Trio Two

Super short letter this week, but I can't complain - we got a letter in the US mailbox this week too, with lots of news for everybody! If I get to it, I'll try to share some of that too.

Bye Old Trio!

This has been an interesting week. We had a lot of lessons with our solid families fall through. But we had a lot of good lessons with other people and awesome families. That is really it in a nut shell. Sister Pochop ("Pokeup") is gone as of today. It is transfer week, so she got a new companion and is back to her area, so we'll miss her. But , as it is transfer week, we got another companion! So we're still in a trio. Her name is Sister Havran, and she is an ASL missionary. So as far as I know, we are a zebra companionship now, (like English with ASL, or English with Spanish, or Chinese with German - just two languages in a companionship). It's going to be really fun. She's really cool. We went up to the temple today and switched around companions and said goodbye to the departing missionaries. We also got to take a 5 generational picture with me, sister Hirschi, sister Wood, sister Pochop and sister Zent. That's the order. It was great. Super fun. It was a fun week.

Five generations:

Sisters Zent, Pochop, Wood, Hirschi, Beckstrand. 

All in order too!

Love Kimber

Zone leaders, district leader and his companion, and us.

Like my t-shirt? It's from the sisters leftover bag.

From her letter to Mom & Dad about Sister Pochop - this mom is so grateful she's had this experience!

I've been struggling to be more comfortable talking to people, but I'm getting better. I still don't like it, but I am praying and learning ways to get over it. So while Sister Hirschi has no idea what it's like not to have something to say, it's nice to see someone who has been out for a while (14 months) and is just as good a missionary without being as outgoing. God knew what He was doing putting her here for a bit. She has some really good input for the work and has improved my confidence as a missionary.

So lots of learning and lots of fun here. And Trios are fun. I love you guys...

A Trio with Great-Grandma!

This is the three of us, Sister Pochop, me, and Sister Hirschi

So, this week has been interesting. And the same as before. Lots of work. Not much to tell. One time we visited a member who's husband is less active, and he is into ham radio, we talked for a while about it. It was really interesting. Mostly because Grandpa is into the same thing and I got to make that connection and we had a really good conversation about it. This week we have been in a trio. Our other companion is Sister Pochop. She is awesome, and her outside opinion has been very helpful. She is only with us for about two weeks. She is my "great-grandma," in mission life/mission lingo. She trained Sister Hirschi's trainer. And she used to be an STL, (I looked this one up - "sister training leader"- The sister who is over multiple sisters,) so if we ever have questions about things, she's got the answer, usually. Also, this week, I was in charge, as part of, and the end of, my training. It's stressful, and I usually don't like it, but I'm surviving and getting better at it. Also we have exchanges tonight and tomorrow, and I'll be the one taking over the area for that. It's going to be fun, and interesting. And all the leaders, zone leaders and STLs and APs, are being switched and moved around. Lots of things going on. And we are teaching three awesome families that are all totally prepared to hear the gospel. Life as a missionary is seriously busy. And really rewarding. We had a whole family at church yesterday. A WHOLE family! It was awesome. Lots of good things in the Southaven area.
Love you all, Kimber

Exhausted, Soaked, and Blisters

Not much this week, and in fact this makes me tired just reading it! 

It was a very long week. And super exhausting. We were on walk week this week. And a lot of the people we needed to see this week live in Memphis. So we spent a ton of time walking around Memphis. We also got dumped on by rain, we were completely soaked. That's really all that happened this week. We walked a ton. I got a lot of blisters. A relatively new experience for me because I usually avoid situations where I could get them. But there was no avoiding it this week. However, I have found that I can walk pretty much all day and survive it. I don't even get too sore from it. But now we have a car again. And it's huge, at least compared to the sedans that we usually drive. I'm not sure what it is exactly but some sort of hatchback. It's taller and the doors are heavy, and the whole thing has more room to it. Not that any of that is important. Our district is getting so much done. We had another baptism on Saturday, it was the Elders though. We do have some people on date for the end of April and the beginning of May, and we are really excited about it. We have a bunch of awesome people we are teaching. A few families that really want it and are ready. Our next thing with all of them is getting them to church. That is always a struggle. It has been a good week we have kept busy and there are a lot of awesome people to teach. Southaven is totally the best.

Love Kimber

April Fools' Oreos, Squishy Pigs, and GC is all about Missionary Work!

This letter requires a preface - from my letter to her: "Our household has more than doubled now - Uncle Dan and Aunt Karen and family and all five of their children moved in this week, oh, and [their dog] is staked in the back yard.  It truly is joyful chaos. They put all their stuff into two storage units out in Lehi, and all but [one son] are sleeping in YOUR bedroom!" ... they don't plan to be here long, but oh, the joy and chaos we are enjoying for a time. These are the cousins - kids ranging in age from 17-4 - we get together with VERY regularly, and are big time favorites of Kimberly's. She'll miss this, so it's a good thing she is is LOVING what she is doing and where she is!

 

That all sounds like a ton of fun. Give everyone a big hug and kiss form me! And take a big family pic too ;p and mom, I'm not sure what album it is, but the one with count your many blessings. And go ahead and try emailing it, if that doesn't work then mail it I guess. Also, I am now able to read email all week long, just not reply until Monday, so don't hold back any time you want to write. And it's totally fine to talk to members and stuff. Just in case you didn't know. 

Brother Foote really is amazing. I was telling him and his wife about the book Uncle Karl wrote, Anna's Prayer, who is both of our ancestor and they said they might want to get it. That was really cool. 

Nothing big happened this week. We did give the Elders messed-up Oreos on April fools, and one of them actually ate one. We had replaced the cream inside with a mixture of soap and flour and toothpaste. It was pretty funny. Speaking of funny, Sister Hirschi has this rubber squishy pig that she plays with, and it's really fun to throw at the ceiling and see how long it sticks, but it only works on popcorn ceilings. A couple weeks ago she brought it to game night on accident, and we started this contest with the Elders to see how long it would stick. So after the last session of conference, we were all at the church and she threw it up at the ceiling. The. Brother Stone, second counselor in the new bishopric, made a joke about throwing it onto the chapel ceiling. It was pretty far away and looked pretty smooth. But Sister Hirschi wanted to try it, and it didn't look like it would work, and it was really far away, so she threw it really hard. And it stuck. For a long time. It was really stuck. Super high. We were all laughing really hard. Brother Stone, some young women who were still there, and all the Elders, and us. It was really funny. Then we had to find a way to get it down. It took about twenty minutes, we were throwing things at it, Elder Claridge was rolling Sister Hirschi's coat up into a ball and throwing it, we all tried throwing pens. Nothing worked. Then Elder Niko came in and threw a tissue box at it and it came right down. It was so funny. And now we know never throw things in the chapel. 

That is the most exciting thing that happened this week. We did get a lot of members out with us. We met some people that we haven't been able to see for a while. It was a good week. And this week is walk-week again. Our phone got wet a couple days ago, and it wasn't charging anymore, so we weren't sure if we'd have a phone this week, but we checked it out today, (had to wait for P-Day, I guess,) and it's all good, we just had to get a new battery. So no reason to panic, we have a phone with a brand new battery for walk-week. This week should be fun, we'll get a lot of members out with us hopefully. 

General conference was absolutely the best. Basically everything applied to missionary work. It was great. And being completely honest, it's nice to sit for four two hour sessions and do nothing but watch the tv and listen to the prophets speak. I loved all the talks, and I am definitly going to have to read all the talks over again. For most of the talks just put "investigator" in for all the people it's focused on, and it totally applies. Like the one about teaching children to pray, and Elder Bednar's talk about saving ordinances. And the whole thing really. It was amazing. It is such a blessing to have prophets and apostles today that can speak to us, and do twice a year. General conference is really the only holiday we have as missionaries, and it is so great! I loved it. 

Then, partly because it's spring break, I got her message just after she sent it, so we went back and forth several times, including a personal message from her 4 year old cousin who ADORES Kimberly and wondered why we can't just call her and bring her home right now. It helped, and I think Miri will be okay now. She also has a big foster brother who has been out on a mission for over a year now, so she kind of understands. This is kind of a perfect dichotomy having them live in HER bedroom,  her "best buddy" cousins she would be in heaven to be here with, but she wont' be joining us until they are VERY LONG GONE. But she is really okay with this! Her heart is exactly where it is supposed to be, and that makes us very happy!!

During conference, another cousin (Brandon/BYU) joined us too. Miri is in the center.

A letter from the Ward Mission Leader...

My name is Jason Foote. I am the ward mission leader in the Southaven Ward, where your daughter is currently serving. I want to tell you that she is doing amazingly well. She is loved by our entire ward and does so much in the Lord's service.

 

As soon as I heard her name, I quizzed her on her family history. My great-grandmother was Della Lovisa Beckstrand, daughter of Ida Lovisa Beckstrand. She told me that her uncle, Karl, had written a children's book about Anna Beckstrand and was working on one about Ida Lovisa. That got me pretty excited. I have heard those stories growing up and have always loved them.

 

I actually served in the MTC with and Elder Beckstrand as well. He would have been in the MTC in August 2009 and served in Argentina. I've lost touch with him - you don't happen to know who that would be, do you?

 

Anyway, I'm side tracked with getting excited about family history. It is fun to be able to serve with my 3rd or 4th cousin or whatever we are. She is an excellent missionary. She and her companion are having great success and are such a blessing to our ward and the people here. They are so loving and so quick to serve, and willing to do anything they can to help God's children here. There have been 2 sisters in particular that I want to tell you about, whose lives they have touched.

 

One is a sweet recent convert named E. She has a difficult living situation and lots of family conflict. Your daughter and her companion, Sister Hirschi, visited her again and again and again and finally discovered that things were much worse than anyone in the ward truly knew, and called me to let me know what was going on. We were able to mobilize the ward to help this amazing sister out, and the Sister Missionaries continue to be a huge support and blessing to her.

 

The second sister is a single mom of 6 kids named Q. She has a great testimony but is very poor and has no way to get to Church, but a great desire to come. She had some emotional problems recently and was briefly admitted to a mental hospital. Her "one call" was to the Sister Missionaries. Because of their friendship with her, we were able to figure out as a ward what was going on and get help to her and her family.

 

And I'm sure she has told you how she has used her ASL to help the half a dozen deaf members of our ward! It has been amazing to see how the Lord continues to bless us with missionaries and members moving into the ward who speak ASL. Those members are very near to my heart, and I am so grateful to your daughter for her help in befriending and interpreting for them.

 

Thank you so much for raising such an exceptional daughter and helping her to have a desire to serve a mission. She is in good hands - the Lord's hands, but also the hands of the Southaven Ward where we love her very much.

 

--

Jason Foote

Brother Foote is the man in the center signing. 

This is the kind of letter that makes truly touches parent's hearts! What a sweet letter to receive this week! This letter is included with Brother Foote's  permission.