We are now the Lords Missionaries

I'm still amazed how fast the weeks go! i feel like i was just emailing yesterday!

i know we don't have to take pictures but one of our district goals for each week is to take a good picture at least once so ill probably still take them haha and yeah we help take down flags every Saturday! its the best part of our week. we aren't assigned too but every Saturday we have exercise at night so right after we walk over to the flags and help them take it down. its our favorite to sing when they are taking the American flag down so this time the employee that's there every Saturday decided to video us and she asked for all of our moms numbers so she could send them to you so I'm glad you got them! she said she wants to try and send you guys stuff every time she sees us!

This week has been crazy hectic and stressful! we got all the new missionaries this past Wednesday and oh man have we had to do a lot of running around with them! we got 9 new sisters (5 of which are native Koreans) and 25 new elders (8 of which are native Koreans). so the Koreans came in Tuesday night so me and sister Bridge and the zone leaders had to wait by the phone all night till we got the call they were here (oh yeah me and sister bridge have a phone since we are the sister training leaders and its super weird to feel it in our pockets) when we finally got the phone call we all started jumping up and down and ran as fast as we could to the front desk to go grab them. so we helped them get to bed and had to make sure they got where they need to the next day till the rest of the missionaries came. Then Wednesday night we were in charge of the new missionary orientation for the missionaries in our zone so we had to plan all of that and make sure all the missionaries got to the room so we could start on time, we got all the way around the room with everyone introducing themselves only to find out we were missing 3 of the sisters so then we had to run around and try and find them, don't worry they were just in their classroom waiting for us haha so by the end Wednesday we were so tired!! 

Then Thursday came.... we spent all morning trying to make sure all the sisters were good, so we took them to breakfast and were about to take them to one of their classes when one of the native sisters told us she hasn't emailed her family cause he email doesn't work so then we had to take her to the office and wait almost an hour for all of that to get figured out, so they missed almost all of their class and we missed all of our service time and some of the study time. it was only 9 in the morning and we were wanting to go back to bed. then we spent the next few hours showing them were everything was. we were so tired. But that night we had a lesson with a new investigator and it helped refresh us and remind us of why were are here. the lesson went so good! for our first lessons we spend more time just trying to get to know them and see where they beliefs are. so we asked if they believed in god and he told us he didn't. so we spend some time explaining that he is our father and he loves us. he told us he had never felt gods love and wants to know how we have. so we spent the rest of the lesson testifying that we have felt gods love and he can too if he prays and reads his scriptures. Heavenly Father will answer his prayers. we felt the spirit so strong (plus the lesson took a different turn then we thought so i everything i said wasn't on our little script thing which i think brings the spirit in quicker when we pay more attention to the investigator then what we planned on saying next.) we walked out of that lesson and both realized that while yes we need to help the new sisters but we cant spend all of our time worrying about them. we need to study ourselves so we can strengthen our own testimonies so we can better invite others unto Christ. after that lesson the week didn't seem as stressful and we didn't feel as tired! 

Have i ever told you guys that Koreans hard?! cause man it is! but its crazy to think how much we have learned this past month!! (ive been out a month this week....!!!!!!) as a district we have realized we haven't been so good at SYL (speak your language) so as a goal this week we have decided that during dinner time everyday we can no longer speak English, all we can speak is Korean. unless you really don't know how to say it then if you speak English you have to say it in the same sentence structure you would if it is in Korean, to help our brains get used to it, so wish me luck cause i really only know gospel terms. but i know the more we speak the language outside of class the better it will stick! 

Oh yes i got the package this week! tell Sydney thank you so much!!! she sent me a huge box with 12 24oz bottles of DR Pepper! plus a bunch of other food, the box was so heavy! the other sisters in my district all got packages full of food to so we have a corner of our room with a bunch of boxes full of food. so all the sisters come into our room at night and we all just eat and talk haha and we have become like moms to all the elders cause we bring them snacks to class! On Saturday i was super confused cause i got a package from someone in San Tan Valley but i didn't recognize then name, but once i opened it i realized it was from the stake young womens presidency, they had extra 4th year camp shirts so they sent me one. it was really sweet! (so now me and Jennie can be twiners)
The devotionals are always super good! i love them, they always talk about things i need to hear that day. its hard though cause there are so many missionaries here that almost 800 missionaries have to watch it somewhere else. so we make sure we always do choir so we get for sure seats. plus choir is so much fun! Every tuesday devotional we sing Called to Serve and every time we sing it i get chills. its amazing to hear that many people sing it and to think that all of us have been called to serve in places that the lord needs us to go. each of us have left everything behind to spread the lords work. Oh man i love it! 

hahahaha elder Wagner the other day walked up to me with a weird look and just said "sister Hemenway" i was like "what?" he said "did you tell your mom i hit a kid in the face with a volleyball? i was like"uhhh yeah why" so then he told me that his mom was talking to you so she sent him the conversation in an email and told him that he was well known for that haha we were both laughing so hard oh and that's sister bridges step mom! 

i honestly cant think of anything else, but this week has been good! i love my companion and my district so much! they really have become my family! and my zone is pretty great too! 

love and miss you guys so much!!

love

Sister Hemenway