The food here at the MTC has been making us sick :( After we eat it we just feel like we drank a whole tub of gravy. I have been sticking to the salads lately.

My Spanish is coming a long pretty well. I am learning a lot of new words a day, but if you know Spanish... please don't write to me full sentences because I will have no idea what it says until 4 months from now! I can tell that the Lord especially helps me with my Spanish during my lessons. I feel like when I teach I don't have to think too hard about what I want to say and how to say it. It just comes out!

This week I have played 4 square during gym time!!! I love 4 square so much! It has relieved a lot of stress! 

We have to memorize the First Vision by Thursday! I kind of have half of it done. I think that during gym tomorrow I will walk around the track and try to memorize it. That is how I memorized the missionary purpose!

Hermana MacDonald and I are doing the MTC choir! It is so much fun! The director is so hilarious. He tells stories about the songs that we are singing and makes us laugh!

I have felt the spirit so much while I have been here, and while I have missed everybody, I love knowing that what I am doing will bless the lives of so many people!

I love you all and will write to you next week!