Happy Birthday

no we dont have ipads in the MTC, i think only stateside missionaries have those. but we still can check our emails anyday if we have time.

oh boy this week has been insane!!! the first day (wednesday) was very hard. i had to convince myself so many times to not go back into my room and pack up and leave haha but dont worry it got better! when we first arrived they walked us through a couple things then sent us to our classrooms. mom i about died when i walked in. they immediatly started talking in korean and i just looked at them with a blank stare, no clue what they were saying. the sisters blog that we were reading wasnt kidding when she said its three hours of charades, cause they only speak one or two words of English then you have to kinda guess what they are saying the rest of the time. On the first day all we talked about was the korean alphabet, which thank you Dan so much for teaching me, i would have been so lost! then we all went into a meeting where all the new missionaries taught investigators together. all the missionaries had great questions and thought for the investigators and i started thinking that im not good enough to be here, i cant come up with stuff like they can. but then that night we walked into our rooms and started to unpack and i found the letters from Chrissy and her family and helped me realize why i came, so thank you so much chrissy! so that night i prayed to know that im supposed to be here and i have been fine ever since

I love my companion, district, and zone! they are the best. my companion is Sister Bridge (the williams went to her farewell) she already knows korean because she lived there last summer and studied it for a year at BYU so she is a big help! she is so patient with me and helps teach me things. she gives me a couple words or phrases each day to practice to help remember them. me and her are so similiar its crazy, but we have fun! she is from utah and she is going to my mission.  we have other two other sisters in our district, sister thomson and sister patrick. ( both going to the south mission) neither or them speak korean so we all help each other. we do everything together and its nonstop laughter! they are all so nice and funny! we have 6 elders in our district who are all so nice! 4 of them already know a bit of korean so they all help us too! oh and the elder whos aunt you know hes in my zone. our zone is pretty big. we just got 22 new missionaries and they already have i think 12. and we gain 35 more people in a couple weeks. 

Mom the gift of tongues is real. i dont know a lot of korean yet but i know a lot more then i did when i got here 5 days ago! we already taught our first investigator and while i didnt know what he was saying and i barely knew what i was saying , the spirit was so strong. im already in love with the korean people. i was able to read to him DC 18:10 in korean, and i was able to do it without messing up! you should be proud! we have two native koreans in our district and they are my favorite people ever. they are so funny and so patient with us when we try and talk to them. it makes me really excited to go to korea!

i dont think i have ever prayed so much in my life. im constantly on my knees praying or having a prayer in my heart. i have already grown so close to the savior and my heavenly Father. i have loved being able to spend an hour and day reading my scriptures by myself and studying. i dont think i ever realized how much i loved the scriptures until now. 

The taught us to pray in korean so they challenged us to only pray in korean from here on out, and let me tell you its so difficult. the words are so hard, but i know if i keep doing it then i will be able to learn the language better. and no i havent cried yet, they are times where i have almost but then im fine!

everyday we have 2 3 hour classes we sit throught, the first one is learning korean and the second one is more gospel stuff but still in korean. we then have 3 hour study time and an hour of exercise time. our district normally plays volleyball together and its so fun! 

the MTC food is alright, not the best but ill be fine till i go to korea. yeah i got some birthday emails and i havent checked the pocket for the stuff you left me.  

sorry i know this is really scattered, we've just done so much that i cant remember everything haha 

im glad youre all doing good, the pictures all looked so cute! the days go by so fast here its hard to think that life still goes on at home! The days go fast and all blur together but at the same time i feel like wednesday was 5 years ago! i think i answered all your questions haha if you have anymore just ask!

i love and miss you guys so much!!!

Love sister Hemenway