I hit the jack pot.

Anyonghasayo!

 

The new transfer starts tomorrow and my dreams came true because I get to train a new sister!!!  I don't know who she is yet, that will be decided tomorrow.  My new pday will be Saturday so I'll follow up with all the details then.  I am in the extended zone now so I'll be working at either welfare square a few days a week or the humanitarian center or worse case scenario, cover the Beehive House on Wednesdays.  The humanitarian center gives the sisters meals when they work there and I believe welfare square gives chocolate milk and cheese.  In other words, I hit the jack pot. 

 

On Saturday I was one of many sisters who got to take an mtc sister , who would soon be coming to Temple Square or another visitor center, around for the night.  I got a suuuper sweet mongolian who loved every minute.  She has been in the mtc for 10 weeks to learn English.  I would love to train that tiny woman because she is so ready and willing to learn even though she understood maybe 15% of what the guests were saying to us on the square. 

 

Sunday was a really special day because Sister Kim and I went with another half Korean companionship to speak at the Korean branch closeby.  We also sang a half Korean version of "I know That My Redeemer Lives."  We had an amazing time.  They gave me and Sister Fialho from Brazil, translation headsets so that we could understand everything that was happening.  I broke out laughing a couple times on the stand because the translator spoke Korean instead of English a few times and would often get lost and just apologize awkwardly.  When I spoke, there was a Korean lady from the branch who stood up with me and translated my words into the mic, sentance by sentance.  That was kind of nice because it gave me time to not say anything stupid.  But it also took 500 years to read scriptures so I took up too much time.  Weird.  The Korean members were so nice; a few of them made us Korean food to bring back to Temple Square and eat.  The squid wasn't so bad.  Also, just before we left the chapel, we met a North Korean refugee.  My mind was blown into humility.  Seriously, I couldn't communicate with this man but I just stared at the wrinkles on his young face and wondered what kind of life he's had.  I can't even comprehend.  He's investigating the Church but it's so hard for him to open up and learn.  Even the easiest concepts of God's love and agency are almost impossible for him to understand.  That was even Sister Kim's first time talking to a North Korean. 

 

Yesterday I greeted our investigator on the phone and he said, "Hi Sister Kyle!"  I asked him how he knew it was me and he described my voice as quite a bit huskier than Sister Kim's.  Dangit. 

 

...To be continued Saturday

 

LOVE SISTER KYOLE

1. Viva Canada

2. je ne sais pas

3. Korean food and koreans

4. Cousin's last day

My body loves me.

Hey ho!

 

My body loves me because I let is sleep for a solid 12 hours.  I would have made it 15 but we got up to go do baptisms at the Jordan River Temple for a zone activity.  It was indeed a splendid time.  I have 3 stories for the week.

 

Perfect French family!  We had about 50 tours (almost truth) on Thursday and then we got a french tour where I fell in loveish.  We met a family of 5 from France in one of the visitor centers.  The family was not religious but I had so much respect for the parents because they wanted to teach their 3 little sons about many different religions.  So we got straight into it and taught the family all about prophets and the restoration of the Gospel.  The mom was so great because she would spend time making sure that her tiny boys were understanding everything.  This is so new for me because typically parents seem to be afraid of us brainwashing their children.  I think my favourite thing was the boys' repsonses to the question of what happens to us when we die.  One thought we might become "un fantome", one said an angel and the other said that we would live in paradise.  Awesome.  So we got to teach them about how our bodies will seperate from our Spirits and then in the resurection, our spirits will unite with our perfected bodies and we can live in paradise with God.  Then we took them to see the model of the temple and taught them about the blessings of eternal families.  The 7 year old Ron Weasley look alike just kept saying, "Madame?" in a Matthew Possin voice and would ask me the sweetest little questions.  The boys wanted us to send them a Book of Mormon but the parents didn't think it was up to their comprehension level. 

 

We found Keith on chat.  He had a few deeper doctrine questions and we answered them as simply as we could and told him to continue learning the basics first.  He told us that he had been meeting with his local missionaires but he was away from home for a little while and had more questions about the Church because of things that he read online.  We focused him back to the truth that he had already learned from the missionaries.  A few days later we called him to get to know him better and invite him to go to Church.  He is 23 years old and says he was atheist 5 years ago.  He studies religion and philosophy in University and he says he was lead to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (he only ever says the full name of the Church.)  He has already read the entire Book of Mormon and knows it's true even though he hasn't even attended Church yet.  In short, Keith is a miracle and THE CHURCH IS TRUE.   

 

We got to take two Israelis on a tour yesterday.  Since they live in a beautiful country with an angry government, we are not allowed to invite them to be taught more after our tour.  They probably taught us more than we taught them because they are such cool people.  Since we were on a tour with them, a French tour got texted out but no one could take it.  So after our Isreali tour we, of course, hunted down the French fam.  They were super unreligious but super awesome.  The wife told me that for some reason they absolutely love touring Churches and religious sites.  Beautiful.  But THEN... in the middle of our tour we were joined by a member of the Church from Salt Lake who served his mission in France 40 years ago.  He had met the father of this family online so he decided to meet up with them for the tour.  Then he proceeded to RUIN OUR LIVES!  Seriously, he tried to steal the show.  I would say something, and he would repeat it in a more boring, lengthy way.  He tried to direct the tour and show off his bad French skills form back in the day.  I would have the family pause at different places so that we could teach them as we toured but the member man got all up in my grill.  And he completetly ignored my companion because she doesn't speak French.  We brought them up to the statue of Christ and were ready to testify and invite them to learn more.  Angry member man had other plans so he invited them out for lunch.  I don't know if he thought he was doing missionary work by ruining our tour or if he just wanted to practice his bad French.  So that is the anger story of the week.  Let us all learn from this man not to ruin other people's lives.  Boooo.  

 

Follow up: we haven't taught our Korean friend, Jaewan, from last week yet but we texted him and he told us that he bought a key chain of Salt Lake or the Temple... I don't know which one... to remember his trip because he loved it so much.  Presh.  We'll teach him over the phone this week. 

 

That's it.  LOVE YOUSSS

Bye.

SISTER KATIE KYLE

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming! On temple Square.  Seriously, they're putting up Christmas lights already.  Awes.

My new frienemy is Bag Pipes Ryan.  He plays the bag pipes outside the square all day.  Maybe he's not the only one who plays because I ALWAYS hear bag pipes.  So that's fun.  Every time we see Bag Pipes Ryan (even if we're clearly in a hurry) he stops us and stares at us and asks us if we're going to talk to him.  Let's just say he's on security's radar now.  

This week was rough.  I was très frustré especially with visitors from France.  Belgium=good, France= less than good.  We had a tour with two awesome Belgians and a hoboish young man from Switzerland who joined on later.  They were so nice and willing to learn.  The rest of my week consisted of angry French people who wanted a tour guide.  Right away when I meet these grumpy French people, they tell me that they're only interested in the history and they are not religious or sometimes they're "Catholic."  I've decided that's basically the equivalent of a door slammed in my face but then I get to spend 30 minutes with them.  These people are so closed and untalkative therefore unteachable.  I did everything I could do bring the happy out of them.  Talk about their families? Nothing.  Tell a pioneer story? Nothing.  Find common interests? A whole lot of nothing.  This pressure makes me not be able to speak the language and then the Frenchies start finishing my sentences because they want to move faster.  Why did you request a tour?  My companion can only do so much to help me since she can't understand.  This is my current frustration.  I have faith to find some prepared people from France so I continue to take these French tours but it is DIFFICILE!  I often just keep the tour really short when I can tell it's going nowhere but there are so many things that I consider with these people.  When Elder Holland was speaking to us missionaries, one sister asked him what we do with people who are not interested in learning about the religion and who are only here for the architecture.  He told us not to let other people determine our mission.  I also hear that Elder Holland told our old mission President that Temple Square will be the place for people to come to learn about Jesus Christ.  But then I think about our hospitality bus tours and remember that we just need to love the people and leave a good impression of the Church on them.  I don't want to spend so much time with the unfriendly French people if there are prepared people on the Square.  So that's my current dilemma.  Our Saturday was hard and then our Sunday was harder.  By Monday, I was ready for a tender mercy and you know, prayer works!  Yesterday, a nice woman from Pennsylvania came to the desk where I was standing and asked if we answered questions.  YES!  She was so confused with the little model of Jerusalem that we had because it seemed to match her understanding of Christ.  Right.  She asked what the difference was so I was able to teach her about the Restoration.  She was soooooo awesome and wants to read the Book of Mormon so we have the Pennsylvania missionaries on their way.  

Adding to our hard week, we had a few little heart-breaks in lessons over the phone.  We've been teaching Emmanuel from Nigeria for many weeks now.  The last time we had taught him, he committed to be baptized.  This time, he told us that we haven't taught him anything.  Ruuude.  He says he doesn't care if there is a prophet or not; it doesn't effect him.  He is only concerned about his own happiness and well-being.  We tried as best we could to teach past the language barrier and teach him that the Bible and the Book of Mormon testify of the reality of prophets, prophets lead to truth, truth leads to a commitment (baptism), committing leads to blessings, blessings lead to happiness and well-being.  He didn't get the link.  We went in circles for a little while and we all got frustrated.  I don't know if he still wants to be taught even though he wants to go to Church but either way, we're going to teach him over the chat system now to make things clearer.    We were also excited about our new investigator, Jennifer.  Jennifer really wants to go to Church but our phone conversation with her on Sunday just made us mad.  She was raised by a Christian preacher who forced her to go to Church every Sunday and to go to a Bible college.  She was not respectful to us at all.  She kept putting down the Prophet Joseph Smith and and made fun of our ability to fell the Spirit witness truth.  We didn't try to teach her anything about our religion, we just tried to get to know her and tried to teach her about faith.  She told us that her faith has never been tested, it is something that she just got since her dad was a priest.  She talked over and over again about how the Book of Mormon doesn't make sense because there are no evidences for it.  There are many historical evidences of the Bible so that's why she believes it.  We asked her if all those historical evidences were taken away, would she still believe it to be the word of God.  She couldn't even answer the question.  So, I probably aged about 5 years while talking to Jennifer but that is A Okay.  I still can't believe that someone can be so involved in Church and believe that he/she has brought so many people to Christ but she doesn't even know what faith is. Aiyayay.  

This week in our hospitality bus tour, I got to correct someone and explain that no, we do not believe Joseph Smith is the reincarnated Jesus.  I also got to explain to a nice Canadian woman that no, we don't sew all our clothes (except I was wearing my "Vegas Mom" leather-looking skirt that mom sewed me... shoot).

All is well.  Love you all!!!

-SISTER KATIEEEEEEE

So was a sissy zip line camp day worth the madness on the square? You decide.

Welp, the bad news is that my companion uses a ticking alarm clock.  Good news, my sleepy body overcomes my ocd brain every night.  The mission really helps me be a better person.  So maybe I'm missing out on Michael Phelps losing in the Olympics but that's okay because this is better.  Actually, all the sisters in our mission got to go to Brighton Girl's camp on Saturday.  Since we can't all abandon the square at once, there were two shifts so I got to go in the morning group.  We had an hour drive up to the mountainous camp and partied when we got there.  We had matching green Temple Square mission tshirts on and the whole shabang.  There were different team building activities featuring a sissy zip line.  Since I'm a missionary and my entertainment standards have intensly decreased, I was quite content with my ride on the sissy zip.  Mostly I loved the morning just because I got to relax and spend time with some of my favourite people.  Even though all of us sisters see each other everyday, there's too much work to be done so we don't get a ton of regular human interaction time.  So that was real nice.  After our hour nap ride home, we quickly changed into our missionary costumes and worked our faces off.  The square was madness!  We took a Korean motorcoach right away and then an English before going to cover West Gate for the night.  Visitors were asking for tours left and right and since we didn't have many sisters on the square, we would send these guests to join the most recent motorcoach.  Hopefully they spoke that language.  Also, there were 3 thousand more people on the square because of the Grow family reunon.  As in Henry Grow, who built the roof of the tabernacle.  There are a zillion Grows in the Church today including Elder C. Scott Grow who you can't actually see grow but he speaks in general conference every so often.  We even had a Chilean and a Samoan conduct a mandarin motorcaoch.  You know, why not? Every Saturday night we have the visitor center sisters come from the mtc to experience a visitor centre before their own visitor center mission.  I'm surprised the 6 that came were still alive enough to go back to the mtc after their night on the square.  Hopefully the zillions of tours in every language and no breaks didn't scare them to go home.  It's doable with the name tag on.   So was a sissy zip line camp day worth the madness on the square?  You decide. 

 

No intense hospitality bus tour experiences to report yet.  On Thursday for our HBTour all we did was walk a group of 45 into the restaurant, play waitress for a little while, get yelled at a few times by the tour guide, and walk the group to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal.  Reward: a free meal at the Lion House Pantry every time we take a HBTour.  Roll and dessert included.  Yeaaaah!  This makes up for the fact that we don't eat at members' home.  We eat at Brigham Young's home instead.  We had our hospitality bus tour scheduled the next day for a tour of Temple Square and then a drop off at the Roof restaurant.  The group was an hour late so after we decided to stop waiting, West Gate called us to come back to walk these late elderlys to their food.  For that walking, we earned another meal the at the Lion House Pantry.  Bueno. 

 

We continue to take an exaggerated hundred french people on tours every day.  Most of them are pretty nice and very respectful yet very closed.  My new task is to find how to open their little french hearts to the spirit.  One lady was really passionate about her religious beliefs and seemed to be afraid of us.  She told us that she believes in God but can't seem to find a Church that she agrees with.  She likes to think that there is a good who fits her ideas.  I love missionary work but it's so hard when we find somebody's concern and they are not willing to solve their concerns.  We wished to tell this French woman to lower her pride and humble herself to find the truth.  We can't change God's will to fit our own personal beliefs.  His will is forever the same, we just nee to find the truth.  Can I get an amen? 

 

Last night while chatting online, we basically testified of kitty heaven to a young man who's cat had kittens.  Clearly, this was no fairytale ending so he was comforted to know that his kittys aren't doomed.  Who knew?  The Bible dictionary and Doctrine & Covenants knew.  There you go, Sam!

 

That's it for me.  Love you all!

-Sister K. Kyle