I Have Been Changed

Hey family.
You sound great! Way to go in tennis, Danny. Looks like you will go pro soon enough. Thanks for keeping your hair long. I'm excited to see you. According to your picture, you have incredibly long legs - which means you will be tall. In my mind you still look like the picture we took at Lake Tahoe as a family, because thats what I look at every day.

It was a great week. Things just keep going. Found some new people, taught some old people. I love them. I am so sad. And then again, I'm not. I can't tell you how excited I am to see you. Thank you for the advice on sleeping and all that. I'm not sure I'll find a phone to call you. I'll try, but I might just plan on seeing you in Reno.

President Lam organized a fireside for all the departing missionaries to invite people they met throughout their mission - investigators, recent converts, less actives, members, other friends- to come and hear our last missionary testimonies. It was a very sweet thing. We each just took a few testimony to share what we've learned. Tuen mun (where I live now) is just too far for people to go, and I figured if they came, then they might not come to church the next day and I figured church was better ha. So I just invited what people I still had contact information for from my old areas. I was really kind of sad about it all, though, because I couldn't get ahold of Cherry. Remember Cherry? I love Cherry and her family. She left in July to go visit Utah with her entire family for some extended family member's wedding, and when she got back, the sisters serving after me in Sham Shui Po couldn't find her. She just kind of disappeared. Nobody answered her phone, nobody was ever home. That happens sometimes. People just kind of disappear into mainland and you'll never hear of or from them again. So I was pretty worried any way of contacting her was lost. But I tried emailing her and invited her to the fireside. I sat there on the stand as we waited for our turn to share, and scanning through the crowd, she wasn't there. I was really hoping she would come, but knew it wasn't the greatest of probabilities. But as the night went on, I saw her sneak in through the back with her son, A-yuhng. And I just cried. And then I had to go up and bear my testimony. Great.

I feel good about coming home. There's a lot to be done and I am excited for that, so I haven't been struggling too bad with emotions. But sometimes it just tears at me. Not often, but every now and then, I'll just feel it...just a deep sadness that it has to end. There have been a few times, now I guess 2 times, where I've felt it. And they both happen to be in front of a crowd which is just embarrassing. And this testimony meeting was one of those times. Since Cherry came, I decided to just share my testimony of God. Of Prayer. Of the importance of coming to know Heavenly Father. Which is done by coming to know the Savior. I don't know what she has been struggling with lately, but she's changed a bit. But I bolted down there after the closing prayer, and she had tears in her eyes and I had tears in my eyes, and I got an asian person to hug me. Which doesn't happen. I love that woman. So sweet of her to come again. She said she'll keep trying. And that's all I needed. along with her new contact information so I can make sure she does. It's hard to know if I really fulfilled everything I should have with my time out here. And especially in the case of Cherry, easily one of the most important people I met on my mission to me, and I didn't get to see her progress as much as I could have hoped in the gospel. Sometimes you wonder if you did everything you were supposed to. But it's not my work. And it's not my gospel. I worked hard, and I have perfect confidence in Heavenly Father's way of doing things. Which includes using me to try.

I am excited to see you! Please be patient with me. I have the airplane figured out. I will write my talk and sleep, and talk with elder koochin (we're the only ones flying home on friday, so that will be funny). I have the airport figured out. We'll say hello, and we'll hug and drive on the nice freeway home! I have sunday figured out. We'll go to church, and I'll give a talk and go to primary. (Thank you mom) But then monday morning will come and I'll wake up, and I haven't figured out after that. But I'm excited! Life moves on. And I have been changed and learned things to help me keep going. keep moving.
I love you all. See you Friday! or Saturday! I'm not sure what day it will be.
Love hannah

Oh I have a lot of pictures. But I'll just show them to you later. Too maahfaahn to upload them.