Week 3-Provo MTC Dec. 8, 2014

Wow what a week!

I can honestly say this was probably the hardest but most rewarding week ever so far! It was so long and we all got really frustrated with the language. But then we would go into lessons and speak for 1 hour + and it completely blew my mind!

I have officially converted my entire district to Elder Holland's words of wisdom. We watch at least one massage a day from him. One of my favorite points of the day I might add. 

This week was filled with 8 teaching lessons - 2 to members and the rest to our investigators. What an outstanding opportunity. Each time I bear testimony I can feel my conviction grow. 

But the most important part of this week is that the new Christmas message from the church came out. If any of you have not seen it yet stop reading this and go to lds.org. I'm serious. Go. It's so amazing and they are asking us to go and tell all of the people at home to watch it and share it.

Why? Well because we are the Church of Jesus Christ and that is our message. We believe so many things but the most important is that Jesus is the Christ. The Only Begotten of the Father.

I may be the last person on this earth to realize this but "mas" in Spanish means more. So Christmas literally means more Christ. I count it as one of the highest privileges to bear
His sacred name on my chest day after day. I testify of His Atonement and Divinity in all that I do. And now I challenge you all to do the same. It doesn't so much matter which Christian church we are affiliated with, we have the responsibility to testify of Him. Especially at this glorious time of the year. 

I am really excited for Christmas at the MTC because it will literally be the best week ever!! Joseph Smith was born on the 23rd, the 24th is Christmas Eve and the 25th is Christmas. There's the reason I am here all in one week!

I know that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and He suffered for each and everyone of us so that He knows how to lift us when we fall down. I have never needed to lean on Him so much in my entire life. I have never realized just how much I really can't do. Without Him I can't speak to these people. I can't learn what I have to learn and I can't wear the badge that sets me and the rest of this Army of God apart from the rest of the world. 

And that is my admonition to all this week. Learn of Him. Lean on Him. Testify of Him. For I know that He truly is who He proclaimed to be. He is the Christ. We have a Father in Heaven who loves us and watches over us. He knows what we need and He wants to hear from us.

I testify that Joseph Smith is His prophet that He called to head up this last dispensation and that he truly saw what he said he saw. One of my new favorite scriptures is Joseph Smith History 1:24-26. Read what John Taylor said of the prophet Joseph in the 138th chapter of D&C.

I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. And together with the Bible we have the opportunity to learn of the Savior. But the Book of Mormon will bring us closer than any other book.

All we have to do is read. Every day. Alma 7 testifies so beautifully of the Redeemer of us all. And if we do as instructed in Alma 32 and many other scriptures, all we must do is read, ask in prayer and be ready and willing to act on the answers we receive. I know that those answers will come. They came for me and I have seen them come for others. I plead with you to read this book. I treasure it dearly. So many gave their lives so that we may be able to have it. The prophets and people that died within the pages. The prophet Joseph and the men, women, and children that were a part of our pioneer ancestors, and many more. They have sealed their witness of this glorious book with their very blood. And I seal my witness with theirs. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that each and every word is true and I have come to learn more of my Savior than out of any other book. Please read it.

I love all of you!

May God bless you and keep you safe, is my constant prayer.

Hermana Kylie D. Hansen

 Provo, Utah Temple

 Pointing at my future mission on the world map at the Provo MTC

 My District at the Provo, Utah Temple

 My District at the Provo, Utah Temple

 My District at the Provo, Utah Temple

 My roomies and companions

 

 Roomies and companions on Thanksgiving

 Roomies and companions on Thanksgiving

language stuff..and thats just the spanish

Week 2 CCM (MTC)-Dec. 1, 2014

Hey everyone!!

Wow what a crazy week this has been! It has felt like 3 years! There is a saying here that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is so true. Time is seriously warped here!

i will start with Tuesday. Mostly it was filled with  more classes and we taught another lesson. But that night was seriously the best part! Dallin H. Oaks came for our Devotional! Ha Sister Mason! Just Kidding but I thought of her while he was talking because he brought his wife. They talked about the value of being a dedicated missionary and it was so good!

Wednesday was pretty good except for TRC which is when we teach someone else in a room that has a video camera so it records you. That was one of the toughest lessons I have ever been a part of my entire life!! Needless to say I was hugely humbled that day!

Thursday was the best day of my life so far. Okay maybe not that good but pretty close. Elder Bednar came and did this huge Q&A thing in which they passed out a ton of cell phones and we texted him our questions and they showed up on his ipad. It was also broadcast throughout the world in every MTC so they emailed him questions. It was one of the coolest things ever! I felt like a member of MOTAB because our musical number for the choir was also broadcast. Slightly nerve wracking. But it was great. Then we did the service project which was so freaking cool I can't even describe it in words. We were put into groups sort of and lined up on 1 table each group and put together lentil casseroles for the Utah food bank. it felt so good to help in such a way that we all knew it would help someone. Because sometimes like if you rake leaves you aren't sure if you are doing something that is actually going to help someone but this was different.  And Elder Bednar came in the cafeteria while we were there. I STOOD 30 FT AWAY!! No joke he looked into my eyes! It was such an amazing day! Then we went to a program where we sang a few hymns and then watched Meet the Mormons as the new movie that just got into the MTC! It was super awesome. Then they gave us a "surprise" and we went outside and they had the Christmas Lights lit in the main square of the MTC. I have pics it was super neat!

Friday and Saturday were pretty ordinary everyday stuff. 12 hours of classroom study with lunch and dinner breaks in between. 

But Sunday.....Oh goodness......almost as awesome as Thursday..almost.

Every Sunday we follow the same schedule so it was all pretty usual but a lot of our Zone is leaving so there will be 11 of us for 2 weeks in our branch and zone...needless to say we will become very close. But during Relief Society we watch Music and the Spoken Word. They sang O Come o come Emmanuel...one of my favorites...and Cum Sancto Spiritu...that may not mean much but I sang it Senior year so I was the dork who was singing along with the choir during the very complicated latin piece. To each their own I guess. But Sheri Dew was the guest speaker. Need I say more? Nope.

Then get this.....Vocal Point came for our Sunday night devotional. Yes the music group. I almost flipped out!! It was pretty much the coolest musical devotional i have ever been to. SO EPiC!! They sang Nearer My God to Thee for their last song....so much better in person...and the guy who hits the freakishly high notes..well he is about 5'3' no joke. It was awesome!

Then we went to our various movie night things but somehow in the crowd we got oddly separated. I only had one of my companions and our roommate didn't have hers. So we went to search for them, which is no easy task by the way in a sea of missionaries who all wear the exact same thing!! And all of them have nametags so that didn't help. Finally we found the building where someone thought they had seen them go so we went to go check. Did we find them? Nope. But we found a dark room that was showing Legacy so we sat in, thinking they might be sitting there in the dark. Well the movie was in Spanish. Perfect. Didn't understand anything BUT since I have seen that movie about 10385767849039385763920 times (maybe thats a slight exaggeration) I translated for about 15 minutes. Then we decided to leave because that was getting super boring. I kid you not we walked out of the door and the two of them were standing there. It was almost like the sons of Mosiah and Alma in Alma chapter 17. Pretty cool. Once the 5 of us were together again, we started to leave when we heard the talk from the neighboring room. It was Pres. Uchtdorf talking about missionary work and he got really loud all of a sudden and said, "That is why you must always stay with your companion" Okay got it. Learn our lesson. We are taking about making leashes now. Then we went back to our classroom and watched most of Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration. It was really good. I watch it in a different way now.

This morning we went to the temple and it was such an amazing experience! It always is but this morning was particularly great! Tonight we are teaching a new investigator and another new one tomorrow. So this week we will have 3. Goodness gracious. sometimes it feels like my head is about to explode! 

As far as Spanish goes it is quite well. I have never wished I was speaking French more in my entire life. It seems that the more Spanish I try to learn, the better my French gets and the more it clicks. That would have been nice to know in High School......

The Lord definitely stretches you beyond what you think you are capable of. Remember in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when Mike gets stretched after he was shrunk? Yup exactly what it feels like.

Well I am almost out of time so I just want to leave you all with my testimony that I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He lives. He knows us all. He suffered for not only our sins but for our sadness, grief, sickness, loneliness, and so much more. He truly knows us and will stand beside us always. He loves us so much that even when He asked the Father for another way He still pressed on and stood by us until the very end. Surely that is how we must stand by Him. He is always there. Always. We just have to open the door and He will always bring us back into His embrace. 

I know that this is His Church upon the earth. I can think of a few things i could be doing right now but i am serving Him because I want the world to know that Jesus is the Christ. I am His witness and representative along with more that 88,000 of my fellow brothers and sisters who bear His name on our chests each and every day.

I know that the Book of Mormon is His word and another witness of His divinity alongside the Bible.

I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration and Thomas S. Monson is his successor and the Lord's prophet upon the earth today.

These things I leave with you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

  

Hermana Kylie D. Hansen

Week 1 at the MTC-Nov. 24, 2014

Hey Everyone!!!!

So the past five days have felt like a year! Time goes sooooooo slow here! Yesterday alone felt like 2 months. They tell us all the time that the first week feels like drinking from a fire hydrant and it is so true! Remember the SEAL training Marcus Lattrell went through? Well that is also what it is like but in a Spiritual way. By the end of each day, we are so exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually that brushing teeth is taxing! You will laugh about this mom but I got a companion who loves to run! The other doesn't so much but we run anyways. I am in a trio so that's really fun and different but I guess mini missions are a blessing after all! Anyways, we run about 1-2 miles every day. Saturday I ran almost 2 and a half! Props to the most awesome physical therapist ever!! Thanks Travis and Best Health! The water bottle is also so nifty! I take it everywhere so I don't die from speaking in Spanish all of the time!

I think in the past 5 days I have learned more Spanish than I have French throughout highschool and middle school! Most of my district has taken Spanish so it is just myself and one of the Elders who have not. There are 7 of us. Me, Hmnas. Smith and Maw (mi companeras) Hmnas. Flake and Mousley and our Elders Taggart and Richardson. Hmna Smith is from PA. Hmna Maw is from Mass. Hmna. Flake is from Pocatello. Hmna Mousley is from Arizona. Elder Taggart is from Courdelain(I didnt spell that right but yes the one in ID) and Elder Richardson is from Washington. We have all gotten pretty close and I love them all!!

We have one investigator so far. We have taught her two lessons and we have another one tomorrow night. Yup all in Spanish. The first one was kinda rough but the second was really really good! Mostly because I am getting better at sorting through the French and Spanish in my mind. It is so hard to keep them separate. A lot of the time I speak a hybrid between English, French and Spanish. Yep it sounds about as weird as you are thinking.

The food es no bueno!! I am now on basically a fruit diet because thats like the only safe thing to eat..also salad. Basically nothing cooked is how that works out. The chocolate chip cookies are really good!

Sundays are officially my favorite! we get to watch the Spoken Word (only hermanas) and then we go to Sacrament meeting after luncheveryweek we have to write a 3-5 minute talk in Spanish and we randomly get called in the moment. Nerve wracking? Yeah it is! We had Hermana Marriot and her husband speak to us in Relief Society so that was pretty much awesome! We also get a General Authority tomorrow night and on Thursday because it is Thanksgiving. We dont know who it is yet but I am in the choir so I get to sing for them. Who knows maybe there will be an MTC choir for the Christmas Devotional...? I hope so! Anyways then we had Elder Allen who is basically in charge of all missionary stuff come speak to us. He talked about recognizing the Spirit and focasing on the people we are teaching and doing what the hymn "come thou fount" says. Which that's like my favorite so CHECK! Then we went and watched "characteristics of Christ" by Elder Bednar. It is an MTC video so if you guys can get it, WATCH IT! It will change your entire outlook on life! It did mine. Our whole District was in tears. It is so powerful. 

I have learned that the MTC is no picnic! It is probably the hardest thing ever! I have never been stretched so much in my entire life. But I have also never loved people so much or loved the Lord so much or Heavenly Father.

It is truly a lifechanging experience and I wouldnt trade it for anything! So if its like this in the first five days i can only imagine!

Everyday we spend about 12 hours in the classroom (except Sundays and Pday of course) We call it the box because we are literally in the same room all the time. We gave it a name: sequela which means consequence in Spanish. I probably spelled it wrong but you get the idea. Its a joke but it definitely makes it more fun when hour 10 rolls around.

Well I am almost out of time so I want to bare my testimony. I dont have accents on this keyboard so bear with me.

Yo se que el Evangelio es verdadero. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es inspiridad y Jose Smith es un profeta. Yo se que Thomas S Monson eslaprofeta. Yo se que Jesuscristo es el Salvador y el Redentor. Yo se que Padre Celestial es nos padre. Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesuscristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera. En el nombre de Jesuscristo, Amen.

I know that the Gospel is true. I know the The Book of Mormon is inspired and Joseph Smith is a prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer. I know that Heavenly Father is our Father. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Until next week, 

Love you all!

May God be with you until we meet again,

Hermana Kylie D. Hansen