Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Cloudy and Cold here in Geneve
Hi. Its me again, writing from this DVD rental place that has an internet area. Its a cold day and is snowing but not sticking. Thank goodness. I am so grateful to not have snow to tread in. Its been another interesting week and tomorrow will mark ONE month since I have been in the field. Crazy I know. Its been the longest and shortest month of my life, for those of you that have served a mission understand what i mean. I have already seen my knowledge and testimony grow so much but I know I still have so much progress to make. I dont have much time today but I want you all to know how much I love my Savior. When we need Him the most he is there for us. He KNOWS us PERSONALLY. Do you realize that? Jesus Christ knows you. He knows when your sad, happy, mad, sick, excited, nervous, etc. He knows you so well. Better then your best friend, or parents or spouse. He knows you and what you need in this life. I know my Savior knows me. I know He loves me. I know he loves each and every one of his brothers and sisters that has lived, is living, and will live on the earth. He cares for us so much. What have you done lately to show the Savior your gratitude and how much you love Him. Since he knows us so well shouldnt we make it a priority in our life to get to know Him? Read, Study and Ponder about our Savior Jesus Christ this week and report back to me :)Things are going well with AMIS. We love them and care about them alot. They are all at such different phases. We had somewhat of a break through with Miryam and Edouardo yesterday. We had a very powerful lesson with them. They did some searching on the internet about the Church and of course found anti mormon doctrine. This about killed me. They had many questions and one of the main ones was piligamy and why it existed. It was hard to explain but Soeur Lala and I were able to bear our testimonies about Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith being a prophet. I said that there are MANY things in this life that we do not understand and wonder why they are necessary but we must have faith that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he was commanded to have piligamy at that time. The spirit was so evident.I asked how they were feeling. Miryam said that she was angry because she had a fight with her daughter before we came and she was upset to hear about this piligamy and she has a hard time understand why God lets the bad things happen. We couldnt really dwell on this topic because the Elders arrived to consecrate their home and we had to go get them. Before we went back in I offered a prayer that Miryams heart would be softened and that they would be understand the truthfulness of our message. After the consecration of the home we asked Miryam if she would like a blessing from the Elders because she has been having arthritis and pain in her feet and hands. She received a blessing and afterwards was so grateful. Her heart was softened, not fully but she is getting there little by little. She also said that when we went to get the Elders Edouardo told her that he felt that there is no mistake, this Church is the true church. There is more to this story and i have NO time. I am sorry if this did not make sense, I realize how all over the place it is. Hopefully you understand the gist. The Lord is working miracles and is softening the hearts of his Children that he has prepared to hear the gospel.For my friends that are NOT members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that are reading this email. Please refer to www.mormon.org for questions about the church. I know most of these emails do not make sense to you but just know that I love this work I am doing and I would not be doing it if this was not the same Church that Jesus Christ established when he was living on the earth 2000 years ago.I love you all. Have a wonderful week. Soeur Addis
Monday, January 23, 2012
my favorite superhero is batman
Bon Soir ma famille,
Well its been another week, already!! I know crazy times passes pretty quickly here for me too, except during the day. I know I have said this before and I will say it again, the days are SOOOO long but the weeks pass by somewhat quickly. Its just how a mission is i guess. Okay so I am going to try and send another email after this one because I was going to send pictures but for some reason this computer is not cooperating.
Anyway whats new with everyone? It sounds like life is good and that things are going well. It would be cool if you told me how funny I was and how much you laughed at my last email because I thought it was pretty amusing. I guess not really though. I am going to start by answering questions and then tell you about my week. Which I think I usually do that but oh well.
Mom asked what we make for meals and if we get dinner appts. This past week we had three dinner appts and they were great! The week before I think we only had one. And I dont think we have any this week so last week was pretty clutch. I have been very grateful for these meals because it means that its not our rubbish food. P.s. I say rubbish now because my companion says it. She went to school in Ireland for six months and she picked it up there. Okay so a normal homemade meal for us consists of pasta, rice or pasta. We have chicken like once a week and hamburger once a week. Meat here is SO EXPENSIVE. Food in general is really expensive here, because everything in Geneve is expensive. Its just how it is. Anyway. I eat cereal for breakfast and then usually rice with veggies for lunch and sometimes no dinner because we are out and dont have time. I eat yougurt more than I ever have. And use creme to make meals interesting more than I ever had. One of our favorites is pasta with chicken and broccoli and a creme sauce, topped with cheese of course. Its a fatty meal but its one of the best things we eat all week. We have had it twice since I have been here.
Mom also asked if I bought a coat or boots. Nope still just fine. I have not had time to buy anything really, except a huge warm scarf from H&M it was 10 CHF which is like a little over 11 dollars i think, so that is VERY CHEAP.Also I got two pairs of wool tights from H&M. We are going to a department store called MANOR after we email that is really nice, and I am excited to see what they have for SOLDES there. Soldes is time from after Christmas to the beginning of Feb when everyone has big sales. You also said that the temperature is around the high 30s low 40s during the day and I have no idea because one I NEVER know the temperature unless a member tells us how cold it is and two it is in celcius so i have no idea how cold it actually is. I think it is for my better good because then I dont think cold thoughts. I received moms letter pretty quickly i think. Maybe five days or so. I loved it so much. It came at the perfect time. A day when I was feeling down. Its funny how that happens. The Lord really has perfect timing in EVERY little thing.
Next transfer we are expecting four bleu's (greenies) from the MTC in provo, I dont know how many from Madrid. Soeur Lala has been in Geneve one transfer longer than me and will probably die here, May 7th. Not next transfer but the transfer after that. I have no idea what will happen to me. If I kill her here than I will most likely be staying four transfers here. Right before i arrived they white washed this area so it is not likely that they will do it again in May.
Excited to hear that Emma Carter is getting baptized soon! So cool, give her my congrats!
The other questions from Caroline and Michael were about the language and the amis. Our amis are AWESOME! We are seeing such progress and growth in this city. Like I said the transfer before i arrived this city was white washed so they literally had nothing. Now we have four progressing amis and much more that are very close to be progressing, three with a baptisimal date and hopefully four more will have a date during next transfer. Its amazing how the work really does just continue to roll forth as long as you are faithful and thinking positively. In the MTC they told us to make sure we were setting high expectations because we would see bigger results and I know that is true. Our goals are big and sometimes they seem unrealistic but we have doubled some of our numbers in the last week.
Yesterday at church we had three amis. We were expecting four but one, Irene, got sick and was throwing up before church so she couldnt come but she is great and we know she will be there next week. Miryam and Edouardo are great and love coming to church and their daughter and sister Stephanie is now meeting with us and her boyfriend also met with us for the first time last night, Manu. They all have SOOOO many questions and it is hard to get through the things we want to teach them but we know we are teaching according to their needs. Stephanie did not really believe in God, but her heart is being softened and slowly she is gaining more faith. Manu has many questions because he was raised Catholic and believes everything his mother taught him is correct so when we told him things that were contradictory he didnt really like that but stephanie told him he cant believe everything his mother taught him, he needs to find out for himself. IT WAS PERFECT. So that family is great, we are meeting with them twice a week and we see waters of baptism ahead for them.
Tatiana is always great. She is the 11 year old. Her parents are less active. Her father very very less active but her mom is becoming much better. Tatiana was at church this week with out her mom because she had to work but she understands how important it is for her to be there in order to be ready for her baptism on March 10th. We gained a couple new amis this week. Irene, who i mentioned is picture perfect and we are going to teach her tonight. The elders found her but passed her to us because they couldnt find a member to come teach with them. We taught the first lesson and it went perfectly, 45 minutes and everything. We committed her to baptism and set a date, 11 fev but because she was not at church yesterday we need to get her a new date because she needs to go to so many meetings before she can get baptised. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Please pray for her that she will come to gain a testimony of the truth. She is a REALLY heavy smoker, like she makes her own ciggarretts and had a 20 pack sitting on her table haha, so we are going to talk to her about that tongiht. Please pray that she will have the strength to quit.
Our other new ami is a less actives daughter. Plamedi is her name and she is 19. Her mother is African and was baptised a long time ago. She still believes but because of her job she hasnt been to work in years. When we asked Plamedi to get baptised she said she would and that last year she was going to but something didnt work out right. Its because she was gunna get baptised in the wrong church ;) Anyway we are also meeting with her tonight and pray that it will go well. Rosi our golden was very busy this week and could not meet with us. She is still great but in order to keep the fire burning we need to be able to meet with her. Please pray that she will have the time to meet with us this week!!!I know that all of our prayers are very powerful and they are helping me and our amis and the work of the Lord move forward here. I love you all so much and hope that you are having a fantastic week.
No one got back to me on the challenge i gave last week. Please follow up!
Please take a moment to share this gospel with someone you come in contact with. This message must be shared. How selfish we would be ti keep it to ourselves.
Love,
Soeur Kimberly
Well its been another week, already!! I know crazy times passes pretty quickly here for me too, except during the day. I know I have said this before and I will say it again, the days are SOOOO long but the weeks pass by somewhat quickly. Its just how a mission is i guess. Okay so I am going to try and send another email after this one because I was going to send pictures but for some reason this computer is not cooperating.
Anyway whats new with everyone? It sounds like life is good and that things are going well. It would be cool if you told me how funny I was and how much you laughed at my last email because I thought it was pretty amusing. I guess not really though. I am going to start by answering questions and then tell you about my week. Which I think I usually do that but oh well.
Mom asked what we make for meals and if we get dinner appts. This past week we had three dinner appts and they were great! The week before I think we only had one. And I dont think we have any this week so last week was pretty clutch. I have been very grateful for these meals because it means that its not our rubbish food. P.s. I say rubbish now because my companion says it. She went to school in Ireland for six months and she picked it up there. Okay so a normal homemade meal for us consists of pasta, rice or pasta. We have chicken like once a week and hamburger once a week. Meat here is SO EXPENSIVE. Food in general is really expensive here, because everything in Geneve is expensive. Its just how it is. Anyway. I eat cereal for breakfast and then usually rice with veggies for lunch and sometimes no dinner because we are out and dont have time. I eat yougurt more than I ever have. And use creme to make meals interesting more than I ever had. One of our favorites is pasta with chicken and broccoli and a creme sauce, topped with cheese of course. Its a fatty meal but its one of the best things we eat all week. We have had it twice since I have been here.
Mom also asked if I bought a coat or boots. Nope still just fine. I have not had time to buy anything really, except a huge warm scarf from H&M it was 10 CHF which is like a little over 11 dollars i think, so that is VERY CHEAP.Also I got two pairs of wool tights from H&M. We are going to a department store called MANOR after we email that is really nice, and I am excited to see what they have for SOLDES there. Soldes is time from after Christmas to the beginning of Feb when everyone has big sales. You also said that the temperature is around the high 30s low 40s during the day and I have no idea because one I NEVER know the temperature unless a member tells us how cold it is and two it is in celcius so i have no idea how cold it actually is. I think it is for my better good because then I dont think cold thoughts. I received moms letter pretty quickly i think. Maybe five days or so. I loved it so much. It came at the perfect time. A day when I was feeling down. Its funny how that happens. The Lord really has perfect timing in EVERY little thing.
Next transfer we are expecting four bleu's (greenies) from the MTC in provo, I dont know how many from Madrid. Soeur Lala has been in Geneve one transfer longer than me and will probably die here, May 7th. Not next transfer but the transfer after that. I have no idea what will happen to me. If I kill her here than I will most likely be staying four transfers here. Right before i arrived they white washed this area so it is not likely that they will do it again in May.
Excited to hear that Emma Carter is getting baptized soon! So cool, give her my congrats!
The other questions from Caroline and Michael were about the language and the amis. Our amis are AWESOME! We are seeing such progress and growth in this city. Like I said the transfer before i arrived this city was white washed so they literally had nothing. Now we have four progressing amis and much more that are very close to be progressing, three with a baptisimal date and hopefully four more will have a date during next transfer. Its amazing how the work really does just continue to roll forth as long as you are faithful and thinking positively. In the MTC they told us to make sure we were setting high expectations because we would see bigger results and I know that is true. Our goals are big and sometimes they seem unrealistic but we have doubled some of our numbers in the last week.
Yesterday at church we had three amis. We were expecting four but one, Irene, got sick and was throwing up before church so she couldnt come but she is great and we know she will be there next week. Miryam and Edouardo are great and love coming to church and their daughter and sister Stephanie is now meeting with us and her boyfriend also met with us for the first time last night, Manu. They all have SOOOO many questions and it is hard to get through the things we want to teach them but we know we are teaching according to their needs. Stephanie did not really believe in God, but her heart is being softened and slowly she is gaining more faith. Manu has many questions because he was raised Catholic and believes everything his mother taught him is correct so when we told him things that were contradictory he didnt really like that but stephanie told him he cant believe everything his mother taught him, he needs to find out for himself. IT WAS PERFECT. So that family is great, we are meeting with them twice a week and we see waters of baptism ahead for them.
Tatiana is always great. She is the 11 year old. Her parents are less active. Her father very very less active but her mom is becoming much better. Tatiana was at church this week with out her mom because she had to work but she understands how important it is for her to be there in order to be ready for her baptism on March 10th. We gained a couple new amis this week. Irene, who i mentioned is picture perfect and we are going to teach her tonight. The elders found her but passed her to us because they couldnt find a member to come teach with them. We taught the first lesson and it went perfectly, 45 minutes and everything. We committed her to baptism and set a date, 11 fev but because she was not at church yesterday we need to get her a new date because she needs to go to so many meetings before she can get baptised. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Please pray for her that she will come to gain a testimony of the truth. She is a REALLY heavy smoker, like she makes her own ciggarretts and had a 20 pack sitting on her table haha, so we are going to talk to her about that tongiht. Please pray that she will have the strength to quit.
Our other new ami is a less actives daughter. Plamedi is her name and she is 19. Her mother is African and was baptised a long time ago. She still believes but because of her job she hasnt been to work in years. When we asked Plamedi to get baptised she said she would and that last year she was going to but something didnt work out right. Its because she was gunna get baptised in the wrong church ;) Anyway we are also meeting with her tonight and pray that it will go well. Rosi our golden was very busy this week and could not meet with us. She is still great but in order to keep the fire burning we need to be able to meet with her. Please pray that she will have the time to meet with us this week!!!I know that all of our prayers are very powerful and they are helping me and our amis and the work of the Lord move forward here. I love you all so much and hope that you are having a fantastic week.
No one got back to me on the challenge i gave last week. Please follow up!
Please take a moment to share this gospel with someone you come in contact with. This message must be shared. How selfish we would be ti keep it to ourselves.
Love,
Soeur Kimberly
Monday, January 16, 2012
breast feeding during sacrament
You read right. Probably one of the funniest things I have seen in church. A very large french woman wipped it out during sacrament meeting and fed her crying child. No shame no game i guess. She did not feel it was necessary to cover her self with a blanket or go into the hallway, nope the middle pew about five rows back was the perfect place. The best part about this story is that we had amis (investigators) at church yesterday. I was sitting with one of them, Tatiana,11 and her mother. And my companion was sitting with Edouard, 15 and his mother Miryan, right in front of us. It was Edouard and Miryans first time at church and you should have seen Edouards face when this member started feeding her child. It was the funniest thing i have ever seen. Poor kid was so distracted the whole time. It was great though. Once the baby was full she put it away. No longer being distracting to Edouard, or me. SO FUNNY.
Well that pretty much sums up my week so I guess I will write you all again next week. Peace and Love famille.Okay not really but that would have been funny if i ended it with that. Some how I am always so distracted when I write emails. Right now there is a teenager sitting next to me at another computer listening to Bollywood music. Yes mom I said Bollywood. That means its like Indian people having a jolly good time trying to sing and make cool American music but it actually just sounds like dying cats. Its pretty much awful. Dont waste your time on youtube listening to it. Haha. Man I am funny today. Just so full of life i guess!!
Okay here comes the goods. Life in Geneve is getting better everyday. There are bad days and there are good days but ultimately it doesnt matter because everyday I have is a day that is dedicated to the Lord and his work. Geneve isnt as dirty as I thought. I was really looking at the streets and sidewalks the other night when we were on the tram and it is a pretty clean city. I think sometimes it just looks dirty because it is so overcast and the trees are all barenaked. I bet if I am privledged to stay here into the spring and summerish it is probably so beautiful here! I hope that I will be able to because I want to take pictures and show you all the cool places and buildings when the weather is good. We will see though. Sister Lala will be dying not next transfer but the transfer after so we dont know what they are going to do with me.
So it sounds like life at home is good. SO HAPPY to hear that John Pennington was baptized. That is so incredible and such a wonderful blessing for their family. Such a great motivation to be stronger and more faithful in life. To friends reading this that don't know John, he is a 12 year old young man who has down syndrome. So he technically has an automatic in to the Celestial Kingdom--so jealous--, but has chosen to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Pretty dang cool. Give the Pennington family my regards!
Quickly before i share a special story with you all I would like to apologize to Tom and Addison for completely spacing their birthdays last week. I even emailed on Toms b-day. I am so sorry but I know they received my letters and they know how much i love them. Allie I am proud that I made you sob when reading the letter to Addison. If you have shared this with the family, Caroline, please know that I plan on doing this same thing for Charlotte and Liam. And Michael, I will do this for your children as well. If you ever get married. JUST KIDDING. I want to do this same thing with all of my nieces and nephews for their second birthday.
Okay so now I need to be quick because I dont have much time left. This week we had many miracles but one cool one in particular. It was monday night and we were looking for a contacts apt building, building 12. We kept walking up and down the street but could not find the 12 anywhere. While we were looking for this apt we were contacting in the streets. We had many people rejecting us and i decided that we were not going to have any luck contacting and that if we couldnt find the building we should find something else to do. Just then my companion contacted a short cute latin woman. She had things in her hands and looked like she was in a hurry. Sr. Lala presented us and talked about the book of Mormon. The woman was interested and we were able to set up a rendez vous. I was shocked. Just when i was ready to give up the Lord put someone in our way who was willing to accept. About five minutes after this my companion looked in her planner and found that the apt was actually building 18. We should have never been looking for 12 but because the Lord wanted us to find Rosi we had to search for a building that didnt exist. The next day we went to our apt with Rosi and it went beautifully. I recited the first vision, yes in French and yes from memory and it was very powerful. Rosi started crying and we knew she felt the spirit. We then committed her to baptism and when we presented her with a date she said she couldnt because she had a birthday she had to go to but she said she would a different day. We will be going back to see her tomorrow. She is so golden and is so accepting to our message. She said the closing prayer and thanked God that we were sent to her. Things like this happen a lot more than I have time to explain but I am so grateful for this work and for the Lords hand that I have witnessed in it!! He truly has prepared people to accept our message and I know that as long as we are being obedient and following the spirit he will lead us to them.
I love you family and I love this time in my life. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ lives and that he is very active in our lives. He is aware of everything that we are suffering through and knows how to help us. But we must reach out to Him and invite him into our lives.
Please take a moment this week to share this gospel with someone you come into contact with. This message must be shared. How selfish we would be to keep it to ourselves!
Love,
Soeur Addis
Well that pretty much sums up my week so I guess I will write you all again next week. Peace and Love famille.Okay not really but that would have been funny if i ended it with that. Some how I am always so distracted when I write emails. Right now there is a teenager sitting next to me at another computer listening to Bollywood music. Yes mom I said Bollywood. That means its like Indian people having a jolly good time trying to sing and make cool American music but it actually just sounds like dying cats. Its pretty much awful. Dont waste your time on youtube listening to it. Haha. Man I am funny today. Just so full of life i guess!!
Okay here comes the goods. Life in Geneve is getting better everyday. There are bad days and there are good days but ultimately it doesnt matter because everyday I have is a day that is dedicated to the Lord and his work. Geneve isnt as dirty as I thought. I was really looking at the streets and sidewalks the other night when we were on the tram and it is a pretty clean city. I think sometimes it just looks dirty because it is so overcast and the trees are all barenaked. I bet if I am privledged to stay here into the spring and summerish it is probably so beautiful here! I hope that I will be able to because I want to take pictures and show you all the cool places and buildings when the weather is good. We will see though. Sister Lala will be dying not next transfer but the transfer after so we dont know what they are going to do with me.
So it sounds like life at home is good. SO HAPPY to hear that John Pennington was baptized. That is so incredible and such a wonderful blessing for their family. Such a great motivation to be stronger and more faithful in life. To friends reading this that don't know John, he is a 12 year old young man who has down syndrome. So he technically has an automatic in to the Celestial Kingdom--so jealous--, but has chosen to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Pretty dang cool. Give the Pennington family my regards!
Quickly before i share a special story with you all I would like to apologize to Tom and Addison for completely spacing their birthdays last week. I even emailed on Toms b-day. I am so sorry but I know they received my letters and they know how much i love them. Allie I am proud that I made you sob when reading the letter to Addison. If you have shared this with the family, Caroline, please know that I plan on doing this same thing for Charlotte and Liam. And Michael, I will do this for your children as well. If you ever get married. JUST KIDDING. I want to do this same thing with all of my nieces and nephews for their second birthday.
Okay so now I need to be quick because I dont have much time left. This week we had many miracles but one cool one in particular. It was monday night and we were looking for a contacts apt building, building 12. We kept walking up and down the street but could not find the 12 anywhere. While we were looking for this apt we were contacting in the streets. We had many people rejecting us and i decided that we were not going to have any luck contacting and that if we couldnt find the building we should find something else to do. Just then my companion contacted a short cute latin woman. She had things in her hands and looked like she was in a hurry. Sr. Lala presented us and talked about the book of Mormon. The woman was interested and we were able to set up a rendez vous. I was shocked. Just when i was ready to give up the Lord put someone in our way who was willing to accept. About five minutes after this my companion looked in her planner and found that the apt was actually building 18. We should have never been looking for 12 but because the Lord wanted us to find Rosi we had to search for a building that didnt exist. The next day we went to our apt with Rosi and it went beautifully. I recited the first vision, yes in French and yes from memory and it was very powerful. Rosi started crying and we knew she felt the spirit. We then committed her to baptism and when we presented her with a date she said she couldnt because she had a birthday she had to go to but she said she would a different day. We will be going back to see her tomorrow. She is so golden and is so accepting to our message. She said the closing prayer and thanked God that we were sent to her. Things like this happen a lot more than I have time to explain but I am so grateful for this work and for the Lords hand that I have witnessed in it!! He truly has prepared people to accept our message and I know that as long as we are being obedient and following the spirit he will lead us to them.
I love you family and I love this time in my life. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ lives and that he is very active in our lives. He is aware of everything that we are suffering through and knows how to help us. But we must reach out to Him and invite him into our lives.
Please take a moment this week to share this gospel with someone you come into contact with. This message must be shared. How selfish we would be to keep it to ourselves!
Love,
Soeur Addis
Monday, January 9, 2012
First Email from the Mission Field - Geneva
Alright fam bam, here it is, the first e-mail from the field. First of all sorry if this e-mail is very mispelled because the keyboard is different so I don't know how to type very well. And it is saying that i am spelling everything wrong because these words are english and not french. I AM HERE IN GENEVA...Genève for those who speak french. Life is good. Its very very difficult. I have had an entertaining week. Culture shock is an understatement. But its good non the less. President and Sister Murdock are great. We had a lot a good time with them at the mission home for the first night but then quickly left the next morning. Because I am serving here in Geneve our train ride was like ten minutes unlike some other missionaires who had 4-12 hours on a train. I was grateful to not have to travel any longer. The plane rides were quite shaky like i mentioned in my letter home and I was very sick from them. When Sister LaLa--that is what her name is here in the field, no one can say her last name so it has been shortened and I dont even know if I can pronounce it correctly, any way. When we got to the apartment we put down my bags and got to planning our day. We first did some studies and then ate and then went out porting (knocking doors) and contacting. We tried to go visit some less actives but no one was home so we continued to contact. After a while we went home and ate dinner and then had a lesson with Miryan and her son Edouard. They are our progressing investigators at the moment and they are golden! Edouard is so smart and asks so many questions about the Book of Mormon, its awesome. They were supposed to come to church yesterday but Miryan got sick. Please pray for this family! They are so wonderful and I know that they will be baptized. After we left our rendez-vous is when the entertainment came. Sister Lala and i were running for the bus because we did not have much time before we had to get home. When we were on the tram, yes we take public transportation every where and do some walking, no car no bikes, okay so when we were on the tram I told Sister Lala that I was not feeling well at all. In fact during Edouards prayer I thought i was going to puke. So we got off the tram and not 5 seconds later I threw up. Four or five times right there on the street. I felt so awful but i took a picture. I will send it to you soon, i forgot my cord today. So after i threw up i thought i was better and i thought it was just because of my motion sickness from the plane but then later after planning and going to bed i woke up at 11 and threw up again, in the bathroom sink. Then i went to bed, threw up at 12 and then again at 1 and then again at 3. Needless to say, i was sick. I was so sick that i ended up sleeping the whole next day. At one point i tried to wake up to shower and get ready to see home i felt but after about 1hr and 30 mins of being awake i felt so dizzy and went back to sleep until 8 at night. It was awful and I felt so badly for Sister Lala but it wasnt as bad because we did not have any appts. But NOW i am better! So that is good. That was thursday, then friday the district leader Elder Saurez and his companion Elder Arnold, gave me a blessing. After the blessing we went back home for more studying and planning and then we had an appt with a less active. She has been less active for like 30 years at least. Soeur Spada, she is probably 75. She is so sweet. I am pretty sure she is from Italy because of her accent but i love it. She lives in this town called Carouge and it is my favorite town we have been to so far. It is SO CUTE and SO Eurpoean. There is alot more farm land out there. Where i live is very urban and although they say Geneve is very clean i think it is kind of dirty. After seeing Soeur Spada we went to another part of our sector-area- and went contacting until we had another lesson with Hayda. She is an investigator that we have however she does not keep her commitments so she is not "progressing". The rendez-vous with her was good. She is from Africa and her children are so cute, but they are WILD. It is very hard to be able to tell if she is feeling the spirit because there are so many distractions during the lesson. Hopefully she will keep our commitments this week when we go see her on friday. After that lesson we went home and ate and went to bed. Saturday was good. We had our normal studies and planning and then went to some appts. Two of them fell through and then we went to our next one and she forgot and said she couldnt meet with us. And then when even our back up plans failed we decided to go to the institute building to get a board and go boarding in carouge. We ended up getting LOCKED in the institute building... dont ask.. and by the time the Elders came and let us out it was too late to go do anything before our French class, the Elders teach English class. So then we had French class and that was fun, there were a lot of Mongolian people there. After french class we just went porting all night because our other appt fell through on us. Then we went home and ate and went to bed. Sunday was great. It was so nice to be in a dedicated building where even though i could not understand i felt the spirit. It was very refreshing to be doing something familiar. I bore my testimony in sacrament so that was pretty fulfilling. But otherwise i didnt understand much. The members are great there though. They are so sweet and so welcoming. I am not sure home many YM/YW there are because I am not in with them but i would guess there is probably like a group of 10 or 15. After church we had a lesson with an investigator, Tatiana. She is 11 and her mom Soeur Schneller, is a less active but Tatiana, wants to learn about the church. Yesterday we asked her to be baptized and she said yes! So wednesday we will be setting a date with her. We are very excited for her but need her to keep her commitments! Please pray for Tatiana and her mother that they will have the desire to keep Gods commandments. After our lesson we went home to study for a little bit but then went out and went porting. After porting for almost 2 hours we went home and broke our fast and had dinner. After dinner we had a rendez-vous with Soeur Humez. She is great. She is also an old less active lady. However she has been going back to church a lot more lately. Unfortunately she is a very sad person, seems depressed but hopefully with the commitments I GAVE HER, she will be a little bit happier this week. Thats right i actually talked during this lesson. The spirit was so strong and I gave her some promises that i know the Lord will fulfill if she follows through. And now today. We are writing home a little later than normal. Yesterday was Sister Lalas birthday so we went out to Lunch with the other Sisters. We did laundry, studied, grocery shopped--which was one of the weirdest experiences ever, and now we are going out to go porting and stuff. We were supposed to have a rendez-vous with this young man however his mother called us and told us that he will not be coming. Haha some moms are so protective.Okay so now a little bit of time to try to answer questions. The apartment is small but its good. We dont have a good view of anything, and yes the address that was sent is where i live, not an office or mission home or anything. Sister Lala is from Grenobile--i dont know if i spelt that right. Her parents are from Madagascar. She is great. She speaks english so well so i am very grateful, however she doesnt understand how hard it is to learn french. She is wonderful though. Such a great trainer and she is SO enthusiastic about the work and such a good example to me. She will be going home in May. Her hometown, Grenobile is in the mission field because she was called to Tolouse but then they combined.As of right now I do not plan on getting another coat. I have not been that cold. There is not any snow on the ground, I have no idea how cold it gets. Last week it rained ALOT.To be honest i have not had any food yet, made from some where else. Where we went to eat was Indian so i still have yet to have a bagette or pastry. We bought king cake to have with Hayda and her family but our appt went over and we did not have time to eat it with her. Everything is very expensive here and we are missionaires so we do not have much money. One day soon.Sorry I dont have any more time. I was very happy to hear that the babies are listening to the french primary songs and relax when they here them! Send pictures of them walking together! Thank you so much for all of our wonderful e-mails and I am sorry if I did not get back to something specific. Please bold it in the next email if you want something addressed!I love you all very much and miss you a lot. This is hard work but I have commited myself to the Lord and I know that you all are being blessed for my work. Write soon. Love,Soeur Addis
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Last e-mail from the U. S. of A...for 16 months, December 27, 2011
Hello Again fam bam,
I know you are sick of hearing from me since I was able to e-mail you a couple of days ago, and I don't have much to report. In exactly a week I will be going to bed in Geneva Switzerland. How cool is that! I dont have my exact flight information with me right now but I will call you from the airport on Monday and tell you everything then. I know that our flight is out of SLC at 8:10 am to Dallas/Fort Worth and we are flying British Airways, for all of the flights. We get into Dallas around 11:55 and then don't leave until 4:45 for London. We get into London at 7:30 the next morning and our flight to Geneva is at 8:30 and we get in there at 11:10 in the morning, on January 3, 2012! What 2012?!?!? Where did the time go? Unfortunately I am not allowed to meet up with any family members at the airport but I will be sure to call them from the airport. Mom I will call you first and then just get everyones phone number from you. Don't worry about dear eldering phone numbers.
So I understand that Christmas was noisey but how was it otherwise? What did you all do and how did the little kids enjoy Christmas! Does Addison understand how awesome Santa is yet? I loved the little letters from the Traill's. It was so cute to see little kid hand writing in French. I am sorry to hear that the kiddos were all sick. That is not fun at all. Hopefully when we all have Christmas together again everyone will be healthy. And hopefully Addison wont be such a trouble maker when I get home. Thats cool that Grandma 'surprised' you all. I hope you are having a fun time together!
I tried the SD card several times to find the video but all that is there is pictures. I even tried it in my companions camera to see if it was just mine. It didnt work in her camera either. I cannot use the digital frame until I have a flash drive. They do not sell those here at the bookstore so I will have to buy one in France. I bought a convertor and transformer today for pretty cheap so I am good on that. Also I found a way to cash checks here so I will not be sending that check home. And yes I did get both packages. I got them both on December 23, the last possible day to get mail before the Holidays. Did you have Mer read my testimony in French? I sent out my package on the 15th so that is disappointing about it not getting there until the 23rd. At least it was there in time. Well there is not much else to report since Sunday. I am getting pretty nervous but I know I am in the Lord's hands and therefore I shall not fear.
I found out that my last couple of e-mails have not made it to the blog. PLEASE post them! ALL OF THEM! Thank you. Thank you big time for the perfume. Its nice to feel like a woman again. I loved all my gifts. I dont know if i mentioned that in my last e-mail. Oh also, send the dearelders for the last time on Thursday. Sometimes they take a LONG time to get to us and I know the mail room is going to be closed over the weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful week and get hyped to talk to me on Monday! I expect everyone to make time to talk to me, even if they havent had time to write me!
I love you very much.
Love,S. Addis
I know you are sick of hearing from me since I was able to e-mail you a couple of days ago, and I don't have much to report. In exactly a week I will be going to bed in Geneva Switzerland. How cool is that! I dont have my exact flight information with me right now but I will call you from the airport on Monday and tell you everything then. I know that our flight is out of SLC at 8:10 am to Dallas/Fort Worth and we are flying British Airways, for all of the flights. We get into Dallas around 11:55 and then don't leave until 4:45 for London. We get into London at 7:30 the next morning and our flight to Geneva is at 8:30 and we get in there at 11:10 in the morning, on January 3, 2012! What 2012?!?!? Where did the time go? Unfortunately I am not allowed to meet up with any family members at the airport but I will be sure to call them from the airport. Mom I will call you first and then just get everyones phone number from you. Don't worry about dear eldering phone numbers.
So I understand that Christmas was noisey but how was it otherwise? What did you all do and how did the little kids enjoy Christmas! Does Addison understand how awesome Santa is yet? I loved the little letters from the Traill's. It was so cute to see little kid hand writing in French. I am sorry to hear that the kiddos were all sick. That is not fun at all. Hopefully when we all have Christmas together again everyone will be healthy. And hopefully Addison wont be such a trouble maker when I get home. Thats cool that Grandma 'surprised' you all. I hope you are having a fun time together!
I tried the SD card several times to find the video but all that is there is pictures. I even tried it in my companions camera to see if it was just mine. It didnt work in her camera either. I cannot use the digital frame until I have a flash drive. They do not sell those here at the bookstore so I will have to buy one in France. I bought a convertor and transformer today for pretty cheap so I am good on that. Also I found a way to cash checks here so I will not be sending that check home. And yes I did get both packages. I got them both on December 23, the last possible day to get mail before the Holidays. Did you have Mer read my testimony in French? I sent out my package on the 15th so that is disappointing about it not getting there until the 23rd. At least it was there in time. Well there is not much else to report since Sunday. I am getting pretty nervous but I know I am in the Lord's hands and therefore I shall not fear.
I found out that my last couple of e-mails have not made it to the blog. PLEASE post them! ALL OF THEM! Thank you. Thank you big time for the perfume. Its nice to feel like a woman again. I loved all my gifts. I dont know if i mentioned that in my last e-mail. Oh also, send the dearelders for the last time on Thursday. Sometimes they take a LONG time to get to us and I know the mail room is going to be closed over the weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful week and get hyped to talk to me on Monday! I expect everyone to make time to talk to me, even if they havent had time to write me!
I love you very much.
Love,S. Addis
On this Sabbath Christmas Day, December 25, 2011
Joyeux Noel ma chere famille,
We have been allotted some time today to e-mail home since we do not call today! I am very excited about this! I will still be able to e-mail you on Tuesday. Please make sure that if you are trying to e-mail before I read on Tuesday that you send it before 7 am MST because that is when I first read my e-mails and print them out. I do this so I do not have to waste my e-mail time reading and I can just write for the whole 1/2 hour.
Anyway. How are you all? How has your Christmas been? I absolutely loved my gifts. Thank you so much for every single one of them . I honestly feel so blessed. The Lord has provided me with so many wonderful things. I hope you are feeling the blessings that the Lord has given to you as well on this Sabbath, Christmas day. I love that today is Sunday and Christmas. It brings such a powerful spirit to the Christmas day. This morning we all had sacrament together. Yup, all 2,120 of us, in one room partaking of the sacrament.
Oh i think i forgot to mention that we partook of the sacrament with ELDER BEDNAR! how cool is that? how many people can say that they have witnessed an apostle of the Lord taking the sacrament. He and his wife were then our speakers for the sacrament meeting. He had such wonderful things to say and he mentioned alot, however there is something that was special to me that I want to be able to share with all of you. He gave us a quote from Elder Neil A Maxwell about the fact that the atonement was only possible because of the character of Christ. He then talked about what it meant to have the character of Christ. He made the strong point in saying that character is moral qualities. He said how in times of trouble we all, the natural man, tends to turn in whereas our Savior Jesus Christ turns out. In times of trouble the Lord is constantly turning out to people and trying to help others instead of having a wo is me attitude. I loved this, especially at this time in my life because so many missionaries including myself tend to turn in when times are hard. Instead i know i should be trying to serve those around me and lift others when my times are hard. I know that as we do this the lord will strengthen us and make our worries seem that much smaller if we are willing to turn to those around us and lift them even when all we want is for someone else to come lift us. I know that probably didn't make sense however I hope that you can gain something from these words i have shared with you.
I love you all very much and miss you a lot. I pray that you are having a wonderful Christmas and Sabbath and really focusing on the true meaning of Christmas, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him. I know Him and I know that he knows me personally. I cannot wait for the day when I can kneel before my Savior and thank him for His atonement and his love that carried me through my life. Let the Lord be with you on this Sabbath day.
Love, Soeur Kimberly Addis P.s. I took a picture in my new PJ's so I will send that. There was no VIDEO on the SD cards :( . Give a huge hug and kiss to my little ones, And make sure they know how much their Auntie Kitters loves them. In a week and a couple of hours i will be calling you and on my way to FRANCE/ SWITZERLAND! How cool is that!!
We have been allotted some time today to e-mail home since we do not call today! I am very excited about this! I will still be able to e-mail you on Tuesday. Please make sure that if you are trying to e-mail before I read on Tuesday that you send it before 7 am MST because that is when I first read my e-mails and print them out. I do this so I do not have to waste my e-mail time reading and I can just write for the whole 1/2 hour.
Anyway. How are you all? How has your Christmas been? I absolutely loved my gifts. Thank you so much for every single one of them . I honestly feel so blessed. The Lord has provided me with so many wonderful things. I hope you are feeling the blessings that the Lord has given to you as well on this Sabbath, Christmas day. I love that today is Sunday and Christmas. It brings such a powerful spirit to the Christmas day. This morning we all had sacrament together. Yup, all 2,120 of us, in one room partaking of the sacrament.
Oh i think i forgot to mention that we partook of the sacrament with ELDER BEDNAR! how cool is that? how many people can say that they have witnessed an apostle of the Lord taking the sacrament. He and his wife were then our speakers for the sacrament meeting. He had such wonderful things to say and he mentioned alot, however there is something that was special to me that I want to be able to share with all of you. He gave us a quote from Elder Neil A Maxwell about the fact that the atonement was only possible because of the character of Christ. He then talked about what it meant to have the character of Christ. He made the strong point in saying that character is moral qualities. He said how in times of trouble we all, the natural man, tends to turn in whereas our Savior Jesus Christ turns out. In times of trouble the Lord is constantly turning out to people and trying to help others instead of having a wo is me attitude. I loved this, especially at this time in my life because so many missionaries including myself tend to turn in when times are hard. Instead i know i should be trying to serve those around me and lift others when my times are hard. I know that as we do this the lord will strengthen us and make our worries seem that much smaller if we are willing to turn to those around us and lift them even when all we want is for someone else to come lift us. I know that probably didn't make sense however I hope that you can gain something from these words i have shared with you.
I love you all very much and miss you a lot. I pray that you are having a wonderful Christmas and Sabbath and really focusing on the true meaning of Christmas, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him. I know Him and I know that he knows me personally. I cannot wait for the day when I can kneel before my Savior and thank him for His atonement and his love that carried me through my life. Let the Lord be with you on this Sabbath day.
Love, Soeur Kimberly Addis P.s. I took a picture in my new PJ's so I will send that. There was no VIDEO on the SD cards :( . Give a huge hug and kiss to my little ones, And make sure they know how much their Auntie Kitters loves them. In a week and a couple of hours i will be calling you and on my way to FRANCE/ SWITZERLAND! How cool is that!!
One Minute Closer to Christmas, December 20, 2011
Bon Jour ma famille!
Comment ca va? I am doing very well again this week! I think Heavenly Father has a way of making sure I am happy when I write you on p-day! But really this week hasn't been to shabby. I feel like I always have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. Also I write in the laundry room while I am waiting for my laundry so I don't focus too well in here.
First and foremost if anyone can tell me where my subject line comes from I will send you a Swiss Chocolate Candy bar.
Second thing. Caroline asked about my subject line a couple of weeks ago that was titled, "They call me temptress" so I guess I will tell you all what it means. The first week or so into the MTC Elder Graham gave me the title. At first it was because I was tempting him to eat ice cream but now EVERYONE, including some of the new elders, calls me temptress when I am "distracting" them from studying. At times they call me temptress when we don't even have study time and I have concluded that they call me temptress then because I am distracting them from being a missionary.
Okay second thing is something I want to tell Grandma Bobbie, so please make sure she gets this email! I AM SOOOOO SORRY that I did not say happy birthday last week. I was thinking about it all the week before of how I would be able to say happy birthday in my email because it was the same day but then it totally slipped my mind. Same thing goes for Lily Grace. I was going to say happy birthday to her as well and then it totally slipped my mind. So before I forget, Happy Birthday to Aunt Anne!! And of course Merry Christmas to all. Ensuite. On Thursday I went to the dentist to get my impressions made for my retainer. On the way there I was sitting in the passenger seat and WHITNEY KELLY was driving RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!!! However she did not see me. I was so excited to see her but sad that she did not see me as well. It was right next to Zupas and driving up towards the mall. Another shout out to Julia Santiago who just recently got home from her Study Abroad in London! She now has no reason not to be writing me! Along with that goes the fact that Marianne (one of my roommates from this past summer, whom I got close with) visited me again here at the MTC on Sunday for lunch! It was the perfect timing. I was feeling a little homesick because Relief Society was all talks about being in the mission for Christmas and missing family, and it sunk in that I would not be with the people I love the most for Christmas. I am doing better now. No worries.
Mom I received the oranges about 24 hours ago and there is one left. EVERYONE loved them. They were so delicious. I was so grateful to be able to have a Florida orange and not a California orange. Florida does them right. This week I also loved hearing from ALLISON!, Sister Lisa Welch, and some others. It was about time I got a letter from Allie. I really did enjoy it. Caroline I loved your dearelder too. I love hearing stories about my little babies, mom I know they aren't babies anymore but they will be my babies forever. I especially loved the story about Addison saying how she farted. She definitely learned that one from Tom. Speaking of Tom, I would love to hear from the men in my life. My father, Tom and Devin. Michael is probably like six times ahead of the rest of them right now in letter writing.
The new elders, and three sisters, came in this past week. They are doing great and I am impressed by how well they all already speak French. There are three elders and one sister that will be going to Lyon and I love them all! I am excited that we will all be going to the same place. We are now the Old missionaries and are the examples to them. Knowing that definitely has me studying a lot harder. I guess the fact that I am leaving in less than two weeks has me studying a lot harder as well. Just for everyones general information. We do in fact get dear elders on Saturday but only if it is in by 12.
Word on the block is that Elder Perry will be here on Christmas. Apparently it is tradition for his family to come to his Christmas firesides every year. We will see I guess. On Christmas eve we also have a little devotional and then we get to watch a movie. The rumor is that we will be watching A Christmas Carol that night. And mom just to let you know, your last email said xxoo su mere. Su is Spanish. If you want to say your mom, it would be votre mere--formally- or ta mere--informal feminine.
Okay as a transition into my spiritual insight I want everyone to know that 13 years ago today I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For this, I am extremely grateful. This gospel has brought so much joy to my life and has helped me to build a wonderful relationship with my Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Okay spiritual insight. Sister Dalton (Young Women General President) came and spoke for our Tuesday Devotional last week. It was so incredible. The Elders even loved her. There are three things I want to share with you all from what she said. The first is a quote from President Monson, "Never postpone a prompting". I know that sometimes we do not understand if a prompting is just us thinking in our heads or whether it is the spirit guiding us but I know that if we follow through on these promptings we will be blessed. We cannot afford to ignore what could be a prompting from the Lord. As you develop a relationship with your Savior Jesus Christ, these feelings will become more clear as to whether they are from the Holy Ghost or ourselves. The next thing I want to share is that in life there are some gifts that come in unfamiliar packages. We do not know what is contained inside until we receive the gift, open it and use it. I know in life we are given many trials and things that do not seem like they will be any good in our lives. However as we endure through the trials we will come to realize why the Lord has given us these trials and what good they are doing in our lives. The last thing from her talk I want to share is that the Lord knows YOU by name. I know this to be true. There is no doubt in my mind and heart that Our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ know each of us by name. He is the reason that we are able to live on this earth today and the reason we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again. Remind me to write next week about my realization of why I had a pilonidal cyst and what it means.
I have run out of time. I love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas. May the Lord be with you as you celebrate His birth. He lives.
Love, Soeur Kimberly Addis
Comment ca va? I am doing very well again this week! I think Heavenly Father has a way of making sure I am happy when I write you on p-day! But really this week hasn't been to shabby. I feel like I always have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. Also I write in the laundry room while I am waiting for my laundry so I don't focus too well in here.
First and foremost if anyone can tell me where my subject line comes from I will send you a Swiss Chocolate Candy bar.
Second thing. Caroline asked about my subject line a couple of weeks ago that was titled, "They call me temptress" so I guess I will tell you all what it means. The first week or so into the MTC Elder Graham gave me the title. At first it was because I was tempting him to eat ice cream but now EVERYONE, including some of the new elders, calls me temptress when I am "distracting" them from studying. At times they call me temptress when we don't even have study time and I have concluded that they call me temptress then because I am distracting them from being a missionary.
Okay second thing is something I want to tell Grandma Bobbie, so please make sure she gets this email! I AM SOOOOO SORRY that I did not say happy birthday last week. I was thinking about it all the week before of how I would be able to say happy birthday in my email because it was the same day but then it totally slipped my mind. Same thing goes for Lily Grace. I was going to say happy birthday to her as well and then it totally slipped my mind. So before I forget, Happy Birthday to Aunt Anne!! And of course Merry Christmas to all. Ensuite. On Thursday I went to the dentist to get my impressions made for my retainer. On the way there I was sitting in the passenger seat and WHITNEY KELLY was driving RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!!! However she did not see me. I was so excited to see her but sad that she did not see me as well. It was right next to Zupas and driving up towards the mall. Another shout out to Julia Santiago who just recently got home from her Study Abroad in London! She now has no reason not to be writing me! Along with that goes the fact that Marianne (one of my roommates from this past summer, whom I got close with) visited me again here at the MTC on Sunday for lunch! It was the perfect timing. I was feeling a little homesick because Relief Society was all talks about being in the mission for Christmas and missing family, and it sunk in that I would not be with the people I love the most for Christmas. I am doing better now. No worries.
Mom I received the oranges about 24 hours ago and there is one left. EVERYONE loved them. They were so delicious. I was so grateful to be able to have a Florida orange and not a California orange. Florida does them right. This week I also loved hearing from ALLISON!, Sister Lisa Welch, and some others. It was about time I got a letter from Allie. I really did enjoy it. Caroline I loved your dearelder too. I love hearing stories about my little babies, mom I know they aren't babies anymore but they will be my babies forever. I especially loved the story about Addison saying how she farted. She definitely learned that one from Tom. Speaking of Tom, I would love to hear from the men in my life. My father, Tom and Devin. Michael is probably like six times ahead of the rest of them right now in letter writing.
The new elders, and three sisters, came in this past week. They are doing great and I am impressed by how well they all already speak French. There are three elders and one sister that will be going to Lyon and I love them all! I am excited that we will all be going to the same place. We are now the Old missionaries and are the examples to them. Knowing that definitely has me studying a lot harder. I guess the fact that I am leaving in less than two weeks has me studying a lot harder as well. Just for everyones general information. We do in fact get dear elders on Saturday but only if it is in by 12.
Word on the block is that Elder Perry will be here on Christmas. Apparently it is tradition for his family to come to his Christmas firesides every year. We will see I guess. On Christmas eve we also have a little devotional and then we get to watch a movie. The rumor is that we will be watching A Christmas Carol that night. And mom just to let you know, your last email said xxoo su mere. Su is Spanish. If you want to say your mom, it would be votre mere--formally- or ta mere--informal feminine.
Okay as a transition into my spiritual insight I want everyone to know that 13 years ago today I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For this, I am extremely grateful. This gospel has brought so much joy to my life and has helped me to build a wonderful relationship with my Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Okay spiritual insight. Sister Dalton (Young Women General President) came and spoke for our Tuesday Devotional last week. It was so incredible. The Elders even loved her. There are three things I want to share with you all from what she said. The first is a quote from President Monson, "Never postpone a prompting". I know that sometimes we do not understand if a prompting is just us thinking in our heads or whether it is the spirit guiding us but I know that if we follow through on these promptings we will be blessed. We cannot afford to ignore what could be a prompting from the Lord. As you develop a relationship with your Savior Jesus Christ, these feelings will become more clear as to whether they are from the Holy Ghost or ourselves. The next thing I want to share is that in life there are some gifts that come in unfamiliar packages. We do not know what is contained inside until we receive the gift, open it and use it. I know in life we are given many trials and things that do not seem like they will be any good in our lives. However as we endure through the trials we will come to realize why the Lord has given us these trials and what good they are doing in our lives. The last thing from her talk I want to share is that the Lord knows YOU by name. I know this to be true. There is no doubt in my mind and heart that Our Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ know each of us by name. He is the reason that we are able to live on this earth today and the reason we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again. Remind me to write next week about my realization of why I had a pilonidal cyst and what it means.
I have run out of time. I love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas. May the Lord be with you as you celebrate His birth. He lives.
Love, Soeur Kimberly Addis
December 13, 2011
Hi Momma...and friends...
I am happy to report that I have been doing VERY WELL. I have been loving everyday even though somtimes the MTC drives me crazy I recognize that I have less than 3 weeks left and ALOT more left to learn! It sounds like everyone is doing very well and that you are all gearing up for the Holidays. Got a letter yesterday from Grandma and Grandpa, Sandy, Glenn and Elder Nielson. It was a great day. Then last week I got a package a day for three days. First from Caroline, then the Wasdens- delievered by Pam Hardy, and then Whitney Kelly. All of them contained some kind of fruit and my district and I have been very appreciative.
Mom to answer your questions, there is ALOT of Basketball played in the MTC everyday at gym. Then in the field I am sure you can play a lot at the Church buildings on P-day. I think Elder Adams is really going to want his basketball shoes. So now to answer Sister Adams questions, as far as I know there is only one French branch in the MTC. My branch, which is only one Zone, right now is made up of four districts, about 30 of us, but we are getting 30 MISSIONARIES tomorrow!!! We are very excited. There will probably be another four districts added. I am sure I will give more information next week. All my classes and Sunday Sacrament and Sunday school is with my zone, so yes french speaking.
Anyway, Michael will be home on Saturday! I am so excited for you all to be together next week when you read my letter. Tell everyone in the ward I love them and miss them. Sorry about your food spill in the car. I have not heard yet from Kim Bitterman but I did write her. Oh and we cannot call on Christmas. I will have five hours to talk when we have our layover. Get ready to be on the phone for a long time fam! Jan 2! Less than three weeks.
To answer MVA's questions the language is progressing each day. I am learning a lot. Teaching is progressing. I think one of our investigators will commit to baptism this week. (they are fake but still). Okay cool things from this week. Sister Ann M. Dibb came on sunday for Relief Society. I met her and we hugged. I am now legit. I hugged the prophet's daughter. Um I had nothing else written besides that. I thought i had more. Something i want you all to do is read Moroni 10:32-33 and every time it says grace substitute in the word 'atonement'. If you read with purpose it will be so beneficial in your life. So in a second my friend Elder Graham from my zone is going to write to you. He is interesting. We are really good friends and like to joke together. The other day I was writing a bucket list and he decided to add to it that one day i will spend a week on his Yacht in Greece. I am pretty sure you can get a good picture of him from just that. This is Dane, Your Daughter is awesome and is the only person here that I can joke around with! Plus she's a great missionary! She helps me stay sane lol. Well I am gunna get going but I love you all very much. I hope you have a wonderful time together. I will be thinking of you often. Have a wonderful week. Keep strong and carry on.
Love, Soeur Addis P.s. Mom please send a good baby picture of me.
I am happy to report that I have been doing VERY WELL. I have been loving everyday even though somtimes the MTC drives me crazy I recognize that I have less than 3 weeks left and ALOT more left to learn! It sounds like everyone is doing very well and that you are all gearing up for the Holidays. Got a letter yesterday from Grandma and Grandpa, Sandy, Glenn and Elder Nielson. It was a great day. Then last week I got a package a day for three days. First from Caroline, then the Wasdens- delievered by Pam Hardy, and then Whitney Kelly. All of them contained some kind of fruit and my district and I have been very appreciative.
Mom to answer your questions, there is ALOT of Basketball played in the MTC everyday at gym. Then in the field I am sure you can play a lot at the Church buildings on P-day. I think Elder Adams is really going to want his basketball shoes. So now to answer Sister Adams questions, as far as I know there is only one French branch in the MTC. My branch, which is only one Zone, right now is made up of four districts, about 30 of us, but we are getting 30 MISSIONARIES tomorrow!!! We are very excited. There will probably be another four districts added. I am sure I will give more information next week. All my classes and Sunday Sacrament and Sunday school is with my zone, so yes french speaking.
Anyway, Michael will be home on Saturday! I am so excited for you all to be together next week when you read my letter. Tell everyone in the ward I love them and miss them. Sorry about your food spill in the car. I have not heard yet from Kim Bitterman but I did write her. Oh and we cannot call on Christmas. I will have five hours to talk when we have our layover. Get ready to be on the phone for a long time fam! Jan 2! Less than three weeks.
To answer MVA's questions the language is progressing each day. I am learning a lot. Teaching is progressing. I think one of our investigators will commit to baptism this week. (they are fake but still). Okay cool things from this week. Sister Ann M. Dibb came on sunday for Relief Society. I met her and we hugged. I am now legit. I hugged the prophet's daughter. Um I had nothing else written besides that. I thought i had more. Something i want you all to do is read Moroni 10:32-33 and every time it says grace substitute in the word 'atonement'. If you read with purpose it will be so beneficial in your life. So in a second my friend Elder Graham from my zone is going to write to you. He is interesting. We are really good friends and like to joke together. The other day I was writing a bucket list and he decided to add to it that one day i will spend a week on his Yacht in Greece. I am pretty sure you can get a good picture of him from just that. This is Dane, Your Daughter is awesome and is the only person here that I can joke around with! Plus she's a great missionary! She helps me stay sane lol. Well I am gunna get going but I love you all very much. I hope you have a wonderful time together. I will be thinking of you often. Have a wonderful week. Keep strong and carry on.
Love, Soeur Addis P.s. Mom please send a good baby picture of me.
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