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.
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