Sister Abbey Hafen // Week Six // THE FINAL COUNTDOWN....!‏

Oh my dear goodness. Today is Saturday. My last Saturday on American soil for 17 months. Well, 16.5 months. CRAZY!

 

Ever since we got our travel plans last Friday, time has FLOWN BY. Seriously. I can't even believe it. This week was beautifully crazy. As is like EVERY week, pero, I'm used to it.

 

We had an incredible lesson from Sister Tasha Sharp, (our evening teacher who was our first investigator). the fundemental is "Teach People, Not Lessons." We talk about this all the time, but the language was such a hang up for me. I wanted to just be myself completely, and attend to their needs, but my response is very limited. And often times we can't tell what they are saying. So I was excited for this lesson, but at the same time, knew I would feel frustrated because I couldn't do it. She began the lesson and told us that tonight, she was the investigator for all of us. She would come in the door sit down, and we would all teach her. No assigned topic, we just needed to find out her needs and teach to her needs. She was acting as herself- RM of 4 months, teacher at the MTC, college student at BYU. Just Tasha. She told us if the language was holding us back, don't use it. she came in, sat down, and we began to talk to her. We asked questions, we laughed, just eased in. We asked her where she had been reading in the BOM and she opened up. She read us a verse about how the Lord will smile upon us and will be proud or something like that. She said that she wanted that to happen, and she yearns for that moment. Sister Alyssa Meinzer then took a turn to say something, and told her that Yes, the Lord is proud of you. He is so proud because you have been doing your duty as a teacher to us. You have been an answer to our prayers, all of ours, and he is proud of you for that. Know that he is proud. (something to that affect). BOOM. The spirit was in the room. The rest of the lesson was guided SOLELY by the spirit. We were all edified so much, and there isn't much else I can say about that lesson because it was so sacred that night with our district and our teacher, Sister Tasha Sharp, She is so Christ-like and I hope I can be a missionary like her.

 

Life is so beautiful and I am so happy. There have been wild and crazy things happen, but everything always gets resolved. I love it.

 

Olivia Earl left this week. I saw her almost every day at breakfast and what a blessing that was. I went and saw her off the night before in her study builiding. Tears were shed but Livy is going to be incredible. She's helped MY life so much, and there are people in Florida being prepared for her right now. Ah. What a sweet thing that was to see her so often! I love her. and can't wait to reunite with ALL of you post mission :)

 

Our elders in our district are so dang funny it kills me. Seriously kills me. We just laugh so hard, but we work so hard too. I swear we are the only district who acutally works hard- everyone else is flooding the halls of our building hanging out in the hallway and what not. We know when to have fun, and when to study. I am grateful for that. We have become so close and we are so lucky. There has  been some drama with the other districts in our zone, and we always just talk about how grateful we are for each other. Never ONCE have our elders disrespected us. Never ONCE have we had a major problem arise. We are all here for the same reason, and we share that reason with each other often. It's called The Purpose. To invite others to come unto Christ. Our district has become so close and leaving each other Wednesday morning in the Philippines is going to be tough. Last night our elders just came out and said "Man, its going to suck not being able to hug you guys at the airport. Seriosly, we want to just hug each of you for like 10 minutes." Hahaha. We really are just a family and because we've been SO on the same page, we've been able to become that solid family.

 

We got to host this week! Host the new missionaries! It was SO FUN. Pero, it brought back so many unwanted feelings. Seriously, I felt like I was going to have an accident in my pants (skirt I guess) because watching all those missionaries get out of the car teary eyed, bawling moms, sad siblings, and the "farewell waves" made me remember that SERIOUSLY WEIRD DAY June 19th. That was the weirdest day of my life so far. I hosted a Savannah Teeples going to Germany (she was a ginger), and Kasey Sharp from Bountiful going to California Redlands. I have gone to see them each night this week and that has been fun. At first I thought they might be getting sick of it, pero, last night we decided to just do a door approach and not go in, pero Sister Teeples room opened the door and all the sisters said "We are so glad you here. Do you have a pick me up for tonight again  because we need it." We went in and just talkedwith them. They are going to be such good missionaries. I am excited for them. It's amazing how much they look up to us and it's amazing that we've been here for 6 weeks. We dont' know everything, but I remember the impact Sister Cutia and Sister Franks had on me, being almost 6 weeks the week I got here. Just knowing that everything would be okay was SO comforting and that YES you won't feel like such a loser every day after you get used to being here. I hope my new sisters, the ones I hosted, just keep improving every day; and I know they will. They are stellar.

 

Gym time is great. Because of my foot, I can't run or play basketball anymore, so I usually jet outside and throw the frisb around. Elder Kikel in the other district is so funny, and Elder Crowther as well. Sister Meinzer and I threw the frisb around with themall of gym and had a great time. Hahaha, I love Elders. They are so funny, especially our zone- our zone really is so baller.

 

My companion and I taught our last lessons to each of our investigators this week. It went great. I finally feel like I can bear testimony from the heart and say the things I want to-  Ha this will all change come a few days though, because they won't be speaking the same tagalog our teachers speak- slow, clear, and loud. Haha. But that's hindi mahalaga (not important). My companion did a stellar job and extended the baptismal invitation to Jonabelle. She smiled and said "I want to but I don't think my mom will allow it." I had no idea what to say but then just told her to invite her mom to our next lesson. I told her that WE have noticed her bcome happier and that if she continues to read and pray, and then do that with her family, they will become happy. she said she would invite her mom and I jsut couldn't stop smiling. Where the HECK did all of that tagalog come from?! Seriously?! I was so grateful for Heavenly Father and his sweet sweet tender mercies. The lesson went so well and we ended confidently. I was so happy and grateful.

 

We had our last lesson with Brother Trebas. He got us all ties and signed them, and then us sisters learned how to tie them.Haha, it was SO funny. Elder Hall taught me how to tie mine and we had the funniest names and phrases for each step of the process. It was so fun. We all went outside and took pics and then came in and we each taught him one last time as companionships, and then had story time. He read parts of his journal, told stories, and just talked. It was so awesome. We knelt for prayer and he offered to say it. We all knelt down and there was a long pause. He then started the prayer in english. It was such a powerful prayer and he said so many things that were answers to our prayers. The spirit was so strong and it was so hard to say goodbye. And it was so hard not to hug him, pero what do you do?! It was a great day of class and I seriosuly am so grateful for Brother Trebas. He was such an influence to me and I love him.

 

Infield Orientation was yesterday. SO FUN. And so overwhelming. THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO IN THE FIELD. Haha, seriously, how do missionaries get everything done!? It got me so excited and the main director of the whole thing served in the philippines, so that was so fun. His stories were WILD! I had so many confirmations and personal revelation yesterday. Man. I leave the US Monday morning to LIVE in the Philippines for a year and a half. When I say it out loud it gives me the chills. I can't even believe it. Yesterday was seriously SO awesome and I got super stoked to leave. I dont really know what else to say about leaving. Its just so unreal. Kind of like right before I came her, the whole idea of a mission was just fake and I had no idea what was coming. It's like that, but in a different way and like... times 1000000000000 more wild. Haha.

 

I seriously don't know a lot. And I find myself treating my SELF as an investigator; asking so many questions and then planning my study around my questions, looking for the answer and gaining a testimony of it. But there is one thing that never changes. There's one thing that I never have to keep reseraching over and over to convince myself. There is ONE thing that I can ALWAYS go back to, and that is Jesus Christ. Even being here at the MTC, where the say the spirit is so thick you can cut it with a knife, I still feel the adversary getting at me. I still find myself doubting what I know. But one thing I never doubt is Jesus Christ. and honestly, I am so grateful for that. I love my Savior and I ALWAYS lean back on that tesimony I have of Him and his atonement.  This gospel is simple, and this work is wild. I love it and I love Jesus Christ. I can't wait to leave for the Philippines and I seriously don't even know what to think.

 

Thanks for everything. this email was dfl (dang freakin long), but I had so much to say! Next weeks email wil be a little more exciting. Cause I will be across the globe. BLEH!! Haha.

 

special thanks to GMA Haf, The Brad Esplin Clan, The HAfen Fam Reunion attendees, and mom, al, and tor for the package. I love hearing from you guys, I really do. I am so blessed.

 

Masaya po ako. Sobrang masaya (I am happy. SO happy)

 

Love sis haf

Elder Poulter, Elder Tribe, and Elder Baker. STUDS. Temple walk sunday.

Me and Sister Hardy, the sister training leader from St. George. She was friends with Telisha Pantalakis. SUCH a sweet heart.

Sister Nosler, Sister Judd, Sister Smith, Sister Escobar, me. This trio of sisters are so dang cute, we love them so much. it will be sad to leave them. Temple walk on Sunday.

Zach Bess, Tanner Olsen, me. SCHS! SCHS!

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I love my casama.

Me and Sarah Moore! We had mission prep together at the U. I love her and saw her like her 2nd day. She's so awesome.

At the doctors office. Field trip!!

Me and Livy on her last night.

Me, Sister Nosler, Preston Trebas.

Elder Baker, Elder Tribe, Elder Hall, Elder Poulter. Hahaha cheeeeeeeeese it.

Us with Sister Sharp!! We LOVE HER SO MUCH.

A sweet surprise from who knows who at our dorm!

Me and Sister Sharp. She is so celestial, I love her.

Us with the ties that Brother Trebas gave us! 

G SHOCKS. Everyone teased me so bad for thinking g shocks were so cool, and so when mine finally came they gave me such a hard time. Brother Trebas wears one every day and the first day of class i told him I liked his g shock. He was impressed that I knew what that was! haha. Me, Sister Meinzer, Elder Poulter, Brother Trebas.

Seriously guys? Sister Meinzer, Sister Howlett and Sister Nosler on my bed!

Happy Birthday Elder Kikel! Don't mind that nasty bruise on my arm...

Our last Tuesday night devotional.

Elders with Trebas. Tallest to shortest :)

Sister Abbey Hafen // Week Five // You've Been Hafen-ed

Another week!!! This was probably the fastest week so far. Here's the updates...

I saw the Steels and the Moss' at like every meal the past couple weeks. So fun. I was so happy to see them the first time they walked in the cafeteria and came toward me. They all  hugged me so tight and I was SO happy. We got a pic on their iPad and I sent it to you right then. They were so amazed at how fast I was on the iPad. It was so weird using an iPad again. Haha! Anyway, it was so good to see them.

Once a week, our district reads out of the Book of Mormon together in groups of 6. We read Alma 5 last week and it was SO good. We were able to discuss the "questions" and just really come together. I couldn't help but be FILLED with the spirit as we read. I know that I don't know a lot of doctrine- I am learning. But the one thing I am SURE of, is that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Whenever I think about Christ, talk about Christ, ANYTHING, I can't help but KNOW that he is the Savior of the world. I am so grateful for that knowledge. Without, I don't think I would have stayed sane the first week or so out here. (I love how I talk as if I've been gone for so long. Often times, I think that when 6 weeks is up and I leave the MTC, that I'm going home. HA! The longest part is still to come... but I have a feeling it will be the best.)

Haha, so at the devotional on Tuesday, the emeritus 70's wife got up there and said, "in honor of the 24th of July..." and the ONE sister in my district that isn't from Utah (Sister Maddock from Chicago) said "What is the24th of July?" It was so funny. She went on all sarcastically about how we KNOW that pretty much everyone here is from Utah.. but please respect us who don't know everything about Utah! It was so funny. Also, every time they read a bio about who the speaker is, this is usually how it goes:  "Blah blah blah, graduated with a bachelors from Brigham Young University and then continued his studies at Brigham Young University, blah blah blah, BYU, blah, BYU, and now serves in the Provo blah blah and just Provo this and BYU THAT! WHOO!" .....BUT NOT THIS WEEK! The speaker graduated from UNIVERSITY of UTAH. I ran down from the audience and booty-bumped him right there on the stage. Jokelang (just kidding). Of course I didn't. I waited until after the meeting to booty-bump him.

Thursday, I was just feeling kind of crappy. You'd think that Satan would have NO INFLUENCE  here because the spirit is so strong, but yet I allow myself to become vulnerable and allow him to get in my head. I was feeling like a crappy sister missionary who is slow at learning the language, who can't be herself because she's trying to figure out how to conjugate the verbs, who doesn't yield to the spirit; pretty much just felt like a missionary who just doesn't get this whole missionary thing.  I prayed so much and tried so hard to change my way of thinking but I just was feeling useless. We had Skype TRC, which is like, we go to the lab and SKYPE FILIPINOS IN THE PHILIPPINES. We get to know them, see their needs, and fulfill our purpose; bring others unto Christ. That nights lesson was on the Book of Mormon. We sat down to skype, said a prayer as a companionship, and pushed "Begin Video Call". I instantly had to go to the bathroom, but whatevs. It was too late! Haha. The guy came on, and we just talked and got to know him. In Tagalog. It was so cool. We could understand him and he understood us! I couldn’t stop smiling. I was so happy. We prayed right there on Skype, and began our message. I asked questions about why the Book of Mormon is important to him, if he was able to receive answers through the BOM, etc. After I asked him if he had ever received answers through the BOM, I asked if he would share a story. He shared a story about his mission. He told us the Tagalog BOM was very important to him, and this was why. He served in Texas and one day, after him and his comp had studied the BOM in the morning and had been out on the streets all day, they both had had a feeling to go talk to this lady with a stroller. She was Tongan and her baby was sooo cute. They find out she's a member and think, man why did we need to come talk to her. Sure enough, she tells them that her baby is half Tongan, half Filipino and her husband is Filipino but not a member. The story plays out and this missionary was able to teach her husband, baptize him, and a year later, be there when they got sealed. He was SO grateful for his Tagalog BOM because he couldn't read English. he said he almost didn't bring it but thought, what the heck. It might be fun to read out of it every once in a while. As he finished this story, he began to cry. And my companion and I began to fill with tears. It was so special seeing how the BOM is so important to him. He thanked us over and over for being inspired to talk about the BOM and listen to his experiences because he really does love the BOM and needed to be reminded of its importance.

Heavenly Father was SO mindful of my needs that day. He knows I am capable of listening to the spirit and inviting the spirit, and that i am SO capable of BEING MYSELF in a lesson. I can still be Abbey Hafen while I speak Tagalog. He was so mindful of my needs that night by preparing this Filipino for us to teach a short lesson to that night via skype. I felt so much better about myself and just couldn't stop thanking Heavenly Father for that experience.

Being here is hard, but SO GOOOOOOD!!! Seriously, so good. Sorry for the spelling errors, I really just type SDF (so dang fast) that the computer can't keep up with me and I want to just blaze through this email time so I can say as much as I can!!

WE GOT TRAVEL PLANS. YES.  I REPEAT, I AM LEAVING THE MTC MONDAY JUL 29. holla! seriously, it was so so fun to get the travel plans. 2 people in my district have different flights to Tokyo, but my entire district flies together from Tokoyo- Manilla. We are SO lucky- the other district has COMPANIONSHIPS getting split up. We are so so happy. Here's the schedg:

LEAVE SLC 11:15am

ARRIVE Portland 12:04PM

LEAVE Portland 2:10PM

ARRIVE Tokyo 4:55PM

LEAVE Tokyo 6:25PM

ARRIVE Manila 9:55PM

I bought a calling card, so I will call you. Should I call your cell phone mom? I will call on a payphone first, so I don't waste calling card time to make sure you’re there, and then I'll call back on the card. I don’t understand time changes so.... yeah. I have no idea. If you want to figure that out for me you can!!

Carol Mikita (from KSL news) spoke at Relief Society. It was seriously so incredible. I was able to play the musical number. It was such a beautiful number. We changed the key and stuff and it was so powerful. I have missed feeling the spirit and expressing my testimony through music and am so happy I can take my violin to the field with me.

Thursday, we had a  NO ENGLISH day. Literally, we couldn't speak English the WHOLE day. It was fun, but so frustrating. Besides having to order my salad in a different language, spilling water in the cafeteria and explaining what happened to a worker in Tagalog and charades, the WORST moment of the day was realizing this is about to become my life. x 1000.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE. Yeah.

Heres some funny things:

- Sunday night movie after the devotional, this kid falls asleep in the INTRO and straight up drools on the floor

-an elder (I’m assuming) behind us at the Sunday devo must have just ripped some nasty ones because our whole row almost pasted out. nice, elder. nice.

-when we play 4 square with our zone, all the elders have this joke that I am heartless, even though I am not, and whenever ANYONE hits a nice shot and gets someone out, they say, "you've been HAFENED!!" it is so funny, but they just think I am so heartless when I play! I’m apparently just the best.

-Filipinos don't say the "p" sound, so our teacher said one time a leader was introducing the movie and said "okay, we will watch Fung Pu Fanda!" and he couldn't stop laughing

I love your letters and Dear Elders SO much. SO SO SO much. I love you all and am so grateful for you. I pray for you every night.I hope I haven't forgotten anything, pictures will come later. I love you I love you I love you. I hope my letters have enough about what is going on, it's crazy how time goes out here. SO crazy.

Alam ko po na, tunay si Jesu Cristo. Alam ko, tunay ang pagbabayadsala, gumait po ako ng pagabayadsala niya. Alam ko, totoo ang simbahan ni jesucristo.

I know that Jesus Christ is real. I know the Atonement is real, because I have used his atonement. I know that the church of jesus christ is true.

that is my testimony, and I leave that with you in Jesus Christ's name, AMEN.

FLIGHT PLANS

ME, Sister Pace, Sister Nosler, Elder Baker, Elder Tribe, Elder Poulter, Elder Hall, Sister Meinzer, Sister Carr (her district left but her mission president forgot to notify her to come in on June 19 instead of June 5 so she had to stay a few weeks with us! We love her!) Sister Maddock, Sister Carr, Sister Howlett, Sister Sirrine.

Sister Christensen, Sister Gardner, Me, Sister Ianuzi, Sister Carr. The district above us leaving. I love them!

Me and Zach Bess at the temple. I love seeing him all the time.

I LOVE ELDER TRIBE. He seriously is so funny, he's from Ogden. everything he says is funny. I love it.

THE DISTRICT!!

Elder Baker, Elder Tribe, Elder Poulter, Elder Hall, Sister Maddock, Sister Pace, me, Sister Howlett, Sister Sirrine, Sister Nosler, Sister Meinzer, Sister Carr.

Love me some Sister Meinzer. She's great.

me and my beautiful companion, Sister Nosler. And our favorite Elder Joseph. He was so Christlike, we LOVE and miss him.

Zone leaders Elders Packard and Finneman. I loved them so much. And miss them. They will be fabulous missionaries. I seriously clicked with them so well.

Me and Elder Nelson. I played tennis with him and his little sister! So crazy to see him, we were both like, whhaa?? haha so fun seeing everyone here. 

Our study cove. Love it.

YAY TANNER OLSEN!!!! Seriously, he has been looking for me and finally pday brought us together. I fly to Portland like an HOUR after him on that Monday. We were so sad.

Nice Sister Meinzer.

GO UTES. Elder Rowland (played baseball at SCHS, we were good buds) and his companion. They are serving in Ukraine.

4-square action shot!

District 4-Square plus Elder Lifi. Sister Nosler, Sister Pace, Abbey, Sister Meinzer, Sister Sirrine, Sister Holwett, Elder Lifi, Elder Baker, Elder Poulter, Elder Hall, Elder Tribe.

At the Health Clinic to get medicine Sister Nosler and Abbey.

Elder Poulter in action.

Sister Abbey Hafen // Week Four // Sombre Mahalaga... Envelope Important!‏

Kumusta Pamilya ko!!! (Hello my family)

 

So in our lesson, my companion was explaining that prayer is so important. And she was saying "Sombre mahalaga, sombre mahalaga". I knew it was "Sombrang Mahalaga" but I figured she was pretty close and in the moment, I couldnt really remember what it actually was. Sombre sounded close so I figured she was right. HAHA. After the lesson, our teacher told us, "Sombre" is envelope. We were dying. PRAYER IS ENVELOPE IMPORTANT. We were dying. good thing we can laugh at funny stuff, because funny stuff happens all the time and we mess up SO much.

 

Things are still so great here at the good ole MTC. Seriously, I love it here. People are so anxious to leave, but I'm not. Not yet. I'm sure I will be when it gets closer, but maybe I won't be. Change is hard, and for some reason, EVERY time something is about to change, I always doubt that what is coming can't beat what I already have. For example: When I graduated high school. I thought, man. I love high school. I am not ready to move on and start over. There's NO WAY college could beat how great high school was. I moved up to SLC, and what do ya know. After a couple of months, I was loving it. and I laughed at the thought of me thinking "it just couldn't beat high school." Next example: When I was about to leave on the mission. Life was so good and I had so many things going for me. I thought, man. There's no way that the MTC can beat what I'm doing right now. BUT... low and behold, I love it here. I wake up every day just so anxious to learn more and to soak up all the wisdom here. Now we're to present time. I am getting ready to leave the MTC, and I just don't want to leave. I am comfortable here, and there's no way that what's about to come can be better than now. I know I'm about to get proved wrong, and I can't wait for that. I just gotta keep preparing for the people in the Philippines the next 2 weeks, because there are people there that Lord has been preparing for years.

 

Sorry if the order of my letter makes no sense, I just kind of look at the list of things I made from my journal and write about each topic and check it off the list.

 

I saw Olivia her 2nd day. She looked dang good. Her companion seems super sweet and cool.

 

We were talking about what names are in the Philippines, and our teacher said they are so weird. But that there are a million variations of Mary and Rose. Mary Rose, Rose Mary, Mary Rosie, Rosie, Maria Rose, Rosy Marie, the list went on. I'll fit right in with Abbey Rose. Holla!!

 

Our last two lessons (me and my companions) were so sweet. THEY WENT SO WELL. We taught about the Godhead, because our investigator James doesn't know anything about religion or God, so we had to start from square one. We told him how to feel the spirit, how to pray, and who Jesus Christ was and is, and what he did here on Earth. We bore testimony about how no matter what is is in your life, Jesus Christ understands. Every time. It was so cool to just share testimony and read scripture with him. We asked him to pray and he said he would. The next appointment he said he just felt so happy as he prayed. He said that the worries of getting money, his family, and everything just felt like it was being taken away as he prayed. We were soooooo happy for him. Now. Don't sit here and read this thinking I'm an idiot, I'm aware that these investigators are not real. Our investigator is my teacher, for crying out loud. BUT. They're acting like the James he met on his mission and taught. And maybe it's silly, but I pray for our investigators constantly. I LOVE THEM. so much. I seriously feel the spriit when we testify and it's so incredible how much we can understand when they express their concerns and worries. The hard part is knowing what to say back. Our other investigator, Jonabelle, is catholic and we have taught her that we can communicate directly with prayer. She accepted the invitation to pray and said she couldn't believe how happy it made her. We taught her the entire first lesson, all the way through Joseph Smith. It was so cool to be able to tell everything from God is Our Loving Heavenly Father, He Blesses Families, Christ's Ministry, The Apostasy, and how God restored the gospel again through Joseph Smith. It' s amazing how much we have learned.

 

We are blessed here as missionaries. SO BLESSED. There's no way we could learn this quickly anywhere else.

 

Anyway, we got coached last night by a subsititue guy, and he said our "investigator" can ALWAYS feel our love in the lesson. They can tell we have passion behind our words and that we love them as people. But our extending commitments is weak. We worked on that and it was AWESOME. We knew he was going to say that was what we needed to work on. I'm usually the one to extend the commitment, and I start out loud and confident, but then my voice gets really quiet and I shrug my shoulders. It's so scary. I Seriously hate it. Haha. But we practiced last night (in english) and it still scared me, but we figured out things we want to change. I just need to be confident in the fact that it's my calling to extend commitments to people- it's the first step to repentance.

 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I realize I have a lot to work on though- teaching is hard. Even putting the language aside, I didn't realize how hard it was to teach the gospel. I thought I knew it but it's nothing like having a deep conversation with your best friend about a gospel topic. We have had to learn how to teach people in an organized way and that has been so good for me.

 

I'm playing another musical number tomorrow for the Relief Society program- we played it for our zone today. Oh man it was so good. I'm playing the Be Still My Soul duet as a solo, and we changed the middle part to a minor key. IT IS SO COOL. The music lady here at the MTC is the MTC Presidents wife- all her daughters play violin like professionally, she plays herself, and she has perfect pitch. When Meg and I auditioned, she had some things to say but was mostly impressed and loved the piece. THIS TIME... when the key changed, she sat up in her chair, looked at my pianist (Sister Sirrine in my district) and her face was very confused. She has DEFINITELY heard this arrangement before but was probably thinking sis sirrine missed some sharps- NOPE. We modulated and changed the entire middle part to minor and when we finished, she came up and said "Okay, now I've heard this piece SEVERAL times.. but what did youdo in the middle?!" We explained what we did and she FREAKED out and LOVED IT. Seriously. LOVED IT!!!! She was so impressed. It was so awesome. She got us on the program ASAP. It was so awesome. sister sirrine and I love playing together and are doing a really special number with our district and me on the violin the week we leave. I'm stoked.

 

The devotionals are always STELLAR. We had the 2nd counselor of the Presiding Bishopbrick a couple tuesdeys ago and he was incredible. We've had emeritus 70's, and Janice Kapp Parry I think was her name. And not to mention, just like ALL of the apostles our first sunday here, NBD (that means no big deal for all you oldies).\

 

My District is so close. We are family and I love it. We play District Speed at gym time, and today we played four square during pday free time today. Other people from the zone joined us and it was soo fun. We just love each other and it will be SO SAD to leave. We help each other and just get along, unlike a lot of districts here. We never put each other down and are always helping each other. It's been so good. I love it.

 

OH MY HECK BEST SURPRISE EVER- the Chalmers sent me a dozen krispy kremes!!! SHOUT OUT TO THE CHALMERS!!!!! Seriusly, my district was IN LOVE. And so was I. Also I loved the package from Hood (Heidi) and from you momma! Getting mail is so fun and I love hearing about what everyone is doing- and I also take time to write every one back, because I want you to know that I am so appreciatve of the support- I am so lucky. My Sister Training Leader's parents arent very supportive of her being  on a mission, and I seriously cant imagine how that would be. I love you guys. I am so lucky and have the best family and friends- seriously. SERIOUSLY!!! How many times can I say Seriously. SERIOUSLY though. Haha.

 

Thanks for everything, EVERYONE. I am happy and that is the truth. Aunt Jennifer said in her card to me, "You have 18 months to serve a mission and a lifetime to think about it." I have never forgotten that- I think someone told her that on her misson. They aren't kidding when they say the days go by like weeks, but the weeks like days. Time is flying- but yet moves so slow sometimes.

 

Ingat po (take care)

sister hafen

Sister Pace giving me a foot massage. She is so Christlike I love her.

Our substitute teacher giving us a lesson on using a pot to go to the bathroom. Also how to wipe without hands. SWEET.

Donuts from the Chalmers family!!!!!! Seriously what a great surprise. I love them. and my district loved the donuts.

Elder Hall, Me, Elder Poulter. Love these Elders. Love my district.

Another outfit. Love love love!

ME AND MY GSHOCK.

G shocks. our teacher has one too. we'll get a pic all together.

Temple!

Sister Nosler, Me, Sister Meinzer, Sister Pace. Temple Walk on Sunday. Temple is closed now for sessions :(

Me and Sister Pace.

Just bein a champ going to Tuesday devo.

Holy missionaries (haha literally.)

The district.

Dave and Janiel Moss, Me, Virgil and Alice Steel

Message from Alice Steel: Just got out of the big Relief Society Meeting.  Sister Abbey Hafen played the most beautiful violin solo, brought tears to my eyes.  I was so proud of her.  I wish I could have taken a picture of her and send it to you but I didn't have anything with me.  It has been so fun running into her regularly  She looks so happy.  Relief Society mtg was fabulous! Carole Mikita spoke and told of her family's coversion.  So good!