In conclusion, we ruined her salvation.

Yoooohalooooo!

 

Gahhh I have a hundred stories but I'm sure I can't do them justice in writing.  This week was so good.  We had so many lessons with visitors on the square.

 

I'll start with Friday.  Our friday's are very scheduled so we don't have a ton of teaching time but we got to call Sheila on the phone and teach her for the first time.  IT WAS SO BAD!  Sister Mitchell and I have had a pretty good rhythm down with finding people's needs and teaching them by the Spirit.  We probably got too cocky or something because our lesson with Sheila was down right gross.  I think it started weird because she was fixing her fridge while she was talking to us but we tried to teach her about prophets and the restoration but Sister Mitchell and I didn't even seem to be on a similar page.  In conclusion, we ruined her salvation.  Half-kidding.  Obviously she's not doomed but we felt so terrible after.  She doesn't want us to call her back but we'll probably call in a week just to apologize for our stinky missionary work. 

 

Saturday we had a nice group of what I like to call soft Anti's.  It was a group of teenagers lead by their curly mustache pastor and a burly bald man.  They were super nice but had obviously learned a bit about our religion before coming though they claimed to know nothing.  Bald burly man knew that the Church started in upstate New York but later he claimed that he had never heard of Jospeh Smith before.  Riiiiiiight.  Anywho, they were still really nice as a whole.  Pastor got a little heated when we talked about life after death.  He just went on and on about what a terrible person he is and how people are naturally evil.  Pshhh c'mon, you can't actually tell me you're a bad person.  K maybe if you're comparing yourself to Christ... He would not shush-up (mom aprroved word) so we read Mosiah 3:19 and kept moving our group along.  I feel like we did our job well.  They could tell that we are normal happy humans who are trying to do good in the world and teach people about Jesus Christ.  I throw in a few stories about my family here and there to spice things up a bit so just beware, nobody's secrets are safe. 

 

The rest of our week was filled with awesome people.  One of my favourites was a couple from Austin, TX who had been married for 15 years.  The man's first wife died of cancer and then when he married his next wife he made her promise that she wouldn't get cancer.  Sadly, he didn't keep her promise but she's in remission so they are just the happiest, most faithful couple.  This tour was amazing because we didn't try to force any teachings of the Church on them.  We just naturally talked about Faith in Jesus Christ and receiving answers to prayers and at the end, the man told us that we wanted to learn about Joseph Smith.  Yeah, he does!  We'll teach them over the phone this week. 

 

We toured 4 awesome ladies from New Jersey around on Monday.  I can't even explain how awesome that tour was.  It felt so good.  They were so responsive and impressed with the Church.  When we started one lady told us that her 45 year old, alcoholic brother started meeting with missionaries a few months ago and this is the first time in his life that he's been able to sober up.  Way to go NJ missionaries!  That set our tour up perfectly.  When we ended, we didn't get any of their contact information so all we can do is hope and pray that they find themselves studying about the gospel and the Church more.  We had more time on the square so we roamed around and ran into one man that we rememberd was listening in on our ladies' tour.  When we talked to him, his motor mouth just came to life.  Turns out, he's on economics professor at the University of Minnesota.  He talked FOREVER about how this world is slowly going downhill and he loves everything about our Church.  I was just waiting for my moment to speak when we got poked by a big woman on an electric scooter who ruined everything.  She wanted us to play the movie Legacy for her.  So we played the movie for her, her grandkids and our econ prof.  That was the last we saw of him, dangit! 

 

After that tour, we did our thing at West Gate.  While we were there, we noticed our new Anti Mormon friend just outside the gate, passing out Satan-y DVDs.  C'MON, IT'S A MONDAY!  Whyyyyy?  They were handing out DVDs outside all four entrances of Temple Square.  Satan is real.  One of the crazy russian sisters here took one of the DVD's and broke it in front of the Anti guy's face, hahaha!  I just pictured what our 4 awesome NJ ladies would have said to him if they ran into him.   He'd have no chance because I know they felt so good here.  Plus they're from NJ. 

We had another perfect older couple tour yesterday.  These precious 75 year old high school sweethearts were so much fun.  We straight up taught them the restoratoin and they loved everything.  They loved the Church emphasis on the family and temples.  We invited them to learn through missionaries in Arkansas and they hesitated because it was a lot of information for them to take in.  They were excited to research more on mormon.org and continue learning so that's swell. 

 

Alright kids, stay out of trouble.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

-SISTER KAAAAAATIE K.

I think I just angered the monster within when I got to wear pants

HAPPY DAY!

'Twas a good week and I had a merry birthday yesterday.  I received a sweet birthday package from a stranger named Glen.  THANKS MOM/DAD/GENE/MERILEE!!!  I ate everything already.  Obv.  Stay tuned for pictures with the royal fam.  I was so spoiled yesterday because a) my missionary friends love me b) we ditched the square from 3:00 until the end of the night for a half mission FHE!!!  It was the best thing ever.  President Gillette decided randomly to have a Family Home Evening as a mission.  Since we couldn't all leave the square for a day, we split FHE up into two days and I was lucky enough to have it on my birthday.  It was basically a fun picnic-y time with a volleyball net.  Riiiight?  Done.  That's what I did the entire night.  I've been so normal (kind of) as a missionary but I think I just angered the monster within when I got to wear pants and play volleyball with the other sisters.  I was in heaven.

On Saturday, we had the pleasure of taking 5 grown army men on a tour.  They were all super open with asking questions and listening to our answers.  One of them who I call Mr. Clean, for obvious reasons, hard-core creeped me out.  His concern was that he doesn't believe in organized religion.  He says he believes in God but the second man does something, it becomes corrupt.  I told him that we believe man as terrible as we are, can be inspired by God to do great things and therefore, not everything is corrupt.  I told him that he just had to go to Church!  The right one.  He didn't understand why because he just wants to believe in God and let it be.  Then what's the point of beleiving in God???  He just went off about how beleiving in God makes sense but once you tie crazy rules onto it like not getting tattoos, it doesn't make sense.  I can explain!!!  Then he asked what would happen if a member of the Church wanted to marry someone outside of the Church.  I explained the blessings of a temple marriage.  Then he wanted more specifics.  He asked me personally if I married him and he had all the same standards as me and our kids wouldn't have confusion about faith, is the only thing wrong with that the fact that he wouldn't be sitting beside me at Church?  I told him that a marriage outside the temple could be good.  But inside is so much better.  So he told me that I deserve better and he knows I'll get better.  Keeping in mind, he was suuuper creepy.  Then he proceeded to ask me way too many personal questions and I got so uncomfortable.  Yeeesh.  At the end we were all just standing around waiting for my companion to finish up her conversation with one of the other GI Joe's.  Mr. Clean just kept staring at me and I told him that he was frustrating me.  He had all of the right concerns and all the right questions.  The gospel can solve all of those concerns so I told him to go to Church.  He half laughed and then they all just tried to get us to inlist in the army.  Laaaaaame.  I was so frustrated.  Life can be so much better than they're letting it be.  Plus, he was sooo creepy. 

Sunday was amazing.  It's usually not much of a day of rest for us but I loved Sunday because we were so busy.  We spent a lot of time with a young family who had started coming back to Church a year ago.  The mom and Dad were just a river of tears the entire tour.  It was a very powerful tour so we were lucky to be a part of it.  After we let the family go to watch the movie Legacy, we ran to the call center and talked to a woman and her husband from Quebec.  Jenevieve is the woman's name (Yep, it's a J sorry mom) and her husband is Sylvain.  I'm so excited because they live in Montreal but they hate it where they live so they're moving to Ottawa!  They've already been to Church one time in Montreal and they are progressing really well.  We talked to Sylvain for a little while and it was so funny because he thought he was speaking English the whole time but he went in and out of French throughout the conversation.  It was perfect because I could understand everything and my companion just died laughing with the phone on mute because she was so lost.  They're looking for a place to live in Ottawa so I said ORLEANS, duh.  How awesome would that be?  The Chapel Hill Ward would just eat them right up.  They're thinking more downtownish but either way, I'll just have them mension the Kyle name when they go to Church in Ottawa and  I know they'll be taken care of.  I'm so excited!  They have 4 kids too so I'm so excited to be a tiny part of missionary work in Ottawa. 

Other than than that, I keep seeing kids on a leash at the square.  It's like the new thing, I swear.  Who made that okay?  Speaking of which, HAPPY BAPTISM, JOSH BOSH!!!!  I'll be there in spirit. 

Thanks for all the birthday love and letters!
-SISTER KAAAAAATIE KYLE

Wingapo

Wingapo. 

Advice of the week: the conference center roof gets windy so don't wear a full skirt there; it might fly up to China and make old men feel uncomfortable.  Just a thought.

I love life in west gate with Sister Mitchell.  We don't get a ton of square teaching time but this week we have a few lessons with Elders from surrounding missions who bring their investigators.  We learned a heck of a lot with our good friend Chance yesterday.  Usually when other Utah missionaries come to Temple Square, they schedule it ahead of time so that we can all prepare to make it awesome.  Yesterday 2 Ogden Elders came in, unannounced, with their investigator, Chance.  They were pushing him in his wheelchair and it was clear that he had many physical and social disabilities.  The Elders were mostly mute when we started so we just ran with it and started to teach Chance.  We brought him to the temple model and through teaching, we found out that he had a baptism date set for this month.  Awesome.  The elders could have told us that earlier but hey, no one's perfect.  Chance got super emotional when we started to teach about temple sealings so after that we brought him to watch some kid videos to lighten the mood.  We had a good 'ole time taking him through a regular temple square routine.  I asked him what he does now since he graduated from high school last year and he told us that he was working on maintaining his independance.  The men laughed.  So the elder whispered to fill me in on the fact that Chance is homeless.  Ahhhhh.  The world makes sense again.  It's obvious that Chance is very intelligent but has a load of things going against him to find a job and such.  We took him to see the little display of welfare square and the humanitarian center.  We showed him how far the generosity of the members of the Church really goes.  Sister Mitchell told a semi-long story about how fast offereing money went to save starving children in Ethipia.  It was a neat story but the rest of us were kind of dyingly bored.  Then we turned it back and talked about the kindess of Christ and the things Chance does to serve.  It was obvious that Chance had many needs.  I realized during the tour that he needed something from temple square but it didn't have anything to do with starving children in Ethipoia.  We swung around the south VC basement like we're used to and then went up to the statue of Christ.  I felt so inspired there.  We taught him about how large the world/galaxy is and even though we are tiny, God and Jesus Christ care about each of us (kind of stolen from Pres. Uchtdorf).  Not only that, but we went into detail about how God cares about every aspect of Chance's life.  The Spirit was so strong.  I couldn't have planned out what to say but I knew that because we were listening to what he said (even though he rambled on like a little Matthew), the Spirit was working through sister Mitchell and I.  We learned so much with Chance.  We learned to stop treating every visitor the same.  Sure, you can teach about prophets in the tabernacle but is that what they need?  Or we can show a video clip of Mormon's words to pray about the Book of Mormon but chance didn't need that.  It drive me nuts when I hear sisters repeating the same lines to all of their guests.  Everyone needs something and it's our job to find it on Temple Square.  It's harder I think when we get non-talkers on a tour but I know that we can work miracles with them too. 

That's my story of the week.  There were plenty more but that one happened yesterday so it's fresh in my mind.  I'm getting more confident in my french and my mandarin since there are a ton of both almost everyday. 


NIHOWWWWWW
-Sister Katie

Me and my cousin (Sam's cousin)

Me and my EX

A rainy day

That gives me the right to be weird in public. Holla.

HOLA MUCHACHOS

I have approximately 400 things to say.  And go...

We just had transfer conference so I had to bid my canadian companion farewell.  My new companion is Sister Mitchell from Austin, TX.  We will still serve at the west gate.  Sister Mitchell and I entered the mtc on the same day so we go way back, 5 months back.  When I was in the mtc, I decided that Sister Mitchell would be my companion one day and then I had a dream that we were companions and got the mail together.  I told Sister Mitchell about that so everytime I would see her on Temple Square, she would always bring that up.  I told her on sunday that we would be companions in WestGate.  I told a lot of people that I would be their companion but I meant this one the most.  Turns out, I'm psychic.  So when my zone leader read out all of the information about my new transfer, I wasn't too surprised.  Then they told me that she was the senior companion and I was ticked!  I'm training her in West Gate but she gets senority?  Ayayay, they already know that I'm too bossy so they decided not to give me power.  Then they told me that I'm the french language coordinator and I just cried out NOOOOOOOOO!!!!  Sure, I've been speaking french my whole life but I've been speaking bad french my whole life.  There are real french sisters here, why me?!?!  I only took two french tours this whole transfer.  We had a french meeting last week about how to involve our non french speaking companion in the french tour.  We did a roll play with it and I DIBSed being the one who couldn't understand french so that I didn't have to embarass myself infront of the real french speakers.  And now I have to conduct the french meeting!  I-A WAY! (sound it out, that's how the Tahitian sisters express their frustrations).  It's cool though, it's not a heavy assignment at all so I'll live. 

We found out our new assignments on Sunday night and then President told us that we'd have a special guest come and speak for our mission meeting the next morning.  We had our suspicions of who it might be and we didn't find out who it was until he walked through the door.  ELDER HOLLAND.  Fur Reals.  The tell it like it is apostle, himself.  He's even more powerful in person.  I took a lot of notes but I also took advantage of looking up while everyone else was taking notes so that he could speak right to me.  It was incredible.  He spoke right from the heart and emphasized that we are the first impression for the Church and people don't get a second chance for a good impression.  He emphasized a lot of things that we had heard him speak about in talks from the mtc but it was amazing to hear it right from him in person.  He told a story about when a young married man went to go talk to him.  The young man and his wife went into Elder Holland's office and he begged to have the Church let him go back on his mission.  His wife was prgnant, but all this man wanted to do was go back on his mission.  He served the full two years but he regreted his whole mission because he didn't work hard eneough.  He couldn't bare the thought of his child growing up and asking him about his mission because he only had feelings of guilt about it.  Elder Holland also re-emphasized the fact that missions aren't easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.  If we do think this mission is hard, we should ask ourselves if we're doing it right.  Gulp.  It isn't suppose to be easy.  It's suppose to be wonderful.  The Lord asks for your heart.  He said that the good life is not necessarily the easy life.  When we bear testimony, we declare the anguish of the atonement.  We are suppose to taste a bit of the atonement.  We had a short Q&A session and he answered the question of what do we do if the people we take on a tour just want the history without being taught about some of the beliefs.  He told us not to let the visitors determine our mission.  Everyone deserves to hear our testimonies.  After he spoke he shook all of our hands.  He thanked me personally and told me he loves me.  Awes.

We also had a visitor centre training meeting with some people from the mission department last week.  It was just wanted and needed.  I've been getting frustrated with all of the restrictions and rules that we have to follow on temple square that I feel like I'm always doing something wrong.  The training made me excited to be a real human being again.  They taught us how to more quickly and effectively get to know the people we teach on the square.  We should love everyone enough to begin teaching them.  We need to stop treating everyone the same because they are so different.  We need the guests to receive us D&C 84:88.  To do this, missionaries need personalities so that the guests can love us.  I had that down when I first got here but I feel like some of my normal-ness has been ripped out of me with all the restrictions that we have.  It's all good though because the missionary department is awesome.  They told us that we don't have to hide the fact that we had normal lives before the mission.  We're not doing anything wrong if we quote a movie or if we want to do somrthing spontaneous.  In my case, that gives me the right to be weird in public. Holla. 

We have a new filipina here who lived in a branch where Morgan served.  Her name's Sister Espanto and she'll be my new bff. 

Thank you so much for all the letters!  Life is good.  Happy June. 
LOVE, SISTER KYLE

p.s Kim, you can write me back now that Ellen's not my companion anymore.