Kirtland, 9/27/10

Hi Mom!

 

Thanks for sending that letter this morning, just in case. Just so you know, though, I will never get to the computer before 10:30 in the morning.

 

Our week has been really good. I was at the visitors center a lot, because Sister Carter had leadership training (since she's a trainer) two days in a row. When that happens, I just tag along with the other sisters at the VC. Sister Carter calls it day-care. :-)

 

Hm, contacts... Well, we found two new investigators this week! One of them is a lady named Tracy. She is Catholic, married, and has four children. I can't tell yet if she is interested or just polite, because she didn't ask very many questions during our lesson. She did say she would read from the Book of Mormon, though. And the other lady is named Jody. Her husband passed away, but she has a 6-year-old daughter, Jamie. She said that she and Jamie would read and pray about the Book of Mormon together! I'm really excited about her. During her closing prayer at our lesson, she prayed that she would be able to keep opening her mind and heart to our message. That was exciting, because at the beginning of our lesson, she had said she didn't believe there was any one true church, so that was big for her to consider that we might be speaking the truth, after all.

 

We also got some exciting news yesterday. First, you should know that about a week and a half ago, Sister Carter got the idea that we should pray specifically to find a family to teach, because we weren't finding any investigators, and we wanted to find some really good investigators who would join the Church as a family. Anyway, after that, we found Tracy on Tuesday, and then just yesterday we found Jody. And also yesterday, we got referrals from members for 3 more families to teach! Well, one of them is a single lady whose husband passed away. The other 2 families are friends of a brother in the Kirtland Ward. They have already been to church, and they are already planning to come to general conference this weekend. All we have to do is teach them! I hope it works out.

 

I love being in Amish country. We went down there again this week with members for dinner at an Amish restaurant, and it kind of reminds me of being in Jerusalem, because the people there live their religion so fully. I love it.

 

Oh, did I tell you about the Germans in my branch? There are three German families! They are all related. Two of the families are inactive, though, and one is a part-member couple, but they both come to church every Sunday. They are awesome, I love talking to them in German. And we just made contact with their son and grandson this week, and their grandson loves the gospel! He is 12 and hasn't been baptized, and his dad is inactive but not anti-Mormon. We'll see what happens.

 

I hope Jocie goes to BYU, too! Especially since DaNece is loving it so much. It would be fun if they got to room together, maybe? Wow, half our family is going to end up out west in a few years!

 

Tell Norman hello for me.

 

Wow, Ceci is so smart. She is quite the poet! And scriptorian, it sounds like. Tell her to keep emailing me poems, I loved the one I got from her a few weeks ago.

 

Is James particularly enjoying any of his classes?  Tell him I love him and miss him!

 

Hm, for Sophie, I'm not sure, just not East Cary. Year-round sounds like a nightmare. I loved going to Ligon, but I don't know if Sophie wants to do the magnet school thing as much.

 

That's wonderful that you're getting cello lessons! :-) Are you going to perform again anytime soon? What about your writing? Are you reading anything good?

 

I love you and miss you! Thanks for your wonderful emails, they (and Dad's) are the highlight of every Monday!

 

Love,
Katherine

Kirtland, 9/20/10

Hi Mom!

 

Our week went pretty well. We still haven't found any investigators, though. Did I tell you about the one investigator we do have? Her name is Tina. She has been investigating the Church for three years. She is progressing, though! We had a really good lesson with her last week, and she's having some terrible health problems right now, so she's going to get a blessing tomorrow.  We hope she'll get baptized March 5th. We'll see... She knows the Church is true, but she just needed something to help her see how much she needed the gospel.

 

I'm enjoying tracting, but I would rather be teaching. :-( It is pleasant, though, because the weather is perfect, and all the houses are so far apart here that we spend most of the time walking up long, wooded driveways.

 

You have jury duty?? Oooh, I hope you get picked! I mean, I guess I hope you don't get picked, since you don't have time for it. But, if you do, you'll have to let me know the details!

 

I have gotten some Amish cooking! Since half of our branch is in Amish country, we get to go down there every once in a while. Actually, we went to an Amish restaurant for dinner last week! I had cheeseburger soup and homemade rolls and apple pie, it was all very good. And I bought some smoked Swiss cheese from the Amish cheese factory, and I've been eating it for lunch. I haven't found any recipes yet, but I'm pretty sure they sell cookbooks down at that restaurant...

 

The Amish are probably the nicest people around, by the way. Sister Carter and I tracted a house last week where there were a couple of people working on some construction out front. One of them was Amish, but I didn't know, and I offered him a pass-along card, but he didn't seem to be offended. Later, Sister Carter told me you can tell they're Amish if they're wearing a button-down shirt for work clothes, since apparently no one else does that. Hm. Anyway, I guess it's not terrible just to offer a pass-along card.

 

Yes, I'm eating well, I think. I'm trying to eat super healthy! We usually have member dinners about 3 times a week, and they always feed us lots. Also, the senior couples at the visitors' center keep the kitchen stocked with candy and cookies and random things they want us to eat, so we have plenty of food.

 

I'm sorry you were up all night! Are you still really busy? Are you getting back to writing and cello yet? Let me know about everything fun the family is doing! Have you ordered anymore Bollywood movies?

 

I miss you!

 

Love,

Katherine

Kirtland, 9/13/10

Hi Mom!

Oh, I'm so glad you're starting to get back into your own routine. It will be great when you can start practicing and writing again! Everything sounds like it is going so wonderfully at home! Especially with family home evening and weekly family activities. I hope you're still doing that when I get home! Did I tell you that I found out my release date will be Jan. 17th, 2012? So I will have a good three months with you guys before I go back to BYU. That will be fun. When it comes...

Thanks for reading my email to Nana! I would love to hear from her. Oh, and don't worry about finding Mira's address, I don't think she actually emailed it to me. I will just look her up online.

Sorry, I can't write as much today, because we had an all-day activity at the John Johnson farm and now we're rushed. It was cool, though! I got to see the room where Amasa Lyman probably slept when he lived with the Johnsons, according to our guide.

Sister Carter and I have been getting more into proselyting lately, because traffic at the visitors' center is dying down for the fall. We have seen a few little miracles tracting. I am just so surprised every time someone listens to what we have to say! Most people just don't want to have anything to do with us, which I think is pretty normal for missionaries, but sometimes someone will open the door, and we say we have a message about how God has reached out to us again today, and we talk for a couple of minutes, and then Sister Carter says, "If God had called a prophet again today, wouldn't you want to know about it?" And then they say yes! I think it is amazing when they do. Some people are so receptive, they are like the pretend investigators at the MTC. And one woman we found on Saturday, after we pulled out our Book of Mormon and told her basically what it was, said, "Oh, where can I get one of those?"

Anyway, we have about 4 people right now who seemed really promising from tracting last week. I hope they will let us teach them when we go back this week! We don't, however, really have any investigators. Besides one woman who has been investigating for 3 years.

The people around here are so religious, in general. Everyone goes to church. Most people aren't mean to us, but we did run into one woman yesterday who was combative and ran and got her Bible so she could prove to us that we were wrong about the Godhead.

  I'm glad Norman is feeling comfortable getting back to church. Oh, I should probably get going, we need to buy groceries. Love you! Thanks for updating me on everything, I love reading your emails!

 

Love,

Katherine

Kirtland 9/9/10

Hi Mom!!!!!!

 

It has been forever since I've gotten to talk to you! How are you? I miss you so much! I've been missing the family a lot. I'm not homesick, though.

 

Im so glad Jocelyn got a part in the play, how fun! And what a good part! I am proud of her. It sounds like everyone is doing so well from your emails. How wonderful! Did DaNece tell you that she and Rachelle sent me a care package on my last day in the MTC? Chocolate chip cookies...that was a morale booster. And it was so sweet of them, it made my day.

Thanks for the elders' addresses! Jenny Jump made me commit to writing them, so I thought I should probably do it! :-) Oh, tell Jamie good job on  making TYO! Yay! And Ceci in VE and Sophie in orchestra, that all sounds so fun!

 

I have so much to update you on! First of all, this mission is going to be different than I thought it would be. It turns out I will be at the visitors center the whole time. There are 28 visitor center sisters here, and we all work part-time at the visitors center and then part-time in a proselyting area in the Kirtland Stake. So, I will be at this address for probably the whole mission:

 

7800 Kirtland-Chardon Rd.

Kirtland, OH 44094

 

Isn't that cool? I'm so excited to be living in Kirtland!! Oh, and I am living in Hyrum Smith's house! It is just across the street and down a few houses from the Kirtland Temple, which I can see from our front doorstep. And only six sisters live there, so it just feels luxurious. The original house has been expanded quite a bit from the 1830's, but it's all still there. So cool! Especially since our Lyman ancestor, Lydia Knight, boarded with Hyrum Smith's family when she first got to Kirtland! So I feel like I'm following in her footsteps. The house is unfortunately haunted by Hyrum's first wife Jerusha, but that is the only drawback.

 

I absolutely love Historic Kirtland. The first few days I felt like I was in heaven there, because it is so quiet and idyllic and SO well done. Most of it was just dedicated in 2003, and I think it will probably still grow in the future, because the restorations are just amazing and accurate and high-quality.

 

Basically, on the days we're in Kirtland, we go in to the visitors center and sit upstairs in the call center until it's our turn to give a tour. Then, they call us down, and we take the tour group through, which lasts about an hour and a half. The rest of the time, we call referrals. We also take inbound calls for people ordering things from pass-along cards. I've had some interesting experiences, and some really draining ones too. People use the pass-along card number as everything from welfare to crisis hotline to social services to pastoral counseling, etc.

 

The other sisters here are wonderful. Interestingly, most of them went to BYU before their missions. We all get along naturally and there is a comfortable, supportive atmosphere within the visitors center. Also, a good number of us are related. This is why: In D&C 124:83, it says that the Lord will build up Kirtland again someday. Also, Hyrum Smith gave a more detailed prophecy along those lines in 1841 in which he told the Saints that God had placed a scourge on Kirtland, but that someday, the scourge would be lifted, and that their descendants would then reinhabit the area. So, I think that is why a good number of the missionaries here are descendants of the early saints. It's fulfilling prophecy!

 

I have the best trainer I could have asked for. She is like a combination of Sister Maxwell, Aunt Lynette, and Katherine Barton, so that gives you an idea of how cool she is. She is so nice to me and is a really hard-working missionary, but we have fun too. Like, her birthday is on Saturday, so today we went to Applebee's for her birthday lunch with two other sisters. And I got to use my gift certificate!!! :-) 11 years later, still valid.

 

Our proselyting area is in the Chardon Branch, a 40% active branch that covers about 8 little towns around Kirtland. Most of our area is rural, rich, and elderly, but the other sisters in the branch work in Amish country. We see Amish women at the store when we go grocery shopping, and we've seen them out on the roads in their horses and buggies too. It's so cool!

 

Well, sorry, this was way too long. I love you and miss you! Hope you're having a good week!

 

Love,

Katherine

8/23/10, MTC

Hi Mom!

 

It's so good to hear from you! Thanks for the long emails, I love reading them. Thanks for the package, too. Don't worry about the socks, I thought I would need more, but now it turns out I'm not using all the ones I have, so it's fine.

Wow, DaNece is going to BYU, yay!!! Hm, I don't have any advice about the car, I'm sure whatever you decide will be the best.

 

Isn't my book collection great? Most of the best ones came from the D.I. box in the FLSR laundry room. I'm afraid I haven't had time to read most of them yet, but maybe when I get home... Let me know how they are!

 

I'm going up to Temple Square again this Saturday, but I haven't been during the last week.

 

This week has been great. One highlight was on Wednesday, when our district got to host new missionaries. I hosted Emily Bateman, a friend from BYU who is going to Temple Square. Her older sister was also my roommate in Jerusalem (Bethany Bateman), so it was so fun to see her and welcome her in. And Ainsley came in Wednesday too! She lives just down the hall from me, so I see her all the time! We even went jogging together one morning. In general, I have gotten to see a lot of people I know, especially from the FLSR.

 

Oh, exciting news! It turns out I am allowed to call you from the airport! Will anyone be available for me to call them on August 31st (Tuesday) from 7-8:20 am or 12:30-1:00 pm, both your time? Also, if someone is available but won't be home, could you tell me the cell phone number to call? I don't have any of your numbers memorized. We got our flight plans on Wednesday, and I am going to Michigan for a layover and then Ohio. I am so excited to fly back east.

 

Today I got to play the special musical number for the senior missionary orientation, which was fun. The person conducting the meeting thanked me, and then told me to thank my mom, so thank you! :-)

 

Well, I'd better go, maybe I will start writing you paper letters too because this always feels so rushed! I love you!

 

-Katherine

8/16/10, MTC

Hi Mom!!

 

Oh my goodness, my computer is moving so slow and it just took 10 minutes to send the message to Dad! So I'll make this quick. We have gym over here 4 times a week, but they also have 6am classes every morning for sisters, including yoga and pilates. My companion didn't want to do it last week, but I got permission to do it this week with some other sisters on our floor, so I'll do that tomorrow and I'm so happy.

 

Oh, thank you for sending that box! I really appreciate it. Don't worry about the socks, I only need 1 or 2 more pairs, and any kind will work fine. They're just for gym.

 

Thank you for writing me even though you're so busy! I don't know how you're managing with everything over there. I'm glad Norman's getting better, though.

 

I have a request: if you get a chance, could you send me the addresses for Elders Watkins, Anderson, and Mackelprang? I promised Jenny Jump I would write them letters. Also, thank you for having everyone write me emails! It has made my p-day. And my week. :-)

 

Things here are good. I went to the temple this morning. Also, on Saturday, my companion and I got to go be Temple Square sisters! They do that as part of visitors' center training. My companion was a Netherlander who was really nice, and I met a Swiss sister there too who is friends with Piri's family. We gave Temple Square tours to a couple from California and a Polish family who didn't speak English (but one of them was translating). It was so fun! Also, there was an anti-Mormon group there who started taking a tour, but the sisters were all on top of it and paged the girls who were giving the tour and told them to cut it, so they did. Anyway, that was fun!

 

I ahve to run! Love you!

 

Katherine

8/9/10: First Email from MTC

Hi Mom!!!!

 

Thank you for writing me! I would have been so sad if there were no emails here for me to read. Have ya'll gotten my letter yet? They let us send a special letter home because we had just gotten here and they wanted us to be able to let you know we were okay. I asked you to send me a couple of things in my letter--really all I need, though, is that black skirt (the one I took to the dry cleaners) and a couple more pairs of socks. Also, could you let DaNece know that if she ever goes to yoga through Women's Resources in the Wilkinson Center, I think I accidentally left my yoga mat in there with all the BYU yoga mats. It says KL on one end of it, and she can just take it and use it.

 

Oh, also, I have a new mailing address here at the MTC:

Sister Katherine Marie Lyman

MTC Mailbox #195

OH-CLE 0831

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, Utah 84604-1793

 

That one should work a little faster than the other. Also, you can just delete my blog post from the 3rd, I don't know what that is.

 

Anyway, enough business! I'm glad to hear about Norman's new equipment, I'm sure he's loving that! And how was the Old Saybrook trip?

 

Life at the MTC is crazy. I am sitting in the laundry room right now, and it seems like there are 100 elders in here all doing their laundry. I am surprised how few sisters there are at the MTC. But it's all so fun! The first day, I got in late, so I didn't have my real companion until after dinner. But her name is Sister Shelley Decker, she is from West Jordan, Utah, and she is going to the Los Angeles Visitors' Center. The other two sisters in my district are also going to LA, and their names are Sister Ashby and Sister Thurston. They both have red hair and lots of cute knee-length skirts that I am kind of jealous of, but I just keep reminding myself that I am going to the Snow Belt where I will want to wear the longest skirts possible.

 

Every day we go to class and then have lots of time for independent study, more than I was expecting, actually. I have been doing a lot of reading, I'm working on Our Search for Happiness right now and I really like it. They are trying a new pilot program on our district where we are not actually studying Preach My Gospel, but we're just doing lots of exercises about learning to understand investigators. We are using a cool website called 6 Billion Others, which has interviews with people from all over the world. They talk about their families, meaning of life, politics, God, war, etc. You should go look at the site, it is really interesting. Look up Bruno, he has been my favorite so far. :-)  Anyway, the point is that we listen to these people and then try to figure out where they are on their spiritual journey and what they might need to hear the most from the restored gospel.

 

Something they have been telling us to do that kind of suprised me at first is that they don't really want us to teach lessons from Preach My Gospel. They want us to teach the bits and pieces that an investigator needs, and then maybe later, as they're ready, teach them the full message of lesson 1 or the plan of salvation or wherever we are at that point. I'm kind of hoping we will study Preach My Gospel a little bit at some point, because I feel like I am not prepared to teach someone a coherent lesson on one of those topics even if that is what they wanted to hear, but whatever. I really like how they are getting us focused on the people we'll teach.

 

Besides class, I am mostly enjoying the atmosphere of the MTC. It is fun living across the street from the German House. I feel right at home here! We went to the temple yesterday and walked around, and the same old mountains I have seen every day for the last three years were right there, and it was beautiful and cool like September weather, and I just felt really comfortable and happy.

 

Another fun surprise of the MTC has been seeing my friend Amy Briggs, who went to Jerusalem with me and is now going to the Philippines! She entered the same day I did, and our schedules overlap on almost everything, so I see her about 5 times I day! We took a picture together, but I can't figure out how to load pictures here, that might have to wait until the field. I will also send you the airport pictures then...

 

In general, life is good here, but I have to say I am already pretty excited to go off to Ohio. I want to meet real people! Plus, I kind of feel like I am at EFY here. But, it is great, the elders in my zone are all really nice, my teachers are nice, I feel like I am learning a lot and have transitioned well.

 

How is everything at home now? When do ya'll start school, again? I have to run, but I can't wait to read your email next Monday!

 

Lots of love,

Katherine

August 6, 2010: First Letter

Dear Family:

Surprise!  I'm allowed to write you a letter, since this is my first week here!  I just want to let you know that I am here safe and sound in the MTC.

Life here in the MTC is crazy.  I came rushing in just minutes before the welcome meeting with the president, and I felt all discombobulated the first day and didn't even find my companion until about 8PM that night.

It is fun being here though!  My companion's name is Shelley Decker, from West Jordan.  She is going to the LA Temple visitors' center.  Cool, hm?  Actually, I am the only one in my district going to Cleveland,  The other 3 sisters are going to LA, and the Elders are going to Phoenix and Carlsbad.

There is so much to tell you, I will have to write really fast now and use my whole 30 minutes on Monday.  (Oh yes!  Monday is my P-Day, so if you want to get me e-mails, send them before Monday.)

So far, we've just been in class most of the day, and then we have lots of time for personal and companion study.  The classes are interesting.  So far, it's been a pretty unstructured, free response set of exercises in which we learn how to better understand investigators.  You guys should google "6 Billion Others" and look at it - we've been using that site a lot and it's pretty interesting.

Ah, I have to go!

Love you!

Love, Katherine

Confession and Apology From the Editor

So sorry, everyone, for the lack of posts until now: I (Becky, Katherine's mom) forgot the password!   Katherine had a great time at the MTC and reported to her mission in Cleveland two days ago, on Tuesday.  We got to speak to her briefly; she sounds great and is excited to get to work.  Following posts are taken from the last three weeks (MTC) after which I will post her letters in a more timely fashion!