Conf is cominggg

CONFERENCE IS ALMOST HERE!!!

www.lds.org/general-conference/invite-others Spread the word. 

 

We are so excited for the thousands of people that will be here on Temple Square.  I've been prepping by eating at the new Chik-fil-A in the city creek mall across the street.  Free breakfasts all week!  Done.  Sister Castañeda and I got to go to the new mall for our lunch break on opening day.  When we walked into h&m, Beyonce was blowing our ears off so that was swell.  It was nice to come back to the square after being in the great and spacious building. 

 

It was the young women's conference last Saturday so we had a zillion precious young girls come to the Beehive House.  I love taking young groups around probably because I think I'm 12 and I want to make Brigham Young's house interesting to them.  We watched most of the broadcast that night online too.  This just got me even more excited for conference because the words of the prophet are so powerful.  I don't know if it's different for me now because I'm 24/7 Church or because I talk to so many people with so many different concerns but the prophet and the other general authority's words hit me so strong. 

 

Sister Castañeda and I have such a good marriage these days.  It's always the tiny quiet ones that are the most hilarious and I have been fortunate enough to get to know her hilarious side.  She used to always tell me how much I was improving and I didn't really like hearing it because to me that sounded like I started off useless.  But we can both see clearly that we've really learned a lot from each other and also how to be better missionaries in the Beehive House.  To me, the house is boring but the history and faith of the Young family is so interesting so that's what we teach.  We're also getting good at talking to our friends of another faith.  We read D&C 43:15-16 in our district meeting so that will help us know our place on Temple Square better. 

 

I took a fench tour in the Beehive House on Monday.  I realized that my french is probably as good as my piano playing skills... should have practiced more.  The french couple happened to be a former mission president from Tahiti with his wife.  He also said that he's in some quorum of the 70 so I just kept saying, "C'est un plaisir" because that's all I knew how to say. 

 

My two favourite lessons that we taught this week were on the phone and on chat.  On the phone we talked to Drunken Ralph, as I like to call him.  Hopefully he'll be Sober Ralph pretty soon.  He told us that he believes in some kind of higher power whether it's God or little green men on another planet.  He asked us to pray for his mom, his aunt, and his ex-girlfriend who isn't a holy roller and refuses to watch the prayer channel.  We taught a man named James on chat about how our Church stays politically neutral.  Then he told us that he can't stop eating updog and asked if that was a sin.  Nice try James, but I wasn't born yesterday!  My companion still doesn't get it (neither does mom probably).

 

Happy conference weekend! 

LOVE,

Sister Kyle

 

P.S I'm sad I missed the Bullock crew!

Hey Kids

Hey kids,

 

I got to announce for french tours again on Sunday.  I'm starting to get sick of all this fame.  That's a lie. The frenchies were a no show but I got to take 4 people around on an English tour.  One woman from New Brunswick was just in love with our religion.  I think my companion and I each asked her twice if she wanted to learn more from the missionaries in her area and she said she was cool with remaining Catholic.  She just went on and on about a mormon family that she knew 20 years ago and how awesome they were and how good they were at living their faith.  She also said that she wrote a 30 page paper back in the day on mormonism and she just fell in love with our values.  She loves our emphasis on education and on family.  After everything we said, she told us how beautiful our faith is.  Thank you, lady.  Now try it out for yourself.  This woman was a nice change from the angry Christians who judge us so harshly.  Throughout the week we talked to so many people who loved everything we had to share and thanked us for our service so that was nice. 

 

On Saturday my companion and I got chased by a leprachaun.  No joke.  It was a fun that so many people were dressed in green and I commented on one young man's Irish gettup.  Then he wouldn't leave us.  I think he was after his lucky charms but I didn't have them.  He wasn't the most talkative leprechaun but for an hour, he creeped around behind us.  Then it just became a game of cat and mouse.  Obviously I wasn't going to lose so we would go down the escalator and ride up the elevator then run oustide in a missionary fashion.  We might not have been the most effecient missionaries that afternoon but hey, no one's perfect and we're still alive.

 

Last night I answered the mormon.org line and talked to a serial caller.  I didn't know that he had a reputation with the sisters here when I was talking to him.  After probably 30 minutes of exhausting conversation and a growing headache, my zone leader came to my resue and told me to just bare my testimony and get out.  I'm mad that I didn't do that sooner.  This man seemed to genuinely want to understand our beliefs.  He could not grasp the concept on the Godhead.  He was obsessed with the definition of words and speciific titles that it did no one any good.  Especially my brain.  He told me that godhead was an incorrect term because it's not in the scriptures and that Jesus wasn't the Christ until his crucifixion.  He just went on and on about different titles of Christ and claimed that Jospeh Smith changed his belief about who God really is.  I could barely get two words in and he just told me story after story and read passage after passage of scripture.  I plainly told him that we believe in God the Father, His son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost.  And always have.  They are three seperate beings but are united in purpose.  He was not satisfied.  I couldn't belive how hard this man made his life by confusing this simple doctrine.  I was frustrated because I know the gospel makes sense and answers every question but he seemed like he could not be helped.  After the call I found out that he calls in and talks to many sister missionaries about the same thing.  He refuses to believe what we say and is never satisfied so he keeps calling back.  I think it's a chronic call-back disease but now I know to get out sooner. 

 

I love having time on the square to talk to people.  My square time is limited because we're in the HIVE a lot but it makes me appreciate everyone we are able to talk to on the square.  We talked to so many awesome members this week.  I feel like a selfish missionary because sometimes all I do is hear their sweet conversion stories or hear about their trials in life and how they were able to grow from them.  Life is good.

 

Love you all!  Conference is in a week and they're opening the new mall here tomorrow.  Woooooooooooot!

 

-Sister Kateezy Kyle

 

P.S my mission now has a blog: slctemplesquaremission.blogspot.com.  Blame my ex-companion (Sister Elliott) if it's lame.

Je suis Francais

Hey all.  I'll make it quick today.
 
I got passed off to take french tours so I was I had the pleasure of announcing on Sunday after Motab's music and the spoken word.  I was nervous to speak french but wanted the fame.  Luckilly there weren't any french speakers there (or I scared them away with my bad french) so I didn't take any french people on a tour after I announced.  We had transfer conference on Monday morning to find out about all the mission changes.  Nothing changed for me so that's coo.  We watched 17 miracles as a mission on Monday morning.  Go see that movie; it's sooo good.  I've been getting exhausted by Anti-mormon groups lately but that compared to the trials of the pioneers is nothing.  Out filipino was baptized with his daughter on Saturday.  They said that they were experiencing a lot of hard times the week before.  They had to gather bottles to exchange for money so that they could afford to go to Church on Sunday but they did it.  We are teaching a man in Botswana named David.  He was wronged by his old Church and believes that ours has the truth.  He is so full of faith and is saving enough money to be able to meet the missionaries in South Africa.  I've been getting to know a lot of the sisters here more and they are all so incredible.  I can't believe how many of them are out here on their own without the support of their families.  So this makes me feel soo blessed because I know that I have the best support system.  THANK YOU for that!
 
That's it for me; I'll have more to say next week so stay tuned.  
 
Love, Sister K Kyle 

Yo Ho Ho

Yayy for a new fat baby!  Kate eh... I'll claim her even though Kate Middleton is probably the inspiration.

 

This is the last week of the transfer.  It's weird to know that some of my new friends are going home already and they're all in denial about it.  I can't wait till I don't want to go home.  I love this place but I wouldn't mind having the time speed up a tad.  We had a pump up for conference mission meeting this morning.  Apparently missionary work is crazy for the two days of conference.  We won't give any tours and we won't have any appointments over the phone because we want to talk to all of the thousands of people that come for conference.  As missionaries, we'll come to the square a couple hours earlier and leave later.  I'm secretly just excited to see people that I know.  Hopefully, I get a new zone next week so that I won't have to be in the Beehive House for conference. 

 

Sister Castañeda and I had a tour on Monday with 4 men.  I'm not suppose to say tour anymore since we're missionaries and not tour guides.  They are "walking lessons" but that just sounds like these people don't know how to walk.  Anyway, three of these men weren't members of the Church and 1 was.  Basically the one member took all of us on a tour.  I tried to get my two cents in every once in a while but the member was such a motor mouth that it was exhausting.  Of course he was super smart and knowledgeable about the gospel but I realized how important some of the things that I've learned in preach my gospel are.  The guy was trying to prove that the Church is true to his 3 Christian friends.  I've been guilty of this a few times since I've been here but I have come to learn that that's just not how the system works.  The gospel should make sense.  Yes.  But who's the only real teacher?  The man who can answer all the questions?  False.  The spirit is obvi the best teacher.  So it's important to allow time and space for the Spirit to testify to the hearts of the people.  I managed a conversation on the side with one of the non-members.  He was in awe with the capacity of the conference centre and couldn't believe that the members of the Church are so gung-ho about living the gospel and istening to the prophet.  He wanted to know how this is possible.  Is it because of the 2 year missions?  Pshhh please, I told him that I like to think that I was gung-ho before coming on a mission.  I'm just here for a good time.  I basically explained that when you're truly converted, when you know the Book of Mormon is true and that the prophet is a man of God, you want to do all you can to do what's right.  Obviously not all mormons are always gung-ho but that's what's so perfect about general conference. 

 

Yesterday my companion and I did an accoustics demonstartion for a couple in the tabernacle and then they asked us some questions about the temple.  So we brought them to see the small scale model of the temple to help them understand.  The woman was hard of hearing so we had to talk really loudly.  She just kept hammering us with questions and we would answer them as best we could.  My companion and I are working on being in charge of the conversation; it's a work in progress.  This couple wasn't very interested to learn more but since we were talking so loud, we turned around and found two perfect young men waiting to talk to us.  They're very Christian and very well-versed in the Bible and they asked us the questions that were on their mind.  We testified of the plan of salvation and they thought it was interesting.  One of the boys is studying to be a preacher; I told him he'd be a good one because he's so pasionate about what he believes.  In reality, he'd make a perfect missionary but I didn't tell him that.  I have to teach him before he can do that.  They asked us a few questions about certain scriptures in the Bible that seem to contradict our beliefs.  I didn't know how to answer a lot of the questions but I told him that I know the Book of Mormon is true.  I don't even know if I had read those passages in the Bible before while they had them memorized.  Dang.  Clearly someone smarter than me could answer their questions but I am qualified to teach these boys and they were placed in my path so heck, I'm going to teach them.  When all else fails, "I don't know the answer to your question but what I do know is..."  I've never thought about so much doctrine in my life before but I know that what I read in the scriptures is true.  I feel priviledged because I have the fulness of the gospel in my life while these boys are probably better at life than me but they don't yet have all the truth.  We're going to call them on Friday and teach them the restoration.  I'm excited.

 

Every week, after Motab's music and the spoken word, a bunch of sisters stand oustide by the flag pole/temple to announce and invite people to take a tour in whatever language they speak.  So there are about 12ish? sisters that annouce in the language that they speak.  I'm on the list for this Sunday to announce in French.  Wha?  They put me down to announce in french even though I haven't taken a French tour yet.  To be able to take a tour, you have to pass off with your zone leaders.  They will role play a tour with you to make sure you know what you're doing.  The sisters who made the announcing list thought I had already passed off in French and then asked me if there's any way that I could pass off before Sunday.  Also, there is a language coordination meeting for the french speaking sisters on Saturday so it would be best to pass off before then.  Alright, I guess I could try.  I wasn't going to try to pass off until just before the summer since I'm good at procrastinating but deadlines are my friend, I guess.  So I'm signed up to take Sister Labbé around on a tour so that she can pass me off.  Sister Labbé's from Québec and even wears a Québec flag instead of a canadian flag, so you know she means business.  Hopefully, I don't let Fallingbrook down and I'm able to pass off on Friday so that I can announce this Sunday.  Until then, I am a francophone. 

 

A bientot, mes amis.  Merci pour tous les lettres.  Je vous aimes beaucoup!

-Soeur Kyle