Wow! Guys I leave for Mexico in 2 days! I repeat 2 days! Ahhh!

So this week was jam-packed. I feel like i'm moving 24/7. Which is great since I'm not good at sitting still for too long.

Now.. for the Spanish fail of the week...

Last Saturday me and my whole district are just chatting before class starts and my teacher walks in wearing this really really cool tie. 

Using my Español skills I said, "Me gusta su cuerpo"... He just looked at me like I'm a TOTAL wack-job and my class starts busting up laughing. Instantly I realize that I have just told him "I like your body" Instead of saying "me gusta su corbata", which means "I like your tie." To make it worse, when I said "me gusta su cuerpo" I totally pointed up and down at his tie. He was probably thinking that i was pointing to his body. So as you can see I am still not close to fluent but I am getting a lot better. My biggest problem is conjugating verbs. I can pretty much say anything as long as I'm only speaking in the present tense.

Easter was the bomb in the CCM (MTC)! Oh man everyone got all dressed up. The Hermanas were all wearing their cutest spring outfits and all the elders wearing bright colored ties. I let three of the girls in my district borrow clothes and I curled one of the Hermana's hair. What can I say, I'm a giver...haha, just joking. I love my whole district here, I would do anything for them. Plus we had to look really nice because an apostle was speaking to us that day. 

We get to the devotional and we find out that President Uchtdorf will be speaking to us! I swear we get the best speakers. Heavenly Father send me to the MTC at the perfect time. President Uchtdorf gave an amazing talk on the atonement and not being fearful. He spoke about how the atonement can take away our fear and that we should be BOLD missionaries. One of my favorite things he said was " if you want to punch Satan in the face then preach the gospel". I totally sucker punched Satan in the the face because he had no idea I was going to be a missionary. After Uchtdorf spoke he shook some missionaries hand and guess who was lucky enough to shake his hand.. yep, me! After he left two sisters came up to me and asked me if they could shake my hand because I had shaken Pres. Uchtdorf's hand. Haha.  

After, we headed back to west campus for lunch. As Wells and I were walking out of the lunch room we saw Elder Uchdorf. We had a little conversation. It went like this...

Me: "Hola."

Uchtdorf: "Hola, como está?"

Me: "Muy bien, gracias. Y usted?"

Uchtdorf: "Muy bien."

Then the BYU police interrupted us before all the other missionaries came out and swarmed him... oh my. Wanna hear a joke.....BYU police.

After, Well's and I named ourselves the Easter committee and we hid around 80 eggs for our zone. It was lots of fun. We hid them all over outside. It made me feel like I was back at home for just a minute. This was one of the funnest easters yet. 

This week has been good. Lots of just preparing to go to the field on Monday. Our branch presidents wife came and visited us this week at our apartment and hmm, how do I put this nicely? She's a little off her rocker. She started telling us that we should start speaking to our inner child. She told us that you write a questions with your right hand and then your inner child will answer with your left. I was like ummm, okay. Bless her soul.

Elder Oaks also came and spoke to us. I'm telling ya that its the best time to be in the MTC. We also had Infield orientation this week which made me so stoked. I don't feel 100 percent ready, but I'm feeling good. Today was the last time I will get to be in the temple for a year in a half. Sitting there kind of broke my heart knowing I wouldn't get to be in this place for a while. Don't take your temple for granted! 

Love  you all.

Paz y bendiciones.

Han 

 

First Things First

Okay so first things first...

GO watch the "Because of Him" video online at Mormon.org...

Your mind is blown, huh?? Yet another reason why the church is the bomb. So I'm not joking I've watched the "Because of Him" video 10 times this week in English and 7 times in Spanish. We also showed it to all our investigators. On Sunday every time you go to Youtube that video is going to start playing. Sooo coool.... Okay, now go watch the video again. haha.. I'm serious. 

Okay, wow I have to say this has probably been on of my favorite weeks here. 

Last Sunday we all had to prepare talks on the Atonement completely in Spanish then our branch President would randomly pick missionaries to give their talks. Lets just say my talk was straight out of 'Preach My Gospel' and 'Folletos'. Luckily Hermana Wells and I were the only companionship not to get called on. 

Later that same night the BYU men's choir came and sang to us! Boy was that awesome. They sang other songs rather than hymns.. not that I don't love hymns, it was just nice to hear a different tune. They sang all types of different stuff. They sang 'Lean on Me" and I was so into it, haha. After they sang some tribal songs and all the Tongan missionaries got way stoked. Then during the song they started doing the huka and that's when ALL the missionaries got so into it. It was AWSOME. 

Also every Sunday we have a "Sunday funday" activity to get to know the whole zone better. One of the new Elders is a convert so he shared his conversion story with us. He had no idea what a Mormon was but he did love musicals. So, he went and saw The Book of Mormon play and became obsessed (to this day it's still his favorite play). One day he spotted 2 missionaries at McDonald's and went up and talked to them.. and from there he started getting the lessons and later was converted and now is on a mission. One funny thing he told us was that before he was a member he saw a guy in the hall way with a Book of Mormon he asked him where he got it and the guy told him that one of his friends gave it to him. He asked the guy in the hallway if he could have it. The guy was like "Sure, for ten bucks"! He ended up buying it haha and now he says he feels so dumb because we give them out for free.

Something a little embarrassing happened last week that I forgot to tell you about. My teacher wrote the word Revelacion on the board then asked us what this word made us think of. Not really thinking that hard I responded saying ummm... America...thinking the word meant Revolution not Revelation. So yeah.. as you can see I'm not fluent yet but I can understand about 90% of everything I hear. Everything here is 100% in Spanish. English doesn't exist. 

On Tuesday we had another devotional and Elder Neil Andersen came and spoke to us and I sang in the choir.. it's cool because it was broadcast to all the MTC'S in the word so yeah... I'm MTC famous. Oh my! while at main campus for the devotional we ran into the New Zeland Elders. They find us everywhere! they asked us to take a picture with them and asked us for our emails. In the MTC getting someones email is equivalent to "getting did-gets". Not to worry we ended up not giving our emails out but we did take a picture with them haha. 

We ended up getting 70 new missionaries to West Campus this week and guess who got to be a host?? Yep, this Hermana! I am no longer a newbie. I feel like time is so warped here. The days are long, the weeks are short, and the months are really short. I have today been out 1 month. 1 down 17 to go.  We got our travel plans yesterday. We are going to be leaving on April 28th. We leave the MTC at 7:30 and our plane leaves SLC at 12:25. We will arrive in Puebla at 8:30 that night. 9 days left, better send some massive dear elders. 

I feel ready to leave. I feel like a better teacher, not perfect at all, but better. I can feel myself getting better and better everyday. Wells and I can do the first lesson awesome! We had our best lesson so far this week on Thursday in the afternoon and then that night we had our hardest lesson. We taught this super strong catholic man. He was trying to Bible Bash us the entire time and the feeling in the room was awful. We had to teach him again yesterday and it went really well. I wasn't teaching that man, the spirit was because I was saying things and showing him scripture that I didn't even know I knew. Guys this church is true. Don't take it for granted. I'm so grateful to be in the MTC on Easter when I am the closest I have ever been to my Savior. Just remember without the atonement you are helpless. 

xoxo Hermana Han

 It is this dark every night when we get home.

 Who knew?

 Got the Easter package!

 Wells and me with the crazy New Zealand Elders.

 Thanks Aunt Penni!

 We got to host new missionaries arriving at the MTC!

Soo Just another week in the CCM (MTC)

Well conference at the MTC was equivalent to the finale of The Bachelor mixed with the Super Bowl. It was awesome. All the missionaries got together and watched it in this huge room on like 4 flat screens. So glad that Holland just started it out right. One of my favorite things he said was " Be strong live the Gospel even if people around you don't live it at all" It's hard to be proud of what you believe in when people around you think it's a little strange. Stand up for what you believe and who cares what anyone else thinks. Before the Afternoon session of conference on Sunday we got to watch a little show on David Archeletta. Haha I'm in the end part you guys should check it out.

Also on Sunday Hermana Wells and I met some elders from New Zealand. They were Wacky. They came up to us and said "You guys have gangster eyes" I was thinking child, what does that even mean. We asked them if they were companions and they said they had no idea where their companions were. They asked us to go on a "Temple Walk" with them. Hermana Wells and I were thinking, ugh.. as if. One of the elders was wearing a scarf so we now call him 'Scarfy'. Scarfy is in for a reality check once he leaves. 

Later on Sunday BYU's acapella group "Vocal Point" came and sang to us. It was awesome. It was nice to get a break from "Called to Serve". Not kidding, we sing that song 100 times a day. 

This week me and Hermana Wells and I were kind of stressed because she found a lump on her back and it wasn't going away. We end up going up to the MTC main campus doctor and they told us that she was going to have to get an MRI scan the next day which was kind of scary. So the next day we went to a real doctor out of the MTC bubble and I see a women walking in who looks a lot like Hermana Wells mom. I turn to Herman Wells and say " isn't that your mom??" and it was! I got to meet her and she got to be there for Hermana Wells on that scary day.

To get the results we had to go to main campus and she is fine! It was just a bruised thing and it will go down by it's self. As we walk out of the MTC doctor's office the first people that Hermana Wells and I see is Scarfy and his Sidekick. They are never with their companions! They asked us to eat dinner with them but we told them we couldn't. Later we saw them talking to some other sisters. All I can say is they need to reread the missionary handbook!

Also this week I joined the choir because apparently "your gonna want to be in the choir for the next few weeks" so naturally we joined. Next week for Easter an apostle is coming to speak to us! Yay! I can't wait! 

Also this week we got some new elders added to our district and since Wells and I are Sister Training Leaders we had to show them the ropes. There is this one Elder that was always wearing this black sleeve so we asked him why he had to wear it. Apparently he's a recent convert to the church so he needed to cover up his tattoo. We asked him what his tattoo was and your never going to guess what it was.. A Harry Potter Tattoo of the deathly hallows sign. Hahaha, I was like 'you like Harry Potter'! 

Also Wells and I have a new system down. We keep our room clean until we have the cleaning check for that week then we let it go crazy. Then we clean it again on Monday. SO this week we passed with flying colors!  

It's the weirdest thing... I now have hymns stuck in my head. I'll like start humming a hymn and i'm thinking when did I BECOME THIS PERSON. hahah 

I really do love it here. I think everyone should go on a mission because it brings out the best in you. 

Love you all. Send me dear elders.

xoxo, 

hermana han

 Map pic

 Otro map pic

 A friend from Skyline

 Yet another map pic, can't get enough

 MRI, she's OK!

 Temple day

We Teach People Not Lessons

What a week it has been in the MTC....full of surprises. 

Hermana Wells and I got made "Sister Training Leaders" for the zone. Its pretty much "Zone Leaders" but for girls. 

On Sunday we went to a devotional up at main campus and your never going to guess who was there... I'll give you a hint.. he was on American Idol, he's a Mormon, and he just got back from a mission...

DAVID ARCHULETA, haha. When he walked in seriously all the sisters went crazy and the Elder I was sitting next to said "Whoever marries him is one lucky lady". He sang some songs to us and one in Spanish! (I felt like he was singing just to me- Oh my!). After the devotional David could only shake hands with 30 missionaries and guess who's hand he did choose to shake.. yep mine! After I waved to him and said thank you and he gave me a big smile back.. haha. You could say I'm living righteously.

We are pretty busy every day. We got a little April fools prank pulled on us. They told us that we would be bused up to Salt Lake City to have a missionary conference with the 12 apostles. We were so happy and excited because when you are a missionary an Apostle is as just about as cool as one of the One Direction boys. When they told us it was a prank Hermana Wells and I just stared at them in disgust and asked if we could be excused for a minute. haha 

We had another April Fools surprise when we walked in to class. Our teacher told us we would be teaching two 20 minute lessons with no time to prepare. He said not to worry the spirit would guide us and to use the Spanish we knew. As we walked in to the lesson I was thinking to myself, Hannah use the Spanish you know, but I didn't really see how "aye aye aye" and "hola mi amor" was going to help me in this lesson. However our teacher was right and Hermana Wells and I taught two beautiful lessons in Spanglish and we both felt the spirit. During one of the lessons an older women looked us both strait in the eyes and told us "You guys are angles of light". I will never forget that. Things like that make everyday here so worth it! 

The MTC isn't easy and if it is easy for you, you're not doing it right. We had a devotional from Scott D Whiting. One thing he said that really stuck with me was " Missionaries are asked to live a higher standard but that brings blessings". I know this statement to be true and I can feel it bless my life. I'm so grateful to be in a place where the spirit is constantly. 

You guys best be watching General Conference. 

I love you

xoxo 

Hermana han

 It snowed :(

 Guess who shook David Archuleta's hand?

 Mi compi!

Hermana Wells and Bullock