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