The Astonishing Adventures of Sister Hannah Hiatt

This week's adventure was Mission Tour, where we got to hear from Elder Cascardi (a member of the Quorum of the 70). It was awesome. He spoke a ton about the doctrine of Christ (you know, the five things we talk about pretty much all day: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) but he went super in depth and woah. I learned so so much. The whole devotional was cram-packed with bomb-diggity doctrine, but I especially appreciated the part he spoke about repentance. A lot of the time when we think about repentance, we think about the huge sins some people make and the need to stop and make a huge difference in order to change. Repentance is often associated with words like "punishment" and "consequences," but in reality it isn't that at all. Our goal in this life is to return to God and inherit His glory. To do this, we need to be pure enough to enter (and feel comfortable) in His presence, which isn't pos...

So I mentioned last week that I got a new companion, and I would like to take a little more time this week to introduce her. Her name is Sister K. Souza from Mato Grosso, Brasil, and she is actually an angel. Seriously. Like, if you crossed Mary Poppins with Jesus Christ and made the child Brazilian, you'd get my companion. She's awesome. She's a Sister Training Leader, which means sometimes she goes on splits (trades companions for a day) to help and teach the other Sister missionaries improve. This is awesome because it means I a) have an expert for my companion (of course, she's super humble and always denies it: "There's always more to learn") and b) get to meet other Sisters, too, which is always fun. Sunday morning we were waiting outside the house of an investigator who promised to come to church with us, but after ringing the bell, clapping, and calling (in Brasil not all the houses have doorbells so we're in the habit of just yelling out peopl...

This week we had a baptism!!! It was my first in the mission, and it was wild (and my camera died so I don't have any pictures... maybe my companion will send me hers....). Nadir is the best friend of another person we were teaching, who introduced us. We found out that Nadir had been given a Book of Mormon from a friend, and had already read the entire "livro de almas" (Alma is the name of a prophet, which translates to "soul")." She loves the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and I'm so glad we met her. She is the sweetest woman you've ever met, and I'm so happy for her! Also this week I officially finished training, and Sister Gomes was transfered to another city. I'll stay here in Riberão Pires with Sister K. Souza, who is ridiculously sweet and enthusiastic for the work. I'm very excited for this transfer and I know that it will be awesome. I know this church has the fullness of the gospel and that it truly brings joy and peace for thos...

So Thursday marks 4 months since I entered the MTC, which is totally crazy. I won't say it's flown by, but also it really doesn't feel like it was that long ago. But what a busy four months it's been! I've learned so much, including: * How to teach assorted lessons about the gospel (in Portuguese!) * How to read scriptures (in Portuguese!) (and you thought the Isaiah chapters were hard to understand in English...) * How to cross my 7s (my companion used to complain that my 7s looked like 1s and that my 1s were just plain wrong, but I write like a Brasileiro now (mais ou menos)) * How to make rice (apparently it's more complicated than just putting rice and water in a pot. The girls here use oil, onion, and some kind of mystery substance that is quite possibly actual magic) * How to stop a random person on the street, get them to tell me exactly where they live, and then convince them to be baptized (the follow-through with this one, as in, the actual bapti...