Kirtland, 11/1/10

Hi Mom and Dad!

 

Which Shakespeare play did you read? I just told Sister Carter about that, and she laughed, but I think we are the coolest family ever. Tell Sophie happy birthday! I will try to send her something soon. I'm sorry I didn't send her anything to be there on her birthday, though. I'm not quite used to having one day a week to take care of letters--I don't look far enough in advance. I did have her birthday written in my planner, though, so I was thinking about her yesterday! Jamie got called as the new teachers' quorum president? Yay! That will be wonderful for him! He will do such a good job, too, and this will give him a chance to be so responsible. Tell James that I say that's an important calling, because if there are young men in his class who he doesn't watch out for, then the missionaries end up having to take care of them, and we already have too many people to take care of.

 

What, Norman played on your recital? You mean he accompanied? Or have you been teaching him little cello parts? Good for him!

 

We've had a great week here. I don't know if I've told you about our investigator Lani yet, but we found her tracting, and we've had two lessons with her in the last couple of weeks. She is a golden investigator. She is a nursing student, currently lives with her parents, and was just sitting outside by herself thinking about life when Sister Carter and I came walking down her driveway. Her first lesson went great, and for her second lesson, she came to the historic sites and we showed her the Joseph Smith movie and took her on a tour. She is doing great! She isn't sure the Book of Mormon is true yet, but she's really trying to do everything we ask her to. And she has been reading so much! It is neat to get to work with her.

 

Our investigators Tina and Jody are also doing great. I love it when investigators call us, and both of those two call us sometimes just to let us know how things are going. Tina called yesterday to apologize for not coming to church, and Jody called us yesterday so we could pray for her while she was dealing with some things. She likes us to pray with her on the phone, too. She calls us her "Mormon girls." But then she corrects herself and says her "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints girls." We hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks, but we stopped by on Thursday, and it turned out to be at a time when she really needed us. She is so sweet and says she wants to come to church with us this week and bring all her friends!

 

Chardon is growing on me. Would you believe they changed Halloween to Saturday? That gives you an idea of how Bible Belt it is around here. And the town is small enough that they were able to have a Halloween parade Saturday night and then cider and donuts afterward on the town square. Cute, isn't it? This was a sad week for Chardon, though, because there was an explosion that caught a lot of storage units on fire at the edge of town. That impacted a couple of the people we're working with right now, actually, and it's been a trial for them.

 

Today as Sister Carter and I were walking into the library, we ran into a couple of members of the Community of Christ putting up a Kirtland Temple exhibit at the front of the library. It is nice having the Community of Christ around--we're not completely the same, but I feel some kinship with them just because we both use the Book of Mormon and we share all the same Kirtland history. And they are so friendly. This is an interesting area, because we see so many split-off groups hanging around Kirtland. The Community of Christ, of course--their guides who work at the Kirtland Temple live in Sidney Rigdon's house, just a few houses down from us in the Smith home. And there is a little church called "The Church of Jesus Christ" down the road from the temple, too. It is also called the Restoration Church, a split-off from the Community of Christ. And we got a group through on tour recently called "The Remnant," another split-off from the Community of Christ with basically identical beliefs to our church. I wonder why more of the split-off groups don't just embrace all of it and join our church, but then again, some of them do.

 

Oh, on a slightly less missionary note, could you please send me some piano music? I would really love to have one of our hymn arrangement books, either the Darwin Wolford or Sonos books, as soon as possible. Also, I would love to have something classical, like a Mozart sonata or Chopin (etudes or nocturnes) or Kabalevsky sonatas. I want to be prepared to play if the need should arise. Thanks! :-)

 

Also, what is Aunt Debbie's current situation? And address? I've been thinking about her lately. Partially because there are nuns who sing with us at Messiah practice. I am loving Messiah practice, by the way! And the other people there are awesome. We don't proselyte, since it's inside a Catholic church, but it's so effective to be seen there.

 

Also, where is the Echo? Just wondering.

 

I love you! Happy November! I hope it's not too cold down there. Keep reading Shakespeare plays! You all should read The Tempest, that is my request.

 

I love you!

 

Love,

Katherine

Kirtland, 10/25/10

Hi Mom!!

 

I hope you're still on the computer. It's so fun when we're on here at the same time. I got your email after I had already logged  in, so I know we were here together for at least part of it!

 

Thanks for the update on everyone. Tell Jocelyn congratulations! I'm so glad she got to be in the play. I agree with you on the Shakespeare alterations, I think they usually just draw attention to themselves. Also, tell James good job on his self-portrait and good luck with his lesson! I like your insights on Job--that's really true that he is similar to the Savior. We talked about Job a lot in my comp lit class freshman year. Brother Peer said that the book was written as a hypothetical situation, and that Job wasn't a real person, but that his story was written as sacred literature that explores all the possible reactions to suffering and then the process by which we can respond to it using the Atonement. Either way, it is a great book! I'll have to reread the chapter you mentioned.

 

Haha, I'm sure Sophie had a huge wish list. I wish I could be there!

 

Why is October so busy for weddings? I'm glad you're starting to get out of that, though. And that you got to go the temple, that is wonderful.

 

Okay, Pioneer School: It's one of our service projects--all of the Kirtland sisters take turns doing it. There is a historical society nearby in Painesville (the town Edward Partridge was from) that sets up a mini-Williamsburg experience for elementary schoolers from all around Ohio and Pennsylvania. The students come in for a day and go to different centers--a log cabin where they learn about keeping house in the early frontier days of Ohio, a schoolhouse, and then a big barn where they learn about candlemaking and make their own candles. When we volunteer there, we get to be the candlemaking ladies. And we wear pioneer dresses! I'll send you a picture. I like it, especially because we get a lot of kids from Cleveland, and they are a fun group. Also, I feel like I am living my dream of working at Colonial Willliamsburg!

 

We took a Kirtland temple tour as new missionaries, our second day in Ohio. So yes, I've been there. Also, LDS family services had an adoption conference in the temple a couple of weeks ago, and we got to sing at it! It was amazing. The meeting was in the early morning, so the sun rose while we were in there, and the way the windows are set, the sun casts lovely patterns on the wall while it's rising. And we got to sing several of the hymns they sang at the 1836 dedication! Well, I played, the other sisters sang. Anyway, the temple is probably my favorite spot in Kirtland, even though it is a little strange, you're right.

 

Visitors' center attendance is down from the summer, but there are lots of "leaf people" who come through because this is peak leaf season, so everything is pretty. Sister Carter and I have spent tons of time at the center lately. Actually, we did zero hours of tracting this week because we were at Kirtland so much. But oh well, I honestly prefer being there most of the time. We usually take 1-2 tours a day. And yes, they're different every time. I read our Kirtland manual a lot, and I try to incorporate something new from it into every tour. The manual is huge, but I'm not sure what I'll do when I finish reading it... Well, there's lots of information in there, it allows us to go into detail about any topic that might be of special interest to a visitor.

 

We got three new investigators this week! Quick story about two of them: Last week we found a lady, probably in her 70's, named Connie. As soon as she saw who we were, she said she and her husband had been to Temple Square and they had loved it. And she invited us to come back when her husband was there, so they could both meet with us. Then, she set an appointment with us and sent us on our way and we had hardly had a chance to say anything! Well, we went back this week, and when we came in, there was a big whiteboard in their kitchen with three balloons tied to it that said: "Welcome, Sisters! Thank you so much for coming!"  And there was old movie music playing in the background, and Connie and her husband were all ready with a notebook and a pencil. Apparently, they have had missionaries to their house in the past, and they just enjoyed talking to them. But they'd never heard the first lesson, so we taught that. It was an unusual situation all around. Connie showered us with gifts when we left, too, she was so sweet.

 

We had dinner with our German family this week, too! I love their house, they were playing German folk music when we walked in and they've got cuckoo clocks everywhere. They are so fun.

 

Well, I should go, but I hope you have a great week! I love you!

 

Love,

Katherine

Kirtland, 10/18/10

Hi Mom!!

 

Thank you for your tracting advice! I will remember that. The fall colors are even better this week. We're rushed for time right now, but I'll send you some pictures next time.

 

Wow, I'm so impressed with Cecilia! I remember trying out for all-state choir and not getting in. :-) I'm so happy that she's enjoying that and doing so well with that. I'm doing choir again  now, too! Sister Carter and I and the other 2 Chardon sisters are all singing with an inter-religious choir that sings the Messiah every year! It is so wonderful, I'm so grateful to be doing it.

And I heard about DaNece's audition! And tell Jocelyn I wish her all the best for her play! I'm so proud of her, too.

 

We had a great week! I have a good missionary story for you...  A few weeks ago, Sister Carter and I were doing our daily planning, and we both felt pulled to tract this one street in Chardon called Grant Street. We didn't get to it until about a week later, though, and when we got there, it only had five houses. So we tracted those five, and nothing happened. But then the next week, we were driving down that same street, and I noticed a house on the end that we hadn't seen the other time. So, I  mentioned it to Sister Carter and we decided to come back and tract it eventually... And then, this week on Tuesday, we were driving past Grant Street, and all of a sudden Sister Carter just turned and pulled into this house and said, "Let's tract it right now!" So we did, and  nobody was home, but as we were walking away, a truck pulled up and this man got out and said "Hey, sisters! I'm an elder! I'm Brother Bob." It turns out he is from Ashtabula and hasn't been active in the church for awhile, but he has been living in Chardon for the last few months and was just thinking about how he wanted to come to church again. I am quite sure he is the one we were supposed to find on Grant Street. It was a good miracle!

 

Our investigator Tina is also making good progress. Oh, we set a baptismal date with her! It's for February and I really think it will happen. We went over the qualifications for baptism with her yesterday, and she is serious about getting ready. I'm so impressed with her!

 

Well, we have to go, sorry this was on the short side. Our car is in the shop all week long and now we're sharing with another set of sisters, so P-day schedule is tricky.

 

I love you, though! Keep writing me long emails, I love to read them!

 

Love,

Katherine

 

P.S. Have I told you about Pioneer School? I will have to next time.

Kirtland, 10/11/10

Hi Mom!

 

How are you? How did everything go this week? How is Norman doing?

 

This has been an exciting week in the Chardon Branch. Yesterday, Sister Carter and I had several important people at church. Have I told you about Billy? He is a less active man in the branch, and Sister Carter and I have been meeting with him every week since I got here. He was baptized about three years ago, but he fell away shortly thereafter. Lately, though, for some reason he has completely turned his life around.  Yesterday was his first day back at church! He was just beaming when we walked in and saw him there in the hall.  He is so sweet and sincere about making changes in his life. I was so proud of him yesterday. The neat thing is that we don't know why he wanted to change, and it was all so self-motivated. We called him to set up the first appointment at the beginning of September, but since then, he's the one who texts us during the week to make sure we're still meeting on Friday. And he texts us sometimes to update us on his progress.

 

Also, our investigator Tina finally came to church yesterday. At our meeting with her this week, we talked about baptism, and she wants to do it! Also, she prayed out loud, and Sister Carter says Tina has never agreed to that before. She is another one who is making some amazing changes all on her own. For our next lesson, she requested that we talk about fasting and tithing, because she said those are the two hardest principles for her, and she really wants to get over them before she is baptized. But then, on Saturday, when we called her about church the next day, she asked if it was alright for her just to eat something small that day to go with one of her medications. Apparently, she had thought it was fast Sunday, and she was already planning on fasting! She keeps surprising me with how willing she is to make changes.

 

This week is transfers, but all four sisters in the Chardon Branch are staying. That's good, because none of us expected or wanted to be transferred. Next transfer I will definitely get a new companion, though, because Sister Carter dies at the end of this transfer! Did you have lots of missionary jargon in Italy? I never realized there was so much of it. For example, I was born in Chardon, I'm growing up in a home (meaning I'm living in one of the historic Kirtland homes for my first few transfers), I'm killing Sister Carter (because she dies while I'm her companion), investigators flame us when they don't show up to lessons, and Sister Hill and Sister Palfrey are my sisters because we all have the same mom (trainer). Funny, isn't it?

 

Also, have I told you about the Ohio accent? It's similar to the New York/Pennsylvania accent, in this area anyway. You can do it if you just change your short a's to "ee-a" dipthongs. For example, the most common thing we hear tracting: "I'm Cee-atholic."

 

Do you have any tracting advice? Most of the people here don't want to talk to us at all. I think that's partially the culture in this area, though, because people are busy and not super-friendly. Oh well, I love them anyway. And we found a few great people this week! I love it when that happens, it's always a miracle in some way.

 

On a side note: If you ever might want, perhaps, to send me a Christmas present, I would really love a beautiful Mormon Tabernacle choir CD. The new mission rule is that we can listen to anything sung by the Mormon Tabernacle choir, so it's not just hymns anymore!

 

Hope everything is going well! Love you!

 

Love,

Katherine

Hi Mom! Alright, I just got your email!

 

I did hear about DaNece, I'm so excited for her! 

Hm, Ceci's mental block... If she were an investigator, I would sit down with her and ask her lots of questions to try to get to the "center of the onion." They teach us that when someone has a question or concern, usually it's just a cover for a concern that's several layers deeper, like layers on an onion! That would be the missionary approach. Oh, and then I would read her a story from the Book of Mormon about someone who has her same concern, and help her relate to that person, and then have her see in the scriptures how that person gets an answer to their problem. And then have her pray out loud! :-) I'm glad Sophie's reading, too.

 

Well, I love you! Have a good week!

 

Love,

Katherine

Kirtland, 10/4/10

Hi Mom!

I'm here right now, and we've got to go in a few minutes! But I'm glad you got here!

 

I'll go ahead and write you while I'm waiting. How did you like general conference? I loved it. I especially liked all the talks about faith and obedience.

 

We had a good week here in Chardon. At conference, we met the mother and the son from one of the families I told you about last week--the ones who had been referred to us by a member. The mother said she didn't want to meet with us yet, because she and her husband were both still reading the Book of Mormon and the gospel principles manual, and they wanted to discuss it together before they decided to meet with us.She seems really cool, though, and I think they will want the lessons eventually.

 

Also, our investigator Tina watched part of conference, which is really exciting, because she hasn't been to church for almost a year, I think. She is definitely making progress.

 

Also, there is a young woman named Christy in our branch who just barely got baptized in June. Anyway, her boyfriend Gino had been investigating the church before I got here, but he stopped. Just this last week, though, she started bringing him to her new member lessons, and he came and watched conference, too! I hope he opens up again, I think it is so great to teach people that age. (Because that's how old you were! :-)

 

We had a rather unusual experience this week with the Amish. It happened on Friday, when Sister Carter and I were eating dinner with the Calandra family. For her job, Sister Calandra taxis Amish people. They can't drive, but they can have other people drive for them, so there are a few Amish who regularly call Sister Calandra whenever they need to go somewhere, and she just goes and picks them up. Anyway, Sister Carter and I were there eating dinner, and Sister Calandra got a phone call from her Amish client Kathryn, who is about 24 years old and who needed to be picked up from somewhere in ten minutes. So Sister Calandra asked us if we wanted to come along, too! We had just been talking about how we wished there was someway we could develop a relationship with the Amish part of the community, and this seemed like a golden opportunity, so we did! And then when we got there, it turned out that Kathryn's friends needed rides too, so we rode in the car with three Amish women and a little Amish boy for about 15 minutes. We talked to them about their language, which sounds a lot like Swiss German, and about our missions--we definitely didn't proselyte, but just explained to them about what we did as full-time missionaries. It was so neat!

 

What have you been up to? I love you! How is the family doing? I hope everything is going great! I miss you a lot!!

 

Love,

Katherine

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