....Another Crazy Week!!

February 27, 2012

Look at Dave go! Going to a dance! I love it! Melanie (I think that was her name) looks like a sweetheart! Which is ironic that they went to the sweethearts dance together. Hm hm hm.

So this week was pretty crazy. One such moment of craziness occurred on Friday morning when I was just minding my own business during language study and our phone starts ringing and it is none other than the head honcho (unsure of how to spell that word) himself, Presidente Trayner. Both Sister Zamora and I looked at each other like "What did we do wrong?" I answered it and he was super nice and just started asking me about how it has been to be Sister Zamora's companion and what I have learned and stuff and then he wanted to talk to her so I took a deep breath and relaxed because my phone call was over...as if...Sister Zamora starts talking to him and the next think I hear is, "Ya, I think she would be ready." Duh duh duh. READY FOR WHAT! She gave the phone back to me and President proceeded to tell me that he and the Lord think that I am ready to train next transfer. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ready to train?!?! I am still a baby! I have New Trainers Training on Thursday and since the transfer isn't over yet, I am still technically training. Funny. So a week from tomorrow I will get a new baby missionary. Pray for me. HAHA! I know that with the Lord I can do all things so it will just be a really awesome learning experience. But all the Elders yesterday at church were trying to psych me out and say Are you nervous? How's your Spanish? I just told them that I was excited and that with the Lord, my Spanish can be great. So yes, your little girl is TRAINING!

Our week, this week has been great! F_____ got a calling to teach Primary! I am so excited for her and she is really excited too! L_____ and the kids got confirmed at church yesterday and it was so wonderful! Our big family was in attendance! Well, except for the dad. :( We are still working on getting him there. He wants it for his family but hasn't quite made the connection for himself yet. Maybe dad has some good insights on how going to church helps him be a better dad? Ma____ is doing great! She had her interview yesterday so she is ready for her baptism on Friday! We are so excited for her too! We haven't been able to see Mo____ lately, he is just kind of at a standstill. We also stopped by a less active member this week. His name is C_____ and he is 19, born in the church, but hasn't gone for years. His parents go, but he kind of took a different path. We are working to get him on a mission! He actually came to church yesterday which was AWESOME! It is so cool that I get just as excited about less actives coming to church as I do about new investigators. :) But he will totally go!

To answer your question mother, Sister Zamora goes home next week. :( But she will be in Utah for school so I told her to go to our house. I hope you don't mind but I have invited A LOT of people to our house. :) Elder Jacobs, our district leader, is going home next transfer and I told him that you guys would make him dinner because he will be in Utah without family. And we have a bunch of girls going up to Utah and Idaho for school from here and I told them all that they are welcome to our house any time because my parents love everything that has to do with the mission. :)

Dad-Sorry you had to clean the bathroom. :) Ha ha. Don't worry. I had to clean our bathroom this morning. And we have a cleaning check sometime this week which involves more cleaning. O well. Whatever. And I think I have seen that video about Javier. I love it!

When are you going on your cruise? I want to hear more details! And the new Harmon's sounds cool! I can't wait to see it!

Sounds like everything is going well at home! I love hearing about everything going on and everyone sounds super happy! I love to hear that everyone is good! I think I answered all your questions (yes dad, I did highlight them), but let me know if I left any off. Our weeks are so busy that I foget so many of the little details. But Dave, I have a few talks that I want you to look up. One is "The 4th missionary" one is  "The Divine Companionship" and I don't remember what the other is called but I know that it is about being a consecrated missionary. They have all changed my mission!

Well, love you all! Let me know if you need anything! Keep us in your prayers!

Hermana Heelays

The Best Week of My Life

February 20, 2012

So...basically this week has been the best week of my entire life. I know I won't have time to write down everything so I might just have to write you the other half in a letter. Basically...I just love it all! MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD! Even Sister Zamora said that this has been the best week of her mission. (P.S. Dad, she goes home in two weeks.) I know I know, I keep killing off my companions! But seriously, we have had such an amazing transfer and I will be sad to see her leave because we really just work so well together. Anywho...the good stuff:

So yes, L____ and the kids got baptized yesterday. It was beautiful. L____ started crying during the opening song, I Know That My Redeemer Lives. It was beautiful. I looked around and everyone else was crying too. Except for me and Sister Zamora of course because our tear ducts don't work. :) But yes. AND I____, our less active dad was there and he BAWLED. HE said it just brought back a lot of memories. (More about him later) During the baptism, I went back behind the doors to the font to help the family from that side and it was priceless to see their expressions and smiles as they hugged each other after. L____ was so great and cried and felt so cool. The first thing little G____ said was "That was so cool!" It was great! Baptisms are so special but there is something so special about a family getting baptized and making those changes together. O man. It was so beautiful and I can't even tell you the half of it. But yes, I will send you pictures.

Another cool story of the week is that we found another family...OF NINE! I know right? Amazing! They were actually a referral from V____ (got baptized yesterday). They live just the street over from the A____s. Anywho, it was amazing and 6 of them have accepted BDs for March 18th! Two are under the age of 8 and the other one wasn't home. We got three of them to church yesterday and made a plan to go help them before church next week to get ready because that is why they didn't all come yesterday. We are visiting with them tonight so we will solidify them and then it will be awesome!

After we set those 6 BDs, we were SUPER stoked so we drove to our next appt. and then said a prayer in the car of gratitude because it has been a miracle. As we are finishing our prayer, we get a call from Ma___. She is part of the huge Z____ clan. (Mo___ is a part of it too. Ma___ is Mo___s' neice). She married into the family, and comes to church but isn't baptized. Missionaries have been visiting her for years. Anywho, she just says, I don't know the protocol sisters, but I want to get baptized on March 2nd....HAHAHA! I could not contain myself. I just started laughing and I think I might have scared her because I was just super happy and anywho, MA___ IS GETTING BAPTIZED! This week has seriously been the week of miracles!!!

Our less active dinner on Friday was great! The ribs were yummy and M____ made homemade cheesecake!!! YES! The Lord blesses us with tender mercies every day. :) Anyways, their friends that came are super talkative and have more ADD than Dad. But it was really cool to answer all his questions and teach him a little bit. So then yesterday at church, we were sitting in Gospel Principles for the second hour and then I____ opens the door and motions for us to come out so we come out of the room and guess who was outside? C____! We were shocked! haha. C____ was driving some where and happened to go by the church and saw I____'s motorcycle and decided to stop on by. We said hi and chatted then I____ took him on a tour of the church. The Lord seriously has His hand in the work. I can't even tell you how many times this week Sister Zamora and I just looked at each other and laughed because we couldn't believe what was happening. We met or exceeded every single one of our goals this week. Some by a total long shot. We know that it was not us, it was the Lord that was doing all the work because there is no way we could have perfectly planned this all.

This week we have worked on being more consecrated in the work. We have been digging deep to find all the things that we can do to improve and as we get more and more consecrated, the Lord blesses us more and more! We got rid of dinner breaks this week and BAM! Crazy numbers! In setting our goals for this coming week, we were inspired to set CRAZY goals! Goals that we for sure couldn't reach by ourselves. We know that as we give of our whole selves, the Lord can use us in ways that crazy numbers happen. I mean we saw that this past week. It really happens! O man.

Well, I am super jealous of the cruise but whatever. I know you will send me an awesome present. :) And yes Dad, Sister Zamora has served in Laredo and Corpus. She has pretty much served in all the areas. And yay for reading the Book of Mormon. I actually just finished this morning and can testify of its truth. I love it so much so READ IT!!

Love you all!

Kate

I Don't Even Know...

February 13, 2012

Okay Dad- I am going to start out by saying that I actually highlighted the questions in your letters like a good girl to answer them all but then I left them at home. Sorry. :( But I will try to remember some of your questions. 1) We have TONS of birds on the electrical lines all the time and it reminded me about that one short film with all the tiny little blue birds? You should know what I am talking about though. It is cool though because sometimes we look at the birds and they are parrots instead of the crazy little black ones. 2) That picture that I am “sad” is at El Zarape. We were getting some tacos and there was a basketball game on so I sat where I couldn't see it so I could just not even have the temptation. Hence the sad face. 3) Sister Zamora isn't trunky. We are working hard and coming up with new techniques. One such technique is "referral creeping." I'll explain more when we see how effective it is.

Advice for David for preparing now...read your scriptures. Become SUPER familiar with them so you know where stuff is. I think that is probably my biggest suggestion because you will learn a TON in the MTC and you will always be learning in the field. I wish I had more time to read my scriptures every day. You should just start to get super familiar with them now so when people ask you a question, you can just open straight up to the answer because trust me, every question can be answered with a scripture. 

So this past week was NUTS! I feel like I say that every week but it is always true. And yes Mom, time FLIES down here! I have been out for 4 months yesterday. WEIRD! Anywho, yesterday at church, L____ and the kids had their interviews so they are all prepared for next Sunday! Four baptisms! YAY! I love that family so much and I know how much this is going to help them! They literally are just the best! Elder Jacobs (our district leader) did the interviews and he refers to himself as Mr. Perfect so whenever they came out of an interview they would say thanks Mr. Perfect. I yelled at him to stop brainwashing our friends! It was super funny. I truly just love that ward and those missionaries and families so much!

Another MILAGRO (miracle) of the week is that we went by A____'s house on Friday and told her that she would receive her answer about this church if she came to church; so she is going to come this week. We have been praying with TONS of faith to get her that answer. She really wants it.

The best milagro of all was seriously one of the coolest experiences ever because we just sat back and watched it all happen. We went by and visited with a less active family that we just found on a list somewhere and found out that they are the coolest family ever and charmed them into coming to church yesterday. This was Friday night. On Saturday we were going by some “formers” and we knocked on this house and a guy answered and said that he and his friend had just been talking about the missionaries. We asked him who his friend is and he said I____. THE DAD IN THE LESS ACTIVE FAMILY WE JUST VISITED! It was so great and we tried to set up a return appt with this guy, C____, and he said we should just all get together for a BBQ sometime and we said ya for sure! Then no kidding, five minutes later, we get a text from I____ saying he heard we met C____ and wanted us to come over for dinner on Friday so we could talk to him. THEN, at ward correlation we were talking to the bishop and said I____ and his family are coming today and he started to laugh and we were like oh crap what happened and he said no that is funny because I haven't talked to him in like a year and I had the thought this morning to text him and I did and he said that some of the Sisters had already charmed him and his family into coming to church today. It was just so amazing to watch them walk in the door and the ward just swarmed them and welcomed them in with open arms! They loved it! It was so great because the Lord just made all of this happen and we just watch. It is so nuts! I love it so much! Now I guess we will just have to see what happens with them on Friday night! So be excited for next week’s email because we will get to talk about a baptism AND an AWESOME BBQ with world famous ribs on Friday night!

We also had a training with all the missionaries in the valley on Wednesday and Thursday this week on the 8 fundamentals. For those who have no idea what those are, they are the new direction of the missionary program. Preach My Gospel is what you teach. The 8 fundamentals are how. It has truly helped the work so much! Any future missionaries out there, STUDY THE 8 FUNDAMENTALS! No worries though, you will study them in the MTC! :)

So Sister Zamora and I just keep getting more and more crazy. It is kind of sad to think that is even possible, but it is. We talk in weird voices and make weird noises and all the other missionaries think we are psycho, but we still do great work. :) As evidenced by our 8 investigators at church yesterday! The Lord seriously just keeps blessing us. More than I can even truly comprehend.

This week I have been thinking a lot about being called as a representative of Jesus Christ. Do you understand how important that is? As His representatives, we do and say everything he would if He were here on the earth in our places. At least that is what we are supposed to do. I think that is the goal of every missionary - To fulfill that to the utmost! O man. It is a far way to reach, but the moments when you know that you did or said exactly what He would have done are some of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. Promising someone something as a representative of God is sometimes overwhelming to think about, but it is what we are, and it is what we do. O man. I wish I could explain any of that better. :) Basically, I LOVE the mission and I LOVE how it is changing me into a better person! Missions are the best!

Gotta run! Love you!

Kate

The Ups and the Downs

February 6, 2012

So...last week was FULL of highs, this week was full of lows. Well, not super lows or anything, just nothing in comparison to last week. We had some struggles for sure, but people are still progressing and we are just puttering along.

F____ was confirmed at church yesterday. It was beautiful and she really felt the Spirit. She was sick though so getting her there was kind of a challenge and then she left early but I was just happy she got there. And in better news, we set a BD with her brother! March 4th! Hopefully! We were on splits on Thursday and the day had been crazy and our dinner appointment had cancelled so as we were driving down the street, we decided to go to Burguesa. Truly it was just inspiration. :) After dinner we had 20 minutes left so we decided to go visit E____ before we left to our other appointment and we had a super fast 1st lesson and committed him right there! He is 18 and just really wants to change his life. After seeing F____ get baptized last week, he is just more excited! I love it! Hopefully all continues to go well.

L____ and her kids are just rockstars! They are all so excited to get baptized! Mom, those stickers you sent me are AMAZING! I gave them all stickers so they could put them on their books to tell them apart. Perfect! Also, side note, whenever a child has been grumpy, I give them a sticker and they cheer right up! It is great! Gets them to be good!

Besides that, this week has been pretty uneventful I guess. We were getting low on miles this past week because it was the end of the month so we walked EVERYWHERE! Sister Zamora doesn't have a bike, so we just walked. Everywhere. I am really looking forward to the awesome tan line I have on my feet from my shoes. :)

So it is FREEZING right now! A cold front came in so we have all just been SUPER cold! It probably is still in the 50s though. I'm such a baby!

Everything that has been done with the house sounds amazing! I am so happy that this has finally happened! It is funny that I have been the biggest advocate of this and it doesn't get done until I leave! What is up with that! I'm over it. Sister Zamora and I talk about how to decorate our future houses sometimes so I get my fix.

I LOVE YOU ALL! I have to email president now, but I truly love you all and can't wait to hear from you! Emails and letters truly make a missionary's day! More than you know!

Here are some new pictures:

Kate and Sister Holmes at Christmastime

Kate and her 1st Texas Companion, Sister Bricker

This is a tostada hamburger. Notice the tortilla shell and beans. It's not cheese.

Kate and Sister Bricker at one of their baptisms

The 4 sister missionaries at their apartment. Sister Zamora, Kate, Sister Bricker, Sister Cooper

The 4 sister missionaries at a member's house for Christmas.

They each were given a towel with their names and a gospel gift embroidered on them.

Sister Cooper, Sister Bricker, Sister Zamora, Kate

Kate hard at work studying or writing letters??

Kate's new companion, Sister Zamora

Sister Cooper roasting marshmallows in the oven

Kate looks so good and the sisters she is serving with are awesome. The members treat them really well, they are very busy teaching, and Kate is happy.