3 Weeks left in Utah!!!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Holy Cow! Can you believe it?! I'm getting super amped about going to DC and still dreading the heat wave! haha, you'd think I'm not from a desert climate but I am.

 

So this week was pretty great! My district got to host for the first time and it was awesome! That's when the Elders tear the new missionaries away from their parents (okay nicely escort them to their buildings) and with the sister missionaries we take them to get their name badges, drop of their luggage, get all their learning books, then drop them off to meet their district (oh - a district in the MTC is the class you learn with for how ever many weeks your here - doesn't change because you are all at the same pace and they don't switch that up.) OH - and we get to host again tomorrow!! SO COOL! and next week the Temple is closed for cleaning and we get to help clean it - can I just tell you that things are awesome! I love service! I challenge you to do some service for someone - anyone...Just do a little something to help someone out. Any service done with happiness and love it your heart is a blessing and an act of love.

 

COOLEST THING - Mission Presidents Seminar is this week and General Authorities get to come to campus (we never see them) and talk to the new mission presidents and their wives that go out this year. They are here from last Saturday til tomorrow I think (and mission presidents get switched out every three years if im correct so about a 1/3 of the worlds mission presidents are switched out every year).

 

SO that's whats been happening. I've been work on taking less quotes and writing more notes (haha- im a poet :D) so that i can actually remember what i'm writing down. The Spanish is slow and so is the reading but I'm learing and growing through the help of the Spirit which is SOOO Crucial to have in this work. If I learn by the Spirit, I can teach by the Spirit and really let him guide the lesson not my companion or me. So I'm working on it, and I don't think I will ever be perfect at it but I can still try and do eveything I can to have it with me.

 

NOTES of Awesomeness that I know you all want to hear:

-Daddy: how was California? Have a blast? Mom said that Hazel's son past away - if you are still please give her a big hug for me! I love her! and I know her son will see her again.

-B-man: Hows that hair of yours? mom sent me a picture and you look like a stud - Taylor Lautner status all the way! But I always knew that ;D you still rocking those V-necks?? well you should. Oh and I have a challenge for you to doing over your vacation - get a Preach My Gospel and start reading it - study the words on the page and go study the scriptures it gives you. If there is one this I wish I had done before the mission it's that (because I'm still lacking time to do it here) - it is an amazing resource and I can't wait to use it more. Plus - it will increase your testimony and knowledge of the Savior and the Atonement and help you to have the Spirit with you and that will help you at every point it you life!

-Kylan (erika can you make sure he sees this please): What is the world are you up to my dear friend?? I need a letter from you telling me about all your great adventures? Oh - i have an adventure to tell you about. So this past Saturday we were allowed to watch "The Other Side of Heaven" and I was overwhelmed with awesome missionary thoughts - I think I wrote more thoughts down then I stared at the movie but it was great and I hope you still think it's awesome! Thanks for opening my eyes to the wonderful quotes in that movie :D You're awesome and I miss you friend!

-MY PARENTS = = = = HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! Did you like the Monkeys on that card?! haha - i thought I was pretty clever for only having a few choices. But seriously - i love you both and am so grateful for you in my life! Thank you for always being such wonderful examples to me and letting me make my own decisions and always being there when I needed help! you are both amazing and I'm blessed to have you as my parents :D

 

Well thats about all i have. On Sunday we sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and it was so super awesome because the words were changed from "we will be the Lord's missionaries" to "we ARE the Lords missionaries" - pretty cool when something you've sung about your who life was a dream you never knew you had. It's pretty cool to see how you've changed and how far you've come. I know I've gotten to where I am because of a decision my parents my many years ago and am so very very grateful for them and their trust in the Lord. Missionaries brought them the truth and that is what I'm doing. I'm sharing God's love for all of His children - that's you! That is everyone on this Earth! and i'm grateful to have the oppourtunity to share the gift that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This work is true and I may get discouraged at times it is still what I want to do and need to do!

 

Well i Love you all and will talk to you next week!

Te Amo!

-Hermana Word (2)

whirlwinds are fun!

Sent Tuesday, July 19, 2012

so I've just been realizing that i probably should have numbered these emails because I'm not even sure how long I've been gone...half the time I forget what day it is let alone what week :P but I will be in DC in a month (July 17th is my leave date so keep that in mind) :)

 

Anywho - it has been  one amazing week! First we heard from Elder Per G Malm of the 70 (yep he's Swedish!)! On Sunday I got to hear from some of the coolest ladies ever and meet one of them! Sis. Elaine S. Dalton came and spoke in Relief Society and then Sis. Sheri Dew for the Sunday night fireside (I met sis Dalton)! So amazing! They are both such amazing, very different ladies, but that does not mean the Spirit was any less present in the room! It was an honor to hear from them - esp Sis. Dalton cause I grew up with her in Young Women's so I loved it (by the way - if any of these people you're asking yourself "Who??" talk to my parents - they can help you out :D)

 

Wednesday and Friday was english fast day - so ALL SPANISH ALL DAY!! That was crazy challenging - we had to ask for permission to speak in english but if we spoke without permission we got ten seconds of wallsits for each word...lets just say I had 28 words weds and 21 friday - my legs are awesome!!

 

Okay - back to life! Well the work moves on as always! I'm still figuring out how I learn and I think that is why the MTC is so great - we learn what we are doing and how we can do better while working in the Lord's name. We learn so heavily through the Spirit here that it just makes you physically exhausted in a wonderful way! I love it! and my studies are going so much better than I ever imagined - I cannot tell you how many times I have read 1 Nephi, but I can tell you that this is the first time I've studied it! So very amazing! The Spirit helps me learn and in turn helps me teach to help others learn :D

 

Well we have many things going on this next week with new mission presidents training but it will be so very amazing and I am overflowing with joy as to who may come and speak! I love this gospel and I love to learn from the prophet and the apostles who are on the earth today and who have lived! Keep up all the good work - and never fear for the Lord is with you if you keep his commmandments. He know's your pain and will bear you up if you will let him!

 

Te Amo!

-Hermana Word (2)

Well hello there!!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Welcome to yet another wonderful day in the world! Guess what - i've been in the MTC for a month now and it is crazy! My biggest problem is balancing - we have set aside times to study during the day but all I want to do to learn Spanish is read my scriptures in Spanish - but that doesn't help with all the rules we have to learn. You remember how they teach you the same thing every year when you learn about nouns and adverbs and adjectives....then in high school it gets more complicated??? lets throw 12 years of school together and teach it to missionaries in 9 weeks! it's insaine. We have to conjugate a verb to the person talked about so me, he/she/it, us, them...then you have to put it in the tense you are talking about so past, present, future...and 11 other tenses in between. Pretty crazy but the Lord is amazing and if we couldn't do it in 9 weeks - then he would give us more time! so yep.

 

My week at the MTC has been pretty great  but let's start off with a few notes of love!

-SHAN CANNON!! Thank you sooooooo much for my package!! First box i got in the MTC so that was uber exciting! and you are super sweet - letter coming to you soon!

-Monteleone family= thanks for taking care of my mom and my siblings this weekend! Wish i could have been there but I know it was amazing! PS - give ryan on BIG huge for me! And Im way excited he was there - love you all!!

-Kaity - met Sis. Erickson that you served with the other day (guess she's married now...) any who - she has a hug coming to you soon!

 

 

okay...so not a lot of notes but i love you all! trust me - anyone of you reading this email, any of you that know me - I LOVE YOU!!! that's right, I'm talking to you so you best be  sure of that cause i love you :D

 

oh - and can someone get me Wes Wagner's address or even his mission name and i think i can look it up? Kaity perhaps?? should be on his face book or if you email Jace Ewing he should be able to get it to you or Brandon Lowe. Just feel the need to write that missionary!

 

ok ok ok OKAY! back to mission life. Well this week I became and investigator which is fun cause we get taught by one companionship and teach another. It's fun cause we can see all the teaching styles and help each other learn. We had to come up with our own investigators and are in character roles with our companions (my comp and I are "roommates" that just met cause we live together :P) so that's been fun. Elder Marlin K Jensen of the 70 spoke at devotional last week about how important this work was and gave us advice on how to "trap" people on an airplane and talk about what we "do for a living" - haha, it was pretty amazing! It was extra special because he just turns 70 and gets released later this month (yep - they are released when they turn 70)!

 

Few questions for the family - still not sure what's going on with my room and I'm a tad curious. and Where my stuff went (like my movies that probs shouldn't be in the connext)?? Just thoughts I have randomly. Oh - and I had thoughts of pani popo the other day and was craving some so that would be cool in the mission field! just thoughts on my mind :D and if someone can find my volcom bag that has the shoulder strap and send it to me that would be great (or new large side strap bags are cool) - just found out as a sister missionary I'm not allowed to use a backpack and i left all my good bags at home. Just a little confused because I had no idea where to find these rules before i left. SO any of you sister missionaries out there - CHECK OUT LDS.ORG for missionary clothing guidelines before you get to the store (SERIOUSLY  - it will help so much) and all missionaries - they have things here that you can get at the store for toiletries that are cheaper than you can get at home...keep that in mind.

 

I just have to say that this church is TRUE - restored through Joseph Smith by the power of Heavenly Father. Joseph prayed to know which church was true and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to him and told him none were true and that the Lord's church was to be restored as was in the time of Christ's life. If you want to know what I am doing and why I am here it challenge you to read the Book of Mormon - ALL OF IT!. Read the introduction and follow what it says to do in the second to last paragraph of the introduction - read, ponder, pray to Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ to know it is true and you will know if you sincerly want to. I would not share this message with others I didn't know i didn't believe in it myself. The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and you can see his hand in every page of the book. I testify that this gospel is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! Stay amazing and safe!

-Hermana Word

GOOD MORNING STARSHINE! THE EARTH SAYS HELLO!!!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Hola mi Familia y mis amigos! Guess what - it's not even 9am and I'm writing you already - that's weird but awesome cause when I'm done I get to put on pjs for like 5 more hours! YAY!!!

 

Anywho - this week has been crazy! We had two girl's leave from our district and that is weird because now the Elders outnumber us! It's all good though. We even go some new elders to the Zone last week and they are pretty cool - not going to lie we talked about different superhero movies at dinner last night and i LOVED it! YES - i love this work and my heart is focused, as is my mind, but it is nice to take appropriate breaks and talk about movies or music (even had a talk about the Biebs the other night with my hermanas in my district - called it sista talk :P it was fun - miss me some bieber and my bieber buddies [erika and sammie jay]) any whoo.....

 

So I had my biggest mistake yet in Spanish this week :P First - our investigators are progressing well and the Lord is helping us teach them with the Spirit. So - we have our sister investigator committed to baptism, but we have to teach her all the commandments before then and commit her to them before she can be baptized (as well as take her to church 3 times - impossible so we will move her date). On Saturday, we were teaching her about the law of tithing, which i'd studied vocab for a few days and was ready. Well,  during our lesson,  we have to tell her "to pay" her tithing which is PAGAR in spanish...I told her to PEGAR her tithing which means "to hit"...haha, yep according to my companion I did that multiple times, but no one told me until after :P yep, i'm cool.

 

little notes of love this week - Sis. Marrott! Thank you soo much!! Your letters are great and I really love to hear from you! I will try to keep writing but please forgive me if I get a little off track.

 - Brielle Richards!! I got your announcement this week - soo adorable!! [side note - everyone I love wedding announcements and hearing what is going on so please let me know! Send me letters] k - brielle, thank you for that I loved it! Can't wait to hear of how amazing your wedding is :D

- Richards family - does Elder Richards have a new address?? I've been wondering but not sure and I don't want to send letters to the wrong address and he not get them. If someone could dear elder it to me and his mission address I would grately appreciate it! Thank  you!!

- Alex Monteleone!! You're graduating!! CRAZY COOL!! I hope you have an absolutely amazing graduation and you share a bunch of hugs with my family (you give great hugs) and exchange some from me you to from them and from me to them from you :D hope that made sense! and write me soon you crazy busy woman - also I wore our skirt this week! cool huh?? LOVE YOU!

-Kaity Word!! Congrats on those job offers! i have a request for you - can you please go to like a second hand/LDS book store and see if they have an old copy of 'Jesus the Christ'?? I want to have one from back in the day but can't get anything like that here. please and thank you :D

-Kyle Brunson (yes - a little random note I know [erika can you post this on his FCBK please :D] ) I met an Hermana VanKatwyk last week and we talked freelines - way cool. Says she's from vacaville! any whoo - hope all is well and your loving BYUI!!!

-Erika Marie - I LOVE YOU!!! and i just want you to know that know you need to learn a 4th language (aka - Spanish) so we can communicate when I get home. ps - send my mom your address so she can get a BYUI sweatshirt :D

-B-man - how did football end up for you?! Write me! LOVE YOU!!

 

Okay - five minutes left. Um I love this work! I feel like we are doing a lot every day but it is amazing how much you learn through the spirit. I would be burnt out by now if it wasn't for the Spirit teaching me the things that I need to know to testify of the truthfulness of this Gospel. i wouldn't be out here doing what I'm doing if i didn't believe in it! The Book of Mormon will not shake your testimony and make you question Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but will make them So much more real! You will know of the love Heavenly Father has for us and why Christ was willing to suffer so much so that we could return to Heavenly Father again. I know that when you read the Book of Mormon, you will feel the Spirit and it will testify truth unto you! I know that this gospel is true and I am grateful everyday for the missionaries who carry it to every part of the world. I love you all very much and thank you for all your support! I know that my words are plan, as are all missionaries, but we have the Spirit when we are worthy of it, and that is what testifies of Christ.

I will see you all in 17 months!

Te Amo!!

-Hermana Word (2)

 

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Que en el Mundo?! haha - what in the world?!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hola! How are things in non - missionary land? Okay - non full time missionary land, because you are all missionaries!! Just FYI!

 

Well this last week was AH-MAZING!! I absolutely love that my pday is on Tuesday's because we get to relax all day! We write letters, do laundry, some studying, eat like 3 times that day, go to the Temple :D and then at night we have a devotional...may have said that last week but I still love it! Last week's Devo was Elder Rasband of the Presidency of the 70 and he talked about how we are to have the Holy Ghost with us constantly...only way to do that is = garnish thy thoughts with virtue+bridle your passions+ASK for the HOLY GHOST TO Attend you always = :D Heavenly Father wants us to all have the Holy Ghost with us and he will manifest the truthfulness of this Gospel, this message that I'm sharing if those who want to obtain knowledge are willing to act on the knowledge the Holy Ghost is willing to give them. After gaining a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel, we repent and are baptized by someone holding the Proper Authority of God, we receive it [the holy ghost] as a gift from Heavenly Father...and after that we have to work hard to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. This life was not meant to be easy but it is worth it! That is what I'm doing out here - that is what all missionaries are doing. Our message is the Love of God and how we can return to him! HOW COOL IS THAT???

 

Moving on - I'm working out a lot more...okay I'm running a lot more - be proud KAITY Word! It's about all i like to do around here. I get a way better work out and we are required to work out 30 mins a day except Sundays (even P-day but I write letters while my comp works our :P) It's nice cause it's the only time I get some "world" music - not music but balls bouncing all over the place and people talking so i love it. I'd have to say that the hardest thing about being a missionary is all the quiet! Luckily i have an awesome companion who reminds me when to stop talking. Always have to have a voice of reason. I'm working on getting better at having a better vocabulary - english and spanish :P

 

I just want you all to know that i LOVE LOVE LEOVE letters - please send them! I try to write back every pday but sometimes I can't . Im working hard to keep it up. Thanks for all the support and letters so far!

 

Um... I think I'm losing weight so that's good - well it's a toss up. I eat three meals every day, which is totally weird. But i don't snack as much. You would think they'd let us have snack time in class when we're stuck in class for three hours straight twice a day...and are always in the classroom doing something but no. it's a distraction I'm told. Oh - and all those new shirts I bought (okay not all of them) all the black and white shirts i bought, I can't wear because they dont have material under the arm...had no idea of that!  :/I will just have to get a couple when i get to DC cause it gets a tad hot having to cover them up with a cardigan all the time. Not  a complaint, just something I wasn't aware of. oH - and I met my tutor last week, Sis. Hurren. Asked if she was related to Jamie but she said no :/ oh well - she's way awesome and i love meeting with her - helping me know how to better work. And last week we went to the TRC for the first time. i think it stands for Training Resource Center but we teach members of the Church there - pretty sweet. It was really hard though and made me freak out a bit but it was a good experience overall. And the people we taught were really nice - oh and all teaching is in Spanish! On top of that we're having some break-throughs with our investigators which is amazing! I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to teach and know that the Spirit is testifying of the words you're saying even if they aren't coming out so eliquently in another language. It's so wonderful!

 

OH - daddy! The fireside we had on Sunday was from a Brother Allen who is the head of missionary operations for the church. Anywho - his talk kind of reminded me of President Uchtdorf because it was about a f-14 pilot who took off and landed 308 times on an aircraft carrier - HOW COOL?! most of the talk was the story so we could really understand how it was to land in the dark when you couldn't see the ship and didn't know where you were going. The pilot he was talking about was someone he'd sat next to on a plane recently (who'd been retired for at least a few years and he's like 38 now)... The pilot said that the two biggest things about making it in the dark or during the day was precision and deviation. We have to be precise with the knowledge we have but notice the deviations as they start to come so that we can correct the mistake before it is too big to handle and we end up in the water. It was way cool! He related it back to the Atonement and Repentance. I just wanted to share cause he was an Aircraft Carrier pilot - GO NAVY!!

 

This week the Atonement has been talked about a lot and it is truly amazing! I just love the talks that have been shared and the things I have read - Adam fell so that we could die. Christ died so that we could live! I invite you all to study the Atonement! We can't truly know Christ until we know how he suffered for us and why! Awesome talk by Bruce R. McConkie before he died...i think it's called the garden of gethsemane but not sure...its in the classic talks section on the church website (i think 1984 was when it was given) - we did a study on it yesterday and I loved it.

 

Well everyone - my computer is having a freeze spat again today so I'm going say chao until next week! I love you all! oh - and baked goods are welcome! No chocolate please and nothing perishable :P just a thought - corn nuts, sugar cookies...hot cheetos!! I love it all! But more than that I LOVE YOU ALL AND YOUR SUPPORT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! Keep those chins up out there! Heavenly Father Loves you!

 

Te Amo!

-Hermana Word (2)