Week 8 - MTC

Hey!!!

I'm good! It's really happening! I'm getting more and more nervous....we're finally leaving!!  The mission is really finally about to start! Not that it hasn't, but it feels like I'm going to be in the MTC for the rest of my life. And the old life I had was just some dream I had one night. (P.S I've started to have dreams here....and they're really crazy! every morning I wake up breathing all heavy from whatever I was dreaming about. Not scary or anything...just really active haha. Weird, huh? I never had dreams. I had one dream I married this blind guy. We went to our daughter's soccer game and he was sad because he couldn't see her. But we worked through it and had the most beautiful life together. Honestly, cheesiest thing I could imagine!!! It was so funny, but so beautiful! So if you ever see a really attractive blind man...it's meant to be!!! just kidding haha). But guess who we saw at the temple when we were walking out? uh, David Archuletta!? He was hou sai! so tiny! and his hair was all parted. Write Alana...she'll die. or at least she would have back in high school ha!

Alright, down to business. We leave Monday morning at 4:30. We fly to LA, and then off to China! We get there about 7:00 Tuesday night - (which is probably more like 4 in the morning your time I would guess. I don't really know). Today I think I'll put together a box of stuff I dont need and it send home, so my luggage is good for weight and everything.

I'm so excited for Abbey and Danny to go to EFY! At night Sister Adams and I sometimes study outside at this table, and we kept hearing all this cheering.We couldn't figure out what it was. It sounded like it was maybe coming from the football stadium, but what would be going on there this time of year?....I was convinced Camilla must just be making a killing at the farmers markets they have there :) But honestly, it was way too consistent to be a sporting event. It just kept going and going for the longest time. We finally figured it must be EFY. So I know they'll have so much fun, because I've been listening to it haha.

Oh, and the picture you sent just about killed me! All of you sitting in my old apartment just down the street! And I love that picture of Tommy and dad. We have such a cool family. Please send me a picture of Danny in his hawaiian shirt. Tell him to look up this movie called the Phone Call. It's on Lds.org in the media library. You should watch it too. My friend showed it to me last semester, and it was hilarious. I dont know why I'm just remembering it now...probably the hawaiian shirt and thinking about how awesome Danny is :) Well I hope you and jack have fun here with Tommy and Camilla. Give everyone a hug for me. And give everyone up in Canada a hug for me too. Tell Grandma Joyce that I love her, and I'm so grateful for her.

Sorry, I really don't have anything to talk about. It's just the same old stuff here. I'm still working on the language. Along with reading the Book of Mormon, I decided to start reading the New Testament. I'm still not sure what to expect in Hong Kong, but I feel like probably just as in any mission, and perhaps even more so, I think sharing the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His atonement will be such an amazing and hopeful message. So I guess I've been focusing my studies around that. But ya, I'm excited. And ya, I'm nervous. When a native Chinese person starts speaking to me in Cantonese, I feel like I forget everything about the language I thought I knew. And they speak so darn fast! But then I just calm down a bit and try to pick out words here and there and get a basic understanding of what they're trying to say. I feel like I can speak it better then understand it. And that's something I want to flip, because it's way more important, in my opinion, to understand what they're saying and they're concerns and questions and experiences. But the language will come :)

Alright, well I love you! I hope you have a great week! Next time I write you, I'll finally be there! At that time we can start saying I miss you. I'm too close here to say it :) Alright, Love you!

Hannah