March 31, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

Buenas Tardes! Well I have no completed my first week in my new area. Things are going well, but I do miss the good old Alejandro Korn. :) I´ve decided that the Lord wants me to learn how to better adapt to change and for this reason I am transferred every 2 transfers. Haha every area it is right before a baptism as well. I sure am being blessed with the abilitly to adjust to things pretty easily. I have had a week FULL of learning :) 

We are in an area that is completely country. It´s really neat though because it´s a tourist place because it has a Laguna. We go running(if you want to call it running hehe) at the Laguna everyday... BEAUTiful. It makes me want to jump right in. :) I added pictures in dropbox so you can get a little glimpse of it. It gives me a little taste of home because I always think of boating and Lake Powell with the fam! :) 

The people here are super nice. I am already feeling like I´ve known some of them for quite the time. My companion and I both gave talks in Sacrament Meeting yesterday, and all went well. I´m getting a little bit more confident with my Spanish, considering that all I had was an outline. Believe it or not I actually enjoy giving talks... because I always learn a lot more in my studies while I am preparing for it. It´s excellent! I spoke about prophets... ohhh  I LOVE this subject, because I have gained the strongest testimony about a living day prophet. I tied this in with the importance of prayer, because as I was studying I recognized that President Monson always touches on this topic. He has the most incredible testimony of prayer... It was perfect for me to study because it is something that I am trying to improve on. I love conference talks. I CAN´T WAIT FOR CONFERENCE!

This week we shared the story of Naaman and I recognized something that I hadn´t thought much about. As we know in the story of Naman he had to bathe 7 times to be cleaned. We were teaching a menos activo who knows all the principles of the gospel but just will not commit to going to church. As we were teaching it came to my mind the symbolism of 7. If Naman had only bathed 6 times the disease wouldn´t have been cured. It is the same thing with ourselves. We can be perfect in our studies of the scriptures, prayer, but if we do not bathe ourselves on that 7th day we are never going to be completely clean. The sacrament is critical... we MUST partake of it each and every Sunday. As we complete with this ordinance we will start off each and every week clean and energized to make it through the next week. It was quite neat, because with every person we shared this story with... another symbolism came into mind. The scriptures are FILLED with symbols. 

Hahaha so funny story. Last night my tire popped on my bike so we ended up just doing ALB (open the mouth) for the last half hour of the night. This is not my strength in the mission. Haha I am so awkward when I do them... but last night I realized that the experience is what you make it. Haha we had a very interesting story. We started talking with a couple and before we knew it we found out that they had actually just met. In the end of the conversation she said that she doesn´t know this guy, but they should know a bit more in the morning. Ayy ayy ayy you know me. Hahaha I WAS DYING. Just about started laughing right then and there. Haha oh the things we hear on the mission. Haha :)  

Quick story about the food. We went to a members house and we had a steakhouse right then and there. I was thinking of how much Brandon needed to be here in this moment as I ate all this food. First we had a huge chunk of Sausage, then he puts both the chicken thy and wing on my plate... drum roll please... then he slaps down a huge chunk of steak. Lets just say I have no idea how I put down all that CARNE. Haha He´s the cutest little member though. He has an AMAZING conversion story. He used to smoke and drink alll the time... but he left it all for the church and is now enjoying every bit of his experience in the church. 

My companion is good. She has 3 months in the mission, but she is a great teacher. I learned something really important these last few days and that is that there is something good to find in each and every companion. It is so important that we do not compare one companion to the other because they all have their own strengths. I was missing the good bond that Hna. Diaz and I had developed and then once I put this into play everything got better. Things we always good with my new comp but now things are even better. I´m learning plenty of great things in this area. :) 

I was going to share a few other things but the letter is getting a bit long so I am going to close for now. We set somebody on date for the 26th of April. She didn´t come to church, but I have high hopes for her so I´ll keep you posted. I hope all is going excellent for you all. Remember the importance of family scripture study. It is VITAL. Not just personal, but with your spouses as well. As well as family prayer. And FHE! :) Love you all. Have an excellent week! 

March 31, 2014 {Kim}

Hola! Well i dont have much time right now. But this last week has been good. Crazy but good. We've kind of been preparing for transfers. Sister Garn will be leaving tomorrow and i will be running the area and getting a new companion. Not excited. I love Sister Garn and i dont think im ready to lead the area. ahhhhh. well other news for this week. This sister officially has ADD says the doctor. haha.

I gave my 2nd talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. Everyone said my spanish has improved a TON so that was good to hear. well i gotta go.. sorry i dont have much time. but ahhhh transfers. bummed. scared. Love you all so much! Have a fantastic week!

 

Love, Hermana Josse

March 24, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO THE NEW DADDY!!! :) Happy Birthday Brandon!!! Have the best week EVER! I´m sorry to say that I didn´t even ever get a letter off. Yes I did write a quick letter and I was even going to send a package, and then I didn´t get around to either. I was going to send the letter today at transfer meeting, but it ended up being CRAZY! But HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HOPE YOU HAVE AN AMAZING DAY :) PS... are you 30?! WOAHHHHH. 

Wow, this week was full of surprises. First things first I got transferred. I am now in an area called Monte de San Miguel. Wherever that is? It´s in the middle of NOWHERE. It took us 3 hours to get here. My new companion is Hermana Martinez from Columbia and has 3 months in the mission. She seems super nice, and seems to have a ton of energy! Transfers were a bit crazy because I wasn´t expecting to leave... or maybe more than anything I was hoping that I wouldn´t leave. Everything was going so well in Alejandro Korn. I´m going to miss the people so much. They were my family hear in my home away from home, but even I know that the Lord needs me in this new place. It really is amazing what the Lord can do, because you know me, I HATE change but through all the changes I have had I have really been pretty calm. I´m going to miss Hermana Diaz but it´ll be excellent to learn from a new companion.

We had a baptism 2 hours after I arrived. Haha kinda neat eh? :) I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost :) Bienvenidos! We are in a branch that has about 15 active members so it´ll be SUPER different. I´m super excited because I´ll be able to strengthen some of my weaknesses... because we´ll be doing the majority of things here. They LOVE the Hermana that was here before me and she was here for 6 months so I have some BIG shoes to fill. :) Sorry don´t know to much still... but I´ll give you a better update next week.

Hermana Diaz in the end isn´t going to Venezuela. THey took out all foreigners. They gave her a decision of whether she wanted to be reassigned or if she wanted to stay here. Pretty crazy eh? She ended up deciding to stay. She´s seriously so amazing. Along with her family. He dad seriously is going to be some grand leader. He receives revelation of all things. He had basically warned her that this was going to happen by the words that he shared with her on monday. Wow, I learned so much from her... and her family! 

I had a ton of things to share for this week, but for some reason I have forgotten everything. We had an excellent last week. We picked it up a ton, because for some reason we both kinda had a dragging week the week before. I went on exchanges with Hermana Wyeth (friend of McCall the neighbor of SHellie). Oh she is incredible! We had this lesson that was seriously INCREDIBLE. I surely knew this man in the preexistence. He usually doesn´t sit in on the lessons, but this time he did and even more, he participated. We talked about eternal families, and WOW I haven´t had so much desire for a family to be sealed in the temple in quite some time. The spirit was SO STRONG. He´s going to start taking the discussions, I know it. :) We also went out of our little shell and made the goal to do our ALB (Open the Mouth). We met some amazing people :) Aww the miracles that pass in the mission. 

Haha Jose wanted me to take his piano so that I could practice in my mission. Haha and make my mother happy because one day I was telling him how my mom always told me that I would regret this. Haha yep she was right! Haha WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I regret it more than anything else in this world. Haha maybe I´m exaggerating... but I do regret it quite a bit.

Anyway, I can´t believe I´m forgetting everything that went on this week... but I had an excellent week. The transfers are a little bitter sweet. I´m already missing Hna. Diaz. She became like a sister to me really... but that´s ok, I´ll do the same with Hna Martinez. She´s excellent! :) Lopve you all so much! Happy Birthday to all because I know that it is also Uncle John´s and Austin´s birthday or something. HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK :) 

PS Hope you are all looking forward to conference like I am. YIPEE! Christmas is on it´s way!!! LOVE YOU ALL! Have an excellent week!!   

March 18, 2014 {Kim}

Hi. Welllllll.....This week was good! Haha we have contacted some more crazy people this week. I almost burst out laughing in one of our contacts when the guy we were talking to just started going off about Genies, Demons, and angels and how Mary wasnt a virgin. He was so crazy. haha i was dying i had to keep acting like i was coughing cuz i was trying not to laugh. Wow i sound like a terrible person now. So yes...something i am working on is keeping a straight face. Ha. So yes...we have been doing a lot of contacting again this week. We only have one legit investigator still (China - She has a date for the 27th of April which is happening forrrr sure. I love her.) ....Its so hard to find spanish people in our area! I mean there are soooo many hispanics in Jersey but we have the cities that border all the hispanic areas. Ha. Out of 48 people we contacted yesterday 2 were hispanic and they both lived in the city that the elders cover which is mostly all  hispanic. Its super frustrating. We get a lot of referrals for the english sisters that cover our area though. We did actually find a cool dominican guy the other day and he works in a barber shop. So he had us come to his work to teach him. Ha it was so awkward. We just stood in the middle of the shop while he was cutting someones hair. but it was good and hes way cool. We have another appointment with him tomorrow!

We had leadership training this week. its where all the new missionaries get together and have trainings and practice teaching aka role plays after role plays after role plays. (I HATE ROLE PLAYS i feel so dumb in them when i dont know what to say. I was dreadddding Leadership training for weeks. And i freaked the night before because the assistants called me and asked me to give the monthly scripture...which means standing in front of like 60 missionaries and all the senior couples and president and sister jeppson and talking. what. I was so scared. But it was finnnne. and guess what..... I LOVED leadership training! I learned so much. Main thing i learned is confidence and trust are KEY. I already knew that confidence makes a huge difference...but during some of the role plays there were some missionaries that i was teaching with that were so scared and you could just tell they were not confident at all. (Something i realized about myself is that when im put in a position where i have to lead. I can lead) So i stepped up in these role plays and just did it and trusted i would know what to say. and they were so good. I usually sit there while my companion is talking and try to think about what im going to say when she is done talking but i tried my best not to do that and just let the spirit work and it was awesomee! I was more myself and i was super bold. I dont know what happened. Haha. and of course President Jeppson decided to come join one of my role plays and mediate for us. I was like you are kidddding. He is the most intimidating man in the world. But the greatest. I was so nervous but it was a goooood role play because i decided to trust that i would have stuff to say. And i did. wow. I loved Leadership training. We also had to teach the youth class yesterday at church and they are PUNKS. Just the biggest punks. They just have no care in the world and think they are the coolest teenagers. We had a really good lesson though and we got a few of them to really pay attention. I hope we actually have the opportunity to teach them again because my goal is to help all the youth gain testimonies and not be punks haha.

I have to give another talk in sacrament next week...haha scared. talks in english are hard...so yes....talks in spanish are HARD.  At least i got more of a heads up this time. Not like i have much time to prepare anyways though. haha. Well guess what...this is the last week of the transfer. I am panicking. I loveeee sister Garn and she is leaving for sure. She has become one of my best friends. Everything is so fun with her and i am completely myself. geeez i love her. shes such a great person. Im gonna have a hard time with this change. But Itll all beeee good. Im also scared because i will be leading the area. ahhh. But mostly I just dont want my best friend to leave. haha. Well i gottttta go. but i love you all so much! Have a fantastic week!

 

Love, Hermana Josse

March 17, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

Buenas Tardes!!! Sorry, this one is going to be super short. Pday ends in about 25 minutes. Haha but wow, it was so good to hear from all of you! Shout out to Brandon and Whitney because I got novels from both of them :) I almost started crying I was so happy! ;) Wink, but not really. Haha... so now that I have heard that Zeus is doing well I have to tell you. The week that he had this scare I had had a dream that something happened to him. Only in my dream it was worse, I returned from the mission and asked about him and Brandon started tearing  up and ya you get the rest of the story. I never have Lamanite dreams so I wasn´t thinking anything had happened to him, but I guess this time it really did have to do with real life. Scary scary, but glad to hear that all is well. I LOVED the photos that Brandon sent. Ry guy (RZ) is such a little stud. 

Well, as far as this week goes nothing much went on. We had a good start to the week, but struggled towards the end of the week a little bit. We have been keeping up on our goals really well except for this past week, but we´ll pick it back up this week. We did set Daniela on date for the 12 of April. She´ll be confirmed on Dad´s birthday :) She seriously has changed so much already. It is absolutely incredible to see the effect that it is having on both her own life and the life of her family. She is the HAPPIEST girl now. She´s already starting seminary, and excited about it... and she even told the bishop that she´s GOING to be baptized. Last sunday was a huge breakthrough for her. THESE ARE THE BEST STORIES. :)

I laughed when I saw the beginning of mom´s letter. Haha I had completely forgotten. I pinched the Elders and it took them a second but then they just started laughing. Haha I didn´t have time to read all the letters yet because we were doing a deep clean in the house today. I did read the good old traditional St. Patty´s day dinner. Boy am I jealous! :) Eat double for me.  HAPPY ST. PATRICK¨S DAY! 

Heads up, next week is transfers... I don´t think that we´ll be moving... but it is possible so if I don´t email for some reason don´t be worrying. It shouldn´t change anything, but just to be sure.

Haha I laughed at Sara´s humble comment because that´s exactly my problem. I want the forwarded response of Brett.  I´m still working on humbling myself... but it´s a hard attribute to correct. Being too negative affects it but so does being too positive. Wow, Sara seems to be doing absolutely AMAZING. She seems to be a completely different person. I look forward to meeting my new friends when I get home. :) 

Well, I hope all is going well. Sorry that I don´t have much to share this week. It was a bit slow with the work. We had many things fall through, but we´re keeping our heads up high and ready to have a miraculous week this week! Have an amazing week!!!

COn mucho amor,

Hermana Wright

March 11, 2014 {Cara}

LOVE YOUES

Wow! I am just so happy seeing all your letters! It truly made my week! Wow thank you so so much! It means a ton to get a letter from you guys... I never know who to write- ha ha so thankyou! I dont have much time so I just printed the letters, and I'll write you guys back later! I'm sure they are awesome, thankyou and MAHALO for all of them:) I miss you guys! 

Ok. So this week was great. I'm going to be honest. I'm so tired. Spiritually tired, and starting to get physically. Everyday is getting more and more busy. BUT you know what?! It's all because my awesome companion and I make it that way:) I have never, in my entire mission, been so busy. I'm starting to really get this whole missionary work thing down the the T. Haha. Hilo is known for being really slow pace and not many baptisms or much to do/laidback...... but Sister Buckner and I are changing that around! We have been meeting with our Bishop, and got to give him great ideas for the ward (its a very old ward with few - i repeat - very few young families. In fact... I think there is 3 families with kids. Lots of elderly - but aint nothing wrong with that:) So we have this cool missionary activity planned and got the members on board! We have 11 member present lessons this week! Record I've ever had on my mission. Its awesome. We taught allllmost 30 lessons this week! It's worth it though. So worth. I mean it makes so much sense... if you want to work.... you really can! Hilo is no longer going to be known as a slow area:)

Ok sorry for that rant.... We are teaching Lucy Jolet. She is marshalese and speaks very little english. (we have lots of language barriers here- but it doesn't stop the spirit from touching their hearts) She has a baptism date for March 22- RANDOMLY during the lesson she goes- "ok- I have decided. I will be baptized. I love Jesus and I know I am ready." The cute lil white aunty who is a member that we brought with us, jumps up and said, " I love baptisms! I'll make you a cake Lucy!" Then  BOOM- Lucy (big marshalese woman) jumps up and bear hugs this little grandma and says, "Oh Aunty I love you!" and they start talking for like 5 minutes and start PLANNING HER BAPTISM!!! Hahahaha me and Sister Buckners eyes were like wide open, and we looked at each other and hugged and then just started laughing! It was the funniest moment and lesson in my life. We have been trying to get a date for Lucy for 4 weeks.

Except we just found out she's pregnant and a lot- a lot- of things change and just got complicated. Please pray for her.

Then we taught Albert Einstein ll. His name is Arthur Chris Eccel. Oh my goodness- this man writes dictionaries you guys. And speaks 5 languages. He even lived in Jerusalem. He is 70 yrs. old. You cant see any thing on his walls but bookshelfs with books. His house is PACKED full of artifacts and gold and silver given to him by Kings from all around the world. He is sadly Agnostic. Nothings too exciting. I'm just so obsessed with history. Just thought I'd tell you about him. Nothing cool. Just a cool experience. Someone Id never thought I'd meet. 

Ok so Analyn Domingo is next. Well she is 12 and has been going to church for long time. She wants to get baptized. Well for weeks we have been trying to contact her parents. Every single day actually- we stop by her home to see her family. We have been praying every night for her.. and finally...... their neighbor across the street- Brother Sewell invites them to dinner!!! He invited us to come too. So last night we shared an awesome message and the dad agreed to come to church with Analyn. Ahh... Pray for them please! It was a miracle dinner. Super cool too.

Ok well please pray from Darrell and Kirruu and Analyn, Elijah, Mark, Lucy, Grant, Helen. Buck. I wish I could tell y'all all about them and let you know the countless miracles that we see everyday! It's spriitually and physically draining... I remember when unko Randy told us about Joseph Smith passing out because he saw so many angels and ran out of strength. Yeah.. teaching so much is harder then I thought! I fell asleep during a lesson once. Haha.

It was a long day and a very old aunty, with an english barrier.
Sorry gotta go.

Sister Olsen

Just know that I know the church is true and I'm so grateful for you and the knowledge of the Gospel.

February 24, 2014 {Cara}

"He will leave the 99...." 

Ohana-

Wow, sounds like theres a lot... a lot of new and exciting things going on over in Oklahoma! Want to know something? I tell everyone I'm from Oklahoma. Because everyone else is from Utah and Idaho, and I don't get rolled eyes when I say I'm from Oklahoma. Haha so I say it proudly!

Hilo is great. Hilo is wonderful. Hilo is green. Hilo rains every single day. When it gets to 75 degrees we turn our heater on. Hilo is slow paced. Hilo has a lot of locals. Hilo is beautiful. Hilo has the bluest, biggest ocean I've ever seen, and I get to look at it everyday. The missionaries here in Hilo have trucks because you have to go off roading in some areas. Our apartment is a lot smaller then the previous... and its across the street from a Japanese graveyard, and the other sisters apartment, so we see them a lot. Our neighbors blast the radio every morning so I have to plug my ears during studies usually. Temptation. Ah.

 Hilo has big huge whales and dolphins and turtles in the ocean that we get to watch everyday as well. It's illegal to have street lights in Hilo, so night times its suuuuper spooky. Hilo has lots of yummy food. Hilo has lots of hills. The ward in Hilo is small, but super duper close. Everyone is literally like family. It's like the ward I was in, in Maui. Everyone gives everyone a big Aloha hug and kiss and shows SO much love! In Oahu it was a very palangi ward.... so it was awkward transitioning. Funny story- we had tourists from the mainland come into the ward the other day and I go up to greet them... it was probably the most awkward greet of my life. The husband watch me give the most awkward hug and kiss to his wife, and then when I turned to him to say hello- his arm was already stretched far out ready for a hand shake. Lol. I'm warning you when I get home everyones gunna be getting an Aloha hug and kiss!! I'm bringing the Hawaiian love over to Oklahoma;)

I love my new companion, Cara Ann Buckner. Haha tall, skinny, blonde hair blue eyed. She just got done training, so she's only been out a few transfers. I love it! She reminds me of myself when I just finished training. She has that fire and mindset of "everyone is going to be baptized!" She's super positive and strives to be better in every aspect of missionary work! She's awesome.

Ok so you know how a pretty big reason why people join the church is because of the fact that, YOU can be with you OHANA together FOREVER!!?? Yeah- well one of the hardest things/biggest bummers here is- it's Hawaii. Everybody is family. One big ohana. So whenever we say or bring up the fact that theres a way your family can be together forever. We just get confused blank stares and a reply saying," I know. I already know."

Gavin congrats on starting your papers:) I hope that's all going well!! I'm excited to find out where you go! When do you get to turn your papers in? Thanks for the package too mom! Those vitamin C things are great! And pumpkin kisses:)

Alright, well I'm still getting to know the area and people, but we're kinda cleaning things up around here, getting rid of investigators who aren't interested and focusing on those that are progressing. I've definitely turned one of my weakeness into a strength over the months- working smart. One of our investigators name is Mark. He has a ranch FULL of sheep and goats. We help hm twice a week from 7-9 a.m and after wards we give him a lesson. HE LOVES the gospel. Its incredible. His ranch is wonderful, up in the hills- looking down on the ocean and all of Hilo. Dad you would love it! You'd love the sheep too! We feed them, cut their hair, build fences, give them medicine. Lots of service in Hilo!

I'm just going to share with you a story of Mark. One morning when we went to go do service, the sheep were very sick, so we had to give them all medicine very quickly. Well as soon as we arrived Mark and the missionaries (we go with the Zone leaders) run out and gather in all the sheep. As soon as they were all gathered in the shed, Mark walks in and take ONE quick glance at them and says, "Were missing one. Cashmere is gone. We need to find her." and he walks back out in the field calling after Cashmere and looking for her. All of us missionaries looked at each other shocked that he took ONE glance at 60 plus sheep and knew that there was one missing. And he know exactly which one it was- by name! And he knew that the other sheep needed medicine, but he didn't hesitate or second guess, he just went back out to find Cashmere.

So we followed Mark out to find the missing sheep, and then 3 wild pigs were chasing us in the field. Mark was yelling at us to run away from them because they bite. In the meantime, its Hilo- ( so theres spider webs EVERYWHERE) Yeah we're running away from pigs, getting wrapped up in spider webs, trying to find the missing sheep.

Anyway- we found her. Moral of the story.

4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine ^ain the wilderness, and go after that which is ^blost, until he find it?

 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

It was amazing. And the pigs, and spiders represent satan I decided. Haha, but really. No matter how lost or far we are, Jesus Christ will find us. He never gives up us. Every single one of us are important to Him. He knows us by name. He knows where to find us. He will not let us get lost. I'm so grateful for the Atonement, it constantly allows me to repent and get back on the straight path. I'm so grateful for the love from Jesus Christ that is always available. I love opening my scriptures, kneeling in prayer, worshipping in His house and feeling abundant LOVE! Love it.

Ok. Well last thing I want to say is.................... We had 30 lessons this week. It was really cool to have that be Sister Buckners first time having more then 20 lessons. And my first time in a long, long time. Honestly though- it was the toughest week of my life. We are really really trying hard, as representatives of Jesus Christ, to find those lost sheep!!!! They can't hide!:)

Have a wonderful day:)

Read the Book of Mormon.

Pray in gratitude.

Aloha

Sister Olsen