Wednesday, December 25, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Good Morning, and Merry Christmas Mom, Dad, and family!

It's 8:00 a.m. right now, and we have 20 whole minutes to write you.  Woot!  Plus, it's P-day tomorrow, so, you'll probably hear more tomorrow.  Which means I can tell you about the Christmas Devotional tomorrow.  Speaking of which, I still don't quite know who the speaker is, but rumor has it that it's Elder Bednar.  We'll see.

The MTC is AMAZING!!!  Mom, I can see why you say that you could have spent your entire mission AT the MTC.  I don't know if you got my handwritten letter yet, but the spirit here is SO incredible!  There are moments where I sit in class and I'm just sort of like "Mind. Is. Blown.  From all the awesomeness that just happened!"  And it helps that my entire district is...

A) Serving the same mission as me (yes, we're ALL going to the Idaho Nampa Mission.  How sweet is that?!?!)
B) They all have a desire to serve a mission, and so they all have been preparing themselves.
C) They all are willing to roleplay all the senarios we do, which is approximately at least once an hour during class.  We do a TON of roleplaying.  (Which yes, MUCH different from LARPing. haha)  I love the roleplaying though.  It really helps me break down what we're doing in class and understand how I'm actually going to apply it.

So, one of the Sisters in the District didn't show up, so I have a three-way companionship.  Both of my companions are incredible women of God.  Sister Clemons is from Iowa, and is a Cosmetologist like me.  Oh yeah, we do a lot of hair talk.  She's also my age... well... sort of.  She was born in '92, but her birthday is Dec 31.  So.... yeah.  I'm the oldest in my district (surprise, surprise).  Then there's Sister Johnston, who's from Tenessee.  She is HILARIOUS.  IF you think I'm birdbrained, she's probably even worse.  I love her so much!  While she is super bubbly and loud, she has such an incredible faith in the Gospel, and I love her excitement for it.

The Elders are great too.  I won't go into much detail, but we have 3 companionships: Elder Sorenson (our District Leader) and Elder Parker, Elder Rose and Elder Horne, and Elder Sulka and Elder Twigg.  We are all very close as a District, and have already talked about meeting up after our missions, which I think is great.

I've also have seen a couple of people I know here.  Jefferson McClain, from choir, is a teacher here, and is teaching one of the other Districts in my Zone/Branch.  I've ran into an old friend of mine, Carleigh Ballard, who, if I remember right, is serving in... Romania?... Can't remember for sure.  And then I've been able to talk to my friend Megan Egbert a lot, who entered the MTC the same time I did and is serving in Florida. 

While I still have a bit of time, I have to thank you for your Christmas presents.  Dad, my companions LOVE the smell of the lavender, and thank you for Barb's ring, mission journal, and necklace.  IT really means a lot to me.  It was really special to me.  Thank you.  And mom.... your care package was just simply awesome.  I was so excited to eat my cereal this morning.  And I want to wear that minion shirt every day.

Dad, can you make sure this GETS to mom and that I sent this to the correct email?  I'd appreciate it.

Well, more tomorrow!  I love you guys, and I'm doing fantastic and loving this Gospel!  Keep the faith!

Love,

Sister Hannah Empey

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