Kirtland/Solon, 5/10/11

Hi everyone,

Sorry, I hardly have any time to email today, so I will just have to send out one email! It was so good to talk to all of you on Mother's Day. 

Mom, today we are going to the Italian section of Cleveland! It's called Little Italy. I will send you pictures!

This week has been wonderful. I will just send you 3 pictures and explain each of them:

1. This is Chente, our Mexican investigator. He doesn't speak any English! But somehow, we are teaching him. We have only had 2 lessons so far, but at the last one, we didn't have a member with us, so it really tested our Spanish skills! We ended up talking a lot about the Book of Mormon, and about the Virgin Mary. He had asked us some questions about her last time, so we read 1 Nephi 11 with him, and he loved it. I love hearing the Book of Mormon in Spanish--it gives me chills.

2. This is Sister Devenport, me, our investigator Michelle, and Sister Patterson, who has become a good friend for Michelle. She came to church for the second time in a row on Sunday! She is the sweetest lady in the world, and her baptism is coming up soon! She bears her testimony of the Book of Mormon to us every time we go over there--she always says that she feels better when she reads it, and she has just been eating it up. I think she's in Mosiah now?

3. This is me at pioneer school! It's that season again, as well as the season for giving more tours at sites-yay! We're starting to see more groups from Utah--people coming out for summer vacation. Lately, I've been trying to focus my tours more on the things that make Kirtland unique--well, not unique, but the main reasons Kirtland is important, like the revelations received here, the Kirtland temple, the stories of the people who were prepared here to accept the restored gospel, and the priesthood offices that were restored here in Kirtland. I love this time in church history, it is so hopeful and is all about restoration of everything! (You should all read up on our ancestor Edward Partridge, by the way--he was one of those people who was uniquely prepared to accept the gospel.)

I love you all so much, and I'm sorry this email couldn't be longer! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Katherine

Kirtland/Solon 4/27/11

Hi Mom!

 

How was your trip to Disneyworld? I like your idea about contacting the Italian missionaries! I will do that. (I just contacted some Irish missionaries with a similar request the other day, so I'm sure it would be fine.)  When is Jocelyn's senior recital? I'm glad you are teaching yourself, too! When are you going to ID, again?

 

We've had such a good week here! We started teaching another new investigator yesterday (Chente, the Spanish-speaker I told you about) and we now have four investigators with baptismal dates!

 

Just a couple of highlights: I know I've told you about Sister Smith and her grandchildren (CJ and Lati/Ladybug). Well, since Lati officially became an investigator, the tone at their lessons has changed. Before, lessons with CJ and Lati were chaotic, but now that Lati knows she can get baptized, she has started focusing more and asks us more questions. We taught them the plan of salvation on Saturday. I love how you can become great friends with people you never would have expected--that's how it is with Sister Smith and CJ and Lati. When I first met Sister Smith in January, all I knew was that she was a less active lady in the ward who has had the missionaries over every week for ages. But I've come to admire her and love hearing about her life (she grew up in NYC and has some crazy stories), and now we're preparing her grandchildren for baptism! If there were a motto to sum up Sister Smith, it would be: "We shut the door and don't let the devil in here. He stays outside!" (She says that all the time.)

 

Another highlight this week was with our investigator Demarco Sanders. Did I already tell you about him? We found him tracting and had a somewhat sketchy first lesson (he lives in the worst part of town and some rowdy neighbors showed up), but this past Friday, we had the most miraculous lesson with him! We had decided to meet at the waterfall in downtown Chagrin Falls at 5:00 on Friday. Well, Friday came around, and we had forgotten to call and remind Brother Sanders about the lesson, and it was raining hard, so we thought he probably wouldn't show up. But we went to the waterfall at 5:00, and we saw him standing out there in the rain! Not only had he remembered our lesson and found the meeting place, but he had walked straight there from work (he doesn't have a car), and he had thought in advance that morning to pack a change of clothes and his Book of Mormon in a little grocery bag that he brought to work with him. Isn't that cool? He had also read the first 10 chapters of 1 Nephi, even though he doesn't understand much. He doesn't talk a lot either, but we've been so impressed with the effort he's putting into this. Also, we committed him to baptism on May 28th! And we committed him to coming to church on Sunday, and he came!

 

But, back to that lesson on Friday: after we found Brother Sanders, we weren't sure what to do, because we didn't want to sit outside and get soaked. We wandered around downtown Chagrin Falls a little bit, but a lot of the shops were closed. We finally decided to go into this tourist store called the Popcorn Shop, and it was perfect! There were 3 seats in the corner, and it was next to this huge window overlooking the Chagrin River. So pretty! And it was a blessing to find somewhere quiet for our lesson--I was worried that we would have to cancel it. 

 

We also had a great Easter here in Ohio! We had a dinner for all the Kirtland missionaries, and Sisters Debenham, Kingston, and myself sang This Is The Christ, which was nice. In sacrament meeting that day, Brother Norman, a member of the Solon Ward, gave a wonderful talk on doctrines of the resurrection that are unique to latter-day saints. He has a Ph.D. in religious studies from Harvard, and it showed in his talk. I felt like I was back at BYU for a few minutes. Education really does improve your understanding of the gospel! (See D&C 50:24, revealed in Kirtland :-)

 

 Well, that's probably enough from me. I hope you're doing well!

 

I love you so much!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love,

Katherine

Kirtland/Solon 4/20/11

Hi Mom!

 

I like hearing about the business from home, you should keep telling me about that. Also, how neat that the Steidl address is the same! I am excited for you to talk to his son, if that's the right thing to do. It sounds like a great idea to me!

 

We do have some Easter celebrations--there will be an Easter dinner at the sites Sunday evening. Other than that, I don't know..I'd expect the senior couples would give us treats, they often do that for holidays. Your Boston Market and Harry Potter party sounds fun! And, how nice that you don't have a stressful Easter program!

 

The guy in Subway--Antwon? Well, he's not in my area, but Sister Morrell says she hasn't seen him since our companion exchange. That happens a lot with investigators--they have a great first lesson where they commit to be baptized, but then you never see them again.

 

We've had an exciting week in Solon, though! We found five new investigators. Have I told you about Annie Smith? She's a less active lady in the ward, and we've been teaching her the whole time I've been here. She also has a couple of nonmember grandchildren (Ladybug and CJ) I've been wanting to teach, and as soon as Sister Devenport got here, we had a lesson with them about baptism. It got kind of tense, because Ladybug said, "I want to get baptized!" and Sister Smith said, "You know that's not my decision, that's your mama's decision, and just because I'm your nana doesn't mean I can give you permission!"  But then Ladybug got her cell phone out right there and called her dad and got permission to be baptized!  We were still waiting to hear what her mom had to say, but last Saturday when we went over there, we found out that her parents said yes and that we could officially start teaching her! We've set a baptismal date for May 21st. CJ wants to get baptized too, but he's only 7.

 

Our other new investigators are Demarco, Darius, Brandon, and Jennifer--the first 3 found tracting, and Jennifer found via referral. Sister Christenson, a sister who served here a couple of years ago, called in to sites and asked the Solon sisters to look for her. Just a few days after that, we found her old teaching record in our dead pool! We went to the address written there, and it was abandoned, but we searched her on white pages and found her new address, and it turns out she's very interested. And when we were teaching her, she said she wanted her mom to learn too! So we'll be teaching both of them the next time we go back.

 

On another note, have you ever had catfish and waffles? I had it the other day at Mr. Wonderful's Chicken and Waffles, and it was better than I would have thought! You can make it: just put a couple of pieces of fried catfish on top of a giant belgian waffle, and then pour maple syrup on top. :-)

 

Oh, in my scripture reading right now, I'm in 4 Nephi, Preach My Gospel chapter 6 (Christlike attributes), and reviewing the Whitney store in the Kirtland guide.

 

Well, I hope you're doing well! I love you!!!!!! (And happy Easter!!!!)

 

Love,

Katherine