You look so great! The campfire looks fun! Camilla, you're awesome. Marshall's cute. since when did your friends have facial hair? just kidding. since when did MY friends have facial hair? haha. I guess its been awhile. The pictures are nice. My family is starting to feel more like a computer than people. A white screen with black words on it ha. I know you are people, but it's fun to zoom up at your pictures and get a close and personal shot. You become people again :) We have an awesome family, and I am so excited to see you again and be a part of your campfires. And then I'll leave again haha. Missions are too dramatic. Once you hit 18 or 19, you'll be out of the house anyway. whether you're in Hong Kong or New York or Idaho, it's not that much of a difference, right? At least from an objective standpoint of being gone haha. So you might as well do what is important to you. I'm glad that this has become so important to me.
No, I don't mean to make missions sound unimportant. It's the most important thing I've ever done. I know I still have a lot of other important things to do, but I am so grateful to be here. It's like a really well kept secret in the church. I had no idea the amount of heart these missions require, or the amount of change that happens. No idea. Maybe because it's so personal and exact for what we need individually. Heavenly Father sure knows us.
This week has in all honesty felt so long. Really really long ha. We had MLC on wednesday and met the new mission president. He's amazing, and he'll be an incredible president. and then we had zone training on friday, and then had another two hour meeting with the mission president on saturday, and then we dropped off our summer missionaries this morning. I'm really excited to go home and clean our apartment. And I'm excited to get to serve with Sister Robinson. Our syuke's were awesome and worked hard, but the work was different. Ya! We miss President & Sister Hawks Really, I was so bummed. That word describes feelings really well sometimes. Just bummed. They put in everything to this mission, and then they just quietly pack up and leave in a taxi. It just hurt my heart. But that's the beauty of the Lords work, I guess. We're literally His servants, and it's a pleasure to give what we can. But with that said, President Lam is going to be amazing. He is very warm, and humble and open. He and His wife have experiences that will add so much to the way we do this work. Very logical and thoughtful. It will be very different. President Hawks ran this mission hard and ran it well. He worked before in knowing how to make companies run effectively and efficiently, and his choices were very direct and thought out. His presence almost just demanded you to be concise and complete. He would listen to everything and anything you had to say, but you wouldn't ever want to say more than needed. And you could feel their love for you in how hard they worked and how much respect and trust they gave us. President Hawks had several themes that guided him, and would have several themes that would influence the mission. Obedience. Act. Don't be acted upon. And how the patterns we learn here aren't just for the mission, they are to influence our lives. His ending testimony would always be, "I love the Lord, I love Sister Hawks, and I love the book of Mormon. Be obedient." Something to that effect.
But this week I learned the importance and reality of priesthood keys. The administration is very different, but it feels absolutely natural and right. President Lam will stand up at the front of the room and will talk for a couple hours, kind of rambles without much direction. But I will learn so much and pick up important things every time he talks. He strives very much to follow the spirit. And what was neat was that in his discussions, he has hit every time on Obedience, Act, don't be acted upon, and this is for more than just your mission. But the sweetest part for me was at MLC, his closing testimony was, "I love my God, I love my wife, I am grateful for the Book of Mormon. Be obedient." Something like that. It was just neat, and calmed my feelings a bit about the Hawks being gone. So we're doing everything we can to support President Lam and Sister Lam in every way possible. We really are so excited to work with them. It's going to be a fun couple months.
I better go, but I love you guys. You sound great. I'm excited already to email you in a week!
Love Hannah
ps: photos of Noel's & Joshua's Wedding (so strange to see her with make-up on!)
No comments:
Post a Comment