Long Meetings, Short Meetings, Meetings in Between Meetings

Look there's Pribby!

If I could tell you one of the things that made this week different, it would be that I discovered a new article of faith. 

Now there are 14 articles of faith, the newest which says:

"We believe in meetings, namely, long meetings, short meetings, meetings in between meetings and anything that appears as a meeting. We believe in the literal gathering of one or more persons to discuss and fulfill many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."

I'm kidding. But goodness! Sister Vasquez and I feel like we hardly went out and taught this week! It's ok because every meeting we went to was incredibly inspiring.  Wednesday we had a Mission Council with all the zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders (Sister Pribyl was there!:) Guess what we did??? Watched Meet The Mormons! 

It was fantastic!!! Little fun fact, one of the families in it is in my stake here in Atlanta. At the time of the film he was a bishop, now he's the stake president. He's a great guy! Really funny too. Anyways, you should all see it! Request for it to come to a theater near you by going to meetthemormons.com. It's definitely worth your time!


If you're wondering how we saw it before it was out the First Presidency actually shipped it overnight to Mission Presidents (I'm not sure all the missions but maybe the US at least?). We aren't able to see it in the theater so I guess the big screen in the chapel works just as well. Anyways, we're to promote it here in Atlanta! Pretty cool!


I've actually seen it twice because we had a zone conference, which was another awesome meeting because we went to the temple in the morning! That's always something I look forward to. I'll miss that when I'm in Brazil.

Speaking of which, I'll be leaving for Brazil the 21st of this month. My mission President announced it in Zone Conference this week so now I guess it's official. Two more weeks with a car and Spanish and Amurrica and my lovely comp. I'm really going to miss it here!


Back to meetings now..... CONFERENCE!!!! Evidence to the 14th article of faith. How amazing was that?! You know as we were watching conference I realized that to missionaries conference is like a holiday. The reason being because on real holidays, Christmas, Easter, New Years, Thanksgiving, etc, we go out and work! But conference we get to stay in and watch and all we need to do is be edified by the apostles and prophet. It really is the best holiday! All I have is one more conference holiday on my mission. Can you believe it??

Let's see, what are my favorites from conference? My district leader asked us on Saturday what our favorite was so far. I told him the "Holland Holla." He doesn't quite holler at you (... well maybe sometimes) but normally by the end of his talks I feel the major need of repentance. It's like a holler to your soul. 

In any case, he's just awesome! I also loved Elder Bednar. For those who are not members of the church and are reading this, take 5 minutes to watch this!  Elder Bednar is one of my favorite speakers.

Others-- (click on the names if you'd like to listen to their talks!) Jorg Klebingat and his boldness. I wish I could be that bold sometimes! Eduardo Gavarret's talk was awesome too because of the cute story of his wife and because I could understand it all in Spanish. That's a plus! I did also listen to Elder Godoy in Portuguese and let me just tell you how much of a struggle it was. I felt like he was speaking to me in Spanish underwater. Goodness I think God trusted me with learning these languages because He knew it would be entertaining.


Anyways!  It was an awesome conference as usual. I felt like there really was a huge emphasis on the prophet and how blessed we are to have one! It really is so important to sustain and support President Thomas S. Monson. I really have received my own witness and testimony that he is called of God and is of the same importance as the prophets of old. What an opportunity it is to hear his voice! Maybe he won't have to part seas or engrave his revelations on gold plates, but He does guide millions of people on this Earth. And I know He does it through constant council and divine authority given to him through our Lord and Savior.

We thank thee, O God, for a prophet!!!

Thanks for your emails this week! Until next week!

Love,

Hermana Hawkins 

And I'm OFF......to Atlanta, Georgia!

The MTC Map picture, with Sister Menasco!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I thought I'd share what my Christmas looked like. It was quite different from any year I've had! 

As soon as I woke up I ran over to the sister's room where we had a "Christmas tree." Sister Keeler's family made this cute little tree with pictures of her family as ornaments. Though it was her family, we all adopted the tree as our own and set our presents under it.

The tree!

I got some pretty sweet gifts from the family. Thanks fam! And of course it just so happened that our Brazil picture frame landed right at the top of the tree. So it was almost like the star on our tree:) 

The star!

The "stockings" er, Christmas shoes....

So for our Christmas celebrations, we had four special events. First of which being a Christmas Program. This was one of the most entertaining parts of the day! We had lots of singers and pianists but the coolest of all (Grandpa will like this!) was an elder who put on a magic show. He had umbrellas and confetti and the whole shabang. Seriously, it was insane! 

The next event was Elder Bednar's devotional. One of the coolest experiences!! Not just because Elder Bednar is a genius, but also because we were part of an experiment. What happened was, they passed out 200 cell phones between all 16 MTC's in the entire world. We then texted questions to Elder Bednar's iPad in which he and his wife would respond to. Basically it was a Q&A with an Apostle... pretty cool, huh? It was so insightful and crazy how so many of the responses were the exact words that I needed to hear. If you were wondering, yes, I did text in a question, but he didn't get to it. Also, it was super weird texting haha it's been a while!

The last two events were quite musical. We had a jazz concert by Ray Smith who played lots of Christmas medleys. Super cool to hear some live jazz!! Then later we watched the 2012 Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas show. THAT was cool... mostly because they had a guy named Alfie Boe sing "Bring Him Home" which made me cry. As per usual.

But the best part of Christmas (next to Elder Bednar's devotional, of course) was ending the day with my district in our classroom. We sat in a circle around our small tree with just our Christmas lights, drinking hot chocolate and reading the story of Christ's birth. Overall, my Christmas here was an unforgettable one. A celebration I will cherish forever!

the M&M Tree!

I'm so happy to have been in the MTC for Christmas. It seems fitting that I could start the MTC with Thanksgiving and end my term here with Christmas. Started with a bang, and ended with an even bigger bang. And that's exactly how I've changed. I've grown so much more than I expected to in just the first 6 weeks of my mission! Knowing that I still have so much time on my mission, I hope I can keep improving myself as I focus more and more on others. You know..... you don't have to be on a mission to do the same!(hint, hint!)

Elder Williams, the one without his suit coat, is going to Atlanta too!

Next week I'll be headed to ATLANTA GEORGIA!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I can't even begin to express how excited I am! Who knows how long I'll be there but whatever the case, I'd be happy to serve there for my whole mission. It doesn't matter where I 'm called to... wherever I go, my purpose is still the same. 

The letter with my reassignment to Atlanta, Georgia!

Eu sei que estou chamado para ser uma missionaria em Atlanta por um proposíto. Lá, as pessoas estam preparados ouvir a mensagem de Jesus Cristo. E eu estou preparado ensinar-los. Eu sei que o Senhor mim precissa a convidar Seus filhos para achegarem-se a Cristo. O trabalho de Deus é o trabalho melhore. Por Causa que eu não sou uma professora perfeita, a caminha somente para fazer o trabalha de Deus é por meio da Expiação de Jesus Cristo, do Espírito Santo, e do Livro de Mórmon. Eu sei que o evangelho de Jesus Cristo é verdade e eu vou amar ele para sempre. 

Until next week in ATLANTA!!!!

Sister Hawkins

PS: those who know Portuguese... don't hate on all my errors! 

Note from the Mom: We didn't get to talk to her on Christmas, but we got to email with her for a bit, which was also nice. And we WILL get to talk to her when she's in transit to Atlanta.  We're excited for that!  And excited for her next adventure. She's ready!