The Joy Of It: Surprise!!

Note: Hermana Clark emailed this on Saturday, July 4. I didn't get it posted until today due to the holiday weekend. Apologies! -Michelle

So since I'm leaving the MTC early early early on Monday morning, I'm emailing today! Surprise!

So it's Tuesday night, and the six of us District 12A Hermanas are rushing over to the devotional because it starts in 5 minutes. We hussle into the back door and the woman standing there says "go all the way down the stairs and follow that man." So we go down, and where does he take us? THE FRONT ROW. Right in front of the podium.

We proceeded to listen to a powerful devotional by Sister Gladys Sitati and Elder Joseph W. Sitati of the Quorum of the Seventy. They gave powerful talks about what it means to join God's army in these days.

Afterward, because we were sitting so close, we got to shake their hands! Que suerte :)

I seriously love my district. I'm sad to be leaving them on Monday.

Thursday night during additional study time, someone in our zone was on LDS.org and saw the news that President Boyd K. Packer had passed away. One of the Hermanas in my district was pretty upset over it. We took time to all kneel together in prayer for his family, and we sang hymns together for a little while. There is just such a strong spirit of unity in our district- it's amazing. I love the MTC.

I didn't get to really introduce my district last week, so here's a little bit of an introduction.

My companion, Hermana Romero, is from L.A. and she if going to Costa Rica! She grew up speaking Spanish in her home, so she's kind of a pro.

Hermana Cragun is from Utah! She also goes to BYU, and we both worked at the Bean Museum fall semester, so we definitely knew each other already. She's going to Barcelona, Spain. What's crazy? She was on a study abroad there when she opened her call in February.

Hermana Greenman is from Burley, ID! Her family recently moved to Utah, though. She is going to Atlanta Georgia! Her parents both served in Argentina, so they raised their kids speaking Spanish.

Hermana Sorenson is from St. George most recently. Her dad is in the military, so she lived in Chile for 4 years, and that's where she learned Spanish. She is going to South Carolina!

Hermana Gomez is from Mexico City, and she is going to the Washington D.C. North mission. She is also fluent in English- she doesn't even have an accent. It's pretty impressive.

Elders Bonilla and Damiani are from Florida and Sao Paolo, respectively. They are both going to Arizona.

Elder Patino (that has a tilde over the n, but I can't type it...) was born in Ciudad Juarez! He moved to Utah when he was 16, and he's going to Texas.

(Oh, here's a cool thing. Not only is Elder Patino from my mission, Hermana Garcia in my zone is from Ciudad Juarez, and my Branch President was born in Las Colonias and lived there as a child. Coincidence? I think not.)

So with the exception of 2 elders, we're all going to different places. It's just crazy that we only met a week and a half ago, and we're all leaving each other in a few days.

Hermana Romero keeps saying, "Hermanas, we only have [fill in the blank] days left together!" Then Hermana Sorenson says "Hermana, QUIT IT." We mostly don't want to admit that our time together is almost up.

Here's the biggest lesson learned at the MTC.

We are here to LOVE people as Christ loves them.

We aren't here to preach eloquently and perfectly. We would fail.

We aren't even here to teach lessons.

We are here to love and teach people.

I am so excited to meet the people in Ciudad Juarez. I'm excited to come to know and love them.

Les amo mucho, todos! Gracias por su apoya y sus oraciones- las siento cada dia.

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

On Wednesdays we wear pink.