Hermana Hansen in Houston TX

The people I love so much,

So I'm used to telling literally every single thing that happens to me to my mom, so I hope that as I write this email my fingers won't fall off from writing so much :) I have about a million things to say and not nearly enough time!!

Not 5 minutes after my family dropped me off at the MTC, I saw my roommate from Utah State - Sister Maxey. It was the best thing ever! I may have cried really hard. I also see her at least once a day, and it's the very best ever. I have also seen SO many familiar faces from school. Seeing people from home is my favorite.

My companion is Hermana Haroldsen. She's from Herriman Utah and is super nice. We are totally different people, but we make it work. We both want to be exactly obedient and it helps so much. She is my height and is going to LA Spanish speaking. She doesn't have any Spanish background, but she's been picking it up a TON! She's so open to new ideas and brings a lot of knowledge to our lessons. I'm grateful that we both have a desire to work hard! She reminds me of my cousin Morgan.

My District. So as you all know, we have 8 Elders and 4 Hermanas. It's crazy how close we have all become in 7 days! As we were planning for our first pday and a district, the Elders were getting so worried about doing everything together, down to emailing in the same place. Maybe it's because we all don't have any form of entertainment, but the Hermanas thought it was hilarious because usually the girls are worried about doing everything together, but it's the opposite for our district! The Elders also take SUPER long to get ready. They say it's because of all the buttons they have to use, but I don't buy it :)

We taught our first lesson on Friday! It was SO hard. We had to teach in Spanish, obviously, and it was opugh! We just read from the Plan of Salvation and we did not teach by the Spirit so it was rough. Our investigator is Sophia and we teach her everyday. Each lesson gets better and better! My Spanish is slowly coming along. I used up all of the knowledge from High School Spanish class already!

My mom wanted to know what a basic day is like here :) Our days are split into 3 parts: teaching Sophia, Ciclo (personal, companion and language study) and class with our teacher. Between each is a meal. So we basically just go to our classroom, then the cafeteria and back. I'm already tired of the food, which might be good because then I won't gain weight!! My teacher is the BEST. His name is brother Santillan and he served in Morgan's mission! He actually served with her in the same branch! CRAZY. He looks up to her so much and I'm trying to make sure he thinks I'm a good missionary too :) The days blend together because we do the same thing everyday!

I'm learning and growing SO much. Ciclo is my favorite. I love learning and growing my testimony each day! I'm always tired and feel like I sleep for 5 minutes but it's good. I also want to let everyone know that this has been the hardest week of my life. I cry myself to sleep every night. The mission is not easy, it's a HUGE lifestyle adjustment. I'm still getting used to the missionary life, but I'm honestly way happy. Having the Holy Ghost with me always is the best feeling :)

I'm also getting dang good at looking up words in my Spanish to English dictionary, because I do it about 500 times a day!

Everyone Dear Elder me! My mom said my MTC address is in the first post :) On Monday night I got 10 letters, and my whole district was so jealous lol. One of the Elders even asked if I had a boyfriend because I got so many and I was like no I just have awesome friends and family :)

I love you all. I know that this church is true and that I'm supposed to be here right now, no matter how hard it is or how much I miss my family and friends. Keep writing me!
Love always,
Hermana Hansen

I almost forgot something WAY cool that happened on Sunday! ELDER BEDNAR CAME! It was so sweet! He talked about the Character of Christ. It was amazing. I don't have enough time to tell you much but the spirit was so strong and it helped so much! It was so cool to have him talk to us specifically :)