Pictures from June Zone Conferences

4 New Sisters....hmm....

July 23, 2012

So apparently in other places around the world they have things called mini missions where 16-18 year old youth go out with the missionaries for a week and do everything with them. We just found out that we are each getting one. That is 4 new sisters in our apartment. They will stay at a member’s house, but come over at 7:15 in the morning and leave after planning at night......We are still up in the air about this one. It will be really cool because we'll get twice the work done, but have 4 sisters to try and figure out stuff with, it will be interesting. Language of faith though, we are PUMPED!

On Wednesday, Elder R____ called us to come switch our car because ours is getting the hail damage fixed and o man. Our new car is special. We call him Pobrecito. He is great and we are grateful but o man, he STRUGGLES. It just makes us laugh all the time from the seats that don't move up so I sit WAY too far back, to the permanent glue smudges ALL OVER that look like mud. Car's got character.

Dad, your letter was FUNNY. I read it last night and was cracking up. Calm yourself. Everything will be okay.

Thanks for the puppets mom! I can't wait to get them! We have a few right now and they work WONDERS with the kids. Seriously. I am amazed. All the other missionaries think we are crazy, but we'll see who’s crazy when they sit next to a crying baby!

This week, the work was AWESOME! We have been able to see more of the fruits of member missionary work! Four of our most promising investigators right now are member referrals. It is so great working with the members! Because of that we have been able to have more lessons with members present too! Our whole zone was on fire this week! In our zone call this morning, they said our numbers are the highest they have been in 3 months! YES!

One of our new investigators is "The Lady." (Yes, I have decided to start giving my investigators and members neat nicknames) She is literally the coolest ever! She called her friend (member) who she hadn't talked to in ten years and said I want to learn about your church. She has come to church for 2 weeks now and she is just awesome! She will make the best member because she has such a strong desire to know the truth. Wow. SO cool! Also, she is a mariachi singer. I would just like to make it known that I will one day become a mariachi singer.

Another new investigator is "The Postman." He is super cool! He feels lost so we are going to help him find his way! He was a referral from a temple president! Super solid! He had a family emergency so he couldn't come to one of our appointments, but we're scheduling something with him tomorrow.

"The Nanny" has been on our radar for awhile. She finally expressed interest this week so we'll have to see where that one goes.

Coming up with nicknames is fun. We also have a group of less-actives, non-members, actives, etc. We'll call them "The Crew." They are so funny but anyways, we are working on getting them all back and are having an FHE with them tonight. The reason why nicknames are applicable to this is because they are going to give us some. Eventually. They have to think about it for awhile though. Most people just call us the church ladies. Or the sisters. Or las hermanas. Funny story, yesterday in church, M___'s daughter started screaming and the whole way out of the chapel was just yelling HERMANAS! HERMANAS! It was so funny. Like she wanted us to save her or something. :) She doesn't know very many words, but we’re happy Hermanas is one of them. You know you go over to a house a lot when their kids that don't talk a lot, know your name. :)

O yes, this is important. Sister V and I bought African moo-moo type things this morning. I'll let you know more about them after we have tried them out. Basically amazing though.

As for more info about the life down here, it is just awesome. I love the valley. Seriously, it is hard to even explain the valley until you come down and see for yourself. It is SO unique. Super not Texas. A place all of its own.

Well, I love you all and I really hope everything goes awesome! I am super excited for ya Dave! You should tell me where you are going and I will email mom and dad where you are going. :) hahaha! And the Armies of Helaman thing! SUPER COOL! I wish I would have seen that in person! O well, there is always the next thing right? ;)

Con mucho amor!

Kate

Hmmm...

July 16, 2012

I am running out of clever names for subjects. Oh well. You get the point.

This week was a nice week. We had some ups and some downs like usual, but AWESOME learning experiences out of it all. On Monday night we went with the S_____'s and the W_____'s to the park and we drew out the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk. This park has a track around it so we were able to go and draw it before the rush of people come to go walking at night. B_____, one of the W_____ boys drew out the San Antonio temple and it was AWESOME! He is so talented! I will send you pictures! Because it was so successful with people coming up and talking to us about it, we are going to do it again, but we are going to use more members, draw more things, and invite more members to invite their friends and family to the park to see it all. We told President and Sister Trayner about it this morning and they want to come too. We're excited for it! Hopefully it will just all turn out perfectly! I will keep you updated on that.

Mom, there are a few things that you could do for me. 1) I have a talk I want but it is on BYUI's website. It's called Dare Great Things by Elaine S Dalton. 2) Call Sister VanDyke's parents and get together for dinner and show them the recorder too. 3) This is going to be weird. Will you look up on IKEA.com and see if they have finger puppets. A member said she got hers there and if they aren't too much, can you send me some? They work WONDERS with the children at church. 4) When Dave gets his call, you should call or text President Trayner and tell him and tell him that he can decide if he wants to tell me or not. I am banking on the fact that because it’s mission related, he might just tell me that night! OJALA! I think that is it as far as things go.

Yes I did get the card! AND THE PUMPKIN BREAD! I opened up the box at the office and I immediately knew what it was! I could smell it and I almost died! SO YUMMY! Sister VanDyke doesn't like pumpkin bread so I get to eat it all! My waist line thanks you!

The Lord is in the details of our lives and He cares so much about us! O man, I love this work!

Wait-I just remembered one more thing. And you might not like it very much. Would you mind looking into what one would have to do to get residency in Texas and looking at the requirements for UT Austin and Texas A&M MBA program? I know I know I know. I'm not saying anything yet. Just looking into one tiny suggestion. Mainly I just want to know what I need to apply and when the deadline is. I think I need to take the GMAT though so I am pretty sure nothing would happen too soon. Don't worry. Bishop B_____ said I could come work for him in the hospital though. That could be cool. Mom! They're trying to get me to stay!

David-I took your graduation picture to church yesterday. I was showing everyone my little brother and telling them that he is putting in his papers soon! SO EXCITING! Everyone thinks I'm just a tad bit crazy, but it works because they think Sister VanDyke is even MORE crazy. She was making faces at the Bishop in the Spanish ward yesterday and he kept laughing, then he would look at me and I would just shake my head and he would laugh harder. O man. The two of us together...Wow...

So I also had a realization this week that when the Lord calls us to speak a language, it isn't just for our missions. He expects us to use that language and continue to perfect it because he will have another use for it later on in our lives. We have to be prepared with the gifts God has given us at all times because He will need to use them and how sad is it when God needs us to use a gift he has given us but because we haven't developed it, He can't. We need God to trust us in all times, things, and places! If we have the trust of God, what more do we need?

Also Dad-don't pick a topic for me for my homecoming, I already have something in the works. I'm not getting trunky, I just have a topic I am studying and it is super in-depth and I can justify it more if I have a reason beside my pure curiosity. :)

Well, I think this might be one of the longest emails I have sent you guys. Sister VanDyke is taking forever so she told me I had to write more. You may thank her later. :) I love you all so much and I can't believe I hit halfway this week! This is officially the last time we will talk about time. I'm super good and handling it as I am counting up but now that it is more of the counting down side, ITS FREAKING ME OUT! AND even worse! People keep talking about marriage. I thought I would be able to handle that more maturely but I have realized screaming and plugging my ears and hiding under tables is not a super mature way to handle it, huh? O well, they deserve it. DON'T TALK TO MISSIONARIES ABOUT MARRIAGE! (GAG)

Love you all!

Kate

P.S. Remember that one week you didn't get my email because I pressed compose instead of send? I just did it again, but this time I realized I did it. CLOSE ONE!

July 9, 2012

How many transfers does it take a Sister Giles to learn something from the Mission East Area. Apparently 6 because I'm staying AGAIN! Last Monday we went to the office to pick up my package and President asked us if we were excited about transfers and we said of course and he said "why, neither one of you are going anywhere..." Ha ha ha. Okay President. We usually find out about transfers the Friday before so he told us the Monday before everyone else finds out. Then he told me I am just staying there my whole mission. Ha Ha...

So I will be here finishing up Sister VanDyke's training. She is a fireball still. You will see in the recording for this week. O man...Nut. We figured it out this week though that if we related our relationship to any other relationship, it would be to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Baby Mama. Of course, I am the Fey in this relationship. It is literally hysterical all the time and the members in the ward are starting to catch on to the dynamic of the Giles/VanDyke duo. Obispo V_____ calls us "the companionship super duper." It is so funny. But really, we are working HARD and trying a lot of new ideas. Today for FHE, we are taking the S_____'s and the W_____'s to the park and they are all going to help us draw out the plan of salvation and write mormon.org everywhere. :) M_____ called the park people and they said we can as long as it isn't profanity. So I guess we’re good! :) We have been contacting a lot more at the park and it is actually super fun! We just get to talk to so many people! 

So for the 4th of July, we came home early and made lesson plans...Yup. It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds. We have AWESOME lesson plan binders and we have to bring them to interviews with President this month. Well, not everyone has cool binders like us, but not everyone can be us. At about 9:30 we could see some fireworks from our apartment. That was neat!

So Mo_____ blessed the sacrament yesterday! And I don't know if I told you but he is the Scout Master too!!! HE IS SO COOL! And he is just so happy! His face is just priceless every week at church. And he HATES suits, like legitimately hates them (didn't even wear one to his wedding), but he has been wearing one since his baptism. HE IS SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND L_____ has been to church for 4 weeks in a row! That is so great! Now, she just comes anyway, even if it is without the kids sometimes. She is so wonderful too! 

So basically, missions are amazing. And I really don't ever want mine to end. I am kind of in denial about it because this week I hit the dreaded 9 months. (I think. I refuse to do the actual math.) I love all the people and the members and the missionaries and everything! I am sad to see some of my greatest friends leave this week :( but it will be okay. We will all get together post mission anyways! It is weird now though because life down here has become so much a part of me. The culture (I eat hot things now) the language, the people, the climate, EVERYTHING! And what is even better is that I get to live all of this while talking about the most important thing in my life. How great is it that all day every day, I get to talk about Christ, and the Atonement, and the plan God has for us. Does it get better than this? I think not. 

I will be sending you back the recorder today. We think you and Sister VanDyke's parents should get together and listen to it. I'm sure that would be funny. Plus, you guys would have A LOT to talk about. But be excited, we recorded an FHE with the S______'s. It consisted of them FORCING me to finish a burrito larger than my face, then playing a great game of match the commandments. O man. Be excited! 

Love you all so much and this week, everyone take your Book of Mormon some place you wouldn't normally take it. I promise that someone will ask you about it. HAGA LO!

Con Amor!

Hermana Giles 

Sister Giles the Cow Herder

July 2, 2012

It is truly amazing that God really does put us in the places we need to be to be His representatives, as long as we follow His promptings. Last night, we were a bit discouraged because our plans kept falling through and our numbers for the week weren't the best because we discontinued teaching a bunch of people and we were up in an area trying to contact a family that wasn't home, all in the rain. (More about rain later) SO, we decided we needed to do something else, but both of us felt like we were suppose to leave the area so we walked up to the main road and started contacting. (DAD, FOR YOUR GOOGLE EARTH DESIRES, THIS STREET WAS LARK BETWEEN TAYLOR AND SHARY ROAD)  We contacted the first house which was GORGEOUS! More so because they had the classic southern trees that all the leaves link together so their entire front yard is covered by a blanket of leaves...Ah...SO BEAUTIFUL! Anyways, no one was home. So we went to the next house and they just so happen to have cows in their front yard. Yup, just hangin' out. We knocked on the door and the cow is literally 5 feet away from us. It was so funny. But to no avail, they were not home either. So we knocked the next house and  a man answered and said he is a retired Lutheran minister and wasn't interested but at the same time, a man drove up and said there are cows close to the road that are going to get hit and he asked what color the cows were and it just so happens that the cows were his! He had a stroke recently so he couldn't walk very fast so we got to help him herd his cows back into the field. He was on a four-wheeler so he drove behind them and we stood on the corner so they would turn the right way. The cows charged us which was TERRIFYING but it was okay. They turned and jumped right back over the fence they broke down to get out. Now remember, this was after church so we are still in heels and all made-up and stuff. Funniest sight ever. And then we helped him to get his fence back up so they wouldn't get back out. It was an awesome act of unplanned service and he told us that we were special and had something about us because it has never been that easy to get his cows back. Needless to say, we’re going back this week to teach him.

Another classic: We were contacting near the church on Saturday night when the Assistants called us because they had a baptism and didn't have a piano player. This was about 15 minutes after it was suppose to start so they told us to get there as fast as we could. Our car was at the church so we took off our shoes and booked it. Imagine two sister missionaries running down Dove with our bags, shoes in one hand, Book of Mormon in the other. It could have been a movie. We walked in and Elder Duncan looked at us and just laughed and said, "Four minute mile?" hahaha. O man. La vida de una misionera. 

I wish I had more time because I have some other funny stories for you guys. The elders told me I have a box from you guys in the office so we are going to go get it. Hopefully it has the recorder because then I can just tell you the stories. They would be funnier with my tone of voice anyways. 

I love you all SO MUCH! You are the best family in the world and the only way that you could be any better would be if you CALLED THE VARGAS FAMILY! Like today! Thanks!

Sister Giles

P.S. I bore my testimony in the Spanish ward yesterday without a paper, complete with jokes and stories. Yup. I have arrived.