Kylie's first letter from the mission was a little long, to say the least. But she had so much to share, and I am really glad she did. So, here is most of Kylie's first letter.
Hola Familia!
Well, I made it and I haven't completely passed out from the humidity...yet. And yes, I said y'all for the first time in a lesson with some members/less actives last night. They all thought it was hilarious! It's honestly hard not to, I'm gonna sound so weird by the time I get home! When we got off the plane and there was President Wall, his wife, and AP's waiting. What wonderful people. ... Right now I am sitting in a gigantic cool library (and I mean cool as in big and neat, also cool as in AC so I can breathe :) I had a good interview with President Wall right when we got to the mission home and we had dinner and a testimony meeting that night. The next day we basically had training, orientation, and transfers and then I came down here to Metarie/Kenner (the suburb of New Orleans).
My companion's name is Hermana Palmer. Here's what happened-we were the first Spanish sisters here, and Sister Palmer was called English speaking, but she's been learning Spanish for a long time. A lot when she was younger and then school, and even she received a degree in Spanish and Portuguese, so for all intents and purposes she is fluent! ... She's actually a convert of about 3 years, so I think it's pretty neat she's here. She's been through a lot to get to this point I think. We are in a suburb right next to New Orleans. Sisters are not allowed in actual downtown New Orleans, so I am as close as I'll ever get. And we have rules about where we can go and times we can be there. So its pretty safe, all things considered. ... We do live in an apartment, ... And get this: we have our own washer and dryer! I thought that was pretty awesome :)
It's a little confusing to explain the areas we are covering because I'm still confused about it! Basically we are double covering areas so we have one English area and one Spanish. Now, that doesn't mean we're the only missionaries around. It is completely opposite here than at home. At home we might have a set of missionaries covering two or three wards, well here we have 3 sets of missionaries in my English ward, and 6 sets in the Spanish ward. It's crazy!!! Kind of cool though. We are actually the only companionship in the mission that's in more than one ward, let alone more than one area. There aren't a ton of members, the ward bounds just cover huge areas so we're really here to build the wards and work with members, as well as finding new people.
On Sunday in Spanish Sacrament, I led the music ... Spanish hymns. Kind of neat. There was one or two boys/men from the ward passing the sacrament, and the others were all missionaries. Also, at the beginning of testimony meeting, Obispo called me up to bear my testimony, which I figured was coming :) It went well. It helped that all of the missionaries in the congregation were giving me big encouraging smiles. Probably remembering when that was them :) Well, at least hopefully they were encouraging, not laughing haha. No, they're all pretty nice. I was told that I made a lot of sense, didn't sound like gringo, and actually had some good things to say. I noticed that all of a sudden it's like I can link more together in my speaking. Or at least so I thought until we went to Relief Society where I maybe understood 5% of what was being said. So a little bit of encouragement plus a little big of humility to keep me working hard :) Its a strange thing being the first Spanish sister around (hna walker is in baton rouge) because its kind of like people have already set the standards super high in their minds about how I'm going to be, or should be. Like a native Spanish speaker, or at least a Spanish prodigy, or I'm gonna have a baptism a week. Haha, that's the joke with the Spanish elders in our ward right now. And since we had a baptism on Saturday, Elder Corenjo (I don't know how to spell it, he's from Nicaragua) told me that I'm track to have 52 this year. Kinda funny. So anyway, there's all those expectations, but on the other hand I'm doing pretty decent, and I can only do all I can do. And I think everyone's just excited to have sisters. It made me start realizing that God could have called a native Spanish speaking sister to start out here, but He didn't. That tells me even more that there is a reason that I, Hermana Marks, am here. So I just have to remember that when I feel like I'm barely staying afloat.
... My district is pretty good. Its us and three sets of elders (all in the Spanish ward). The one thing is that the elders who we are now sharing the Spanish area with acted like we kidnapped all their children when they found out we were both in that area ... they did not want to give up "their" people. Which I can understand for investigators that they've been teaching and have relationships with. ... But its not like we're stealing any investigators, they are keeping all the current ones, and we'll take any new ones that live in our part of the area. Mainly, our job right now is to work with the mujeres (women) in that ward. We can get into a lot of places that those elders can't, especially with all the single women. So we're trying to get our feet under us and meet people, and well, basically start from scratch. Like starting an area book and stuff. We're hoping to meet with the RS president tonight. The Ward Mission Leaders here mean serious business, so it should be super fun to work with them. Learning in my last week in the MTC about working with members, and then getting here, I'm getting a detailed look into how it's SUPPOSED to work with members. ... the relationship between the missionaries and the members here is the biggest reason for success in baptizing and re-activating members.
On the English side of things, we had a baptism Saturday night, so that was awesome. I only taught him twice, his name is Terry. He's black, is in his late 20s, early 30s and has some physical/mental disabilities (not really specifically known). That was a neat thing to see (and I played the piano for all the baptisms that night-3 in total-yeah, this mission is hoppin' :). Except, then on Sunday, we got a call from the members he (Terry) was supposed to be getting a ride with saying that he wasn't coming to church. The first time he missed church in 8 weeks, and obviously he needed to be there for confirmation. So we left church to go see him and find out what was up. He is southern, so hard to understand, and vague so it was hard to tell what was going on. He said he didn't want to be bothered with going to church, but then he'd say he just wasn't feeling well, and then a whole bunch of vague weird stuff. So obviously, he doesn't understand fully that a baptism isn't complete without receiving the Holy Ghost .... It was upsetting to my companion, who has been working with him almost this whole time. So we're gonna give him a day and then go see him, teach him, and he said he's be there this next Sunday.
Mom, yes people here are different!!!! In someways it doesn't feel different, and in others it's super different. Like people are always talking about how you gotta come to and believe in Jesus. Not baptists, but Mormons. And the other recent convert Sister Palmer just baptized is named Claudia and she looks like Cher, only 70 years old. I've never seen someone so done up, I don't even know how to explain it. And she's just this sweet innocent southern lady who is poor (but acts like she's not), and gives the longest hugs and calls me her newest sweet little angel. And we went to help her friend "move" the other day. Or so we thought, but she is a hoarder, majorly. Like nothing we ever saw when we went into houses when we had Now and Then. It didn't feel like we got very far in helping. She's kind of...handicapped I guess, and super stressed, so she just sat on her bed and directed us with what to do. When we found a potato she said, "oh good, hand that to me! I need it right here by me!" Sister Palmer and I had a good laugh about that later :) Speaking of potatoes, that is of course all I ever hear about when people ask where I'm from :) And then today we went grocery shopping and there they were: bags of potatoes with pictures of old farmers and Idaho on them. chistoso! {Sp. for 'funny'}
And there are lizards here! And some kind of invisible Jurassic mosquitoes because you'll never see them, but when we were teaching Terry outside one night, in about 10 minutes my feet and legs were covered. Like chicken pox. Just me, no one else. I guess it's all that sweet Idaho blood in me :) And they itch like somethin' else. I will never complain about bites from regular mosquitoes again! And there's these weird birds all over. And mom, we did go over that big lake coming here. It looked like the Atlantic ocean, or the Gulf. Everyone thought it was funny because we were talking and all of a sudden I look up and said, "is that the OCEAN?!?!" It wasn't-just a lake :) I think its a little farther away than a mile, but I don't know how far. And I was surprised to hear that the Mississippi is very close. I honestly feel like I live in a box. Like I guess there's all these amazing things all around me that people keep telling me about, but its really just normal here. Nothin glamorous. I think I'm just trying to get used to living with so many people and crazy traffic all the time!! I haven't seen any other bodies of water except for all of the canals here. Holy smokes! Ok, so all the road systems are different. Whether its just a road or the highway, there are medians between almost all the roads. In that median is a canal. And every block or so is a u-turn over the canal to the road going to opposite direction. ... Its bizarre, I'm scared for the day I have to navigate here! Which actually may in fact be very soon because instead of training with Hna Palmer for 12 weeks like normal, I'll just do 6 weeks of the training program with her, and then either be companions again with Hna Walker and we'll finish training each other, or I'll become a trainer. Which honestly is super scary because I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water with how things are supposed to be done. Partly because we're making it up as we go. Which I am sure President Wall is doing on purpose. I think he just barely gave us enough instruction-like where our apartment is :) and then wants us to grow and figure out the rest. Fun stuff! Anyway, there's all these weird birds that hang out in the grass in the median (if there's any, and the canal). They aren't chickens but they aren't ducks...we're really not sure. The only pelican I've seen is on my license plate. Oh! but the other day we drove by this lawn and there was this huge slender, white bird holding really still. Sister Palmer pointed it out, and I said, "that's not a bird!" I honestly thought it was a lawn ornament, like a flamingo. Then it started moving! I didn't have my camera, but I will next time! The trees are beautiful, but I think they're confused because there's a ton of different types. Like I'm pretty sure I saw a Ponderosa tree just like home, but then I then there's palm trees, and a whole bunch of jungle trees that I have no idea what they are. And yes, I feel like I can't breathe. Only its opposite from Arizona. Up on the canyon it felt like there just wasn't air to breathe, here it feels like I'm breathing in water all the time. And you're sweating all the time, even if you don't feel like it. But its not really cooling you down. So I have to drink a TON of water.
The food....I really haven't eaten enough of it yet to tell you. Sorry! But I'll let you know. All I know is there are a ton of restaurants that say "Po-Boys" on them, which I guess is some southern thing. I don't really know, I just love my water :) But then there's a lots of Japanese restaurants, actually we're trying to contact a man name Hiroshi who works at one. And then on the way to church we passed a Hindu temple. So needless to say, there's lots of diversity here. But Sister Palmer is quite dedicated to her health...which is awesome! We went grocery shopping today and got lots of healthy good stuff. Oh, and at our apartment there's some covered parking. We don't use it, but on top of the cover there are these tennis courts. So at 6:30 my first morning here we went and played tennis with this Vietnamese lady that Sister Palmer met. Kinda cool! And yes, its humid and hot at 6:30 am :) ...
Also-random but Troy Hiatt is in my English ward. One of the Hiatt's sons and he looks just like his Mom. He took lessons from grandma and stuff. What a small world!
I'm glad to hear your summer is going well. I can't wait to hear from Garrett how the LDS encampment. And I'm jealous you're going to the lake! But glad that you get to, and that you're having good weather. When does school start for Erika and Garrett? I can't remember how it is there, but its about to start here. Which feels really weird, because it feels like the middle of summer. ...
This has been fun because it's probably the longest email I'll ever get to send home!! I hope that it gives you a bit of an idea of what's going on with me. I'm racking my brain for other things that might be useful to tell you, but can't think of any, so just let me know. I don't know if Will has been to the Library yet today, but I'm just going to send him a copy of this email with a little note for him.
I love you all so much! I know that each day changes who I am going to be forever. I'm learning things already that I didn't foresee. I was thinking this morning how its weird that there are things that I'd just never thought about before. But it's super awesome!! Each skill I learn-like having to call and talk to someone is Spanish, which is doubly difficult because the phones are awful (and which I haven't done successfully yet), to preparing these lessons, to walking down a street and praying about what door to knock on, and hoping something comes out of your mouth when they do open the door (unless of course they slam it, then you don't have to say anything ;), to doing all of these things and learning what it means to be a fully consecrated follower of Jesus Christ- I am learning SO much! I love you all, and hope you have a fantabulous week!!
Love,
Hermana Marks
Hola Familia!
Well, I made it and I haven't completely passed out from the humidity...yet. And yes, I said y'all for the first time in a lesson with some members/less actives last night. They all thought it was hilarious! It's honestly hard not to, I'm gonna sound so weird by the time I get home! When we got off the plane and there was President Wall, his wife, and AP's waiting. What wonderful people. ... Right now I am sitting in a gigantic cool library (and I mean cool as in big and neat, also cool as in AC so I can breathe :) I had a good interview with President Wall right when we got to the mission home and we had dinner and a testimony meeting that night. The next day we basically had training, orientation, and transfers and then I came down here to Metarie/Kenner (the suburb of New Orleans).
My companion's name is Hermana Palmer. Here's what happened-we were the first Spanish sisters here, and Sister Palmer was called English speaking, but she's been learning Spanish for a long time. A lot when she was younger and then school, and even she received a degree in Spanish and Portuguese, so for all intents and purposes she is fluent! ... She's actually a convert of about 3 years, so I think it's pretty neat she's here. She's been through a lot to get to this point I think. We are in a suburb right next to New Orleans. Sisters are not allowed in actual downtown New Orleans, so I am as close as I'll ever get. And we have rules about where we can go and times we can be there. So its pretty safe, all things considered. ... We do live in an apartment, ... And get this: we have our own washer and dryer! I thought that was pretty awesome :)
It's a little confusing to explain the areas we are covering because I'm still confused about it! Basically we are double covering areas so we have one English area and one Spanish. Now, that doesn't mean we're the only missionaries around. It is completely opposite here than at home. At home we might have a set of missionaries covering two or three wards, well here we have 3 sets of missionaries in my English ward, and 6 sets in the Spanish ward. It's crazy!!! Kind of cool though. We are actually the only companionship in the mission that's in more than one ward, let alone more than one area. There aren't a ton of members, the ward bounds just cover huge areas so we're really here to build the wards and work with members, as well as finding new people.
On Sunday in Spanish Sacrament, I led the music ... Spanish hymns. Kind of neat. There was one or two boys/men from the ward passing the sacrament, and the others were all missionaries. Also, at the beginning of testimony meeting, Obispo called me up to bear my testimony, which I figured was coming :) It went well. It helped that all of the missionaries in the congregation were giving me big encouraging smiles. Probably remembering when that was them :) Well, at least hopefully they were encouraging, not laughing haha. No, they're all pretty nice. I was told that I made a lot of sense, didn't sound like gringo, and actually had some good things to say. I noticed that all of a sudden it's like I can link more together in my speaking. Or at least so I thought until we went to Relief Society where I maybe understood 5% of what was being said. So a little bit of encouragement plus a little big of humility to keep me working hard :) Its a strange thing being the first Spanish sister around (hna walker is in baton rouge) because its kind of like people have already set the standards super high in their minds about how I'm going to be, or should be. Like a native Spanish speaker, or at least a Spanish prodigy, or I'm gonna have a baptism a week. Haha, that's the joke with the Spanish elders in our ward right now. And since we had a baptism on Saturday, Elder Corenjo (I don't know how to spell it, he's from Nicaragua) told me that I'm track to have 52 this year. Kinda funny. So anyway, there's all those expectations, but on the other hand I'm doing pretty decent, and I can only do all I can do. And I think everyone's just excited to have sisters. It made me start realizing that God could have called a native Spanish speaking sister to start out here, but He didn't. That tells me even more that there is a reason that I, Hermana Marks, am here. So I just have to remember that when I feel like I'm barely staying afloat.
... My district is pretty good. Its us and three sets of elders (all in the Spanish ward). The one thing is that the elders who we are now sharing the Spanish area with acted like we kidnapped all their children when they found out we were both in that area ... they did not want to give up "their" people. Which I can understand for investigators that they've been teaching and have relationships with. ... But its not like we're stealing any investigators, they are keeping all the current ones, and we'll take any new ones that live in our part of the area. Mainly, our job right now is to work with the mujeres (women) in that ward. We can get into a lot of places that those elders can't, especially with all the single women. So we're trying to get our feet under us and meet people, and well, basically start from scratch. Like starting an area book and stuff. We're hoping to meet with the RS president tonight. The Ward Mission Leaders here mean serious business, so it should be super fun to work with them. Learning in my last week in the MTC about working with members, and then getting here, I'm getting a detailed look into how it's SUPPOSED to work with members. ... the relationship between the missionaries and the members here is the biggest reason for success in baptizing and re-activating members.
On the English side of things, we had a baptism Saturday night, so that was awesome. I only taught him twice, his name is Terry. He's black, is in his late 20s, early 30s and has some physical/mental disabilities (not really specifically known). That was a neat thing to see (and I played the piano for all the baptisms that night-3 in total-yeah, this mission is hoppin' :). Except, then on Sunday, we got a call from the members he (Terry) was supposed to be getting a ride with saying that he wasn't coming to church. The first time he missed church in 8 weeks, and obviously he needed to be there for confirmation. So we left church to go see him and find out what was up. He is southern, so hard to understand, and vague so it was hard to tell what was going on. He said he didn't want to be bothered with going to church, but then he'd say he just wasn't feeling well, and then a whole bunch of vague weird stuff. So obviously, he doesn't understand fully that a baptism isn't complete without receiving the Holy Ghost .... It was upsetting to my companion, who has been working with him almost this whole time. So we're gonna give him a day and then go see him, teach him, and he said he's be there this next Sunday.
Mom, yes people here are different!!!! In someways it doesn't feel different, and in others it's super different. Like people are always talking about how you gotta come to and believe in Jesus. Not baptists, but Mormons. And the other recent convert Sister Palmer just baptized is named Claudia and she looks like Cher, only 70 years old. I've never seen someone so done up, I don't even know how to explain it. And she's just this sweet innocent southern lady who is poor (but acts like she's not), and gives the longest hugs and calls me her newest sweet little angel. And we went to help her friend "move" the other day. Or so we thought, but she is a hoarder, majorly. Like nothing we ever saw when we went into houses when we had Now and Then. It didn't feel like we got very far in helping. She's kind of...handicapped I guess, and super stressed, so she just sat on her bed and directed us with what to do. When we found a potato she said, "oh good, hand that to me! I need it right here by me!" Sister Palmer and I had a good laugh about that later :) Speaking of potatoes, that is of course all I ever hear about when people ask where I'm from :) And then today we went grocery shopping and there they were: bags of potatoes with pictures of old farmers and Idaho on them. chistoso! {Sp. for 'funny'}
And there are lizards here! And some kind of invisible Jurassic mosquitoes because you'll never see them, but when we were teaching Terry outside one night, in about 10 minutes my feet and legs were covered. Like chicken pox. Just me, no one else. I guess it's all that sweet Idaho blood in me :) And they itch like somethin' else. I will never complain about bites from regular mosquitoes again! And there's these weird birds all over. And mom, we did go over that big lake coming here. It looked like the Atlantic ocean, or the Gulf. Everyone thought it was funny because we were talking and all of a sudden I look up and said, "is that the OCEAN?!?!" It wasn't-just a lake :) I think its a little farther away than a mile, but I don't know how far. And I was surprised to hear that the Mississippi is very close. I honestly feel like I live in a box. Like I guess there's all these amazing things all around me that people keep telling me about, but its really just normal here. Nothin glamorous. I think I'm just trying to get used to living with so many people and crazy traffic all the time!! I haven't seen any other bodies of water except for all of the canals here. Holy smokes! Ok, so all the road systems are different. Whether its just a road or the highway, there are medians between almost all the roads. In that median is a canal. And every block or so is a u-turn over the canal to the road going to opposite direction. ... Its bizarre, I'm scared for the day I have to navigate here! Which actually may in fact be very soon because instead of training with Hna Palmer for 12 weeks like normal, I'll just do 6 weeks of the training program with her, and then either be companions again with Hna Walker and we'll finish training each other, or I'll become a trainer. Which honestly is super scary because I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water with how things are supposed to be done. Partly because we're making it up as we go. Which I am sure President Wall is doing on purpose. I think he just barely gave us enough instruction-like where our apartment is :) and then wants us to grow and figure out the rest. Fun stuff! Anyway, there's all these weird birds that hang out in the grass in the median (if there's any, and the canal). They aren't chickens but they aren't ducks...we're really not sure. The only pelican I've seen is on my license plate. Oh! but the other day we drove by this lawn and there was this huge slender, white bird holding really still. Sister Palmer pointed it out, and I said, "that's not a bird!" I honestly thought it was a lawn ornament, like a flamingo. Then it started moving! I didn't have my camera, but I will next time! The trees are beautiful, but I think they're confused because there's a ton of different types. Like I'm pretty sure I saw a Ponderosa tree just like home, but then I then there's palm trees, and a whole bunch of jungle trees that I have no idea what they are. And yes, I feel like I can't breathe. Only its opposite from Arizona. Up on the canyon it felt like there just wasn't air to breathe, here it feels like I'm breathing in water all the time. And you're sweating all the time, even if you don't feel like it. But its not really cooling you down. So I have to drink a TON of water.
The food....I really haven't eaten enough of it yet to tell you. Sorry! But I'll let you know. All I know is there are a ton of restaurants that say "Po-Boys" on them, which I guess is some southern thing. I don't really know, I just love my water :) But then there's a lots of Japanese restaurants, actually we're trying to contact a man name Hiroshi who works at one. And then on the way to church we passed a Hindu temple. So needless to say, there's lots of diversity here. But Sister Palmer is quite dedicated to her health...which is awesome! We went grocery shopping today and got lots of healthy good stuff. Oh, and at our apartment there's some covered parking. We don't use it, but on top of the cover there are these tennis courts. So at 6:30 my first morning here we went and played tennis with this Vietnamese lady that Sister Palmer met. Kinda cool! And yes, its humid and hot at 6:30 am :) ...
Also-random but Troy Hiatt is in my English ward. One of the Hiatt's sons and he looks just like his Mom. He took lessons from grandma and stuff. What a small world!
I'm glad to hear your summer is going well. I can't wait to hear from Garrett how the LDS encampment. And I'm jealous you're going to the lake! But glad that you get to, and that you're having good weather. When does school start for Erika and Garrett? I can't remember how it is there, but its about to start here. Which feels really weird, because it feels like the middle of summer. ...
This has been fun because it's probably the longest email I'll ever get to send home!! I hope that it gives you a bit of an idea of what's going on with me. I'm racking my brain for other things that might be useful to tell you, but can't think of any, so just let me know. I don't know if Will has been to the Library yet today, but I'm just going to send him a copy of this email with a little note for him.
I love you all so much! I know that each day changes who I am going to be forever. I'm learning things already that I didn't foresee. I was thinking this morning how its weird that there are things that I'd just never thought about before. But it's super awesome!! Each skill I learn-like having to call and talk to someone is Spanish, which is doubly difficult because the phones are awful (and which I haven't done successfully yet), to preparing these lessons, to walking down a street and praying about what door to knock on, and hoping something comes out of your mouth when they do open the door (unless of course they slam it, then you don't have to say anything ;), to doing all of these things and learning what it means to be a fully consecrated follower of Jesus Christ- I am learning SO much! I love you all, and hope you have a fantabulous week!!
Love,
Hermana Marks