She asked me to edit this a little, but otherwise here is today's e-mail from Hannah. There's a picture too of her with all the MTC missionaries, but I don't think I can post it on the blog. If you'd like, I'll be happy to e-mail it to you.
Dad- If I had read that email today I think I would have understood it! My Spanish is coming along really well. I still have a lot to learn but I am able to understand much more than I used to be able to.
Mom- I'm glad that Mari and Owen like their presents! I can picture that little heart on Mariel's backpack. That's really exciting that you're thinking about letting Mariel come with you to visiting teaching. Thank you for sharing that scripture with me.
So I've decided that with every word of Spanish I learn my English gets a little worse. I wouldn't be surprised if I come home and Dad's the only one that can understand me.
One of the Elders in my district calls us "baby missionaries." I'm a baby missionary at the Guatemala MTC. The name of my district is Malaquias. There are 8 sisters and 3 Elders in Malaquias. We spend almost the whole day together in room 9 which is a small classroom on the third floor in the CCM (MTC). Every day I wake up at 6:30 and have breakfast in the cafeteria at 7:30. The food here is AMAZING!
My compañera is wonderful! Her name is Hermana Skousen and she is 19 years old. She always has a smile on her face and a bounce to her step. The other hermanas are absolutely wonderful as well. We haven't known each other for very long but we've already been through so much together. I share a room with five other Hermanas. All of us have bunk beds and there is no closet so we've been living out of our suitcases.
I share a bunk bed with Hermana Bond. I balanced my alarm clock on my bed frame the first night which worked great until it fell and broke. Thankfully the other sisters have alarm clocks.
I really love all of the people here. My district has two teachers every day. Their names are Hermana Eboñera and Hermana Borrido. Hermana Garrido is the teacher most often. The other day she wrote, "Yo sé que son misioneros exitosos y confió en ustedes." She has been really encouraging and understanding. Both of our teachers are from Guatemala but they speak enough English that we can communicate.
My Spanish is coming along alright. I know that I have much to learn but I can understand and speak Spanish better than a week ago.
I love the Latino sisters! They are awesome. The other day a couple of sisters were trying to teach Hermana Skousen and I how to say RR´s. Hermana Escorelo is really animated. She was growling like a jaguar saying grrrrrrr with never-ending RR´s. Later that same day Hermana Hermandes and Hermana Frendez made the Norte sisters, aka the US sisters, dance and say "highway" in Spanish as the password to get into our classroom.
Ever since the second day us Malaquias have been teaching an investigator named José. Teaching him has been the best part of my mission so far. José works at the CCM. The first time that we taught him and committed him to be baptized he said, "Well I like the idea, but I´d like to learn more." Since the whole district is teaching him he had several sets of missionaries come teach him more that same day. Teaching him has been a great experience. The first time Hermana Skousen and I taught him we taught in English. The second and third times we taught in Spanish. On the fourth day José accepted a baptismal date. His baptismal date is March 15th. Just 4 days in!!
One of the Elders said, "We could have been in Utah teaching volunteers but we're in Guatemala teaching real investigators in their foreign language." One of the hermanas then said that they teach real investigators in Spanish in Provo also, but it's still cool that we´re teaching in Guatemala.
So I went to the Guatemala temple today. There are some of your names in the prayer role in Guatemala. Pretty cool right?
I was told that when you send packages you have to just put Hermana [her full name] and the address. They don't want you to put pictures of Jesus on the packages. If they see Hermana [her full name] they´ll know that it's just a package for a Mormon missionary and it probably only has highlighters and candy in it.
I love you all very very much. Thank you for your support. I'm so grateful to be in our family. Send my love to everyone!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Arrived!
About an hour ago, I received an e-mail from Hermana Koehler. I'm not sure what the privacy issues and rules are about blogs on missions, so I will paraphrase what she wrote for now.
She said the trip was really long and she only got about three hours of sleep. She said her name tag is a "real conversation starter." She had conversations with a Catholic man from California who felt guilty talking with her about religion because his mom is a devout Catholic and he hasn't kept in contact with her. Then on the way to Guatemala she talked a little bit with a woman who only speaks Spanish. They had to fill out a form and Hannah thinks the woman said she was having trouble filling it out because she didn't have her glasses.
The flight was scary when it was dark because there was a lot of turbulence. It was very cloudy when they arrived in Guatemala, colder in the morning and getting warmer now.
On the plane ride she read the letters from me (her mom), Grandma Jane, and Jennilyn. She thought the story about the grey skirt was "really neat" and she's "grateful for all the family support" she's received.
She said they haven't done much yet today, that it feels like 11 PM but it's not even 1 PM yet. She really likes the sisters she's serving with. She doesn't remember their names, but she's sure she'll become very familiar with them. She said some people in our family feel grumpy when they're hungry, but she feels grumpy when she's tired. Clearly, she's very tired. She can't take pictures while at the MTC. They took their cameras for security reasons. She will be there for six weeks.
Okay, this is getting too hard to paraphrase. I'll just quote the rest. I guess she'll let me know the blogging rules later. She said it was a little tough to write because she's not used to using a Spanish keyboard. She didn't know where the "enter" button was so she just made one long paragraph. And I guess she doesn't know where the apostrophes are yet either.
"It was a really neat drive to the MTC. One of the men was basically giving a ´tour. Its really beautiful here. The only plants that Ive recognized are grass and pine trees, everything else is new. I havent seen any big bugs yet. I met the mission president of the MTC today. He said that theres three goals for us (1) that we will leave the MTC with a stronger testimony than we have (2) that we will be prepared with everything we need to hit the ground running and (3)...I dont really remember what that one was but Im sure it will come back after a good nights rest."
She said the trip was really long and she only got about three hours of sleep. She said her name tag is a "real conversation starter." She had conversations with a Catholic man from California who felt guilty talking with her about religion because his mom is a devout Catholic and he hasn't kept in contact with her. Then on the way to Guatemala she talked a little bit with a woman who only speaks Spanish. They had to fill out a form and Hannah thinks the woman said she was having trouble filling it out because she didn't have her glasses.
The flight was scary when it was dark because there was a lot of turbulence. It was very cloudy when they arrived in Guatemala, colder in the morning and getting warmer now.
On the plane ride she read the letters from me (her mom), Grandma Jane, and Jennilyn. She thought the story about the grey skirt was "really neat" and she's "grateful for all the family support" she's received.
She said they haven't done much yet today, that it feels like 11 PM but it's not even 1 PM yet. She really likes the sisters she's serving with. She doesn't remember their names, but she's sure she'll become very familiar with them. She said some people in our family feel grumpy when they're hungry, but she feels grumpy when she's tired. Clearly, she's very tired. She can't take pictures while at the MTC. They took their cameras for security reasons. She will be there for six weeks.
Okay, this is getting too hard to paraphrase. I'll just quote the rest. I guess she'll let me know the blogging rules later. She said it was a little tough to write because she's not used to using a Spanish keyboard. She didn't know where the "enter" button was so she just made one long paragraph. And I guess she doesn't know where the apostrophes are yet either.
"It was a really neat drive to the MTC. One of the men was basically giving a ´tour. Its really beautiful here. The only plants that Ive recognized are grass and pine trees, everything else is new. I havent seen any big bugs yet. I met the mission president of the MTC today. He said that theres three goals for us (1) that we will leave the MTC with a stronger testimony than we have (2) that we will be prepared with everything we need to hit the ground running and (3)...I dont really remember what that one was but Im sure it will come back after a good nights rest."
She ends with "Send my love to everyone. Im sorry I wont be able to send pictures. Love Always, Hermana Koehler."
Landed
We haven't heard from her, but we tracked her flights and Hermana Koehler landed in Guatemala at 5:52 our time this morning. I hope she was able to sleep on the plane.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
On Her Way
This is Hermana Koehler's mom writing. I wanted to report that she arrived at the airport safely. Right now she's probably getting ready to board the airplane. While checking in, she met another sister missionary, Sister H., who is also going to Panama. So she's not alone.We had a busy day packing, but managed to find time for a fun lunch at Sweet Tomatoes.
Last night we enjoyed being there when she was set apart as a full-time missionary. I will update this blog as frequently as I have news to share. We love you Hermana Koehler!
Friday, February 15, 2013
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