I'm 50 years older than I was last week.

I'm 50 years older than I was last week.  Let me recap:

Going from serving at Temple Square to San Jose and then to Redwood City was like going from an all girls prep school to public school.  Now I'm serving in Morgan Hill which is like the Norman G or adult high school.  I've been exposed to so much shocking missionary disobedience that I thought my mind would explode.  A missionary just went home early last week and a few more are sure to follow this week.  Me and my new companion are caught in the middle of a lot of drama.  My new companion is Sister Tapopo, is another Samoan but she was raised in Southern California.  She is super easy-going and so hilarious so we are having a good time.

 

One of the things we do as missionaries is work on the rescue misison to re-activate the less active members of our ward.  We have a list of people to check up on so we got right to work.  We quickly figured out that there's something super awkward about knocking on less active member homes.  The first family that we found home shut us down pretty quickly.  It turns out that her name was not Michelle; her husband is Miguel and he used to be mormon and they are not interested in anything from us.  Welcome to Morgan Hill!  I like to refer to Morgan Hill as the farmland for rich people.  It has a small town feel, a lot of skunk in the air, and a lot of the people we visit live in big beautiful mansions on a hill.  I'll upload some pictures next week.  A lot of the other houses that we knocked on seemed like the owners were probably vacationing in their other huge mansion but finally we found a retired man home.  Sister Tapopo and I are so awkward.  After a rough conversation start with this one man, we learned that he hadn't been to Church for a long time.  He got out of it because he just got too caught up in his business and then he retired.  We didn't know what to say so my companion asked him if he was planning on coming to Church this Sunday.  "Well yes actually, I haven't been to Church in 30 years but I was indeed planning on coming this Sunday."  He did not say that.  He mostly just laughed at us but we found a way in since he's open to having home teachers visit him and his wife.  So after that experience and then asking a different man if his wife was his daughter, we decided to just play the whole -we're new misisonaries and we want to get to know the ward- routine.  It's working out better so far.

 

Our miracle of the week and definitely my miracle of my last area in this mission is named Jack.  Jack has been prepared to receive the gospel by his long term, member of the Church girlfriend.  She lives in Utah and he lives here temporarily.  They found the missionaries at Church a few weeks ago and so my companion and the sister before me got his contact information.  We went to go teach him on the second night that I was here in the trailer park where he stays.  We took forever to get there, we knocked on an angry man's door who was not Jack and then Jack called us kind of angrily.  Sister Tapopo decided that it was too late and Jack sounded too drunk on the phone so we ran away from the trailer park.  Jack did not like this but we made amens and decided to teach him in the Church building the next day.  He rocks.  It turns out that he wasn't drunk, he's just a rough guy.  We kind of hated him at first because he was super impatient to get started and seemed like he didn't want to be there with us.  However, he asked all the right questions and accepted the invitation in the first lesson to be baptized on February 8th.  Then in the same lesson, we moved the date up to Feb 2nd.  We taught him one more time since then and so far so good.  We just have to get him off of the chew and he's almost good to go.  We're excited to hopefully take him to the Oakland visitor center so that he can experience even more of the Spirit there with the displays and the movies.  One of my favorite things about teaching Jack are his prayers at the end of lessons.  He ain't trying to impress no one but he is real-life.  After every lesson with him, my companion and I are on top of the world.  There is nothing better. 

 

Also in this area is a woman who we call Mama Smith.  I'm pretty sure every mission has one.  I am her 139th missionary and after interviewing me and taking 500 pictures of me, she gave me a quilt that she made and a big bag of everything that I could ever need as a missionary.  I chose the tackiest quilt I could find and now I sleep with it every night.  I don't look forward to seeing the pictures she took though. 

 

Oh yeah, and I live in a mansion.  Well we have our own apartment corner of the mansion which includes the cleaning lady and a treadmill.  Life is good!

 

I know that I am where I need to be though it's hard to be away from home and my sisters at the square and my Redwod City zone.  The Lord has a bigger picture than I see for myself. 

LOVE YOU ALL,

SISTER KATIE

Bye Bye Samoa

I had to say Tofa Soifua to my Samoan people yesterday because I'm being transferred again tomorrow.  I really love the Samoan people and it's weird to think that I'll be attending Church with white people again who probably don't know how to sing.  I find out where I'll go tomorrow and who my new companion will be.  I hate goodbyes but I'm up for the new adventure.  Again. 

 

My favorite part of the week was teaching a man named Joseph who's married to an active member of our unit.  He's been through many sets of missionaries but after taking a break from the gospel, he's ready to be taught again with this new year.  He is awesome.  Joseph's Dad is a minister for another Christian Church so he has a big Bible background but he also has a bunch of grief from his family for meeting with the missionaries.  We reviewed his gospel knowledge and it was interesting that he knows a lot of details about the plan of salvation and other deeper things but he didn't know the basics of the Book of Mormon.  He was surprised to learn that the BoM starts with a family who's commanded to leave Jerusalem who then starts new life on the American continent.  My favorite thing to teach him was about the best part of the BoM when Christ actually comes to the American continent and teaches the people there.  He had no idea.  I'm not 100% sure that his wife knew that Christ appearing in America was the most important part of the BoM.  Pf course, the BoM's true... no one else has that record!  We also read with him 2 Nephi 28:30 and it took him a lot of pausing and a few times to understand parts of that verse.  Mostly what we wanted to help him learn is that yes, life is alright as it is but if God wants to give you more knowledge and therefore more joy, don't you want more?  We lose the things that God has given us when we close our hearts and our minds.  So in short, I have no worries about Joseph.  He's the man and I'm sure he, his wife, and his 2 adorable kids will be sealed in the temple in no time.  I'm just sad that I don't get to teach him anymore!  Seriously. 

 

I love being a missionary and I am obsessed with teaching.  I've never experienced so much joy.

 

That's it.  That's all.

LOVE, SISTER KATEEZY KYLE

homies 

with my Samoan ladies.  I'm right under the light!  Yes, my palagi skin glows.  

with my ex companions

my fave Spanish homies 

I don't abla a whole lot of espanol

Happy January people. 

I'm officially past my year mark and now I fear the last part of my mission is going to run away. 

 

Sister Alaalatoa and I are working hard to help our little Samoan unit become a branch.  It was a branch years ago but then when it got dissolved so many members stopped going to Church completely, for different reasons so now it is our rescue mission to bring everyone back together.  A lot of the Samoan families pretend they're not home even when we see their kids peaking through the window but every so often people are kind enough to invite us in.  We found a super cute family in San Jose this week.  Their house was perfectly post-Christmas chaotic but they were happy to see the missionaries.  We got to know the family and discovered that the dad passed away almost exactly a year ago and left his wife with their 6 kids under the age of 10.  It was obvious that they had a hard year.  I think they've been attending Church in a San Jose ward but the atmosphere of the home was clearly not as happy as it was when the dad was there.  We also found out that the dad passed away before him and his wife got to be sealed in the Temple.  My little heart hurt for them but we got to bring a little bit more light into their home with the message we taught.  Their New Year goal is to have family home evening regulaly again and also to get to the temple.  So many of the Samoan members treat me and my companion like we are angels from heaven who will bring their families many blessings.  That's a heavy title to bear so it makes me remember to be an obedient missionary so that I can qualify to carry the Spirit with me into the homes we visit. 

 

Last night we had an hour to spare before we needed to be home so we stopped at one of our go-to Spanish less-active homes.  Typically my companion gives the wife a spiritual thought while I sit there smiling and trying to turn my Spanish brain on.  It works a sixth of the time.  Last night I understood that we were teaching a short lesson about prayer and when my companion was finishing, the wife started telling a story.  I won't lie, my Spanish brain got away from me and I stopped trying to pay attention until I noticed tears running down her face.  I checked back in and tried to discern what she was talking about.  The only word I really understood was, "terrible" and she kept saying it.  Since I don't abla a whole lot of espanol I flipped through my Book of Mormon to find a scripture about hope.  I didn't know what she was crying about but I knew she needed some hope.  So I directed my companion to 2 Ne 31:20 and it seemed to be the perfect medicine.  My companion told me later that she was crying because she had lost hope in her family especially her young rebllious son and her older daughter.  Of course a scripture won't solve all her problems but I know the power that one verse can have at the right time.  There's a lot of work to do in her family but I know she has hope to keep trying.

 

I think my companion and I are becoming repentance therapists.  The unit is full of people who have put off repenting and so we teach.  I love teaching people repentance because it makes the gospel very alive.  When people are hurting, they don't give unthoughtful/obvious answers to questions.  It's amazing how simple the path to Christ is.  So many of life's problems are fixed by Church attendance and daily scripture study/prayer.  Our friend with the lips tattooed to his neck learned yesterday that Church isn't where good people go to show others that they're CTR-ing.  Church is for sinners who are becoming strong. 

 

The last year of my life hasn't been very glamorous but I can't put into words how life changing and simple it has been.  This may or may not be my last week with my Samoan people; I'll find out on Saturday. Everytime I get comfortable, I get moved but I'm up for the challenge of a new adventure.

 

Today I'm playing rugby with the children (elders) and then tomorrow I get to train my zone on the "opposite sex" portion of the whitehandbook with an emphasis to discourage the elders from creeping on the new 19 year old sisters.  I'm just the luckiest.

 

Gotta run!

Mark Zuckerburg says what up.

LOVE, SISTER KATIE KYLE

New Year's with the children, New Year's turned into my happy one year

me, my comp and my dying district leader.

myslef dead animal meal

Just once, I would like to have a good conversation with someone who has a home.

Happy New Year, my people! 

 

Life is grand.  My outbound experience continues to be a party.  This is both good and bad.  The days are a lot slower but every so often something great happens.  After visiting a less active member's house a thousand times without her ever being home, she finally answered her door yesterday.  Let's call this woman Yolanda though that's very much not her name.  Yolanda was so great because she was so open and honest with us.  We got to know each other very quickly and she told us about how she wants to come back to Church one day, hopefully in the new year.  She got married in the temple to a return missionary and now she drinks and smokes.  Cool.  Everyone was probably doing it.  It so happens that I read about addiction recovery that morning and we are going to get her clean, not because we want her to be clean but because she realizes that life is SO MUCH BETTER following the commandments.  Yaaaayyyy!!!  After teaching her I felt so alive, like I was back at Temple Square.  Then we went to ward council where my fire was killed a little.  It's weird to have people critique what me and my companion put our heart into all week but I know that it's all for the good of our Samoan Unit. 

 

On Saturday we ran away from a unit event to teach the first lesson to a Samoan woman who was referred to us by an awesome member.  We taught the restoration and realized pretty quickly that we had to be overly simple and clear.  I watched her eyes drift with everything that we taught her so we did our very best to apply everything to her so that she would know the significance of our message.  She's very active in her Chirstian church but she told us that she only goes to that church so that the old ladies don't start gossiping about why she's not there.  So basically she's a very Christian person on the outside but has zero knowledge about Jesus in her brain.  However, she did tell us about how she felt the Spirit at her old Church.  We focused on teaching her the first vision of Joseph Smith and then she got up for a few minutes to take care of her grandchild.  She came back and we knew her comprehension level wasn't superb so we invited her to summarize what had been taught.  She had nothing to say so I asked her what she knew about Jospeh Smith.  She said, "Was he a wiseman?"  I died.  I hoped and hoped that she was talking about is intellect and not about the men in the nativity story.  My hope was in vain.  Sooo we gave her the restoration pamphlet so that she could learn something and gave her a Book of Mormon with a chapter to read.  Now we pray that something enters into her brain so that something can change in her heart.  I still have no idea why she wanted to meet with us but hopefully we will find out this week so stay tuned.

 

I'm making friends with a lot of hobos at a Catholic church's organization to feed the needy and the hobos are making friends with me when we go street contacting.  Some get a little too friendly.  Just once, I would like to have a good conversation with someone who has a home. 

 

That's all I got.  Christmas on the mission was weird and rainy but I was so spoiled by some of the Samoan members and the Kyle fam. 

La iglezia es la verdadera!

 

Muchos love,

SISTER KYLE