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 :)