Christmas Week!!

It was so great to hear from you all! I loved hearing your voices and getting to hear about what is going on. Everyone said that talking with their families on speaker was hard because everyone kept talking but I think ours went well.

I feel bad for poor David but I know he will be well again soon enough! He needs some time to just relax. I had no idea he was getting his wisdom teeth out! Crazy! Did you tell Ben hi for me by the way?

So one thing that I think I am going to need are vitamins. I was going to just buy some at Walmart, but I don't know what I need or anything. That is why I have loving parents like you! Can you tell me what I need and I will get it from Walmart next Monday? I just figure I should be getting more Vitamins!

Another request, I am kind of at a loss for what to cook for meals. I have no idea what to make! Do you have any fast and easy recipes that I would like that you could send me? It is hard living in an apartment where none of the stuff is actually yours so I don't have my cookbooks or anything. I will get over it though. :)

And to answer your question, part member families are common down here yes and a lot of the times it is the dad that isn't baptized. I don't know why it works like that, but it does. But we are working with a few dads and it seems like once their family starts voicing how important it is to them, they come around. It should be cool to see. Hopefully.

To help you out with your Spanish, maybe I will start writing part of my letters in Spanish as time allows. It takes me a little bit longer but if I write a little before hand. I should be fine. And it will be better practice for me. It is crazy for me to think that the next time I call home I should be better with Spanish. Ojala! (Hopefully)

Last night for dinner we went over to a family in the ward and it was so much fun! It was just the 4 of us sisters and they are probably in their late 20s with a 2 year old daughter. It was just so much fun for us all to goof off! Love it! So don't worry about my Christmas night, it was really nice. And it is interesting because today is probably one of the most depressing days in the real world (day after Christmas) but it is totally fine for us because we refuse to believe that yesterday was Christmas. SO CRAZY! 

As far as what this week has in store, we have a lot of appointments and hopefully on Saturday will get to baptize M_____! I am really hoping and praying for a miracle here! His wife wants to start temple prep classes in the new year so I think that should be good motivation enough for him. On New Years Eve they want us to not really be out and about so we are getting together with the other missionaries at around 4 until the end of the night. I don't really know many details about it but last year they watched Toy Story 3 so I am praying for something good! And hopefully yummy food! TAMALES!!! Ha Ha Ha I'm kidding. Tamales really are yummy, I have just eaten like 54 of them in the past two weeks. No big deal though.

Next week we have a new comp training (4th) and I can't wait because all of my MTC district is going to be back together for the day! I am counting down the days because I am literally so stinking excited! I can't wait to see them and hear their stories and just talk to them again! I feel like I haven't seen them in years and it has only been two weeks! O man! I can't wait to serve with them in my area! It is bound to happen sometime!

Well, I love you all so much and I really did love talking to all of you yesterday! I was totally fine the whole time but then when I had to get off the phone I got a little choked up. But it was all good because I was fine after. I think it is easier now because we get to email every week so we don't have to catch each other up on tons of stuff. But that phone call definitely went by way too fast! But in only a few short transfers I will get to talk to you all again. I love you so much and I look forward to hearing more from you this week! Love you!

Kate

New Mission + New Area + New Routine + Christmas = ???

December 19, 2011

Hola!!! Well, I am here! Can you believe it? I certainly can't! But at the same time I totally can because I feel like I was never in the MTC and I have been in Texas forever. Legitimately, it feels like forever.

I am going to be completely honest with you, missions are HARD! I think this week has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. We have spent most of the time contacting this week and trying to find new investigators but it has been hard. I thought that with the holidays, people would be more inclined to want to hear more, but in fact, they all seem to be more religious. Sister Bricker said this week has been her hardest time finding in her whole mission. I am just super pumped I got to experience that with her. ;) But it is all okay, we have been praying about certain areas and are trying to be more prompted about where to go to contact because we just haven't been having luck.

On the other hand, we have a few families in mind that are totally going to get baptized, I just know it! I will have to fill you in more next week because we will be meeting with them this week. Our mission has a goal of 1200 baptisms this year and we were at 1105 before this Sunday so I don't know exactly where we are now, but closer! Next year the goal is 1400. Yup, 1400 baptisms in one year. We are going to do it! It is a huge number but I know the Lord has prepared those people to be baptized, we just need to find them and prepare them.

Another blessing of this mission (the Lord knows me so well) is that we have a few companionships assigned to each ward. We work with three different wards (2 English, 1 Spanish) and so do other missionaries in our zone, so yesterday at church we were with like 7 other companionships throughout the day. The wards are just crawling with missionaries! It helps me so much to see the progress of the other missionaries and to see us all united in the cause. We just have so many missionaries for our small mission that it is just so dense and I LOVE IT! After a really rough week, it was such a blessing to come to church for 8 hours straight and be able to see the other missionaries and just be uplifted by the gospel. I love it!

Another great thing about having so many missionaries is that we have baptisms like crazy. We had three in our building (29th and Dove, look it up) last night between three companionships (mine included!) and we had to coordinate when and where to do them all. Crazy but it ended up being awesome! We baptized J_____. His wife was baptized a few weeks ago and his two daughters the week after so he was the last of the 4 and I am so excited for them to work towards the temple now. O I just love them!

Another blessing is that the church is in our area so when we contact people, we can tell them that the church is just down the street! So all the streets around the church (I know you are looking this up on Google Earth) are in our area. We have from 23rd Street to Buddy Owens to Sheeryland to Auburn. I think those are all the streets. It is an awesome area! I love it so much!

This week has been full of ups and downs. It started with wondering what I am doing here and getting homesick for Christmas (Chirstmas time + new area + new to the mission + hard week = BAD NEWS). After kicking myself and remembering to forget myself and go to work and getting use to what actual mission work is like, it is actually a ton better! I know this is where I am supposed to be and I truly am happy here. We have a lot of fun. We have another companionship with us so there are 4 of us in our apartment and so we have fun.

So about Christmas, we are going to the Bishop of the Spanish ward’s house for Christmas Eve with the other missionaries in the ward (us, the other sisters we live with, our district leader and his comp, and the APs). Christmas day we have two one-hour blocks of church (one in English, one in Spanish) then I don't know what we will do for the rest of the day yet. I think the 4 of us Hermanas will have dinner together probably. I will be calling you at 3:00 pm Texas time so I think that is 2:00 your time. Just so you are prepared, I might just cry when I hear your voices. I am not homesick, just love you all so much and being in a new area does that to a person. :)

Another tender mercy is that our apartment has a washer and dryer and so the Edinburg sisters come over to do their laundry on p-days and guess who is an Edinburg sister? That's right, HERMANA HOLMES! I loved seeing her today! It has been a blessing to see her and freak about about how the mission is different than expected.

P.S. I love how the Spanish here is so interchangeable. I love being able to turn it off and on whenever because then when I get home, I won't be struggling with English again. I can turn it off and on, and I can teach in both languages too. O my, I am just so blessed!

Well, my time is running out but I would love to hear from you soon! I don't know about printing off letters here at the library (it is on Lark Ave just north of the church if you want to see it) so if you want to hand write more letters, I would be okay with hearing from you more. :) Yes the address you got is my apartment and I should be here for awhile. Hand-writing letters won't be hard I swear. :) I love you all so much and I look forward to telling you more about Texas on Sunday!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!

P.S. I have loved the 12-days of Christmas. It gets me out of bed in the morning.

P.P.S. Grandma Joyce, you are the BEST! I loved the survival kits and my comp loves you too!!!! I love you!!!!

Kate

Updating Kate's Address

Hello to you all!

I will be updating Kate's address as she is transferred and moves locations. Her current address will always be listed on her blog, www.sistergiles.blogspot.com. Just click on the address tab - it will be listed under CURRENT ADDRESS.

Her current address right now is:
Hermana Kate Giles
5301 North 17th Street #11
McAllen, TX 78504

Thanks for your support!!
Teresa

Kate's arrived in McAllen

Here is Kate with her mission president, President and Sister Traynor.

Kate arrived in McAllen, TX December 12, 2011

MTC Week 8

December 8, 2011

I can't believe that I leave in just 4 short days! Or maybe 3. I'm not entirely sure how the counting system works, but I know it is soon. And I can't even tell you how pumped I am that my one year anniversary in Texas will be 12/12/12. I literally can't tell you how much joy that brings me! I know, it is weird, but it is the small things that make me happy now.

So there really isn't a whole lot to report this week. Elder Drollinger was temporarily reassigned to SLC and left on Tuesday morning, Elder Vance went out to Mississippi on Wednesday, then on Wednesday morning Elder Pathakis and Elder Johnson joined our district. Elder P broke his finger so he had to stay two extra weeks, and the Mexican consolate messed up Elder J's birthday, so his visa was wrong. Total bummer, but we like being the district that takes everyone in. I don't know what will happen with them when we leave. We are also now the oldest district in our zone by 5 weeks. It is weird. Everyone is so little. Yesterday we got two new districts. TWO! We now have 19 new Elders in our zone. I wish I had a desire to meet them all, but since I leave in just a few days, I have to focus on other things. Lo siento nuevo misioneros! But it is all good because I did meet one. His name is Elder Bieber and he is from Canada. Yup....Uh huh.... That for sure just happened. I am set on the fact that he is Bieber's long lost cousin.

So how did Annie's bone graft go? I think I am thinking it is more serious than it was because I imagined her out for a few days. I guess we'll talk about it on Monday. And David possibly getting school paid for and getting awesome experience!?!?! How sick! I would tell him personally, but I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM HIM SINCE I GOT TO THE MTC! That is now 9 weeks and 1 day. I am not okay with that you little punk.

That is also cool about your parents meeting. We will have to talk more about that on Monday as well.

Speaking of Monday, I have no idea when exactly we will have time to call because I don't know exactly the plan and when we will be there and such, but I promise a call will occur. And I have no idea what the rules are, but I will call both you and Dad. They will be fine with it. And will Dave and Annie be home? If not, I will just have to talk to them on Christmas. And about Christmas, I think we actually call on Christmas, not the 24th. Is there a specific reason why the 24th would be better? The 25th is on a Sunday, so everyone should be home right?

Well, I love you all, but this week just hasn't been that eventful. We have all just been bustin' our bums to get ready. I am pretty tired but I am going to go take a nap today probably because I don't have a lot of letters to write. :) There is a silver lining to everything. :)

I put all my pictures on a CD yesterday, so when that is done, I will send it to you. I actually think they said it would be on 3 CDs because I had so many. You will just have a field day. You might get it before I call, but probably not. You will have it before Christmas so you can ask me about any of them then, and feel free to put whatever you want on my blog. We have some great pictures with our BFFs too. For sure love it!

Well, I love you all so much! I am super pumped I missed the wind storm! Seriously! I would have loved to be a part of that service!!! I shouldn't say this, but Hermana Holmes and a few of the Elders and I not-so-secretly want a hurricane or something to hit our mission so we can just serve the crap out of everyone. So just know, if something like that happens, we probably prayed it there, and we are having the time of our lives! Love you so much and can't wait until Wednesday!

Kate

Flight Plans

Kate will be leaving for McAllen Texas on Monday, December 12th. Good luck!!!

MTC Week 8

December 1, 2011

I am scared to say this for fear of jinxing myself, but I can't believe it hasn't snowed here yet. I am so happy about that! It actually snowed one night, but it melted before we woke up. It is finally starting to get cold though. :( No me gusta el frio. 

This week has been an interesting week. Thanksgiving ended up being a pretty great day! After I wrote you, we went to a HYSTERICAL Thanksgiving program thing where the presidency pulled missionaries up to dress up and make noises like their animals. It was super funny. We then ate our snack dinners outside because I was determined to have us be a family on Thanksgiving. Afterwards we did a service project of making injury kits for people in the Sudan and then after was my favorite part. We all went into the gym and watched 17 Miracles! I am so happy we got a watch a movie! They even gave us all popcorn! And we got to sit with most of our zone which made it hysterical. I had Elder Drollinger and Elder Sanders behind me and they had to comment the whole time and pretty much it was just HYSTERICAL some of the comments they made. At least they came up with their future plans. They decided to become Levi Savage and live in a cave and dry jerky. Who does that? It was so funny though.

That leads me to the worst experience of the MTC. Our best friends left. It was AWFUL! I love that district so much! But at least we got 2 out of the 9 in our district now! Yup, two! Elder Drollinger has been with us this week and now Elder Vance too. I love him too because he loves Community! He loves my sweatshirt and so we are friends. :) But really, saying bye to those Elders was the hardest thing I have had to do so far, but it is okay because we already have trips planned. We're going to GA for E. Duty and E. Kimball's homecomings and then I'm going down to AZ to play with E. Sanders before we all go to Mexico together. I love that we are all speaking Spanish because then these Mexico trips are going to be AWESOME! O man, it has been rough, but we have refocused and are getting work done. :) 

So apparently we get our travel plans today! If I still have time to write a letter after we get them, I will tell you all about them! I can't wait! I have loved the MTC, but after our friends left, and we became the oldest district, we have all been so stoked to leave! I think we have hit that point where it is just time. It will be interesting.

The Hermanas and I were chosen to do a workshop with all the incoming missionaries last night. It was really cool. We did a practice "How to begin teaching" with a group of incoming missionaries. I LOVED it! We just basically set up the situation and got to know the investigator so the incoming missionaries could start teaching them. I remember that being one of my favorite things on my first day so I am glad I was able to participate in that experience for other people. We also had two baptisms this week! Our investigators both got baptised and we had services for them. It was like funny and weird but sweet and awesome at the some time. Hard to explain. But cool!

This morning’s temple trip was NUTS! We all went to do sealings as a district, but we were all split up! Hermana Oomrigar had to go to a different session. It was interesting. But me, H. Holmes, E. Root, and E. Jackson were in the same session and a girl in our session totally PASSED OUT! Yup, that happened. H. Holmes was being sealed to her and she said it was terrifying because she watched the blood drain from her face. It is CRAZY! But ya, totally crazy! Before we ate breakfast at the temple, we went into the laundry and helped them fold stuff. It was awesome! I just love service so much. I then took a MUCH needed nap and am currently watching E. Peterson LOSE IT because his sister sent him Betos burritos. It is HYSTERICAL. If you haven't realized it, everything here is hysterical, all the time. I just love it here!

-Kate