Oh my goodness! What happened that you lost your job? That is so crazy! You’ll be able to find another one super easy though, because you are definitely qualified. 🙂

I’m feeling better this week than I was last week. I’m feeling pretty good though.

Teaching appointments are going well. We have a lot of investigators, but not very many progressing. Most of them either aren’t married to their significant other, or are married to someone else in Mexico, so they can’t get baptized. We fasted last week so that our entire zone could all get a baptism this month. We have a couple people who are really close. A. has been taking the lessons for like 2 years, but he has a baptisimal date for June 5th (we got him to move it a week sooner so that Sister Vaughn can be there).

These two other guys, J. and D., have baptisimal dates, but we are going to talk to J. about doing his sooner, because he is so ready. Anyways, so that’s exciting. Hopefully we’ll be getting our baptism in May!

Seriously, we talk to some of the craziest people ever. Yesterday we were tracting and we met this guy who was on something (I’m not quite sure what), but he sneak attacked us and hugged us! It was so crazy. He was definitely not all there in the head. It’s kind of funny though, because we will talk to people who are drunk a lot, and they give us information we need, even if they don’t want to listen to our message. It’s hilarious. We always joke about “taking advantage” of the drunk people. Sometimes we’ll ask them where to find other people we want to teach and they’ll tell us because they are so drunk. It’s fun.

Anyways, that is so cool that Brynne is home. She is so great. Tell her that if she wants to send me a letter that would be fine with me! 🙂 Also, tell everyone else if they really, really, really want to write a letter, I think I would be fine if they wrote to me. You know where to send it. 🙂

I’m glad you are keeping yourself busy. Maybe now that you don’t have a job you can work on that project that Uncle Larry kept wanting you to do. That would be pretty cool.

Anyway, I better go now. Thank you for always supporting me. You are so great! I love you lots.

Love, Hermana Kelsey

 I went to a Stake Priesthood meeting tonight and one of the speakers talked about a trip they took down the green river and how they studied the maps and used a gps to help them know where they were, and where to stop to walk ahead and see where the safest route was. then he compared it to making important choices long before the situation comes up. It was a great meeting. 

 Papa,

That story is a very good relation to real life. Sometimes it is hard to make good choices. But the out come is so worth it if you make the right choice. 🙂 Have fun with your garden. Hopefully it grows better this time than your corn did last time. 🙂 Just kidding. Anyways, I better go now. Love you lots.

Love, Hermana Kelsey

I am writing you a letter already, so I will send it today. I’m not sure what card you are talking about. They only I got was the cute sisters one like a couple weeks after I got to the MTC. I’ll be expecting a letter from you within the week! Anyway, love you. Bye!

Love, Hermana Kelsey

 P.S. I ate “elote” the other day, which is that corn that Nacho eats in “Nacho Libre”. It is quite delicious! You should be jealous. 🙂

XoxOxoXXXoxoxoO

Hola Familia!

Long time no talk right? Today is better, but I think that is because it is p-day. I’m hoping I can adjust a little more very soon.

Last night we got dinner from one of the members in the English ward. They were cool. They have two cute little girls. Anyway, we don’t get dinner very much, so that was nice.

Also last night we taught this crazy guy, and he offered us some water. We told him we didn’t want any, but he insisted. He gave us water from a gallon milk jug, but apparently he hadn’t rinsed it out before he filled it with the water so it tasted really gross like sour milk. It was so not cool. 

Oh also, how was your talk with Flexy? Is he doing so great? I wish I could have talked to him longer.

Anyway, I better go now. Love you all. XoxoXOXXXoOxx

 

P.S. Dad, that is so cool you have a black widow pet. Maybe you should fatten her up and then give her to the Nature Center again. 🙂

 

BYE!

Madre,

 

Hola! How are you doing? I hope things are going great for you. The mission field is really weird, especially when I’ve been so out of the world for so long. I am forgetting how to use technology! It’s craziness. Anyway, the spanish is no bueno. I can’t understand half of what anyone is saying because they talk so fast. I can pick out words, but it’s really hard. And I feel so exhausted at night because my brain is working so hard to try to understand people all day. Plus, we teach in english too, which you would think would be nice, but it just confuses my brain, and now I can’t teach very well in either. It’s really hard. I’m don’t feel like I’m learning any spanish at all, but my companion says it will come in time.

 

My companion is Hermana Vaughn. She’s really cool. I’m her last companion before she goes home, so she’s been out for a while. She is from Idaho. She just had surgery to get her gallbladder taken out like a three weeks ago, but she is almost completely better and doing the work like usual. She has a really good spanish accent, and she speaks spanish very well. She is great.

 

But anyways, my first area is a really big area. It’s kind of weird, but I like it. I’ve been meeting a ton of people, and most of them are totally crazy. They say the funniest things, but I never understand them until Hna. Vaughn explains them to me later. But they are pretty much hilarious. We have a few people that they have been teaching for a while that are supposed to get baptized soon, so that’s pretty cool. I think it’s crazy, because when we go tracting, we meet people who have never heard of the Mormons. I thought everyone knew of us, or at least had crazy ideas about who we are. That was definitely eye opening.

 

We had church yesterday, of course, and it was insane. We went to the just spanish ward, and it was so tiny. There are only ten women in Relief Society on a good day, and in sacrament meeting there was only like 30 people. I’m used to really big wards to that was really strange. Since it was fast Sunday, the President asked us to get up and bear our testimonies. So I did…and I slaughtered it. They could all tell what a gringa I am. It was sad. But everyone is really nice so that’s good. I also ended up saying the closing prayer in sacrament too. So that was fun.

 

I will probably call after church on Sunday. We have church at 11 on Sunday too. But since we are an hour ahead, it will probably be between like 3 and 5 ish. I’m not really sure. Just keep your phone handy. 🙂 Anyway, I better go now. Love you lots. I’ll talk to you on Sunday.

  

Love, Hermana Kelsey 

 

Padre,

 

My first week has been okay. The work is really hard, but I like it. The Spanish is crazy! They talk so so fast, and most of the time I don’t know what they are saying. Me and my companion don’t speak that much Spanish with each other, but we talk some. I ask her a lot how to say things, and she’ll tell me so I can say them at another point. It’s fun.

Anway, I better go. Love you lots.

Love, Hermana Kelsey

I will be sending pictures this week. I tried to this last week, but there was an issue in the bookstore so they didn’t get printed off. But now they are, so they’ll be coming soon.

I better go now I love you lots. Love, Hermana Kelsey
———————

Padre, I’m glad you are doing good. Bye. 🙂 Love, Hermana Kelsey
———————

Madre,

Hola! How are you doing? I hope you are great. I am doing fanstatic! I had a couple days when I was struggling a lot with the language, but it has been getting better. I have to constantly remind myself that I have come so far. Before I got here I didn’t know any spanish, and now I can somewhat speak it. Anyway, I would say the best way to learn spanish is to study a lot, and to speak as much as you know all the time. We have to speak spanglish pretty much everyday, but we learn a lot that way.

Anyway, this week was good. I found out that my male teacher, Hermano Haderlie, is two weeks younger than me, so that was weird. His birthday is in August. It’s crazy.

Anyway, there are all kinds of crazy funny things that happen here, but most of them aren’t even worth writing about. There are just funny things that keep us from going completely crazy. So I’ve decided that I am terrified of the real world. I want to live in the bubble of the MTC forever. 🙁

Anyway, I better go now. Love you lots. I’ll be sending some more pictures soon, so look forward to that. 🙂

Love, Hermana Kelsey  

Padre,

Hey, so do you remember that guy who stood up in stake conference and talked about his mission, but didn’t say where he was called? I saw him here at the MTC a little while back and he is going to South Dakota, Rapid City mission! Isn’t that cool?! I told him about Ron, so he’s going to watch out for him. Anyway, I’m glad you got that tree taken care of. You are such a good example to me of hard work. Anyway, I better go now. Love you lots.

Love, Hermana Kelsey

Ileray! (Riley)

You need to write me a letter. It is necessary for my salvation!! Love you lots, bye! 

Emmaline!

I’m glad you are doing good. You better write me a letter! I need mail!! Just kidding. But seriously. Keep doing great in school. Remember, that your grades now will affect you in the future. I wish I had tried harder to get good grades. I’m not sure what else to tell you. I’ve gotten bad at writing in my journal, and that is usually where I get things to write home about. So I don’t really have very much to say. Sorry. I better go now though. Love you tons. Be good.

Love your sister forever, Hermana Kelsey

Sorry I didn’t send a letter this week. I’ve been getting more and more busy here, so it seems like I never have time to write outside of emailing. I might even get to the point where I’m as bad at communicating as Alex. 🙂 Just kidding. But yeah. I’ll try to write more real letters. Although, they are now really enforcing the rule of only writing letters on p-day, so I don’t really have very much time to write. Anyway, my week has been okay. I had a really hard couple days, because I realized that I’m leaving for Texas in less than three weeks, and I don’t know near enough Spanish to get by. It was really scary and stressful for me. But I’m doing better now. Spanish is okay. I feel like the new district that got here one week ago knows more Spanish than I do though. No me gusta la comida. Well it’s okay, but not my favorite. I am happy for the most part. I still have hard days and sad days, but my companions and my district and zone are so great. They always are trying to build each other up. It is so fantastico.

I LOVED conference! I got so much more out of it than I ever have before! Probably because I didn’t fall asleep. 🙂 Anyway, some of the speakers at conference have come to speak to us at firesides and devotionals, so it was pretty neat to hear from them. I noticed that since the last conference all of the general authorities and the prophet have aged so much. It’s kind of weird to think that they actually are mortal beings and they will die at some point. It’s sad.

I don’t remember if I told you last time, but I’ve seen Andrew a few times. He seems to be doing great. Much better than I was my first week. He’s going to be a fantastic missionary.

Yesterday, we got to host the new missionaries that came in. It was so fun! It was also strange, because just a few weeks ago I was in that situation. Anyway, the sister I hosted was Hermana Moody. She is from Wisconsin and she is going to Salt Lake South Spanish speaking. She was so adorable. I’m hoping I’ll see her around. Her class is in the same building as Andrew’s so I told them to say hi to each other when they see each other.

Anyway, I feel the spirit so much here on a regular basis. Sometimes we’ll have an amazing meeting, and it’s just so overwhelming, but on any regular day you can just feel the spirit radiating from all the other missionaries. It is so great.

On Saturday between conferences it was so nice outside, so we decided to go for a walk around the perimeter of the MTC. It was weird because we didn’t have any inclination to leave. We could have just walked out of the MTC, but we didn’t even want to.

Anyway, I better go now. I love you lots.

Love, Hermana Kelsey

Madre,

Yes, the money here works like a credit card. We get $8 every week. The Elders get $6 a week. We can use it for treats from the vending machines, and supplies from the bookstore. It’s pretty nice. I was so unprepared for what I would need here so I’ve pretty much spent all the money you gave me. Sorry 🙁 But it’s all good. I’ll get by.

Anyway, I am doing so great. I’ve had some really tough times, but for the most part it has been good. Spanish is okay. They taught us like 8 grammar principles in like 3 days, so it was really overwhelming, but I’m starting to understand little bits at a time.

I think I am turning into you. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I’ve realized the last few days how similar you and I are. I do a lot of the same things you have done at one point or another. It’s kind of crazy. I also laugh really easy. I don’t know what that’s all about, but it’s like when you have a sleepover with your friends, and it’s three in the morning and everyone is delirious and laughs about anything and everything. That is what the entire MTC is like. You start to go crazy after a little while.

Anyway, two of the Elders in our district left yesterday (Elder Peterson and Elder Hunt), so we are sad. Elder Peterson is one of my favorite Elders. I don’t know if you’ve gotten any of the pictures I sent, but he is the really really tall one. He is like 6 foot 6. It’s crazy. Anyway, they left for the Spain MTC, because they got their visas finally.

The other day we were contacted by some Elders going to Italy, and I was so jealous. But..we could understand what they were saying, because Spanish is so close to Italian. It was pretty cool. I am definitely going to learn that language when I get home. Along with French, and German. That may be a little much, but I’m sure I can do it.

So the last couple days we’ve been trying to speak solo espanol. It is really tough. I don’t talk very much because I don’t know how to say what I am thinking. It’s been hard, but I also know that I’ve learned a lot. Everyday feels like three, so if I try to remember when something happened I usually can’t. I’ll think it was the other day, when it was actually the day before. It’s really weird. 

I’m so excited for Andrew to come. Seriously it is so great. You can ask my companions how many times I’ve talked about him, and they’ll tell you it’s been at least 30 times I’ve brought him up. I knew that he would do fantastic on his talk.

Oh another kind of random thing: my teacher Hermana Billin is from New Hampshire and she lives right by Lake Winnepesakee (I don’t think that is how you spell it), but she knows all about “What About Bob?” so we were quoting it to each other. It was awesome.

Anyway, please tell everyone to DearElder me. It’s so much easier than writing an actual letter but it is still mail, and still super exciting. So tell everyone please. I need letters to keep my sanity!! Tell me news of the outside world!

Okay, well I better go now. Love you lots. Love, Hermana Kelsey

Madre!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you too! I’m glad you’ve been getting things done around the house. I know it makes you happy when things are clean. 🙂 I’ve been very good about keeping our room clean while I’ve been here, because we get in trouble if our room is messy. You would be proud.

Awww! I miss T and G. Tell them hi for me and that I love them.

I’m glad Alex is doing good. He is such a sweet boy, and I’m sure he’s touching lots of people. I don’t think I can look at the blog, at least not here at the MTC, but probably when I get out into the mission field. They only allow us to get on lds.org and my lds mail. I would love if you forwarded Alex’s emails to me. He doesn’t really say much, but it is still nice to hear from him.

This week, one of our older districts left. We have been so sad. They were a really fun district and they were the only other district with Hermanas. 🙁 I think I’m going to struggle with my companions and such leaving when I get to Texas. The other day, I saw this girl Emily M, that I went to high school with. It was really cool. She is going to Japan on her mission. I also saw Tyler H, which you might not know, but he bore his testimony at stake conference. He is a good kid. I met this one Hermana, I don’t remember if I already mentioned her, but she is going to Ft. Worth Texas too. Her name is Hermana V. She left this past Monday, but I might see her down in Texas. Anyway, she is so cute, and I only met her the second day we were here, but I feel like I already knew her, and I loved her the minute we met.

The other day at dinner, we somehow got on the subject of personality colors. I tried to explain what they were for some people who didn’t know, and they all wanted me to guess their personality color. I don’t know any of them well enough to actually guess. Some people that knew about it told me their personality colors, and when I told them mine they acted really surprised. They all thought I was a yellow. Weird huh? I don’t think I’ve changed that much since I left, but maybe I have.

Anyway, I will be sending pictures soon. And probably one of my memory cards. 🙂

The spanish is coming along slowly, but surely. There are days where I feel like I’m starting to get it, and then other days where I feel completely overwhelmed with it. But I know that the Lord will make up for my shortcomings.

Anyway, I better go now. I love you.

Love, Hermana Kelsey

Emerny!

Hola little seester! I am doing well. I’m glad you are doing lots of things. It’s good to be busy. I feel bad for all the time I wasted when I was home, now that I’ve seen all the things you can get done in one day. It’s crazy. In one day here I get like 3 times more things done than I did in any one day at home. It’s kind of sad. Just don’t burn yourself out trying to do too much. That’s no bueno. Anyway, I love you, and continue to do good things.

Love, Hermana Kelsey 

Padre,

I’m glad you are getting lots of things done. I know what you mean when you say that songs get to you. I’ve turned into the biggest cry baby. I cry so much just listening to all the missionaries sing at devotionals and firesides. It’s crazy how much the Spirit works on you through good music. Anyway, I better go now. Last time I ran out of time and barely got to send the email at all, so I need to start being done earlier. Sorry I can’t write more. Anyway, love you lots. Love, Hermana Kelsey