Category Archives: Totally “Fort Worth” it-Hermana Kelsey

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 12:5 -email-
Dearest family,
I am so very sorry, but this email is going to be extremely short. Today we had the fantastic opportunity to go the temple in Dallas. We only get to do that every 3 months if we change our p-day, ride with members, and get permission from President S. But it was amazing and way worth it. I have surely missed going to the temple. But now I literally have no time to write to y’all. But I will write you a LONG email next week. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
In other news, we had 3 baptisms this last Saturday! It was amazing. One was a little girl that is 10, who wanted to get baptized a long time ago, but couldn’t for some unknown reason, and a mother and her son. They are so amazing. The mom, I., has made so many huge changes in her life, and she is a completely different person now than she was. They are amazing. Truly. 😀

Everything else is great. Again sorry this is so short, but I gotta do what I gotta do. 🙁

Well, I love you all so much. Tell the Empeys I say hi back! <3
Love,
Kelsey
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 12:4 -email-
Dear family,
This week flew by for me too. We are having transfers on Wednesday, and Sister W. is getting transferred to D. But Sister V. is coming to be my companion!!! I love her guts. She is the one that I met in the MTC my second day there, but she came out a transfer before me because she already knows spanish. She is so great. I’m way excited. President S. seems to have made it a pattern for me to only stay with my companion for one transfer. I’m not really sure why. But I kind of glad Sister W. is getting transferred. I will miss her, but if she stayed here for longer, she would “die”(end her mission) here in H., and I would have to “kill”(send her home) her. Which I have already done twice, and it is really hard. But anyway, that is the big news for the week.
Next big thing….we had a baptism on Tuesday! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yay! It was for a little girl named N. She is so sweet, and loves to read her scriptures. It was a really good baptism. Not really too stressful, which is good for us as misionaries, because we usually get way crazy stressed, because there is so much to do. But it was really good.
In other news/events:
-Tuesday I had a foot race with one of the elders, and he barely beat me. So I think when I get back home, I’m gonna train myself up real good and try to do track at school or something. 🙂
-Also, on Tuesday, we got told we are going to hell because we “put Joseph Smith above Jesus Christ”, and a man spoke to us in tongues, (it was one of the creepiest things I have ever heard), and then on Friday, we talked to a young guy that was smoking something, but it wasn’t cigarettes, and he weirded me out.
-We got a surprise apartment inspection and Elder P., who is in one fo the senior couples in our mission and can’t see at all, tried to clean our white board with Shout. Sister W. almsot lost it completely, and had to pinch herself to keep from laughing out loud
-I got pooped on by a baby bunny, who them tried to hide the evidence by sitting on his little Coco Pebbles
-I met a woman who is the mom of one of our recent converts, and she is literally 5 or 6 inches shorter than me!
-And last, but not least, we had a crazy woman that came to our Relief Society on Sunday, and almost started a fight. Our Relief Society president had to get up, and talk to everyone to make the situation better 🙁
Let’s just say it has been an interesting week.
Mom,
1-Best guess on when you’ll be home? 1. I don’t think this one is really for me. You already know when I’ll be home, right? 🙂
3-Biggest challenge? Blessing? 3. Biggest challenge depends on the area for sure. But one big challenge on the mission in general is just adjusting to change. Just when you get comfortable with the people and the area, you get transferred somewhere else, and you have to leave the people you love, and the companions you love, and the elders you love. That is definitely something I have struggled with through out my mission. The blessings? Wow, that one is hard to. One of the biggest ones I have seen is gaining a stronger testimony in the gospel, and a bigger love for people in general. I have definitely increased in charity for others.
Dad:
I’m glad you are still doing scouts and enjoying it. I kind of wish I knew more survival type stuff. I like to think that if I was lost in the woods I could survive, but who knows. That’s crazy Meg and Jace are moving. I was thinking about writing to them the other p-day, but I always seem to run out of time to write to anyone except you all on the computer. So tell them I say “Hi”, and sorry I haven’t written them back.
Emmy:
Write to me!!!!! 😀
I gotta go now. I love you all so much.
Peace and blessings!
Love, Kelsey

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 12:3 -email-
Dear familia,
Things are good here. We took too long on the beginning part of our p-day, so now this is going to have to be short. Sorry. 🙁 Plus this computer is being weird, so I’m going to have to do what I can to make this work.
So tomorrow we are having a baptism! Yay! She is an overage child. Her parents are both members, but they were very less active for a while, but because of some circumstances, her mom is getting really involved with the church again. She is really cool. Her name is N., and she has two younger sisters that are just so funny. Sister W. loves the four year old more, and I love the two year old more, so we call them “yours” and “mine” when we talk about them so we know which one we are talking about. Ha ha. They are so funny though. 🙂 They are always picking on each other, and the 4 year old is always sad because of the two year old. They are just little cuties.
Mom:
That’s crazy that Bishop B. is the new counselor! Who is the new bishop of the singles ward? I still wonder about what is going on there, and who is still going and not married. Ha ha. But only sometimes. Mostly I don’t even think about it. Except it will be cool when I get home to be able to talk to all of the other cool returned sister missionaries when I get there. 🙂 Like Whitney B.! She’ll probably be getting home pretty soon. She left a few months before I did. She is so cool.
Okay questions:
1-How long does it take for my letters to get to you? I usually date them. 1. It usually takes about 3-4 days for your letters to get to me.
2-How many senior couples are in your mission? 2. I think we have 4 or 5 senior couples in our mission. Most of them run things in the office, but some of them go out and teach overage children and recent converts. One of the senior couples, the J’s, work in spanish work with us, because the husband speaks spanish. And they feed us every Thursday.
3-What do you usually study in the morning study time? 3. We study different things every day. Usually we study for our investigators and their needs, but since we don’t really have any here, I have been studying a lot more for myself which has been nice. I study different topics everyday, and try to be guided by the spirit to what I need to work on the most. There is always something to improve on. Usually it’s Christ like attributes, which I could spend the rest of my life working on, trying to become more like my Savior. 🙂
Special Question:
4-What is the best way to help new members of the church to stay active?

4. The best way to help recent converts stay active is to get them friends. They need some one that will invite them to church and activities and sit with them in sacrament and so forth. That is something that is very important, because even if they have a testimony of it, if they don’t have support from the ward, they won’t want to be there.

Dad:
Man, I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little upset the Patriots lost. BOOOO!!! Oh well. We ate with some members yesterday, and he was all ready to kick us out of the house because the game was about to start. Ha ha. But I’m glad I didn’t get to see it because I would have been yelling at the tv and stuff, and no one I know here on the mission should see me like that. 😉 But anyway, I’ll get over it. And next year, I’ll get to watch the Superbowl. Yeah buddy! Anyway, I also really miss music. When you were talking about those songs it makes me think of listening to real music.
Emmysaurus:
Hey girl! I’m glad things are going good for you. 🙂 I’m doing okay.  I can’t believe you cut off your hair! Sister W. (my companion) is way jealous, because she is a hair stylist, and she wants to do something like that with her hair, but she doesn’t have money or anyone to do it. So she wants you to send a picture if you can when you write to me. Okay? Okay! 🙂
Well, I gotta go now. I love you all lots. Recuerden quienes son! (Remember who you are!)
Love, Kelsey
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 12:2 -email-
Dear family,
Como estan? Espero que todo esta bien con ustedes. I’m doing pretty good. This week we found some really cool new investigators, so I am excited for some of the upcoming lessons we will have with them. 🙂
Some things that happened this week were:
Monday: Sister W. got really sick and was throwing up and stuff, so we didn’t go out and work. I did some work in the apartment while she slept. The elders were so sweet and got her soup and Sprite and stuff. They are so cool. They really take good care of us. 🙂
Tuesday: I was feeling kind of sick, but I only threw up a little. We were also in charge of the Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening), that we do every week here, so we did that later in the evening. We talked about adversity. We shared the story about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, and how if we turn to the Lord, everything works out okay, and we can make it through all our trials. We also shared a quote but I forgot the paper to I can’t remember how it goes right now. But it’s a good one. 🙂
Wednesday: We had this really cool member/recent convert come out on exchange with us, and she was awesome. I sat in the back with her little 4 year old boy. He was cracking me up. He was playing Super Mario on his Nintendo DS, and he was teaching me all the names of the animals in spanish, and teaching me how to play the game, even though I already know how. It was funny.
Friday: We had a really cool lesson with our investigator, L. She is really young, but she kind of seems to get what life is all about more than some people who are older and have more life experience. We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and when we said the first vision, she paused for a moment, then said, “Wow, that is amazing.” She just really got the meaning behind it, and what a special/important event it was. Then she told us she was for sure going to read the Book of Mormon. We are pretty excited to see what happens with her. 🙂
Sunday: We talked about the Creation in gospel principles, and we went around the room telling something that God created that we are grateful for. I talked about the trees, and also sunrises and sunsets, because I love both of those.
From Mom: Church was awesome! Elizabeth A. gave a great talk. She told the story of the guy who has to do push ups so everyone can have a donut. It is a example of the atonement. Your cute little dad was tearing up. He is so tender. I love that. Brother W. gave an awesome talk on forgiveness. He gave part of the story in that book “Return From Tomorrow”. The book about the guy who died and then came back. The story he told was about the guy who was in a concentration camp. Everyone thought he hadn’t been there long because he was in such good shape, physically and emotionally. They found out that he had been there the longest. The guy in the story wanted to know why he was doing so good. He told them that the Germans had killed his family. His wife and two daughters and three little boys. He asked them to kill him too, but they wouldn’t because he spoke German and they could use him. He knew that what killed his family was hate. He didn’t want to have the same feelings that the Germans had when they killed his family. So he chose to forgive.
Mom: I love that analogy of the push ups for the Atonement. It makes it more real, because you see someone suffering. Sometimes, i think we overlook what really happened because it seems so abstract, and impersonal, but it really is so very personal. I never had a lesson like that in seminary, but I heard they used to do one with a really strong jock guy, and he would have to do the push ups for you whether or not you decided to take the treat. It’s true, because Jesus Christ really suffered for our sins, even if we choose not to repent of them. He still felt the pain of them happening, and then we feel it too, if we choose not to repent.
So questions:
1-any new investigators?  1. We have a few new investigators with real potential. One of them, J., has had a lot of really big drastic changes in his life. His wife and him recently seperated, which we could tell was really hard for him, and he had a death in the family in December in a really bad car crash. These things aren’t really good or desirable, but they humble people, and make them more opne to receive the gospel.
3-what’s your favorite color? (Buddy the elf wants to know) 3. Tell Buddy my favorite color is still kelly green. And tell him I miss him, and can’t wait to come back so we can make snow angels together. 🙂
Special question:
4-How do you forgive someone, if they have done something unforgivable?

4. Forgiviness is somethign that is really hard for a lot of people. Forgiveness is something that is a choice you make for yourself. The person you are hurting the most when you can’t forgive someone is yourself, and most of the time, the other person doesn’t even know they have hurt you. Something I have learned on the mission, is that when you cannot forgive someone for something they have done, you are making it so the Lord cannot forgive you when you do something wrong. There is a scripture about that, but I can’t remember where it is. Also, another question is: Are you going to let other people’s actions keep you from salvation? Because that is what you do when you are unforgiving.

From Dad: The story your Mom did not tell you from Brother W’s talk also. It was about a couple who brought their blind child to see if he could be healed. The man who was going to give the blessing had the impression that the parents of the boy had a lot of hate and that the boy could be healed only if they would give up the hate. The parents talked and said that their son would have to go through life blind because they were not willing to give up the hate. I find it unbelievable that they cared more about holding on to hate than curing their son. The contrast between the two stories is stark. I love going to Church and refilling my tank.
Dad: That story makes me sad. Sometimes people put their own selfish desires/problems in the way of something good, and then the good cannot happen. I have seen that a lot with people on the mission. They care more about winning the argument than solving the problem. It’s really hard to watch people that could have such great things in their lives, but because they are ignorant or they cannot move past a problem they have had, they prevent themselves from progressing and receiving blessings. It’s really sad. But we just pray for them, and know that the Lord will take care of it how it needs to be. I realyl liked how you talked about refilling your tank at church. That is something we use when we talk to people about church attendance. Either that or recharging a battery. That is truly what it is. All week you get worn down by the world, and people, but then you get to go to church and focus on your relationship with God, and renew your convenants you made a baptism. It’s awesome! 🙂
Emmy: Man, I can’t believe you gave up on the hair challenge!  On well, I am still going to do it. But I am still waiting for a letter from you. 🙂 🙂 🙂 So this will be all I am writing. But I would also like an update on my Facebook if you could be so kind. 🙂 Love ya! Bye! Peace and blessings!
Gotta go now. I love you all a lot.
Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 12:1 -email-
HAPPY 11 MONTHS
IN THE MISSION!!!!
(exactly 11 months ago today, I was leaving to go to the MTC. Do you remember that day?…cause I sure do! Time has really flown by though)
Dearest family,
This week was pretty good. I feel like we have been working harder than I have in a really long time. I feel like our numbers don’t show the work we do. I feel like that’s hard for me, because I don’t like numbers, but I see how well I am doing by them and if they are bad, then I feel bad. But things are good. I have been really stressed lately, and I’m not sure why, but I am kind of starting to get that gum thing again, that I had in the MTC. But other than that I am doing great.
Mom: That is way cool you are staying busy with the kids. I’ve been kind of sad lately thinking about how big my Tashers is going to be when I get home. 🙁 She won’t be my little squisher anymore. She’ll be a big girl in school. Could you please send my some pictures of her? Also, while you are at it, I wanted to see if you could send me a couple of pictures of me when I was a baby, and also a picture of our house, so I have one. 🙂 That would be great.
Okay on to the questions:
1-Are the people you are teaching, progressing? What are their issues, if not? 1. Most of our people aren’t progressing. We are trying really hard with some people, but there are always obstacles in the way. Most of the problems with have with the hispanic people is the Law of Chastity. People are either not married to each other, of they are married to two people. It’s really a hard thing, because most of the time, their circumstances make it very difficult to overcome things, especially when people are poor and struggling with money, so they can’t afford to get a divorce or to get married. But we have seen a lot of people who have made great sacrifices to progress closer to baptism. There is one lady, I., and she has quit drinking coffee to live the Word of Wisdom, she moved out of her boyfriend’s house so she could live the Law of Chastity, and now she lost her job (which isn’t a good thing, but…), so she can go to church on Sundays. So she is doing really great, and her sons want to get baptized too. 🙂
2-What is your favorite thing to teach? 2. My favorite thing to teach is the Plan of Salvation. I have these pictures that we use when we teach it, and people just seem to get it more than any other part. Plus, a lot of the time people have worries or fears about what happens after death, but when we let them know, they feel comfort and peace. Especially if they have had a loved one die recently.
3-What is your favorite thing about your current area? 3. My favorite thing about H-town is the ward. The members are so cool! They actually get mad at you if you don’t call them to come out on exchange with you, or if you don’t ask them to do favors for you. And the bishop, and ex-bishop are way cool, and basically willing to do whatever you need, so that is super helpful.
4-What is your least favorite thing about your current area? 4. I can’t really say I have a least favorite thing about this area, but one thing I have trouble with is the drama. There is a lot of drama in the ward, but I guess that is what happens when there are a lot of people all together. I think I was just oblivious to drama mostly before the mission, and now I’ve been thrown right into the middle of it.
Special Question:
6-How can someone gain a personal testimony of the Savior? 6. The only way to gain a personal testimony is to go to the source of all truth, God, and receive an answer from Him. We always tell people as missionaries, that we aren’t here to convince them. We are just here to bring the truth, and to invite them to act and gain a testimony for themselves. And they can only do that through reading the scriptures, praying to Heavenly Father, and coming to church.
Dad:
That is so cool you had a fun camp out. We will definitely need to go camping after I get home. I miss it a lot. 🙁 But we’ll have some good times when I get back. Also that is too bad the 49ers lost, but that is way cool the Saints are going to the Superbowl. I really love the Saints. I really want to watch it this year, but I guess you’ll just have to record it or something for me. 🙂 But anyway, that’s way cool. Well, be good.
Wow, Emmysaurus, you are doing CNA?! What are you going to do with that? Do you want to be a nurse? Cool cool! That’s way awesome. That will help you a lot, as long as you can stand seeing gross bloody stuff, and nasty wounds, and stuff. But I think you’ll be good. Anyway, you should write me a letter soon.
Love you all! Be good! Sorry this is short.
Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 11:4 -email-

Dearest familia!

Mimi Momo (that is what Sister W. calls her mom) This week has been pretty great. Sister W. and I have been struggling a little bit in this area, because we have very few investigators. But we are working on it, and this week we found some really cool people that we are going to be working with. We are way excited too, because this bishop in this ward totally gets missionary work, and he is willing to do anything to help us. Missionary work is his #1 priority. That should be good. Also, the ward is very helpful in fellowshipping, and welcoming new people into the ward, which is really good. So we are excited to see the great things that are going to be happening here. 🙂

Sister W. is awesome. She goes home in May (I think I may have told you that), but she makes me laugh so much. We have kind of struggled the last couple weeks. But I feel like if we didn’t laugh all the time, like we do, we would just cry. But she definitely makes life easier and more enjoyable. 🙂

So here’s a couple things that happened this week.

Thursday: We had appt. with an investigator named L. She is really young (like 19 or 20ish), and she is way cool. So we called her before our appt. to see if she was going to be home, and she told us no. We were all sad, because we really wanted to see her, but we asked if we could reschedule for another day. She told us yeah, and that the reason she couldn’t meet with us because she was getting married! She was getting ready to live the law of chastity without us even telling her to! :):):) So she got married on Friday, and then yesterday, we were in the apartment complex she lives in with her new husband, and we were stopping by to see another investigator we have there. And all the a sudden she comes walking up with her baby and her husband. We started talking to her, and did like a contact thing where we talk a little about the “message” we share with everyone. She asked us what the message was, and we told her we wouldn’t be able to teach it all in one sitting, so we would continue to come see her. Then she’s like “Well I have time right now”. So we went in and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She is way legit! She asked really good questions, and she is very open to what we teach. She even talked about how it sounded familiar. We are way excited for her. I feel like things are definitely going to happen with her (and her husband).

Friday: We had interviews with President S. He started talking to me about my time I have had here on the mission. He said, “Sister, you’ve had about a year out in the mission right?” And when he said it I had a little heart flutter of panic and I was like, “No, President, not quite.” But it is getting close. I’m getting a little nervous. I’m not sure I want to come home. Like I kind of do, but it’s scary. Anyway, we also ate at this restaurant in H. It is seriously one of the most sketch, ghetto places I have ever been to. They have a giant clown outside of the building, and inside there are like a million little clowns parachuting from the ceiling. It was so weird, but the food was really delicious. (I also attached a picture of Sister W. and I standing by the clown. 🙂

1-How are your investigators? 1. We don’t have very many, as I have said before, but we have a few that are getting really close to baptism. There are two ladies in particular, that are cousins, and they have made a lot of big changes in their lives, and made huge steps to bring them closer to baptism. They are awesome

3-Do you feel that you have a particular spiritual gift that helps with missionary work? If so, what is it? 3. I used to joke with Sister A. about something I called “spirit guided driving”. I knew my way around my last area pretty well, but sometimes we would be going somewhere, and I wasn’t quite sure how to get there. So I would drive the way I thought we needed to go, and then when I felt like I should turn, I would turn. And we always got there. It was pretty funny. I think that the Lord just watches out for us more as his missionaries than otherwise. Also, the gift of tongues is definitely real. I have seen the help of the Lord in my situation trying to learn spanish. There is no way that anyone can learn the language as fast as we do as missionaries. It requires a lot of faith, and a lot of trust in the Lord (that he will put the words in your mouth, and cover for your shortcomings).

4-Favorite scripture of the week? 4. Doctrine and Covenants 100:4 It talks about how we were sent to this place because it was expedient for the salvation of souls. I really like it because it was hard for me to come here to H., because I didn’t want to leave my last area, but I am here to do the Lord’s work, just like I was doing in A. And I know I will grow to love this place just like I grew to love A. 🙂

Special Question: 5-How can we deal with negativity, and not let it bog us down? 5. Negativity is something I still really struggle to handle. It’s hard as a missionary to have people constantly letting you down, and still be positive and happy. But I always just remember that negativity, along with discouragement, are some of the biggest tools Satan uses against us. So in order for us to not get dragged down by him, we have to focus on the good things that are happening, and not let the things that are hard, have dominance of our lives.

Dad:

That is cool you are having good experiences with your job. You guys aren’t having any snow either? Wow, crazy. The last few days here have been in the high 60’s and 70’s. It’s so weird. It sure does not feel like winter here. But things are good. I hope your week is great. Recuerda quien eres! (Remember who you are! 🙂

Emerny:

I am really going to write you a letter today. I ran out of stamps last week, but I bought some today, so I will write you a real letter. So this is all. And also…”Stay on your side!!!”

Anyway, that is all for now. I love you all! Be good!! 🙂

Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 11:3 -email-
Dear family,
This week has been pretty great. I am still adjusting to being in H. We get lost a lot because Sister W. was only here for 6 weeks before I got here, and she and I don’t know where we are going. We don’t really have any investigators to teach, but we are working really hard to get our teaching pool bigger, and find some families to teach. This area is going to be really hard, but we know that President Sagers put us here so that we can learn and overcome the challenges of this area. I never realized how easy I had it in my last area, until I came here. Not that my last area is an easy area, but no matter where you go, there are 15-20 people to visit within a couple miles of where you are. Here our area is huge, and we don’t have very many miles. It reminds me a little of my first area, and how difficult that work was there. But we are going to be good. Sister W. and I are ready to work hard, and make this area great for whoever comes after us. Oh, and Sister W. is from Utah. She is a total flower child. I love it! We have been having so much fun, and we have served in all the same areas so we can talk about all the people we knew there. She goes home in May, so she only has 3 more transfers, including this one, and she thinks I am going to “kill” her (or be her last companion before she goes home). I sure hope President won’t do that to me again. I don’t know if I can do another one. I’ve already sent home two companions, and it makes me so trunky. But it will be good whatever happens. 🙂
 Our district now is so funny. We were having a jam session the other day, and it was awesome! I’ll send a picture of all of them with this email.
1- What is the weather like? 1. Today it is really rainy, but it still hasn’t gotten too cold yet. But January and Ferbruary are the coldest months of the year in Texas, so I’m not excited for that.
2- Have you eaten anything interesting lately? 2. We eat this stuff pretty regularly, which is called mole (I’m not sure if that is how it is spelled), but it is chicken coated in chocolate sauce and chili. It is really weird, and I don’t like it that much, but we eat it.
3- Do you get dinner appointments? 3. Yeah, we actually have a lady in our ward that is in charge of making sure that we have dinner appts every night.
4- How many investigators do you have right now? 4. We have very few investigators right now. There are probably between 10 and 15 semi solid investigators.
5- Pick three words to describe 2011? 5. spiritual, quick, and over
Special Question of the week:
6- What should we do if there is a gospel question we have? What if we can’t find the answer to it?  6. If you have a question about something, study it out first and see if you can find the answer yourself. If you pray before your studies they are a lot more guided, and you can receive revelation a lot easier. If you can’t find the answer, then you go to someone higher than you. For me, it would be President Sagers, but for you guys, it would be the bishop or the stake president, or something like that. If all else fails, go to the source of all truth, and jsut pray to God to help you understand the question you are having.
On Thursday, we had another sister with us for part of the day. Her name is Sister B., and she is really cool. She is super new. She was really really funny too. We had a lot of other things happen, but I’m almost out of time so I have to go.

Love you Mommy!

Dad:

That’s way cool you got snow. I kind of want snow, but at the same time I don’t because we have to go out and work in it. We aren’t allowed to drive the cars if it is snowy out, so we would have to be walking in it. 🙁

Emmysaurus:

Hey buddy! So I’m not going to write you very much, because Mom sent me a letter that you wrote, and I am really going to write you a letter today back to it. 🙂 So this is basically all I am going to say. But I love you lots, and I hope your week is great. <3

I love you all a lot!! I will be seeing you soon. (approx. 247 days! I am not really counting :))

Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 11:2 -email-

Dear family……..

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!!!!

Today is a very sad day in the life of Hermana Kelsey….because she is now getting transferred from A. 🙁 🙁 🙁

We got our transfer calls this morning, and I am going to H., which is a really great area from what I’ve heard. But I love A. I don’t want to leave. 🙁 I heard that I was leaving this morning, and I just cried. I love this place, and the people here. But it will be okay I guess. The Lord knows best. My new companion will be Sister W. She was serving in A. right before I came here, and we basically just switched areas when I got transferred up here, because she went down to my last area. She’s pretty cool. I think it will be good.

1-How many members are there in your ward/branch?

1. We probably have a couple hundred, but we also have a lot of less active/inactive families.

2-What is the church building like?

2. The church building is like all the other church buildings that I have been in.

3-Is your companions family LDS?

3. Yes, Sister A.’s family is. She has an older brother that is less active, but he is getting involved with the church again.

4-What do you usually do on P-day?

4. On p-day we usually clean our room, wash the car, go the Walmart and do our shopping, go to the church to email, play some sports, and write some letters (if we have time). Sometimes we do other things, but that is usually about it.

5-Do you have to deal with roaches or other small bugs?

5. I haven’t had to deal with cockroaches since I was in my last area. We live in a really nice house, so we don’t ever see them at our house, and we only sometimes see them at investigators’ or members’ houses.

6-How are your clothes holding up?

6. My clothes are doing okay. I’ve had to hand sew a couple things, but for the most part they are good. I’m just getting really sick of all the clothes I have. 🙁 I was used to having a lot of clothes to wear before the mission, and now I only have a few, so it’s weird.

7-What is the area you are serving in like? Flat, rolling hills?

7. It’s kind of city, like home, but with more businesses, and also there are areas where it is like suburbia and neighborhoods. It’s really flat, like most of Texas.

8-What is the best thing about 2012?

8. The best things about 2012 is that I get to spend a good part of it serving the Lord. 🙂 Not that I am counting or anything, but as of today I have 254 awesome days left on the mission. 🙂 Then I get to see you!!! 🙂

So anyway, this week was really fast. We have been so busy this transfer. We have had so many people to visit, it is like unbelievable. On Monday, we played soccer which was really fun. I get a little crazy in soccer sometimes, so it’s a good thing we don’t play it too often.

Tuesday: Elder R. gave a really cool training about his top 10 lessons he has learned from his mission. It was really cool. It’s so weird because I have now served with him for 4 1/2 months, and he is going home now. It’s always weird when people go back to the real world.

Wednesday: We had a really cool lesson with C. (the 15 year old that we have had a lot of problems with her family). She really is making steps again, which is awesome. I really am going to miss that girl. 🙁 We also have been dealing with a lot of drama with this recent convert family, because the dad is acting crazy and drinking and stuff. So we went to visit her, and gave her some hugs and stuff.

Friday: We had a breakthrough with one of our investigators, J., so we are thinking some really great things that are going to be happening. Also, I had a dream about Natasha. I was sad because she was getting big and she didn’t want me to give her kisses anymore. 🙁

But that was basically my week.

Hey Dad:

Sorry you didn’t have snow. We didn’t either. And it has been like 50’s and 60’s for the last week or so. So it doesn’t even feel like winter, or the holidays. We stayed up until midnight on New Years Eve (don’t worry, the white handbook only says we have to be in bed by 10:30, not asleep), and then Sister A. starting naming off all the things that were the first things of the new year. “This is the first clap of the new year…this is the first hugging of Pikachu of the new year….this is the first dance of the new year…” It was so funny. I laughed really hard. That’s cool though that you just got to chill for new years.

Emmysaurus:

You should definitely work on those grades little Chickadee! What school are you thinking about going to? You should go to a good school, but remember you can only get in if you are going to be an asset for their school. So if you can get in for sports, or grades or something. But that is really cool. Just remember, also, to keep the Lord involved in your decisions, because he won’t lead you astray. He’ll show you where you need to go, and what you need to do. Who was the kid in your grade that died? And how did he die? That is really sad. It’s always hard when someone dies young. I think that is basically all. Love ya.

I love all of you a lot!! Be good.

Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 11:1 -email-

We were able to talk to Hermana Kelsey yesterday for Christmas. It was so fun to hear her voice. She learned Spanish since she left on her mission. I finally got to hear her speak in Spanish for the first time. She was amazing. If case you don’t know how this works, when you are a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you leave your home and family for two years (for men), or 18 months (for women). You work super hard everyday trying to help your brothers and sisters in the world learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ. We only email or send letters the entire time, except Mother’s Day and Christmas, then we get to talk to each other on the phone or Skype. So I haven’t talked to Hermana Kelsey since last Mother’s Day. Knowing that we will get to talk is the most exciting thing. She is having a great experience being a servant of our Lord. 

Hey family!

Long time no talk, eh? Our 40 minutes yesterday went by WAY TOO fast!! How long did Alex get to talk to y’all?

Elder R. (one of our elders in our district) is going home on the 3rd of January, and he is so sad. He said before now he wanted to go home, but now that he has to, he doesn’t want to. I wonder if Alex will be that way. I know that I will. I’ll be really excited to come home, but at the same time it will be sad, because you know you won’t be able to have the same experiences you have a missionary anymore. 🙁

Ha ha ha. My spanish is not that great. Especially for how long I have been out. That has been one of the things I have struggled with the most on the mission. But I am also really bad about having language study, which is something I can definitely work on. But hopefully I will be completely fluent by the time I come back home. I’ll just have Janet teach me some slang, and then I’ll be great. 🙂

I really miss playing board games sometimes. Yesterday, the C.’s (the family we live with), were playing Scattergories with some of their friends and I really really wanted to play. But I didn’t. I’ll just enjoy them when I get home. 🙂

Yeah, I already figured out when I will be coming home. The transfer ends on September _.

So a lot of stuff happened this week…but I forgot my planner at home so I don’t really remember a lot of things.

Tuesday, we had a present exchange with the elders in our district. I had Elder R. (the one who is going home), and I got him a gift card thing for Farmville, because I wanted to get him something for when he goes home (like very trunky), and also because he loves Farmville. He has been talking about it like all the time. So he opened it, and just started laughing. Then his companion Elder J. tells us that all that morning he was talking about how he couldn’t “wait to get back to his cows”. It was really really funny. I wish I could send you the video of it, but it is too big to send in my email. But it was funny.

We didn’t have a white Christmas (no snow, and no baptisms :(), but we will be having hopefully two this coming Friday. We still need to talk to them about everything, but I think they will do it. They are ready. 🙂

We spent Christmas Eve caroling to a lot of our investigators, and recent converts, and less active members. We spent all day driving around and visiting people and singing Christmas carols for them. It was really great. In the evening, we ate with our ward mission leader and his wife. They fed us really well. 🙂

Dad: Hey, sorry I didn’t get to talk to you very much yesterday. 🙁 They didn’t give us very much time to talk to everyone. But I’m glad you enjoyed your Christmas. I wish I could have heard your talks yesterday. I bet they were great. 🙂 Feliz Navidad!

Emmysaurus Rex: It’s okay that you were crying a lot. Ha ha. You made me cry too. But that’s okay too. I am glad you are still doing good, even if you are wearing my clothes. 🙂 🙂 Jk, jk. But that’s cool. Anyway, you should write me a real letter. 🙂 🙂 Te amo!

That’s basically it for right now. I’ll try to have more to talk about next time. Hopefully, y’all had a great Christmas! I love you all! Les quiero muchisimo!!!

Love, Kelsey XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Totally “Fort Worth” It!

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Hermana Kelsey 10:4 -email-

Dear family…

Sorry my email was short last week, Mommy. It will also be short this week. We email at the church, and there are only 3 computers, and the elders always take forever, so we never have any time. But I will be talking to you on Sunday!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I hope that makes up for it.

Anyway, I’m glad that you had fun with your parties. Mom, I am going to remember that you said that, and remind you next year when it comes times again. 🙂 Thank you for doing that at the party (asking people to write letters), because that is basically the only thing I want for Christmas. I miss knowing what people are doing in their lives. I wish Caitlin would have written to me. She used to write me letters when I was little. 🙁 Oh well. That was a funny story about Baylor and Brady. Brady still really makes me laugh a lot. He is a really funny guy.

So this week a lot of stuff happened, but since I don’t have very much time, I’ll just tell you about a really cool experience we had yesterday. So Sister A. and I decided to fast with two of our investigators who have baptismal dates, so that G. would have the courage to make a really big decision so that she can get baptized. So we were fasting all day, and we went to church. We had tried really really hard that morning to try to get all of our investigators to church, and we went in expecting a miracle. So we sat in sacrament meeting with our two eternal investigators and none of the people that we really wanted/needed to come to church came. So we were all sad and disappointed. Then we had to leave a little after the sacrament to take care of our recent convert, L., who was having a break down, because she was nervous to speak in church. So we were taking care of her, and then we go back into the chapel…and guess who was there!? All of the investigators we wanted at church! It was amazing! The Lord definitely blesses us when we put our trust and faith in him. So in total, we had 8 investigators at church. It was a good Sunday.

Well, I’m out of time, but Emily I wrote you a letter that will be coming soon, and also for the rest of you I sent a Christmas card. I love you all, and miss you, and will be talking to you on Sunday!!!

Love, Kelsey

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX