Happy Movember!
Halloween was so fun! What costume do you wear when you want to dress up as something but still be a missionary? Dress up as another missionary! So, Sister Savelio and I dressed up as each other. It was clever, I swear but I came to a sad realization of how white I am. What can ya do? We played the parts really well since we had been accidentally studying our characters for 9 weeks now. We were hoping to see some precious costumes but the square was slow on Halloween. Knowing this, our zone leaders developed a scavenger hunt for the 2 hours afternoon square-time. The only rules were not to be dumb like you can't reject a tour if someone requests it just because you're looking for the next clue. Sister Savelio and I hurried to our first clue but got stopped so quickly by a super friendly man with a lot of questions. We spent time with him, taught him, invited him, then we ran to get back into the scavenger hunt game. We caught up really quickly. While we were searching for a clue, we talked to a nice member of the Church. As we were talking about good things, my eyes caught sight of a tiny blue paper hiding behind a family history poster. Genius. We said bye to him and proceeded to destroy the other companionships in our scavenger hunt. Seriously, it was child's play. The other sisters were still hunting for clues after an hour that we had already finished. So, that was nice of our zone leaders to make our lives fun. The square closed at 5 on Halloween then all the sisters got together for some food and way too much candy. I was so happy because we got to watch my favourite, Harry Potter the original one. 150 Sister missionaries is the easiest audience have ever seen watch a movie. It was so much better than it usually is because we are so deprived of entertainment. And of course, everyone related everything in the story to missionary work. Even the troll in the movie represented one of our frequent visitors.
I got to announce for French tours after MoTab's concert on Sunday. The sisters in charge of announcing have changed things up so that it's not such a rote presentation. They let us say whatever we want to invite our guests for a tour in whatever language we speak. I was so close to singing a French Halloween song in the mic... I shouldn't be trusted with a microphone. They're lucky I just kept it to calling everyone "mes amis."
Sister Savelio and I open the Joseph Smith movie twice a week in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We talk to one man every week after the movie named freaking Brett. He is a member of the Church and last week we tried to help him do some missionary work. When we were talking to him this week, it was the first time in my mission that I pictured myself punching someone in the face while he spoke. Alright that was harsh but oh so true. He made me so frustrated. When I had the urge to punch I thought, "What would Jesus do." Of course Jesus would never punch someone in the face but he also wouldn't listen to this man complain about so many things in his life that he has control over. It all comes down to his own faith. He kept telling us that he has faith because he hit rock bottom many years ago and his faith is what got him out. Awesome. Except that was many years ago. What are you doing for your faith now? Did you go to Church on Sunday? He did not. Did you bare some kind of testimony to your friend like you said you would last week? He did not. Are you reading your scriptures? Why the heck not, they have life's answers inside them. I almost couldn't believe how lost Brett was yet he has the gospel. I don't know what I'm going to do when I see him next week. I will pray hard that I can be a Christlike missionary when I see him' I just hope he follows through with his commitments. Brett makes me appreciate teaching people over chat because at least there you can click the disconnect button.
Even though Brett angered my soul, we actually did find a lot of success this week. We have a bunch of new investigators from member referrals and from chat. I also got to talk to Virginia, an 80 year old convert to the Church as of 6 years. We had a nice long conversation and by the end, she still called sacrament "communion." I wanted to send her a General Conference talk but she doesn't have internet so I'm afraid I made a new pen pal.
I've got to run. I love my life.
Thanks for the letters and the support!
Love, SISTER KYLE JR.
Halloween was so fun! What costume do you wear when you want to dress up as something but still be a missionary? Dress up as another missionary! So, Sister Savelio and I dressed up as each other. It was clever, I swear but I came to a sad realization of how white I am. What can ya do? We played the parts really well since we had been accidentally studying our characters for 9 weeks now. We were hoping to see some precious costumes but the square was slow on Halloween. Knowing this, our zone leaders developed a scavenger hunt for the 2 hours afternoon square-time. The only rules were not to be dumb like you can't reject a tour if someone requests it just because you're looking for the next clue. Sister Savelio and I hurried to our first clue but got stopped so quickly by a super friendly man with a lot of questions. We spent time with him, taught him, invited him, then we ran to get back into the scavenger hunt game. We caught up really quickly. While we were searching for a clue, we talked to a nice member of the Church. As we were talking about good things, my eyes caught sight of a tiny blue paper hiding behind a family history poster. Genius. We said bye to him and proceeded to destroy the other companionships in our scavenger hunt. Seriously, it was child's play. The other sisters were still hunting for clues after an hour that we had already finished. So, that was nice of our zone leaders to make our lives fun. The square closed at 5 on Halloween then all the sisters got together for some food and way too much candy. I was so happy because we got to watch my favourite, Harry Potter the original one. 150 Sister missionaries is the easiest audience have ever seen watch a movie. It was so much better than it usually is because we are so deprived of entertainment. And of course, everyone related everything in the story to missionary work. Even the troll in the movie represented one of our frequent visitors.
I got to announce for French tours after MoTab's concert on Sunday. The sisters in charge of announcing have changed things up so that it's not such a rote presentation. They let us say whatever we want to invite our guests for a tour in whatever language we speak. I was so close to singing a French Halloween song in the mic... I shouldn't be trusted with a microphone. They're lucky I just kept it to calling everyone "mes amis."
Sister Savelio and I open the Joseph Smith movie twice a week in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We talk to one man every week after the movie named freaking Brett. He is a member of the Church and last week we tried to help him do some missionary work. When we were talking to him this week, it was the first time in my mission that I pictured myself punching someone in the face while he spoke. Alright that was harsh but oh so true. He made me so frustrated. When I had the urge to punch I thought, "What would Jesus do." Of course Jesus would never punch someone in the face but he also wouldn't listen to this man complain about so many things in his life that he has control over. It all comes down to his own faith. He kept telling us that he has faith because he hit rock bottom many years ago and his faith is what got him out. Awesome. Except that was many years ago. What are you doing for your faith now? Did you go to Church on Sunday? He did not. Did you bare some kind of testimony to your friend like you said you would last week? He did not. Are you reading your scriptures? Why the heck not, they have life's answers inside them. I almost couldn't believe how lost Brett was yet he has the gospel. I don't know what I'm going to do when I see him next week. I will pray hard that I can be a Christlike missionary when I see him' I just hope he follows through with his commitments. Brett makes me appreciate teaching people over chat because at least there you can click the disconnect button.
Even though Brett angered my soul, we actually did find a lot of success this week. We have a bunch of new investigators from member referrals and from chat. I also got to talk to Virginia, an 80 year old convert to the Church as of 6 years. We had a nice long conversation and by the end, she still called sacrament "communion." I wanted to send her a General Conference talk but she doesn't have internet so I'm afraid I made a new pen pal.
I've got to run. I love my life.
Thanks for the letters and the support!
Love, SISTER KYLE JR.
October 26
Happy Halloween week!
Hook me up with some tiny kiddling costume pictures please as well as Jon and Kate part 2? I'm doing my best to come up with some missionary undercover Halloween costumes.
We went to the Haunted Village 'round these neck of the woods for our zone activity last weekend. Sister Galuvao, our zone leader had to warn all the sisters (mostly the international ones who had never been to a haunted house before) that we're extra sensitive to creepy scary things because we're so close to the Spirit and out of the world everyday so she reminded us that the people we'd see are actors so we shouldn't condemn them to hell. It was pretty good advice. I'll never look at some of the sisters the same after their freaking out to scary things. I think we're going to watch some kind of mission allowed Halloween movie on Wednesday, we'll see.
We got to go to an 8 year old's baptism on Sunday at the Swahili Branch. "Divine" was baptized and everything was perfect. I need to go to Africa. I love those people. I especially loved the Lion King-ish hymn that Divine's mom and friends sang. The best part was trying to make friends by giving out tictacs to the little people after the baptism. Seriously, the Africans know how to throw a party baptism. One of the men who spoke asked Divine if she wanted the President of the United States, the most important man in the world, to baptize her. She said, "No!" Why? "Because he doesn't have the priesthood like my dad!" That was fun.
Our miracle this week came in the form of Jip from Thailand. Sister Savelio and I were doing service for a couple hours at the Haunted Village on Monday and we hurried back to the square to find someone to teach. It seemed like Temple Square was a ghostown but we hurried like we had an appointment. We were lead up to the Christus statue where it seemed like Jason and his wife Jip, and Jason's mom and dad were all waiting for us. We could see that Jason's mom was trying to explain the statue of Christ to her daughter-in-law. She just looked at us and acting defeated, asked for our help to teach Jip about who Jesus Christ is. It's interesting to teach someone who has a Buddhist background and knows nothing about Christianity. So we started from square one. We taught, shared some Bible and Book of Mormon verses, and had everyone in the group describe why Christ is so important. Jip's husband, Jason was a part of the conversation but clearly didn't have his own testimony about Jesus Christ. We taught the two of them about eternal families. Jip is so prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel and wants to learn through missionaries in Florida. Jason is supportive so I'm sure he'll go back to Church with his wife this time. The best feeling I think was to have Jason's mom thank us so genuinely because we know she loves her son so much and wants him to find happiness through the gospel again.
Sister Savelio called a man named David on the phone because he was transferred to us by another sister. I had her add me into the conversation but by the time I got on, it was too awkward to introduce myself so I just listened on mute. David read the entire Book of Mormon in a week or so after his visit to Temple Square last year. He says he believes it to be true. He talked and talked about how the Mormon Church goes hand in hand with Christianity like the Book of Mormon goes hand in hand with the Bible. What the heck? He doesn't know why so many people give us such a hard time. Then Sister Savelio read him the last two paragraphs in the intro to the Book of Mormon about how everyone can read the book, ask God if it's true, and if they receive the answer that yes it's true that means Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this Church is true. David listened and said yes, I agree with that completely. That's beautiful. What the heck? No he doesn't! You can't just agree with that and call it good. I was so uneasy, listening to the whole conversation. He said that he likes to learn but he still likes his cocktails at night. He's never even been taught the word of wisdom, of course there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it if you don't know any better. I couldn't believe how someone could read the entire Book of Mormon and not have a change of heart. That's the problem though. All he did was read it. He decided it was true and that's it. I really liked Elder Bednar's talk this conference about testimony and conversion: http://www.lds.org/general-
After dealing with so many people's problems all day everyday, I'm grateful to lead a simple life and to know what's important. I'm happy helping people see how good and simple life can be through the good and simple gospel of Jesus Christ.
My mission life is flying by too quickly. In 3ish more weeks I'll find out if I'm staying on the square for Christmas or if I'll be booted out to Mississippi or worse, Wisconsin or worse case scenario, the Salt Lake City mission. Knock on wood.
LOVE, SISTER KATIE KYLE
Missionary Halloween costumes: They dressed and acted like each other all day.
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