New area, new comps, old comps and BED BUGS!

This week has been crazy!! A week ago I was packing up my stuff and heading up to the church.  I met Sister Evans (from Bountiful, Utah) at the church before we got in the car. She is super cute. Even shorter than I am. Turns out this is her last transfer. So our greenie I and I will be killing her.

Then we went to Little Rock. I got to see Sister Hirschi there, and she will actually be my sister training leader! I'm really excited about that. We did splits that night because there were so many people without companions. There were 20 missionaries that just came out. It was cray. Then on Tuesday we got our greenie!! Her name is Sister Esplin. And she is from Farmington Utah. She is so cute! And so excited to do missionary work. I have the best companions. We are already really
good friends.

New missionaries & their comps - Can you find Sis B? Check out the mission pres & his wife...

This week has been extra crazy for us because besides the training and orientation for the new missionaries this week, when we went to our new area (which Sister Evans has been in this ward before, so it's not a complete pink-wash, but pretty close) we couldn't go to our apartment. First, we learned on about Tuesday that our apartment has bed bugs in it. Then all week long we have been checking up on it and waiting to hear back that they were gone. As far as we know, there are still bed bugs there. Sister Evans just came from an area at had bed bugs, and she had just gotten rid of them, only to come to a new apartment that has them, so we were having none of that. We stayed the first night at a members' home and then the mission got us a hotel room. So later today we are going to go to the apartment and do a lot of cleaning to get rid of anything, and the exterminator should come in a few days.

So, lots of drama in the first week. Not to mention that because we are all coming from different areas, and there are three of us, all our luggage doesn't even begin to fin in the car with us, and the hotel room is pretty small, so half of our stuff is at the members home that we stayed with the first night.

But, on a good note, this area is so amazing! Our first night here we had a Relief Society activity about making family mission plans. Then we had a member out with us our second day. And on Sunday there were so many members that were so eager to go out teaching with us. They were all really excited to have Sister Evans back. This ward is going to be incredible. Also we have some pretty cool investigators that we are teaching. And there is one guy that we found our first day that we went back to see him and Sister Esplin totally invited him to baptism and he accepted!! She did so good. There are so many promising investigators, and we've already had some productive proselyting. This is going to be a great area.

Also, we definitely got caught in the rain on our second day, and we were totally soaked! Completely through. It was so fun! And the thunder and lightening was really exciting. We just walked down the road getting soaked and sang hymns and the mission song. It was so very fun. We had the biggest smiles and it was hilarious to see the expressions of the people passing us on the road. I love being a missionary! We get to be so weird.

If there are any questions I'll answer them, as long as they are within my hour of emailing, otherwise you'll have to wait until next week to get the answers you want.

Love Kimber

Sister Esplin, Sister Evans, Me!

Isn't our baby so cute?!

I got to see Sis Fogg!!

Sister Havran, me and Sister Wilson, I'll remember them fondly!

Btw, I made tuna fish casserole a couple weeks ago, if I haven't told you yet...

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...

Another letter! PHONE CALLS and she's on her way to Arkansas!

Got another snail mail letter in yesterday's mail. Woot! (I think she thinks she has to respond to every letter written to her, and I've taken advantage of dearelder.com while she was in the MTC, since they will print any letter you type up on their website by 12:30 p.m. and deliver it to the MTC that same day for free. I sent her letters about every other day that way. That will slow down once she's out in her area...)

Speaking of  heading to her area, she flew off today for Arkansas! She called us this morning at 6:00 a.m. from the SLC airport, and everyone joined us in our bedroom to listen to her; my phone battery needed charging. Everybody who lives in the house got to talk to her - the timing was JUST right! She challenged the boys to get to the MTC as quickly as possible and how wonderful it was, and when asked if there was anything the boys could do to prepare for the MTC, she said, "Read the BofM again, and study Preach My Gospel." Hmm, I wonder where I've heard that before?! Then in the middle of the day during a little layover she had in Atlanta I got to talk to her again for a short three minutes between my classes. That time she said that everything that Dad has been talking about her whole life - all his lessons on influencing others, discussing differences, how to share gospel truths that are controversial, keys to conversion, etc., etc. ... she has found are all extremely useful and practical now, and she's not even out in the Bible Belt yet! It was awesome! She said she will have to write him a special letter letting him know just how helpful it has been. Now we hold on until Mothers' Day to talk to her again.

Okay, on with the letter!

21 January 2016

 Mom

I had a very interesting day yesterday. It was Pday, and I did get to email you and tell you a bit about my week. But the really funny things happened right after I emailed you. I was in the laundry room with the rest of my district. I had just put my whites in and it started when I realized that I left my missionary handbook with my ministerial  certificate and my temple recommend in a pocket of one of the skirts I had just put in there. I started to panic. The door would not open, it was locked. I could see it in there swirling around with all my clothes. I sort of collapsed next to it on the floor in a mixture of panic and laughter. Despite the loss of the book, it was hilarious. Then after it finished washing I had to shake paper out of all my clothes. There were giant paper wads too. The handbook was destroyed. (Easily replaceable.) My ministerial certificate was sort of shredded on the edges, but most of it survived. My recommend is just fine. Just wrinkled since it dryed. I never got a chance to finish drying my clothes because we had to go to class.

Then in class when we had a study hour, Sister Fogg and I went out into the hall to study, and she had to go back into the classroom to get her pen. I said ok, and continued marking my scriptures. I sit there for a minute, and realize that my companion just walked down the hall and into the classroom and I'm still sitting there, so I ran with my pen in one hand, cap in the other down the hall and into the room. We spent another few minutes before we could get down to work. (Laughing, as usual, I guess.)

We laughed a lot yesterday.

We got to go to to choir on Sunday, and sing in it in the Tuesday night devotional. We sang, Consider the Lilies. It was wonderful. I was thinking that I would love to have that album, but I don't want to buy it. Would it be possible for you to send me a copy of the one you have? It would be really good to listen to the MoTab sing it.

Also...an errand she wants me to do for Sister Fogg...

It has been a lot of fun. There are tons of classes and our schedule is full all day, every day. I never really have time to just sit and think, which is ok, I'd probably panic a bit more than I can as busy as I am.

I love how I get to really study the scriptures here. I never really wanted time to read it before coming here. I love wanting to read.

I know that it is going to be really hard, but I am excited to be able to learn from all these hard things. I have decided to go for it. With everything I have I will do hard things and come back a much stronger, surer person. Thanks for everything you do for me.

♥/Kimber

(Everything in italics is added by Susan/Mom)

Surprise letter! Snail mail even!

I found a surprise in the mailbox when I got home from work today - a LETTER from the MTC! What fun. Here is most of it transcribed:

15 January 2016 (So just two days after she went into the MTC!)

Dear Mom,

I am really enjoying my time here. The sisters in my district are really fun. 3 of us are going to Arkansas, and the other three are going to West Virginia (I think). There is a lot of food here. I am eating 3 meals a day. It's kind of weird. I always take more than I can eat though. It really is a lot of food.

We spend all day going from class to class and have personal and companion study. Sister Fogg and I are learning a lot about each other. She is from Las Vegas, originally from Maine. Her and Sister Decker are going to Arkansas.

Last night I played the piano for the opening hymn in one of our meetings. Then I was assigned as the music coordinator for our district and do the stuff you do for Sacrament Meeting. I'm a little excited about it. I really like music enough to appreciate this job/assignment. They hae a place where you can check out instruments from the MTC, but they don't have any violas. It makes me a little sad. But it's ok. I don't have time to do anything.

We had service this morning. Sister Fogg and I washed windows. That was fun, and we laughed a lot. This morning has been a little relaxing. Other than the getting up a bit earlier. We had to get sack lunches because we are supposed to go to the gym today after breakfast. I'm not sure what Sister Fogg and I will do for gym, but we said we would do something.

It snowed last night. So now we walk through snow to get to all our meetings and other things. Sister Fogg is so funny, after washing windows she left her coat in our residence because she didn't need it, but I took mine. She said that you'd think she's the one from the colder place instead of a desert. And here I am, from here, freezing. It was funny.

I have to go now, so I'll write again soon. I love you!

♥/Kimber

The "One and Only MTC P-Day" Letter/s

Hi Mom!!

No I never did go on trek, and I did get to go to the temple today, it was really great. Sister Fogg had not been able to go since she was endowed, so she had a fun time with me. I was a really neat experience. I won't get any more p-days until I'm in the mission field, so get ready to wait for a while. I did get two "Dear Elders", (www.dearelder.com, a free same day delivery service provided to the Provo MTC). I don't know if you sent more yet, but I love getting them. Just so you know, I only get an hour on the computer, so send snail mail as much as possible, I have a better chance of getting to it, and through it all.

Amanda said something to me before I left, she said that as a missionary you are on two timelines, the Eternal one and the physical one. she said that while you are focusing on the spiritual aspects, time means nothing, and goes by so fast, and the physical is everything so it feels slow. Or something like that. I really get it though! It's only been a week and it feels like it's been so long, yet no time at all. All the sisters in my residence feel the same. We were talking about it a bit ago. There are actually six of us in our residence, Sister Fogg and me, Sister Campbell and Sister Hunnington, and Sister Ward and Sister Decker. Sisters Fogg and Decker are going to Arkansas with me, if I haven't told you yet. It's been really fun getting to know these sisters. I don't need the earplugs, (we heard she might need them in the MTC to sleep,) we're all good, and it is easier to get up when the others are too. 

In our district I'm the laughing one. And when I laugh, I really LAUGH. Like red in the face and can't breath. The sisters call it that they "broke" me. It is really funny. (Amazing and fun to picture, huh?!)

The elders in my district are Elders Banks and Tenney, and Foster and Ray. They are super funny too. Let's just say that I laugh a LOT. We all have fun laughing and learning together.

Thanks for the (bottle of pickled) asparagus! and the fudge. It's really good. I dumped out most of the juice so it's lighter (in the asparagus).

You know that parable about the atonement where there were doughnuts and the kid had to do pushups so his class mates could get one?If you could, I would love a copy of it. (She is referring to The Parable of the Pushups.)

On Sunday we had a meeting with all the sisters about dress. Apparently, (...some of her clothes won't work, so she asked me to look for a few particular ones...) It would be awesome if you could send them to me. 

I'm nearly out of time, and I need to figure out how to do the picture thing still, so I'll send them as soon as I can. I'll spend a bit of time after I send this letter working on that, but I may not be able to get it to work. (As you can see, she figured it out for one picture at least!)

Love you!!!!

Kimber

We all got our letters after 5:00 Wednesday afternoon, (after a whole week of anxious waiting for some of us!) I guess she hasn't learned how to consolidate the letter writing yet...come to find out, she wrote individual ones to Mom, Dad, and to each of her brothers - to each of us who sent her an email - all in less than an hour! Here's her Dad's:

Hi Dad!!!

Jonathan and Jason both wrote me about ... (family stuff)... Hours a day in class, about 2 sessions a day, 3-4 hours long- I think. It's a lot. It's really fun though. Things in the MTC that are easy are I guess, having grown up with you teaching about things that we can learn and get from the scriptures it is easier to do, and pay attention when others do it too. I also really like that we are learning from the scriptures so much. The Book of Mormon is my textbook!! Its awesome. Hard things are feeling like I can teach the investigators well, and not confuse them too much. But I'm learning, slowly. P-day is today, Wednesday, but my next one will be the Monday after the 26th. The food is good, there are lots of choices, so I just pick and choose. My district is District B, but Zone 36. Or vise versa, I'm still learning Lingo.

Hope I got everything, sorry I couldn't say more, I only have and hour.

Love you!!

Kimber

(Everything in italics is added by Susan/Mom)

"I'm Alive"

We dropped Kimberly off at 12:30 today...and we received a short 9 pm email from her already! I heard that waiting for that first email is the hardest part of the mom's wait - then that wasn't so bad! Here's what she had to say:

Hi!! My first day is nearly done. My companion is Sister Fogg. She is really nice, and we get along really well. I has been a fun day, and I am excited to see what tomorrow will be like. I hope you guys had fun at Pizza Pie Cafe, if that's where you went. I love all of you so much. Thank you for supporting me and helping me get to this point. It has been wonderful. I love you!!

We miss her so much already, but she's exactly where she should be!