And she's off.........

Here are some pictures that I received from Hannah last night from the MTC.  The following are pictures of her saying her goodbye to teachers, friends and the United States! 

She has made some wonderful memories and now she is currently at the airport waiting to board a plane for Atlanta, Georgia.  (We will get to talk to her on her long layover in Atlanta this afternoon!)

Then she will board a plane for Buenos Aires, Argentina where she will arrive tomorrow morning!

CANNOT WAIT TO TALK TO HER THIS AFTERNOON!!!

WEEK #5 - FOUR DAYS MORE!!! (I'm Pretty Sure this is a Les Mis reference from Hannah! haha)

HOLA!!! 

Can you believe my LAST P-day is finally here?! I cannot believe I have survived the MTC. The next stop is Argentina which is so scary but exciting! I cannot wait to go!!! 

This week some awesome things happened. Hermana Wilson and I finished teaching our "investigator" named Alex. He was really hard to talk to because he would laugh at us every time we spoke pretty much. haha. Anyways, we had the BEST lesson about the Word of Wisdom and we asked him to follow it. It was awesome and I really felt like the spirit was leading that discussion. The next day we taught him again and took one of our teachers, Brother Meza with us. (He served his mission with Tanner Dougall!! Love small world stories!) Anyways, we asked him to be a ward member that has overcome an addiction. It was fun to take someone with us that has that experience. EXCEPT it made me really think about how much Spanish I do not know yet. haha They were talking SO darn fast. Whenever I am listening to natives speak, I just try to pick out words instead of whole phrases. 

Okay another embarrassing story of the week. Just so everyone knows embarrassed does not have a cognate in Spanish. So don't try unless you want everyone to know that you are pregnant. I learned the hard way for sure. We were talking to people and I was telling them that I was embarrassed about my Spanish so I said, "estoy embarrasada!" I really said, I am pregnant!! hahaha that is just basically my life. 

On a more spiritual note, I have really come to love and understand prayer. I was talking about how we really know if God listens to us and answers our prayers with one of my favorite people, Hermana Herrera. We were discussing that sometimes it is hard to feel the love of God or understand how to feel it. I was telling her that there were so many instances where I have felt God's hand in my life.  An instance in the MTC where I know God has truly helped me was with the teachers we have! We have Hermano Byers (formally Felix, my first "investigator") and Hermana Pullan. They are answers to my prayers no doubt. Every single other teacher that has come into my class and taught me, I have cried with. But for some reason, I have not felt anxious or scared around these two. I know it is Heavenly Father blessing me with them. I love them! I know that God is aware of us and always willing to help us when we need it. If you pray to Him, I know he will answer you! 

I was able to be a missionary host again and I just have to tell you all about the SWEETEST hermana I helped. She is from Mexico and will be serving in Mexico so her English is not very good. Good thing I have been at the MTC for 6 weeks now! I was able to speak Spanish with her the whole time! It was probably the most gringo Spanish in the world, but it was still Spanish. Anyways, when I dropped her off at her classroom and said goodbye, She leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek! How. Cute. Is. That?! I really hope the people of Argentina are like that! I am so excited to meet people who are so warm! 

I received my Travel Plans last Friday and I will be leaving in a short 4 days! I will be traveling with all of my Posadas peeps! Hermana Wilson, Elder Christiansen, Elder Gardner, Elder Gallini, Elder Herzog, Elder Mahoney, and Elder Merrell. (Mom, 2 of them are from Texas!!!) I am so excited to travel with them. They are some of the most top notch people I have ever met!! I cannot wait to travel with them. I am sure I will have some crazy stories about it for all of you! 

I am so excited to spread the good word of the Lord to the people of Posadas. I love this work more than anything and I am SO lucky I get to do this. Everyday putting on this name tag brings me so much happiness! 

Hermanas Wilson, Shumway, Murphy & Herrera

(These four are really going to miss each other!)

Word of the week: Posadas = shelter! (Cute huh??) 

Hermana Murphy

Other photos from Hannah (some are courtesy of Hermana Shumway....THANK YOU!)

This has to be one of my VERY favorite pics! 

In our family we have "a thing" for recreating

poses of statues!  (I seriously could make an

entire book of pictures of these poses.)  

I LOVE that Hannah has now done that with 

her friends!!  Another photo for the book!  YES!!

(Also.......if you want to send Hannah a letter now I would suggest just using dearelder.com and make sure you send it to her mission and not the MTC.  Tomorrow (Sept 5) at noon will be the last day she will receive letters through that service at the MTC.  I will update the sidebar with her address in either Argentina or Paraguay once she arrives on Monday......well actually Tuesday.)

Week #4 - 4 WEEKS DOWN, 11 Days to Go!!!

This may just be my favorite picture so far!!!

HOLA!!!

How is everyone doing? Thank you all so much for the letters and notes AND packages. I am so blessed! This week has been so great. It went by so fast!! 

 Blissionairies (Get it Marissa?)

Makes my heart smile......

The highlight of my week was seeing Maren! I saw her exactly a week ago and not going to lie, I shed a few tears. I also ran into Elder Gavin Smith and Elder Logan Sackley. I went to high school with Gavin and knew Logan from stake dances. Bless those dances. It is SO much fun seeing people you know. 

Hans, Gavin & Maren

Anyways, it was the last week with some of my favorite people. They all left for Argentina or Ecuador. It was so hard saying bye to them but I cannot wait to be pen pals with them! They left us on early Monday morning so it has been a weird couple of days without them. 

Cool story, we found out that Janice Kapp Perry wrote a version of As Sisters in Zion for sister missionaries. Make sure you pass along the news to Missy. She would love that. haha, no one will understand how much I love Janice Kapp songs! Another cool thing, there is this girl that lives right below us that looks EXACTLY like Tali. It is so cute. I will for sure take a picture with her. It is scary how much they look alike. 

This Sunday, I was asked to speak in church. Yep, it was en Español. It was pretty much the most terrifying thing in my life but I did it!! I am pretty sure I only said um twice too!!! Every week we have to prepare a talk and you never know who will go up and actually have to speak. Murphy's law, it was me. 

This Sunday I will be leading the music. For those of you who have no idea, leading music is the second to worst thing to do in sacrament meeting. But, when you are companions with the music director, you have to do those things. haha! 

Every Monday we teach members that served in a Spanish speaking mission or who just know Spanish. This week Hermana Wilson and I skyped a girl from Panama. Her name was Astrid. She was DARLING. Every time we said something correct in Spanish she would clap her hands and say yay!! That's how I feel when I say something right too!! 

Yesterday, we were host missionaries for all the new people! It was SO fun. I am SO glad I am not in their position. That was easily one of the hardest days of the mission for sure! I am so glad I am here right now and that I am LEAVING FOR ARGENTINA IN 11 DAYS!!!! We get our travel plans tomorrow! I know I will cry when I am holding it in my hands! I am so darn excited!! 

We have been teaching this "investigator" named Alex. He has been the most difficult for sure. Anyways, yesterday Hermana Wilson and I had the BEST lesson in the whole world. It was amazing. I know Heavenly Father was helping me. So blessed for His help!! 

We will be going to the temple in about 2 hours. It is so much fun going to the temple with all of my favorite people!! It is the best. Our P Days are just as long, if not longer than our other days. We get up at 5:30 am to do laundry and then write letters, go on a run, get ready, clean our apartment, etc. It is crazy but fun. I am pretty sure I like P Day Eve better than I like P Day. It is weird to think that next week will be our last P Day! 

Cannot even wait to be in Argentina!! :) More importantly, I cannot wait to preach to the people waiting in Argentina. I am so excited to go on this journey and spread the good word! :)

Thank you so much for your love and support everyone, I appreciate it more than anything! I am so blessed to receive your letters and love! Love you all and have the best week!!! 

Hermana Murphy

More photos from Hermana Hannah:

 Hermana Erickson & Hermana McKnight

 This looks like an album cover to me.......

(These three have gotten to be SO CLOSE!!)

 The little seamstress......(Mimi will be so proud!)

 Hans & Hermana Shumway doing a good deed!

 Elder Tracy (I met his mom in IKEA in Draper the day after we took Hans to the MTC.)  Apparently.....he reminds Hannah of Collin......A LOT!  

Dos Hermanas! They look so happy!

P.S.  I got an extra little treat this week from Hannah!  On Tuesday (as I was in a mandatory teacher inservice meeting) my phone vibrated and I saw that it was a number from Utah because of the "801" area code.  My heart skipped a beat as I grabbed my phone to head out of the meeting to answer the call.  LUCKILY Hannah has never taken the time to memorize her Social Security Number so she had about a 15 minute window and then needed to go and get fingerprinted again for an additional visa for Paraguay.......AND she needed her SSN.  AND.......bummer for her (haha), I didn't know it off the top of my head so I ran home and got it and got to talk to her AGAIN......that's right.........TWICE in one day!  It was probably a total of less than 5 minutes, BUT it made my whole week!  She sounded GREAT and is loving life! What a great present for me!!  

And speaking of presents...........last week I sent Hannah and her district a little "Happy Halfway" box of goodies!  Here is a picture of them all enjoying the treats!!  

Week #3: 21 Days

The Zone Girls

Hola all! 

This week has been such an amazing week. I am finally getting into the swing of things. I. Love. Being. A. Missionary. I don't know how many times I can say that. This brings me the most joy, seriously, yesterday I was thinking about how much this will bless my life. I have already seen SO many blessings because of it. I feel like my life has purpose now. Anyways, we have had so much fun the past week. I have become so close to my teachers and my hermanas. I cannot wait to be best friends with them forever. I love them. 

Tres Amigos

(By now you have probably noticed a pattern of these three Hermanas together in many pictures)

Okay so some funny things happened this week. The water here is literally disgusting (sorry I am a total water snob) and my district always puts their water bottles in the freezer and then let it melt throughout the day. (It makes it taste a little bit better... :)) Anyways, I filled mine up completely and shut it tight and then left it in the freezer all night. I took it out and within 5 minutes it exploded and it almost hit a hermana in the face. It sounded like a gun shot! I was laughing so hard. I am just so blessed I wasn't holding it in my hands when It exploded. later that night we went back to our apartment and as I turned on the light it exploded too. Everything I touch breaks obviously. We are still without light, but its okay I like the natural light better anyways. 

My companion and I, Hermana Wilson, have been teaching a couple Jose and Hely. (They are Mormon I am pretty sure...) But I love them so much. We have been told that you will love your investigators when you teach them and it is SO true. I love them. Yesterday we taught Jose for an HOUR! Just letting you know, one hour of Spanish just about kills me. The Spirit was so strong though. He started crying and it was awesome. I still have no idea if he was crying because my Spanish is so bad or if he really felt something! Just kidding, I cried too. It was so amazing. Seriously, I love being here and teaching people. It is so much fun! 

This is our last week with HALF of our zone. Half of them are leaving to Argentina and Ecuador! I am so sad they are leaving but so happy they are going to spread the good word! 

Hannah's District: Elder Gardner, Elder Christiansen, Elder Butts, Elder Tracy, Elder Battenfield, Elder Fitzgerald, Hermana McKnight, Hermana Erickson, Hermana Shumway, Hermana Herrera, Hermana Wilson, ME! (best district)

I am sad to report that I have not made any Spanglish puns this week, but don't you worry. I am sure I will come up with a few more. We had a new teacher come teach us this week his name is Hermano Clark. He served his mission in Paraguay! Yes, the same places that I will be going to! His mission split while he was there. I am so glad I was able to meet him! It makes me so excited to go there. Also, he said that he only saw one big spider his whole two years! (Hopefully this isn't me jinxing myself...) 

Hermana Herrera and Hermana Murphy (In her cute new glasses!)

This past Tuesday we sang at devotional as we always do. We sang a really pretty version of Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer. I highly suggest you listen to it! Anyways, we knew that someone big was going to be speaking because of the higher security (they need the best at the MTC... we are a rowdy crew) and they pulled out the talking screens that the GAs use! Anyways, rumor had it that President Monson was going to be speaking. It was not. Haha. Sister Oscarson, the General Young Women's President spoke. It was amazing. She talked about all of her children's missions and how we can be better missionaries. It was amazing!!! One thing she said that really stood out to me was that we are going to LOVE the people we teach. I can already tell you all that that is so true. I have so much love for the people of Argentina! I cannot wait to go in LESS THAN 3 WEEKS! SO excited! 

Thank you all for your love and support! It means the world to me. I love this gospel and I am so blessed to be here and learn how to bring people unto Christ! I know that this gospel will bring the most joy! 

La iglesia es verdedera! 

Hermana Murphy

Here are some pictures that Hannah sent me as well!  She looks like "Happy Hannah Laine" for sure!!!  Enjoy!!

Week #2 - Missionary Training Center (MTC) Life

Hannah sounds SUPER and the work is going well.  Crazy to think that in 3 1/2 weeks she will be on her way to Argentina (fingers crossed--haven't heard any updates about her visa.  I am going with "no news is good news.")


Hola mi familia y amigos!! 

I absolutely love the MTC! I have met friends that I will for sure be friends with forever. I was thinking about how cool it is that we are all here because we want to serve the Lord! We all came here for different reasons but the fact that we are all here because we want to be servants of the Lord just is beautiful to me. I love this work.

Hannah's District

I love the teachers here too. Remember how I said I was teaching Felix? GUESS WHAT? He is totally my teacher now! His name is Hermano Byers. Hands down mi favorita teacher. He is the best. I like him so much because he is SO passionate about being a missionary and serving in every aspect of his life. It is awesome. 

Cool thing that happened this week, I saw one of my dear friends Elder Gavin Brown AGAIN this week! We went to EFY and college together! He is going to Germany! It is such a joy seeing your friends at the MTC! I cannot wait to see my Mare Bear next week! Crazy that Skyline ward will have 2 new sisters out! 

I made my first ever Spanish/English pun. In class one of my teachers, Hermano Croft asked us, "what can we do better to speak Spanish all of class?" I said we need to traba-harder! (If you don't know, the verb Trabajar means to work.) So we made a new word in class. On our white board TRABAJARDER is across the top. Haha so sad, but it totally made my day. It's the little things. 

I have the coolest district in the WHOLE world. We are all brothers and sisters. It is the coolest environment because we are all helping each other learn in a spiritual way. I love everyone. There is an Elder here that is going to be the next Jimmer btw. His name is Elder Dastrup. He is EXACTLY a foot taller than me. Yes, taller. 6'10. I just wanted you to keep your eye out for him in 1.5 years. He is amazing, a spiritual giant too. 

An Elder from my zone, Elder Hall, is so great at playing the piano. Yesterday he played two of my all time favorite songs! He played Dawn (Pride & Prejudice) and the theme from UP. It was awesome to listen to a few things :) We listen to motab cada la dia. We have been loving listening to that music. 

Spanish is going well. I had a slight breakdown the other day. But, I have been teaching completely en español so that has been good. I had the best discussion with Jose and Hely yesterday. It was completely in Spanish and it went really well. Heavenly Father has been helping me out a ton. It is awesome.I love being a missionary so much. It is so much fun. It is hard work but it is beyond worth it. I am so happy to be here and I am looking forward to going to Argentina! 

A picture of Hannah's lesson plan in Spanish.....looks just like her!

Thank you for all the love and support! LOVE you all! 

Hermana Murphy


Looks like Hannah was finally able to figure out her camera download situation.  Yay!  Here are a few that she sent.  Enjoy!

 Hannah eating lunch with her Zone on the Main Campus

 Hannah said, "Every mom needs this photo for something!"  haha

Hermana Wilson and Hermana Murphy at the Provo Temple

Apparently Hannah found another "Sister Murphy"

Week #1 - Hannah's First Letter from the Provo MTC

Here is Hannah's very first email (besides a two sentence email telling us that THURSDAY will be her Pday while in the MTC.)

Enjoy!!

Hermana Herrera, Hannah and Hermana Shumway at the MTC

I HAVE MADE IT 8 DAYS AT THE MTC!!!! The first two days were so crazy. Pretty much the longest days of my life. I was so tired and it was easily the hardest thing I have ever done. 

Okay so Spanish is so beautiful and I absolutely LOVE IT! We have taught our investigator, Felix Rivas, 5 times in the past week EN ESPANOL! It is so crazy that I can speak this language now. I can pray, testify, give a talk, and have short conversations all in Spanish. It is amazing what the spirit can do for you. 

My companion is Hermana Wilson. She is the girl I found on facebook before we got here. She is cool. 

Hermana Wilson and Hannah (I think!)

In my district we have 2 going to Calgary, Canada (Elder Fitzgerald and Elder Battenfifeld), 2 going to Bolivia (Elder Tracy & Elder Butts), (YES MOM ELDER TRACY IS IN MY DISTRICT!!! WE FREAKED OUT FOR 10 MINUTES WHEN WE READ THAT LETTER) He is awesome and I totally am so lucky to have him in my district! 4 Hermanas going to Salta, Argentina (H.Herrera, Shumway, Erickson, McKnight.) and then 4 going to the celestial mission, POSADAS!!! (H. Wilson & ME, E. Gardner, E. Christeansen) I have gotten super close with my district and zone! I love them all so much we have had such a great week filled with laughter, tears, and the spirit!!! We sang in the choir on Tuesday at the devotional which was really fun! It has been so fun learning and feeling the spirit every day. I have the coolest teacher, Brother Croft. He went to Washington DC South Spanish speaking. He has helped me memorize so many things. He is awesome! 

I have been thinking a lot about how awesome missionaries are and I have so much gratitude for the ones that have inspired me to serve! So so SO grateful that the missionaries taught my dads family or I would not be here. Kind of a cool chain reaction right?? 

I am so blessed for this opportunity and I love it this work so much! I have seen two girls form BYUI that I had class with, one girl from my ward at BYUI, AND I was in the same zone as a boy that lived at Nauvoo House. 

We have gym time every day and we have been playing quite a lot of four square. I am reliving my Jacob Wismer days. We are in classes for 9 hours a day, but I actually like it a lot. The first three hours are teaching (you only teach for 45 minutes), then you go to lunch, then you have class with your teacher, then you go to dinner, THEN you have 1 hour of personal study, 1 hour of companionship study, and one hour of language study. As you can see, my brain is fried by the end of the day! But, nothing makes me happier than wearing my Savior's name over my heart!! La Iglesia es Verdedero!!!!! :) 

Love you all so much! thank you for your support and love!

Hermana Hannah

If you want to write Hannah here is her address at the Provo MTC:

Hermana Hannah Laine Murphy

SEP09 ARG-POS

2023 N 900 E Unit 845

Provo, Utah 84602

You can also use dearelder.com  It is AWESOME!

If you use dearelder.com:

1. For now, select "Provo MTC" from the drop box (you can switch to her actual mission when she leaves the MTC to go to Argentina.....and they will still deliver your letters for free through the churches pouch mail system. It will take 10-14 days to receive letters once she is in Argentina.)

2.  Select "Hermana" from the drop down box

3.  Then type her first and last name

4.  Her unit # is 845

5.  Her mission code is ARG-POS

6.  Her estimated MTC departure code is SEP08


You can also email Hannah.  Her email address for the next 18 months is hmurphy@myldsmail.net

Good luck!  And thanks for writing her......I know that she is LOVING receiving mail in the MTC!!

XOXO

-Heather