I Finally Went to the Wall

October 29, 2012

After like 15,000 requests, I finally went down to Downtown and got myself a picture with the wall. Even the other missionaries are jealous of how cool it is. I promise that it will be coming soon. If I wasn't such a technologically deficient missionary, I would have already figured out how to send it home, but alas, I have not. I sincerely apologize and I promise it will be there shortly! Along with another fun surprise! But I will explain that story after you get it. :)

So, this week was a good week I would say. We have been working REALLY hard. We have come to the mentality that we must do crazy things to expect crazy miracles. So bring on the crazy, right?

So we had a breakthrough with my favorite little permigator last night. He is having a refresher interview tonight and then will be getting baptized later on this week. We are taking him to the font tonight too so hopefully he can envision it more. We are excited. Things are looking good.

Apparently, I am also "the most elderly-like sister" that some of the elders have ever met. Yes, that is a direct quotation. I asked them why and they said it is because I am SUPER bold and can take a jacking. I don't know if getting jacked is a missionary thing because everyone says it down here. It means when you get in trouble basically. I guess. Not entirely sure. But moral of the story, apparently I am a pretty tough missionary. Who would have thought?

I can't believe it has already snowed there! This weekend it got down to the 60s and I was wearing my coat. HA! Everyone said Sister Giles, Aren't you from Utah? I HAVE BEEN OUT OF UTAH FOR A YEAR PEOPLE! THIS IS COLD FOR TEXAS! But today it was back up to a wonderful 75 or 80 and then after today, back up to 90s! woo.....hoo..... :) You know you are in Texas when you are contacting someone and you can feel sweat drip down your back. Mind you, this is on October 24th and at 8:30 at night. I LOVE TEXAS!

Being in the mission is really awesome right now. I love being out in the field and being able to work with the people. I think that when I get home, I might run away and live with the sisters in WX before I get released. :) Sound like a plan? I think so. But really, I have learned so much! I love knowing my scriptures. I love listening to people's problems and knowing exactly where their answer is in the scriptures. Who am I to give them my opinion when the scriptures, the word of GOD, can say it much better. Wow. How powerful a tool we have! Anyone who hasn't read their scriptures lately, DO IT!

The seminary teacher for the Spanish ward is in our area and we have been talking about the New Testament a bit as she asks us questions for her lessons and I am just amazed with the life of Jesus Christ and what he did. Things make much more sense out here on the mission and I think it is because our minds aren't clouded with worldly things that don't matter. Sure there are still things about home and I think about them from time to time, but the things that don't matter, are just that: they don't matter. What a wonderful concept to think of. I love being able to apply everything I am learning to my life too. Wow. SO neat!

Well, I have to go again. It is a late email I know. You wanted the picture so you get a late email. :) I love you all and I promise you that if you will align your lives with the will of the Lord, he will take you places you would never imagine. Coming from a sister missionary in BROWNSVILLE, Texas, that should mean something. LOVE YOU!

Hermana Giles

Back in McAllen For the Day!!

October 22, 2012

Yes mother, I have found the local Chick-Fil-A. :) It's not hard to find because it is in our area. AND unlike Utah, we have Chick-Fil-A’s all over the place down here. It makes us happy.

This week was a good week. We had to take care of some stuff so we are actually in McAllen right now. It is interesting being in my old area, but awesome at the same time. I am happy to say though that I am being very obedient and not even considering stopping by people's houses. :)

Happy to hear Dave is having fun with his airplanes. Get it in while you can Dave! It is interesting how coming out on a mission, you don't miss that stuff initially, then you hit awhile in your mission and you start to remember that one time you actually stayed up past 10:30 and you actually used to just sit. It is odd to think that there was ever a time where those things occurred! Who does that?

I don't think President has a set time for me to call Dave, but it will probably be sometime in December. We'll see. It will be different though than the Christmas call. My call to Dave will be about 10 minutes to just say bye and good luck. Then Christmas we can actually talk. Well, as much talking as one can do in 30-40 minutes.

Yes mother, I am being safe with my bicycle.

We have to take in our car to get fixed today too. Our car was an Elders’ car about a month ago and during transfers, they broke the speakers so now when we listen to music, our car sounds as if it is underwater. It was funny for 5.8 seconds, then it wasn't. So we have to take it into the dealership on our way back. Should be fun! Good thing it is still under warranty!

Nice job Annie! Way to be! I wish I could be cool like you! P.S. I decided a few days ago that when I get back, I will help you with your lawns. I still have forever away so who knows, I could still come to my senses and change my mind. :)

But family, you are all lovely! I recorded some of us missionaries playing Nerts last p-day. It was HYSTERICAL because we kept forgetting the recorder was on. It's a good hour long. :) I hope you can all understand it. And so you know, we really do love each other, even though it sounds like we are fighting the whole time. :)  Basically, we are like a big family that just yells over the top of the other people.

Notes for people:

Katie: I can't look at your blog so I need pictures! Lots and lots of pictures! And yes, I enjoy spicy foods now!

Audrey, Sami, Heather: WRITE ME! What does a girl gotta do to hear from you!

All others: You are still wonderful and should write me too.

I love you all and I will talk to you all next week!

Kate

P.S. Yes I got my Spanish mini Preach My Gospel. It is amazing! I have 6 now! :) And thanks for checking my computer!

P.P.S. Send me pictures of snow so I can pretend like it is actually the holiday season!

Call the Fire Department

October 15, 2012

Okay-here are enough photos to satisfy your desires. I will work on sending you the rest. I think I will buy a flash drive and just put them all on the flash drive or something. I don't know. But Sister Greenman has this cool thing where you can put your memory card into this little USB thing and it is just neat. SO I'm going to look for one of those. Then I can send you pictures every week. Look for one too for Dave. Makes things WAY easier!

Yes I got the recorder. At interviews too! :) Sister Trayner was happy that I was getting fruit from home. :) We just recorded on the way here and will probably record at zone activity today. Look forward to fun!

Sometimes it is hard to think of what to write because the weeks just come and go so fast. I feel like I just wrote ya'll yesterday. So let me try and think of what has happened in the last week. :)

That was a long space to represent me thinking. We have just been working really hard this week. We have found some really neat potentials and we plan on baptizing all of them. I set a personal goal of how many people I am going to help on the road to baptism this year this morning and I plan on reaching it. I had a few experiences yesterday that have kind of gotten a little fire of faith started that will soon turn into a bonfire which in due course will light up Texas. Dad, call the fire department. SEND DOWN THE AIRPLANES WITH THE NEAT RED STUFF! :) You know how I get when I put my mind to something. That, added to people telling me I can't do something and o man! I am getting riled (and the consensus of the missionaries here is the above.) up just thinking about it! When we trust in the Lord and put our minds to it, doing EVERYTHING we can, NOTHING can stop us. Just like President Monson said in his opening talk of the conference in May, Nothing can stop the hand of the Lord. So my faults, mistakes, and errors will not stop the work. NO MATTER WHAT! How reassuring no? :)

Now that I am done ranting....

This week we found another member family. Not in our area because we weren't working in our area, but we just found them as a referral from a door contact. She had just had a really cool missionary experience so it was really cool! It shows that God puts us where He needs us, even when that isn't exactly in our area. :) But to be fair, we thought it was our area. :) Jury's still out on that one.

Well...I love you all. I'm sorry this email stinks.

Kate

P.S. My pictures I am experimenting with are me and SIster V, me and the Bradshaws, me and the Wilson's, and me and Sister Ramirez at the zoo. Hope you get them!

And yay for BYU and WX.

Super Bowl

October 8, 2012

So I remember hearing from missionaries that General Conference is like the Super Bowl for missionaries, and I totally get it now. I LOVE CONFERENCE! Every single talk really just was the best thing ever! Elder Holland's talk was my favorite and I just loved everything about it. I stopped taking notes because I just wanted to listen. SO powerful! I wish I could watch it again but alas, I will just have to wait until next month to get it in an Ensign. Speaking of Ensign, can you send it to me when it comes out? We get one per companionship and that will just not work because I will be MARKING IT UP! And to be even more demanding...can you take it to Kinko’s and put a clear plastic cover on the front and back and spiral bind it? HAHA. I know I know I am so high maintenance. I am going to do it to my other ones today because I use them so much that the pages are starting to fall out. :) Oops. I just love them!

The weather dropped down here this week too. I am actually wearing a jacket today, which is WONDERFUL! It made me feel right at home again! I can't wait for that to be a regular occurrence. But now I am in the library with Texans who don't understand cold so they are BLASTING the heater. Ah well, it's just cozy.

We have interviews with President this week so I will ask him about when I can talk to David. That will be fun. I can't believe that my little brother is going on a mission so soon!

That announcement about missionaries was probably funnier here than it was there. We were watching it at the chapel and no one goes to the Saturday morning session so it was all 26 missionaries and then a few other random members but we all just went into shock about the announcement. It was actually quite funny. Everyone just kept saying no....no way.... Oh man. I think this will be interesting. I think it will make a huge influx of Elders soon but then it might die down because most of them would have been going anyways. I think this will make the number of Sisters going go WAY up. Very cool! We went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch as a district between sessions so I missed the Elder Holland press conference, but I heard he answered a bunch of questions about it. We were talking and decided it is interesting because in our lifetimes, we haven't ever seen something like this: a major change in the church. Very cool to be on a mission when that was announced. The thing that gets me now is that David's friends that are girls can go out now too!

This week, the work has been going well! We have just been working, working, working! I wish I had more to say but when we just work, work, work all the time, our stories become the same. :) O new one yesterday: found a dead cat. Totally had just gotten hit by a car and its eye popped out. SUPER gross! That is pretty much it. :)

Well, I love you all! We have to go to the store now to buy jalapenos. A member is teaching us how to make something yummy. P.S. In case you were wondering, yes, como comida picosa!

LOVE YOU!

Kate    

Pictures from the latest Zone Conference

This is the Brownsville Zone at Zone Conference

September, 2012

Kate's companion is Sister Ramirez

Can you believe a shorter missionary than Kate?

They are working hard and well together!

Kate and Sister Traynor

Sister Traynor typed in the newsletter:

"We didn't plan this... but I think she has great taste!"

Teamwork!

October 1, 2012

Yes mother, I did get to see the Relief Society broadcast! Amazing right! We missed the first talk though because we were at a lesson, then the satellite at the church wasn't working so like 12 of us huddled around an iPad. I took a picture because it was really funny. But then the men fixed it so we watched from there in the chapel. Talk about amazing! I LOVED President Eyring's talk about teamwork. It is so cool to remember that the church is set up in teams so that when people get frustrated or tired, other people can help. I loved that he said that and I think that every woman in the church needed to hear that we don't need to run faster than we can. Very cool!

We got to see this principle in action yesterday as we had a wonderful baptism! We had plans for 4 people. One was our investigator of 4 years, then the boy, then 2 sisters that were taught by the Elders. The morning started off and our permigator came to church but then left and said the baptism was off. Then we were getting ready and one of the sisters said she still had doubts. So then we were helping the sister, other Elders were helping our investigator get ready, then we switched off the sisters to their elders and we finished prepping and it was just awesome to see that all the missionaries really worked together to get the job done. I really appreciated all the help that everyone gave and it is amazing to see that every investigator is part of a network of 26 missionaries that will do basically anything to help them out. :) All in all, our zone exceeded our goal this month by 2 baptisms so I would deem it a success. :)

Sister R has been out in the field for 12 weeks tomorrow! I'm officially out of training mode again! Yay! She started in Los Encinos which was the other sisters area in Mission who lived with us. She is SUPER short so we have fun. She's great.

Yes mom, I am using bug spray with DEET. Sister Trayner sends out reminders frequently to tell us to use it. I'm actually buying more today. :) So no, I will not be coming home with West Nile, although it would be neat.

No, we are not going to the lighthouse today. I wish! But I am staying here another transfer, so I WILL go again. I also plan on going and buying a Mexican dress. AND taking a picture for you of "the wall." Today we are knocking off another bucket list item by going to the zoo! I'm pretty excited! I am currently wearing my safari outfit which makes everything more festive! I will be sure to take tons of pictures. Speaking of pictures, I literally wake up every Monday thinking, "today, I will send home pictures," but then we get going and then we always have a zone activity, so I never have time. But I am happier because we play soccer and volleyball or go somewhere so my mood elevates which really is just better for everyone right? I promise though, a box will be coming soon! 

One of our members is coming up to Utah for conference. I gave her all your numbers so hopefully she will call you. She and her Mom have never been up to Utah before and basically have no plans. She gets there on Friday afternoon. I told her that everyone there is nice and she will be fine. :) Help her out okay? I can trust ya! 

Well I have to go now. We have to go get everything done so we can go to THE ZOO!!!!!

Also mom, do we still have that Mormon mad gab type game. Can I have it? :)

Your favorite Sister de la frontera

Hermana G