Week 4: Huckleberry ice-cream

A lot happened this week and I don't even remember most of it, but I will try. 

   Tuesday night- We got off the plane and there was our mission president and his wife standing there waiting for us. they were so friendly and welcoming. They took us on a ride around Spokane. There was this big waterfall and river that we drove by. There was this huge red children's wagon that is a slide. The mountains are just covered in green pine trees. It looks like a forest. I sometimes feels like I'm camping because there are so many tree's. We went to the Spokane temple and took pictures. You wont believe how small it is. Growing up in Utah you only see huge temples so it was different to see this one.  That night we stayed at the mission home with all the sisters that were leaving the next day. They gave us tons of advice as you can imagine. 

    Wednesday- we went to the stake center and met our new companion/trainer. Her name is sister Whitmer. Shes awesome. She is so spunky and cute. Funny story shes also a licenced cosmetologist too, and her favorite show is psych and we have the same middle name AND our first names are so similar. its kinda funny. She took me and we went shopping at Walmart to buy food and stuff.  There were so many people not wanting to have eye contact and others who waved and said hi. I guess that's my life now. Our apartment was for 2 companion ships but were the only ones in it so we get our own bathroom and there's two study rooms. Which is nice. We have a picture of Jesus on the Front door. 

    Thursday and Friday- was a blur for me all I remember is meeting some of the investigators and going to bed. Thursday night went over to a members house and ate pizza and shared a message.

   Saturday- morning was good. We went on a hike in our back yard :) It was really cool. We saw a lot of flowers starting to bloom. Trees are so tall and green I love them. We did online proselyting. No one responded :/  We cut a pineapple that a member gave us. That's when we bonded over Psych. She's been out for 6 months so she hasn't  seen the movie and I was trying not to spoil it. We saw an Investigator that's on date for baptism! My first baptism I get to see! i'm so excited! Any way her fiance is a member and they want to eventually get sealed in the temple. They are so cute. 

   Sunday- Sunday was the best day of my week. I felt the spirit so strong in sacrament meeting. One of our investigators came to church with us!!! Shes awesome. She lived in California with her daughter. Her daughter went through a lot of bad stuff and the members over there helped them so much and she started going to church there and she moved here with her daughter again and she loves the gospel principle classes. she said she want to get baptized eventually, but needs to take it slow because of her daughter. After church we went to a members house for dinner and a message and after the little girl brought out KITTENS! My heart exploded!!! They had just opened there eyes and ears! I was in heaven!!! It was so hard to say goodbye, they said they would have us over again before they give them away. 

     This week has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I don't even remember half of it. Funny story sister Whitmer was telling me on Wednesday that when she craves food that usually sometime after a member will feed her that same food a little while after. Before I came on my mission I was craving kitten love. I think God knew that and he gave me an awesome blessing.

Love you all!!!!!

Week 3: Headed to Spokane!

This week has been so much fun! My whole district and I took so many pictures and I'll send them when I can. What's going on in everyone's lives? I really want to know it has helped me with my day so much. 

Today I'm going to the mission home!!!! I need to report at the travel office at 10. That's nice because they elders from our district left at 3 this morning. I'm meeting my mission president and staying over night in Spokane. 

This week was so good. Tuesday night I said the prayer at the devotional with one of the seventy. That was probably the most stress I've ever felt 

We got new girls in our district/room! We got six girls and they all are so cute and sweet. The only problem with a lot of girls comes with drama. Oh boy, and since were the STLs we were in charge of everyone getting along. That was probably the worst of my week. 

Elder Day is from Spokane and he left the MTC like a.week ago. He is the sweetest he emailed all of the sister missionaries serving in Spokane and told them about us coming. Some of them emailed us and said how great it is up there and that were going to love it. He is literally the nicest guy. 

I'm going to miss everyone in my district. We had a FHE with our zone and We all bore our story-monies. It was so cool to see how much people can change. In the MTC there's these beautiful murals on every floor and they are absolutely beautiful. I took a picture of the one about Moses praying and getting revelation. With each mural there's the scripture and question with it. I wish I took a picture of the one with Moses parting the red sea. That was my favorite. 

I'm really going to miss this place and the people. Especially sister Lesuma, this past week we really grown closer and I'm going to miss her the most. We have the same humor and she's so funny. Yesterday we couldn't stop laughing over something.

 Elder Harris is the funniest guy, he's made my stomach hurt so many times. He is like the heart and soul of this district and last night Elder Smith gave him a Florida tie pin because he wanted one so bad but couldn't for some reason. Our whole district was laughing crying. That was the sweetest thing ever. I'm so proud of my district and I'm going to miss them so much. 

Week 2 at the MTC

Good morning! We just sent off the rest of the girls in our zone this morning and Sister Lesuma and I are all alone today. (I found the emojis) were getting six new girls tomorrow were excited and I get to host tomorrow we love the elders in our district but sometimes you just got to have girl talk. Everyday this week my stomach has hurt from laughing so much. We probably have the weirdest district. We have so many inside jokes now I can't even count. They do soft serve ice cream of Wednesday's so tomorrow two of the elders are going to have a competition of who can eat the most. I get sick even thinking about it. It's going to be hilarious so I can't wait.

I've had so many spiritual experiences this week. This place is very like a college. I would be fine if this was where I served I'm ready to get out there though, there have been sisters and elders who've been here for 9 weeks!!! I couldn't do that. The food here is so dense and they feed us a lot. So it's fair to say I've had stomach ache' s. I've been drinking my weight in fresca. They have them everywhere the first part of the week I drank it 3x a day now I limit myself to 1. I don't even really like it that much it just reminds me of home.

We've been teaching investigators and its been awesome. It's funny sister Lesuma is very talkative and I'm not so this past week we've been trying to find a medium of where we both can teach. I love her though we have a lot of fun and spiritual experiences. She played softball in college and she's really good at volleyball. We play volleyball with everyone in our zone. I've never had so many bruises🤣 

Sunday's are my favorite, they're the busiest day though. We have so many classes other than church and it's weird having sacrament in a classroom. We have a temple walk every Sunday and oh my I love it. I get to go in the temple today and I'm so excited. I get to pray at the devotional tonight in front of all the missionaries, I'm not excited about that. 

This place is awesome though, they thought of everything. The new building have so many windows so it doesn't feel like a prison. 

I'm going to Spokane next Tuesday and I'm so excited! Really nervous but really excited too I feel like a chia. 

Nothing really big happend other than one of our investigators that was terrified of God and praying, prayed. That was awesome. I never felt the spirit so strong.  It was awesome. We meet our new investigator yesterday and she told us what was going on in social media. That was weird and funny at the same time. It doesn't bother me that I don't know what's going on just the feeling I got from hearing everything was weird. 

There was nothing really new about this week. I feel like a grandma because were the oldest district in our zone. And were getting new missonarys tomorrow, and they know nothing. I'm excited though we get so close to the people and then there home in like a week. 

It's funny when your away from home so long you start seeing people that you remind you of home its funny some things that Sister Lesuma does reminds me of Rylee We saw little babies at the temple. And all the sisters hearts broke including mine. 

Thank you for emailing me about your week guys, I really appreciate it. It's nice to read those things so it puts my mind to focus better to know that everyone's doing ok. (Sorry I didn't take pictures this week I'll get some this next week)

 First one is elder Jensen and sister Lesuma arm wrestling on family home evening Second one is the Elders beatboxing and Elder Harris dancing🤣

Week 1: Life at the MTC

This week has been FULL, and I mean full of things for me to do. I like it though. This week has been amazing. Wednesday and Thursday were so overwhelming. My companion is sister Lasuma. She's so sweet. The first two days where awkward then during one of our study sessions we just started talking and telling our life story and we connected and I love her. We have two classes a day and A LOT of study time. Which is perfect for me. I haven't been really homesick this week. My teacher said she didn't get homesick until her 3rd month because she was so busy, that's how I feel. I have moments were I think about my family but I haven't felt sad about leaving yet.:) I just love doing this, my physical and mental part of me can't keep up with my spirit. I just want to keep learning more and more about this gospel and church and how to be a better missionary. 

Wednesday was just really confusing I just remember sitting in class meeting my companion and taking a survey, then we meet our zone leaders and the STLs (sister training leaders) they were so helpful and so nice. They showed us where everything was and we share a room with them. We have such fun in our room together. We have 6 girls in our room. We have a blast. They are leaving tomorrow and no new girls are coming in our zone on Wednesday so it'll just be me and sister Lasuma in our room. :( so we are all so sad to say goodbye but they'll do awesome. 

Thursday was probably the hardest day for me so far. It was just a lot of information and I felt so overwhelmed. We had our first investigator meeting and it didn't go so well. It was just our teacher pretending to be an investigator. I just felt so discouraged.  And we met our zone president. President Webb and his wife are so nice. She's so small and he's so tall and they always hold hands. It's so cute. And then that night they asked us to be the new STLs. Right then I didn't realize how big of and honor and a blessing it actually was. 

We are the only sisters in our district which has its ups and downs. It's so funny because all the elders in our district always look out for us. On Friday or Saturday it was really rainy after class and we both forgot jackets. And as we were walking to our residence two elders ran up and gave us their umbrellas, it was probably the sweetest thing. 

Sunday was amazing. I have never felt the spirit so strong before. It was fast Sunday and we had testimony meeting in a classroom which was interesting. Everyone bore there testimony and it was so amazing. 

Yesterday we had our first real investigator. She was so nice her husband and her parents are members but she just has a hard time with faith. She wants to see to believe and that was very hard. She will read the book of Mormon but she said praying will be the hardest thing for her. So we're trying to figure out what to say to her on Wednesday.

The food here is good. It's so dense though. I can't eat a lot or I'll get too full too fast. I feel like we're always in the cafeteria though. Time goes slow in there. We had taco bell last night so I was so happy about that. We have pizza Friday, every Friday. But dinners at 4:30 so around 7 were so hungry. But there's a vending machine that has the best pesto salami sandwiches and fresca. Mmm just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Haha! 

Long story short I really love it here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. I never knew how much goes into being a missionary before even entering the mission field. I love it though, it does have hard times but it will be worth it I hope.:)

I want everyone to email me though the week even though I can't respond until Tuesday. I want to hear you, what's going on in everyone's life. I think that's the hardest thing being away is not knowing what's going on so please email me!!!

Picture of us on Sunday a walk to the temple. One on my right is my companion, one behind her with the black dress is sister Ashcraft(stl) one in front of me with the white pink dress is sister Totally, the one next to her in all black is her companion sister Gail, and the one in front of both of the. Is sister fillet (stl) those are all my room mates. 

This is the view of our classroom window. Super cool to see the mountains up close and hear traffic during lessons.

The dropoff at the MTC

Kaytlynn is ready to serve in the Washington Spokane mission

 The drop off at the MTC...

Brynlie is having a hard time letting go!

Jed says goodbye...

 And there she goes...

	Wed, Apr 4, 1:44 PM
Kaytlynn's first email to us from the MTC.

I made it to the MTC ok. there are so many people its like the temple, I like it though. I had trouble getting my 

phone ready but that's the only trouble. My P days are on Tuesdays so that's fun.

 I just want to let you know I'm well taken care of and I have a top bunk :)