Leaving for Spain

This is it! My last p-day in the MTC! My whole district got our visa's this week so we're all heading out to Spain. It's actually a bit of a miracle. All of us got our visa's except for Elder Reynolds. He was pretty bummed but trying to be a sport about it and trying to stay positive. He got his reassignment Friday morning to Long Beach, Cali... and then that afternoon he got his visa! He's flying with all of us to NYC and then we split into separate planes to Spain. It was a miracle that he got his visa and made it onto the same flight as us. The Lord really keeps an eye out for us. 

So Tuesday- devotional night- was crazy. It was by Neil L. Anderson on love and sacrifice. He said that "The tings we sacrifice for we love, and we love the things we sacrifice for." I really like that thought. There's so much to think about in that one sentence. Just think about it. No wonder parents love theri childeren so much and missionary's their areas. 

After the devotional it was raining and security has us stay in the Marriot because of thunder and lighting. I'm sure it's the same storm that was in Moscow a few days earlier. I wish i could have seen it! We sang hymns to keep the reverence and Elder Andersn went around shaking hands with people for a few minutes before he left. He was within probably 20 ft of where we were sitting and you could just feel the Spirit so strongly. He really is an Apostle of the Lord. I could feel it, it made me tear up some actually. You could tell he wanted to meet everyone but there wasn't time. 

It was about 20 min. before we could leave the Marriot center. It was still raining so some of hte poor elders tried to bundle up thier suit coats and run. But most of us just laughed and enjoyed it. We spend lots of time in a classroom so it was really nice. It felt great and the rain was really pretty in the light. I had a couple notebooks stuffed under my cardigan so everyone's notes made it back to the MTC safely. We took a few pictures of our district all soaking wet. You probably can't tell, but we were all drenched. It felt great. H. Grover was frozen though, she's used to Florida's warm rain. All of us from Idaho thought it was a warm rain. Instead of having our Devotional Review like normal President Bradshaw sent us all back to our rooms so the Elders could take care of their suit coats. He is a man of the details. 

The coolest pat was that I'd been feeling a little down right before the meeting. I didn't want to, especially before a devotiona lbeccause those are such great opportunities for revelation and being reinspired. So I prayed for help to be able to be happy again and feel the spirit. Only a few minutes later we sang my favorite hymn "I know that My Redeemer Lives". It brought tears to my eyes as I really thought about what the words mean and I bore my testimony through song. It was such a simple way to bring the Spirit back, but it was so powerful. Another one of those little daily miracles. 

This week we Hosted again. They're sending a lot of missionaries to West Campus because they're going to start construction here to made the main campus big enough to hold everyone. It's made everything feel empty, comparatively. It was so much easier than normal to find a washer and dryer for laundry today! 

One of our Teachers, Hermano Ball, told us a bunch of stories about his mission one night after class.  He shared some very tender miracles from his mission with us that really invited the Spirit. His faith has been such a strong example for us. After he left we all knelt in prayer and then had another personal study time. We were supposed to be studying language, but we needed to have that time with the Lord. My testimony really grew that night. I was reassured that I am supposed to be on a mission and that I can do this. there are people waiting for me in Spain. It made me want to work harder and better and really push myself and not lose focus. I was struggling to focus this week and Satan was pushing my buttons. (On Sunday the devotional was about how Satan is pushing any buttons he can, so if it gets hard you know you're doing it right. He'd definatly been pushing mine and the devotional helped me notice how and become more aware.)

So here's my goal for my mission: Share the gospel with every ounce of strength I have. I want to be able to talk about the gospel with energy and excitement so that people can see how much I really love this church. Sometimes its hard to express that. 

This week has been so motivating. Writing this showed me that that was the theme of this week. Being remotivated and pushing myself. Going to Spain this next week is going to be crazy and super hard.  But I'm so excited to grow and start sharing the gospel. Starting in the airport.

I love you all! Remember, Music and the Spoken word. It's online and easy to find. Last week's the MOTAB sang "My Favorite things" from the SOund of Music. I was impressed by how well such a large choir sang that song. 

LOVES!

Hermana Woolley

District

Visas are in!

VISA is here. HOOT HOOT

Kelsey got her VISA!  YEAH  she leaves on Monday!

Last week in MTC

Hola! 

It's funny, because I know so many ways to say hello and goodbye now but my favorite is still hola. Funny how that works. 

I have to say, studying the scriptures here in the MTC is amazing. I have had the best personal study times of my life here! I've started over in the Book of Mormon and I'm seeingb things through a whole different light. Nephi's voice is so apparent in his writing. And it's so obvious how much teh Lord loves Lamen and Lemuel. He gives them so many chances to change and repent. The Lord never gives up on them, not ever. It's so reassuring to me and such a clear example of how the Lord loves all his children unconditionally. He still loves all of us, no matter what decisions or mistakes we make. He made be sad or dissapointed, but his love never ends. I can't even comprehend how much the Lord loves us, but I did get a little peek at it through my study. I feel His love all the time here, especially when singing hymns. I don't tear up very often here, but when I do it's usually during a song. I love the Lord so much. 

This week has been super busy, especially Wednesday! On Wed we hosted the incoming missionaries, helped with example teaching and talked with the newest district! We were hardly ever in class all day. Hosting was so much fun. I spent a few hours outside helping sisters find their residence hall, gather theri books and then taking them to thier classroom. There weren't enough hosting sisters so every time i came back to the curb there was another sister getting out of the car. I hosted like 6 sisters, which doesn't sound like a lot, but the elders all hosted like 2. The poor elders were so bored, almost none of them did much hosting. They spent most of their time helping sisters move the suitcases. I realiezed that i am a super light packer! Those sisters suitcases were all so heavy, most of them exactly 50 lbs each. So i was basically pulling my weight when I pulled both suitcases. (thankfully that wasn't for very long. But there is one point where the hosts pull the suitcases around the side of the building while the new missionary's go inside to get thier tags, etc.) It was s onice to be outisde! I was very tired by the time I was done though, we all collapsed in the classroom afterwards. 

The first night the new missionary's get into groups of about 50 and practice teaching an actyor predenting to be an investigator. To start things off a set of missionary's come in and start the lesson and help the newbies get a feel for what to ttalk about w/ the investiator. We were nominated by one of our teachers for our good teaching skills (what a compliment!) to do this. We were nervous, but our training helps us calm down a bit. We didn't even really teach, it was just getting to know the person and what their needs were. The coolest part though was that there was this elder we'd met last week in TRC in our group. He has only been a member for a year and we taught him last week as part of TRC. He's from Peru and we keep running into him everywhere! I dno't know his last name since we met him in TRC, but he's the coolest elder. You can tell he's got such a strong testimony. He was trying to hard to help the investigator, getting up there and reading scriptrues with him, even the more difficult one. 

Elder Merkley has a friend he met in Germany in the new district (both military kids). All our districts seem like they're full of super strong missionary's, we're so lucky to know so many cool people!

Dad, you'll love this. For our Sunday devotional Vai Sikahema spoke to us (USed to be a BYU football player and NFL). He told us to not take any notes and talked to us about his mission experience. He was trying to show us how natural it is and that missionary work doesn't need to be forced. As is often said, "just open your mouth". He had everyone laughing and pumped for missionary work. HE's a great speaker, he had one of his converts there with him, they're best friends and just went to visit the town in South Dakota where every thing happened a couple weeks ago. 

Cool random fact: Hermano Ball (a teacher)'s dad worked for Dreamworks for about 15 years! We talked art in our teacher/student interview pretty much the whole time. It was soooooooooooooo coool. That's my dream job, right there. 

After the Sunday devotional by Richard J Maynes we were walking back to our class to discuss it and share what we learned. It was just us sisters and somehow we ended up talking about pencil skirts and what it would be like to wear one without a slit. Almost in unison, we put our knees together and tried walking up the stairs like we were in too tight of  a skirt (of course, none of us were wearing skirts like this.) It was cracking us up, we looked like drunk penguins. Then Sister Adair suggested we try doing the same thing but with our knees locked. We had to swing our legs to go up the stairs. I was laughing so hard I had to stop walking and bend over so I wouldn't lose my balance and fall back down the stairs. Such a simple thing, but it was hilarious! Just as we climbed up the rest of the stairs we ran into a Branch president and his wife. Of course, they'd heard the whole thing. They were very amused. We felt mildly awkward. Fun stuff. 

So I have a challenge for everyone. It's really simple. You should listen to music and the spoken word on Sunday's when getting ready or look them up later in the day. They'd be so easy to find on the BYU tv website I'm sure. We sisters are lucky enough to listen to them before relief society every sunday. It's one of my favorite parts of sunday! The MOTAB sings a wider range of songs that are still totally spiritual but not necessarily from the hymn book. Last weeks was awesome, it has some soul choir songs.

Another thing everyone should do is read "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" By Gene R. Cook in Oct 1982. We read this in class together and I LOVED it. It taught me so much about faith. I wish I could share everything I learned but some things need to be learned on our own. I've definately learned that. No matter how many times someone tells you, it never sinks in until we understand and figure things out for ourselves. Especially in the gospel. But it was very thought provoking and deserves to be read slowly and discussed.

I love you all! I love hearing from you! I only have one more week in the MTC, crazy hu? Though if they think we'll get our visa's they'll hold us an extra week instead of shipping us out for reassignments. Though they told us that our district's  names have been put up for reassignment. I'll know by the next p-day where i'm going. 

Stay strong! Ponder the scriptures prayerfully. I promise you'll learn something if you start your scripture study asking for help to learn and be spiritually guided. It makes all the difference. I love this gospel, it's such an amazing thing. It brings out the best in people and really pushes us. This gospel is one of constantly pushing up hill to new and better things. It's always a struggle, but it's always more than worth it, especially since we have the Savior helping us every step of the way. I have felt his help and guidance every day since being a missionary. I know he loves me. I love him. I know Jesus Christ lives. He overcame death, he was the only one who could. He went lower than any of us ever could and then lower still, just so he could say "I understand. I know. Let me help you. Let me carry you." All we need to do is desire to believe and act on that belief consistently and dilligently and soon, that dust mote of a desire for faith will begin to grow. I'm praying for you. 

Loves!

Hermana Woolley

crazy

Hi Family,

So we have shorter time this week because of the temple trip. it took longer than expected and we ran from the temple in the rain to reach the computers with enough time. I didn't realize how much I'd missed going to the temple until I was there. It was such a wonderful experience. It's also storming out side right now so it was very refreshing. The thunder was amazing to see. Thanks so much for the bday stuff! we drank the martinelli's for lunch, it was great. I recieved lots of love from my companions and district, they all signed a card and sang happy birthday. 

But the best bday presents was the devotional that night. We were lucky enough to hear from Elder Scott!! He spoke to us about prayer and gave us an Apostolic blessing to learn our languages/gift of tounges. The spirit was SO STRONG through the whole meeting. When the closing prayer ended no one moved because none of us wanted to break the silence. When Elder Scott finally started to leave he stopped and cupped his hands around his mouth and called "Be good!". He waved to us as he left too. We were all very respectful as he left, but the teenager in all of us came out as he started to dissapear down the ramp in the Marriot center and we all waved and called "I love you!". I really felt the Savior's love for me and Elder Scott's love for me. He shared with us that he was feeling his wife's presence with us that night.  It was an amazing meeting. I sang in the MTC choir and felt so privileged so share my testimony with him in that way. The devotional was broadcast to all the MTC's around the world, it was the first time they'd ever done that. It was so cool.

Yesterday before one of our lessons we finished preping early and we wanted to stay focused but didn't have anything to plan. So we starting singing hymns together. It was fantastic! The spirit was so strong and Hermana Grover and Hermana Adair sang alto so we didn't sound too shabby either :). 

The district that is a few weeks older than us is leaving this week. They were supposed to leave last week but couldn't because there were too many reassignments sent out that week so they were stuck here another week. They recieved them and all of them are going to different places, and all the missions seem perfect for them. The Lord works in amazing ways.

We got a new district this week too. They're intermediate spanish but seemed just as overwhelmed as we had been the first day. They're all super great though! Love them all a lot already. My love for everyone has grown as I've grown closer to the Lord.

Our district has been practicing the 1st vision in spanish. We play this game at the beginning of each class period where we go around the circle and each person says a word and only the person on their left can help them if they forget a word. It's a really great way to make sure we really know every word by heart. We've been timing ourselves since we started. The first time a couple days ago was almost 3 minutes but now we're down to 1.22!! We're hoping to get it down to one minute soon. 

We've been having some classes outside which has been so nice. We're so blesed to live in such a beautiful world! We all feel rather warm outside though because all the buildings in the MTC are cold for the elders in suit coats. It'll be quite the adjustment to be outside all day. But I'm so excited for it.

My companions and I realized today that we have only 2 weeks left in the MTC! I can't believe it. The time had really flown by. The realization was a real motivator to throw myself into Spanish even harder. I've learned so, so ,so much but I'm still pretty limited in how I can express myself. I will be so excited when I can express myself in Spanish like I can in English. ONe day. ONe day soon.

I love you all!

Hermana Woolley

Kelsey

District in front of provo temple

2nd Letter in one Day!!

So I'm having trouble with the pictures, the computers are super restricted for obvious reasons. I probably won't have time to borrow sister grover's thing today, though i think it's the computer, not my drive. I'll look into it, there's a little note on the computer on how to do that. Sorry, I really wanted to send pictures! I'll try to do it again later next week and send double the pictures. I have to admit thoguh, I'm pretty bad at remembering to take them. I have breanne's address, but could you send me grandma woolley and grandma weber and grandma bills? I'll try and write them when i have time. And there's no offical rule about writing letters on days besides pday, but i think i'm going to try and only do them on pdays from now on. Sorry. I"m trying to be exactly obedient and make sure to give the Lord all his time.

I have more time than I thought I would, I guess I type fast than I thought. So double letters today! I love hearing from everyone :)

Yesterday a teacher who had gone to Spain on her mission came in and talked to us about spain. It was super nice since all the other teachers we know went to Mexico. The spanish is slightly different so it was nice talking with someone who knew Spain spanish. I can't tell you how excited I am for my package. I actually haven't had a chance to open it yet, we picked it up right before coming to email. But I've been hoping for days. When the district leader, E. Butters, handed me the slip to pick up my package I totally did a fist pump. I got the drops too. It's funny, but both Hermana's think we're total hippies when it comes to medicine because of my drops and healing save. I let one of them borrow it because she was getting a nasty bruise on her shoulder. she ran into a podium on accident.

I love it here. Now that I've gotten used to the routine it's such a great place. There's so much to learn. Some days I wish the day was longer because I need more time! I have a hard time setting down my scriptures and never seem to have enough time to figure out a new grammar thing for spanish. It's crazy how the time moves here. I'm glad everyone seems to be having a good end of summer. Jenna seemed very excited about her new clothes, they sounded cute. Thanks for the pictures, though I couldn't open the dropbox ones because of restrictions. But thats fine, the one's you sent directly in the email were great. It was so nice to see everyone. How are Steven and Kari and Scott doing? Any news about Tisha? You should tell me in a dear elder so i have more time to read it. It's funny, because I can see you're reply to my last email but shouldn't read it. I'll save it for next week.

h, woolley

Hey Family,

The MTC has been awesome. Our lessons are going great. Juan (our fake investigator/teacher) agreed to be baptized and even set a date! Our new investigator started this week, Diana. She's toally different from Juan which is great practice. Unfortunately both of our teachers are going out of town at the same time so we'll have subs for a couple days. Hermano Ball is going to be gone for a whole week so we might not see him again. We took picts with him, he's the one with blonde hair in the pict. We spend a whole day trying to talk in spanish with a goal of 75% in spanish. We didn't quite meet our goal, but it was still amazing how much we were able to talk. I totatlly expected us to not talk much. I can understand almost everything peopel say in spanish, i'm just really working hard on being able to speak.

Funny story from yeterday. One of our zone leaders, Elder Stone, has this crazy skill. He can steal anyone's food with out the person noticing. Yesterday he was teasing his companion and telling him his name was on the board during lunch (thres a computer screen that lists names of ppl who need to go to the front desk). He kept squinting at it and saying "elder, i think you're name's up there."  his companion doesn't have veyr good eye sight so he was squinting to look and Elder Stone kept stealing pieces of his cookie. The poor elder didn't even notice that half his cookie was gone for five minutes! I was having a really hard time not laughing. He did it again this morning to Elder Merkley from my district and took a huge bite out of his bagel by distracting him with the birds (we were eating outside for breakfast today. So nice!). It was the funnies thing ever. Yesterday E. Stone decided he didn't like onion rings because the onion part came out of his and looked too much like a worm. I told him that was the part I liked and he didn't believe me. I had to take one of H. Grover's and eat the onion plain for him to believe me. He was super grossed out, the whole time I was thinking of Parma and my oniony background. I love that stuff!

I have been getting so much help from Hevanly Father with my spanish. Earlier this week I felt like I was in a rut and wasn't really learning much. I was trying but couldn't seem to remember anything, especially verbs. Those verbs are killer. But yesterday I pleaded with Him to help me because there isn't time to fall behind in the MTC and I could feel myself sliding. Yesterday I spoke the best spanish I have ever. I led one of the lessons we gave, jumping in when Herma. Grover couldn't think of what to say (she's the best at spanish in the district) and was more comfortable with my spanish in Juans lesson than ever before. It was a true and true miracle. The Lord really does want me out here learning Spanish.

This week two elders left for the Madrid MTC. They got thier visas monday and left tues morning. Don't worry, they emailed thier family's their flight schedule so they could talk during layover. It's wierd, our district only has 3 companionships now. It means we get a lot more teaching time, wiich is good practice!

I got the package! Thanks soooo much! Much appreciated :)

For sunday night's devotional Dallin H. Oaks daughter cmae and played the violin. It was so inspiring. Her family is one of the im a mormon videos. And i'm having the strange feeling I already told you about her, though I don't know why. Maybe I wrote a letter home that night or somehting. Anyways, the spirit was so strong as she played. She didn't talk much, but she was an amazing artist. Mom, you'd love her, you should see if she has a cd. Her name is Jenny Oaks something. you'd be able to google her.

This week has been so amazing. I've learned a lot and I'm getting so excited for spain. I get along great with the whole district. Oh! and I have been assigned to be the music coordinator for sacrament meeting. With only three sisters in the branch (The others are leaving this next week) and only one newbie elder who plays the piano, there weren't many options. I"m hoping I do a good job and pick good songs! I love you very much! Thanks for everything and your prayers :) I know that the Lord needs me out here. I know this church is true. There is no doubt in my mind. There is nothing more special to me than this gospel.

Loves!

Hermana Woolley

once there were 4 now there are 3 but they are all smiling still :)

Sisters headed for Spain eventually

Whole District

Kelsey's pics in MTC

Hey Family,

Thanks for the cinnamon rolls!!! I shared them with my district and everyone loved them. Theres 9 of us. I'm pulling back on sugar though since I was just sickish so no sweets is okay with me! Also, I'm sending home my temple clothes because it's free for missionaries to rent and the temple is going to be closed most of my time here. ANd I couldn't tkae them up anyways since we aren't supposed to take bags up to the temple. Just make sure and don't lose them! :)

At the end of every day we have what we call DBT after our daily planning session. District bonding time. Normally we go arround and everyone answers a question. It's super fun. the last few days one of the elders started taking down quotes and i copied them down too. it was just like i used to do so I couldn't resist.

"I was pretending to bwe a zombie the whole time"

"I have like a weird little numb spot righ tthere"\

"dad, dad pet my kitty"

"This fat kid from Burley fell on me."

"I put a hole in the wall w/ my brothers head once."

"So people could put thier fingers in your bellybutton?"

There were a lot more but these were the best ones. DBT is the best part of the day. It's twenty minutes of laughing and such a fun way to wind down from the day. I feel so close to everyone already. Time basically doesn't exist in the MTC so it feels like I've known them forever. We've shared so many stories it's like we practically have.

Our teacher left this week to help the new MTC in Mexico get established. She was replaced by a couple of teachers, all of who are awesome. Our investigator Juan started teaching us too (Hermano Bell) and he does a great job. I'm so excited by how much I understand. I still speak really slow and haltingly because I have to think about every word I say, but I can feel myself growing. Its hard sometimes to not compare myself to the others in my class as they learn faster. But I'm learning at the perfect rate for me and working hard. We spend almost all day in class so sometimes its hard to focus, but H. Grover and H. Adair and I have found an empty classroom we go to to study in when the Elders are being too distracting.

I sung in the MTC choir for the tuesday  night devotional. it was such a powerful experience to sing with so many people! And it was the only chior I've ever been in where the elders out number the sisters. It sounded great. I doubt they put the devotionals online, but if they do you should listen to the song.

We start teaching an invesitagor every day next week. We'll have two investigators and TRC. I'm trying to not be too nervous since we aren't supposed to have any notes now! Our last lesson was hard for me because I forgot vocab. My main problem is I get nervous, so I need to learn how to relax more in the lesson/. And practice more! I've started having mental conversations with myself as I brush my teeth so I can practice my vocab and talking faster.

Having 3 companions makes teachinig the lessons harder but we've worked it out alright. We try to assign certain parts to people so that everyone shares something. We are all at different levels of understanding and speaking so sometimes its not even, but it's a good experience.

Thanks so much for the letters everyone! I'm really appreciating them. I'll try and write back as often as I can. And yes mom, Dear Elder is different. I get the letter that day instead of on p-day. It's like writing a physical letter but it gets here as quick as an email. Cool stuff!

One Elder in my district, E. Farley, is from Orem. So his family keeps sending him packages of food. It's funny because it's reached the point where he is growing to hate donuts. The Elders share with us all the time. I don't really eat much of it, but the other sisters love it!

We did our first service block this week. It's funny, but I loved sweeping and moping the bathroom floors. It felt so good to work physically and not mentally. Funny how you grow to appreciate things like that.

I know this church is true. I feel the Spirit so strong here every day. I can feel the difference when we leave the MTC campus to walk to the field. This place is so hard and sometimes frustrating, but it's so amazing too. I tear up all the time during devotionals. MY emotions are on a roller coaster (thankfully usually up in the highs) :)

Love,

Hermana Woolley