I was able to upload this week by using a computer at the mtc! :D So grateful for my mom for helping me do this and we'll see what access I have in the field. Anyways love you all! Write me! 

Hello all!

Last full week and p day at the mtc. We leave Tuesday bright and early for the mission field.

I forgot to mention last week that during one of our lessons I used the Disney movie Hercules to help explain our relationship with heavenly father. It was pretty great. 

Sunday was a really great day. Were required to have talks prepared and they randomly pick a few missionaries each Sunday to give their talk. As we were walking into sacrament I shook president warners hand and I knew I'd be giving a talk.  I didn't mind when my name was called. It was on repentance which is a topic very close to me and one I love. Our talks only have to be 3-5 minutes long so wasn't bad at all. Recieved a lot touching emails that just warmed my heart reading them during ponder time. Our Sunday devotional was really good. Sister and brother Thompson spoke. Sister Thompson is President and sister  lesueur's daughter. They both spoke on ways to be great missionaries and told some great stories of sister missionaries visiting them. It was good. Picture 1 is the view from our Sunday classroom. 

I will be honest. The beginning of this week was hard. I was feeling extremely down and just trying to push through. I'm happy to share the following below that immensely changed my attitude this week. Picture 2 is of sister mittens sun bathing on Monday. 

I never got a chance to make any kind of post on Facebook about this so I'll share it here. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/god-loveth-his-children/god-loveth-his-children. This link is for a beautiful booklet that has to do with same gender attraction. Through out my life I have had many around me who have had these feels or still have them. I am a strong believer of agency and it is your choice to do as you wish. This booklet though is a beautiful help for anyone who is struggling with those feelings. I wish it was made more public because it so fully testifies of God's unconditional love for ALL his children no matter what. How powerful that is. It's something I strive for. I want people to know they can come to me in hard times. I know this life isn't easy. Not one bit but I know it is worth it. Every trial and hard time is worth getting through and becoming stronger. 

Tuesday we had another beautiful devotional. I think a huge tip I can give to new missionaries is make it through the week to a devotional. Once you have another one your energy and strive to be here is renewed. We had the chance to hear from William r Walker an emeritus seventy. He gave us 10 points to help us become happy and successful missionaries which I shall share with you. 

1. Focus on the lord 

2. Love the scriptures. 

2a. Learn to love the leaders of the church. 

3. Forget about yourself. -your prayers should not be all about you 

4. Love the people - love the land, love the culture, love the food 

4a. Love your companion 

5. Follow the mission president - if you don't understand something respectfully ask the mission president. 

6. Learn the language of the spirit -learninf this is more important than any language. 

7. Word hard -it is not a competition. Be able to return saying "I did my best". 

8. Be obedient - with exactness

9. Be a "Preach my Gospel" missionary

10. Prepare yourself to go home and be a faithful member for the rest of your life. - every commitment you give you should also be keeping. 

These points are definitely ones I work for whole heartedly. I have definitely felt the blessings from following them. My favorite one has been the forget about yourself. I love not having to worry so much about my needs. I love being able to serve and help others needs. I have found great joy and peace from doing so. 

Picture 3 is of an ice cream I got on Tuesday. Blue goggle. Its mint with Carmel chocolates covered candies and cookies dough. 🤤 so good. 

Picture 4 is of me by one of the walls of a ponder room. They have music playing and it's super calm and peaceful. 

Picture 5 is of our district. Going from the left going along the line for elders  we start with Elder Baker, Elder seyfried, Elder Richins, Elder Saunders, Elder Larsen, Elder Hardy, Elder Andrews, and then Elder Lawson. The sisters starting from the right, Sister Cruz, Sister Rowell, ME! sister Hanks, my companion Sister Voelkell, Sister kosorok and then Sister Turner. Love this group of people so much. Can't believe we leave soon. 

Picture 6 is sister Turner, sister kosorok and I in the elevator going raiding. Raiding is when we go to all the different resident all floors and raid the share tables and buckets. It's so much fun. 

Wednesday. Halfway done with our last week. It's crazy to think how fast the time is going. I am so so excited to share the experience I had today. Today was the last day we taught one of our TRCs (training resource center people). With the people we teach we never know if they might or might not be a member. With the person we taught I'm pretty sure he's not a member. We learned of his concerns for starting a family and wanting to be the best father and husband. There is a beautiful teaching pamphlet we use called families and temples. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/families-and-temples/what-about-my-family the section we shared) as we had him read the first part of the first paragraph he asked about eternal families. He loved the idea of being with his family forever. He wanted to know how to get to that point. With our limited time we told him the steps and how baptism is the first step to do so. Sister voelkell then invited him to be baptized. The spirit was incredibly strong. He said yes. He will continue to have lessons even if we do not teach him. Sister voelkell and I were both in tears when we left the room. I was quietly reminded very strongly that that moment was why I was here. Moments like that are the whole reason for being on a mission. I am filled with a renewed excitement for my purpose and to keep bringing others unto this beautiful gospel. 

Thursday were the last day we had for teaching a trc. It went really well and we invited her to consider baptism. Wasn't as spiritually strong as when we asked max but still good. Picture 7 is a sky light in t3 i loved and the sun was coming through it perfectly. 

Friday was a good day. We talked in class about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. We learned how to be direct about teaching this so the people we teach can best understand it. It was really good. We got to experience a new work shop on people and their purpose. A lady came in and spoke about culture and how to adapte to it. It was really good. Second class period was okay. Just going over a lot of stuff we've already learned. The rest of the day was super chill. Sister voelkell and I get to teach relief society on Sunday so we planned for our lesson. Super excited for it. After we did a lot of core exercise and ran a bit. My body isn't too happy but I love how fit I'm getting. Improving my body physically and spiritually ever day. 

Picture 8 is of the sunset during exercise time. 

Picture 9 is during breakfast this morning giving sister mittens some milk. P day is off to a beautiful start. I got a trim for my hair so it can keep growing and healing. Ate breakfast and now I'm working to pack up. Can't believe we leave on Tuesday. Next time I write I'll be in the field. Love you all so much. So thankful for all the support. 

Write me! I love hearing from everyone! 

Sydney.hanks@missionary.org

Love, 

Sister Sydney Hanks 

Hello everyone! 

So it's officially been my first week here. I can't promise this will be short because I have so many things I wish to share. 

I loved P day so much last week. My mom was so awesome and sent goodies for my roommates and I. Picture one shows the shelf of snacks and the second picture is sister kosorok in the box my mom sent it all in. I was a bit giddy carrying it back to our residents. I loved what we learned in class that night. We learned a lot about christ. I loved this video https://www.comeuntochrist.org/easter. I know I've seen it a few times but man I got chills. It's such a beautiful and powerful message.  

Sunday was fast Sunday and it was the first time I've done a complete fast. I wanted to challenge myself though and so I pushed through. We had a great mission conference which was really amazing. I loved the mtc president and his wife's talks. Sister lesueur spoke about the importance of writing journals and keeping records. Something I feel very strongly about myself. She quoted a talk by Spencer w kimball about keeping personal journals stating, "Your private Journal should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you." I loved that quote because I definitely feel I show that in my journals. Here is the link for that talk https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1980/12/president-kimball-speaks-out-on-personal-journals?lang=eng

Elder lesueur spoke on the importance of conversion. How our first convert should always be ourselves. Conversion = A more joyful life. Conversion is an invitation to follow Christ and be like him.

My companion convinced me to join her for choir which was fun but hard with being hungry. Picture 3 is of us in choir.  Dinner was amazing after fasting. Our Sunday night devotional was given by elder and sister zwick. They spoke on the importance of connections. We must first connect then convert. When our lives are rooted in the savior our lives are filled with fruit to harvest. It was definitely a very powerful meeting. That night we had the chance to watch a video/movie. It was called characters of Christ by Elder David A. Bednar. I so badly wish I could share it with you because the message and power was so astounding. He was extremely blunt with his message. He spoke about how a mission is not about you. True conversion in ourselves is the end goal. This spoke extremely strong to me as I've made this journey. I realized that going on a mission has been a major part of my personal conversion. He continued his address with talking about how when we face troubles in our lives that instead of turning inward we should turn outward. Help others in your time of need. 

Monday morning was a bit rough. We had service at 6:25am and then were late to class. Luckily the day got so much better. Picture 4 is of my favorite mural here which is of Alma the younger. The murals here are so stunning. I'll have to share more of the pictures I took when I'm not limited to 10 pictures per email. We had a workshop where we learned there's an app just for the book for mormon. In the right hand corner of the app there's a question mark where you can easily search for questions and find scriptures to help with them. We had our first TRC (Training resource center) teaching. It went really well and my companion and I were able to learn a lot from it. Later in the day we had exercise time and played volleyball as a district. It was so much fun. 

Tuesday we taught our other TRC. It was a little more challenging and we'll continue to meet with her until we leave the mtc. My companion and I are learning so thats good. We had an amazing devotional on Tuesday by sister Kathleen Andersen and Elder Wilford w Andersen. Sister Andersen spoke on a few things. She mentioned how when we choose to repent we allow jesus to transform us into our best selves. Satan's first line of offense is the mind. Be aware of what your mind is doing. Train your mind to love God with all of it. Elder Andersen then gave an extremely powerful message. He talked about truly loving the savior and following him. He gave three ways to truly love the savior. 1. Learn his language 2. Play his music. 3. Be willing to take upon you his name. He quoted jesus saying do you love me more than you love all this? This hit extremely hard for me because I knew that's what he asked me when going on a mission. If I loved him more than my life I had been living than would I serve a mission? Well here I am. We were able to share after the devotional our thoughts and feelings with our district and I have grown so much love for these people I get to call my brothers and sisters. We all just wanted to hug each other after. I'm so glad we all get a long. Picture 5 is of sister kosorok that night with one if our empty ramen boxes on her head. 

I honestly don't have much to report for Wednesday. It was just a day of getting work done. We finished meeting with our first trc and wish we could keep teaching her. Picture 6 is of sister mittens just chilling by s1 building where we eat food. 

Thursday was a much better day. TRC number 2 went better than our first lesson. I loved this scripture that was shared in class. 

Alma 36: 27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.

I love this scripture because it's how I've felt at a few points in my life. He definitely will deliver us and help us through our hard times. I hit a bit of a low on Thursday. There have been a few times while here at the mtc that I have been reminded just how open I am. How much of the world I've seen and experienced. I might not be able to spout off scriptures like a lot of the other missionaries here but I am able to connect with people a lot better. I'm grateful for how unjudgemental I am. Its definitely been a major blessing for me. 

Friday was a much better day. Had a bit more energy for the day. Class was okay. Called my brother for his birthday. During our second class we had a teaching demo that was really good. If we have exercise time in the evening we always seem to make it out to play volleyball as a district. Were working to get a picture all together and once I have that I'll share it. The 7th picture is of a mural much companion and o sat by for personal studies. The sun was just perfectly coming through the window. 

Today is P day and man am I glad its here. Working on a ton of laundry. Going to visit the store because my companion needs to get a few things. It's nice to have a day to just take a break. Picture 8 is of my awesome mission shirt. I also got a necklace with my mission on it. 

I'd love to hear how others are doing! Email me! 

Love,

Sister Sydney Hanks ❤

pictures

sorry if the pictures are not in the order she said
I am just learning how to do this blog. I will get better I promise

Hello world!

My P day in the MTC falls on a Saturday so I've officially been here for 4 days now. Man it's been a crazy first few days. My companion and I are bummed as the provo temple is closed until August so we aren't able to go through while at the MTC. Hopefully we can go while in the field.  Alright so here's a break down for you of my past few days.

Wednesday I will not lie the first bit of the day was hard. Cried a lot saying goodbye to my cat. Then broke down when my family dropped me off. As soon as I stepped on campus though everyone was so warm and welcoming. I was so nervous though waiting to meet my companion. Man I love her though. Her name is Sister Voelkell and she's from Missouri. She's a little quiet but we get along really well. We went through some classes and learned more about what to expect. Had a great opening devotional from the mtc presidency. One of my favorite parts was a workshop we did called people & your purpose. We met with 3 non members as a group of about 60 missionaries. We were able to get to know these people and help them with questions about the gospel. It was so fun and intriguing. While going through this I found a new love for note taking. Definitely helps me to focus and take in more information. We share a dorm with four other sisters so six of us total. I love all of them and we get along so well. The first picture attached is all of us.

Day two was fourth of July. Not going to lie I got a bit down a few times during the day missing a lot of traditions with my family. Heard the planes go over the parade and remembered them from last year. Luckily it was a good day though. Second picture attached is a better picture of the sisters in my room. Going left to right we have Sister Turner from st George going to Reno Nevada, Sister Kosorok from Arizona going to Reno Nevada, Sister Cruz from Massachusetts going to Jacksonville Florida, sister rowell from Arizona going to Jacksonville Florida, my companion Sister Voelkell (pronounced like vocal) from Missouri going to Reno Nevada, and then me! I love this group of girls so much. A talk I really loved from this day was by Elder Holland from 2006 called broken things to mend. Highly recommend everyone read it. I also loved the mormon messages lifting burdens. We meet our branch presidency and they are so sweet. They let us stay up and watch the fireworks for stadium of fire. We watched them on the 6th floor of our classroom building which gave a stellar view over the stadium. The third picture is of our room with fireworks in the background. A little blurry but still fun. Some other pictures I forgot from that day are the fourth picture is of the resident cat at the mtc sister mittens. She's so friendly. Fifth picture is during personal study of my name tag and preach my gospel. Sixth picture is of me and a sister from my ward Danielle Kemp who I was super excited to see. Seventh picture View of the temple from the classroom building. Eighth picture is of a silly duck in the fountain. 

So sadly I got super nauseous the night of July 4th. More than likely my body just trying to adjust to everything new. So I didn't get much sleep. Coming out of our residency we saw picture 9 of the hot air balloons which perked me up a bit. Got a blessing from the elders in our branch which helped a bit. My companion and I went back to the dorm and I took a nap. Didn't really help so i went to the doctor on campus. He gave me some nausea pills which helped a ton so we were able to get to classes later in the day. Everyone in our district was so sweet asking if I was okay. Made me feel super loved as I was working through feeling better. One of my favorite things was we came into one of the workshops and sat by some elders. We were talking with them and one of the elders pulled out his t slim which helps with diabetes. I got excited and he let me know lots of missionaries here have diabetes. They serve state side but made me excited that my sister Ashley can serve a mission if she chooses to. Picture 10 is of the view from our classroom building. It's so pretty. Picture 11 is of papa John's pizza which was amazing to eat after not feeling good. Towards the end of the day I started not feeling good again so luckily we didn't have much going so I was able to rest. 

Now it's p day and we all slept in for an extra 30 minutes which helped a ton. I feel so much better and am grateful to the sisters I room with. We were all definitely meant to be together and have such a deep understanding and love for one another. So many worries since coming here have been answered in one way or another. I feel so grateful to finally be doing this. 

I loved being able to video chat with my family and hear from them. My cat is so mad at me for leaving and wanted nothing to do with me over video. She was super friendly towards my mom though so glad to know she's nice to my family and being taken care of. 

Well I think that's all I have for this week. Definitely a lengthy update so well see if that continues for next week. 

Love you all!!! ❤❤❤

Sister Hanks