Hermana Kelsey and her new companion 10:1 -email-

Hey everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy halfway through the mission (for me)!!! :):):):):):)

So how’s life? Things are pretty good here. I got my new companion Sister A. She is great. She has a lot of fire, and truly loves being a missionary. She is awesome! I don’t know if you got the picture that we tried to send. There was that one lady (the one that does missionary moms stuff) at our transfer we had on Wednesday, and she took a picture of us together and tried to email it to you. So hopefully you got it. 🙂

We have had a semi challenging week. On Monday Sister Q. left. 🙁 It was a really hard day, but after she was gone I was okay. I was temporary companions with Sister H., who is a sister serving in the singles ward here. She is super cool. She is an older sister (she’s 28 years old), but she is very good at being a missionary. She actually was graduated twice from college, and was established in her career, before she decided to come on a mission. We had to work both of our areas the rest of Monday, and also Tuesday, so it was a little difficult, but we managed. We had a really great lesson with one of their investigators Tuesday night. He is from China, he understands a lot of english, but his sister was there to help translate and stuff. It was crazy, because we would teach him something, and then he would turn to his sister, and she would explain what we had just taught again, in Chinese, to make sure that he knew what we were talking about. It was pretty crazy.

Wednesday: Sister A. came in…and also our new district leader Elder T. He is really cool, but he is super super quiet, so I don’t really know him that well. We had a pretty good day, and got a lot of work done. We also set another baptismal date with S__…again. Hopefully this time she will actually go through it. We have had a lot of troubles with her following through on being baptized. She knows it is true, but something is holding her back. But we are going to continue to work with her.

Thursday: We had two Thanksgiving dinners! We were fed by our ward mission leader’s wife, and also another member family. It was a pretty good day. It was really hard to find people at home though, because everyone was visiting family out of town or whatever.

Friday: We went Black Friday shopping…jk jk!!! But we talked going about it a little. Elder R. is really rich, and he was joking around offering us a “budget”, so he told me if we went Black Friday shopping I could get anything that I wanted as long as it was cheaper than $2000. Ha ha, he is hilarious! It was pretty funny.

Saturday: It was really really cold! Well not that cold I guess (it was like high 40’s low 50’s), but the cold is different, and it just goes right through all your layers. It’s ridiculous. So I might be needing to get some other clothing (like tights/leggings, or long sleeved shirts) sometime, otherwise I may freeze to death!

Sunday: We had a interview with S__ with one of the counselors in our mission presidency, so she will hopefully be getting baptized this Saturday. She seems to be more sure about it now than she was before so that should be good. We are pretty excited. 🙂

Mommy!!!

I’m glad you had a great Thanksgiving. It kind of didn’t really feel like Thanksgiving though, because I wasn’t with family or anything. But mine was still pretty good. That is so cool you had Natasha. I miss that little stinker! Is she getting so big now? It’s crazy to think that she will be in kindergarten when I get home. Does she even remember me? I hope so. Anyway, that is also way cool that you went to Temple Square. I saw a picture of the Salt Lake temple the other day with all the lights surrounding it, and it made me a little sad. But I really am doing great. I love being a missionary! Anyway, I probably better go now.

Thank you so much! I love you so much, and I am so glad you are my mami. Cuidese mucho! (Take care of yourself)

Dad:

I’m glad you had a good Thanksgiving as well. 🙂  When I get home, I am going to get a dog, so it can come visit you. 🙂 😉 Ha ha. Are you getting a little chunky, Dad? 🙂 Hee hee. That is funny. But it happens to the best of us. 🙂 Well, other than that, things are good here. I hope things are great there with y’all. Love you!

Emmysaurus:

Hey girl! I am writing you a letter today, so this will be short. I’m glad you got to go Black Friday shopping. I wanted to, but we couldn’t. Anyway, I will just talk to you more in the letter I will be sending later. 🙂 Love you!

Hermana Kelsey 9:5 -email-

Dear family,

I am sending Sister Q. home today. 🙁 It has been a pretty hard day. I found out this morning that I am getting Sister A. for my new companion. She seems pretty cool. I only met her once before, at the Sisters conference, but she seems alright. But she won’t be coming into my area until Wednesday, so I will have to be companions with a Sister H. (an english sister serving in the Arlington Singles Ward) until then, once Sister Q. leaves today. I’m not gonna lie…I kind of want to trade her places. I miss all of you. And I am having a lot of stress. 🙁 But I will be okay.

Mommy:

1- Yes, I have been getting your letters. 🙂 They are almost the only letters I get in the week.  3- My spanish is doing good. A lot better than it was. I can get by with what I know, but I still have a lot to learn.

Monday: We had a really cool lesson with this lady M__. Her husband is a member, but he is inactive right now. We were teaching her about the Plan of Salvation, and she really liked it, and liked how we had pictures for each of the parts. She also asked us some really good questions, which means she is thinking about what we are teaching, and is getting something from it. Also, I hurt my ankle when we were playing ultimate at the church, but it is okay.

Tuesday: We helped one of the members set up her Skype account so…that means that I might be able to skype you at Chirstmas time!!! We also got to see the new baby of one of our members! He was born last week, and he has a lot of hair. He was really cute.

Wednesday: Nothing really happened.

Thursday: Yesterday, I showed the Elders in my zone a picture of my bottle cap collection. (I’m not sure if I ever told you, but I have been collecting caps for a while here on the mission) When I showed them the first time yesterday, they were like, “Oh that’s cool, I guess.” Then one of the Elders (Elder J.) asked to see the picture again at dinner today. As he was looking at it, it was like, “This picture is a lot more impressive to me today than it was yesterday.” 🙂 Apparently he started collecting caps after he saw the picture of all mine, and it was really hard for him to find them. Also, as we were getting ready to leave from dinner today, a bird flew in the member’s house! We told him we would try to get it, but he said, “No, it’s okay. It’s probably just cold.” Ha ha! It was pretty crazy.

Friday: Sister Q. had her exit interview with President, so I stayed in Arlington with Sister H. for a few hours while they had their district meeting. It was a really funny district meeting too. Their elders are pretty funny. One of them was talking about how prayer works to get our investigators to church. Then he told us a story about how he prayed with a less active member once, so that she would be able to come to church. This is what he said happened: “We prayed to help the situation, and CPS came and took away her kids. And then she started coming to church.” The point of the story is that you need to be specific in your prayers, otherwise, they will just get answered in some way that is probably not the way you wanted. Also, we got fed by our investigator, M_., that we taught on Monday. She is a manager for a restaurant called M.’s, and it was delicious. 🙂 🙂

Saturday: We had a volleyball tournament in the morning. Our bishop told us if we could get investigators to come, we could go and play, so we called a bunch of people, and they said they would come. But then they didn’t. But we were there anyway, and they needed female players, so Sister Q. and I ended up playing. And our ward won the tournament. Although, most of our members didn’t really know the rules, so they were playing a little dirty, and I didn’t really feel good about the fact that we won. I feel like the people we were playing against should have.

Sunday: Everyone was telling Sister Q. goodbye. She cried a couple times, because she is sad she is leaving. It’s bittersweet for her. She is happy to go home and see her family, but she is sad to leave all the cool people we have met.

Dad: Hey, how are you doing? I hope things are great with you. Ha ha. Wow, that was a crazy story about Emily and her friend. Ha ha. I can’t believe it has already snowed there in Utah. Well, actually I can, because it is Utah, but it is still pretty okay here. Today it is a little colder, but we still haven’t had any snow. This whole week it was like in the 70s or 80s, which is basically perfect. But that is really all. I hope your week is great. Bye. 🙂

Riley: Hey dude! How’s life? I hope things are good. That’s cool you are starting to build another car. Whatever happened to you other car though? I’m glad you are staying busy though. Hey, did you ever find out what is going on in the singles ward? How many people are still single? Ha ha. Not that I’m thinking about that or anything. 😉 Ha ha. But that’s basically all. Tell Janet I say hi back, and that I will try to write her a letter at some point. 🙂 Bye.

Emmy: Ha ha, um…I think you already used that note to self. Ha ha ha! You’re hilarious though! I keep telling Sister Q. about how we used to be talking and you would say, “Okay, you’re right, you’re right” just so I would stop trying to convince you that I was right. Ha ha ha. That was pretty funny. Anyway, write me a letter soon. Love ya. Bye.

“So long farewell, aufweidersen au due. Au due au due to you and you and you.” (I don’t think that is how it is spelled, but oh well)

I love you all!

Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX