Letters

Friday, 9/17 my Mom opened her mailbox to 2 letters instead of one! One contained her weekly letter and the other contained a small letter with pictures!! I also received a letter so this will be a long post!



Letter #1

• Kaitlyn says that the Pilot Program that she's a part of has only been tried once before, and the results were that the District was above all the other Spanish districts with a few exceptions. The program is about self discipline and faith, she says its really difficult but she says she does notice a difference of how her Spanish is more advanced than other Spanish districts.
• Kaitlyn rooms with the only Sister who is going to Italy at the MTC right now, Sorella Laws. She has become good friends with her and at night likes to hang out with her.
• She says that getting ready in the morning isn't fun at all. She says she can get ready pretty fast though and that if she wears her hair wet and scrunchy, she can sleep for five more minutes. She says sleep isn't the same, she feels like it's never enough.
• She is getting a little tired of sitting all day and wishes she could go sit on the ground, but apparently there are rules against it but, "I want to sprawl!"
• On Sunday Sister Elaine Dalton (*General Young Women's President) came and spoke, and she had them repeat the *Young Women's Theme. She thought it was cool because everyone remembered it. She said her talk was about going forward with faith and *Moses 6:34 "Walk with Me." She said it was very uplifting. She says there are always rumors of the *Prophet coming but she has yet to see that happen. She said that the week before she came *Jeffrey R. Holland spoke and gave a talk that she keeps hearing about.
• She requests that people pray for "Don Del Lenguas" - the Gift of Tongues for her so she'll be able to pick up Spanish.

Letter #2:

• (My Mom sent her a *Mustard Seed necklace.) She says that she loves it and that both she and her companions rub it for good luck.
• Only 6 1/2 weeks left, she says it still seems like forever but she's getting better.
• Whenever they're feeling discouraged they like to go the *TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and they teach in English. She says compared to Spanish, teaching is SO much easier in English. The TRC volunteers they normally work with strictly speak Spanish with them so having a chance to teach in English is a nice break. The other Spanish districts practice with the English speaking volunteers and will switch over to Spanish volunteers in three weeks so Kaitlyn has a head start.
• The Second Lesson is of the *Plan of Salvation and she says trying to keep that topic simple enough to explain, while knowing little Spanish is extremely difficult but she does notice a difference between how the Sister missionaries teach and how the Elders teach.

Jessa's Letter:

• Kaitlyn says she is a little jealous of Sorella Laws and how she's 98% sure she stole her call to Italy. *See story below. She says everyone is a little jealous of the missionaries that get to go to Italy.
• She says in the MTC all the missionaries take on the culture of the area that they're going to. They tend to play games, not as districts but as "Spain vs. Italy." She said that the US Spanish Speaking mission played a mean game of kickball ("Which P.S. I'm awesome at. Oh and Foursquare.") She says their gym time is like recess and she loves it. "I want a swing set though. "Chiste" - kidding."
• She says she has a really hard time writing things in English because 90% of her day is in Spanish.
• She says there is on Elder in her district, Elder Elkins, who is HILARIOUS. She says she doesn't know how to describe his humor but they all love him. She's sad that he's going to Peru next week with some other Elders she'll be sad to see go.
• She says the good news this week is that it's going by much faster than usual and that the Spanish is starting to come - slowly.

Those are the letters we got! Next up...emails!

More info:
*Sister Elaine Dalton is the Church's General Young Women's President. To learn more about the General Young Women's Presidency and what they do in the church, the link is here.
*To learn more and read the young women's theme please click here.
*Moses 6:34: To read it click here.
*Jeffrey R. Holland is in The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which is our Church leadership. More information on him is here.
*In the scriptures, there are comparisons of faith to a mustard seed and the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed. There are mustard seed necklaces you can buy that symbolize that comparison. The scripture can be found here.
*The TRC is the Teaching Resource Center where people can come in and pretend to investigate the Church to help the missionaries practice.
*The Plan of Salvation is an important belief in our religion. To learn about it please click here.
*The reason Kaitlyn jokes around that Sorella Laws stole her call is because our Dad went on his mission to Milan, Italy, his younger brother, our Uncle went on his mission to Rome, Italy and our brother Brandon went on his mission to Catania, Italy. For a family to get called to the same country like that is rare.