JULY 15 2015 ONE SPECIAL TENDER MERCY!!

July 15  2015

Hello Friends and Family!

First of all, shout out to all of you.  Thank you SO much for all of your love and support and kind words.  It means the world and I love hearing from you! So pretty much every week is the same in the CCM, but at the same time I feel like so much happens.  But I will try to remember some high lights.  We were able to watch Elder Packers Funeral over broadcast. It was so special, and maybe hoperfully some of you were able to watch it.  Talk about a man who completely dedicated his life to the Savior and his teachings.  So here in Lima, its almost 100% over cast, foggy, and what not. But this week it has been totally sunny!! We layed out in the sun and got some sweet missionary tan lines during companion study. We even got to see a sun set and the stars at night! Its the little things :)  For the past little while, during physical activity, we played volley ball with the Latinas.  They liked to play with us because they like to make fun of us and renact what we do.  And from what they show us, we may not be the most graceful volleyball players. Oh well. But we have gotten so close with the Latina hermanas!! They love to teach us spanish while we eat, and then we teach them English.  They have the biggest heats.  Its kinda a bummer, they only stay in the CCM for two weeks, then they head out. So we had to say a few sad goodbyes, but no worries, a new fresh batch of missionaries are coming in today! Also, we play soccer Every. Day. I may be actually decent by the time I leave the CCM! I have to be able to show all the little niños my skills.  So thats the goal!  Again all the latins just laugh at all the tall white girls trying to play.  Esta bien.

Sooo now I am officially an intermedio! The time here is going by so fast. At first, I was worried that the CCM would be forever.  But I can see that time is going to go by too fast.  I seriously LOVE my district, companion, and teachers.  We have all grown so close these past couple weeks. 

Ok. so story time.  I had totally forgotten that Shane was one of the missionaries interviewed for the MTC stress video.  I had been really struggling last week.  Just feeling like I was not accomplishing what I wanted and for sure not where I wanted to be as far as the language.  Just honestly really frazzled and stressed.  I had been praying so hard to feel peace about where I was and that I could get a handle on things.  Well we watched a video about stress as a district. And lo and behold, Shane pops up on the screen, talking to me about stress.  My job just dropped and I blurted out, uhhh thats my brother!! Everyone just freaked out.  And the thing was he told me exactly what I needed to hear.  Just like it was only me and him and he was giving me a little pep talk. Of course I just cried. I am sooo grateful for little tender mercies like that.  Also, shout out to Shane for the little pep talk. Youre awesome and I love you. 

Well all I can say is I love being a missionary! I expected the changes in culture, people, schedule,ect. as i entered the mission field. But I really wasnt expecting the change that would happen within myself.  I love learning spansih, I love learning more about the simple beautiful truths of the gospel, and I just simply love what Im doing. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love,

Hermana Hansen