Monthly Archives: July 2012

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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  Hermana Kelsey 17:4 -email-
Hola Familia!!!
This week was pretty good. We are getting close to the end of the transfer. It is going by way too fast!
Some stand out events:
Monday: We didn’t really do anything special. I got to write a bunch of letters, which was really good because I was getting behind, and there were people I was thinking about writing to that I got to write to. 🙂
Tuesday: We had a really cool lesson with a lady named L. She is super awesome. She just gets what we teach. We were teaching her little girls the 10 commandments, with little hand symbols that we use to remember them easier. The little girls names are J. and J., and they are 5 and 3. They were so cute and funny while we were teaching them, and then at the end we asked J., who tries to act really smart, what the 4th commandment was. She kind of giggled, and then said, “No sabo.” (she was trying to say that she didn’t know, which is no se, but she conjugated the verb wrong) We laughed a little, because it was so cute. Then she said “No sabo nada.” Then her mom said, “No J., es no sepo nada.” (which is the subjunctive version). We laughed even more after that. It was super funny. Anyway, it was funny to us. It probably doesn’t make as much sense to y’all. But anyways.. 🙂
Wednesday: We had district meeting. We talked about Christlike attributes, which was cool. I found a really cool scripture in Doctrine and Covenants while we were studying to prepare for district meeting, that talked about how we cannot help in the work of the Lord (for me that is missionary work now, but for y’all it’s in your callings and the responsibilites you have at church) without Christlike attributes. It was so good, but now I can’t think of where it is off the top of my head. Also, we taught our little investigator, D., who is so sweet and cute. He was telling us about how his favorite part of the Plan of Salvation was the creation, because he loved nature. We told him that God made the world the way He did just for us to enjoy it. Then D. said, “Wow! He guessed right!” 🙂 So cute! He is such a funny little kid.
Thursday: It was Sister M.’s halfway mark! She had this funny sign she made, because she talked to her younger brother, who is also on a mission about it, and he said that in Brazil, where he is on his mission when there is an h it is pronounced like an r. So instead of “hump day”, it was “rump day”! So she took said sign to Texas Roadhouse, when we went to eat there, and took a picture of her with the sign in front of Texas Roadhouse. Ha ha. Super awesome! 🙂
Friday: We went to an enchilada dinner, that like 5 different member families paid for us to go to, and it was super fun. The entire day felt like 4 hours. It was just gone super fast. But it was good. We met a cool new investigator there, who is the friend of an investigator that the elders are teaching, so that was cool as well.
Saturday: We went to eat with Hermana P., who is one of the coolest semi-recent converts ever. She takes such good care of us. She has only been a member for about 4 years, and she is very missionary oriented, and is just amazing. I want to be like her when I am older.
Sunday: We had three investigators at church! It was great. One of our investigators, L., told us the first time we invited her to church that she didn’t want to go, because she doesn’t like big crowds of people she doesn’t know. But she finally came! And she brought her older son, A., which was also super good because we are teaching him as well.
So anyway that is basically what is going on with me. Well, I better go now. I love you all lots!!!!
Love, Kelsey
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Sunday Best!

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“The pursuit of purity then, is the most important pursuit of our life. Becoming clean or pure is a daunting task, but God never asks us to do anything save He provides a way that we might accomplish it. His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ is The Way. Only through Him can we achieve perfect purity. He is the only person to pass through this life and remain perfectly pure, so He knows how! He is the essence of purity. He has been through the refining fires required for perfect purity. He knows that the effort is worth it because He has received a fullness of joy and a completeness of the power of purity. He can and will help us achieve these same blessings! He lives! He loves us! He will always guide and help us in our personal pursuit of purity.

 “How do we become more pure? We follow the Savior more closely. We trust and obey Him more fully. We start wherever we are and become a little more obedient. This obedience brings a little more purity into our lives, which gives us a little more power to become a little more obedient. The more obedient we are the more pure we become. The more pure we become, the more power from heaven we receive, and on and on. Alma rejoiced in this wonderful eternal round by saying: ‘it beginneth to enlarge my soul . . . enlighten my understanding . . . [and] be delicious to me.’ [Alma 32:28] I testify that the pursuit of purity is delicious!”

-Elder John H. Groberg

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

Family History Friday: Karen Petra Hogensen

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Karen is my darlin’s 2nd great gandmother.

She was born in Norway in 1830. Her father died when she was quite young. When she was old enough she became a nursemaid to the children of a wealthy family, and later she became cook for the family. 

She went to a church meeting that was being held nearby, out of curiosity, and was very impressed. The meeting was with Mormon missionaries. After investigating the church she was baptized. When the family she worked for became aware of her baptism, they were concerned for her welfare. After a discussion with their minister, it was decided that Petra could still work as long as she didn’t influence the other servants. She met Christian Hogensen at the Mormon meetings. He had just joined the church previously.

     Petra wanted to emigrate with other members of the church in 1859, but she had no money. Christian offered to loan her the money. Petra accepted and they sailed from Liverpool, England on the William Tapscott in the spring of 1859. This proved to be a very romantic voyage for Christian and Petra. They were married while they were still on the Atlantic Ocean. 

Story taken from “History of Bear Lake Pioneers”.

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 17:3 -email-
Dearest family,
Things are good here. We had a pretty good week. We’ve been teaching J. quite a lot, and he’s progressing really well. I’m pretty sure he’ll be good to get baptized on the 28th of July! 🙂 Wooo! He’s super cool.
Anyway, so this week:
Monday: We had a p-day activity and we played chair soccer for the first time since I left my last area. It was super fun, but there were way too many people. All of the sisters got hit at one point or another. But it was still fun.
Tuesday: We went with a recent convert, V., to the family history center thingy in the church to help him try to find his ancestors. It was pretty fun, but for hispanic people it is super hard to go back into their geneaology, because the records that they keep, in Mexico especially, aren’t that great. So we had a hard time finding his family. Also it’s hard, because he doesn’t know any of his father’s information. But anyway, we’ll find something.
Wednesday: Happy 4th of July!! It was pretty good, but we didn’t do anything besides the usual.
Thursday: While we were planning there was a huge wasp in our apartment, and Sister M. was really brave and killed it. We also found a really cool new investigator, P. She is a sweet little old lady, and her husband died about 6 years ago. She was actually given to us as a referral from her son-in-law, who is a member of one of the english wards. She is awesome! We are still teaching her so we’ll see what happens from here on out. 🙂
Friday: We had a zone huddle, and it was super awesome. We talked about making “baptism soup”, and all the ingredients and the process that does into that. It was pretty good. We’ll definitely be eating ourselves full of “soup” in no time. ; )
Saturday: We had a storm and the tornado warnings went off. Sister M. is like deathly afraid of tornados, so she was like desperate to find shelter. It was so funny, because I kept telling her everything was going to be okay, and she kept telling me, “But what about this…” or what about that?”
Sunday: Elder A. said something really funny while we were at church. He said, “How can so much anger fit into such a tiny body?” It was so funny to me, because y’all know that I have little spunk. He also knows this, but then the funniest part was what he said after. “It’s like she has midget madness!” Ha ha ha. He’s such a funny guy. I just laughed, and walked away.
Mom: First of all…OH MY GOSH!! That is not little T. and G. and Natasha!!!! What the heckies?!!? They are so big now. Oh my goodness! I miss those sweet little chidlets.
Second…Thank you thank you thank you!!! for the package. It was wonderful. I really was super excited about the clothes and the watch. And also the shampoo and pills were very needed 🙂

That was such a sweet story about the little tribe kids. I feel like it’s a little bit like that in missionary work, because if the missionaries you are serving around aren’t having success, it is hard to enjoy your own. But when everyone is doing good, then we are all happy. 🙂 I think it’s that way in life in general though. And that is true about the gospel as well. The other day we were talking to this guy and this a little of how the conversation went:

       Man: Why do you go out and knock doors? Is it for your own salvation or is it really to save other?
       Me: The reason I come out and knock doors is because I know that the message I bring is true, and because I want everyone to be able to feel the happiness that I feel to know what I know. (I’m not sure if those were the exact words, but it was something like that)
But it’s true. When we are truly living the gospel of Jesus Christ, and not living it just because it is something good we should do, but because we really know that it is true, you feel a happiness that is unlike any other. And even when hard times come, you still have that faith and that testimony to fall back on. And I’ve come to see that that is something that everyone deserves. Every single person on this planet should have the opportunity to hear about the good news that we share as missionaries! 🙂 And I am so thankful that I have the gospel in my life, because I would be in a very dark place if I didn’t have it.
Dad: Ha ha ha! Oh man, that is super funny what you called us in you’re email. I really am not to trunky. I have moments when I think about it, but just for like a few seconds, and then most the time when I do think about it, I’m not excited, I’m nervous. The real world is a scary place. 🙁 But it’ll be okay.
Man, that is sad you had to miss the fireworks on the 4th. We also missed the fireworks, but we heard them. They kept us awake. But it was a good day.
Emily: I am for real writing you a letter today. I just didn’t finish your letter fast enough last week and then p-day was over so I couldn’t finish. But I will FOR SURE! 🙂
Well, I gotta go now. Tell Flexy hi for me when you see him! ; ) And the rest of you, be good and I love you all lots! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Love, Kelsey
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Sunday Best!

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“See that you learn the desires of the Master toward you, and, knowing those desires, see to it that you keep his laws and commands.  See to it that the purity of your lives shall entitle you to the companionship of the Holy Spirit . . . This life is not given to us as a past time.  There was a solemn purpose in our creation, in the life that God has given to us.  Let us study what that purpose is, that we may progress and obtain eternal life”
-George Albert Smith
Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy