Always More to Learn

April 23, 2012

So I have an idea. I am going to give you a hypothetical person and a little bit about them, then you guys can figure out what you would teach them. It’s a fun thing to think of because that is how we get so much done in such a short time of studying. We don't try to learn everything about a lesson, we just try to learn the things that we know that person needs. When you do everything in the work with a specific person in mind, it makes everything a lot more effective.

First person: Her name is April and she is in her late 30s with three kids. She is Methodist and has been for a long time. She just moved into the area and doesn't have any friends so she is pretty miserable. She also hasn't found a church down here that she likes. Okay family, have at it! Tell me what you would teach her!

Also, I have an extra 12 week training program that I will send Dave. It has some cool stuff in the back to help learn more. Also, go get the District 1 and 2 and watch them. They explain ALOT. And the District 2 is funnier, so start with that one maybe? I don't know, just a thought.

So this week we started a purification challenge. I think our whole zone is doing it but I don't know. Basically for 40 days we give up things that aren't helping us in the work. Basically it is just a way to show the Lord we are serious and want to work. Well, today is day 4 of Sister Giles not speaking English! (Except when speaking to an English member) and man! It is hard! It is different than other Spanish speaking missions because we use so much English so I forget sometimes to switch back to Spanish, but I can already see how much better my Spanish is! On May 29th, I will be a pro! (Ojala!) That is just one of the many things I gave up, but it has been great because I have been able to remain more focused!

Speaking of being focused, the Sisters wanted to go to the mall today and being that I have been before I told them it was a bad idea but Sister Ramos has been wanting to go since she got here so I said okay, we'll go. O man! It is so hard to stay focused when surrounded so much by the outside world! I like just sitting in Bath and Body Works. I don't know. Very crazy. Needless to say, I don't think we will be going back anytime soon. Plus I am all stocked up on my hand sanitizer so I am good. :) I go through that so fast down here! 

So on Monday, we went over to the Bradshaw's for an FHE with one of our recent converts and it was SO funny because after one of the boys came downstairs with a light saber and I told him that if he wanted to play he had to go get me one so we started to play and Sister Bradshaw wasn't facing us but she said, "BOYS!" then turned around and saw it was me and was like, "O, Sister Giles!" ha ha! It was SO funny! I laughed super hard! I also got the cutest picture with the little boys! They have these future missionary badges and so we took a picture. Love them!

Dad, I took your advice and wrote down stuff for every day so I can fill you guys in so I won't spoil it all now. :) Basically this week was just a good week overall.

This coming week we have a dinner appointment every day and interviews with President tomorrow. I am so excited because I love talking to him! I think he will be able to help me out a lot too so yay! I am excited!

O mom, M_____ LOVED the burp cloth! She looked at it and was like, "O I can't use this! It is too great! I am going to hand wash it!" I just laughed and told her she was fine. I will have to take a picture of A_____ with it.

Speaking of pictures, I know I am a total picture failure! I was going to take them in today but with the mall, things got crazy. Next week I promise! I have tons to show you!

Well, I need to go look at some talks that I want to read this week. I print one out every Monday to read throughout the week. Let me know if there are any good ones I need to look up!

Thanks for the letter Annie! I will write you back today!

LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

P.S. Also, I thought of another thing that I want for my birthday. A Spanish CTR ring, but a small one because I have tiny fingers. I think that my finger is either a 6.5 or 7. I don't remember. :)

LOVE YOU!!!

Kate

A couple of pictures from the Mission Blog

Transfer Day

This is when Sister Zamora went home and Sister Ramos was new.

Training for new Trainers

Fun and CRAZY Week

April 16, 2012

So the assistants told me that I had a box and I was so excited to get the recorder but when I opened the box I found the most beautiful burp cloth ever! THANKS MOM! I have been wondering what to give her and that is PERFECT! She had baby A____ about 2 weeks ago! SO CUTE! But it kills me not to be able to hold him! O well. :) He is so cute! I am going to go give it to her tonight and then I will take pictures too and I promise I will send you pictures next P-day. Today has been CRAZY!

So crazy in fact that we are actually in La Joya right now. :) We are having a carnesada (NO idea how to spell it) with our zone and they were taking awhile so we decided to go email. We didn't have time this morning because we had to hurry and run to the store to get ingredients for the beans and rice we had to make, of which we didn't have time so the Roque's made it. I LOVE THEM! I owe them HUGE! Then we had to go to the office so someone from the church could appraise our car from damage from the hail storm. So it has been just a big non-stop day! But it has been fun at the same time.

This week was really interesting. I never would have thought that the last week of my third transfer I would be training two missionaries in two different areas. It was rough but we got through it. :) We get Sister Bocanegra's new companion tomorrow who is none other than...HERMANA OOMRIGAR! How fun huh! Sister Holmes just got transferred to Brownsville-Port Isabel. I am jealous. I told Elder Woodman this morning that I wanted to go there so hopefully I do. Ha ha ha, if only it worked that way. :) O and guess what Elder is in my district right now. ELDER PETERSEN! So in my district next transfer, it will be made up of half of my MTC people! YES!!!

Yes, our week was really busy. We didn't have a lot of finding time because we had to visit people in both areas, but we still managed to find 7 new investigators! Crazy huh! And Dad, I think Mo____ is going to commit tonight. I don't know though, but we are going over there and getting him set. It is going to happen! And speaking of Dad, I have a headache and need you to pop my neck! Too bad you are so far away!

That is so great to hear about Brooke's wedding! I want to see pictures ASAP! Cheryl already sent me the announcement. It looks great! I am so happy she is happy! And I am so happy that I got to know Tyler before coming out here because I would have been so sad to miss it all!

I loved the pictures of Dana in Corpus! That still blows my mind that she was here! How weird! What if I had been serving up there?!?! SO CRAZY!

Well, I should get going. Who knows what will happen when 17 Elders get together for food, it could all be gone now. :) We left them playing basketball so they are working up quite the appetite. But really, there was A TON of food! The zone leaders brought 19 pounds of meat. 19! SO MUCH! But I am excited! Except for the fact that I am kind of getting sick. Yesterday it was body chills and headache. Today it’s headache with a tummyache. O man. Will this stop me from eating though? Probably not. :) We'll see though.

O and sad day! our beloved Elder Salemme (zone leader) leaves tomorrow! I am so sad about that! He was such a good Elder with an AMAZING story! He is 29 and just converted 3 years ago. He got special permission to come out and now he is going to go home and go to Rutgers to get his masters. Isn't that neat?!?! He has been such a great example and the whole zone will miss him.

Short But Sweet

April 9, 2012

O man. This week has been CRAZY! But guess what! Ma____ had her baby! Yay! He is SO CUTE! Curse the no baby holding rule! But it is okay. He is healthy and well and everyone is doing great!

Yes Dad, Mo_____ has a baptismal date. He just needs to get baptized! We asked him what is stopping him and he said nothing and I asked him what he needs to do and he said the only thing left is to be baptized. He knows it all, he just needs to take a step of faith.

So happy you ran into Nicole! Tell her that I decided her future for her, and she just needs to go on a mission. She would be AMAZING and she would LOVE IT! Done and done. If I had one of those "That was easy" buttons, I would press it now.

Sister Cooper leaves on Wednesday for Nauvoo again. We have no idea what will happen with her companion, Sister Bocanegra, as transfers aren't until next week. I guess I will just have to learn patience and wait to find out. The assistants owe me so I almost got it out of them last night, but then it was bedtime. Hopefully today sometime!

So as far as the people down here in South Texas, they are doing well! We are struggling finding so I don't have anyone to update you on YET, but we have about 8 first appointments set up this week already so hopefully we get some! Language of faith! WE WILL FIND!

I have loved my studies this week because I literally learn so much! Dave - look up “The Divine Companionship” from Elder Holland. AMAZING! It will probably change your life.

P.S. When do I get the recorder back! I want to hear a song!

Easter was really good! We have three very amazing sacrament meetings where I just learned SO much! I went through the 4 Gospels and read the Easter stories and I love the differences and the similarities in all of it. I love the Luke version because it talks about the two others that were killed with Him. Such amazing dialogue! And we have such great members that wanted to make sure Easter was great. We have the best lady ever, Sister Dihn, who gave us chocolates. 70 to be exact. She didn't know if that would be enough for all of us! O my goodness! SO GOOD! She burnt her leg on her motorcycle so she is going to have to have a skin graft soon. She is also the member that takes us to the mall. So cool! Then the Gudmundsens (senior missionaries) had us over for Easter dinner last night! It was like eating with grandparents! They work in the employment center and we help them with translating so they consider us family. They are just so cute!

P.S. Have I ever told you how much I love Easter? It is WONDERFUL!

P.P.S. We had to get on mormon.org to enter our testimonies for Easter which required logging in to Facebook. Don't be alarmed, they made me do it. I didn't want to, which is weird because I never thought I wouldn't want to get on Facebook. But I didn't weird. :)

Well, my time is short because I had to read 4 letters from mom...(I loved all of them) but I will go home and write you a letter letter. :) LOVE YOU ALL!!! HAPPY EASTER!

P.P.P.S. 6 MONTHS IN 3 DAYS!

Was That a Tornado??

April 2, 2012

Dana is in Corpus? That is weird. I can't really even believe that! She is in my mission RIGHT NOW! Good thing that is like 2 hours away. :) Apparently Corpus is beautiful! I have no idea because I have never been there, but that is cool Dana is going there. Maybe if I get transferred up there, she can tell me the ins and outs of the area. Que raro!

So I assume that because you didn't mention this in your email, you don't know...and maybe I shouldn't tell you...but guess who may or may not have been in a tornado on Thursday. :) IT WAS SO COOL! It totally wasn't bad AT ALL. So don't worry. :) but we got to do service all day on Friday and it was AMAZING! I wish I could just serve the people all day long every day! So we were talking with the C_____ family and it started to rain so they said you guys have to leave and we ran to our car on the other side of the street and were already drenched by the time we got there. We drove home which was a little scary because the rain was really bad but we prayed a lot so all is good! When we got home we tried to plan but to no avail because the power kept going off and on and it started to HAIL! Yup, in South Texas. (Don't worry, I took lots of pictures and clips on my camera) It was crazy! But the other sisters weren't home at this point. They got stuck at the church because the roads were flooded. After awhile (aka, 10:45ish) the Zone Leaders showed up at the church and said President wanted everyone home in their apartments so they escorted the sisters home. They made it to where you turn off Dove to our apartment and they had to turn the other way because the streets were so flooded! They ended up having to walk down 17th in about a foot of water with tons of hail in it. Sister Cooper said it was like the Sweet River Crossing. (Only as a missionary would that be mentioned). Thank goodness the Elders came to help them get back because I don't know if they could have done it alone. They have a funny picture of them back in the apartment totally drenched holding a clock that says 11:45. :) Have I mentioned how great they are? Yup. They are. So on Friday morning we got a call to go to the mission home for service. We got there and the mission home was pretty bad. All the windows had broken out and trees were fallen over, etc. Two zones helped in their neighborhood then our zone went to the Gonzalez neighborhood (a senior couple) and helped them with theirs. It was so great to serve! I love it! And then they made us fajitas. :) I am so blessed!

We had new comp training on Wednesday which was AWESOME! It totally helped me to know the things I can do to be a better trainer. We are doing good and it was just a really fun day! I got to chat with the office missionaries for awhile and I just love them more and more! So sweet! If you ever have to call the office for any reason, tell Sister Mantle that you love her. She is wonderful! In fact, I will tell her today when we go to the office to get our car looked at. We have to fill out insurance claims for damage to our car from the hail. SO FUN!

Mom-The beanie and bag are for whoever wants them. I was going to say who they were for but I decided they could decide themselves. :) I hope you have fun with the tape recorder, there should be a lot there. I think that I might send my memory card home from my camera so you can see the videos. I’m a little scared because if it gets lost I will be really sad, but I want you all to see them!

So Conference...was it always that short?!?! It just came and went so fast! I loved every single second of it! The weekend was just wonderful! Friday was service, then Saturday was conference, then in between we had some studies and some lunch, then because our area is around the church, between the afternoon session and priesthood, everyone contacted in our area. It was great! Then after priesthood we went to the mission office (usually it would be the home but it was still in ruins) for ice cream! Then Sunday was relaxing and we watched conference and some members made some SUPER yummy food for in between while we watched something that was on in between, then the afternoon session. I literally wish I could just listen to them every day. I couldn't be more happy about this weekend. I was just a sponge! I can't even tell you my favorite part but I DID love Elder Evan's talk and I love whoever used “We are all Enlisted” in their talk. SO GREAT!

Yes-the sweet bread was for you guys! Silly mom!

It is hard to explain the service project we did in Weslaco. You will just have to see pictures. :) I will tell the Trayner's later to put them up. And they go home about three months after I do. I am still undecided as to what to do about coming home, but I will figure it out. :) I want to maybe come back for my day of birth? Thoughts? I know I still have a long time to decide. :)

Crazy thing is that on April 12th, I will have been gone for 6 months...I don't know how I feel about that. CRAZY!!!

I Love you all!!!

Kate