MTC Week 3

Hola Mi Familia!

So triste news first. The lovely Elder O'Leary had to go home for medical reasons. We are way sad about it. Loved that goofball!

I told my district that you are sending me pumpkin bread and they about died. Apparently pumpkin chocolate chip bread is good to everyone! Yay!

Lately we have been getting closer to the other missionaries in our zone. I think we have the best zone in the whole MTC. We are branch number 1 actually. Take that as you will. We have a district leaving on Monday morning which is way sad because we grew to love them so much this week. They would always come in and help us Hermanas during language study. They are so flippin' smart! Currently one of our zone leaders is Elder Prows. On Sunday we finally established that he is Ron Prow's grandson! So weird! I will have to send you a picture of us.

Speaking of pictures, I am going to send you pictures on a CD and printed copies with explanations for all the pictures. Then I can tell you all about the most wonderful people on the earth! Complete with hysterical pictures. Seriously, we get pretty crazy sometimes.

So I went to the temple with mi companeras this morning plus Elder Duty (yes I have called him Duty Head before) and Elder Kimball. They are both from Atlanta and are going to Argentina. Love them! They crack me up! They made fun of us the whole way home because it was SO COLD! It has been rather chilly lately! We ate breakfast at the temple though and I think I gained like 45 pounds from this huge waffle I ate. O well, it was worth it.

So I don't remember what I told you about our first investigator, but we were right. He was our teacher. And we love the crap out of him. He brought us cookies on Friday so we wouldn't hate him for not telling us he was our teacher. Funny sidenote, Fridays are Verdes Viernes, and during one of our lessons, we told Cesar about it so on Friday the three of us and Hermano Russell all wore green. It was so funny. We took pictures. Hermano Russell reminds me of a white Abed. Random I know. He is so funny though.

I started writing down all the funny things people say and O my gosh, I have pages and pages already. Most are probably only funny to us because we were here for it, but still, they crack me up.

If anyone is wondering, if you couldn't tell, I am truly having the time of my life here! I love every minute of it! I love getting up in the morning so I can see all the missionaries in the zone and teaching our investigators! I have only been here for 2 weeks and I have taught ten lessons en espanol. TEN! Insane! I am surprised at how fast I am picking up the language, although I still have so far to go!

We got a new district yesterday! We haven't met them yet, but I can't wait! I love not being the new-b anymore! They are all elders though, but that is okay because I seriously love all the elders so much! And since there are only 7 hermanas and 4 are leaving in a week and a half, the elders just love us too! And just so you know, it only took one week for an elder to call me mom. Knew that would happen. :)

Well, time is running out but I love hearing all about your lives and what is going on! The dear elders you have been sending are awesome! I love getting letters every night! So great! Can't wait for my pumpkin bread! Love you all so much and I will send pictures home soon!



Kate  

MTC Week 2

So I will begin by answering your questions (preguntas):
1) Yes I am getting the dear elders you are sending. They print them off every day and give them to us after dinner so I see them every day. We can read our letters every day after class, but can only write back on p-day, which is Thursday. We had a fake P-day last week on Saturday, which is why you got an email from me then. (I prefer dearelders because I get them every day, but I still love getting an email to print out, so pretty much dearelder and packages and emails are all great!) Our district leader gets our mail for us every night then gives us the mail in class, so if I don't get letters, I get depressed. (Just kidding, I just like letters.)
2) Thursday is my p-day.
3) I can check my emails on Thursday. What we do is go to the temple in the morning, then we go check our email and print them all off really quick so we can read them without taking up email time. Then later in the day, during laundry at 12:15, we will write emails back. So email me by Wednesday night, then I'll check Thursday morning, then write back Thursday afternoon.
4) We go to the temple on Thursday morning and so yes I went this morning for the first time here. We did initiatories at like 7 then ate breakfast at el templo afterwards. Yum.
5) We have church in the MTC. Every week we have to prepare a talk en espanol and then the Branch President calls on people at random during sacrament to give them.
6) The food is fine. I wish there was more variety and I wish I could make it myself. It isn't bad though.
7) I think I leave for Texas on December 12th. A Monday? Whatever Monday is around then?
Elder O'Leary says Hi.

So you wanted to know more about my companions:
Hermana Oomrigar sings everywhere. In the shower. Sleeping. It is hysterical. She is from American Fork. She is funny.
Hermana Holmes is just great. She has a belly laugh that is so loud and just makes me laugh every time I hear it. I just love her.

Pretty much I totally lucked out with my companions, district, and zone. As I am writing, they are all yelling things that I am suppose to tell you about them. I will send you pictures of them all because I have become quite the picture taker! I think I will get my pictures on a CD then send it to you. That is probably the best way except then I can't really explain them all.

So did you decide what to do for UEA? I hope something fun! And how was Brandon's wedding?

I did get your package! And the fax. Thanks! It was the wrong grey sweater. I was thinking the one I had for my farewell. And maybe the next time you send a package you can send me some gym socks. I forgot mine. :)

So pretty much I am just loving it here. I wish I had more time to write but I am getting distracted by some magic tricks going on. We are all going to go play! Love you! Look forward to hearing from you soon!!!

K

MTC Week 1

VIVA RANGERS
An Elder next to me just told me that the Rangers are up 3-2. Yay! (Yup, I am wearing my Texas shirt. It's blue with white writing. ;)

So, I know I have only been here a few days, but it feels like I have been here for months. Not that the time has dragged on, I have just learned SO much!!! I taught a lesson to an investigator (pretty sure he is really our other teacher, but Hermano Dushku [yup, that is his real name. LOVE it] won't confirm that) en Espanol yesterday! WHAT! I know right?!?! It was really cool because we spoke a lot more Spanish than I thought we knew. It was probably at least 80% Spanish after only 2 days! SO NUTS!

After you guys dropped me off, we just got to work. We went to class where my teacher didn't speak English for the first 2 hours. No English. None at all. Total immersion. I just stared at him with my mouth open. I found I have been doing that a lot lately. But at least I make him laugh when I do it. He finally broke and spoke English. He is a pretty funny guy.

I am in a threesome with Hermana Oomrigar and Hermana Holmes. We have so much fun together. We never seem to stop laughing, which is great because our district is the same way. Last night we were suppose to be doing personal study before daily planning and we were very productive, but then the last few minutes, one thing led to another and the whole district was rolling with laughter. We have nine missionaries in our district. We are all going to TMM except for one who is going to Barcelona in a few weeks. We have already grown to love each other, which is so fun. The Elders think we are pretty crazy though! We always eat by each other and it usually ends up with someone doing some trick with their food and then it just progresses and we have to leave before it gets too crazy. But I just love them all.

We also have a pretty cool zone. There are only 7 Hermanas, so we are already BFFs. The other Elders in our zone are pretty fun too. But again, when the districts get together, we just have so much fun. Don't get me wrong, we study our butts off and get a ton done, but we for sure know how to have fun. There is also an Hermana that runs on our zone so we go running during gym time. We didn't get gym time until yesterday and I didn't think I would love it, but once you have spent 2 days in the same building (I live and learn in the same building. 17M Love!) you need to get out. I loved running outside around the field and I felt great! I also got a happy surprise by running into Chris Tellington and the lovely Mandie! It was so wonderful!

I don't really know what else to fill you in on because it has only been a few days, but know that I know it. It is interesting because in my companionship, the three of us haven't felt sad yet. We keep waiting for it, but we haven't felt it. We just laugh. We are literally laughing all the time. The Elders are warming up to our humor now and happen to be pretty funny themselves. One Elder was reading a letter from his mom last night and it was taking him forever so we said "Elder, what is up and he replied with, "Hey guys, I can't read cursive, okay?!?!" It took him ten minutes to read a line. So funny! Then our DL thinks it's funny because the Hermanas always ask him about the mail (he has to get it) and he said, "I love how the Hermanas now want to talk to me because I get the mail." I think you would have to be here for most of this stuff to be funny. But just know that I am seriously having so much fun and I am learning a ton! I haven't had any issues yet, minus the blank stares in language class. I have found I am comprehending a lot more though.

I have seen Sister Ycmat here a number of times (LOVE HER) and I just ran into Elder Phillips about an hour ago! (He is doing great Kathie. He looks SO happy!) I have yet to run into Elder Carter but I keep looking for him!)

Anyways, any questions? I don't really know what everyone wants to know about and I pretty much do the same thing every day. But I am sure you will all love to know that I haven't slept-in at all. I am up and at 'em bright and early!

Con Amor-
Hermana Giles

P.S. I sent you a letter, hope you got it.

She's on her way!!!

Just a note from Kate's mom. We took Kate down to the MTC last Wednesday, Oct. 12th, and she is off and on her way. She was so excited just to get going. I'm sure we won't hear from her for a week or so, but when she e-mails us, I will post her letters on this blog. If you want to receive e-mail notification that a new post is up, just subscribe to her blog on the right-hand side of the computer screen with your e-mail address. If you need help, call me and I will help. Thanks for the support you have all given Kate! She has such awesome friends and family who have helped her come to the road she is on right now, and we are really excited to hear her missionary experiences.