Week #9 - What. A. Week.

(The picture was taken on 30 July 2014....exactly two months tomorrow!!)

This week has been CRAZY! Crazy good of course. Last Monday I was having a hard day, and pretty much last week was hard for me. We had FHE with a family in our ward and it totally made my whole day! The Father, Hermano Pereyra is the taxi driver for the whole mission. He. Is. An. Angel. Actually, his whole family are angels. I just love them!!! 

When we got to their house, he was telling me that when he saw me, he knew that I was needed in this ward-- he called me an angel. It seriously made me tear up a little. These people are so sweet. I also have so much love for their daughter, Astrella. She is 6 and always wears my name badge. She says: "Soy Hermana Murphy!!!!!" It is so darn cute. I love her. Anyways, as we were leaving, he told me that I was apart of his family forever! I just love these people here. They are good people. 

We have been teaching a man named Jorge Garcia and it has been going well. He is having a hard time quiting smoking. but he is trying and I know that Heavenly Father appreciates that. When we first started teaching him, he was smoking 5 cigarettes a day. Now he is at 2-3 a day! It is so exciting. Another cool thing that happened when we were teaching the WOW was I had this thought to read him a talk from the Liahona about addictions and how Jesus Christ can always help us. It was so cool. The thought just came into my head. I know it was from the Holy Ghost. Anyways, Jorge is getting baptized on the 22 of October!! I am going to sing at the baptism. You all might laugh, but here, I have the voice of David Johnson. No one here can sing so pretty much I am the Angel of Music. haha. (joking... Dave will always and forever be the angel of music) (Heather note:  This line cracks me up.  We have always called Dave "The Angel of Music" because of his beautiful singing.......and his love for singing songs from Phantom of the Opera.  It cracked me up since she referenced him in her letter.  I'm sure he will feel honored!  Haha)

We have been teaching a girl named Johanna and she will be getting baptized in 2 weeks! It is so exciting. She has taken the lessons really well and loves learning more. She even has been attending seminary. Muy Capo. 

Hermana Moreno and I walk probably 4-6 miles a day in the mud and it is really crazy. I never thought I would say this, but I love crocs more than anything. They have literally saved my feet here!!! (Heather note: I guess I know what I should try and send Hannah for Christmas!  These are the lovely little beauties that she is sporting in Argentina these days)

One thing that I have been focusing on is really coming to know and understand our Savior. That is one thing that I have wanted to really come to know with me being here. I know our Savior. I challenge you all to find your relationship with our Savior. This is the perfect opportunity because this week is Conference!!!! I am so excited to hear the words of the Prophet! This week be thinking of things that you want to find out through Conference! I know your questions will be answered if you really pay attention :)

Remember: Scriptures that are falling apart belong to someone who isn´t :)

Everyone have the best week and thank you so much for the love and support! It means the world to me! :) 

Hermana Murphy

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

Where in the World?

Today is THE DAY!!

Hannah submitted her mission papers a few weeks ago and TODAY IS THE DAY that her mission call arrived. (I wonder how many times she has checked the mailbox in the past couple of weeks?

 Crossing her fingers

 Looking inside........

 IT IS HERE!!! (Cue the tears...)

Where in the World??????

So, sadly Hannah had to go to work at the pool and then start a 4 day babysitting job.  She definitely wanted all of her friends and family to be present when she opened her mission call.  We settled on 10:00pm.....at the Murphy Home.  We sent texts, made phone calls.........and gathered at our home at 10:00pm.  

We all made our guesses:

Hannah is about ready to open her mission call.......

BUT WAIT!!!!  Dad wants to say a few things about our awesome girl.........

Okay..........It's time.......Let the reading begin.............

See it for yourself.............

First of all.........NOT ONE person guessed any country in South America.  Not even close.  I think the fact that Hannah had four years of German, did a German foreign exchange and almost all of her friends were being called to Germany........we figured either US or Europe perhaps.  Funny how things work out!  I guess she will get to put her three years of Spanish at Stoller Middle School to good use!  haha

Hannah will be serving in the Argentina Posadas Mission 

(which covers parts of both Argentina and Paraguay)

Her friend Courtney Marshall received her call this very same day and will be serving in Peru. 

Grandma and Grandpa Murphy couldn't be happier!!

Maren Hansen (serving in the France Paris mission) and Hannah with their very favorite YW leader of all time (aka Hannah's 2nd mother) Reenie Fisher!  

Let the countdown begin!  In 11 weeks......Hannah will be in the Provo MTC!