Letter #12: April 27, 2012

Hi Mother, Family, & Friends,

I have some good news and some bad news... Good news!! We got our travel plans!! (Hence this e-mail) I depart for Chile on May 7th at 6 am! That is when we leave the MTC and our flight leaves at 10:05 am. We fly to Los Angeles and then fly from L.A. to Santiago. That flight leaves at 12:50 pm and we should arrive in Chile at 5:40 am May 8th. Ha! Ha! that will be fun... Probably not as fun as Brett and Rachel's flight adventure to the East coast several months ago though. Ha :) We are flying on American Airlines to L.A. and then LAN Airlines to Chile. I'm very excited to leave but also very nervous! The language is going to be so hard at first! I have faith that I will pick it up quickly though:)  My time here in the MTC has FLOWN by! I can't even believe it! Only 10 days left! Woot :)

Now for the bad news.... We had another Elder go home today... Our district it down to four people now. (Which is VERY unusual!)  We have been cut in half since we came! It was the hardest goodbye I think I've ever had to go through... He is such an AWESOME missionary!! He's from West Virginia so I don't know if I'll ever see him again. He went home because he's been having health issues since he got here; stuff like throwing up, constant headaches, and passing out. He's had several doctors appointments and found out yesterday that he has a hole in his heart and has to have bypass surgery. Crazy huh! He left this morning. It was so abrupt! We are all super sad to lose him but he is planning on coming back out once he's recovered. No one knows if he'll be in the same mission or not though. He may not be able to leave the country depending on the circumstances and what the doctor's say. Sad sad day...... Blah. He said he's going to find me on fb so add him or accept him please :) His name is Ryan Satre (pronounced "say-truh"). Thanks!

Tell Rachel that I got her package and I LOVED it!! So awesome! And all the pics form the kids were great too!!!!! Super cute!! I hung them all over the wall by my bunk :) Also, tell her that I will try and write her this week and Brandon too! We don't have much time to write though so they may be short letters....

Anyway, I'm out of time! I love you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this gospel and I love this opportunity I have to serve!!! Thanks for supporting me and providing the means for me to be here!!!!! Not a day goes by that I don't thank the Lord or think of how grateful I am to be here!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Love Always,

Hermana Hermansen :)

Letter #11 April 6 and April 10, 2012

I received two letters from Hermana Hermansen yesterday.  They also included some pictures!  Yeah!

April 6, 2012

Dearest Rachie-Pants,

That was so good to hear about about your weekend and Bailey!  She is so cute and it sounds like you two had a lot of fun!!  Has she said anything about getting baptized or have you talked to her about it?

Conference was really good, wasn't it!  A lot about family and being nice.  It's funny because the things they teach in conference are so simple and easy to understand, I sometimes wonder why they address such small issues, but then I remember that they are things that the world needs to hear and things we need to constantly be reminded of.  :)  It's cool how revelation through leaders of the Church works!

So, Hermanas can wear pretty much whatever as long as it is modest.  You know how you said that Kari got sick of her clothes like halfway through her mission and had Lori send her some?  Well, I'm already starting to get sick of some of my clothes.....Ha! Ha! Not really, but the choices are so limited, which is how it will be and I'm fine with it.

Anyway, best be on my way!  I love you mucho!  Thanks for being so awesome and writing me and supporting me.  I sincerely appreciate it!  You really are the best sister EVER!  Mi hermana favorita!

Love,
Hermana Hermansen

P.S.  Enjoy some pics! (She sent a few hard copy pics, but I only scanned one...I'm going to ask her to send digital copies.)

April 10, 2012

Dear Rachie,

Estoy bien, pero tango dolor de mi boca...esta bien.  (I am good, but I have pain in my mouth).   Estoy aprendiendo mucho en el CCM y me gusta mucho tambien. (I am learning a lot in the MTC and I also love it a lot.)

So, I wrote you and Brett a couple days ago, but I'm waiting to get some pictures printed off before I send it and then I got your DearElder letter yesterday, so I thought I'd write again. :) 

My Easter was good.  It didn't really feel like Easter, though.  Everyday pretty much feels the same here. We had President Boyd K. Packer come and speak to us on Easter.  That was pretty cool!  Also, his son Elder Packer (of the 70) spoke to us, as well.  They both gave really good talks about the power of missionaries.  That was for sacrament meeting, which was unusual because we normally have sacrament within the zone.  We had all 2,000 missionaries in the auditorium and the sacrament was passed all at once.  There were 4 tables set up for the bread and water with 8 Elders at each table and each Elder had 2 trays in hand.  It still took 15-20 minutes to get the sacrament passed to everyone, but it was a really cool experience!  I love the sacrament!  It's such an awesome part of our religion.  It's the ONLY ordinance in the gospel required to be performed EVERY WEEK!  It much be pretty important then, eh? :) 

Your Young Women lesson sounds like it went really well!  I LOVE "Mormon Messages".  They're so sweet!  The most important thing you can do as a Young Women leader is to get your girls to feel the spirit as much as possible.  Years later, they won't remember the things you said, but they will remember the power of the Holy Spirit they felt!  I'm sure your Young Women love you...because you are funny and nice and organized and you can just be crazy sometimes. :)  Ha!

Guess who I saw last week and talked to and shook hands with??? That's right....Andy Nielsen!  Crazy, huh?  I was so caught off guard when I heard someone call my name and then saw him!  He works here I guess....Huh!

Thanks for accepting Hermana Ortega's friend request.  I'm on a mission and I'm still gaining virtual friends. Ha!  We (meaning my companion and I) are getting along great!!  We have lots of fun together and work hard. 

The food is getting old....the salad seems to have gotten less fresh and they have something fried at every meal.  The food they provide is so high in fat and sugar.  They do have fruit at every meal, but it's either not that fresh or it's not ripe enough.  I've given up on running here because 10 laps = 1 mile, plus it's an indoor track, which is AWFUL.  I want to enjoy running and running 40 laps around awkward Elders, while my face is burning off, sweating like a pig, not being able to breathe is not enjoyable.  Now I play volleyball or foursquare at gym.  It's a lot of fun!

My Dansko shoes are holding up well.  My feet don't ever hurt, so I guess they're doing their job.  I don't think that they are very stylish, but I'm used to them.  

Learning Spanish is hard, but it's getting better.  It's hard to imagine that I'll ever be able to speak it fluently, but all my teachers say that we know more and are batter at Spanish when we were in our 2nd week than when they left the MTC, so that's a little reassuring.  

Thanks for getting those pics printed of me!  You're awesome!  I'd better go now, but I may write you again in this same envelope due to waiting for my pics to be ready to send.  Love you!!!

Love, 

Hermana Hermansen

Letter #10 April 6, 2012

Dear Mama,

Hola!  How are you?  I'm doing well. :)  I'm glad you got to see me singing in General Conference!  My next dentist appointment is not this Monday, but the following.  I'm not sure what time yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do know!

My tooth actually has been hurting a little since my dentist appointment, but yesterday it started hurting really bad!!  I've been taking ibuprofen, aspirin, and excedrin.  Not all at once of course, but I've been rotating.  It actually woke me up in the middle of the night last night and I couldn't sleep because it was hurting so badly...not fun, but the medicine helps a lot!  I need you to send me more medicine asasp, though.

Conference was so good!  It seemed like the main focuses were family and being nice.  Conference isn't too different as a missionary, besides not being able to be in PJs and sit on a couch.... It seems though, that being a missionary, my understanding of the gospel principles has been vastly increased!  Not to say that church doctrine and principles didn't make sense before, but everything has enriched meaning. So, the same applies with Conference.  I'm sure was all got the same message out of it, but as a missionary, my understanding of exactly what they're saying and why they are saying it shone through brightly!

I'm glad the weekend was fun for everyone!  I miss the grandkids!!!  Send me pictures of them please. :) I'm glad you had a good bonding experience with Aunt Konnie, Kristie, and Grandma!!  Sounds awesome!

You are awesome and I love you mucho!!!  Happy Easter!!!

Love,
Hermana Hermansen

P.S.  Did you get Courtney's letter to her?  If you didn't see the e-mail, could you get Lyndsie Hall's address for me please?  Thanks!

P.P.S.  Could you tell Rachel to add or accept my companion on Facebook?  Her name is Laynee Ortega from Ogden, Utah (I think), she studied at Utah State, Chelsea Bowman should be friends with her.  They you can FB stalk her for real. :)

Letter #9 April 1, 2012

Dear Mom,

Thank you so much for the package!!  It was awesome!  I love the missionary necklace!!!  I never want to take it off. Ha!  When I get home, I think I'll want one just like the one you have, too.  I love, love, LOVE the necklace you got me!  I was just thinking it might be kind of weird to wear it when I'm not a missionary, but I probably will anyway because I love it so much. :)  Ha!

The letter from Bailey was awesome, too!  She is so stinkin' cute!!  I just lover her and want her to be baptized.   Everything else in that package was awesome, too!!!  You can tell Melissa (you aid) that I understood almost all of her letter.  I am actually really good at Spanish comprehension, like reading it and listening.  I just can't quite speak it and put it together as well as I would like to yet, but it's only been 3 1/2 weeks, so I'm not too worried about it.

Also yesterday, I got to sing in Conference!!!  It was crazy cool!  A seriously incredible experience.  Did you see me on the big screen?  We watched it today and you could see me a couple of times.  The one time the camera got closest, I was making a really ugly face....Ha! Ha! The choir director kept telling us to open our mouths and make them long as we sing and when we were performing, I swear he was looking right at me and telling me specifically to make my mouth bigger...so I think I over-corrected or something....oops.  Ha!  Ha! Oh Well!

I love your letters mama!  That's crazy about the wind!  And I liked the little thing on my new soon-to-be mission president and his wife!  It's nice to hear about the real world because it sort of feels like it stopped.

Well, I must be getting to bed.  I hope conference was wonderful for you!!! I love and miss you mucho!

Love,
Hermana Hermansen

P.S.  Enjoy the pictures!