Semana Tres

Hola everyone!!! 

Last week on Thursday I was feeling sick, homesick, and quite tired. I hate to admit it but I was wishing I was home, questioning if I had been called to the right place at the right time. I think this happens to every missionary at the MTC at some point. But when I got to class there was a letter for me sitting on the whiteboard. It was from the President of the CCM. This is what it said:

"Estimada Hermana Hansen,

There is absolute greatness in you. I saw it in you when you arrived, I've seen it as you have served, and I have even seen it grow. I have a sense your Father in Heaven will give you many opportunities to develop this greatness through your faithful, diligent and consecrated service. 

I know you are from Orem, and I know you have received an assignment to Omaha and I want you to see the true miracle in this. Orem could be considered the "typical" place for a missionary to come from, but your Father in Heaven uniquely placed you there for your spiritual development and growth. He wanted you to have a VERY firm foundation from which to work. Now Omaha may NOT seem that typical, but there are people there who need YOU to communicate both your love and the love of God. Omaha will teach you things you need to know in order to help others achieve greatness -- certainly in your mission while you're there, but more importantly for your children who will need your greatness in a world of greater chaos. Your greatness will never be greater -- it WILL be your greatest testimony. 

-President Curtis Bennett"

He also gave me these scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2:9, and D&C 123:17

How amazing that the spirit told him I needed that letter. This man is so busy, he has over 300 other missionaries to worry about, and he took the time to write ME a letter. He even remembered where I'm from. It was such a strong reminder of why I'm here, and I know what he said is true. I cannot worry about myself while I am here. I'm here to find specific people in Omaha, and God is preparing them for ME. This letter made me realize that if my busy president is aware of me and where I'm going, how much more aware is my Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father is WAY more busy than my president, he has over 7 BILLION people on earth to worry about, but even then he is aware of me. Not only that, but he NEEDS me. He needs my help. He placed every single one of us on earth in the last days to help Him fulfill His will and purpose, to gather his children and bring them back home. Something I've thought a lot about this week is what my life looks like from God's perspective. When you think of your life this way you get this sudden desire to serve and you stop thinking of yourself. If you do this, it will be a lot easier to understand God's love and specific plan and purpose for YOU. It's so individualized. 

A few funny experiences from this week:

We had our first TRC, which is where a member from outside the CCM comes and you teach them a lesson. It was very intimidating because Gladice, the sweet little lady we taught, spoke very fast. I think she saw our deer in the headlights look and slowed it down for us, it went well haha. But at one point she asked how old our siblings were and my compañera said her brother was 40 instead of 14. Gladice was very confused, we had a good laugh about it. 

Another mistake she made was yesterday at dinner, we sat by a Latino Elder and asked him about his family. He said he was the youngest in his family and I said "oh, so you're the baby!" (In Spanish) and He looked very confused, so my companion tried to explain that in the States we call the youngest in the family the baby. But apparently the translation turned out like this: "Call me baby because I am younger." 

You can imagine the look he gave us after that. An elder that speaks both English and Spanish explained our mistake and we didn't stop laughing for the rest of the night.

On Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting in Spanish, it went suprisingly well! They do this awful thing where they have EVERYONE prepare a talk and they randomly choose them during the meeting. It's pretty terrifying, but I was prepared! My companion and I also taught the lesson in relief society (in English) and that went really well.

The CCM is amazing, I truly am so blessed to be here! Hasta la próxima semana, adios!!! Love you all :)

---Hermana Hansen 

1. Me my companion got matching rings at the little store outside of the temple!

2. The girls from my casa outside the temple last week!

3. These are the latinas in our casa. They actually just left on Monday, we were so sad!!! We became such great friends with them. But I swear none of them sleep. They stay up ALL NIGHT singing and laughing, and they're always awake already when we get up at 6:30. The night they left they literally did stay up all night long, and the next day one of the President's Counselors came by and said that the President walked by our house the night before and could hear people having a fiesta "well after 11:00." We tried to explain that it was the Latinas because we truthfully go to bed at 10:30 every night, we hope he believes us!!!! 

4. My comp <3

5. My friend from Jr. High! So weird when I see people from the outside world here. He just came in yesterday!