7-25-2013: Sometimes, I like to wear stretchy pants in my room...

Sometimes, I like to wear stretchy pants in my room...

Why, hello family! 

I officially only have a week and a half until Im in the field--CRAZY, right?? I LOVE the MTC, but sometimes we forget that there are people outside these walls that don't wear suits and skirts every day... :)

This week was a little bittersweet because we had to say good-bye to the first district  in our zone we've ever gotten close to.  Most of them went to Puebla, Mexico and a few went to Guatemala.  It was kind of sad because we miss spending time with them (Volleyball and 4-square will never be the same!  I guess that now means that I actually have to go work out during gym time or something...)  BUT, they are all going to be such great missionaries! 

So funny thing happened this week.  Hermana D and Hermana A-h in our room have been having issues with their departure date from the MTC and they had to go and fix it a few times.  So Tuesday morning at about 4:50 am there was an urgent knock at our door.  I was the only one to hear it AND register the fact that it needed to be answered, so I got up and answered the door (in all my sleepy-time glory--my hair was everywhere, my stretchy-pants were twisted, only one of my purple fuzzy socks was on...).  To my surprise, it was not a burglar, or a fireman, or Hermana C from next door asking if Hermana B wanted to go running.  Actually, it was a male security guard.  This is how the conversation went:

Security: Hello, is Hermana D here, or has she already left for the travel office?

Me: Uhh...no, she's still here sleeping...

Security: Really? Because she was supposed to leave 20 minutes ago.

Me: They think she's 3 weeks mumble mumble mumble 6 weeks.

Security: (as he's practically running away...) Ok, I'll just tell them she's not leaving today.

So that was fun!  It's all straightened out now, but it was a nice, early morning adventure to start of the day right.  

Things are going well here and I'm LOVING it.  We spend most of the day in our classrooms, usually we have personal study for an hour, then breakfast, then class for 3 hours, then language study, then lunch, then class for 3 hours, then online language learning (we get to use technology! haha) then dinner then gym or something like that.  We have grown to love our classroom, and it's nice because since we're one of the outside buildings AND on the 3rd floor, we get a nice view of the mountains and the Y for BYU.  Unlike Mom, we don't really have charm school frequently, but we did have a 30 minute dress standards talk right after relief society on the first sunday.  The online language study tool is called TALL and it basically has all of these tasks that we'll do during lessons (ex: Invite someone to pray) and words, phrases, and grammar principles that we can study and practice and type out.  It's pretty nifty!

And the food--average. haha They have chicken cordon bleu sometimes which is my favorite!  And Sundays and Wednesdays they have ice cream, so that's pretty dope.  I have come to realize that my fairly low food standards are good, especially here.  But it's hard to complain because the staff is just doing the best they can to feed as many people as possible and they work so hard to do that.  So i'm grateful for the work they put into the meals.  

I met someone from my mission the other day!  She's serving somewhere else, but she's from Fort Worth and she loooves it.  Apparently it gets pretty cold in the winter because it's a wet cold, so that will be fun!  Otherwise, I haven't met a single person going to my mission or heard anything about the new president.  It will be a fun surprise when I get there!  

The spanish is still improving!  On monday, our entire district had "nuestro ayuno de ingles" or "our fast of english" so we tried to go the whole day speaking only in spanish and it went pretty well!  We're getting pretty good at translating movie quotes into spanish (Tengo el pulmon negro, Padre=I have the black lung, pop.  Zoolander, anyone?) and looking up the words we don't know in the dictionary.  I love spanish.  It's da beeest.

We're also improving in our teaching skills, I think!  The other day we did some practice teaching exercise and Hermana B and I had to teach our maestro, Hermano L/"Tom".  Afterwards he said "You sisters really are called of God because you were teaching to MY needs and telling me what I needed to hear." Which, to be honest, I was kind of shocked to hear!  I didn't feel like we were doing anything miraculous or special, we didn't share a whole lot, we just talked about ways he could improve his scripture study!  But that's the thing--we didn't do anything other than say the words the Spirit put in our minds.  The only way we taught to "Tom's" needs was by listening to the spirit, who KNEW what he needed to hear.  

Something that really touched me this week was on Sunday during Relief Society.  Rosemary Thackery was able to speak to us and this is something she said:

"God is mindful of us and He is in the details of our life."  

I feel this in every second of my life here and I know that this is so true.  Our Heavenly Father knows us so well and He is present in every part of our lives and wants us so badly to get to know Him.  

This work is so real and I am so lucky to be a part of it.  

Hurrah for Israel!

<3 Hermana Kate Blood

7-11-2013: What Day Is It?

What Day Is It?

HELLO FAMILY!

I loved the quotes that you both sent me, they are so perfect!  (Also, good thing you all have church in the afternoon, otherwise Mom would have been toast for that lesson! haha i'm sure it was an awesome lesson)

Also: Mom, you are a saint.  I know that was a super weird request, but I'm sure Elder Haney and my friend Elder Black will be excited out of their minds! You're the best! :)  And my entire district is pretty dang excited to devour that pan of brownies :) Thank you!

(Entire district: happy about the brownies)

This week I was talking to my friend Elder Langlois and he described the MTC like this:

"After the first week, there are only 3 days in the week.  There are Sundays, because we basically have devotionals all day, P-days, because we get to wear normal clothes, and the 3rd day--which is basically just every other day in the week rolled into one because they all feel the same."

TRUTH. haha, The MTC is the greatest place ever, but since we are doing basically the same thing every day (the same, very important learning!) it feels like one biiiiiiiiig day.  Prettttty stellar. 

So since last week was the 4th of July, and we got to watch A MOVIE (*gasp*) aka 17 miracles (woot woot jason celaya) AAAAAND the stadium of fire fireworks!  We were able to stay up past our bedtime to do it, too!  We just walked outside onto the street and watched them from the MTC campus, but it was still fun and patriotic!

There are 2 missionaries in my zone that are going to SF/Oakland mission in a few weeks, spanish speaking, but if you see an ELDER AHOY (he has a distinct laugh) or an HERMANA MILLER (she is the sweetest sister in the WORLD.) then say hello and give them some Blood love.  

ALSO, there's an Hermana Dubon in my zone who just got here yesterday and is in our room!  She says she knows Jake and Caleb and Michele from King Henry Days and is from Santa Clarita!  Small world. 

I love the Hermanas in our Zone.  Every night that we don't have something scheduled, we just sit and eat junk food and laugh and it's the best thing ever.  With all the packages we've ever gotten, we have this box FIIIILLED with food that is so heavy you can't even lift it...HAH.  i love it.

Hermanas!

Like 3 times a week, we get "Gym Time" which is also known as "Release your energy time so that you can go learn later" which is also known as "4-square time".  I haven't played 4-square since like 2nd grade, but i swear it is the most fun thing of my life, especially with missionaries!  The elders do not mess around when they are playing that game--they are ruthless! haha, but through my great athletic strategy and skill i earned myself the name of "Hermana Bloodbath" aka I'm terrible at the game and they just like my last name :)  

The Spanish is coming along!  I had a moment yesterday that after only 2 weeks, I'm capable of carrying on a basic conversation in Spanish and I'm wwaaaaaaay less nervous about giving lessons in Spanish.  I can pray and bear testimony, too.  THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS SO REAL. I am experiencing it every day.  We also stopped teaching our "investigator" Marco Antonio (slash our new teacher Brother Lowe) and now we're teaching "Kevin" (who is also brother Lowe but not because we treat him like a real investigator) and it's really a cool experience.  

This past week we had like a gazillion spiritual moments and it was the best!  We had our devotional in the Marriott Center on tuesday and Elder Kendrick (emaritus GA) said that there were how many missionaries there?

Guess.

3400. 

holy cow.  It was so cool.  I am so lucky to be a part of this amazing work at this amazing time!  The Lord is hastening His work and I get to see that happen.

Every Sunday night we get some time to watch a "movie" (or devotionals given by General Authorities at the MTC that have been recorded) so last Sunday we watched Elder Bednar's devotional "Character of Christ."  

If you haven't seen it or heard of it--find a way to do so.  It is the best thing of my life.  

Basically, he said that The Character of Christ is That Christ turns out in adversity with compassion towards other when you and I would turn in.  

He gave a few examples: one of them really struck me.  During the atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane, 3 apostles let him down twice by falling asleep, and 1 betrayed him to the Romans.  Even though he had been disappointed an betrayed by 4 of his 12 closes followers AND just endured paying the price for the sins, pains, afflictions, emotional and physical distresses of the entire history of mankind whoever had lived and would live, Christ turns around heals a Roman guard's ear.  One of the guards that would then take him to be tried and killed.  How remarkable.  

The atonement is so real.  I feel it every day as I try to humble myself and work as hard as I can to be the best missionary I can be.  I love being a missionary and I love this gospel.  The church is so true.

Have I mentioned how much I love you guys?  My family is da beeest.  (Nacho Libre anyone?)

Hurrah for Israel!  

All my love, 

Hermana Kate Blood

7-4-2013: Wearing Pants is Weird

Hola familia! 

Let me start this email with a business meeting:

1.) Apparently sperries are allowed

2.) So are maxi skirts as long as they don't cover your ankles...now I feel silly for turning down mom's offer to buy me those skirts in Cozy right before coming here...

3.) Elder Ferguson from my district said his Dad served in France Toulouse Mission!  Maybe you know him, Mom?

4.) THANK YOU for the package!  Those cookies were so delicious.  Saved my life. :)

5.) Thursdays are P-days for me! In case you couldn't tell ;)

Now onto my letter!

Shoutout to Sister Carlson for sending me some cute cards! They were lovely. AAAAND on our way to the Marriott Center for our Tuesday night devotional, I saw the Anderson family!  I guess they were just getting into their car after visitng the creamery, and all of a sudden I hear someone yell "Hermana Blood!" so I was able to give Sister Anderson a quick hug before I had to get back to my companions!

                                                              Kate arrives at the MTC!

 MYCOMPANIONS!

I have two.  There is Hermana Harris, who is 21 and from SLC and she is super cool.  She is also a Type 1 Diabetic, so I have a story to share about that later.  There is also Hermana Briggs who is also 21 and originally from Idaho, but has been living in NYC for the last year and a half.   They are both super sweet and I am learning a lot from them!  It's interesting though, because we get both ends of the age spectrum in our district-- 6 out of 7 of the Elders in our District are 18.  But they are all so spiritual and so ready and willing to work!  We LITERALLY (que Parks and Rec) have the best District ever. 

In the last week, I have seen approximately a gazillion people here from my home ward.  I see Elder Hardy quite frequently and I saw Elder Strobelt before he left for Texas this past week!  I see Hermana Woodruff from my FHE group alllllll the time along with Sectpa (sister) Garrett who will be going to Ukraine in a few weeks!  It's so fun to see so many people from BYU here, my companeras try to claim that I´m super popular but I have to remind them that I am the same age as all of my friends who are serving missions...haha. 

So...the MTC.  It is absolutely the best place ever and they have this process down to perfection.  When I first got here on Wednesday, i felt a little bit like a Sheep being shepherded through the various processes that I needed to go through (nametag, room, etc)  and then Thursday was probably the longest day ever because our Teacher, Hermana Heinzen (who is a rockstar by the way), was talking to us ONLY in Spanish, which made it a bit stressful and it was seriously sink or swim... But we were talking in class one day and Hermana Heinzen quoted Bruce R. McConkie and I swear she is inspired because this was EXACTLY what I needed to hear right then.  

"I am called of God.  My authority is above that of the Kings of the Earth.  By revelation I have been selected as a Personal Representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him-to stand in His place, to say and do what He himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.  My voice is His voice, my acts are His acts, my words are His words, and my doctrine is His doctrine.  My commission is to do what He wants done, to say what He wants said, to be a living, modern witness in word and in deed of His great and marvelous Latter-day work.  How great is my calling!"

How comforting to know that my imperfect Spanish and my imperfect teaching skills can be perfected through the Atonement of Christ so that I can be a messenger to the Children of God that are prepared for the truth that I have to share.

I am learning SO much here!  We had to teach our first "Investigator" (a teacher here at the MTC) on our 3rd day here IN SPANISH.   Suuuuuper stressful, but it was a really cool experience.  I am learning to be patient with myself and it's really cool to be experiencing the gift of tongues in that various words and principles of the Spanish language that I haven't studied in over a year are coming back to me during our lessons.  I also have the first vision memorized in Spanish, and that was perfect because I used it in one of our lessons with Marco Antonio (our "Investigator") and the Spirit was incredibly strong when I was able to recite it from memory.  The spirit is strong here in general, because on the main campus there are approximately 2,000 of the Lord's set apart missionaries.  How cool! 

Here are some quotes from the devotionals and class this past week:

"Faith in Jesus Christ means faith in His ability to change our investigators if they let Him."--Brother Avila, our Zone Teacher

"There are individuals that need you to be the missionary that the Savior knows you can be."--Matthew O. Richardson, 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency

This work is so important and I am so privilaged to have even the smallest part in it.  The church is so true, and I feel it every time that I bear testimony of it every day through word and deed. 

Some funny stories: 

On the first day, my companions didn't arrive until like 7pm for various reasons, so I had to be companions with the elders in my district!  During dinner everyone was looking at me like I was already breaking the rules...haha even though I was assigned to my elders as temporary companions. 

Also: because Hermana Harris is a diabetic, we need a fridge in our room to keep her Insulin (sp?) cold.  It hadn't come for like 2 days and she SERIOUSLY needed the fridge, so one of the wives of our Branch Presidency members compained to the front desk and finally, at 10:30pm on Friday night, we got an announcement in our hall over the intercom.  It said, "Sisters on the 3rd floor, there will be a male security guard entering your floor so please be decent accordingly."  WE BUSTED UP LAUGHING.   This poor security guard had to haul up 2 flights of stairs a mini fridge and of course AAAAALLLLLLL the sisters on our floor had their heads poking out to see this foreign man on our floor (as if we don't spend 16 hours a day with the Elders...).  When this guard had already carried this fridge up the stairs, the hermanas in the room next to us came out and said sheepishly, "Ummm, so I think there was a mistake because we had a fridge in our room all day and we don't know why..."  Poor guy....he hauled up that second fridge for no reason, there had only been a mistake in the delivery!   Me and Hermana Harris just started laughing, it was the funniest thing of my life. 

Missionaries are so funny.   Here are some examples:

Elder Marble (from a neighboring Zone): Hey Elder, check out my earlobes! They are so soft!

Elder Hill (from my District):  Hair just gets in the way of wisdom.  When you're bald, you are just open to wisdom from the Heavens.  <<<-------Thought Dad would like that one ;)

Elder Ferguson is from my District and he was helping to teach Marco Antonio about the law of Chastity.  He wanted to say that he knows it's hard to keep this law because there are so many beautiful girls in the world, but that he knows there are blessings from it.  Unfortunatly, he said that it was hard to keep this law because there are so many beautiful HERMANAS in the world.....bahahaha poor elder.  Good thing it wasn't a real investigator...

It's so fun to get those Dear elder letters!  I feel the love from however-many-miles away.  I love hearing how things are and it sounds like you all had a really great Sunday this week!  Sounds like Nat is working just as hard as Dad (chistes chistes....that means joke. haha)  And thankfully we haven't really felt much of that heat like Jake/Caleb and Michele have had to since we are in air conditioned classrooms basically all day :)  I also love the quotes and scriptures and thoughts you guys share, it's nice to hear more about what struck you throughout the week.  I love hearing from you and I look forward to hearing more about how things are going!  Let me know what else you want to hear about.  I may have to send you another letter (i sent one just this morning) since we have all day P-day to write letters but only an hour to email...wah wah.  But I look forward to hearing about everything that's going on! 

Hurrah for Israel! 

<3 Hermana Blood

P.S. this is the first time I've worn pants in 8 days and it's both nice and strange at the same time. 

P.P.S. I don't know how to send pictures yet...so I'll have to learn how to do that...

kbyeforreal

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