Santa Cruz week 20

Hello everyone!! This is the time - to be THANKFUL. Thanksgiving is on thursday - isn't that super weird??

Monday was the beach and Sister Unga got sick because she didn't take a sweater. Also Sushi. Bleh.

Tuesday we rested so that Sister Unga could recover. She received a blessing. Our dinner appointment brought us food, which was really nice of them and they didn't have to - but they did.

Wednesday was much of the same - "resting" (because cleaning is resting, right? at least for Sister Unga) and me reading most of the day. I started the Book of Mormon over again and am in 1 Nephi, and am reading the bible and am in Deuteronomy.

Thursday we saw Glenna. Saw Midge and taught her half of lesson 4. Ate dinner with the Stake President and his wife - who is the institute teacher. Saw Krystal. Ran into the C Elders while driving home - not literally.

Friday we went to get the car checked. Saw Midge and taught the last bit of lesson 4. Did weekly planning. Ate dinner with Midge - the ward she's in was doing their thanksgiving dinner and and we wanted her to meet people.

Saturday I did not feel good. We did service for Elva. Saw Raven. Sister Unga put in the address of a less active - and almost took us to LA!!!! xD Ate dinner at the Hickens - and the C Elders were there as well. They shared the message - about charity. I'M TRANSFERRING!!!!!!!!! And packed in 45 minutes.

Sunday my little darling Lisa turned six months old! :) went to all eight hours of our meetings. Met with a new investigator named Rachael. We were late to dinner.

So I'm transferring. And I don't find out where until tomorrow, so you don't find out till next week.

I will miss all the people, but if I'm needed somewhere else who am I to say no to God? I'm both excited and nervous - there is my nervoucited - and sad about leaving but I know that wherever I go it will be awesome. :)

So I decided to do something fun - here are my holiday memories, Thanksgiving and Christmas. :)

I remember that we used to go to the Kelly Grandparents house a lot.

Not just on holidays. Ice cream was always had after dinner. Rummy was

played.

Thanksgiving

I don't know when I became the pie maker - but for as long as I can

remember that's what I've been. Usually I make pumpkin pie and we bake

a razzleberry pie (because its daddy's favorite) sometimes we have

apple pie, maybe. I remember one time when I made a pumpkin pie out of

a real pumpkin - with lots of help from mom - and then refused to eat

any of it. We always have turkey and mashed potatoes and turkey gravy

and mom's crescent rolls. And pie and ice cream for desert.

Christmas

I love our Christmas traditions.

Number one is that we have a Christmas story book that helps with the

count down, you read a story and scripture and sing a certain

Christmas song for each night. Can I still be involved in that?

Number two is that we open one present on Christmas Eve - pajamas! And

for the past couple years the shirts of those pajamas have been

painted by Natalie. We've had wolves and dragons and I know I'm

forgetting. . . . Why have we not had owls yet? Then we would have had

all of her favorites. xD and the last story in the book is of course

the best - the story of Christ's birth, from Luke, read on Christmas

Eve.

Christmas morning is sloooow. The kids are all usually up by or before

six - usually I can't sleep at all so I am up way before six. Mom had

to make a rule - stockings have to be opened after six. We started

getting books outside of the stockings though - so usually I would be

found already reading mine. :) Then we wait till dad wakes up -

usually eight or later, as he was up late the night before - and

starts breakfast, which sometimes changes but is usually eggs,

sausage, bacon, and toast. Then we start the process of opening

presents. A kid is designated as the present picker and is told to

choose

Sushi. She said that if I didn't eat her Sushi I didn't love her. I DO but I CAN'T EAT IT. 

When we almost went to LA

by age - starting with the youngest and going on up. That of

course takes awhile, seeing as there are a lot of us. ;) then everyone

plays with their new things, and we try to do family things.

I remember one Christmas - I cannot remember which year it was. We

were living in Spanish Fork, UT. We had been having problems with mice

and so had been begging and begging for a cat. Unbeknownst to the

kids, mom and dad got one from some neighbor friends. So . . . .  I

woke up at four and found a cat wandering around the living room. Of

course this cat wasn't ours, so how did it get inside?? Being me, I

let it out. In the cold and snow. I went back downstairs and had

immediate doubts - so I went back up to find her scratching at the

door and let her in. Once everyone else had woken up I asked to make

sure she was ours - she was - and then told my story. I think we woke

other people up from the laughter. The cat was named Fuzzy and became

Natalie's cat - because Fuzzy would not leave her lap. All of the cats

we have now are descendants of Fuzzy. And counting them all - dead or

alive or have run away - we've had close to 60 I think. Maybe more.

All from that one cat.

Winter memories - we would go sledding down the small hill in our

backyard. Or we would go past the fence and sled down the large hill

and get in trouble because it was private property. Or there was the

hill we went down with Uncle David's family - that was a huge hill and

lots of people were usually there. I remember that when it got cold we

would use the heating vents - grab a blanket and put our feet under it

with the blanket over the vent so that we got all the heat. I also

remember fighting over who got the best spots. xD I seem to remember

that one time the Hele cousins came down for a little one winter - to

experience snow? - and that was lots of fun, although we had trouble

trying to find enough mittens and snow pants for everyone.

Love to all!! :) 

Love, 

Sister Kelly

santa cruz 19

This week was semi awesome semi not.

Monday we did our normal p-day stuff: laundry, emailing, groceries. Then we went to San Jose and went shopping with Sister Mella! :) I GOT MY CAMERA BACK!!!! :D we played live clue in FHE. Found out some sad news.

Tuesday was district meeting - and right before we started I got an email saying that Sister Shorter (back home in mission bend) died monday night. So I cried while talking about the white handbook training I was in charge of. We played a guessing game - one companion guesses things they think they know about their companion - and it was especially funny because two of the elders were sick so the two who were there on exchange were not companions. We visited some people. Went to institute.

Wednesday we saw Renee. We met with our investigator Midge - her date was changed to the 5th of december. Tried to meet with people, and then finally met a less active and her family. Had dinner at the Kings. Read with Sister McArthur.

Thursday we tried to see Glenna - but the kids had strep. Visited the Lopes - the selfie of me and a little girl, shes one of theirs. Saw Nanci Jo. Saw Tanya. Had dinner with Sister Pearson.

Friday we tried to fix the area book app on our ipads - and found out we would have to delete the app and then reinstal or go somewhere other than LDSAcess wifi. Saw Midge. After lunch sister Unga didn't feel well, so she took a nap. We helped sister Massey - our only service of the week. She is such a nice old lady! Ate dinner with the Weavers. Saw Brenda.

Saturday we did weekly planning. Got ready for then went to Sophia's wedding reception - they were so late they got there when we were leaving. I was lucky to get some pictures of them - which I really wanted. :) We went to the baptism in Sister Unga's old area - because she had a hand in teaching him all the lessons. He was late to his baptism. lol.

Sunday was Stake Conference. Elder Rafael Pino of the Seventy was the closing speaker. It was awesome - Elder Barbosa translated because elder Pino wanted to speak in spanish. He talked about the importance of FHE, family prayer, family scripture study, and telling the people in our family that we love them - DAILY. :) Visited someone in the OB. Our dinner was sick - but still wanted to feed us!! They left us food on the porch! Stew, bread, and brownies. YUM.

TODAY we went to the beach. From 11-3:30. TOO LONG. Also it was cold. For FHE they are making Sushi. bleh.

I hope everyones week went okay! Love and miss you all. <3 :="" nbsp="" p="">
Love,

Sister Kelly

Sister Unga and Sister Puckrus

Santa Cruz week 18

Monday we did normal p-day stuff. Laundry, emailing, errands. For FHE we tried to play volleyball - most of the time was taken up by us "fixing" the net. xD SOOOOO broken. lol

Tuesday we went on an exchange. We had district meeting - the entire Zone was there (except Sister Unga) because we needed to talk about some. . . issues the zone has been having. We saw Glenna. Went contacting at one of the college's - which I had never thought to do before but duh - and got some potentials. We had dinner with the Martins and Sister Martin and her daughter danced for us it was adorable. Then we saw Raven - her mom is more the less active but is always working so we never catch her. 

Wednesday we saw Renee. I cut Sister Unga's hair - she insisted - then she dyed it. We went and visited a less active missionary mom who is awesome and it was her daughters p-day so she was emotional. We had dinner at the Wentworths. We saw Krystal - it took alllllllll evening. :D which we are okay with. 

Thursday we did service for Elva. Had interviews with President - which are ALWAYS good. :) We got a referral. Tried to see one of the potentials found on tuesday - we had a lesson with her and set up an appointment but she wasn't anywhere to be found. We visited Tanya and her son. They have an adorable kitten. :) Had dinner at Brenda's - mom she wanted me to ask: Have we ever had corn beef??? 

Friday was ALL service. Seriously. Soup kitchen and the we went and did bag check at the homeless connect. :)

Saturday we met the referral - her name is Midge. :) She is sooooooo amazing. Her story is too. On her moms side there are a lot of members, she went with her mom to church in our main building here (a long time ago and was never baptized), her daughter is a member and married in the temple. Earlier this year she says she was saved by God. She has been calling and dropping by the church - but on days when no one is there. So she gave her card to some gardeners at one of our buildings telling them to give it to missionaries because she wanted to be baptized and we got the referral. The first words out of her mouth when we saw her "how soon can I be baptized?". SO her date is either the 28th or the 29th depending on whether or not she goes to church while in hawaii on the 22 for thanksgiving. We are meeting with her tiwce this next week and same the week after - so we can finish her lessons by then. We saw Audrey. Ate at the Harris'. 

Sunday Midge came to church. The wentworths signed up last minute for dinner - which was good, we didn't have one. We went to choir. 

While at interviews I talked to President Mella about the wedding and he said it would be a good idea to stick to the preset - which is we don't go to member weddings, we only go if it is a recent convert of ours or an investigator. :) So we will. 

Might not be pictures - they are all on my i-pad and it's being picky about everything. So. xD

Might go shopping with Sister Mella later. :) Sister Unga needs some more skirts and sweaters. IT IS COLD. AND RAINING.

Love and miss you all! :) 

4 months yesterday so - sister Unga insisted. 

Yes we took pictures with Brenda's brownies. They were adorable!

Sister Leavitt and I at the end of exchanges. 

Sister Kelly

Santa Cruz week 17

Well this week I took a lot of pictures. Sorry. About 100?

Monday We had dinner with an awesome family whose daughter went out
about a week and a half ago to the MTC - Toronto Canada, Spanish
speaking. We carved pumpkins at FHE.

Tuesday was district meeting. The questions was " if you could be some
kind of donut or bagel what would you be?". We had lunch, did sister
Unga's language study and then we went contacting - got two street
lessons, but I don't think they'll turn into anything. Had dinner with
the family of the choir director.

Wednesday we had some member lessons - the OB Ward mission leader
thought it would be a good idea to teach the lessons to the members so
we are teaching the sisters and the elders are teaching the brothers.
So we saw Sophia (she is awesome getting married November 14th in the
Oakland temple - I am invited but have to ask President Mella. She has
only one family member who is able to go into the sealing room and her
fiancé has none - they've been inviting a lot of members and us
missionaries). Went contacting and ran into some members. Saw Audrey
(another member). Had dinner at
the Kings (she is an awesome chef!). Saw Krystal and that was
hilarious

This is Elder Thorkelson. He is our district leader. he lost his leg to bone cancer.

This is my new scarf thing from the package.

Little bo peep and her sheep

We are weird

FHE with the young single adults

Thursday we were going to do a long service - but the plans fell
through. we saw Glenna and Renée. Tried to find OB people. Saw Nanci
Jo. Saw Brenda. Helped set up for the trunk or treat.

Friday we did our soup kitchen service. The sister ap's came for a
chat. I let sister Harward borrow my camera. . . . AHH! She sent me
the pictures off of my camera that I had already taken and I will get
it back next Friday. We got ready for then went to the Halloween
party/trunk or treat. We got a referral from a member - the member
doesn't live in our area but the referral does - and she seems
interested!

Saturday we did weekly planning. Ate lunch then did language study. I
got a package from Grandma! I have a new skirt, shawl, and got snack bars and rainbow
goldfish crackers. :D We got a referral and gave a different referral a Bible - but she also
seems interested. Had dinner at a small dinner party. . . And sister
Unga accidentally tripped and scraped up her knee. Ouch.

Sunday did all of our church meetings. . . Bleh. Long. Fasting. Break
the fast was at the McArthurs and then we visited with Sister
McArthur. Went to choir.

And that was my week! It was long and stressful at times but hey. It
was fun. And although Saturday was super hard - I got a box and an
email from Lyd with notes from the fam. :) those emails really do mean
a lot to us missionaries!

Love and miss you all!

Enjoy all the pictures. . . .

Sister Kelly