2012 End of the World?

Good thing I'll be sharing the gospel in 2012. I just realized the next time I talk to you will be next year.

Dear Family,

You'll have to forgive me because I don't know how much I'll be able to write. I'm at a member's house right now since the library is closed and am typing on an iPad. I don't know how you do it, Mom; I'm impressed. I just wrote my President's letter so I'm almost out of two-finger-typing steam.

Not much has happened since yesterday. Sister Fernandez is leaving to go on exchanges tonight so I have to find companions for tonight and tomorrow still. Yippee. I got a boatload of Christmas cards yesterday from my trainer Sister Carlos who went home at the beginning of December, my MTC companion Sister Worthen, Malinda, Jordan, Stacy, and Tracy! Everyone looks so great! I'd have to say my favorite Christmas card was from... No, I'm not going to tell you that. They're all beautiful and will soon be on my wall.

After I talked with you last night I put on my new pajama pants, my new mission t-shirt and my ladybug slippers from Lisa Van Gemert and put on some tunes Melissa sent and wrote some letters... While eating my Puerto Rican Taco Bell cinnamon tostadas. :) 

We've had 62 baptisms as a mission this month and have one week to reach our goal of 101! We have R lined up to be baptized on Friday if everything goes according to plan and hopefully the Ca family will be ready by Saturday. That would be a miracle!! A new year's eve miracle.

I love you all. My back is aching from using this iPad. I must be turning 25 soon or something. Next to go is the eyesight. :)

Love forever and for always,

Kates

Merry Christmas!

Mi hermosa familia,

We've been teaching an eternal investigator (his wife has been a member for 8 years) and I had the strong feeling last week that we were going to have 9 baptisms this month. We have one firm to be baptized this Thursday (S--he's 22 and is married to a member) and I talked to R (the eternal) after Sacrament and asked him when he was going to be baptized this week. He smiled and said he doesn't think it will be this week but next week, maybe. I saw it as a good sign with that smirk on his face. Sister Fernandez talked to him after church and he is firm for December 31! I'm really glad I talked to him right after sacrament meeting--the speakers from the stake were phenomenal; they talked about obedience and sharing the gospel and it was just perfect for so many of our investigators. I think we had only 10 investigators to church this week. Only 10. :)

We're still praying for the Ca family to be baptized this month!! They're going out of town on the 23rd and will be gone until Christmas. They're the family of 7 that we were hoping to baptize on Christmas Eve. The opposition is coming but we still have faith that they will be baptized. Sacrament, like I mentioned, was absolutely perfect, but gospel principles and Relief Society/Priesthood were very deep about the Millennium and exaltation. I kept thinking the whole time that Heavenly Father has a plan and that we can't lose faith--I love these topics; they're a little deep and confusing for investigators but I know everything will work out how it should.

We had our ward Christmas party on Friday and it was extremely fun. I played the piano for the program--different programs like the Young Women, Priesthood, a family kept giving me different songs to play at the last minute. I guess they think I'm one of "those" piano players. Well, it turned out fine and there was even a pinata at the end of the night filled with my favorite candy--Mexican candy with chile, of course! I crave that stuff like crazy nowadays. I even stole a little kid's mango gummy pop with chile. It made me smile because we've been having Christmas pinatas the past few years. :) Right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. The party was very well attended and so beautiful. This ward is amazing. It's actually made up of two cities, Tracy and Manteca. The elders (1 companionship) cover Tracy and we cover Manteca. The leadership in this ward is crazy ridiculous. They support us so well and always have someone ready to go to lessons with us. Everyone loves the Ca family and all of our investigators. It really is just one big family. It's great. They expect and require a lot from us but Sister Fernandez is a champ and we get along and are making a lot of progress.

Stacy wants to know more intimate details about my life. Well, last week was REALLY hard. It was my hardest week on the mission. Sister Fernandez expects a lot and I'm getting frustrated about my Spanish because hers is so beautiful and she teaches and explains so well that all I could do was get frustrated because I didn't feel like I could contribute anything more. I've been able to open my mouth a lot more. Oh, part of her responsibility as coordinating sister is that she has to visit each of the Spanish companionships plus one English companionship in the mission during a transfer. So she leaves me at night and for a day and so I have to find 4 companions to go out with me while she's gone on exchanges with the other sisters. Last week she was gone twice (Monday day and Tuesday day and Thursday night and Friday day). I go out with English sisters and Spanish sisters so I have to rule the lesson and know what I'm saying and control the phone and our plans. It's stressful but I'm hanging in there.

I love you all! I have no time but I will talk to you next week. Drink hot cocoa and look at Christmas lights for me. 

Hermana Brinkerina

new nickname from the zone

Wonderful Happens

Querida familia,

I lived with the sign language sisters for a few months and picked up a few signs here and there. The sign for 'miracle' is 'wonderful happens.' We've been praying since October for wonderful to happen this month, and we have seen miracles.

The C family went to Stockton to see Elder Bednar speak at their stake conference. I missed Elder Bednar by just two weeks! They haven't accepted a baptismal date yet but I know they'll get there! It would be a beautiful blessing to have a family of 7 be baptized this Christmas.

We have one baptism set for December 22 for a boy (he's 22) whose name is Sa. His wife is a member and they're expecting a baby in February. I'm so happy that they'll have the priesthood in the home--they're such a humble family but his wife Su makes us the absolutely best warm apple cider (with all sorts of things in it) with little treats every time we come over. I love it.

We taught about 26 lessons this week, which is out of this world. My companion is the energizer bunny, and my rechargeable battery doesn't charge as fast as hers. I'm trying to keep up! We've been able to accomplish a lot of our goals, and I feel like this letter is just really empty--sorry about that.

We're waiting to hear from Ra whose wife is also a member if he wants to be baptized this month. He has two sons going on missions within the next few years and it would be wonderful for them to see their dad baptized before they leave.

The temple day we had last week was GREAT! We had a Christmas program before we went to the temple--complete with readers and hymns. I was the chorister so I got to lead all the Christmas songs--nothing better than that. The temple is beautiful and I felt a great spirit there. I'm grateful for the blessings of the temple and for missionary work so that other families can experience the joy within.

Sorry I didn't have loads of time to write--my president's letter was a novel but the good thing is that it actually sent this week. Love you all!! Merry Christmas. I'll talk to you on the phone in a few weeks. :) Come up with some good brain busters for me.


Love,

Hermana Brinkerhoff

Miracles

Familia,

Yes, I'm still playing the piano, so your dream has come true, Mom. The sister I replaced (who just finished her mission and returned home to Oak Cliff) played the piano. Wee.

This ward is AMAZING! It's the Monte Vista ward. Already we've gone out with several sisters to lessons. I think I met 5 sisters these past 5 days simply from teaching. Sister Fernandez is rockin' the member present lessons. We had 12 investigators to church yesterday, and sacrament meeting was wonderful. We ended a little late because so many people got up to bear their testimonies. A few families went to the temple to be sealed this past weekend, so it was beautiful hearing their testimonies.

We have a family of 7 who we're teaching--la familia C. They're beautiful! I can't believe how beautiful they all are. And they already look like members of the church. P (the mother) is set and ready to be baptized--we're just waiting for V to receive a confirmation. She feels the Spirit so strongly during our lessons and at church and when she reads and everything and he is waiting to have that same confirmation. We're hoping and praying that they are ready by December 24 to be baptized. We invited them to the Stake Conference in Stockton this weekend with Elder Bednar--Patricia told us that she'd like to have Elder Holland baptize her. :) She heard him in General Conference and was so moved by his power and spirit. Sadly I don't think Elder Holland will be here! ;) She's so great.

We're teaching R who is married to a member. He knows the Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. He drives his mother to mass during the second and third hours of church so he's not able to stay the whole time. He's very loyal to his mother and her (and his childhood) beliefs. He will be baptized--we just have to discern his needs and address them. He's also reading the Book of Mormon and is working on the Book of Mormon issue of the Ensign (Liahona). We'll get him baptized this month! We have a goal as a companionship to have 10 baptisms this month. Mom, we'll have to come up with something else other than scriptures if that's the case. And let's hope and pray that is the case!!!

Thank you for the package. Ahhh I love everything in it! I love the David Archuletta CD. I love the coat. The boots are so comfy and the headband and scarf are darling. With music, I have a lot of church music on my laptop--if someone could just make some burned CDs that'd be great. I didn't bring any CDs, just my iPod. I already have the music! The Christmas devotional was wonderful.

Ok I love you all. It's weird that this is my first Christmas without y'all. What's even weirder is thinking about how I'll be calling you on Christmas. I think of that once every week and still think it's strange. :) Hopefully I'll have something to talk about.

Welp, I'm off to Lard

Hi Pretty People,

That's right--I'm being transferred tomorrow and am so so so excited about it! I'll be companions with the coordinating sister, Sister Fernandez, like I thought. She had FIFTEEN investigators to church on Sunday--count it up. 15. We had 0. That was really disappointing for us! But I know the Stockton sisters will see miracles during December so they can have their own White Christmas. It's going to take a lot of hard work with Sister Fernandez; she doesn't mess around--I love it. I'm preparing myself to be overly exhausted and stressed but am really looking forward to it! I'm ready to work. I've been working, of course. You know what I mean. Mom, I am going to Manteca! Manteca means lard in Spanish--yummy. Sister Fernandez says "jummy." :) I've heard the ward is solid in Manteca, so we'll see how this goes! Is it bad that I had sighed with relief about not having to play the piano? Especially with Christmas songs?

I spent a long time writing to President Lewis today in my President's letter (probably my longest and best letter) so I don't have a lot of time to write. And then my letter was lost--system error. Rawr--I'm still a little frustrated about that, but I'll live and he'll live with my 5-line letter.

Umm I went to a wedding this week and then she was baptized the next day (elders' baptism). We went to three baptisms for the elders in the district, had a movie night for investigators (The Testaments--but we skipped out early to visit people). Dinner with the Shields was great--we've been keeping it on the down low--President didn't want us to tell anyone because he hasn't given anyone else permission to see family. We had dinner in a mansion with a lot of white people and American food and football was playing in the background--weird. Sorry I can't write more.

Things are great! Thanks for your letter, Mom. I love the "fly the flag---no more storage unit payment." :)

Love you,
Hermana Brinka

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mi hermosa familia,

 Happy Turkey Day! Here, we call Thanksgiving "el dia de pavo," or "turkey day." :) I'm still not sure how to say Thanksgiving... I think I have an idea, though. This morning we played "frasketball," or football in the gym and shoot the ball into the basket. We then played soccer--after 7 weeks of not playing soccer because of my ankle, I'm back in the game. Right now I'm at the Hixson's home where we had Thanksgiving breakfast as a district! They feed us every Sunday night (9 of us) and are so gracious. We had waffles and crepes, which took me back to BYU with Berkeley! Crepes will always remind me of the Kershisnik family.

Mom, I received your scripture package yesterday! I had to pay a little fee because they don't forward boxes if they're not sent with Priority mail (just FYI). We took the scriptures in the scripture case (thank you!!!) over to her last night and she looked like a 5-year-old kid in a candy store. She was so thrilled! I loved seeing her reaction. She opened the Bible and said, ooohh La Santa Biblia. And then she opened the Book of Mormon--La Perla de Gran Precio?! Ahh la Doctrina y Convenios! El Libro de Mormon! She was so grateful for them. She told me to tell you and Dad muchiiisimas gracias. It's funny that A feels like my really good friend but also a mother figure because she was born in '53. She is so great, and I know the scriptures will go to GREAT use. She was so excited that her name was on them, too. She pointed it out and told us how her brother had scriptures with his name and just kept talking--I think she was overwhelmed with joy. :) I wrapped them in the zebra tissue paper you sent in one of my packages. And thank you for the Liahonas! Now I can read the Conference talks during my language study. Oh, and give them to investigators and recent converts, I guess... :)

Well, the mission experience is very taxing on the body and the mind, of course. I'm not going to cover that up. Here it seems like all my flaws are magnified times 100. But I'm trying to be exactly obedient to everything, have faith, say faithful prayers, get over myself and things that take my mind away from the work, and just get to work. I've been amazed by each new companion that I've had who have taught me new things--I've noticed that each new companion has prepared me for the next and am eager to see what the Lord has in store to teach me next. I think I'm going to be transferred on Tuesday to a place called Manteca, but I could be totally wrong! It would be a great change because I'd be with Hermana Fernandez who's the coordinating sister and from the Dominican Republic. She is the best missionary--she's a convert of 3 years. I think she was born to be a missionary. I think my time is up in Stockton, but we'll see! It's been great with Sister Christensen and Sister Mason. I feel ready to take a huge leap to progress--I've been running through sand a little bit during this transfer--it's been a challenge, but I've seen a lot of miracles, one of which is the confidence I've gained in teaching in Spanish (although I still have a lot to work on. :) I was going to say I don't think I'll ever be fluent in Spanish, but I probably would have been chastised for saying that! At this point I'm just glad I can get along and add to the lessons and feel the Spirit while teaching.) If I do go to Manteca, I'll miss Elder Bednar coming to our Stake Conference in Stockton--bummer! Of course, right?!

I suppose now's a good time to tell you that I'm going to the Shields' for Thanksgiving! I wrote to President last week in my weekly President's letter and told him I knew he'd already considered it and told me I couldn't go but that now I really wanted to go and thought it'd be a good mission memory and that I knew it wouldn't distract me from the work and that Aunt Heidi and Uncle Eric were really looking forward to us coming... so he called me on Sunday and said that he woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my situation and felt like we're mature and responsible enough to go. I was so happy!! So Uncle Eric will be coming to our apartment to pick us up in a few hours and I'll get to see the family and their house--I'm really excited! I just love President Lewis. :) He's so wonderful--you can tell that he really does care about each and every one of us. I'm glad I was one of the first four missionaries who got to meet him in the MTC.

We went to visit a part member family last week (I'd never met them before--some elders in our district gave us their information a few weeks back) and ended up adding four of them as investigators. They are amazing!! L was baptized about eight years ago and has been to church here just once since he moved from Mexico. His wife (girlfriend) M is so great--she gives us persimmons and sugar cookies and coke and donuts (the charity never ends)--and we added her daughter Ja and M's sister Pa and her husband Re. They basically tell us what to teach them every time we go over which is really handy. They said, "We have all these Church videos. Can we watch one together?" So we watched the Restoration and taught about what happened leading up to the Restoration and a little about the Book of Mormon. Next time they requested that we talk more about the Book of Mormon--luckily everything they suggest is already in our lesson plans. It's funny because they all (5 of them) talk at once and Ja (20) translates for us even though we understand everything that's going on and the lessons are very interactive and slightly overwhelming with all the talking and perfect at the same time. I love the Sa family! Pa and M came to church at 1 last week (and we were still there--our ward starts at 9--only because we were having a pot luck after church). They're planning on coming to a baptism this weekend and hopefully will be able to make it Sunday!

We also met a girl named Z this week who seems like a miracle. We've been dropping a lot of investigators that we just don't feel are progressing--it's hard to drop them because you want to hold on to each person--I can see their potential and what they can become. But with these drops I know Heavenly Father will bless us with people who will accept the message of the Restoration. It's also been a challenge getting all of our investigators to church, which is so necessary, but I know that with all our fasting and prayers and efforts that we'll be able to have a White Christmas in December. I'm hoping that my companionship can contribute to the 101 baptisms!

Well I love you all. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you are. I'll call you from the Shields' house. I'm kidding--I won't.

Love,

Hermana Brinkenfor

(I don't know why, but they all read my tag and say that. It's a mystery to me.)

Every day's an adventure

Familia,

Every day is definitely an adventure. I'm sorry I don't have time to tell you about all the amazing missionary experiences we have, but I have to tell you the story of driving home on Thursday night. We were coming home from trying to contact a potential family. Sister Christensen turned to me while she was driving and said, "Oh my gosh. My nose is bleeding." What? And I looked over and she was covering her nose. She was wearing my favorite outfit of hers and I couldn't bear seeing it ruined with blood (not to mention we're driving a new car, so I didn't want blood all over the seat). So what did I do? I put my hands under her chin and started to catch the blood. I'm sorry--I should have warned you that this story includes blood and if you get queezy, don't read. Yes, there we were--Sister Christensen driving and covering her nose, but her nose was just not drying up. She started laughing and all I could do was laugh, which made it worse. I ended up catching most of it but a lot still got on her clothes (which I washed out with water and then we threw it in the washer and saved her cute outfit). After we pulled over, I ordered our other companion Sister Mason to hand me some future investigator sheets because we didn't have napkins or kleenex or anything. I told her to open our car doors because we were just covered in red--of course it was locked so I shimmied over to open it with my foot. Sister Christensen said, "My blood is literally on your hands!" We'd just heard someone talking about having someone else's blood on your hands. Maybe Sister Christensen will let me send you a picture of the aftermath. It was ridiculous! Mission memories mmm.

We had a Sister's Training on Saturday morning--learned a lot and need to step it up a notch. Something that stood out to me that Sister Lewis talked about was how we can only develop Christlike attributes through Christ's help. We need to pray for His help in acquiring things like charity and love, patience, diligence, humility, obedience. We don't need to develop them all at once, but developing Christlike attributes comes one decision, one action at a time.

We then had a training from President Martinez (counselor in the mission presidency who is over the Spanish missionaries) after church yesterday. Learned a LOT more and now we need to contact 100 people this week. We contacted about 60 this week and have contacted like 76 on our best week, so we have a lot to work on but he gave a wonderful promise that we'll have our White Christmas (mission goal of 101 baptisms in December) if we contact 100 people this week. We have to do it! I'm grateful for his promise and I know that the Lord has prepared people to receive the gospel--we just need to be better, more prepared servants to find and deliver that message with power and authority from God. We can't fear man and what they can do--no matter how badly they treat us--but we need to do our Father's will. I love thinking about things from an eternal perspective. This life makes so much more sense and I have a lot more confidence and love for my Heavenly Father as I think about the things I'm doing each day from an eternal perspective.

I'm in love with the Book of Mormon. I'm hoping and praying that we can bring souls unto Christ as a gift for Him this Christmas. Maybe we could all give a Book of Mormon to a friend as a gift this year--just a thought. But they'll receive salvation! I'm grateful for this gospel and for the hope and happiness and joy it brings into my life.

I love you all.

Love, kates

Southern Zones - Sacramento Mission - November 2011
Katy is on the bottom row, on the right

A Week of Miracles

Querida familia,

Well this week has been going great. A lot of the elders in our zone and district and sisters in our apartment were sick. We've been fighting it, and we ended up adding 8 investigators last week. That's right--count it up. That was a miracle! We actually had five in one day, which was amazing. Our goal for a typical week is usually to add three new investigators, so we're really excited to get our investigator pool moving a little bit more. We have a few investigators who are turning into what seems like "eternals," but President Lewis reminded us in his weekly email to "be bold because you love." Each of our investigators' situations is so unique, but ultimately it comes down to keeping the commandments and following Christ. I have been really bold with them, but I'm going to try to be more bold because I love them. I want to see a few more miracles before I leave Stockton. (She thinks she'll be transferred on November 28th).

Something neat that we get to do here is go on Mormon.org for two hours a month, so we're getting on for 30 minutes per week at the Family History Center in our Stake Center. We invite everyone to visit our website every day, so as missionaries we get to scope out what they're going to see. It's very well made with great videos. Y'all should make Mormon.org profiles--I actually got to see Stacy's profile the other day; that made me really happy--especially because she talked about her reactive arthritis and how the gospel of Jesus Christ has helped her cope with the challenges of this and everything else in her life. I know that this is the way--that what we teach every day is true. The gospel of Jesus Christ really does help physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I'm grateful to be engaged in so great a cause. I'm grateful for my testimony of such simple things--of faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, the power of prayer, keeping the commandments, the Book of Mormon. This is so missionary of me, but I'm sad in the morning at the end of my personal study when I have to stop reading the Book of Mormon. I wish I could read that book for hours and hours. It means so much more to me on my mission--I'm grateful for the application it has for me in my life and that I can teach others how it applies and can bless their lives.

So... Jo. We went to church with him last Friday. Yes, we got permission from President to drive to Lodi to go to church with him and his family because he invited us. It was great--different from our church. It was like a great Bible study. We got there and people were praying all over the room and crying and singing--that lasted for about an hour and then we all got in a circle and read from John 12. The person in charge had Jo introduce and Jo was so excited to introduce his friends--I am Hermana Brinkenfort or something. :) So typical. I really have resorted to introducing myself as Hermana Brinca. And then they always to tell me to jump ('brinca'). We then went to Jo's mother's restaurant the next day as a district and he said that 9 angelitos (angels) were in the restaurant that day. :) Half of the congregation of his other church works at his mother's restaurant. Yikes! But they're all so nice. I pray we'll see a miracle with him!

Let's see--right now we're working with a lot of people, but I'll name a few. Na and El are sisters whose mother is a member in Arizona--they want to be baptized. Ma has had the Book of Mormon for over 20 years--we need a miracle with him! Pe has an adorable family and we have an appt to teach them Wednesday night. Then there's Au who we taught the Plan of Salvation and sang 'Familes Can Be Together Forever' the first time we met her--yeah... sisters do that. Ya has been an investigator for over a year but we just picked her up again to start teaching her. La just needs to get married and then we can baptize her! She wants to get baptized! We're working on the marriage part. Jo--you know him. And I have a pic of him I can send home this week! Ma and Ca--we haven't been able to teach her because she got about five spider bites... And Ve whose husband is a member--a little less active, but he's going to return. And then there's Je who's on vacation in Mexico right now, but we'll get him when he returns.

We're so excited for all these people and are praying to find those who are truly prepared and ready to accept the gospel. We still have a goal as a mission to baptize 101 truly converted people in December to finish out the year with 800 baptisms. Thank you for your prayers for me and for all the missionaries. I love you! I hope you are well. Que le vaya bien. :)

Love,

kates

Happy Halloween!

Querida familia,

Happy Halloween! Today is a full Pday. At 5 p.m., our zone is going to a members' home for dinner and then we're going to the church to watch the movie 17 Miracles. I didn't want to be in our apartment tonight as trick-or-treaters knocked on the door (how is that fair that we can avoid people like that yet we knock on doors every day? :) It's better this way!) I'm really happy to have a full preparation day--we've been so tired lately and need it so badly. Why?

... Because we had a baptism on Thursday! My very first baptism! Sister Carlos and I started teaching her, and Hermana Christensen and Hermana Mason and I finished it! I feel like she's mine because I was with her the whole time. Her name is A and she is staying with her daughter right now, who is a recent convert and just had a baby, and she'll be returning to Mexico in December. Thursday was such a crazy day--we went to the church building in the morning to prepare and print the baptismal programs, went home for lunch and to buy some cookies for refreshments, went back to the church (after trying to visit a few more people), started filling the font, got everything arranged, baked cookies, printed off the hymns (it's hard finding Spanish hymnbooks in English wards), and all the little details in between. It was so beautiful. A's father, E, is also in town with her from Mexico; he was baptized last year in our mission (we're stealing all their baptisms!) and this was his first time baptizing anyone. It was a special experience for the whole family. I was running around all day that I didn't even have time to prepare the missionary moment, but I wasn't too worried about it--sharing the gospel is what we do every day, right? So I told about the restoration of the gospel, the Book of Mormon, and shared my testimony. Unfortunately I made another Spanish flub. I was explaining how the bishop and A's father both have the priesthood, but instead of saying "el papa de A," I said, "la mama de A tiene el sacerdocio" because I'd been telling everyone that A, "la mama de S," was getting baptized. Yes, I told everyone at the baptism that A's mom has the priesthood. Of course I meant her father--Hermana Christensen was the one who noticed, but we don't think anyone else caught it. Yikes. A has such a beautiful testimony and when I asked her if she wanted to share it after her baptism, she said yes! I haven't heard any of the recent converts share their testimonies at their baptisms, so I felt this was a really special thing that she was so willing to share hers. When she was sharing her testimony, I was sitting next to a woman who the elders had just met and invited to the baptism. She wanted to clap after A had finished. :) Yep, it was that great. And then what could be better than taquitos after a baptism? S made tacos, which sure beat our cookies!

Speaking of food, I'm turning Hispanic. I crave Mexican candies with chile, I love jalapenos, I'm always in the mood to eat pan dulce (sweet bread), and we just ate queso fresco (cheese) with honey and a tortilla this week. Yum. Not to mention arroz con leche (rice pudding!), and basically any food with chile. Of course I love the people, the emphasis on family, and the sacrifices they make to take care of their families.

Anyone remember my very first contact in Stockton--Je? Well, the first time we taught Je was August 1 and we haven't really been able to contact him since then. We dropped by his house again last Friday and he was home! And he'd remembered some of the things I'd taught him earlier and was eager to meet with us again. We went back last night and set up a time to meet with him again on Tuesday. It was a miracle! Doors have been opening for us left and right this transfer. We baptized A, we were able to meet with Jo again, and we found Je after thinking he'd moved! I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father keeps His promises--that if we're faithful and continue to work, we will see miracles.

Elder Yamashita from the Seventy and his wife spoke to us at Zone Conference this week. He taught us about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel and gave us some missionary training. His wife is the cutest little thing and taught us how to make origami mouths to remind us to open our mouths and they will be filled with the words we should say. I believe the scripture she used was in D&C 33. Oh, and she promised us that we can strengthen our companionships by writing a list of 100 things we love about our companion, which means we have to write 200 things with three of us!

I love you all. If you need a little boost, read Helaman 5--that's what I read this morning, and I told my companions the same thing. I love the Book of Mormon. I'm so grateful that we have this testament of Jesus Christ, and I'm grateful that Heavenly Father really does listen to prayers and that the Holy Ghost teaches us the things we need to know in the very moment we need it, if we have open hearts. I love my Savior. Without Him, I wouldn't feel this inner joy about life. I'm grateful for this time I have to share the gospel with the Latinos of Sacramento. This time truly is sacred.

Love,

kates

It's a party around here

Buenos dias familia,

I was trying to come up with a creative subject in my head. A few days ago I thought about, "Our two became three" and then decided that sounded bad... so I'll just state the truth and say it's a party around here. I guess I should now say that we're three white girls stormin' Stockton speaking Spanish. Last Monday I told you that I was going to be with Hermana Christensen. Mom, she's great! We get along so well. She's from Orem, UT and she's 21. She just turned 9 months on her mission last week, so we took pregnant pictures (TMI? :/... :) and got Frosty shakes to celebrate!

Well, on Tuesday Sister Carlos and I drove up to the office in Fair Oaks to drop her off and to pick up Sister Christensen. We got to see all the new missionaries come and when the new ones walk into the chapel we sing Called to Serve Sacramento style. At the last minute they said, "Does anyone play the piano? Elder Watko, do you play? Elder Hafauno?" And then someone turned and said, Sister Brinkerhoff plays. At the moment I was looking at Sister Carlos with a panicked look on my face and said, "Sister, we need to go to the bathroom right now." Why do my emails always turn into piano talk? Kids, practice hymns now so you'll be pro when you go on your missions! So I was drafted by my President to play the hymn I've never conquered. It turned out ok. Actually, it was horrible but I'm still alive to laugh about it.

And it turns out that we're a trio! President made a few changes at the last minute and didn't call me on Monday to tell me that Sister Mason from Ogden, UT would also be with us. Sister Mason's been out 8 months, and I'm almost 5. That was a really big shock and really fun, or interesting..., putting a third bed in our room. There are six sisters living in our apartment now because the English/sign language sisters are also a trio. Woowee--party... Sister Mason is on the front row of the sisters' luncheon picture* with curly brown hair. I think she's to Sister Lewis's left in the picture. We get along really well, and what we lack in Spanish we make up for with enthusiasm.

The neat thing about this past week is that I've been blessed with the gift of tongues. Or else I was blessed with more courage--one or the other. I'm the only one in our companionship who has served in Stockton so I'm the navigator, I'm the one who knows all the members and investigators and potentials and stories and places and apartments--everything. I was nervous about the language because Sister Carlos said I'd probably have a native speaker as my follow-up trainer. But things are going surprisingly well. I'm understanding people on the phone (who knew that could be so much harder?), and I can teach lessons but really say the things that I'm feeling rather than just the things in Preach My Gospel. The sisters keep telling me that I speak really well, but they don't understand how much has changed in just a few days. I know that Heavenly Father listened to my prayers and has given me the strength to do what he asks. I just needed to be stretched a little.

Our first lesson together was with M. We were able to teach M twice last week, and I was very bold with him on Saturday. Usually we can't get through the lesson because the lesson goes this way and that way. Well, I put down my foot and made it through teaching the message of the restoration. We invited him to church once again and he came! He walked to church! I was a little nervous at first because it was the Primary Program and I didn't know how he'd like that, but he enjoyed it! I played 11 songs in Sacrament Meeting yesterday--do I get a prize? M is now progressing and I'm looking forward to our lessons with him this week. He's been investigating/he's had a Book of Mormon since about 1988 or 1992.

We saw J this week!! He says that he really likes the Church and that he wants to come back. His daughter just doesn't like coming for some reason (she's 5 and we've tried everything. Play dough (how do you spell that?), chocolate, coloring books, Barbies.) It makes him sad/frustrated that she doesn't like church, but hopefully something will change. He wants to come back! And we want him to continue progressing. So that's one of our many miracles for the week--finding and teaching J!

On Tuesday we did service for L--we unloaded her van that was full of dirty dishes and table cloths and chocolate fountains. She put on a quinceañera recently (the one we helped set up), and then we got to carry hundreds of pounds back into her house. 

Did I mention that I hurt my ankle a few weeks ago during Pday soccer? Yeah... Mom, you asked about my health. I have a hurt ankle, but I'm still walking and I ran a mile today. The mission nurse thinks I have a pulled muscle, so nobody tell her that I'm running on it. It doesn't hurt when I use my normal range of motion, but I haven't played soccer for the past two weeks because if I twist it it really hurts. I was goalie when an elder (my zone leader) kicked it--I kicked it away with the outside of my foot and it bent the wrong way. I was in excruciating pain; it was so bad. But don't worry--I'm fine. I just have a fat ankle, but it's healing.

On Wednesday, I told my companions that there was no way I was going to two or three dinners in one night--other missionaries have talked about having to do that. Shouldn't have said that because after dinner on Thursday night one of our recent converts called and said, "Are you coming to dinner now?" Yikes! We drove to dinner #2 because her mom is our investigator. And we invited her mom to be baptized and she said yes! Why did I wait so long to say this? A IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED! I'm going to have a baptism! We need to finalize plans because opposition is already coming into play and schedules are clashing and so on, but we're really going to do this. And I'm going to see Sister Carlos again because she'll come back for the baptism! She hasn't heard the news yet. I'm really happy for A--she's most interested in families being sealed for eternity. She's here to help her daughter who just had a baby and is going back to Mexico in December. We've been really fortunate to teach her. She has such a beautiful spirit and loves to learn. Every time we go to her house she goes to the closet and pulls out her Bible and Book of Mormon and asks what we're going to teach that day. :)

Elder Yamashita is coming this week for our Zone Conference! He spoke about missionaries in this last conference--and I need to read his talk in English because I listened to it in Spanish. And they announced in our ward yesterday that Elder Bednar is coming for our stake conference! But it's next transfer, so cross your fingers that I stay in Stockton for a 4th transfer because I really want to see Elder Bednar speak!

On Saturday we participated in a stake service project--Helping Hands. We picked up trash along a bike trail behind the Stake Center and painted the fence and bike path that's been grafitti'd. It turns out that one of the elders' investigators went to high school with a friend of mine from a BYU ward and also our cousins.

Things are going really well with the people we're teaching. We're praying for and seeing miracles in the work. I'm grateful to be serving in the Sacramento Mission and to be learning Spanish. The missionaries here are amazing and the people in Stockton are even better. I know that what we're teaching and testifying about every day is true. This is the church of Jesus Christ on the earth. Joseph Smith restored his gospel on the earth and translated the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ. I know it is true and love reading it. I read about the 2,000 stripling warriors this morning--how they had never fought before but that their mothers taught them if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. I feel like that as a missionary. If I do not doubt I will see miracles. I will be able to accomplish the things I was sent here to do, and that is to bring souls unto salvation.

I love you all. Have a beautiful week.

kates

*I'll add the picture soon. 

Halloween in Stockton

And Thanksgiving...

Hola familia,

It's official. I'll be having Halloween and Thanksgiving in Stockton. Yes!!! I'm so happy! We got transfer calls last night (they're usually Monday night but they had to reschedule), and I'm staying in Stockton for my third transfer. Sister Carlos is going to Folsom English speaking for her last transfer before she goes home to Indiana. My new companion is going to be Hermana Christensen (I sent a pic home of all the sisters in my mission--Hermana Carlos is on my left and Hermana Christensen is on my right with the short red hair). All the elders in my district/zone said that she's great--laughs a lot and has a lot of energy. It'll be interesting to have two white girls stormin Stockton in Spanish. Hermana has been out like 9 months I guess? Haven't figured it out yet. I'm 5 months next week--wow.

Stace, an hermana in our ward is from Chile. We went to her house for dinner last week, so I got to try the typical Chilean dish. We started off with half an avocado stuffed with tuna and something else--can't remember. Just that day I told Hermana Carlos that I was allergic to avocado. Well, with divine help I ate the avocado (and it was delicious), and Hermana Carlos told me my mouth was turning red around my lips. They started burning a little, but it burned so good. We thought that was it, but no. We had a HUGE dish of chicken, potatoes, and veggies. We were so stuffed. And THEN she brought out dry peaches in peach juice (I know, doesn't sound right), with like oats. The dinner was amazing but I was so full.

A miracle happened last week!! L, one of our investigators, wants to be baptized but her husband/bf doesn't have an ID...any form of ID. Nada. I made a few calls and we can go up to Sacramento and get a marriage license if they have two credible witnesses with ID's! Yay! So we'll be going with them to get their marriage license most likely in November when her children are on Thanksgiving break and they have more time. And then she'll be able to get baptized--after a year of lessons!

Mom, you mentioned that you just had the Primary Program yesterday. Ours is next week. We REALLY need that self-playing piano. All right, I can play the piano, right? I make a few mistakes here and there. I'm playing 8 songs in the Primary Program and with virtually no time to practice the songs I feel like I do pretty well. I mess up all the time but I'm all we've got. A 5-YEAR-OLD told me, "I heard you can't play the piano very well." His mom's a recent convert and his grandma is one of our investigators so I resisted the urge to say anything. Boo! Haha Where can we buy that piano that plays on its own? I will use my own funds to purchase one of those dream machines.

We added a few new investigators last week--M and M--so I'm excited to start teaching them with Hermana Christensen. Our mission is pushing for 101 baptisms in December, so we're trying to focus on that and get the support of the ward. It's going to be a "White Christmas" in Sacramento, California. (Because you wear white when you are baptized...) :)

Something that I've been thinking about a lot lately is mercy and justice--chapter 42 of Alma. Just like one of our investigators, M, said, we need to start our scripture study with a prayer because only then will we start to learn things we'd never thought about or learned before. It's like the scriptures are actually speaking to you when you start off with a prayer to seek answers. Anyway, something I really liked is that it talks about how some may think it's unjust for a sinner to be punished. That sounds so bad. :) But anyway, we know there is a law with a punishment fixed. Heavenly Father has to be a just God, but he's also merciful--but mercy can't rob justice. There needed to be an infinite sacrifice. Jesus Christ died for us so that we can obtain that mercy if we have faith--and we partake of the mercy through repentance. If we have repented, God will be merciful at the last day during judgment. I thought that was so neat; how we have a perfect plan and that we can partake of that plan by following the first principles and ordinances of the gospel--it's so simple yet so profound.

Well, thanks for letting me share. I love you all. 

kates

Hello Rain

Hola mi familia bonita,

Thanks for the emails! I heard from my friend Nicole, Stacy, Verna, and Mom.

P-day(preparation day)--we have zone sports from 6-8 am, we do emails for an hour, go to Walmart to shop, do laundry, try to squeeze in a nap, clean with the little energy we have, eat lunch and dinner. Yeah, that's pretty much it. We don't have a visitors' center at the temple--being a temple VC missionary would be cool... which reminds me...

You can see the Spanish Temple Tour my mission did a few weeks ago. http://lds.org/church/news/sacramento-temple-night-unites-missionaries-members?lang=eng  I haven't had a chance to read the article, but the second elder to the left, Elder Villar, is in my district. I haven't served with the other elders.

Last Sunday the Laotian elders asked me if "Bishop Shields" was my uncle. Uncle Eric? Yes! How do you know him?? They told me that he works at the institute building right next to our Stake Center! So I caved... before our correlation meeting on Wednesday night I went and surprised Uncle Eric. He said, "Hello sisters" as we walked in the door. When he recognized me he said, "Oh hellloooo sisters!" And then called me by my first name. That was strange. :) I was so nervous that I forgot to tell him to tell Aunt Heidi and Camryn and Clay and everyone else hello. We'll see if President lets me eat Thanksgiving dinner with them. Hopefully! That was a fun surprise.

Last week we had our first rain day. We were on a main street contacting, far from our car, when he started pouring. Sister Carlos and I got absolutely soaked, and some elders in our district passed by in their car and had the audacity to text us: "How are you enjoying the rain? We're enjoying it in our nice, dry car." Mom, I'll be able to buy some rain shoes here.

We had a great district meeting this week. Our zone leaders invited us to bear our testimonies, which was perfect because I'd had an amazing personal study that morning and the spiritual high just continued. I decided that morning that Alma 26 is one of my favorite missionary chapters. Alma 26:5-7 (I'll let you look it up!), 22, 27, 35-37. I just loved that chapter because we really do have reason to rejoice--we have the gospel, and I have the wonderful opportunity of dedicating 18 months to sharing it. I haven't had a baptism yet, but verse 22 promises that if we repent, have faith, good works, and pray continually, we can bring thousands of souls to repentance.

Hopefully we'll have a baptism this Saturday! L needs to get married but we have to find her husband's ID first. Pray pray so hard for her! We need to find that ID and get her married so she can get baptized this Saturday!!

I know the church is true. I know you can feel closer to God and feel of His goodness and the peace and power of the gospel by reading and pondering and praying about the Book of Mormon. The Ensign this month is amazing--everyone needs a copy.

Love you all,

kates

"The sun never sets on the work of the Lord"

Mi familia,

Thanks for the email, Dad! I really liked Sister Elaine Dalton's talk yesterday about how fathers can show love for their daughters. I was so happy to see your email today. Sister Dalton said that the best way to raise a daughter is to love her mother. Thank you for always doing that, Dad. I completely agree with Sister Dalton--I've been blessed by your example in the home.

The mission office wanted me to remind anyone who sends a package that it should be sent through the U.S. Mail so that they can forward it to our areas--otherwise I'll have to wait until someone brings it from the mission office to my area to receive it.

A lot of you have been asking about how J's doing. Things were going really well with him, but we sensed that his wife was feeding him anti literature. We bore our testimonies to him, which was very powerful, and encouraged him to be strong despite all the adversity in his life. We had, and still have, so much faith in him. At this point we're pretty sure that he's avoiding us. We haven't been able to contact him for almost two weeks, which breaks our hearts. He knows that the church is true. He is confused with certain aspects of the gospel, but he knows that what we teach is the truth. Hopefully once he's had a little time to think about it, he will desire to feel the Spirit again and want to learn more. Until then, all we can do is pray for him, that his heart will be open to receiving us. That's the update with J--we warned him that adversity would come, and unfortunately it did in full force. He'll come back.

This week we met with five investigators. We added a new investigator this week, E, and she is just the sweetest viejita. During our first lesson with her, I was telling her about how tenemos profetas en la tierra hoy-- we have prophets on the earth today. I can't remember the context of the conversation, but E heard "sierra" (mountains) instead of "tierra" (earth). She said, "Sierra?!!" Sister Carlos can't get over how funny that was. I guess my Spanish isn't quite that clear yet.

We taught another investigator this week who has been investigating the church for a year now. She wants to be baptized and just has to get married first--so that's the challenge now! Last year she didn't want to marry her 'husband' but now she wants to so that she can receive the blessing of baptism. She came to conference this weekend--you can always count on the prophet--and really loved everything she learned. After our lesson with her on Friday morning, she offered us some oatmeal. After eating the oatmeal, she asked if we'd like bread and jelly. I said, "Oh, estamos bien, hermana. Muchas gracias," which I thought meant "We're good. Thanks!" Well, we got the marmalade sandwiches. Then she offered us some pasta. Again, "estamos bien, muchas gracias." After the pasta, the same thing happened with garlic bread, beans, tortillas, and meat. And lemonade. I was so stuffed. I don't think I'll ever forget that lunch. But it just reminds me how blessed we are to have such gracious members of the Church and investigators who are so willing and want to serve us.

You might remember how I told you that in the MTC we taught our teachers as if they were investigators. Our teachers were "Laura," "Eva Marie," and "Jose." I just thought about it this week--I've taught a Laura, Eva, and Jose since I've been here. Just a funny coincidence. :) We also have a new investigator, M, who is so intelligent. He knows the Bible inside and out and even has multiple copies of the Bible, including one in Greek. It's been somewhat of a challenge teaching him just because he has question after question after question, when in reality, what he really needs to know and do is read the Book of Mormon and pray about its truthfulness. I continue to have questions about life, about the gospel, but I have that firm foundation--that knowledge and testimony that it's true--and my prayers are always answered. In order for your testimony to grow, you need to have that foundation that it's true--from there you can continue to nourish it, and it can grow deeper and stronger. The gospel is so simple, but you can also find those hidden treasures of knowledge as you continue to study. Well, at this very moment M is reading and praying and he's building that foundation. He's had a Book of Mormon since 1988 or 1992--he's been searching for the truth for a long time... and it's been there all along. :) After the Saturday morning session of General Conference, I was really excited to talk to M. I felt like we needed to drive to his home to talk to him about it--what we learned and how he felt. I saw that light in his eyes, his enthusiasm about the things he learned. Yes, he still has questions, but bit by bit we're breaking down that wall of having to know absolutely everything before taking the step towards baptism. Moroni 10 had a great impact on him this week--that we can know the truth of all things through the Holy Ghost if we but ask for a confirmation of the truth.

Speaking of Conference, one of my professors from the business school is in the choir. He was 28 when he was my professor, so I was slightly surprised to see him in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir already.

Wasn't Conference wonderful? I watched a few of the sessions in Spanish, so I'll be rereading those talks shortly. :) One of my favorite talks was by Elder Richard G. Scott "Scripture Study." "Great power can come from memorizing scripture." I love how Elder Scott talked about how recalling and reading scripture can be like calling an old friend. The scriptures are always there to turn to. You can rely on them to lift you and comfort you, to advise you. I was so happy to start Conference on such a high note.

I'm out of time. I love you all. Hope you have a wonderful week. I think about you and pray for you often.

Love,

kates

A Little Week Full of Stress-ita

Hello familita!

One of my favorite things about Spanish is that people make everything small using "ita" or "ito." My companion told something that we would be outside, or 'afuera,' but she said 'afuerita.' Little outside? I don't question. An older person is viejo, but in Spanish it's viejito. Well, this week was really stressful, to say the least, but I'll just make it somewhat stressita. :) It makes things sound so much cuter. I love being called hermanita. So that's my random thought for the week. Just add -ita.

Well we moved again this week. Surprise, surprise. I've now lived in 3 different apartments and have been in Stockton for only 2 months to the day. I'm done moving! I refuse to do it again. We had to clean the old apartment and the new apartment. From now on I just want to be a missionary--not a mover, not a house cleaner, not a sick girl. Yeah, I never get sick so that's really weird... You're not going to want to hear this, but it's so good I have to share. Because we're familiar with moving, we decided this time we're going to do it right and use boxes. Well, as missionaries we have little time and resources with which to do things, but we were going to get those boxes. We went to McDonald's and asked for some boxes and they told us that they had just taken them out of the restaurant an hour earlier but that we were more than welcome to get them out of the dumpster. So... you guessed it. Hermana Brinkerhoff scrounged up a few boxes in the dumpster, skirt and all. Don't worry--we took pictures and I'll send them this week!

On Thursday we had Zone Training with President and Sister Lewis. Afterward President Lewis went out with some elders and rode a bike for an hour and a half, and Sister Carlos and I had the privilege of having Sister Lewis come tracting and contacting with us. It was Sister Lewis's first time tracting (and in Spanish, no less), but she did great! We met all sorts of people and some very classic Stocktonites. I felt so bad because Sister Lewis was wearing a cardigan (blazing hot that day) and heels (and we did lots of walking--but not too much). We were able to share our testimonies about the Restoration of the Gospel, eternal families, gifts and talents, and the priesthood. By the way, Sister Lewis's birthday is the same day as Dain and Malinda's--happy birthday, you two!!

One of the companionships in our ward had a baptism this past Friday (4 baptisms, actually--one family). I ended up playing prelude for about an hour since the baptism started late and entertained the little girls for most of it--lots of paper and pens is all you need to keep them preoccupied! President and Sister Lewis were able to come to the baptism and there were other investigators there, so it was a wonderful opportunity to share what baptism is all about. Of course there was a wonderful spirit there, and I'm looking forward to my first baptism--it will come!

We went to the General Relief Society broadcast on Saturday. We watched it in Spanish since we had an investigator there, so... I wish I could say that understood everything! I understood the talks for the most part, and President Uchtdorf's talk was absolutely wonderful, like always. I will admit that I'll be rereading those talks when they come out in print so that I can learn about being more charitable and take in President Uchtdorf's talk more fully. Oh boy, we're going to watch all of conference in Spanish--wee. I'm going to pray extra hard this week to have the gifts of tongues because I really need to hear the words from the prophet and apostles. How lucky we are to be guided by these men on the earth. Heavenly Father truly does care about us--I know that they receive revelation about what we need for the next six months.

On Saturday night we were teaching a lesson at about 8:45 pm. The phone kept ringing during the lesson--missed calls from our district leader, bishop, and another companionship in the ward. I found out at 9:30 pm that I was going to speak in sacrament meeting the next day--at 9:00 am. Oh the joys of being a missionary! But seriously, every day is a beautiful adventure. I think my reaction was, "I'm speaking in church? Tomorrow? In SPANISH?" Yes, yes, yes. The bishop chose me and two elders to speak about the plan of salvation, which I've been thinking about a lot the past few weeks, so of course I was happy to speak about how we can live as families for eternity. The bishop had actually just told the mission president at the baptism on Friday that I was pretty safe in not giving a talk because I play the piano in every meeting on Sundays. Well, I guess he had a change of heart after he said that, so I played my four hymns during sacrament and spoke. :) It went well, except for the fact that I said, "Decimos estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo," which is "WE say these things..." Yeah, who is the other person saying these things? I don't know. After I ended, I realized I said that instead of "I say these things..." I looked at Sister Carlos and hesitated--should I correct myself? "Digo! I mean digo! Not decimos!" Well I just left it as 'decimos' and walked back to my seat, embarrassed. Yikes, too funny.

I love you all. Hope you're doing well. Things are great here. 

Love,

kates

Losing Sleep

Hi wonderful people,

I'm not really losing sleep at night. We just went to sleep at 11:30 on Friday night and I'm still trying to catch up from that. I do just fine when we follow the 10:30-6:30 schedule but when that gets off, woo--it's no bueno. Oh, I probably shouldn't mention this, but I will since it's so funny. The night before--Thursday--we were making a cake for Jose because it was his birthday on Friday. We put it in the oven and ended up falling asleep because it needed to cook for 45 minutes. An HOUR and 45 minutes later... Sister Carlos said, "Mama. I mean, Hermana! The cake!" And I said, "Is it burned?!?!" You know how I look when I wake up. And she was like "I don't know! I just woke up!" So we scrambled to the kitchen in the groggiest state possible and took the cake out of the oven. Don't worry--we just cut the burned edges off, made chocolate frosting (I frosted it--thank you, cake-decorating class), and delivered it to him. Haha yikes. Hope it tasted good...

Friday night we had a temple tour for all the Spanish missionaries/investigators in the Sacramento Mission. We got there early to help set up all the food, the art exhibit (an LDS painter from Argentina displayed his gospel artwork that came from various museums, etc.), the decorations, practice a special musical number, receive our assignments for the night, etc. The event was well attended. Sadly Stockton is really far from Sacramento (about 1.5 hours) so none of our investigators were able to make it, but we got to see and meet a lot of the members and investigators from all the other Spanish areas. All of the Spanish missionaries sang The Spirit of God and it was so powerful--I could feel the spirit so strongly as I sang those words in Spanish. "How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire." I think that's my favorite part of the song.

Sister Fernandez (one of the coordinating sisters) came again on Wednesday to train/evaluate/help us. I always learn so much from her and am trying to do everything that she does so well--she's about 6 months ahead of me on her mission but is such an inspiration to me in how she organizes and plans everything for the week/studies/teaches people. I have been blessed to be surrounded by so many great leaders/missionaries in the mission. In all the craziness, the real focus is on people--helping them receive the message of the restored gospel, and I try hard every day not to forget that.

We added four new investigators this week, so now we have seven investigators. A former investigator came to church on Sunday and Jose came for the fourth time! A family is getting baptized this Friday (the elders' investigators), and one of them had questions in Relief Society about some words in the Gospel Principles manual. She asked if we had a book in English, and I was thinking, "I'm right there with you, sister." :) Anyway, I still tried to translate what I could and explained what I did understand and expounded on it. It talked about Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem before it was destroyed in 586 B.C. I explained why/how we have the Book of Mormon and how it relates to the Bible--where the history fits in and everything. She was so thankful that I explained that to her because things start clicking and making more sense. Sunday night we had a fireside and a counselor in the Mission Presidency spoke. The investigator thanked me again for helping her during Relief Society and said that she'd actually been praying the past few nights to know for certain that the Book of Mormon was true and that the Church is true. She said that I answered that prayer. I've heard people say things like, "Oh you're an answer to prayer" or "You came at the right time," but never an answer to a specific prayer. Something I said along the way confirmed her testimony, and I'm so grateful that she has truly been converted and is getting baptized this weekend. It will change their lives forever.

Today we had a sisters' luncheon for all the sisters in the mission. We weren't going to go because we didn't have a ride, but bless her, one of the members who makes dinner for us every Sunday took us. About 3 hours round trip. We had a fabulous lunch, plenty of dessert, took pictures, shared scriptures that have really helped us lately, and made those cute flowers you can wear on your blouse or in your hair.

I don't have much time. Everything's going well! Love you all. Hope you're as excited for Conference as I am! Like Jose said, I wish everyone knew that we have a living prophet on the earth today who guides us and tells us the things we need to know. We can be prepared not only spiritually but also physically. What a blessing.

Love,

kates

Eyes are windows to the soul

Mi familia bonita,

This week was just wonderful. We met with our investigator Jose on Tuesday night and had a really good lesson with him about the restoration of the gospel. We met with him for the first time about two weeks prior to that and still hadn't taught about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ and the purpose of the Book of Mormon. Needless to say, he was a little confused, but he had come to church two times anyway! He's a dream come true--really. The elder who found him told us to invite him to the baptism because he had that much faith in Jose.

Jose has this personality that just fills the whole room. Our lessons are always Spanglish to the max and he is so eager to learn more, understand, and follow Heavenly Father's plan. We started telling him about the Book of Mormon, how it's another testament of Jesus Christ. He found out on his second Sunday that we use the Bible even though we used it to teach the lesson the night before, he must have been confused--oops. We explained about how prophets in Jerusalem wrote the word of God in the Bible and how prophets in the ancient Americas also received revelation from God and wrote them on plates as scripture--which we now know is the Book of Mormon. When we told Jose that we have a living prophet today, he said, "Does everyone know about this?!?! Why don't people know about this?" We told him that's why we're here spreading the message. :) He was so dumbfounded--his eyes were huge and wanted to hear more of the story. We explained to him that the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, is not just the prophet for our church but that he's the prophet for the whole world. Jose just couldn't get over the fact that people don't know about him. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I taught him about the restoration; how Christ established His church and that when he was rejected and his apostles were killed, truth was taken from the earth. God took away the gift of revelation and prophets from the earth for a time because people were so wicked and would not listen and sought to kill them because they spoke hard things. After this spiritual darkness remained for a time, we know that a 14-year-old boy, Joseph Smith, was called to be a prophet of God, to restore Christ's church to the earth again as it had been when he established it--complete with priesthood authority, or the power to act in God's name, saving ordinances, apostles, etc. This lesson really taught me the importance of teaching people, not just lessons. I understood when Jose needed further explanation, how to explain it more understandably, and what he needed to hear. Thank goodness I could teach him in English (don't tell anyone I cheated). During the lesson Jose said, "Your eyes--they're like windows of light." I kept talking and he stopped me. "I've seen those eyes before." By this point he was shaking his head and putting his head in his hands because he couldn't believe the things he was hearing and the "light," or the Holy Ghost that he was seeing and feeling. He called me an angel and asked me if I was an angel. "Is she an angel?" he asked my companion. "You're an angel, aren't you?" I had to confess that I was just human, just a girl. "I really feel an energy here, especially from you," as he pointed to me.

I'm not telling you this so you think I'm an angel or think that I'm so proud of myself for what I know, because I'm not. I'm telling you this because this was a very powerful experience of the Holy Ghost testifying that the things we were teaching are true. Jose experienced that--the Spirit was absolutely there. He felt it really powerfully and understood that Joseph Smith was going through exactly what he's going through--in not knowing which of all the churches are true. "So he was confused just like I'm confused!" I know that people misunderstand Joseph Smith's purpose. We met a man last night while tracting/finding people who was adamant that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon. He said this and that and all we could do was invite him to learn more and pray about our message. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We all know about the prophets in the Bible--why would we not have prophets today?

We were able to teach Jose again on Friday and Saturday night and his wife was there both times (she's usually working). His wife made us food on Saturday,after we'd just eaten Panda Express, but Sister Carlos reminded me that Hispanic women don't make food for you unless they like you. So don't worry--we ate the quesadillas, salsa, pizza, Mexican candy, and soda. Jose and Maribel have a lot of potential and we are so blessed to be teaching them. Oh yeah, and Jose came to Primary yesterday because his daughter was crying and didn't want to go. So the theme for this month is missionary work and how the Primary kids can prepare to be missionaries. Of course I played the piano in Primary and Jose was just singing away with the kids. The Primary Presidency gave them missionary "name tags" and it was so funny seeing Jose and Jasmine wearing them. Jose was ready to "knock some doors!" Sister Carlos and I had drawn things that the children could do to prepare now (like read their scriptures, go to church, read Preach My Gospel during family home evening, make their beds, serve friends and family, things like that). We were in charge of sharing time and the kids really had all the answers--they're so prepared!

We taught a woman named Graciela on Thursday night--we met her at the beginning of August and hadn't been able to contact her since then. She was very receptive to our message and said at the end of it that she had forgotten all of her problems while we were there. She said that my Spanish was clear and she could understand all of it--bless her!! The language is still shaky but I'm so grateful every day that I get to learn Spanish but I'm also get to teach and testify in English. So many of our investigators can't feel that peace and happiness in their lives, which is what Heavenly Father wants us to experience. They're depressed, and I know it's because they don't yet have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and the understanding of the atonement. I'm so grateful that we know Heavenly Father's plan--that we're here to learn and grow and to overcome life's challenges so that we can progress and live worthily to return to God's presence. I know that eternal life is the greatest of all the gifts of God and that we can't fully comprehend the fulness of joy that we'll experience as eternal families, but I know I want to find out.

We met a woman last night while tracting who is absolutely miserable. She was interested in hearing the message we were going to share and knew that it's what she needed to hear right then. Her life is horrible right now and she has anxiety and no hope. I knew I needed to give her a hug, and she broke down in my arms. She said she needed that--she needs to feel love. During the lesson she gave Sister Carlos and me about 20 hugs each. At the end of the lesson she said the prayer and said, "I feel good... No, I feel really good. then she paused... Now I'm just trippin'." :) Like Graciela, she forgot her pains, she wasn't anxious. She felt the Holy Ghost comfort her--I know the Holy Ghost touches hearts and can truly change people.

Oh yeah. And the subject of this email? It had a little to do with Jose's comment, but also three other people commented on my eyes this week. It was unbelievable! Guess other people like my almond-shaped eyes, Dad. :)

Love you all,

kates

Thanks but no thanks

Hello pretty people,

This past week flew by--I don't know how we made it to Sunday so fast. P-day is Tuesday this week because it's transfer day--sorry I forgot to mention that. Sister Carlos and I are staying in the Stockton North Zone and we're still living with the English sisters. There's actually another sister moving into our apartment (joining the English sisters), so we're going to have a full house, just like you guys. :) Sister Carlos and I were planning on going to the temple today, but we called 13 people and couldn't find a ride. Hopefully we'll get to go next transfer--you can go every other transfer, and there's a mission temple day in December. We're having a temple tour on September 16 for all the Spanish-speakers in the Sacramento Mission, so we'll bring our investigators to learn more about the temple, which is really where everyone's focus should be. There's going to be baptisms in the church building next to the temple that night, a temple tour, food, a dance??? Love Hispanics. That should be a good experience--we're looking forward to it!

Our new investigator, Jose, came to church again on Sunday. Last week his daughter cried and cried before she got in the car because she wanted to watch her Sunday morning cartoons. We sang hymns and Primary songs until their ride came to pick them up. This week she was in better spirits but she started bawling before Primary. Eventually she'll have dry eyes by the end of church--that's our goal. Jose is an alcoholic and smokes (he says his wife "smokes like a choo-choo train," which will make it hard for him to stop), so we're trying our best to teach the Word of Wisdom along with all the other lessons so that he gains a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the gospel. He has a desire to quit but needs to have that firm testimony to make it happen. Jose is great, though. He's always so positive and energetic and understands that we need to put God first in our lives, and He'll take care of the rest. I love the scripture in 3 Nephi 13, last two verses. Along with that is "consider the lilies of the field; how they grow. Consider the birds in the sky; how they fly. He clothes the lilies of the fields; he feeds the birds in the sky. And he will heal those who trust him, and guide them with his eye." If God can take care of the flowers and animals in the earth, he can take care of us if we seek first the kingdom of God.

We meet the most interesting people every day. Sometimes I see someone and the natural person inside of me doesn't want to approach them, but the missionary-minded person in me gets my feet moving. I talk to absolutely everyone. We've been promised that the Lord has prepared people in our area to receive the gospel and I'm determined to find them, even if they're wrapped in a different-looking package. We approached a man at the park who was covered in tattoos and just looked straight thug. He told us he'd been in prison and that he knew he was a sinner. Aren't we all? We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about having hope and faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement--that we can repent of everything we've done and feel clean and free from all sin and guilt. We ended with a prayer, and when we asked him what he was thankful for, he said for the chance to meet us in the park; to see people just walking and laughing; and for his family. People look so hard on the outside, and even though their lives have been influenced one way or another, I know there's good in everyone. Everyone has that soft side. Sometimes you just have to dig deeper than others.

The other interesting people include people like Justino. The "knight" we met in the park. One of the best things about serving a mission is talking to the most classic people and hearing their stories--about where they come from and what they believe and what they're looking for in life. The other great thing is having the opportunity to bear testimony of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel to anyone and everyone--to complete strangers. I wish the people who slam the doors in our faces and tell us that we should be more careful with what we believe and teach would soften their hearts and allow the Holy Ghost to touch them within. A lot of people tell us that what we're doing is really good and that they're happy we're sharing a message about Jesus Christ with their neighbors but that they've been saved and don't need it. That seems like a good thing to say . . . but I just want them to understand our unique message--the truth. But all we can do it teach, testify, and invite them to act on our message by praying to know for themselves that what we teach is true.

Oh yeah, on Sunday night we were going door to door to find people to teach in the Spanish elders' area. We knocked on a door where we knew a party was going on--might as well still knock. The owner of the house invited us in. It turns out there were about 100 Philippinos in the house celebrating (or honoring?) the death of their father, uncle, relative who died about 10 years ago. There was food galore, including a pig--don't worry, I got a pic. They invited us to eat, so we took a few plates for the elders in our zone. They wanted us to take dessert and offered us this and that. "Look everyone--there are missionaries here!" We didn't know what to do so we just laughed and waved. The first person we saw when we walked into the house was a Catholic priest--he gave us a very puzzled look and I'm sure our faces mirrored his. We didn't really get to a share a message with anyone but we got a return! Classic.

That's about all the time I have today. Love you all! Hope life is treating you well. Don't feel too crammed in that house, Jo and Dain. We have a family here--6 adults and 3 kids living in one two-bedroom apartment. Try that on for size.

Love,

kates

Training Week and Transfer Reports

Hola familia,

Well, we had a new missionary training last Tuesday for all the missionaries who came out with me. It was really good to see the two elders who were in my MTC district--one is in Galt (next to Lodi) and the other is in the hills of Sacramento (really wealthy, hard to find Hispanics). I made a HUGE mistake and told the APs that I could play the piano, so they asked me to play Called to Serve and We Are All Enlisted. Wow, I don't know how to play those hymns. It was humiliating and I laughed it off--a lot. President Lewis and one of the APs thanked me and told me I did a good job--don't lie? Commandment? :) The training was in Sacramento--so we had a fun little field trip up there. I guess it's about an hour north of where we are. We talked about questions we had, how we could overcome certain challenges, and heard from President Lewis and his wife. They had all the new missionaries share their testimonies and then they served us lunch. One of the elders we came with is from New Zealand and he shared with us that his mom was getting baptized on Saturday!! We were really excited to hear that. And then one of the sisters who came with us from the MTC is from Kiribasti and her dad got baptized on Saturday, too! We're seeing miracles happen every day, even if they don't happen in our mission.

That night was pretty ridiculous. We were running around trying to hit all the places we missed in the morning because we kind of forgot about the training. Then one of the coordinating sisters (the two coordinating sisters are companions and they go on exchanges with all the sisters in the mission--I think there are about 20 of us in all--because our district leaders can't go on exchanges with us like they do with the elders) was going to stay with us Tuesday night and proselyte/teach with us on Wednesday. We were pretty nervous to have her come stay with us and spend Wednesday with us because we felt like she was going to observe us the whole time. Of course she did observe us but it was a great experience. I felt like I'd kind of run into a wall because Sis Carlos hadn't really taught me much more. I learned a lot from the coordinating sister (Hermana Fernandez) about how to organize things (like our area book), how to effectively contact people, and how to plan (for member present lessons, with commitments at the end of lessons, etc.). It's amazing how much she crammed into my little head in just one day. The coordinating sister is 30 years old (but she looks like she's 24!) and she's from the Dominican Republic--she was baptized in 2008 and went on a mission just two years later.

On Thursday we had dinner at the Martinez' house. Brother Martinez is the new (I think) first counselor in the bishopric and we just got a new second counselor. Sister Carlos was surprised that they invited us over to dinner because they never invite the sisters over (even though they're in our area). I think it might have a little to do with the fact that I play the piano every Sunday in every meeting and he and his wife really appreciate that. Even though playing piano is not my favorite thing, I think it's helping the ward members recognize who I am and giving us an opportunity to know each other. It's a blessing in disguise. =

On Thursday night we got a call from some English elders in the other Stockton zone who said they found a gem of a man. His name is Jose (he's our third Jose, and we have three women named Rosa--we have a lot of Sandras too). We met with Jose on Friday--we had the most Spanglish conversation ever. Jose is an alcoholic and was in the park reading a Christian book the day that he met the missionaries on Thursday. He realized he needed to change his life and had prayed on Wednesday for help to overcome his addictions. When we taught him on Friday, I asked him to be baptized on September 24 and he accepted! We have a lot to work on before then--we haven't taught the Word of Wisdom yet or any of the other lessons for that matter, but he came to church with his daughter Jasmine and that's a huge first step. Sis Carlos and I prayed so hard this weekend that the talks on Sunday would be appropriate for him and that Priesthood and Sunday School would go okay. The talks during sacrament meeting were absolutely perfect--about eternal families--and Priesthood was about the temple. We're very excited to teach Jose (Reyes) this week and are praying that he can remain firm for baptism on Dain and Malinda's birthday. :) You like how I did that? Yeah.

We also met with a woman (one of the Rosas) named Rosy whose husband just left this last week. She has three children and doesn't really know what to do now. We were trying to teach her what the Holy Ghost is and point out a time in her life when she's felt the Holy Ghost. She said she's never really felt loved (because her parents abandoned her as a child and she grew up with her grandparents) and that she's felt peace maybe just a little bit. My heart broke for her and I know that what she needs is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the comforting words of the Book of Mormon, and the fellowship of the ward members. We're hopeful for Rosy, too, and are anxious to find her at her apartment again.

Is it weird that I love contacting people? I love tracting. I'm sorry to say it, but white people are just not friendly like Hispanics. Americans slam the doors in our faces with no shame, but Latinos are respectful and are willing to talk and hear our message. Every time the door is slammed in our faces or people tell us that our church and the Book of Mormon is just fantasy (we had a man tell us that this week), my testimony is strengthened. I feel the Holy Ghost stronger thanks to the people who reject us--and I recognize that as a tender mercy from the Lord.

I love you!! Have a beautiful week. Dodge those hurricanes and earthquakes that are supposedly happening in the world. News to me!

Love,

kates

Tengo Fe (I have faith)

Hi beautiful family,

Thursday marks my 3-month point in the mission. Has it been fast or slow? I'll be honest--the last month has been crawling by! My spider bite has been healing and is almost gone--thank you for your prayers! Who knew that spider bites peel at the end? I didn't know that. So now I have a bite, a ring of new skin around it, and what looks like a shadow of a bruise around that. Thank goodness I'm finished taking my antibiotics--those made me feel sick and gave me headaches, so I count it as a blessing that it's over with.

This week was eventful, as always. I've had in mind three things that would describe the city of Stockton: (1) ice-cream trucks--I'm not kidding when I say that I think they follow us everywhere. I suppose we could talk to the ice-cream man to find out his selling route and then we'll find out where all the Hispanic neighborhoods are. I hear those darn ice-cream songs all day; (2) the people of Stockton love bounce houses--any and every birthday party must include a bounce house. They're on every corner and always in the parks--it's incredible. Remember my last name? Hermana Brinca Brinca? Hermana Bounce House. I'm pretty popular around here. Speaking of Brinca Brinca, I said that to two kids who couldn't say Brinkerhoff. They loved it and kept trying to get my attention during the lesson--Brinca Brinca! One of the girls is 5 years old and reminds me of sweet Kajsa Jane. Her name is Julisa and she is just the cutest, most energetic little thing. Poor thing speaks to me in Spanish all the time and I pretend like I'm paying attention to something else because I have a really hard time understanding children's Spanish; (3) yard sales--people have never-ending yard sales in their front yards, including one of our investigators. Jo and Quin, I haven't stopped by one of the yard sales, but you'd probably have a hayday here--not just on the weekends. Daily.

We've been teaching yard-sale investigator ever since I've been here--Julio--and he finally came to church!! We were so excited. I'd been praying every day last week for him to come and for the speakers to be inspired to know the message he needed to hear. Two English speakers from the stake came and spoke about service and following the gospel of Jesus Christ (bishop translated into Spanish) and it was perfect! I thought they were the exact things that Julio needed to hear--he wasn't super excited after sacrament meeting, though, which dashed my hopes, but I think he's trying to hide the fact that he knows it's true. We've invited him on a temple tour our ward is doing September 16 and hopefully he'll come to church between now and then. He's just so great and I wish I could drag him to church and to the baptismal font--agency! Oftentimes I listen to the lessons while Sister Carlos teaches and chime in when I know what I should say and can say it in Spanish. When we were teaching Julio last week I felt the Spirit so strongly when I told him that I knew with all my heart that he would be blessed if he came to church and that I know these things are true. He said he could feel the Spirit when I said that and I actually couldn't stop shaking after I told him that. It was a neat experience--very powerful.

We went to the pulga (flea market--or "free" market as Sister Carlos calls it) on Saturday. We talked to about 30 people in the parking lot--Hispanics everywhere! We didn't get anywhere with that--I figured it was going to be a worthless trip. It made me think of Canton--a Hispanic Canton. :)

One of the sets of elders in our ward had a baptism on Saturday for an 88-year old man whose children were baptized 47 years ago. I played the piano and Sister Carlos translated one of the talks (the daughter speaks only English), so we kind of took over the baptism. It was a great experience and I felt the Spirit very strongly when Alex was being baptized. I was so happy to see the faces of his children after 47 years of praying that he would be baptized--his wife died recently and he wants to be with her for eternity. He received the priesthood the next day in sacrament meeting. :)

We found the Little Mexico of Stockton! And it's running wild with dogs. Spanish is still coming along slowly but I have faith that even though I can't speak now, it'll come. I know that if I really need to say something, it will come to my mind. That's the neat thing about the Spirit--that if I really need to express myself and share my testimony, I can do it--however simple it might be. Back to dogs--one was particularly angry at us when Sister Carlos was inviting a man to be baptized--she totally forgot the question (it's a memorized question) and started throwing things out there because she was so scared and couldn't concentrate. Haha oh darn it.

Love you all! I pray for you all the time! Thank you for your prayers. We pray for miracles every day and I love the scripture in 2 Nephi that I read this morning--2 Nephi 27:23. Sorry I have only my Spanish scriptures with me, but it's wonderful. "I am God and am a God of miracles... I work only according to man's faith."

Love,

Kates

Pico De Arana

Hi beautiful family,

Well, you're probably all wondering what the subject line means. Quin? Stace? Who knows if I even spelled that right, but that's all I've been hearing this week. Remember spider alley where we tracted last Sunday during the Zone Blitz? It's possible that one of those nasty things bit me because I noticed on Monday that I had yet another bite on my leg (my mysterious bites from the MTC are starting to go away--hopefully the scarring disappears soon) but this one seemed a little more red. On Tuesday morning I noticed it'd gotten bigger, so I drew a circle around it--I ended up drawing three more circles as the day went on, so after talking to the mission nurse, we decided to go to the "immediate" care. After waiting around for 3 hours, we spent 3 minutes with the doctor who prescribed me an antibiotic and told me to put a warm washcloth on my bite 3 times in the morning and 3 times at night. Well, I think it's beginning to go away now--after a week. The antibiotic (or the bite) makes me feel shaky at times and my arms feel weak (makes it tough to play the piano), and I have constant headaches after taking the medicine. Momma, you forgot there are still spiders in the US. :) And bugs (including bed bugs) love my legs!

Last Monday we moved our whole apartment--it took about 4 hours to move everything, and we had 4 generous elders helping us with the furniture. We moved into a 2-bed, 2-bathroom apartment. It's a nice setup--we're still in the same apartment complex (2 sets of elders live there, too). We have SO MUCH Tupperware, it's ridiculous. Mom, I will return members' Tupperware if we ever take food home. :) But we rarely have dinners with the members so I haven't had to worry about that. The elders in the English ward have dinners all the time and members give them plums and peaches and pears. The sisters in our apartment are English-speaking (1 was called Sign Language and the other is from Samoa) and they bring home cookies all the time. Mom--only the two of them lived in the member's home.

On Wednesday the mission nurse told me to rest and "stay in if we could." Okay... My companion's stomach had been hurting for about a week (she had a stomach bacteria or something), so we were given permission to take a nap. We didn't get any teaching done that day and the next day my companion had a leadership training so I went on splits with the Samoan missionary. Sister Carlos and I had two appointments set up for that day and so I was prepared to make a fool of myself trying to teach two lessons in Spanish by myself. The appointments fell through (tender mercy--bad to say?) and we ended up tracting for about 3.5 hours. We met a few Indian men (both believe in Sikhism) who were interested in learning about Jesus Christ. One of the men, from Punjab, pointed to the picture of Christ on the pass-along card and said, "I love Him. Christianity is beautiful." I showed him a pamphlet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ--he didn't know what baptism looked like--and on the cover of the pamphlet is another picture of Christ. He pointed to the picture again, took the pamphlet, and held it to his heart. I was really touched by this experience--that he realizes that there's something different about Christianity and that he has that much appreciation for someone he's just now learning about. He told us a couple times that he has two copies of the Book of Mormon in his shop (but maybe he meant the Bible).

While we were tracting that day, we also met a man from Jerusalem who told us ALL about the center of Jerusalem and where the roads lead and I don't even know. It was interesting... I knew we weren't going to get anywhere with him because he would talk for 10 minutes after we said anything, so I bore my testimony. He grew quiet, started talking again, and mentioned that our faces were shining. And he pointed out that my face was shining when I bore my testimony. The Holy Ghost really does manifest itself to people when we testify of truths and what we know.

On Friday we met a woman in a parking lot who told us her life story--boy does she have a life story to share. And she said we were the third person she's told about one thing and the first she's told about something else. I don't know what it is but people just open up to us and spill their souls. She told us that she usually checks the mail earlier (that's what she was doing when we met her) but for some reason she chose to go later and she thinks it was to meet us. A lot of people actually recognize the timing of meeting us, but they don't always do something about it even though we teach and testify and invite them to be baptized. Sometimes I just really don't like that people have agency. :) In the MTC we read a quote that goes something like, "I'm tired of walking on 3 feet of seeds and want to start harvesting!" I feel like that sometimes--people mention that we're planting seeds in the hearts of those we come into contact with. Well I don't want to walk on those seeds that we've thrown down but want to find those who are truly ready.

I'm reading the Book of Mormon right now and highlighting everything about Christ (his attributes, words, Atonement) in red and gospel principles and doctines in yellow. I highlight pretty much every page, but that's just how it goes. I've read the beginning of the Book of Mormon so many times, and start over again and read the beginning... :) that I usually tell myself that I'll hit the good parts starting in Mosiah. Wrong--highlighting has helped me slow down and think about the doctrines and principles and Christ in each verse. President gave the books to us to read the first six months of our missions and I read in 2 Nephi 9 today. If you want to learn more about the resurrection and judgment and all of that good stuff, I recommend reading that chapter. When I'm reading the Book of Mormon, the things that stand out the most to me are verses on repentance and baptism which confirms to me that what I'm doing every day is what Heavenly Father wants me to do--declare the first principles and ordinances of the gospel.

In our ward, a lot of the members have never read the Book of Mormon. We started a Book of Mormon Challenge for the month of August to read 30,000 minutes (as a whole). The promised blessings include more peace and tranquility in the home, more love in the family, an added measure of the Spirit and last week during testimony meeting everyone was testifying that the promise was true! Even a recent convert/less active has been reading for 30 minutes each day, even though the goal was 5 minutes (pretty low) each day. I wish our investigators could have been there for that fast and testimony meeting--the Spirit was very strong (even when you can't understand the full message). :)

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. Thank you, Erin and Malinda, for reminding me that you pray for me every day. I know they're answered!

Kates

Hermana Brinkerhoff and her companion in the MTC - at the Provo Temple

Hermana Brinkerhoff and Elder Hutchinson at the Provo Temple

Sacramento, California Temple

Hermana Brinkerhoff and her trainer, Hermana Carlos on her very first day in California

Hermana Brinkerhoff with a spider bite (Pico de arana)