Hey!
Sorry to surprise you with an early email. We had a schedule change, so now our Pdays are on Monday. But things here are good! The language is still coming along. Sentence structure doesn't seem too bad yet, so it's mostly just memorizing vocab and sounds and tones. And I don't have much to update you on! Things are pretty routine here. We got 8 new Thai elders to our zone, and they all seem so young! Its interesting how fast people can change though. I'm impressed with our British boy band. The first week felt like cattleguarding (is that what you would call it? herding cattle?). They were just nonstop all over the place, but over the past couple days, its amazing to see how much they've progressed with their focus and language and study. Maybe they're just too tired to mess around!  haha. We all still really get along and have fun, but things aren't so distracting anymore. I'm interested to see how I'm changing.

So, my companion was dating a Samoan boy before she left. He's actually on a mission back to Samoa right now, but there are several Samoan elders here who knew him. So we're pretty good friends with them, when we have time to talk(really just gym and meals). But they are so happy! and grateful and bright. and loud! haha. They really are so fun. It's a good break in the day to just hear from across the cafeteria...."Sistas!!" Hahaha, its so great. They really just love Sister Adams, but I get to enjoy their company as a side effect :)

I'm boring myself with this letter, so I'm sorry to put you through reading this. But I want you to know that I'm doing good. It's one thing to learn the gospel and the atonement and Savior in terms of my own life, but I'm learning so much and my testimony is growing when I think about how it can bless others. We are constantly reminded that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, but I'm more fully understanding what it means to be a servant of the Lord. I've always seemed to take that phrase half-heartedly. But Elder Oaks gave us devotional last week and said, "You are not here to be thanked. You are here to serve." And I liked that. We aren't here for ourselves, although I know that the most greatest changes will be our own. But us improving is just a side effect of our service, not the purpose. You love who you serve, and as we serve the Lord, we will come to love and better know Heavenly Father. So it all makes great sense why our own testimonies increase and strengthen when we bear testimony or teach others, because when we are doing that, we are acting as servants to our Savior. I liked the scripture D&C 68:6 this week.
 "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come."
The Samoan elders have been a fun example to me of this scripture.
It's ​ ​fun to have some friends in here :) Sorry, mom, you don't have to include all this spiritual stuff in my letters if you don't want. I'm mostly just writing it for you and for me to look back on later. But I love you and miss you! ​​I'm​ doing good on supplies. I'll think about it more this next week, but I'm good! oh and I didn't know you were going to post my first letter I wrote out to you ​ -​ haha. now I understand what you were asking about my wardrobe being rubbish haha. I was just giving you two example of phrases they  ​would​​ say. My wardrobe was never referred to as rubbish haha. Those were said separately. sorry.
But that's so awesome about Camilla! and scary about the race! and things back home seem normal and fun as always. I love our family. I really hope Tommy gets that internship...that would be so awesome. And what a nice looking new car!! I bet Abbey is excited to get driving :)

Alright, sorry to be so scattered. Ngoh ngoi leih.

Hannah

Week 1 MTC

Family! Hey!
I can't believe its only been a week! They're keeping us busy here, but it's not as bad as I was expecting. The days are long, but I'm learning a ton. I can say prayers and bear my testimony in Cantonese, and my companion and I are doing pretty well with the language (but it's only been one week, so dont expect much). But Cantonese is so fun, I looove it. We've taught 5 lessons already, all in straight up Canto. And our investigator doesn't cut us any slack. Some go way better than others, but it's interesting that we can still feel the spirit even when we can hardly say or understand anything and when our investigator is pretending. But it's all to help us learn, and it's working. We've said some pretty funny things though..."Moroni was greedy with the Book of Mormon"..."Prophets put to death the word of God"...The list goes on and on. But I love my companion Sister Adams. She was pretty homesick and anxious the first few days, but things are settling down now. We have 6 sisters in our district, and they're all cute and fun, but I'm so grateful Sister Adams is my companion. We have so much fun together and work really well together. And our Elders are great. All four of them are from England, and are always trying to fix our English because we dont speak "properly."  I'll send you a picture of our schedule. Its loaded. We dont speak Cantonese 24/7, but our teachers only speak to us in Cantonese, so almost. What else....My name is Dúng Jímuíh (Sister). Sounds pretty much how it's spelled.  One of our Elder's name means crafty and wicked - haha. But President Uchtdorff came for Easter, so that was really great. We all thought it was going to be Elder Holland, but they switched it on us. He spoke about being fearless, and gave the example of Peter. He went on to describe several events during Christ's ministry in which the disciples were hesitant and fearful. Focusing on Peter, he described him as a man's man, a rock of a man, and yet he was loaded with fear....at the sea of Galilea with the walking on water, when he denied the Savior....But then he went on to describe the severe heartbreak and sorrow and despair the they all went through when the Savior was crucified. Imagine the guilt and disappointment - especially Peter felt after denying him shortly before. President Uchtdorf then went on to describe Peters actions afterwards. He went from being fearful to fearless. Peter had a newfound resolve to bear witness of the Savior and never deny him in any way at any time thereafter. And President Uchtdorf said it so beauifully. But then he said that we celebrate Easter every Sunday.  We celebrate the ressurection every sacrament, and so each week can find new resolve to be fearless in our devotion to the Savior. So I liked that. And I put that in here because I know, Mom, you will like that too. Well I don't know what else to say! I love you all. I'm doing great. Please send me addresses or dearelders! I didn't do a good job of writing addresses down before I left, and I have some time throughout the week to write handwritten letters. But I hope you had a happy Easter! I miss you all!

Love,
Hannah a.k.a Dúng Jímuíh

Welcome to the blog!

Hannah entered the MTC last Wednesday!  We received her first letter in the mail today!  Only someone waiting for a letter from a missionary knows how well received that was.  Love this girl.  A few notes:  When she was called to Hong Kong, her packet instructed that if she had Chinese heritage, she could have a name based on that, otherwise, a Chinese name would be assigned to her.  So, she won't have Sister Dudley on her name tag once she leaves the MTC, she'll be known by her assigned name.  Not sure why - but interesting!
Additionally - a Brit calling someone's wardrobe "rubbish," is akin to an American saying something "is sick."   For the old crowd - that's a good thing! The British elders think she's very stylish!

Dear Mom + Dad (and Abbey/Danny/Jack) + Tommy/Camilla - but they won't see this!

Hey! Leíh hóu!

Things here are good!  I'm a little tired of people telling me welcome to the MTC, so I took off my orange "dork" dot. But I'm alive and scheduled out every minute, and it's not bad at all.

My name is Dúng Jímuíh (tsee-muy - which means Sister).  Dúng means supervisor or overseer, so I guess I'm definitely the mission mom....  Not really, nobody knows how old I am or what my name means, so I fit in just fine.  It's amazing how being in the MTC just a few weeks longer makes the 18 year olds think they rule mission life!  haha!  I'm excited for them to get out in the field to get humbled a bit.  My zone leaders are both 18.  One of them just turned 18 here in the MTC and finished high school online early, so he technically hasn't graduated high school yet...weird.  But they are impressive nonetheless and we have a good district.

The four elders in my district are all from Britain, and it's really fun to hear them talk to each other.  "They love" "my wardrobe" "it's rubbish"...pretty funny.  My companion's from Utah, and we get along pretty well.  Reminds me a lot of Jazmyn.  So far, so good.  We have different ways of working, so we'll learn how to work together soon enough!

I have about 50 lbs of Cantonese books, so there goes one suitcase!  But it's an amazing language.

I'm learning to pray and bear testimony already and we teach our first "investigator" (actor) tomorrow, Friday.  But we can only teach in Cantonese, so this should be interesting.  Sister Adams and I are actually one of the better companionships with the language, and about everything really.  I think we'll learn a lot these next 9 weeks.

Last night was freezing, so I didn't sleep much.   Neither did Sister Adams, so we're going to go grab another blanket.  I'm actually kind of surprised with the schedule.  We have lots of places to go and classes to attend, but I don't fell entirely productive.  I'm sure that will change quickly, but I thought this was going to be a lot harder.  And I'm sure I'm jinxing myself, so I'll keep you updated!

But I love and miss you guys!  My p-days are on Wednesday.  I'm not sure when I'll have computer time, but we'll see.  I'll be praying for you in Cantonese (if you can call it that).

Alright, see ya!

Hannah   - Dúng Jímuíh