In the Head of Hannie: Week 1!!!

Okay, so I only have an hour to email and a lot to talk about so we'll see how this goes! This week has been awesome so far with very little home sickness (your prayers have been answered mommy.) I'll start with the beginning of the week and work my way to present if that is okay with yall.

WED

I met my first Hermana at the airport. Her name was Hermana Henderson and she ended up being my COMPANION!! How crazy is that? She was super kind and friendly. We got to talk for an half hour before we met another sister who is in our casa. We also met two elders. One is in my district, Elder Garbaro and the other i cant remember. We all had a good time though.

Once i got to the CCM I got my name tag and i felt official! It was great. I still look down and it am like ¨"what, I'm cool enough to wear this?" I love it!

Hermana Warner came in that night and she go word that we were going to be a TRIO! So it is me Hermana Henderson and Hermana Warner. We all get along really well.

THURSDAY

We met our teacher Hermana Santiago. She is so cute, i love her to death. She is 23 and is going to school to be an administrative counselor. She really likes what she is doing right now and she does a great job at teaching us Spanish. She served her mission in Argentina. She has a lot of great advice from us and i have already learned a ton from her. She focuses more and teaching us how to teach the gospel rather than how to teach the gospel in Spanish. I think that helps a lot. The gift of tongues comes over time ( i have yet to receive it!)

We also met our district this day. We have 4 sets of elders and 1 set of hermanas (us). Us hermanas are totally living in a mans world! haha

In the afternoon we had a welcome meeting where we learned more about the purpose of being a missionary. Here are some things i realized. 1. We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we need to act as such. We need to take some of the characteristics we had before and change them in to Christlike ones. 2. We need to pray to the Lord to help us. (this was a big thing i realized over the last week. You will see) He wants to bless us but he is just waiting for us to ask him. Make sure we get on our knees and ask. 3. Pray and scripture study will help us stay close to Him. Make sure we are doing those things daily or we will lose our relationship with Him, and really, who wants that?

This night we also watched other missionaries teach. We then had to correct some of the things they did wrong. The teacher went out and told them how to improve and then they came back in and did it again. After that we had to take the things we had learned and apply it to our own investigator (as a group of 20 people, not as ind. companionship's.) some of the things I learned were 1. Adjust to the need of the investigator. We might have planned something but they might need something else. Listen to the spirit and adjust to their needs. 2. Understand what the other person feels. They could be having problems and the spirit will guide you. 3. Teach people not lessons. Make sure you are building a relationship with the people and you are making sure you get what they want. 4. Don't convert them to you, convert them to God. Make sure we don't forget the real purpose we are there, which is to bring them unto God. Don't get so caught up in becoming there friend that they get caught up in the friendship not the gospel.

FRIDAY

WE TAUGHT OUR FIRST INVESTIGATOR COMPLETELY IN SPANISH!!!! It was a lot of copy from preach my gospel. His name is Fernando and his girlfriend is preggo and wanted him to change his ways. He saw the change in his brother and wanted that for himself.

I'm going to be honest, we bombed the lesson. Totally butchered it. We taught him the restoration and it went horribly. But at the end we asked him to pray and he said he didn't know how. WE did the best we could do explain it to him in the little Spanish we knew. He accepted our offer and the spirit was so powerful during his prayer. I was crying (shocker, i know.) That was the highlight of our week.

SATURDAY

Hermana Santiago had a "book of Mormon" activity with us. We all sat down as a district in a circle and the spirit was automatically there. It was then that i realized that we are disciple of Christ. We discussed 1 Nephi 1:1 and that was it. I realized that Nephi and i have a lot in common. WE both have goodly parent. we both have been helped by god in our afflictions and we both learned everything we knew from our parents. It was truly amazing the spirit that was there. I cant even being to explain it. It made me grateful for all the wonderful things Mom and Dad have taught me and the experiences Ive had.

SUNDAY

This was my hard day. I was pretty home sick but it was also fabulous. In Relief Society we learned about the importance of obedience. we learned that a testimony is just knowing something and obedience is following the commandment to make it a part of your life. Obedience puts it into action. I had never thought of it that way before. In sacrament that thing that stuck out to me was "enduring to the end should be done with a positive attitude. If we just grit our teeth and endure, we wont learn anything."

Our devotional was by Richard G. Scott (no he wasn't actually here, it was just recorded.) IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. He talked a ton about praying to god. He told us to pray all the time because you can always have a personal interview with God. That really hit me hard. Also he said to be afraid to pour our heart out and be brutally honest. Heavenly Father with bless us with doing those sorts of things. He also addressed the fact that Heavenly Father but us here to succeed not fail. That was really insightful to me. I loved it.

Sunday the spirit was strong but i really missed being with the family.

MONDAY

We taught Fernando for the 3rd time. (we taught him Saturday but not much happened) I CRIED THE WHOLE TIME. We decided to go with no script. All we knew was that we were going to be teaching the plan of salvation. when i got to my part i just lost it and started crying. I cried for the entire 20 minutes we were in there. It was so embarrassing. The spirit was really strong to me for some reason. I hope he got our message though.

Earlier on Monday we also taught the Restoration completely in Spanish completely only and i nailed it. i was impressed with myself.

TUESDAY

We had Alan Walker from the 4th quorum of the 70 come and speak to us. He did an amazing job. The thing i learned the most was to make sure the branches and wards we are serving are unified in missionary work. The members jobs aren't to just get us referrals. Make sure they are coming out with us and involved with us. Also to not focus on baptizing people. Our purpose might be to uplift a ward member or a struggling companion or a struggling bishop. Make sure we aren't too focused on missionary work so that we can see the things we can do to help there.

WEDNESDAY

we had class all day. We did teach Fernando about the Book of Mormon and he said he would read it tonight and see if it was true. That was a big step for us. He said he had prayed about the plan of salvation and that the spirit had testified to him that it was true. We hope to commit him to baptism TONIGHT

questions

1. Whats the CCM like.

It super busy but super cute. hopefully you can get that from the pics i send. We are in class for most of the day but the windows are always open and the cool air is so nice.

2. hows the food?

so gross. American food is bad and the Mexican food is bad. there are also so many carbs. I am in dire need of some veggies.

3. Met any cool people ?

My companions are awesome. there is a girl here from Hawaii also. she is so cool.

4. How the language.?

Bad. really bad. I think I'm losing more Spanish than I'm gaining. Hopefully the gift of tongues will kick in soon though. !

5. Mish in Atlanta?

Si, my companion Hermana Henderson and Elder Garbaro. Also 2 others but idk what their names are.

6. Hows my companion.

They are awesome. I loved them. It was a hard transition at first but we get along really well. James's advice to remember everyone is going through it really helped.

7. Fav thing about the CCM?

everything is open and green. The weather is beautiful and you can just walk place to place. The houses are cute too. there in no air conditioning but it is so cool here it isn't needed anyway.

8. Am i exhausted?

Not at all. I have tons of energy. I do get tired from sitting all day though. They campus is spread out so it is nice to get that little walk (my avg. is 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day. Take that Daddy Lars)

9. What am i doing for exercise?

Me and my companion go on walks or play volleyball. It depends on the day.

10. How are my stowaways.

They are doing great. They sleep next to my head every night!