My Black Tongue

November 26, 2012

I would like to tell you all a story of when I woke up Thanksgiving with a black tongue. Yes, that is not a typo. It was black. And I was confused. Did I go to bed with a black sucker in my mouth? Last time I checked, the answer to that question was a resounding no. I showed the sisters and their confusion, along with mine, just made a really big confusing mess. Now let me back up a little.

Wednesday night we had a great night with a very hospitable member that lovingly made us dinner. Long story short, where my heart was full of gratitude, my stomach was full of too much dinner. That night I decided to, for the first time EVER in the life of Sister Giles, take a nice little chewable pill called Pepto-Bismol. Fast-forward.

I tried to brush my tongue but to no avail, I still had a very black tongue. I decided I would just talk very little during the day. (Insert laugh here.) No one really noticed my tongue all day though which was nice. So when we went to dinner number two out of five, I asked our member, who is a doctor in Mexico, why I had the phenomenon known as a black tongue. She laughed and had no clue but while she was examining my tongue, the Elders showed up and Elder Cullen kindly informed me (p.s. he is sitting right next to me and says that this is a pointless story to tell my parents, I will let you be the judges of that one) that taking a chewable Pepto-Bismol tablet at night makes your tongue black. Who would have thought - right? They should definitely put that on the box. But don't worry people of Utah, Sister Giles has a normal tongue again. All is right with the world.

This week was a good week overall. I am eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father that I only have one Thanksgiving in the field. I can only handle so many Thanksgiving Dinners in one day. And I reached my limit this year. :) But it was a great day filled with love and gratitude and we had a very nice time with everyone.

I can't believe Dave is so close to going! That is nuts! But new rule, if you tell me one of David's friends is going on a mission, you have to tell me where! And Dave-we are having a mission conference this week so I will ask President when I can call you and give you all of my nuggets of wisdom. (Nugget is a GREAT word) But it will probably be the first week of December. I promise, it will go down. AND I still have your present I am working on. I will get it to you soon. AND when you go, you better email me! I want to hear EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING!

Fannie-I have your Christmas present. It is sitting under my desk. In a pile of my shoes. :)

Mother-yes I did get my Ensign and it was SO FUNNY because I got it on Saturday and I was literally as excited as when I would get new Harry Potter books. Then I made a joke about it and said that you know you have been a missionary for a while when you start freaking out about the new Ensign. SO, I took my fancy new Ensign to church so I could read it and the other missionaries reacted the same way! We don't have the new issue yet so they all treated it like the newest craze. It was so funny! SO many times I heard, "Sister Giles! Is that the new Ensign? Let me see it!" O man, I love being a missionary.

The week has gone by really good. We are really learning how to convey the urgency we feel to our investigators. We are working with some good people right now and hopefully they will make the necessary changes in their lives! Very cool!

Mom-which pictures did you put up on my blog? You have to tell me these things because after people tell me they like my pictures, I have ZERO idea to what they are referring. :)

Heather-Thanks for the email but it did not have the necessary details I desired. Except for the part about you and Kell at Chick-Fil-A. I found that pleasing.

This week we have mission conference and I am SUPER excited. The whole mission is getting together on Friday and we are learning from Elder Gregory Schwitzer. I am excited to be inspired by his words and apply those things in my life.

I love you all but I have to go now. Gotta get things ready for this week! LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLL!

K    

Thanks Kate for David's Birthday Present

This cockroach was included for David's Birthday in the last package.

Thanks Kate! However, she did say that his real birthday present was still to come.

More Fun Pictures

Sister Pena and Kate. Sister Pena was Kate's 1st companion in Brownsville

Kate and Sister Pena

Kate and Sister Ramirez. Sister Ramirez is Kate's 2nd companion in Brownsville.

Kate and Sister Ramirez at the border??

I think this is the wall, or the border in Brownsville.

A few of the Sister Missionaries along with President Traynor.

Kate has made so many friends on her mission

More Sisters

Kate and Sister VanDyke

When Kate and Sister VanDyke were serving in McAllen, they organized an event at the park where members would come and draw something about the gospel on the sidewalks with chalk. Then if passersby had questions, they could answer them. These are a few pictures of that event.

 Notice the Temple. What an artist.

I'm not sure what kind of food this is, but Kate looks happy to eat it.

A few bug bites, The hazards of living in South Texas.

Thanks for all the well wishes, packages, and letters. Kate loves mail!!

(Very clever packaging Jennifer and Michelle)

Some Awesome Friends!!

These are just some of the friends Kate has been blessed to have.

They have taken good care of her in Texas.

These are friends from McAllen and Brownsville.

I wish I had pictures of everyone who has influenced Kate's life on her

mission in such a powerful way.

Where is My new Ensign??

November 19, 2012

Hey Mom! I found something for Christmas a member showed me. It is an owl necklace from deseretbook.com that has a CTR thing and on the back it has "o be wise, what can I say more." There ya go, now you can get me something for Christmas.

That is wonderful that you are all studying about Isaiah. That is one of the subjects I will study when I get home. We have study time here but when we are trying to keep our investigators in mind, it is hard to find time to get into Isaiah. You'll have to tell me all about it later.

AND I can't believe David is leaving in like 3 weeks! I think the time just keeps flying by so I never think of him as actually leaving soon. But I am so proud of him! I tell EVERYONE about him and yesterday I had a birthday party for him. I was the only one in attendance, but it's okay. President said I just need to find a member that can Skype and I can talk to him. He didn't say a date so I will ask him next week. I think he doesn't really care. But do you know how to do Skype? Get on my computer to do it. If you can't figure it out, call one of my friends and they will help you. :) Or anyone who knows anything about technology. :) That call will be super David centered. :) YAY FOR MISSIONARIES! Then we can all chat on Christmas. And mother, May was not THAT long ago. You'll be fine waiting another month. :) But it will be cool because transfers are on the 18th of December (they cut it to 5 weeks because of Christmas) so if I get transferred, me and Dave will both be starting a new area at the same time!

Anywho-Mom, I saw a new Ensign last night. Will I be blessed with my high maintenance copy anytime soon? I know I seem like a brat but I just don't want to trash it like all my other ones. I may or may not be an Ensign addict. We saw the new one last night at a member’s house and both of us said, "Oh my gosh is that the new Ensign!" Just like if it had been the new edition of something cool. They laughed at us and we said, "You know you’re a missionary when you freak out for the new Ensign."

The pictures from Leadership and Sister Training are already on the blog? Wow! That was fast! I am afraid to say that when everyone else gets their cameras out, I say, Oh, I'll just get that off Facebook later. I'm sorry that my lack of pictures have resulted from being paparatzied. (We can't figure out how to spell that. This would be a great opportunity to look it up on Google. Oh wait.....) But in my defense I just spent like $1,000,000 on making 6 CDs of pictures for you guys so....You can get your missionary pictures from the blog. :) You probably see more of my pictures from the blog than I do! I can't wait to see them all in our mission DVD that we hopefully will be getting soon! I love the DVDs! You still have mine from last year right? I can't wait to watch it when I get back because when I watched it the first time, I was 2 days in the field and didn't know anyone, and now I know everyone!

Yes, I can talk to Fannie when Christmas rolls around. Por supuesto! And Mother, yes I did get my capitan en Jefe! (Starts with a J because it’s Spanish Mom!) That means that at our mission conference, I get a pin and a certificate. Then eventually, President is taking me to dinner and will work with me for 4 hours. Yup. Terrifyingly awesome right?!?!

Well, now for my awesome spiritual insight of the letter. Brace yourselves because it is AWESOME! I was reading in the Ensign from July 2011 and there is an article about choosing happiness and it tells the story of the last supper and how Christ (John 16:33) says that there will be tribulation in the world, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Christ was about to suffer in Gethsemane, be betrayed, crucified, spit upon, suffer a trial in which Barrabus would be let go. What was there to be happy about? But he was happy because he knew that at this point, with imminent doom lingering towards Him, he had won. The plan for our redemption was just around the corner. He wasn't thinking about all the bad things, he was thinking that in a few short days, He would be resurrected and save us all. He knew that Satan had been defeated. How amazing right! I think that we usually think Christ might have been scared and nervous about what was coming for Him, and I am sure he probably was, but His predominant emotion was joy because He knew the end result! He also reminds us that we will have tribulations. Christ didn't come to save us from tribulation but to wipe away our tears when we have them. Anywho, AMAZING article!

Well, the time has come again to bid thee adieu. (How do you spell that?) My back hurts from sitting. Weird right? Anywho! Love you all! Going to go make felt flowers now!

KG  

Chills

November 13, 2012

I loved seeing the pictures of the crazy snow! I have been a baby the past two days in our 60 degree weather. Haha! I am currently wearing a turtleneck shirt. Yup. I did that.

So today is transfer day. Because yesterday was the Veteran's holiday or something like that, the libraries were closed. But it was okay because then we had more time to do other stuff. Like get birthday presents! Mom and Dad, yours are in the mail. Dave, yours is yet to come. Also, I sent back ALL my pictures (6 discs) and the recorder. Yes, I did it all. Just don't judge me when you look at my bank account. Shipping can get crazy sometimes!

So this week was AWESOME! We had leadership training for three days in McAllen where we just learned EVERYTHING. I feel so lifted after those meetings. All the sisters went and we had a sisters’ meeting after. It was AWESOME. I wish I could explain more about it but it was just great. We talked about the Priesthood and how important sisters are in the role of the Priesthood. We also got a huge pep talk to prepare us for the flood of sisters we are about to get. Our mission will only go up about 10 sisters though because we already have a million missionaries for how small of a mission ours is. Oh, and I had to role play in front of everyone. I had to show how to get a referral from someone using the Book of Mormon in 2 minutes. It was really fun! President just picked a few of us right on the spot so it was funny to just go with it. Oh, AND one of the best surprises EVER! I was washing my hands for lunch on the first day and SIster Bocanegra says Sister Giles, I have a surprise for you. I was like umm, alright. What? Then she said you know how much the S_____ family love you...IMMEDIATELY I knew they were in the gym! So I walked quite rapidly to the gym and saw M____ and not only M____, I____ and A____ were there too! I____ heard we were coming and he got off work! Then I saw Sister B____ too! Basically, I didn't eat much during that lunch because I had to talk to everyone. They are so great! Sister B____ said you know we all volunteered because we knew you were coming. I felt so loved. It was a great opportunity to get my fill of the Mission 1st ward before I see them again in a few months. And we have a fireside next week too before the mission conference that we can go to if we bring recent converts. Hopefully, we can get to go! 

Next week we have our mission conference which will be AWESOME! I can't wait to have everyone together! Last week we had just under half the mission and it was a ton of people. Imagine when we have everyone! AH! SO EXCITING!

So, I have come to realize that I am actually getting old. In the mission, that is. I was talking to a Sister who is going home in December to start school who just came out 2 transfers before me and I was talking to her like she is way older than me and she says, Sister Giles, you are old too. Now I feel old. I can't really accept it. I like to think that I am in the middle of my mission and I will always think of it like that. Middle Middle Middle.

As far as Christmas goes, I have no idea what I want or need for Christmas. I don't really need anything else. I have a lot of stuff and I don't really want to cart more stuff around. :) But if I think of anything, I will let you know. Maybe you should just save your money for all the stuff I'll supposedly "need" when I get home. Who knows what that will be. Moral of the story, I'm just happy as a clam here.

Well, everything here is going well. WE are working hard and praying for MILAGROS in our area. We know that when we work with faith and align our will with God's will, we can see miracles beyond our wildest dreams. :) I love you all!

Kate

Leadership Training Meeting in Nov, 2012

Kate is third from the end on the right on the row with all the sisters - 3rd row from the front.
(If you click on the picture, it will show on the screen larger so you can see it better.)

It's hard to tell, but Kate is on the front row, 5th in from the right in a black top with an orange paisley skirt. Of course, she is looking the other way at President Traynor doing the teaching.

Miracles DO happen!

November 5, 2012

I would like to tell you about my day on Tuesday. First, we went to McAllen for another fun little jaunt of ours which is actually not bad. I have fun driving. Then we came back to have District Meeting where I had to do the role-play. We were talking more about role-plays. Elder Cullen (District Leader) kept getting phone calls during it and he would leave to answer it. (Rude right?) So afterwards, we were talking with the RS President in the Spanish ward about visiting teaching and we get a phone call. Permigator. I answer it, "Hello, This is Sister Giles." (Now this part is a direct quote): Sister Giles, are you going to be busy tonight? Me: Well, kind of, why. Him: Cancel all your plans tonight and meet me at the church at 7. Me: Allllright.....(said in a confused voice) then...LIGHTBULB! Me: Permigator, are you getting baptized tonight? Him:Yup. Me: WHAT! Don't lie to me! Him: Seriously! Me: (turn to Elder Cullen, and in hushed tones) Elder, Permigator wants to get baptized tonight. Elder (also in hushed tones) I know. He was the one calling me this morning. (Look of confusion on Sister Giles face.) Soooooo, moral of the story is that Permigator is GREAT and got baptized on Tuesday! It was super small and last minute but was awesome! He was freaking out the whole time but everyone was awesome. His member friends, the Elders, everyone helped so much to pull this off! Now the permigator has become the CONVERT! He is great and is now talking about when he gets to serve a mission next year. :) We gave him a Preach My Gospel book and he is EATING it up. He and his friend are teaching US on Tuesday. Such a cool thing! I love missions! (P.S. Mom, can you send me a Preach My Gospel in English? One big and one small. I have a big mouth and promise people stuff. :)  Basically, coolest thing ever and people still don't believe us when we tell them that he got baptized.

The rest of the week was interesting. We went home early on Halloween and studied Spanish. I am SUPER close to getting my Capitan en Jefe! Meaning the highest Spanish award! I just have to do 3 chapters in a book, one testimony, and 6 scriptures. I CAN DO IT!

Well, I have to go! I used most of my time sending pictures to Sister Trayner. Sorry. She is making a DVD for us for Christmas. LOVE YOU!!!

Kate