Welcoming Sister VanDyke from Kaysville - Companion #4

May 29, 2012

So because yesterday was Memorial Day, you couldn't write, then this morning we had transfers, so we couldn't do it then so we are just getting to it now! 

This morning at transfers I was inside the office and as I was walking out, the Assistants laughed as they were walking towards me and they said, "O man Sister Giles, you have the most energetic, peppy one of the bunch. She is just like you!" HAHA! What a way to start a conversation! But it is very true! I now am the proud mother of Sister VanDyke from Kaysville, Utah! She is so excited to work! We just made a list of things we were always/never going to do here so we could start good habits early on and she is just a spitfire and we have so many goals and we are just ready to work! I think one of the great things is she is ready to do anything if it means she can learn. That makes a WORLD of difference! Not that we won't have our challenges, but I am super excited for the opportunity to train again. I can already feel the success we are going to be rewarded for our A+ efforts! But the blessings always come after the trial of our faith! 

I forgot to tell you transfer news: Sister Ramos went to Corpus to Flowerbluff where she will live on an island. (Jealous!) Sister Bocanegra went to Sinton. (Where they only speak English) And Sister Oomrigar is getting Sister Regis who is the other sister from Bountiful! It should be fun! Sister Regis is still coming in from Brownsville so we have Sister Oomrigar with us for another hour or two. 

My birthday was GREAT! I literally have 3 birthday cakes in the fridge! The Ainsas bought me a cake and some nice perfume after our language study session on Thursday. They are the sweetest and Elder Ainsa has helped me A LOT with my Spanish! The dinner at the Gonzales' was SO FUN! And SUPER yummy! Yes I made death by chocolate and it was a hit! It was the 4 of us Sisters and the 3 Assistants (they were training the new assistant: Elder Duncan, who I went to EFY with about 7 years ago). I love the Assistants. They CRACK me up. Elder Maldonado ALWAYS has a mark of something on his shirt and so when he spilt his death by chocolate, he blamed ME! RUDE! Anyways, it was really nice and they gave me a nice pearl bracelet. It was super sweet! I have pictures I will show you. Then on Sunday after church, we went to the Sanchez house for dinner and cake. Isaac was sick but we had fun! I recorded the kids being SUPER funny so I need to figure out how to send those to you! They had a super yummy fruit cake for me too. O man, I am seriously blessed with the best members in the WORLD! And tonight we are going to the Gutierrez house. They are the best too. O man! I love all of the people here! O, and my other cake was made by Elder Giron and Elder Peterson. They are too funny! They wrote in chocolate chips, "Happy Cump" because they ran out of chocolate chips. Too bad we couldn't read it anyways. :) It was good though! 

Yesterday we had a carneasada (not sure how to spell that) in La Joya and I got BURNT! No fun! But it is fun with the other Elders. Our zone is spread out so we don't get together a ton but I love when we do. They are super funny! Hopefully we will get together this Monday to play soccer. (Elder Covington from Edinburg is going to put something together. Don't worry, Mission will win!) 

Well we have to go because the Roques are here to pick up Sister Oomrigar! LOVE YOU ALL and I will talk to you soon!!! 

Kate

Another Awesome Week

May 21, 2012

Hola! 

So we just got done with an AWESOME companion study with the Assistants. They are so great! I am going to be really sad when Elder Woodman leaves next week! He is from Alpine so maybe I'll make him come up and visit. They called on Wednesday night, (don't remember why) and they could tell I was just a bit tired so they said Sister, let's have a comp study on Monday morning. It was so great - so hopefully, we are on the path upwards!

Yes mother, I will have a good birthday. I promise. Today is Elder Maldonado's birthday so this Saturday we are going to the G_____'s for a yummy birthday dinner (FAJITAS!!!). Elder M wants an ice cream cake so I said okay, we can get that but I am making my own birthday treat. (You know me, gotta have my birthday "death by chocolate") And the S_____'s want to do something too. It is weird because I LOVE birthdays, but this year I just feel like working. Huh, imagine that?

We have had a pretty good week I would say. Mo____ has been to Reynosa often and the hospital (D____ is in the hospital because her twins might come early. D____ is the sister-in-law of M____, niece of Mo____ and C____, not a member, yes, we're on that.) So we haven't been able to have too many appointments but everything is still looking good for the 1st! O wait, I don't think I told you about that! MO____ IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 1ST!!! MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! We had a lesson last Monday night with the Familia L____ and Hermano L____ just laid it all down while we sat there, completely in shock, and then Mo_____ said yup, June 1st. It was AMAZING! I can't even explain! Anyways, I just love that family and one of their sons has a speech problem so he can't talk very well but he can say Hermanas. :) M____ is moving out of the in-laws house down 2 or 3 houses so we went over on Friday and helped her clean.

Tonight we are going over to L____ and the kids house. They didn't come to church yesterday so we’re going to go talk to them about that. We found rocks on our run last week and we are going to paint prayer rocks tonight. We are pretty excited! Then we are having an FHE with the S____'s, L____ (one of our investigators), the other sisters, and their recent converts, then after MO____ TIME! I just love Mo____time because with him we can just tell him what we think. I think being that we have taught him off and on since I got here, I am pretty comfortable with him. :) 

I can't even imagine Annie driving! THAT IS THE CRAZIEST THING EVER! I really just can't believe it! I guess I still have awhile to get use to that idea but I probably still won't accept it. At least I will be there before she starts dating. Or will I? Thoughts about me extending??? ;) ha ha! It is funny because usually when people talk about extending they talk about how they need to talk to their family but Sister Holmes and I said that we have to talk to each other first because we are either both extending or not because we are coming home together! But really, we have awhile to think about it, don't get freaked out. :) 

I can't wait to get my birthday package! I'm sure there is great stuff in there and I appreciate that but really I just want to hear about these letters from the Primary! How cute!!! I'll talk to Sister Mantle today and ask her about the package. We were there this morning and nothing was there. I'll tell her to look out for it and make the assistants take it or something. That way I would get it faster.

Well, I have to get going! We have to go to the store so I can be more than just spiritually fed here and then Sister Ramos wants to go buy shoes. :) I love you all and I hope everything is WONDERFUL! 

Hermana Heelays

P.S. We had one of the BEST days at church yesterday with talks! One person talked about salt and the usage of salt in the scriptures and how salt doesn't contaminate with age, just if we contaminate it with something else. SO GREAT! 

Kate's Zone. This is when she was in a triple companionship.

They worked two areas for a week.

Kate was super excited about this baptism because it was an entire family.

OK, Kate is super excited about every baptism.

How awesome to have a baptism!

With the tornado came the hail.

The hail blew up against the door.

Kate's 3rd companion, Sister Ramos

This is the Book of Mormon in braille. Wow, 6 books!

Otra vez?

May 14, 2012

So I decided to brave the different styles of McAllen, TX and get my hair cut. It is LONG and so it is about time. I got it cut, now I just need to go home and blow-dry it and stuff to see what it really looks like. Nothing too drastic, just a trim.

I can't believe Heather comes home on the 31st! How nuts! Someone better tell her to write me like the second she gets home! But really, she better write me! AND she better be ready to be my companion when I get home because I think I'm going to need someone to back up my car. :) So sad, I was talking to Sister Cortes the other day and she told me that once you are a senior companion, you are always a senior companion. Gone are the days of not driving and being able to count on a senior companion! DANG! :) It's okay I guess. I DO enjoy driving. :) But in all reality, the true senior companion is the Spirit, which every RM out there knows quite well. Without His help, nothing in the work happens.

I talked to the familia yesterday, but for those of you not there (meaning everyone), we had leadership training this week where I found out I am training...again...HAHAHA! I was SHOCKED! Someone asked me if I was and I said I don't think so, I haven't heard anything. They told me they heard that I was so I asked President and he said yup, felicidades! HAHAHA! This whole mission thing cracks me up. ZERO method to the madness. But none the less, I am still in my first area and destined to be here forever, which is okay because it is the best area in the mission. Really.

So tonight we are going to have a lesson with Mo_____. It is going to be about the Restauracion, again. I think that once we can establish that he DOES have a testimony of Joseph Smith, we can really work better with him. We're still praying for a birthday miracle.

In other great news, we just got done with lunch with the S_____’s and they just hired a live-in nanny, so we are going to start teaching her! She said prayers with them last night so they think she is pretty interested! We are excited to meet her!

It is always hard to write an email right after we have just talked because I feel like I already said everything! :) At the same time, being me, I have SO MUCH TO SAY! I love being a missionary. Seriously. Anyone thinking about serving, DO IT! It is the most special and rewarding experience ever! And what is 1 1/2-2 years of your life in the grand scheme of things? O man, I wish I could be a missionary forever. O wait...I CAN BE! Members are super important in the work and I am just barely learning more and more how to use them! I want to challenge all of you to either go out with the missionaries or pray for mission experiences or take your Book of Mormon to work or school and let me know how it goes. I promise you that if you do your part, the Lord WILL put people in your path. We just have to show Him that we are willing to do our part!

Anyways, we have to go to the store now. And mom and dad- I still want that recipe! We're going to make it with the S______'s. AND I got my ring! THANKS!!! It fits perfect so remember that size because it is PERFECT!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL AND I WILL TALK TO YOU SOON!

Kate

I Just Love Being a Missionary

May 7, 2012

Ok, I will send you another carta en espanol. I am excited that you are learning Spanish because when we go down to Mexico, you will be able to speak it! (P.S. We’re going to Mexico during our Texas trip. Just so you know. The bishop’s daughter K____ is taking us.)

So this week has been great! I just love being a missionary! I still get those moments some times when I realize again that I am a missionary. Like today, I was cleaning the sink and I was looking down the drain and thought to myself, I am in South Texas right now, serving a mission. What?!? So crazy! I love this experience more than anything! O man!

So yesterday was Fast Sunday and it was great! President and Sister Trayner were at our first ward. I also just love to see them and just get a big hug from Sister Trayner. They are wonderful. I bore my testimony really simple that God loves that ward and is very pleased and I don't know if it helped anyone but hopefully. In the Spanish ward, there were 4 baby blessings, including little A_____. It was really cute. (I still need to take a picture with him! Sorry!) In our last ward I sat behind the S_____ family because we were talking before and during the whole meeting, I was trying to bribe M____ to bare her testimony. She said she was going to tell Bishop, which she did, and he just laughed. Really hard in fact. I love that ward, haha. So after church we went over to M_____'s for some food because she wanted to take pictures with us because she finally has her camera. So funny. Then we went over to Bishop W____'s house to drop back off his keys and they were having a youth fireside so we stayed and said hello for a sec. We talked to Sister B_____ for a bit because Brother B_____ has been sick. So sad. (By the way, I am sending you pictures today and the picture with me and the 4 blonde boys are the B______ kids. I LOVE THEM!)

During the week we had two youth come out, K____ and M_____, so we went on splits. It was really fun so we have decided to take two youth out with us once a week for splits! It should be really cool! I was with K____ and we just knocked while M_____ and Sister Ramos taught a lesson. I wanted Sister Ramos to take the step of teaching and taking the lead so it was a great experience.

We had splits on Saturday with the sisters in Edinburg (Google Earth THAT dad haha). It was fun. I stayed in our area and worked with Sister Cortes which was fun because I took her spot in Mission East. She knew everything about the area so we didn't waste any time! I learned a lot from her and our contacts were GREAT because I love asking questions about people and she loves to testify so the two of us together were great! I think we'll be companions one day.

O another funny thing at church, I sat by one of the assistant's recent converts and her son who is 3 and he was CRAZY! Something interesting about South Texas is that if you have blue eyes and long eyelashes, you are just mesmerizing. He sat next to me and just kept trying to touch my eyes. I couldn't stop laughing because it was HYSTERICAL. This kid wanted to touch my eyes! He got really close a few times too! O man! Then he kept taking my hand sanitizer. O well, I have 5 more at home.

As far as people go, L_____ hasn’t been to church in awhile because her family has been coming over to build a fence. We went over last night and told her we are coming over on Saturday to help so she can come to church on Sunday. I think her family will still be over so we are going to work on getting them to come too. F_____ has been working so we need to work on getting her back to church. It is SO hard to see them not come for a few weeks! And Mo____, Mo____, Mo____, Mo____.  I say Mo____, JUST GET BAPTIZED! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! Ah well. We are trying to work with them and el obispo to help them get over whatever is holding them back. He wore a suit to church yesterday which was cool because he HATES suits. I chased him down after Sacrament as Sister Ramos is like, "What is going on? I don't get it." I said MO____! You didn't even wear a suit to your wedding, what is up? He said, I don't know, I just felt like it today. So I think he is starting to really get into it. Anyway, time is up but I love you all! I will call on Friday for 2-3 minutes to figure out when it works best for the call this weekend. WEIRD HUH?!?!?!

Kate

Another Opportunity to "Open My Mouth"

April 30, 2012

Hey! Congratulations on being able to see! I love that! I bet that will completely change your life and I can guarantee that Annie will ask for that in about 2.5 weeks. How neat! And FAST!

As far as the ring goes, I have no idea. :) I remember my ring was one of the two sizes, but I don't remember which. My ring that I have is big though so we probably should go with 6.5 to be safe. Why not. :) And remember, not one that is too big, but one that is pretty plain. :) I have realized on my mission that I have become quite plain.

I love that you recommended that talk! I love that one! I need to read it again ASAP to remember all the great words he spoke!

So a talk for you: Elder Henry B Eyring. Let us raise a voice of warning. We had a zone meeting this week and President showed a clip of that talk. SO POWERFUL! It is so great about member missionary work. We are trying to focus more on how to use the members more effectively. I have so many things that I am excited to work on! We also had interviews with the president this week and it was exactly what I needed. I just love him so much!

Yesterday at 2:30 a member in the bishopric said hey Sister Giles, want to speak today? You know me, jump at any opportunity to open my mouth. :) It was one of the craziest sacraments ever but it was fun! I spoke on service and I think it turned out all right.

After church we went over to the S_____'s and I just love them! When we come back after my mission, they want to take us to the island. I_____ said that when I got up to speak he leaned over to M_____ and said you know, when Sister Giles leaves, I am going to bawl my eyes out. He said it was because I was the one that found them - Me and Sister Zamora. It was so great to feel that even though we haven't had a baptism in awhile, we are still having success!

As far as Mother's Day goes, I have no idea when we are going to call. We can call either Saturday or Sunday. I think we might have to make it Saturday or Sunday night because we have church from 11-6 our time. So if we call on Sunday it will probably be like 8 or 9 our time. Or maybe sometime on Saturday. I don't know. We'll figure it out. We have permission on next Friday to call for 2-3 minutes to set it all up but if we can figure it out through email. Great!

I have the recorder and I am going to send it back today along with pictures. Yes I promise you will get pictures! I love you all so much and I will write you guys a letter in the box too! LOVE YOU!!!!!

Kate