Sister Kyle: I'M BAAAAAAAACK!

I did not want to get on that plane to come back to Salt Lake City but I did. I tried so hard to stay a little longer in San Jose but the battle was already lost and I was being replaced by one of my Temple Square homies. I didn't feel ready to come back to Temple Square but I came down the escalator in the SLC airport to a big group of some of my favorite people who were so excited to see me. I'm pretty sure this was a huge forshadowing of finishing my mission. Yikes.

It's nice to be back. Real nice. I loved every minute in San Jose but Temple Square really is the best mission. This transfer, I am a zone leader with one of my friends who was at the mtc with me, Sister Dieujuste. Everyone at the airport was so excited to see my reaction when they told me who my new companion was because the two of us are pretty similar and we get along so well. I was her roommate for like 6 months and we always went on exchanges in the morning to work-out. Plus, she's crazy. She's Haitian, born in the Bahamas, grew up in Florida and then was adopted by a family in Rupert Idaho so she has 3 different country flags to choose from. The weird thing is though she's still in her outbound mission in Wisconsin for another week so I'm kind of flying solo. I have no idea what I'm doing as a leader but it doesn't seem so hard so I just make it up and act like a know things. That's what good leaders do, I'm pretty sure. I love always saying yes when people ask for allowance to do things. If you think you should, then do! Wow, who put me in charge? I'm tagging along with one of the District leaders in my zone and her companion for now so that I can still work. I sleep on a mattress in between both their beds for now so it's a slumber party every night. When I was in California, I had some awesome leaders as well as some less than suberb leaders so I am excited to use what I've learned. I know that unity is so important in a group so I'm thinking of a zone motto that's something like, "Let's party!" Or, "Looking for a good time!" We'll see what Sister D thinks when she gets back next week. I love being old in the mission. Some of the sisters who are now home were scary and I feel like there's a lot of new fire now to push our missionary drive.

Let me recap some of my last week in Cali. We went on a hike for my last pday and then I got to the Oakland Temple for a session and a look around the visitor center. The VC was bizarro world for me because everything was a tiny version of what I'm used to on Temple Square. The sister missionaries there freaked me out right when I got in the door with their intimidating greeting and smiles, so my apologies go out to everyone who has every experienced that. I like to keep it real in the visitor center. I also taught a nice lady in MOrgan Hill who lived in a halfway house so that was a fun time. I finally had a really good street contact last Sunday. My companion wasn't feeling so missionary that day but I made her tcome contacting. There was almost no one on the streets so we stalked the only people we saw. They ran away before we could catch up but we were lead to a little park. We saw a young father pushing his little son on the swing so I took the change to talk to him. Turns out, him and his wife were new in the are and they were in the market for a Church to go to! Boom. He didn't accept an appointment with us but I expect he'll be at Church at 11:00am next week.

It's so much fun to compare outbound stories with my friends here and see how different yet similar our experiences were. The Church is the same in the ghetto areas and in the ritzy areas.

Gotta run!

LOVE, SISTER KYLE from Temple Square