First Transfer Complete!

Hey, hey!

So, my first transfer is over and I'm staying in Aurora! Which is exciting but a little scary at the same time because I'm companions with Hermana Adams and she's only been out for two transfers - her first transfer was here in Aurora and her second one was in an english speaking area, so basically we each only have 6 weeks of speaking spanish!!

Haha yesterday when the ward member found out that it was Hermana Adams and I staying there were a few of them that came up to us and were like, "if you need anything just call me. You can come over to our house any time you need to." And I'm sure they were thinking, "oh my heck, these poor sisters need all the help they can get..." and it's true! Hahaha :)

Hermana Adams and I dropped Hermana Lopez off at the mission home last night and she is currently on an airplane on her way home to Texas! Soooo crazy.

We all got to go to the temple last Friday for the departure session with President and Sister Ely. It was nice to go to the temple again! I got used to going every week in the MTC. It's a really pretty temple.

I really wish I could somehow convey people's voices over email because there are some stories that would be so much funnier if you could hear the people saying them! I will tell you this story and hope that it's still funny even though you can't hear the lady's voice :)

So the Relief Society president in our ward is this crazy old lady who speaks pretty good english but she has a super heavy accent. She's a nanny for the bishops kids who are CRAZY! I feel bad for her that she has to watch them because they're just wild little children.

So the other week were eating at her house and she was talking to us in english and she was talkin about how crazy the kids were being the day before and she said "sometimes I just have to threathen them that I'll do things I really never would do just so they'll listen to me! Like yesterday it was time for their nap and Yesenia and Kimberly were jumping on the their beds and I said, 'if you two don't stop jumping and go to sleep I'm going to go get the dog leash, tie you up in the closet and shut the door!'

And Kimberly real quick laid down and went to sleep, but Yesenia, oh Yesenia, she just wouldn't stop! So I grabbed her and put her in the closet and said, 'you stay right here! I'm going to get the dog leash!' and she looked up at me terrified and said, 'no! Hermana, I'll go to sleep! I promise!' so I said, 'you better!'"

Hahaha we were laughing SO hard when she was telling us this story! She's the craziest old lady! She said she has to tell the bishop that his daughters will tell him stuff she almost did to them, but not to worry about it because she never will, she just had to threaten them! Haha :)

So we've got two baptisms set for July 2nd, Cesar and Nancy, and one on the July 9th - my personal favorite, Genesis! The other day one of the elders asked me who my favorite investigator was and before I could answer Hermana Lopez was like, "I know - Genesis!" Haha she's just so cute :) She's such a good kid and she just wants so badly to be even better! She came to church yesterday too! She says she really likes it :)

The missionaries actually started teaching her mom before her and her mom has to work every sunday and Gensis is just so sad that her mom's not able to go to church. And I was about to drop her mom as an investigator because she just seems to lack motivation to change, she likes hearing our message and participating, but she just doesn't do stuff like read and pray unless we're there. But I'm hoping that seeing her daughter get baptized will give her the motivation she needs.

Well, this is kind of a boring letter, but not a whole ton happened this week!

I love you all very, very much :)

-Kelsey

First Transfer Complete!

Hey, hey!

So, my first transfer is over and I'm staying in Aurora! Which is exciting but a little scary at the same time because I'm companions with Hermana Adams and she's only been out for two transfers - her first transfer was here in Aurora and her second one was in an english speaking area, so basically we each only have 6 weeks of speaking spanish!!

Haha yesterday when the ward member found out that it was Hermana Adams and I staying there were a few of them that came up to us and were like, "if you need anything just call me. You can come over to our house any time you need to." And I'm sure they were thinking, "oh my heck, these poor sisters need all the help they can get..." and it's true! Hahaha :)

Hermana Adams and I dropped Hermana Lopez off at the mission home last night and she is currently on an airplane on her way home to Texas! Soooo crazy.

We all got to go to the temple last Friday for the departure session with President and Sister Ely. It was nice to go to the temple again! I got used to going every week in the MTC. It's a really pretty temple.

I really wish I could somehow convey people's voices over email because there are some stories that would be so much funnier if you could hear the people saying them! I will tell you this story and hope that it's still funny even though you can't hear the lady's voice :)

So the Relief Society president in our ward is this crazy old lady who speaks pretty good english but she has a super heavy accent. She's a nanny for the bishops kids who are CRAZY! I feel bad for her that she has to watch them because they're just wild little children.

So the other week were eating at her house and she was talking to us in english and she was talkin about how crazy the kids were being the day before and she said "sometimes I just have to threathen them that I'll do things I really never would do just so they'll listen to me! Like yesterday it was time for their nap and Yesenia and Kimberly were jumping on the their beds and I said, 'if you two don't stop jumping and go to sleep I'm going to go get the dog leash, tie you up in the closet and shut the door!'

And Kimberly real quick laid down and went to sleep, but Yesenia, oh Yesenia, she just wouldn't stop! So I grabbed her and put her in the closet and said, 'you stay right here! I'm going to get the dog leash!' and she looked up at me terrified and said, 'no! Hermana, I'll go to sleep! I promise!' so I said, 'you better!'"

Hahaha we were laughing SO hard when she was telling us this story! She's the craziest old lady! She said she has to tell the bishop that his daughters will tell him stuff she almost did to them, but not to worry about it because she never will, she just had to threaten them! Haha :)

So we've got two baptisms set for July 2nd, Cesar and Nancy, and one on the July 9th - my personal favorite, Genesis! The other day one of the elders asked me who my favorite investigator was and before I could answer Hermana Lopez was like, "I know - Genesis!" Haha she's just so cute :) She's such a good kid and she just wants so badly to be even better! She came to church yesterday too! She says she really likes it :)

The missionaries actually started teaching her mom before her and her mom has to work every sunday and Gensis is just so sad that her mom's not able to go to church. And I was about to drop her mom as an investigator because she just seems to lack motivation to change, she likes hearing our message and participating, but she just doesn't do stuff like read and pray unless we're there. But I'm hoping that seeing her daughter get baptized will give her the motivation she needs.

Well, this is kind of a boring letter, but not a whole ton happened this week!

I love you all very, very much :)

-Kelsey

Hey Hey!

So, there is this family, the Bailon family, who I loooove! There two daughters who are 18 and 14 are some of my FAVORITE people out here :) But the parents have been converts for like a year and a half I think, the 14 year old has been a member for about a year and the 18 year old just got baptized in January! So they are all fairly recent converts (there's 2 daughters under the age of 8 and one 16 year old boy who is taking the lessons currently) and they're really strong in the church and a couple weeks ago we found out they were getting sealed in the temple! We were so excited for them!! Then two days later Hna. Bailon was crying at church and said that the sealing was off because she felt like she didn't know enough and was kind of freaking out. She didn't straight up say she was freaking out, but I could tell.

Then on Tuesday at Institute we found out it was back on! We were happy again! Then on Thursday we went over to their house and everyone was super awkward and quiet and looked down and Hna Bailon was avoiding us at all costs. So I asked Carmen, the 14 year old, if they were going to the stake activity the on Saturday and she was like, "no. My mom doesn't want to go. She doesn't want to go to church anymore and she doesn't want to talk to anyone. She's not even talking to us anymore." I was like, "what?!" So we left and told the girls that if they needed anything to call us.

So we prayed for them, A LOT, those next couple days and on Saturday we saw them pull up the stake activity and we were SOOO excited! Hna. Bailon even brought a lady she had just met a couple days ago who did her daughters nails and the lady was interested in the church. She even brought the lady to church the next day. So a few days after church, I guess like a week ago, we went over because they had questions about the sealing and temple and stuff and Hna. Bailon said that the last week she was having a really hard time with everything and so she just decided to call the sealing off. She didn't want to go to church, she didn't want to talk to any members, she didn't want anything to do with the church. 

Then she took her daughter to get her nails done and the lady started asking her questions about the church and she said she REALLY didn't want to answer the lady's quesionts, but then she said, "I realized it would so selfish and ungrateful of me to NOT share this message with other people. I thought about all the blessings it's brought me in my life and how wrong it is to not let other people know about it."

This story just makes me laugh because Hna. Bailon was dead set on not getting sealed or talking to anyone in the ward, or even her own kids for that matter, but Heavenly Father knew EXACTLY what she needed, she needed someone to ask her about it so she could realize how blessed she's been to have this in her life and how amazing this gospel is. It just reiterated just how much Heavenly Father knows is individually and he knows perfectly well what we need in our lives.

So, the sealing is back on (this Saturday and we get to go!) and everything is seemingly great. I'm super excited to go to their sealing - it's going to be awesome!

Ok, I know I wrote about Genesis the 15 yeard old girl last week, but I will probably write about her every single week because I just LOVE this girl! So, on Tuesday we left her a For the Strenght of the Youth booklet and on Saturday we stopped by to see if she could go to church on Sunday so we could have the Bailons pick her up and we ended up teaching her a lesson, but before we started the lesson lesson I asked her if she had read some of the booklet and if she had any questions about it. She said, "Yeah, I read it-" And at this point I cut her off and said, "you read the whole thing?!" And she was like, "yeah!" So I said, "que bueno!!" Haha :) But then she continued and was like, "I read it, but I felt sad (and I thought, oh crap, what is she going to say? Does she not want to be baptized anymore??) because it says not to have tattoos and I do." And then I just wanted to laugh because she's so stinkin' cute! Then she was saying how much she regrets it and how she wishes she hadn't done it because people judge you buy your outward appearance. So I told her that it doesn't matter who she was (which I HIGHLY doubt she was ever a horrible kid because she's just so good!) in the past, it only matters how she acts now and that it doesn't matter what other people think.

She also has a tiny little nose ring and she said something about it saying that in the pamphlet too. So we taught about the Word of Wisdom and invited her to keep it and I know she totally will because she's amazing like that. SO, she FINALLY was able to come to church yesterday and we had the Bailons pick her up and at the beginning of church I could tell she was quite uncomfortable, which is totally understandable, but she seemed to get along with Carmen quite well (which I'm glad because Carmen could be a real brat if she wanted to :) ) and she met  a lot of the other girls and after church she seemed a lot more comfortable and said she really liked it! Oh! She also took her nose ring out which made me smile :)

There happened to be a baptism after church so she stayed for that too and she thought it was pretty cool! I asked her what she thought of everything and if it was weird and she just smiled and said, "it was a little weird, but I really liked it! I just wish my mom would come." And I asked her if the girls were nice to her and she said yeah! I asked Carmen what she thought of her and she's like, "she's cool! We were like.... laughing." Hahaha :)

Those are the two main stories of the week. It's kind of been a slow-ish week. Well, not slow but uneventful I guess. Some stories I would tell but I think they're only funny if you actually know the people, just because of their personalities and they way they talk. I wish I could somehow portray that over email :) 

Oh! I  guess this was quite the event - we are now a trio! Meaning there's three of us instead of two of us :) Last Wednesday we got a call from our mission pres. and he was like, "hey, do you guys have room for one more person?" so we said, "um, yeah." When really there's not any room, but we decided we'd be nice and make room :) But her name is Hermana Adams and her companion went back home to Kentucky for some reason so she joined our little companionship. But, here's the scary part... She came out one transfer before me (I actually met her in the MTC!), so 6 weeks before me, and Pres. said Hna Adams and I would probably stay here next transfer, which is SUPER exciting because that's what I wanted, but horribly horrifying because neither of us really even know Spanish!! It'll be tough if it really does happen but it'll be the best way to learn Spanish. I'm just worried I won't be able to teach people and fail miserably... haha :) But, I guess that's what relying on the Spirit is for :)

Well, I guess that is pretty much all for the week... I will write again next week and hopefully have some more interesting things to say :)

I loooooooove you all :)

-Kelsey

Hello everyone!

Let me tell you what, it's been quite a challenge getting to this point of writing my email... yesterday was Memorial Day so all the libraries were closed, so we were told we could come today. First we tried to go to the library super close to it, it's closed on Tuesday. Then we tried to go to another one about 10 minutes away, it doesn't open until 12. Then we went to this other library that GPS told us to go to, it was not there anymore. So, I'm FINALLY here :)

So.... where to start? Well, I've learned a new phrase from Kentucky that is quite weird: Burnt-slap up. It means hot. Like if you're outside and you get hot you say, "man, I'm burnt-slap up!" Weird, I know, but I guess that's the way it is. There's this Sister from Kentucky here and she said that and I was like, "what the crap does that mean?!" It's so funny to meet all these different people and hear the different phrases they use in their hometowns :)

Something they don't warn us about before coming and teaching Hispanics is that they talk FOREVER! Sometimes we have an hour lesson and only teach for like 15 minutes because they talk, and talk, and talk! We can't just stop by when we have an extra 10 minutes because we know we'll be there for at LEAST 45 minutes. It's ridiculous! I guess it's good in a way because than we really get to know them and understand what they're needs are. But sometimes I'm like, "seriously? How are you even able to talk this much?"

Remember Tony? Well, he came to church AGAIN! We were SO happy! It's pretty rare to have investigators come to church twice in a row, but ESPECIALLY when you've only taught them one lesson! We've tried to get in to see him again but twice we've gone and he hasn't been there because he's forgotten. So, we need to start calling him the night before to remind him. That happens soooo frequently, people are either forgetting their appointments and they're purposely gone when our appointment is - sometimes I can't figure out which one :) With Tony though I think he just genuinely forgets!

After church I asked him what he learned in class and he said "I learned there's more to the 10 commandments than I thought there was! Like with adultery  you don't have to actually be commited it, just looking at a girl and wanting to is a sin. When I heard that I was like, 'oh shoot!!'" Hahaha I laughed so hard :) But he seemed a lot more comfortable this week and he seemed a lot happier too! I'm so excited to teach him (if we can ever get in to see him!)

This last week I met the daughter of one of the investigators who's 15, her name is Genesis, and she's been taught a couple times before, been given a Book of Mormon, but she has been gone like the last 5 weeks the missionaries have gone over. So, she was finally there today and she is so stinkin' cute! And she asks really good questions so we know she's really listening and thinking about the stuff we're teaching her, like we were reading in 1 Nephi somewhere and she asked "so, what happens to people like in North Korea who don't have the opportunity to hear about this stuff on the earth?". She just seems super ready to accept the gospel so I'm excited to teach her too!

At the end of our lesson with her and her mom we invited them to pray about what we had talked about that day and she said, "last time I prayed I just felt so peaceful and so calm. I don't know why!" And both Hermana Lopez and I just started smiling because we were so excited that she had felt the Spirit! So we told her that is was the Spirit and she just smiled. But, she's way stinkin' cute and I can just tell she's a really good person.

So the Elders had a baptism on Saturday of this cute old lady who's 70-something years old! She was really excited and said she felt really peaceful and calm, and then she didn't show up on Sunday to get the gift of the Holy Ghost! I felt so bad for the Elders, they were super bummed because they were worried on Friday she was going to bail on them. They tried calling her but she didn't answer, so I hope she didn't freak out and that she'll come to church next week!

There's 6 missionaries in our ward here and we all had kind of a crappy week! Tons of our appointments cancelled, a lot of our investigators didn't come to church, etc. etc. But, this week will be better! By the way, if any of you are asked to go out with the missionaries and you tell them you'll go, please go! It's uber frustrating when we can't go teach a single man because we had set up with a priesthood holder to come and then they bail on us. It's funny the things you think about once you're a missionary that you never had thought too big of a deal of before :)

Everything is going quite good here -- especially the food! It's SO delicious! The Elders told me I had to try this soup and it's got cow stomach, corn and something else in it, so I did and they were all shocked I actually did it! It really didn't taste bad, but the texture of it was quite nasty! It gives me the chills a little bit to think of it :)

Hahaha last night we had dinner with La Familia Pizarro and their little 3 year old granddaughter was there and her brother who's like 10 came in and was like, "who drank all the orange soda?" And his grandma (the one that was feeding us) says, "it wasn't me or grandpa because we only drink diet." So the boy just jokingly looks and the dog and says, "she probably drank it!" And the little first says, "don't look at her! She didn't drink it! She's a girl -- she drinks diet!!" Hahaha we all laughed so hard! She's only 3 and she's already got that whole idea about girls needs to drink diet soda!

I'm slowly, very very slowly, starting to understand a little bit more Spanish than when I first got here. I don't get too frustrated unless I study Indirect and Direct object pronouns because I never understand that and I get frustrated when people talk to me and just expect me to understand them and get irritated when I don't because they know I've only been here for three weeks! But I love when people are surprised to find out that I've only been here for three weeks because they say I speak Spanish pretty well -- that always makes me happy :)

This ward has really been trying to help get the members involved in doing missionary work, like giving the missionaries references, talking to their non-member friends and family about the gospel but people are just so scared to do it (which I don't blame them, I was too before my mission) so tonight Hermana Lopez and I are doing a little lesson about how it's our responsibility to share the gospel with others and then we're going to have them role-play talking to their friends about the church and giving them a Book of Mormon. Hopefully it will help!

It's CRAZY how many people there are that are less-active. I didn't realize how many there were, not just here but all over the world, until coming on my mission. There are SO many people who get baptized and then a month or two later become inactive. It's pretty crazy.

Well, I must get back to the world of missionary work now. I will write next week (hopefully we don't have library problems... haha )

Love you guys :)