Finally...AN UPDATE!

Hey everyone! We thought it was about time for an update on Hermana Christensen.

Katelyn is doing great and enjoying her mission in Texas.
We know from the weather maps that it is very hot & humid down there, but Kate rarely complains about the weather. There are not very many spanish-speaking sisters in her mission. Because of this, she doesn't move around as much as is sometimes common. So far, she has been in the same area for the past nine months. She has really gotten to know and love the Latino people who attend her spanish ward in Bear Creek. This is located just North of the suburb of Katy, Texas. She has had three companions in her time in Houston: Sister Lillywhite, Sister Bastian, and now Sister Smart. On the home front, Kate has been excited with the news of her close friends accepting calls to serve missions as well. Although she would love to be able to attend their farewells, etc., she shares in their enthusiasm. She is currently looking forward to her visit with the Noftle Family, who will be in Houston for a couple of days this next week. Kate is also always trying to spice up our life with new formats to her letters. haha. A recent one was titled "The Katelyn Kronicle" and was filled with exciting headlines. It is an exciting time for our missionary:) We are all pretty sure that Jace's letters will not be quite so informative and creative to read.

Here are some excerpts & stories from her latest letters:

Katelyn's ward mission leader, wife, 2 kids and grandma, the Guillens, traveled to Salt Lake a few weeks ago. Before they left, Kate actually offered them Grandma Marilyn's house to stay at. My mom was SHOCKED to think that Katelyn thinks she can just offer Grandma's house to someone, especially for a whole two weeks! But it all worked out of course. They got a hold of Grandma & enjoyed their stay. Grandma Marilyn reported that they were the sweetest and most respectful family ever. However, Katelyn's plan backfired on her a bit upon their return as they shared glowing reports of spending time with all of her aunts, uncles and cousins.
she said, "Ok seriously....i am OFFICIALLY 'TRUNKY'. I am not even going to hide that fact. I spent an entire HOUR yesterday after church listening to Hno. and Hna. Guillen brag about my Grandparents, and my family in general.
Hno: I LOVE your grandma's house....it has so many memories and pictures....
Me: Yeah....it is a nice house. My grandma likes pictures.
Hno: Do you go there alot? It seems like you and your grandma are close.
Me: She let me stay there all the time in college. She's one of my best freinds.
Hno: I didn't know that your entire family got together every Monday to play soccer...
Me: Yup. They do.
Hno: MAN...that was really fun
Me: ...Yeahhh
Hno: Your Grandparents love you very very much...
Me (to Hermana Bastian): Do we have a dinner appointment? PLEASE?"
Sounds like hearing about home made Kate alittle homesick! We know she misses us and we miss her too, but Kate's always pushing through with a smile.

She also recently said, "I am glad that the Utah family is doing well. I have the Christmas Picture in my scriptures from us at the Brighton Ski Resort last summer, so when people ask about my family I can just whip it out. I like looking at it too. I was thinking of 'yall this week. It is good to know that everyone is happy and healthy. I was also thinking about Kenzie this week. Grandma Jean wrote me and told me she started school. MAN that was probably the funnest time of my life, as far as being carefee and flat out crazy. I miss it. I guess there are good things about every phrase in life and I am so glad I am serving a mission. It is hard, but TOTALLY worth it."

OTHER CLIPS OF KATE's LETTERS-
"Cute little Olivia's baptism day finally came. The baptism was awesome. It started out a little tense because she called us and asked us if we could come get her and give her a ride to her own baptism. There were beer cans over the yard and it was pretty obvious that everyone in the house except Olivia and the kids were still recovering from the wedding the night before, if you catch my drift. She is a pillar of strength though. She had her little bag of clothes all ready to go and was simply beaming. Her sister was like "Where are you going?" Olivia said- "I told you. I am going to be baptized." Literally her sister, who was laying on the couch, said "Don't drowned."" Many sacrifice so much to accept the gospel.

"Our Zone Leader came to us while we were eating lunch and said that President Hansen wanted to meet with JUST OUR ZONE after our tri-zone conference! we were scared that we were going to get yelled at because we were low on numbers or something, but he just told us that he was reading in D&C about how preaching the Gospel can be an "effectual door" to others and when he read that phrase he thought immediately of the Houston Zone because we are his Spanish Speaking missionaries. He said that we are a very small minority in the mission, but we make up for half the Baptisms. He said he felt inspired to share with us that we should be prepared because big things are about to happen to our Zone and we should pay attention to every prompting that we get. He said he has never met with a specific Zone like this before, but he was inspired to do so with us. When we left we were all kind of looking around like 'WHAT? what just happened??'"

"We had a great experience this week. On Wednesday, we decided to walk to our appointments because we were running out of miles for the month. It was super hot and miserable. The heavy bag we carry all day doesn't help either. This particular day, we happened to be fasting for the Tates family, and especially for Hermanita Tates. By the time we got back to our apartment around 7 o'clock to freshen up and get ready to drive to our appointment with Welfredo, I had pretty much had it. I was exhausted, dehydrated, starving, and sweating. I wanted to call and cancel the appointment with Welfredo, take our dinner hour (even though we were not going to eat), and crash. I didn't complain to my companion, but I could tell she was thinking the same thing. We both wanted to cancel, but we were both too stubborn to be the one to say it. We ended up going to the Cita anyways. We sang and prayed out of habit, because that is how we always start a lesson. We asked if he had been reading and praying because we always ask our investigators that. We were kinda going through the motions and getting through the lesson. He stopped us dead in our tracks by saying that yes, he stayed up until 3:30 reading the Book of Mormon. And yes, he had not only prayed, but had had a dream and he knew with all his heart that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was crazy!! He now has a baptismal date and came to church yesterday. Tell Jace when he is sweating to death and tired and sick, and wants to quit, to keep going. When his companion wants to go home and call it a day, knock on a few more doors. Push yourself. You never know when God is going to prepare people."

"The mission and mission rules are changing a little church wide. We are no longer going to have interviews with President every transfer and we are not going to have Zone Conferences every transfer either. We are only going to have them 3 or 4 times a year. Predicad Mi Evangelio is coming out with a chapter 14 and will be reprinted with more footnotes to keep us from preaching false doctrine." Basically the spirit of these new changes is for us to stop being babysat by President and stop relying on him alone for spiritual strengthening. We are supposed to be conversing more with our Heavenly Father and less with our mission president, because he knows what the people need FAR better than even our mission president does. They want us to be in less meetings and out teaching more and to rely on the temple and Zone Conference to recharge our spiritual batteries once a transfer."

"My converts are doing well. I as so glad that I have stayed in this area for awhile because I have been able to see them progress in the gospel and witness the changes it is making in their lives. I now have them teaching their friends which is very exciting. What an amazing little flock of sheep."

Kate is so oblivious to the outside world around her, that when my mom told her that my dad got an "ipad", she thought that she had just done a typo and meant to say "ipod", until she was at a member's home and they were using one. She had never even heard of it or knew they existed. That's funny!!!

It seems like we can always get something out of reading Kate's letters. And as we get ready to send another missionary off, we'll remember her words. This week especially, I MISS MY SISTER! But she continues to remind us that she is where she is supposed to be.

We'll try to work on getting the posts up more often :)
-Lindsey