Kelcie

2011-11-25T20:11:00.001-08:00

What a week! Monday all of our appointments cancelled. Tuesday we had 4 appointments. Wednesday we had 4 appointments. We also got a call today from an investigators mom telling us about her husband. He has a lot of issues and is an alcoholic. So we went over and talked to them and read the Living Christ with them. Thursday was a good day. We had zone conference. Every zone conference we have a theme scripture and have to prepare a talk on it. Then at the conference President will pick 4 missionaries to give their talk. I was one of them. I was also the only one who prepared anything to share. The scripture was Doctrine and Covenants 46:7. I focused my talk on prayer and used the conference talk "Prayer is a privilege". It was pretty good, well that's what I heard. It was kind of hard this conference. A lot of friends that I have made on the mission are starting to go home. 2 of the sisters I am close with are going home. It was still good besides the fact that a lot of them are going home. After conference we had 2 lessons and a correlation meeting. Friday we had DTM and then planning afterwards. We had one lesson the whole day. It also started to snow that night while we were out tracting. NOT fun! We got a call today from an investigators mom saying that her husband is coming into town and if we could do the baptism as soon as possible. So we scrambled to get everything done for the baptism on Sunday. It all was depending on if she went to church or not Sunday. She did and she got baptized. A lot of people were there for being last minute. It was good.

Saturday was a long day. We had 4 lessons and got our transfer calls. President Pitts called us which only means that someone is training. He first talked to Sister Smith and told her that she is moving to Mapleton and will be training and opening an area. She then handed the phone to me. President told me about Sis. Smith and then told me that I am staying in Lehi and will be training a new missionary coming in from the MTC. We are super sad to be leaving each other but are excited as well. We both want to give these new sisters a good experience with a trainer. Since we both struggled a little bit. Transfers are tomorrow.

The last couple days Sister Smith and I have been dreading transfer day just because that means we won't be together any more. We are super grateful and love being out here. I hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving and birthdays for Jason, Gerrit and Rachelle. I love you and miss you!

Love,
Kelcie

2011-11-25T20:10:00.001-08:00

What a crazy busy week. Sister Smith and I made a companionship goal to teach 40 lessons this last week. We were 5 short. By the time we got to the weekend we were so tired. Especially after Friday. We had some crazy things happen. Friday night we ate with some members and right in the middle of dinner the dad turned and punched his son that is moved him to the other side of the chair. We ended up reporting it, we both had a feeling that it wasn't the first time that it has happened. After that we talked to one of our investigators mom and she told us a lot of things that is going on with her son. He was supposed to be getting baptized this coming Saturday but he is no longer on date. He keeps canceling appointments as well. We are trying to meet with him and talk some sense back into him. He is throwing his life away. It is so sad.

This last Tuesday we went up to Traverse Mountain (by Cabellas) and looked for the asteroid. I first saw a shooting star and about ten minutes later Smith and I saw the asteroid. It was really cool. We were hoping we would see another one but we didn't. It was super relaxing to go watch for it even though it was freezing cold.

This last week we were able to meet with the ex-polygamist again, Zanny .We taught the Plan of Salvation. She grew up being taught that God is a God of fear and hellfire and damnation. It was so sad. By the end of the lesson she was happier and I think realized that God really is our loving Heavenly Father. It breaks my heart to hear people believe that.

We also taught Dave. We knew he had Word of Wisdom problems and so we taught about that. He told us that he is going to quit cold turkey for his smoking habits. He has done it before. We tried to focus a lot on how bad it is for our bodies and that our bodies are a precious gift given to us. We compared our bodies to the temple. Dave is a cool guy. He is the one that came up to a member and told him that he wants to be baptized. It was funny a few days before we taught Dave, we were at correlation. On the correlation paper we put that he has WoW addiction. One of the men in the room asked if it was a world of warcraft addiction. We were laughing so hard.

Funny story. One day this week we taught Brianda. Her little brother Juan was sleeping on the couch and in the middle of the lesson he sits up like he was just waking up. He sat there for about a minute. He then got up and walked to the kitchen. He opened the fridge, stared into it, closed the door. Turned around. Went back to the couch, laid down and fell right back into a snore. It was hilarious. We realized that he was sleep walking the whole time. After we left the appointment we saw a young family carrying in groceries with 3 young kids. We asked them if we could help. They said yes. We were both shocked. We always hear no we are fine. We found out that they are not members and told us they have 4 or 5 turkies that they want to donate to the church for some families that will need the help. It was so sweet. It was fun to get to know them as well and be able to serve them.

Yesterday at church we spoke in one of the wards. We focused on member missionary work and how we are here to help Heavenly Fathers children. Smith focused on the blessings of doing missionary work. It was really good. Especially since there is a lot of work in the ward that we spoke in. A lot of people told us that what we said is what they needed to hear. Then we went to another ward with an investigator. They just got a new bishopric and the counselor was conducting. They did some callings and when it came to any opposed he said it really weird and half of the congregation raised their hands. We all died laughing. A member of the high council was there and said it was fine. It was hilarious. I have never seen it before.

We had some really good lessons this week. A lot of our investigators are progressing and are doing really well. We have a lot on date for the end of the month and are doing really well. I love being out here. I don't regret any minute of it. There is a lot of work to do and we have seen so many miracles and tender mercies. Heavenly Father really does love all of us individually. There was a quote that someone said in a talk yesterday was "it's nice to be nice to be nice." It is so true. It pays to serve and to reach out and help other people. The gospel is true and is never changing, it is a gospel of order. I am so grateful for that. I love reading back over the conference talks from this last conference. It is amazing. I love you all and are so grateful for you.

Love,
Hermana Dickson

2011-10-19T22:28:00.001-07:00

This has been a busy week! We ended up with 25 lessons, 5 new investigators, a baptism, and a whole lot of fun. I love being in Lehi. We have a great district and I have the best companion ever! We are so excited that we are still together. We were realizing the other day that 1 year ago we were companions and to celebrate our 1 year we will be together! We love it. Also to celebrate our 1 year out we will be having a baptism of our favorite investigator! We are super excited. He was supposed to get baptized a few weeks ago but his semi truck broke down in Chicago. We are just hoping nothing happens this week so he can return and get dipped on Thursday. So far so good.

Monday for P-day we had a district activity. We played the Amazing Race around Lehi. Smith and I totally won! Except for the part we were helped some of the elders who didn't know the area, so they say. They are in our zone but don't serve around here in Lehi. But we beat all of the elders in our district. We are find with that. We would've beat everyone but we missed a clue, well writing it down and so we were driving around trying to find an address. The funny part is that we drove by it 2 or 3 times and didn't see the clue in front of the house. What is even funnier is one of the elders figured out the clue and ran into the persons house and said we won and then they looked at them and told them that the clue is outside. It was hilarious! We laugh about it all the time. That night we had a ward FHE with the Spanish ward. It was fun. This is the best spanish ward i have been in. Tons of members!

Tuesday we had a service project with an investigator. She makes her own soap and she taught us how to make it. It is really cool and it feels good. I have a lot of pictures and the formula. It is a lot cheaper than buying it. After we had an appointment with Susan. We kept it short. Later Tuesday night she sent us a text telling us that she needs time and that she doesn't want us to come back. We were like what happened? The lesson went well. She is just confused and is trying to find out for herself if it is true or not. She is 70 and quite religious in her own faith. We haven't been able to go back and see her but keep in contact with her. This week we will be able to see her. We also were able to teach Mikayla. She is so sweet. I think I've told you about her. She has a disability and we are teaching her. We teach one principle at a time and no longer than 10 minutes at a time. She is super sweet. We had an amazing lesson with Brianda and her sister Karina. They are 13 and 14. They are very interested but their parents won't let them get baptized. They always ask great questions that most people don't think of. It was the best lesson we have had with them.

Wednesday we picked up a new golden investigator, Kendra. Her parents are inactive and her brother just got baptized not too long ago. She wants to get baptized. We are planning for her baptism on November 4th. She is super cute. Her and her brother go to church by themselves. We also taught Madi. Her dad is anti and mom is an active member. We taught about the plan of salvation with her and she was very interested in it. She wants to get baptized but we need dad's permission :( We also taught Malvina. It was another great lesson with her. She shared how she has come to know that these things are true. She prayed and flipped open the Book of Mormon and the verse that she read was her answer. It was talking about having faith, being clean, and following Jesus Christ by being baptized. I love teaching Malvina. She is so sweet. She is one of my favorites. After Malvina we went and taught Edgar and Carmen. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and talked about the importance of following Christ and having a testimony of him.

Thursday we had a lesson with Mayra and her son. We talked about the Sabbath Day. Today was a slower day but it was good. We had DTM and stopped by to see Grey before his baptism.

Friday was another crazy day. I called Sister Pitts and asked her why I was super tired. Way more tired than normal. A few days before this I was not able to open my eyes they were so heavy. I called her and we found out that I probably am anemic. So I started taking iron pills. Little by little it's working. Today we did service for a person we are trying to teach. We also taught Mikayla, Brianda, and Carmen and Edgar again. We also ate with Larry and his wife and shared a thought with them. I love them. They are so sweet and so good to us. They are like family.

Saturday was a busy day. We taught Malvina in the morning. Tried to help someone move but they wouldn't let us. So we just talked to them. We also went tracting. While we were out tracting we met a girl who is an escaped polygamist. Her and her husband ran away so that they could get married. She is so cool. She is a strong person and has a great love of our Heavenly Father and Savior. We talked to her for about a half hour and scheduled a return appointment. Later that day, right before baptism she sent us a text and asked if we could come by tonight. We made time to go back after the baptism. We were able to do some service for her. Get to know her some more and shared a thought with her. We love her. We had a baptism today for an 11 year old. It was a good baptism. A lot of people were there.

Sunday was a slower day but it was good until we were leaving our last appointment. The appointment was good, very spiritual. As soon as we walked outside of the door we felt a wall of Satan. We just felt like something wasn't right. As we were walking down the stairs of the building we saw pools of what we thought was punch. As we got to the bottom of the stairs we realized it wasn't punch. We were out knocking on some doors before this appointment so our car was not parked close to the building we were in. As we continued walking to our car we both felt something wasn't right and the feeling kept getting stronger. It felt like my heart was in my stomach. Smith was like don't back me up just get in the car. We both were freaked out. So we got in the car and got out of there as fast as we could. I called the house we left and was like don't panic but make sure everything is locked. It is a single mom with 3 kids. She was like thank you are you guys okay. I told her we were fine but wanted to make sure they were safe. When we got home we asked our landlord for a blessing. It was creepy but we are both so grateful for the Holy Ghost and for the Priesthood. We decided we aren't going back there at night without a Priesthood holder.

This week has been a good week. Super busy but we love it! We are hoping for more success this week. I love being out here. I love serving with Smith and in Lehi. There is so much work to do here and a lot of people that are ready. We are finding a lot by the members. Before I got here they started a 40 day missionary fast in the Spanish ward and English stake. We have had a lot of success because of it. There is a lot of power in fasting and acting. I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I love you and am grateful for you.

Love,
Hermana Dickson

2011-10-10T20:38:00.001-07:00

This has been a fun week! I love being with Sister Smith. We have had a lot of fun and are exhausted. For P-day last week we went and played laser tag! It was so much fun! There was a lot of us playing which made it fun. At one point I was hit in the face by a laser gun. It didn't feel very good. I was expecting it to bruise but it didn't. That night we had an amazing lesson with Malvina. She reads and has a study journal and always has questions for us! We love it. Tuesday was a busy day. We went and taught Susan (the hollywood actress). She is like Malvina. She keeps commitments and has questions. She doesn't really ask her questions because she waits to see if we answer them first. She is one funny lady. We love teaching her. We also taught Mikayla. Mikayla has behavior issues due to multiple brain surgeries. She is so sweet and super smart. When we go and teach her we teach one principle at a time due to attention span. She is super sweet. We also met a new family. They have been through a lot. The mom was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer 2 years ago and was given 3 months to lives. 2 years later she is still battling it and has such a great attitude. We are starting to teach them. The mom came to church on Sunday! And we also had dinner with them. This week we also started teaching 2 new people... well 2 people I hadn't met yet. One of them, Madi, her dad is anti and won't be able to get baptized unless he lightens up. The other one is on date for baptism. She is super sweet. Her husband is a member. She also makes soap and is going to teach us how this week. Saturday we got transfer calls. I will be staying in Lehi with Sister Smith for another 6 weeks! I am super excited, so is she. This week has been good. I don't have much time left so it's a short email this week. I am excited to be here and to be with Smith. This week we have one baptism hopefully 2. We have 8 people on date and are continually finding people. I love being out here. Next week will be longer and hopefully some pictures. I love you and am grateful for you!

Love,
Hermana Dickson

2011-10-03T21:14:00.001-07:00

I loved Lehi! And I love being with Sister Smith again! We both have had some rough transfers and loved being able to not worry about it and do the Lord's work without struggling. We are trying to convince President and the AP's to keep us together for at least another transfer. 2 weeks is not long enough! We would love to finish the mission together but know that won't happen. Anyway this week has been amazing. The work is going along really well here. We have 7 people on date and have had people come up to us telling us they want to be baptized. The wards we cover are doing a 40 day missionary fast and there have been miracles and seeds planted. WE are teaching this lady who started out on Broadway in NY and is in Hollywood. She has been there for a while. She was in the TV series Murder She Wrote and about 40 other movies or tv series. Her name is Susan. She is 70 and is so sweet. She is one who came up to us and told us she wants to be baptized. Another amazing person we are teaching is Larry. Larry is a street fighter/chef/truck driver. He is one of my favorite people. Him and Susan are my favorites here in Lehi. Larry is getting baptized this week. For the lessons he gets dressed up in church clothes because he feels weird if he isn't being taught in them. It is so cool. Larry and his wife just had a baby girl about 3 weeks ago. She is adorable. They are such a great family. Another one that is on date and told us she wants to get baptized is Malvina. She has had a really hard last couple years. She tried committing suicide and has had issues with other things. She is so ready to be baptized and wants to change her life. She got an answer when she was trying to kill herself that she needed to go to the LDS church. So she did and knows that Heavenly father loves her and wants her to come back to Him. Those are some of the people we are teaching. This are is great. So many wonderful people and a lot of work to do.

So Sister Smith and I were able to go to General Conference on Saturday Afternoon. It was so much fun to go again. We would love to be able to go again in April. All of the talks were so good! I loved how a lot of the talks were about the Restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We had some investigators watching who loved it. Susan watched it and told us she wants a transcript of it. Sorry Ron and Missy I didn't see you! I had a feeling you were going to be on Temple Square. Too bad. We were on the same block at the same time but didn't see each other. We were on the west side of the temple.

Everything here is going great. Sister Smith and I love being together and don't want a transfer to come when we are going to be separated. We want to spend the rest of our mission together. President told us to have fun together and preach the gospel. We do both and don't want to be transferred. We will see what happens on Saturday. It is weird that transfer calls are this week. It feels like week 2 of a new transfer, not week 6. I guess that is what happens when you get transferred 3 times in 4/5 weeks.

I love you all. I am so grateful for the gospel and and the love of our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed to be living in this time when the fulness of the gospel is here. I hope that we will all remember it and apply it. Take and apply what you have learned in conference. There is so much to learn from it. I love you! I miss you!

Love,

Hermana Dickson

2011-09-07T20:32:00.001-07:00

Sent: Tuesday, September 6, 2011 10:58:31 AM
Subject: week 46

This week was an interesting week! Monday we had breakfast with a family in Midway that helps us out a lot. Afterwards we ran some errands and I said bye to some people and packed. Tuesday we helped the Makin's pack during the day and then had some appointments. One of the investigators, Roberto, prayed for me that I would be safe and not forget him. It was really sweet. I also had the chance to say bye to Eugenia. Sister Aguilar and I were not looking forward to transfers and didn't want Wednesday to come. But it came anyway. My trainer came from Salt Lake to take us to transfers. It was fun to see her again. We got to transfers and I saw a bunch of missionaries that I hadn't seen in a while. We were there for a while waiting for the elders to come with our car. They didn't come until almost everyone was gone. Then we got lost trying to find our house... it is hidden! We get there and find that it is not cleaned and that they left us with no information or updated records. It was kind of frustrating. So we went to try to find the store and some other places. We didn't get too lost. THat night we had dinner with a bishop of one of our 2 wards. After a WML from the other ward picked us up and showed us where the chapel was and told us a little bit about who the elders were teaching. Thursday we finished cleaning and unpacking. The rest of the day we tried to find people. Same on Friday. We planned, well organized since we had no records of what was taught to who. Saturday we had some lessons and Sunday we were in meetings from 9-5. It was a long day. The end of the week I was having a hard time but yesterday I think I got it figure out. Hopefully. We have a huge area that covers most of Provo. I haven't run into anyone I know yet. WE don't cover campus but we cover everything around campus. This week we are going to keep tracting and get more investigators. There are a lot of people that are not members here, especially hispanics. Not a whole lot is new. We are just tracting and trying to not get lost. My companion, Sister Montano is from Mexico. She is 30 and is a convert. Saturday night we went to a Latin American Festival. It was fun. Tons of hispanics! I know it's short but not a whole lot is new. I love you and miss you! YOu are the best! I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Dickson

2011-09-07T20:06:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! This week was interesting! Monday we went on a hike/walk around Cascade Springs. It is gorgeous! We took a lot of pictures. All of the missionaries in Heber went but 2. A family took us up there. After we had a really good lesson with this family we are teaching in English. The parents are inactive and the kids are not baptized. We had a FHE with them and the dad said the opening prayer. We watched the Testaments with them. They really enjoyed it. We are seeing them again tonight. This week we also saw Eugenia. She is progressing. She was having a hard couple weeks but when we saw her last night she was really happy and told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that she needs to put her strength and trust in the Lord. She is one of my favorite people. I have seen a huge change in her in just 4/5 weeks. We also saw Roberto a couple times this week. He came to church yesterday but still has drinking problems. He is still progressing though and loves to learn. We just need to get him to stop drinking. We also started to FHE's with less actives and non members this week. We started off by doing one with Ricardo and his sister and her family. It was really good. We talked about how we need to prepare now for when Christ comes. They have been taught for a long time. I guess it scared them and they are really wanting to change. They came to church yesterday without us asking them to come! I think it worked. We just need to get them married so they can get baptized and continue to progress and be more prepared. It was funny. Friday we went and helped the Rivera's move. They are one of my favorite families here in Heber. They are less active and we always eat with them. They love having us over. We helped them paint and clean their new house over 2 days. The elders helped them move. Friday night we went on splits. I went to Midway and Aguilar stayed in Heber. I did a FHE with Margarita and her husband. We talked about faith. Afterwards they fed us pasoly. It was the best pasoly I have had. Saturday we had our district lunch. During lunch we got a call from President. I threw the phone to sister aguilar. It was transfer calls- they came an hour early. Sister Aguilar is staying in Heber and I am opening an area in Provo with Sister Montano. Transfers are Wednesday. I am sad to leave Heber but and also excited to be leaving and going back to the other valley. Not looking forward to more heat but it will be a good area. We saw the assistants this morning. They told me there are a lot of hispanics there. He told me I was going to love it! It will be good. I am sad to be leaving Sister Aguilar. We had a lot of fun together. But we kind of figured it would happen. Not a whole lot happened this week. The exciting things that happened was: Cascade Springs, transfer calls (kind of), Eugenia, Roberto and translating from English and Spanish. Yes, I was translating. We were helping out at an elementary school. I told Aguilar she couldn't leave me and she said the same. We ended up both having to translate at the same time. I didn't think I would be able to but I did it. I was SO surprised. I know Heavenly Father was helping me because there was no way I would have done it on my own. It was a great feeling. Anyway, I love it out here. The people are great. I am going to miss Heber and the people. They are so sweet up here. Yesterday in RS they had me go and bare my testimony. I started crying before I even started speaking. But I told them I will come back and visit. One nice thing about being called to serve in Utah, I can come and visit frequently. Anyway, the mission is the best. I am continually learning. The best part is seeing the change in other people lives. I have seen it a lot here. It is one of the best feelings. I love you all and miss you!

Love,
Hermana Dickson

2011-06-07T20:45:00.001-07:00

Oh man this last week was so good! We had 20 lessons! Wohoo! Last Monday for P-Day we went to the Rec Center and played sports. It was super packed because of the holiday. We had some good games going on with other people. For dinner we went to an American's house. We usually don't eat with people on P-Day but they invited us to eat with them. We ended up tracting that night.

Tuesday we had a lesson with someone that I have not taught yet since I have been in Heber. We have to have another female go with us because two brothers live there together. They seemed interested but weren't home when we had a return appointment a few days later. We also taught Maria de Jesus, Ricardo and a girl named Jenny that we started teaching again. It was a pretty good day. We had 4 lessons and then went tracting.

Wednesday was kind of a slow day. We did a lot of tracting. We ended up having 2 lessons. One with Claudia and the girls. We taught a lesson then painted rocks to help them remember to pray. Hopefully it works :) We also taught a new investigator Angelica. Angelica has 2 boys and is interested but we can only teach a little bit at a time. Our other appointments that we had canceled.

Thursday was a busy day! We taught 7 lessons today. We played a prophets game with Maria and her grandson. It was fun. We are trying to get the boys more involved and trying to get them to go to church. The dad doesn't go to church because the boys don't go which means Maria doesn't go unless she has a ride from someone else. We also taught Jenny again. We taught Ricardo and played Sabbath Day Jenga with him. We created it to help explain good and bad things to do on the Sabbath. We also taught Marisela. She told us that she wants to get baptized but wants to get baptized with her husband which will be a long time. We are hoping that she will do it without him. Her son can baptize her in a couple of weeks. We also taught the Aguayo's. The last couple weeks they have canceled on us so it was good to get in and teach them again. We also taught a few other people.

Friday we had 2 lessons and planned. We taught Marisela and someone else. I can't remember who but we had 2 lessons. Friday night we had dinner with the Riveras. The elders ate their with us as well. It was a pretty good day. We fiound out that Salvador and his family are moving to Midway. They will still be in my area so we can still teach him :)

Saturday we had 3 lessons and a wedding. Wohoo! We taught Maria de Jesus and talked about the Sabbath day with her. We also taught Kenya a little bit. She is a very hard one to get a hold of. She just graduated H.S. and is starting to work full time. We also stopped by to see Claudia and the girls and invited them to the wedding. We went to the wedding to help set up at like 5. The wedding for Salvador and his wife was supposed to start at 7. They didn't get there until 7:30 or a little bit before. Welcome to hispanic time. Take Mormon standard time and add time to that and you have hispanic time. The wedding was really good. There was a lot of people there. We have one roadblock down for his baptism now are trying to get a few more done. We also got transfer calls today. We found out that we are both staying together in Heber for another 6 weeks. I was kind of disappointed at first but am excited about it. The last couple weeks have been pretty good.

Sunday we had 2 lessons. We also went and taught YW in an English ward. It was on missionary work. It was really fun. It has been a long time since I have been in YW. We taught Lupe as well as Maria and Yareli.

Monday was a busy day. I tried emailing when we usually do but the internet was down. So you are getting an email today. For P-Day we went and hiked the Timpanogos Caves. It was a lot of fun. The hike was 1.5 miles with a 1,000ish feet increase. It was gorgeous! I thought I was going to die going up on the hike but thanks to some of the elders who grabbed sticks and pulled me up the mountain. It was quite entertaining. It was such a steep hike and the altitude was awful. But it was worth it. We toured 3 caves and had a blast! I would totally do it again but get into a lot better shape! Monday night we had a branch FHE. It was good. We watched a movie and played charades. No one was there but 2 families. It was really good.

I hope that you are all doing well. I love you all and am so grateful for each of you! I love you and miss you! Have a great week. I will talk to you all on Monday.

Love, Kelcie

2011-03-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I think moms should never try to change outdated addresses. Anyway not without knowing what they are doing. The other day I noticed that Kelcie's MTC address was still listed. So the good mom I am to let all her friends know to sent her mail to the Mission Home address (She really likes to get mail) I thought I delete the MTC one. That is where the dilemma started. It deleted all her other info in that post as well.
Oh man, I finally figured out to post is somewhere. Surprise it ended up just under her header. Just in case it is hard to read I will post it again.
Sister Hermana Dickson
2520 N University, Ste 100
Provo, Utah 84604-3819
Now if I could just figure out how to post it on the side bar!

2011-03-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

Week 23! One lucky Missionary who gets to go to General Conference!

This week went by so fast! A lot has happened. We have been walking a lot this week since we are running out of miles and don't get new miles until April so we are getting plenty of exercise in. I feel bad for the missionaries in walking areas. I think my feet are now callused or almost there. Sister shoes are not meant to walk in!

So this week we have met a Jehovah's Witness! It was my first one since I have been out! He let us in and we have a return appointment for tonight. We are so excited. We have been studying a lot this week for him! We are determined to get him baptized! He is very confused about his own beliefs.... hopefully by the end of this transfer we have him baptized or at least on date.

The other night we got a phone call from an investigator the English sisters are teaching. He is hispanic and wanted us to come over. So the next morning we went over. He told us their life story. He has been having kidney dialysis for 3 years now. He is 30ish. He is on disability and his wife has a bunch of medical problems. She got laid off of work a couple months ago and are really struggling financially. We are trying to get them food and some people in the ward have really stepped up to help them. They are a sweet family who have a lot of love for each other. The same day we went there we went back at night with some food and to teach a lesson. Hermana Reyes noticed some candles. I did too. One of them was Virgin Mary and the other was the Grim Reaper. Yes the grim reaper is a religion... it's the Holy Dead. It's almost voodoo/witchcraft. We were like oh man. So we are slowly working on them to get rid of them.

One of my favorite investigator families here are the Rodriguez family. The mom (Maria) and her 3 kids are taking the discussions. They are so ready for baptism. As soon as we put them on date for April 10 the oldest said that she has to wait until after her 15th birthday in October to get baptized because of her quinsinera. Her family wants her to have the catholic ceremony with it. She really wants to be baptized! Those kids are so smart. They are teaching us the lessons. Veronica (14) and Maria came to the General YW broadcast Saturday night. It was soo good! They both took notes and Maria was crying! We got tickets for them to go to General Conference this weekend!

The YW broadcast was amazing! You should go on and listen to it/read it. It was so good. Everyone I talked to was on the verge of tears if not already crying. I got a lot out of it about the 13th Article of Faith and how important it is for us to have these Christlike attributes. These attributes will help us reach the goal of the temple. The temple is a blessing and special place for us. Pres. Eyring spoke about testimonies. It was all SO good. After the broadcast I got a call from the ZL's telling me I am going to General Conference Saturday! I am so excited. My companions aren't going but I'm going with Sister Beck/Smith/Brignone and my old companion Tetelpa. I am super excited to be going.

So stories for the week:

1- We are teaching this guy Adolfo. He has read the Book of Mormon 4 times! He is ready for baptism. The other day we were teaching him and he asked me why I have a funny accent. I told him it was because I am American, I'm a gringa. I didn't know that I had a funny accent when speaking Spanish. I guess I do.

2. We were teaching Adolfo the last half of the Plan of Salvation and I was explaining the Celestial Kingdom. I told him that the Celestial Kingdom is compared to the south.... He corrected me and told me it was sun. I didn't realize what I said wrong until a half hour later. Oh man... words that sound alike or are very close make for good stories. Hermana Tanner does it all the time. It's funny.

3. We were out tracting all day yesterday. It was close to 8 and we were walking towards our house. We looked ahead of us and it was storming like crazy. We heard thunder and saw lightening. Every time lightening struck I would scream. It was close! Well we get about 2 or 3 blocks from our house and you hear the wind and it sounds like a heavy downpour of rain and leaves twirling in the wind. 2 seconds later it starts hailing! The hail was huge! So I told me companions to run to the house to our left that had a porch. Well it didn't lighten up and we were still being attacked. So I finally knocked on the door. The people answered and asked us if we were missionaries. It was funny. The ground was completely white after a minute and the roads were kind of slick.

Anyway, I love being out here! It is amazing. I love Payson. The people here are so good. I am so glad I am out here serving. I am learning so much. I love you all and am so grateful for you! Thanks for all that you do for me and for everyone else.

Love, Kelcie

2011-03-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
Well I am now in Payson and love it. Payson is like Arlington/Darrington/Shelley all put together. It's a fun little place. The people here are wonderful. I have gotten into so many doors. THe people are really receptive to hearing from us. I have amazing companions. Hermana Reyes was born in Mexico but grew up in Vegas. She has been out for about a year. Hermana Tanner is fresh out of the MTC. She was born in B.C. and moved between the states and Canada all her life. She also went to BYU-Idaho for a couple semesters. She knows a little bit of Spanish. She is funny. The 3 of us get along great and have so much fun. Between our Spanish- or lack of- and just having fun while finding people or in the apartment. I actually feel like my Spanish is improving. I am slowly getting there but am understanding it more and more. Hna Reyes speaks a lot of Spanish to us and so I am picking up on it a lot faster than the last 2 transfers. We have about 10 investigators and picked up 2 more this last week. We put one on date. Payson Spanish ward includes 7 stakes with one Spanish ward.

So funny story. Wednesday, first day in Payson, we went to dinner but they forgot so we went to their restaurant, La Hacienda, for dinner. When we walked out back to our car it was really windy. I was wearing a shorter skirt and it flew up. I kind of felt like Marilyn Monroe. We were laughing so hard! My companions helped me get my skirt back down really quick. It makes for good laughs now and then. Hermana Tanner has some good oops moments that I will have to share later. Next week I will send pictures for sure. I forgot my camera this week. I don't have much time today since I wrote this letter last but I will tell you guys more next week. Okay a not so funny story. At correlation yesterday we were talking with a ward mission leader and he told us that 3 of our investigators (boys) should not be coming to church because they misbehave and it's like their mom is sending them to church so she doesn't have to deal with them. Both wrong! They all want to be baptized but are waiting for mom's permission and to be of age (well one of them). They are great kids, the mom just doesn't have much control over them. It was so frustrating that someone would deny someone else's salvation.

I am so grateful to be out here. I love it! I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be learning Spanish. Even if it has not been easy for me I am learning a lot! I know that our Savior lives and that He loves each of us. I know that prayer and reading our scriptures is what will help get us through each day. There is so much power in those two things. It is also a commandment for us to be doing those things. I know that He answers our prayers and that he knows what is best for each of us. I hope that you are continually coming unto Christ and helping others as well. I am grateful for each of you and for your love and support. You are the best!

Love, Kelcie

2011-02-23T16:13:00.001-08:00

Where do I start? This week was an interesting week. We had 2 more baptisms and another wedding and attended 2 more baptisms. We also did a lot of tracting again. Here is the week in review:

Monday- P-Day! Spent the day in American Fork (well a couple hours) with the some of the English sisters. Afterwards we came home and finished laundry and cleaned. Nothing too exciting. That night we went and taught one of my favorite old ladies, Avis. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. We were there for about an hour and didn't get through all of it. She has a lot of questions about it and about where her husband is what he is doing. We told her that he is being taught the gospel just like her. She is happy and satisfied with that. We invited her to church again. She told us she was going to try, but that 9am was too early for her. I was thinking how is 9 too early for an 80 something year old lady. She is cute and hilarious. We also went and taught Norma and David- they got baptized and married the Saturday before.

Tuesday- We tracted out Windsor for a couple hours and had zero success. A lot of people in Windsor area are members or are not interested at all. There aren't a lot of Hispanics in this area at all. That night we had a baptism for Monica. She got there at 5 and started crying as soon as she put on the white clothes. She could feel the spirit from the start. Her baptism was one of my favorites so far. She was so ready and you could tell. All of her family was there except one son who is in Argentina. They are not members so it was good support for her. One of her daughters is interested as well. We are hoping she will come into Orem so that we can teach her at her mom's house. Monica's baptism was a special day for her. Not only did she get baptized but it was her birthday as well. It was a very special day for her and an amazing baptism.

Wednesday- We had a district lunch at Magleby's. It was pretty good food. Afterwards we went tracting in Geneva and then taught Francisco and his wife Norma. We watched the Legacy with them. He has been taught everything so we are reviewing things and trying to get him to commit to baptism. That night we taught Orbelin and watched the Legacy with him as well, and answered questions he had. Afterwards we had correlation.

Thursday- No lessons but we had 2 correlation meetings and went tracting :) My favorite thing to do....

Friday- We had a District Training Meeting and planned. We went tracting/contacting at night and then taught Norma and David again.

Saturday- We had a wedding for Gabriella and Juan Carlos. After the wedding Gabriella got baptized. They have been waiting for the divorce of him to be final so they could get married. She has been attending church for 4 years. She could teach us the lessons. It was a good baptism. Her daughter, who got baptized right after I got in the field gave a prayer. It was really special for them. After the baptism they had a lunch/reception. It was fun. That night we taught Orbelin.

Sunday- crazy day, as usual. We had 2 confirmations at the same day across town. Afterwards we taught Gospel Principles and then had another correlation. Then we met with a stake president. Went and tried to teach some lessons- no success. After we had correlation again. At this correlation, we were sitting in a room by the outside door and this young couple walks by. I said he and then thought that he looked kind of familiar. Two seconds later we both realized that we know each other. He and his wife walked back to the room and then we started talking. It was one of the guys from my ward in Salt Lake with his wife. They live in one of my areas. It was really random but fun to catch up with him and to see him. That night we taught the Mitre-Rojas. We are trying to get them to commit to baptism. They want to, but are having doubts.

Monday- No email... sorry. We had a sister's activity. We went to the mission home for breakfast (waffles :)) and then we went to the temple. It was really fun. It's fun to get together with all 20 sisters in our mission. The temple was super busy but it was good.

Well that was my week. Life is going pretty good .Transfers are in 3 weeks. I will probably be staying in Orem but who knows. The work is slowly starting to pick up. We found a couple people yesterday who are interested so we will see how that goes. I love being out here. It is not always easy, but is worth it. I am learning so much. I love each of you and am so grateful for you. You are the best! Keep working on coming unto Christ and helping others as well. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to do this. I love you!

Love, Kelcie

week 17

2011-02-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

What a long week! This last week was not very productive. We taught 4 lessons! :( But on a much happier note we had one some great success. I am not going to go day by day this week because it would say tracting/contacting for everyday. But I will go over the highlights for the week. Monday we taught Alberto (his mom passed away in December). He is wanting to be baptized but it waiting for his family to accept it. Problem is that his family is in Mexico where there are no missionaries :(. We are hoping that MTC referral center can teach them online or over the phone. Wednesday we went to the temple as a district. Our entire district was there for a change. It was a good session. After the temple our district went out for breakfast. That night we ate dinner with the Adamson's. Thursday was our day of teaching. We taught Francisco and his wife. It was good. They both are more receptive but aren't acting. We are trying to figure out how to get them to come to church and help him realize that he has gotten his answer. He is looking for a sign. We also taught Monica. We went over the Living Christ with her and helped her prepare last minute things for her baptism tomorrow :) She told us that she read the entire Doctrine and Covenants in 2 weeks! She is so ready! That night we also taught Norma and David. We went over lesson 3 and helped them with last minute things for their wedding and baptism this last Saturday. Friday we we went and talked to some investigators that we have been teaching, who are struggling. They were looking for our help with some issues they are having. One of them told us that they are ready to get married so she can be baptized :) Yay! Now we just have to wait for proof of his divorce then we can do a wedding and baptism. They are hoping to get it done by this Saturday but we aren't holding our breath on that one since his ex is in Arizona and has no way of getting a hold of her. Saturday was a really good day. Saturday at 12:30 we had a wedding for Norma and David. Her nonmember family was there and it was short and sweet. The elders who started teaching them were there as well. During the ceremony the bishop's phone went off. It was hilarious. Why he didn't turn his ringer off or phone off i have no idea. But they are married. After the wedding they were both baptized. They had a lot of people there. It was really good. They are so happy and so glad that they did it. We saw them last night and they were asking us some questions tithing that they couldn't remember. It was so good. Now we are working on getting them to the temple and David receiving the Priesthood. Saturday afternoon we had a couple ward activities. One was our dinner :) They didn't send the sign up sheet around so we made the activity our dinner. It was good food. After we ate we went to the Stake Activity. They had a Chinese New Year party. It was really good. They had performances and explanations. It was really interesting.
.I took some pictures and videos. We also got a few referrals out of it :) Sunday we spoke in church about faith in missionary work. It was good. We were late to the meeting and I was the first speaker. But people told us we did a good job. That was my week. The end of the week was a lot better than the beginning. One day this week we had a dinner appointment with one of our bishops and started talking about Uncle Jack. Come to find out, Bishop Kidman met Uncle Jack. It was really fun to hear his story.

I am so glad that I am out here serving a mission and helping others come unto Christ. It is such a blessing for me and for those that I am teaching and helping. My testimony and love for our Savior and others is growing. There are wonderful people out there. I am excited to find others and continue to help them Come Unto Christ. I know that this is His gospel on the earth today. I am so grateful for it and for the love of our Savior. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful that through Him we can be cleansed from ALL of our mistakes. I know that I am not perfect but through the Atonement I can become clean and work towards perfection. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he received the power and authority to restore the gospel on the earth today. I am so grateful for him and for his example to us today of courage and faith. I am grateful that we still have a living prophet on the earth today. I know that Thomas S. Monson is called of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon go hand in hand. I can see it everyday as I read from both books. I am so grateful to be out here. I am grateful for each of you and for all of you love and support. I pray and hope that each of you will continue to personally come unto Christ and help others as well. I know that He loves each of His children and wants the best for each of us. I love you!

Love, Hermana Dickson

2011-02-04T20:39:00.001-08:00

Hola familia y amigos! Este semana fue muy interestante. (this week was very interesting). Okay it takes too long to write in Spanish so I am sticking with English. This week was a pretty good week. Our numbers would say otherwise. We had a lot of appointments cancel or just wouldn't be home. We also ran out of miles with 5 days left in the month so we walked a lot this week. I was just grateful no dogs attacked us. Just in case we had puppy spray (vinegar and water in a spray bottle- does the same thing as pepper spray). While we were walking one day we had 30 people honk at us and wave and about 3 people give us a ride but it was nice outside and we would have been really early to our appointment so we declined the ride.

Monday was P-day. For P-day last Monday we didn't do anything. We just stayed at home and relaxed. It felt good to just have a lazy day. That night we had FHE with a couple investigators. We met with Hernando and talked about Prophets. He had some questions for us so we talked about the what the Prophet does and how important it is for us to listen and follow the Prophet. We talked about the 14 Fundamentals of a prophet by Elder Benson I believe. It was mentioned in last general conference. For Norma and David we talked about each Article of Faith and then played a game with them. They had never played Uno so we taught them how to play. They are getting married this week and baptized next Monday :) Hopefully everything will continue to go as planned. For dinner this week we ate in English speaking homes. I can't really say American's because not all were.

Tuesday we went contacting out in Orem Stake. We met this old lady in her 90's who lost her husband in November and is now living with her daughter and son in law. All of her family is a member including her parents, siblings, and kids. She never joined because of her husband but now she is wanting to be baptized. We are starting to teach her tonight. Her name is Avis. She is adorable and excited to learn the gospel and become a member. I am excited to be teaching her. She is English speaking but wants sisters so we are teaching her. We also finally got to teach and investigator, Luis, who we have been trying to get a hold of for the last 5 weeks. He is my age and is always working so it's hard to get a hold of him. He is living with 2 in-actives. We also taught Norma and David today about the tree of life.

Wednesday we did a lot of tracting and were not very successful. We taught David, Norma was working. We taught about the Armor of God and dressed their 3 1/2 yo in the armor of God. He was very quick to take the helmet off but liked the rest. We also taught a new investigator, the Cano's. He kids attend young womens and scouts but she doesn't come to church. None are members. Her dad is a member but her and her husband are Catholic. Her family has a bunch of religions in them. She is very interested but won't commit to anything because of her husband so we are working with the ward on getting him involved with things.For dinner we ate at a Bolivian/American home and had really good empanadas.

Thursday we walked just about 10 miles. We taught Orbelin the law of Chastity and Monica about temples. She Monica was very interested and that night went to a Family History Class. She loved it! Monica is getting baptized February 15. For dinner we went to investigators home of familia Mitre-Rojas. Their oldest daughter was missing so we ended up helping them out. They found her at the school. I guess in the High Schools down here they have cards and have to use them for attendance in each class and to check in and out of school and she forgot to check back in after lunch. It all sounds fishy to me but they found her. That night we had 2 correlation meetings. It was really good. At one of them, the spanish one in Windsor, I got a blessing. One of the language missionaries, The Adamson's, told me I should get one so I did. It was much needed. I decided that I am going to get one at least once a transfer. I felt so much peace and got some guidance and help. It was good. No worries, nothing is wrong!

Friday was our planning day. We planned some activities for our wards to get excited and involved in missionary work. We also set goals for next month and planned for each of our investigators. That night we ended up teaching one lesson to Hernando, the others were not home or were "busy". Hernando we taught about the importance of baptism and confirmation. We also found out that he leaves in Feb 5. We are so sad to leave one of our favorite investigators. We hope that he continues to follow through and attend church in Colombia. For dinner we ate a Filipino/American home and had Filipino food.It was so good!

Saturday we had a church tour. Our entire district was in a church building covering each room. We were there for 2 hours and had 2 investigators show up. Both were from the sisters in our district :) One was mine and the other was the English sisters. That night we taught Norma and David. We also had dinner with Japanese/American family. It was really good food. One of my favorites. All of our appointments cancelled so we went tracting and were not very successful.

Sunday was good. We attended one ward and were busy all day. We taught Hernando and Alberto. We have been trying to see Alberto since I got here and finally got in last night. He is very shy and 23. His mother passed away not too long away and is waiting for his family to accept the gospel to get baptized. We are trying to tell him not to wait and that he will be a great example. It will be a long time before his family is converted. They live in Mexico and there are a lot of issues down there right now.

Anyway, this week was good even though we didn't teach a whole lot. Hermana Tetelpa and I are both staying in Orem for another 6 weeks. We are working on trying to find people like crazy. We found a bunch of old teaching records and progress records and are going to try to get new "old" investigators that way. I love this gospel. It is amazing! I am learning so much. I started reading in the Bible everyday as well as in the Spanish Book of Mormon. I am learning so much that is helping me and my investigators. This gospel is amazing and so true. I know Heavenly Father loves us. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that He died and suffered on the cross and in the Garden of Gethsemane for us. I am grateful for the gospel and that we can continue in faith and endure to the end to live with Heavenly Father again. I am grateful for each of you and for your love and support. You mean the world to me.

Love, Hermana Kelcie Dickson

2011-02-04T20:37:00.001-08:00

2011-02-04T20:35:00.001-08:00

Where do I start? This last week was kind of long but good. Better than last week. On Monday we had a Family Home Evening with our investigator Hernando. He is hilarious! I am going to miss him when he leaves in a couple of weeks. This week with Hernando we talked about the Law of Chastity. He has issues with a couple of things but is really trying to work things out. He wants to be baptized. Yesterday we were over teaching him and finished up with the Law of Chastity and talked about the Armor of God. We had a armor with everything for him to put on. I was surprised that he did it! He is a good sport about it. I got a picture and will attach it next week. I forgot my cord. Another investigator that we are teaching are Norma and David. Norma and David are getting married Feb 2 and getting baptized on Feb 7. They have 2 cute boys. Another investigator that we are teaching is Orbelin. Orbelin is ready for baptism except for he needs to get married or move out of the house of the girl he is living with. That is a very common theme with our investigators. He comes to church now. Yay! The other night we were eating dinner at a members home and they wanted us to teach their non member son. So we taught him but he left his weekend to go back to California. He comes back next month to live with his dad and hopefully we can keep teaching him. We also received a couple of investigators. I don't know how serious they are about being taught. I think at this stage they are just curious. I am hoping that they will eventually get baptized. A couple days ago we went to teach a girl named Britney. She wasn't home but we were able to talk to her mom. We talked to her for about an hour and a half and she wants us to come back and teach. She likes to talk a lot so it's hard to actually get a word in. She was talking about her daughter and how active she is in church activites, she won't let her get baptized though. She was trying to explain this thing that she went to once a month. She was like it sounds like chimpanzee.. she was referring to achievement days. We were all laughing when we figured out that is what she was talking about. She started crying from laughter.

As for everything else it's good. I love the work! We were out tracting this week and got a few referrals. It was good. Spanish is coming along. I am understanding more and more. The other night I was bearing my testimony and we had a member there who always goes with us he told me that my spanish is coming along really well and that I have a really strong testimony. It made me feel good and helped build my confidence. Anyway, I got to go but I am so glad I am out here serving a mission. It is amazing, even though it's difficult at times. It is worth it. On my calender this week that mom and dad sent this weekend it had a quote "i don't get it". Sometimes I don;'t get it. I don't get people but I do get the gospel. I know that the plan of salvation is for each of us and that as we seek to understand it we will receive the guidance from it. I am so grateful for the plan and the lessons I learn from it daily. I am grateful for our Savior. I know He is my friend and brother. I am grateful for the Atonement of our Savior and that through Him we can become perfect. I am grateful for my family and friends and that families are forever. I love this gospel and the chance that I have to be a missionary. I hope that we can all be missionaries in our behavior and get out and talk to our friends and neighbors and invite them to come unto Christ. I love you!

Love, Hermana Dickson

2011-01-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

Subject: Week 13

This week has been a little bit different but good. Monday was a lazy p-day and was nice. We didn't have any zone or district activities going on so we stayed at home most of the day. Tuesday we had Zone Conference. Zone conference was amazing. I learned so much! One of the things that Sister Pitts talked about was Christlike Attributes of HIM. The H stood for Humility, I for Integrity, and M for meekness. It was really cool to see and make the connection. This week I was focused on studying these 3 attributes and learn how to become better at them. We also talked a lot about finding people. It was good because this week we did A LOT of tracting. We also had training on the importance of sacrament meeting and how to get investigators there. We talked about a few other things. Our theme scripture was 1 Ne 13:37. President talked about the scripture for like an hour. Who knew anyone could talk about and analyze a scripture in such depth for that long. It was so good. I have pages after pages of notes. I will share more when I get home :) Haha you will have to wait a little bit :)

So some interesting experiences with tracting this week:
1. Dogs! I have come to hate them even more, especially when they run up to you and almost bite you. I have decided to get pepper spray. I heard that vinegar and water work just the same. Hermana Tetelpa is not a fan of them either. Everyone here has them, especially hispanics. Most of the families homes we go into are good about putting their dogs in a different room or tie them up.
2. On one house we knocked on a person answered the door. We introduced ourselves and they told us that they used to be Mormon but aren't anymore. They went to Christianity because Mormon's don't believe in the Bible or Jesus Christ. I was laughing so hard in my head. I was curious to what Mormon church she went to. I still get laughs about it. I should have asked her more about where she went but Hna Tetelpa was ready to leave that house.
3. The next house we contacted we met a lady whose father used to be a CES member working for the church. She grew up Mormon but changed religions to a born-again Christian. Both people were quite adamant that they were not interested in the church.
4. I hate creepy things! I knocked on this door in the better part of Orem and the whole door shook. I jumped. It scared me. Hermana Tetelpa was like what happened. She didn't see the door move and stood at the top of the stairs. The other stair case was blocked and I was stuck down there if there was this creepy guy who opened the door. I was kind of glad that he didn't answer the door. If we do hear back from him or go contacting there again my companion is doing the knocking.

Our teaching pool is dwindling down to nothing. We have about 4 families that we are teaching that are not committing to baptism. One of them thinks we only need to go once a month, two of the families won't get divorced so that they can get married. They are living with others than they original spouse. And the last one wants to get baptized but is living with his girlfriend in Colombia. He goes back in a couple weeks. He wants to get married and get baptized together. We will see how that goes. He has changed so much. I was noticing this the other day when we were there. Another one of our investigators is going through a really hard time right now. We hope she keeps her baptism date despite all these hard times. Her son got deported to Argentina. He is involved with gangs and drugs and her father in law is really sick and his caretaker can no longer take care of him because her son has cancer. She might have to quit her job to take care of him but can't afford to quit. We told her to keep praying and trusting God. He will give her comfort and guidance. That is about it for the work. We don't have a whole lot going on. Next month we have 3 baptisms and a teaching pool of 3 people as of now. We are searching for more people.

This is a short letter but I don't have anything else that is new and exciting going on. Oh so funny story. Yesterday morning we were leaving for our first correlation meeting at 7am. We left about 6:50 and were walking down our stairs to the car. It had rained all night and the driveway looked wet. Wrong! It was ice. I was almost to the drivers door (I am driving now :)) and the next thing I know I am slipping. I have my lunch in my hand, my bag, my glasses, and a few other things. I couldn't grab hold of the car. It was covered in ice anyway. Next thing I know I am on the driveway and Hermana Tetelpa is asking if i am okay after she braces herself from falling. I am so sore now. I landed on my entire left side. I barely missed hitting the car and the fence. Oh man, it was hilarious even though I am in a lot of pain now.

Anyway, I hope that you are all doing well. It sounds like it! I know that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that through Him we are able to experience life and receive forgiveness. He loves us. A couple weeks ago I bought Another Testament of Jesus Christ DVD and we have been showing it to our investigators. It is so good. My testimony is strengthened every time we watch it. I know He lives! This week I challenge all of you who read this to read 3 Nefi 11 to the end of the book of Nefi. It is amazing. I know that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ and that through it we can become better disciples of Christ. Help the missionaries in your areas. Help them find people and help others feel welcome in the wards. Help yourself come to know Christ better. I love you all and are so grateful for you and for you examples. You are all the best!

Love,
Hermana Dickson

Week 11

2011-01-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Another week has come and gone. This week has been good. I hope you all enjoyed your week and had a wonderful New Years.

Monday night we met with 2 investigators (Juan and Orbelin). Juan has been taught by the missionaries for awhile. Monday night or the end of last week he finally accepted baptism. His baptism is for the this weekend. Supposedly he has commited to baptism 3 times before so we shall see. Our ward mission leader says it is different this time. Orbelin is progressing. His baptism is supposed to be this Saturday but has to be postponed. He didn't show up to church on Sunday :(.

Tuesday we met with a 9 year old, Giselle. She is super smart. She reminds me of Kaelyn in looks and all. Her and her mom are taking the discussions but her mom is never home so we just teach her. We also went to Yesenia's house and watched The Legacy with her before her baptism. We also taught Jorge about the law of chastity. It was quite entertaining. He is a funny kid. We also reviewed everything that we taught him to make sure he was ready for his interview.

Wednesday we went contacting in the morning and then met with Hernando. We taught him lesson one. He is so ready to be baptized. He always has a bunch of questions for us and understands and accepts everything we teach him. His brother is a member. He is visting him from Colombia for a month. During the day we ended up receiving a bad storm. We had hail, ice, snow, wind. It was no fun and we still have all the ice and cold from it. It hasn't warmed up past 25 for almost a week. Wednesday evening, despite the weather we had Yesenia's baptism. She had a lot of people show up. I am so excited for her. She is amazing. She got baptized on her 21st birthday. She was so excited and ready to be baptized. She wants her family to get baptized as well. Her mom is taking the discussions from the elder's in their area. We were only teaching her because she wanted sisters and we were the closest.

Thursday we went and watched the Joseph Smith movie with Hernando. He really enjoyed it. He has told us he has no reason to deny what we were are teaching him. He was very impressed with Joseph Smith. Afterwards we went and taught Monica. She is getting baptized Feb 15. We watched some of Witnesses of Christ with her and talked about Prophets. She is so sweet and you can tell she is excited about the gospel. We also went and taught Orbelin. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Later that night we had a correlation and then taught Juan. We taught Juan about Obedience, Prayer, and Scripture Study. After the lesson the member we brought with us told me my Spanish was coming along. It doesn't feel like it so it was good to hear it from someone else.

Friday we had Jorge's baptism interview and then planned for the day. We had our DTM (district training meeting). There we talked about being bold and confident in our work. It was really good. Afterwards we finished planning and then met back up with our distrcit for the rest of the night (well until 9:30). We went out for dinner at a restaurant called One Man Band. It was pretty good. It is in Pleasant Grove. You order at the table over the phone. It is really run by one person. If you are in the area you should go. After dinner we went to a members home, the Adamson's, and played games and watched a movie. We had permission to watch an animated g rated movie. We watched How to Train Your Dragon. We got special permission to watch it since it is PG. It is a really cute movie. Afterwards we had permission to stay up until midnight but Hermana Tetelpa and I decided to get more sleep. We got to sleep in until 8:30. It felt so good to get some extra sleep.

Saturday we were to stay in our apartments until 5 and then go on like a normal proselyting day. It was kind of a boring day but I got letters written and almost finished reading the Book of Mormon. That night we met with Hernando and watched The Testaments with him. We also went and taught Yesenia. We read 3 Ne 11 and watched a slideshow of Another Testament (Mark Mabry photos of 3 Ne 11). It was really good. We had a RM there with us.

Sunday was a crazy day. We started our day out at 7 with correlation, 8:30 had another correlation, 9 went to Yesenia's ward for her confimation, 10, went to one of our three wards, 11 we went to another ward of ours,12- correlation, 1 back to church, 2 taught Orbelin,3 taugh Giselle, 4 correlation, 5 dinner, 6 taught a lady named Sandra and afterwards we went to familia Mitre-Rojas. It was a long day.

This last week was busy as you can see but it was really good. I had a lot of fun. I know that this week will be just as good. I am so grateful to be out here and to be helping others Come Unto Christ. I know there is no other place for me to be. I know that we can all help others come unto Christ. In the Book of Mormon in the book of mormon we are asked to do this. I know Heavenly Father will help us daily as we have faith and rely on Him. I know He loves us. I know He knows each of us personally. He is our Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful for Him and the gospel in my life. I hope that we can all find the joy and peace the gospel brings to us and that we will not be ashamed or afraid to share it with others. I love you all and am so grateful for you and for your examples. You are the best!

Love,
Hermana Dickson

2010-12-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia y Amigos! Como estas? I hope you are all doing well and enjoyed your Christmas. Christmas in the field is definitely not as good as spending it with family but it wasn't too bad. We had 2 dinner appointments and went to a families house and hung out with them for a couple hours. It was nice.. we spent it with 2 of my favorite families so far (both American families who speak Spanish). For those who haven't heard yet, I am in the Orem North Area. We are covering 7 stakes with 3 Spanish wards. It is a small area. Roy is in my area.. he lives about 3 minutes away up by one of the English ward buildings that we have correlation in. Every time we drive by his house... I say yep, that's his house. Maybe if I am here in April I can see family :)

Tuesday I left "spirit prison" (MTC). That night it had snowed over a foot and the roads were a mess. Our AP"s were late picking us up and then we got stuck on a hill going to President Pitt's home. It was an adventure all day. After we met President and Sister Pitts we had breakfast and some meetings then meet our trainers and went into our area and right to work. My companion, Hermana Tetelpa is from Veracruz Mexico and lives in Salt Lake now. She speaks her own dialect of Spanish so it's not really like what I learned in the MTC... it's fun sometimes. She is not a compassionate person so it is kind of hard at times but we get along. I have had a lot of rough days this last week between Christmas and not having a clue of what is going on. But I got a blessing yesterday from a stake President. He could tell I was having a hard week. It was so nice to receive a blessing of comfort, peace, and help.

Anyway this week we have taught some investigators and got some new ones.
- Jorge: 7 y.o. and turned 8 today. He is getting baptized on Sunday (domingo). His sister is a member but no one else in his family so we are teaching him. He is hilarious! I am pretty sure he has ADHD. He is so hard to teach sometimes.. he uses his age as an excuse. He is super smart though. But he is excited to be baptized. We teach him in English.
-Monica: she is in her 40's with 2 kids. After being taught for a couple months so told us the other day that she wants to be baptized. She is scheduled for baptism in February (that's when she wants it done).
-Yesenia: 21 y.o. who is getting baptized Wednesday. She is very excited. She is so ready! We teach her in English. She is not in our area but wants sisters to teach her. We are the closest so we can.
-Orbelin: new investigator! We found him on Wednesday and he wants to be baptized. His daughters are members. He came to church with us yesterday and loved it. We are teaching him again tonight. We are hoping he can get baptized Jan 8. We shall see.
-There are few others that we are teaching, well reading the Book of Mormon (el Libro de Mormon) with and are not progressing and there are some others that I have not met yet for various reasons- usually because they aren't home or cancel.

Some of the families I have met and love are the Adamson's. They just had a daughter return from her mission from Independence Missouri. Sister Adamson's parents served a mission in Nauvoo.. they couldn't remember Dave and Vivian but are pretty sure that they have met them. I love this family. Mom and Dad- don't be surprised if you get stuff from her. She is so sweet. Another family I have met and really enjoy are the Baxter's. He is from Seattle area and she is from Honduras I believe. We spent Christmas with both of these families. One of the bishops of one of our wards just had a son return from his mission from Sacramento. I was talking to him on Christmas Eve and he served 9 months in Stockton. He loves it. Ryan- he told me you looked familiar but couldn't remember if he had met you or not. He was spanish speaking on his mission. His last name is Chacon.

How are you all doing? I hope you are all doing well and that you had a wonderful Christmas.Christmas in the field is so different. It is definitely not commercialized. It was weird and kind of nice. I don't think a whole not is new here besides what I have told you. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all and am so grateful for you! I am especially grateful that we can be an eternal family. I love the gospel and the chance that I have to invite others to come unto Christ. I am so grateful for our Savior and the Atonement.

Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Kelcie

2010-12-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!

Well it's halfway through week 9 anyway. I hope you are all doing well. This last week has been good. Thursday I got my travel plans. I am leaving Tuesday Dec 21 at 6:30 in the morning to get picked up by someone in the mission home along with 10 other missionaries. I think it is funny we are leaving that early in the morning. I am so excited though. I am kinda nervous for the language aspect and that I won't have a trainer who speaks any English at all. Hopefully my fears will not be reality.

This last week has been good. I am still getting over being sick but am feeling a lot better than I was. I got a blessing from a member of the branch presidency Sunday and by Monday night I was feeling a lot better. Let's see what happened this week...

-Both Jose and Daniel committed to baptism! YAY! I am so excited for it. Not like it is a real situation but we still got them to commit. It is our teachers playing as investigators.

-Sunday night Fireside was the BYU Men's Chorus. They sang to us for an hour about the Savior and other Christmas songs. It was fun. This next Sunday we are having another musical fireside. I love music. It invites the spirit, at least for me, easier.

-Tuesday night Devotional was with Elder Pieper of the first quorum of the 70. He spoke on the gift of agency and related it to those we will be teaching as well as the Savior. It was so good. It made me think about things that I hadn't thought of before.

-Since this week is my last week in the MTC we are having our teaching week. Hermana Smith and I made a goal to teach at least 30 lessons. So far so good, we actually have 34 scheduled with extra time for more appointments. The other day we were teaching two elder's in our district, Elder Williams and Elder Boehmer (B-Mer) and Elder Williams told me my spanish is improving a lot. Yay! It was good to hear it from someone other than my teachers and companion. Even though I trust them they are around me all the time when I speak Spanish.

-TRC this last week went well. We taught a RM sister who now has a family of her own. She was pretending to be an investigator who had lost her brother to cancer and starting drinking nightly to drown away her sorrow. It was a good practice situation on teaching the Word of Wisdom (palabra de Sabiduria) along with the Plan of Salvation.

-We have a third companion, kinda. A sister in our zone was supposed to go to Peru MTC with her companions but got delayed for medical reasons so she is our companion in the morning, at night, and on P-Day. I love her to death. She is such a sweet girl. I am hoping that everything gets cleared for her to leave before we leave on Tuesday so she isn't the only sister left in the zone.

-I met the new elders in our zone, well the ones that came in last week and one is from West Jordan. His name is Elder Wilburn. He went to W.J.H.S. and knows Amber and Nick. It was fun to make the connection.

-I can't think of anything else that happened teaching wise. The other day Hermana Smith and I were leaving our bedroom heading to class when all of the sudden she stops. Screams and throws her wallet down the stairs. I looked over at her after jumping and she was pointing to her head. I look really close and a tiny spider was right beside her head. She made me check her hair to see if more were in her hair. I laughed when she retold the story she said the spide was huge... it was tiny. I laughed really hard when it happened.

I can't think of anything else but this last week has been good. I am not sure when my P-Day will be but I am hoping before Christmas so I can have clean clothes. Come next week if you send stuff, send it to the mission home address. If you send it to the MTC it will still get to me but will be easier to send it to the mission home. I am so excited to be leaving the MTC. I am starting to get really sick of it. It has been good for the last 9 weeks, but I don't think I could handle anymore. I love you all and hope you are all doing well and are staying safe and warm. All of our snow has been gone and we just got snow last night. I think I will be having a white Christmas after all. I wish that I could talk to all of you on Christmas and wish you all a Merry Christmas but I know that is not possible. I am sending you my love and hugs. I hope that we can all remember our Savior and be grateful for the things we have. You are all amazing and such an example and strength in my life.

Love,
Kelcie (Hermana Dickson)

(it's wierd to not put Hermana Dickson, didn't think I would get used to it so fast).

2010-12-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hola mi familia y amigos!

Week 7 has come and gone! Time is cruising on by. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, cards, and gifts. My birthday was good. Uncle Phil brought me a cake a few days before and then on my birthday I got sick :( Not because of the cake. I went to the health clinic and found out I am getting a sinus infection so i got to leave the MTC to go get medicine. It was fun to be in my mission for a half hour :) I still don't have travel plans but should be getting them very soon. I found out today that an Elder who is in my district for the last 3 weeks is being temporarily reassigned to my mission for about a month. We are all excited about that. He is such a good elder. Let's see... this week:

-Sunday was mission conference. The main focus was on the birth and life of Our Savior as well as be an extraordinary missionary your whole life.
-We taught one of our progressive investigators and we had 2 elders from our district come in to be the members (bishop and member). I was having a hard time saying what I wanted to in Spanish. So one of the elders, Elder Jacobson, said a silent prayer for me and immediately the words came to me. I didn't know this happened until later when Hermana Smith was telling. It was amazing to see the spirit work with me and to learn the power of prayer.
-This week a lot of talk was said about humility.. i will take that as a hint to become humble. All that was said was amazing and I am grateful for the guidance of the spirit.
-1st Presidency Christmas Devotional = AMAZING! If you haven't watched it or read it do! It has been the best Christmas devotional I have heard in years. I watched it in Spanish and understood about half.. oh man am i going to have a great time in the field. Give me until about March or April and I will be fluent, I hope.
-Spanish is getting a lot better. I don't feel like I am digressing like some in my district. I am so grateful for the gift of tongues! There is no way I would be learning Spanish this fast! The hardest part is the grammar! I think once I fully understand it, espanol will be easier. I am trying out different things to try to pick it up faster, we don't have enough time in the day with everything they want us to do in the MTC. i know it will come as long as i am diligent and trying my best.
- i have a referral for the field- a guy who is working on construction here isn't a member but wants to know more :)
- Devotional this week was from Elder Zwick of the first quorum of the 70. He and his wife talked. She talked out faith and trust in Jesus Christ and shared some interesting experiences about when they were mission presidents, I won't share those with you now.. ask me when i get home. Elder Zwick shared a story about his son who is mentally retarded. They were on their way to St. George for a meeting and took their son with them. His son got quiet and a few minutes later asked: "mom, dad... do you know jesus?" He said it made him think back to his testimony and how he came to know Jesus and how he could answer his son, yes, I know Jesus. When he was telling this story it made me think back to my own life and how well I know Jesus. I am so grateful for Him and for everything He has done for me. Some things that Elder Zwick said that went along with this question were:
- come to know Him as you center your life on Him
- come to know Him in your own way
- In order to help others come unto Christ you personally need to know Him.... (read Mark 10:27)
- Jesus Christ will be your companion when you come to trust Him and know Him.

I just love this talk and the things I am learning here. I am so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ that I have and that I am continually able to learn and grow. I am grateful for the Atonement. I am grateful for the scriptures and that through them we receive answers for our own lives and learn about the Savior. I am so grateful to be on a mission and to help others come unto Christ. I am so grateful for each of you and that as we continue to strive to live the gospel that we can be an eternal family. Each of you mean the world to me and I am so glad that we are in the same family. I know that as we come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ, that our testimonies will be strengthened and we will be happier. I love the gospel and the blessings that I have received from it. I love each of you! Thank you for all of your love and support. I hope that we can all continue to come to know our Savior and appreciate the things we have in life and not become of the world. This week didn't seem like much happened but a lot did, it was all on the same topics and it's hard to put it into words.

Te amo!

Love, Hermana Kelcie Dickson

2010-12-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

Oh my! I have made it through 6 weeks (one transfer). I can't believe I have been gone for 6 weeks! It definitely doesn't feel like it. Let's see my week: Thanksgiving in the MTC was different but good. It doesn't even compare to being at home with family but it is still good. To start the day off we had a Thanksgiving Devotional with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was really cool. His entire family came. His grandkids sang to us and he wanted us to feel like we were his family. It was so nice. His wife spoke and he spoke as well. Some of the things I remember from the devotional was:
- "Most of what we are grateful for has come from another person." I couldn't help but think of our Savior and his selfless service to each of us. I also couldn't help but think of all of you and those in Provo that i will be serving.
- "The Godhead knows each of us by name, show gratitude to the Lord" I love this. I have gained a testimony of this. I know that They each know us by name and know our needs. I can see it in the lives of those I teach while being testified of the truth of the gospel and what they need to hear. It is amazing to me that they know every single one of us and that we need to show gratitude towards them more often.
- The Atonement is for all
- Cherish your mission and your life.

After the wonderful devotional by Elder Holland we had Thanksgiving "dinner". Dinner consisted of turkey (not the best turkey I have had), mashed potatoes, rolls, and... cookies! No pie! Well some people got pie but I got cookies. When i went through the line there was no pie. I was kinda upset. i really wanted pie, what is thanksgiving dinner without pie. Well, one of the Elder's in my zone found pie and got me and hermana Smith some. it was delicious. I know I complain about the food here but i am just grateful I have edible food and know what it is i am eating.

After "dinner" we started our service project. All of the missionaries were in 2 different rooms cutting out supplies to make school bag kits. Our goal was 20,000 bags. We reached our goal and then some. The end result was 33,400 bags. I am so excited for it, especially being a teacher. It brought so much joy to my heart to know that we are helping 33,400 kids.

Friday Hermana Smith got sick so while she slept I studied like crazy. I studied language for 5 or more hours. It helped a lot knowing what i need to work on more. She felt really bad for having me be bored but I got a lot more done than i would've in class.

Saturday we did our TRC in all spanish. There were no volunteers to come in for us to teach so we taught other missionaries and teachers. Hermana Smith and I taught a teacher. He is known as Zircules because he is big like Hercules. The task and lesson went pretty good. He was very forgiving and helpful while we were teaching. Afterwards we asked him for feedback. It was very helpful. I was just glad it wasn't with a real investigator. As for investigators we taught both Daniel and (y) Jose. For Daniel he told us he was praying to trust us and understand our message. For our lesson with him we talked about the Savior and tied Him back to the Book of Mormon. We ended our lesson by reading The Living Christ with Daniel in espanol. He was very interested and went a lot better than the time before where he was correcting everything we said to proper grammar.... kinda annoying while you were teaching. For Jose I am so confused with him, I have a hard time reading him and figuring out what he needs. Good thing the spirit knows. He accepted to attend a baptismal service and attended church and enjoyed it. Hopefully both will commit to baptism before we leave.

Some other random things that happened this week: Some sister friends of mine taught us the Plan of salvation but related it to missionary work. It was really interesting and it helped me a lot. Sunday it snowed about 6 inches- that must have been the big storm we were supposed to get last week. Monday we finished our week of the Atonement with a testimony meeting. It was really good. The spirit was so strong and it helped our district unite. Tuesday at gym, I was playing volleyball (big shock I know) and went up for a block/attack against an elder and stuffed him. It felt so good and all the other elder's started clapping and hollering. It was pretty funny. I have been reading Jesus the Christ the past couple weeks and have loved it! I am reading about the birth of our Savior and his life growing up. what a perfect time to read about this. I should be getting my travel plans this week. One of my teachers was joking that it was going to say to go out to the street and turn left and then go straight until you get there. I am going to laugh if it is really close.

As for the language. I am feeling a lot better about it. Last night I was having a harder day with it but it all worked out. I am attempting to speak as much of it as i can and know. i am so glad that people are so forgiving. Sunday we had a fireside that helped me with my thoughts/fears of learning Spanish. One thing that stuck out was "fear can't exist if you have faith. You have the gift of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues." I keep thinking back to this and how I need to be having more faith in myself and my Savior that I can do this!

Tuesday we had a devotional with Sister Julie B Beck. She talked a lot about missionary work. Some of the things I got out of her talk was:
- Have the trust of your mission president so he doesn't have to worry about you.
- Heavenly Father creates miracles
- when you've done your best, don't be disappointed with yourself, Heavenly Father will be pleased with you
- opposition should drive you to your knees, exercise faith and work hard (I thought of learning spanish at this point)
- The secret is love

I am so grateful for each of you and for your letters. I am so blessed to have you in my family. You all mean the world to me. I am grateful for each of your examples and love of the gospel. I know that we are children of God (hijos de Dios). I know our Father loves us and that He sent his Son to atone for each of us. He knows our pains, our sufferings, and everything. I am so grateful for the Atonement and the opportunity to live and exercise the gospel daily. I love my savior. I love the people in the Provo mission.. even though I don't know many of them yet, I am grateful for them. i am grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary.

I love you all and couldn't ask for a better family. As we approach Christmas I challenge all of us to focus our lives on the savior and not so much of the world. You are all the best!

With lots of love,

Hermana Kelcie Dickon

2010-11-28T19:26:00.000-08:00

SmartZone Communications Center gijoes7@comcast.net
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week 5
From : Kelcie Dickson
Subject : week 5
To : Cara , Chris & Kirk , Gerrit & Ashlee , Greg & Melissa , Jason & Ali , Mom & Dad , Ron & Missy , Ryan , elizabeth sant

Wed Nov 24 2010 4:56:07 PM
Week 5 has come and gone! I am over halfway through with the MTC. I have 4 weeks left! I can't believe it. Here are some things I learned and felt this week:
- Life is possible, no matter where you are. Rely on and ask the Lord for help. He will help you if you have faith and are fully obedient.
- This week in class is the week of the Atonement (de semana de la expiacion). I am so excited about this. I have already learned so much and it has been 2 days of it. On Monday we are ending our week by having a testimony meeting in class. Last night for devotional we had Elder Malm from the 2nd Q. of the 70 speak. He talked about a lot of things but a couple things I got out of it was he told of a story of a truck driver who stopped on a bridge that had collapsed in the middle and saved many lives. As he was relating the story I couldn't help but think of our Savior and how he is like the truck driver. I also thought about how the truck driver is me helping others come unto Christ. I love the gospel! I love how you can always learn and apply things.
- TRC: Satuday we taught a lady from Ecuador who is learning English and speaks almost all Spanish. So needless to say we taught in Spanish. I was not prepared for it but I know it was good. She told us afterwards that we she understood what we were saying. I felt good about it after hearing that. From this week on all of the TRC is in Spanish instead of the task in English and lesson in Spanish. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. i need to give myself more credit than i do. I have learned a lot more spanish than I am telling myself. I know I still have a lot to go.
- There is such a great power in music. Every lesson we taught we have sung. It has brought such a great spirit to the lesson and has testified not only to me but to our investigators. Every Sunday I have the opportunity to watch music and the spoken word before RS and I love it. This week was on gratitude. It was amazing. I love music and the chance that I have to be taught by the spirit through it and to teach others through it as well. Tuesday night Hma Smith and I sang in the choir. We sung Come Thou Fount. It is such an amazing song. I love it and have taken it and applied it to my life.
- Daniel- we taught him in spanish and he corrected everything we said into the right grammar. It was really annoying and drove the spirit away. We walked away from that lesson frustrated and grateful.
- Yesterday we were supposed to have a big snow storm. They sent all the teachers home at 3, closed half of the MTC down, and BYU closed down. It didn't start snowing until 6:45 and barely snowed. It made me laugh. It is really cold though.
- Some other things i have learned:
- What does Heavenly Father expect of you?
- Some of your hardest moments will be the best education you can get
- be grateful- say a prayer giving only thanks! it is amazing!
- God loves you in spite of your faults/shortcomings
- be 100 % obedient and have faith
- Prayers should be with real intent and a sincere heart- Preach my Gospel is excellent- you should all read it.

Congrats to Amber and Nick!
Happy Birthday Jason, Rachelle and Gerrit! I hope your birthdays were/are amazing.
I have met an elder Dickson, a girl from my old ward, an Elder from Firth and 2 people from Shelley ( cody anderson and a huntsman i believe)

Anyway, this is really short, i had 20 minutes because the internet wasn't working :( But I love you all and am so grateful for each of you. I want you to know that God loves you and wants you to turn to him for help. He will not leave us comfortless because He loves us too much. I am grateful for the gospel and the strenth it brings to me daily. I love the gospel. I love learning more about it daily and in my own life. I am grateful for this time of year to reflect on things we are grateful for. Thank you all for everything you have done for me and will continue to do for me. You are the world to me and more than that.. you mean everything to our Savior, Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

Love,
Hermana Kelcie Dickson

2010-11-17T17:39:00.001-08:00

!Hola Familia!

Can you believe it has been a month already?! I can't! Time has flown. It seems like I just got here.

Como estas? I am so grateful for each of you! I love getting your letters and hearing about how everyone is doing. This week has been a good one up until last night. I started feeling sick so I have been taking it easy today. So I am going to answer everyone's questions this instead of writing each of you like I usually do on top of the email. Where do I start?

Saturday: Saturday's I have TRC and this week we were given the task of getting to know our investigator on our way to church (this is in all spanish) and then afterwards we taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was really fun! When Hermana Smith and I walked into the room to pick up our investigator we noticed it was one of the girls we taught last week, Julia, and another girl. They were such fun girls. I love teaching them! At the end of our lesson before we compelely ended we decided to sing them a song. We sang I am a child of God. There is so much power in song. Everytime we sing to our investigators the spirit appears more present and the investigators have a complete change of heart in their faces and appearance. I love it! So almost everytime we teach we sing. It is fun.

Daniel- he is another investigator- I think I talked about him last time. He is a 70 something year old preacher. It is a challenge to teach him but I love it. It helps me learn! He finally has accepted our invitation to come to church. We teach him tonight so we shall see how it goes. So far it's going good. He knows a lot about our church but won't pray to know if the things are true or not. I wish he would quit being stubborn and just do it!

Another investigator: Jose. I love Jose. Last week we invited him to baptism and he said he had to think about it. He is also being taught by Jehovah Witnesses and they are trying to get him to become a member of their church. He is really confused and doesn't want to make God angry so he is being Mr. Slow. We still have no commitment but he said he would come to church with us as well. We teach him tomorrow.

Today 700 missionaries came into the MTC! It's crazy! No one is comng in next week due to Thanksgiving. We had a district leave this week and a new one come in today. I haven't met them yet but we now have 7 girls in the zone! :) The 3 new girls are going to Ecuador. I am excited for Thanksgiving next week. We are doing a service project and my district was asked to help with it and be leaders at it. We are making school bag kits. It will be insanely crazy but a lot of fun. It will be a nice change of 14 hours of class daily.

This last week for devotional we had Elder Kevin Pearson, from the Quorum of the 70 come and speak to us. He talked about the principles of power and being a disciple. Some things that stuck out to me were: your mission is your future and your success in life, There is no need to struggle, do your best, ask Heavenly Father to help lift your burdens, your mission will be what you make of it, and there is no such thing as trying so do your best. It was interesting to hear him. He was a very powerful speaker it was almost as if he were yelling. But it was still good and exactly what I needed to hear. I love that we learn through the Holy Ghost. HEavenly Father knows our needs and speaks to us through the Holy Ghost so we always need to be worthy, obedient, and willing to accept and act upon our promptings.

Today at the temple I had a neat experience. I was doing iniatories and had some hispanic names. At first I was like oh great I am not going to be able to pronounce them but I did it. I said them how they were suppposed to be, well I think I did. Anyway, one of the temple workers told me my Spanish was really good and that I roll my r's really well. It was funny to hear that and good to know that other people, besides those in my district, are giving me encouragement. It made me feel good about Spanish. Speaking of, it is coming along pretty well. I am slowly understand all the grammar rules. It is just a matter of applying all of it now. My teachers (maestros) give me some good advice so i am working on that. I am also reading and disecting el libro de Mormon with words I don't know.

2010-11-17T17:32:00.000-08:00

2010-11-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hola Familia!

Thank you for all your letters, packages, prayers, and support. It means a lot to me! I still love the MTC and can't believe that I have been here for 2 weeks! The food is getting better and the Espanol is coming along slowly. I still am not getting as fast as I would or as fast as others, but I am getting. I am going to be getting tutored to help with grammar.

Saturday Hermana Smith and I taught two lessons. One was in the TRC, training resource center. Our task was to contact and meet 3 people and teach the last person. The contacting was in Espanol. We did really well with that. The first person went well, the 2nd was another story. As we were talking to him we started laughing because we couldn't think. He laughed right along with us and told us that we were doing great. The 3rd person, most important was the one we ended up teaching. We taught our lesson on the Restoration and did really well. Our teacher was really impressed with how we did. He told us that was the best first TRC he has ever seen. It made us feel good.

Saturday night we taught our other teacher, Hermano Zivic, who was pretending to be a progressing investigator. This lesson was in Spanglish and went pretty well. I felt the spirit there, especially towards the end. Hermana Smith and I sang i am a Child of God to him. Afterwards he wouldn't give us feedback. All he said was muy bien (good job), he was really impressed as well.

Another teaching experience we had was on Monday. Our class and another district split up and we ended teaching in only Espanol. I was scared out of my mind. Satan was definetly trying to not let me teach. I had no idea how I was going to teach the first lesson in only spanish. Somehow I managed to do it. I am so grateful I have the gift of tongues with me and the spirit. The companion I was with was very impressed with the power in my teaching as well as one of the people we were teaching. I am grateful for tender mercies like this! THis experience gave me a good idea of what I am doing well on and what I need to improve on.

This last week, and since I have been here I have run into a few people I know:
1. Kekoa Riggins from Arlington- he is waiting for his visa after 4 months.. poor guy. I hope it comes soon!
2. My old roommates sister, Shannon
3. Stephanie Whittaker- she was in my ward in Salt Lake. She is waiting for her visa but going to a CA mission in the meantime.
4. Uncle Phil
5. Elder Glass- i met him and found out he is in Aunt Georgia's ward
It was so fun to see them.

When I first got here they closed down Sunday temple walks because of trash being left on the grounds. Good news.. it is open :) Sunday we went on our first temple walk. It was beautiful. Today I went to the temple. The grounds are gorgeous and the inside is pretty... outside is pretty, just not one of my favorites.

Tuesday night we has devotional again. This time Elder Ballard came and spoke. His talk was based on becoming a master teacher, asking good questions, Keeping your message simple, Smile, and the person you are talking to should have a good feeling the second they hear your message/ meet them.

Half my zone left this week for their missions and we didn't get a new zone this week. Our branch is going to consist of 3 districts now i believe. I love my district to death and my zone as well. We all get along great and are all so willing to help each other learn and grow. A sister in my zone and I have the same outfit, and we wore it on the same day, it was pretty funny. Then we ended up being companions for the Spanish lesson i told you about earlier. I have amazing teachers and have a good district which helps makes class fun and enjoyable. In my zone there ar 8 sisters, district 4. In my residence hall there are 5 of us.

I want to challenge all of you to memorize the 1st vision! It is so powerful and has more power to it when it is memorized. If i can do it in Spanish and English, you can do it in English. :)

I know that our Heavenly Father lives and loves us. I know that we are His children. I know that families are a central part to God's plan for us. I am so grateful for all of you and the love that we have for each other and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesucristo loves us enough that He died for us. I know he knows our pains and everything that we go through. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he was given the power and authority from God to restore the gospel on earth today. I know that he translated the Book of Mormon (el libro de Mormon) for us to read and to learn from daily. I know that the scriptures are the words of God and that we have a living prophet today, Thomas S. Monson. I am grateful for this gospel and for the joy it brings to my life. I hope and pray that each of you will strive to be a better person and pick one thing to work on this week. I love you and am so grateful for you all.

Until next week! Keep writing. I will do my best to answer! Thanks for everything again!

Love,
Hermana Dickson

2010-10-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Kelcie can also be reached by e-mailing her at dearelder.com as long as you have her MTC info. It is easy to sign up. She cannot check her blog or e-mail friends but will get printed copies tru dearelder. A;so can write and receive mail from friends. Her p-day is on Wednesdays from 10 to six(I will continue to post her e-mails.) She would love to hear from all of you and thank you for supporting her by letting her know how you're doing.
Kelcie's mom

week 1

2010-10-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the emails everyone! I got one! :) Thanks Ron! and 1 letter- thanks Cara!

Hola! This week has flown by. I am so glad I made the decision to come! This week has been muoy bueno! Day 2 we started learning Spanish. We learned how to ppray (Oracion), bear testimony (el testimonio), some grammar, and are working on the first vision in Espanol. It has been a challenging week as far as learning the language goes. I was beginning to get frustrated. But now I feel a lot better about it. Elder Richard G. Scott came for devotional last night and talked about being led by el Spiritu (the spirit). It was what I needed. He talked about many life experiences and gave each missionary a handout of what he talked about. One thing that struck home with me was that sometimes God lets us struggle so we can build character and increase our faith. It was great and it was what I have been going through. He also invoked blessings on us, especially the Sister missionaries.

I have a great companion. Her name is Melody Smith from So Cal. She went to BYUI before coming on a mission. She is going to Provo with me as well. She is the youngest of 8 kids. I love her to death. We got along from Day 1. I have a great district as well. There are 10 of us in our district. 5 of us are staying in Provo, 2 are going to Spain, 2 are going to Tuscon, and 1 to Wisconsin. One of the Elders is 6'7" and is very talented with music. We are planning on doing a musical number together sometime in the next year and a half.

Cara asked me the other day in her letter how the food in the MTC is. Well, it's not the best food but it works. The eggs are powdered eggs and taste disgusting! Most of the time the food is overcooked. I have found some really good food though. At least 1 a day. The first day in the MTC Hermana Smith and I were walking back to our dorm and got lost trying to find our way. Now we know where we are going if not we just look up at the numbers on the walkways with arrows. The MTC reminds me of college without all the graded homework. I wish I knew what I know now a few years ago so that I would have taken and been more prepared in my school work.

The spirit is SO strong here I love it! I could not ask for a better place to be at this point and time of my life. I have felt the love of my Savior. I am coming closer to Him through prayer and study. We study pretty much all day long. It gets to be a long day come 8pm and still studying. Richard G. Scott said this last night: "Your love of Heavenly Father and His son will increase. It will be a love of reverence, awe, and gratitude of a child to the greatest of all. It will become a love of total willingness to be obedient to Their will. it will result from a pure desire and willing determination to serve Them above all else." I love it! I love how he says that we will grow to Love Them. I know I have grown to love them and will continue to.

A big thing that is being taught here is that as your testimony of the Atonement increases your desire to share your testimony and the gospel will increase. It is so true! I am grateful that I have the Atonement in my life and have been able to use it. I am grateful to be who I am today and have no regrets about life. I know my Savior lives and that He loves you and me. We are His children. He wants us to let Him into our lives. He knows us, each by name, and knows what we desire and what we need. I know that as we come to let the Savior in our life we will be guided by the Spirit and will feel His love become more evident in our lives. I know that the Restoration of the gospel was necessary and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of called to bring the Restoration of the gospel back on this Earth. I am grateful for everything in my life! I know if we pray and listen, the Spirit will guide us and help us.

I am going to try to upload pictures we'll see if it works- okay I will send them next week! I will have it figured out by then and i have a minute left. I only get 30 minutes on the computer :( But I love you all and am grateful for your love and support. You can use dearelder.com to write me. it is free while I am in the MTC. I love you and miss you! keep writing me but if you send stuff, don't send gum it is not allowed. Oh, it has already snowed but has melted away.. it is too cold already. Okay, I love you! Write me please!

week 1

2010-10-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

2010-10-26T18:33:00.001-07:00

just got our first letter from Kelcie. She is doing great and enjoying the MTC so far. I am impressed with her being able to bear her testimony in Spanish already only having been there for 3 days. Way to go. Kelcie asked for us to let you all know to please use the 'dearelder.com' website to e-mail her. Anyone can use it at any time. She will get the mail the same day. She will not be able to answer but love to hear from everyone. So please pass it on. She will be in the MTC until Dec 22. It is really easy to use. You will need her MTC Mailbox # 317 and the UT-PRO 1221 info. I am just using this blog, since we don't have all of you on our blog.

Love
Joe and Gisela

I might be crazy but....

2010-10-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

I am going to read the entire Standards Works. How long will it take? It should take about a 1 1/2 years to read all of it. Why the sudden craziness? Well at institute on Wednesday we started a new course of study: scripture study. We were talking about what scripture is and why we have the standard works. The question was then posed how many have read the standards work all the way through? The more I thought about it I have when attending seminary but even then I don't think it covers all 1,579 chapters in all the books. So Rachelle and I decided that we wanted to do this challenge: read the Standards Works in 18 months. Perfect timing because of my mission. I will be gone for that long. It seems like a huge task but when you break it down like Elder McConkie did it doesn't seem so bad. In October 1959 in a conference report Elder McConkie said the following:

"Now in our day we have the standard works of the Church. We have the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. There are in these four books a total of 1,579 chapters. I think it would not be too much to say that we could with propriety, day in and day out, consistently, read three chapters in one or the other of these works: and if we pursued such a course, we would read all of the Gospels in less than a month. We would read the entire New Testament in three months. We would read the Old Testament in ten months, and the whole Bible in thirteen months. We would go through the Book of Mormon in two and two-thirds months, the Doctrine and Covenants in a month and a half, and the Pearl of Great Price in five days. Taken altogether, we would read all the standard works in less than eighteen months and be ready to start over again."

I thought this was amazing and am challenging myself to do it. Rachelle is going to join me in this challenge and if anyone else wants to join us you can. I am looking forward to it and to see what all I gain from this experience as well as being on a mission. I leave in 2 weeks and am all mixed of emotions but know that this is what I am supposed to do.

Saturday is a Special Day

2010-09-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's the day we get ready for... Kelcie to go through the temple! Yesterday I went through the Seattle temple to get my endowments. I wasn't nervous to go through, I was just excited for this day. It has been a day I have been waiting for for a long time. It was a different experience but amazing at the same time. I can't put my thoughts together but I do that the temple is a special place and that it is place where we can stand on holy grounds and a refuge from the "storms" of life. Today at church our stake had a topic of temples. It was pretty cool to have the topic being spoken of the day after and to hear and remember the things that I didn't know and things that I did. I also had the opportunity to teach Sunday School today and it was about Standing in Holy Places and not moving. It was such a great experience. I have learned a lot this last weekend and wouldn't change it for anything. I can't wait to go back to the temple and to learn more and to feel the peace that I feel there whenever I go. I am grateful for everyone that was able to be there with me to celebrate this special day with me as well as those who were thinking of me.

On a side note, about a month left until I leave for my mission :) I am very excited and getting more nervous as the days get closer to my leaving but I know this is what I need to be doing.

Utah Provo Mission

2010-09-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

While vacationing I received a letter from my mission president. In the letter was some facts about my mission. A lot of the facts I was astonished by. Here are some facts about the Utah Provo Mission:

~ Geographically the mission stretches from the 'Point of the Mountain' (just south of SLC) and the snow capped mountains of the 'Wasatch Front' to the agricultural land of Spanish Fork and Santaquin. Also, included in the mission boundaries is the North Eastern Utah area including mountain meadows and the high dessert.

~ 149 stakes

~ About 2,011 ward and branches

~ In 2009, over 2,800 convert baptisms

~ 2 universities- BYU and UVU

~ Missionaries serving from 20+ foreign countries speaking up to 10 different languages

~ 3 temples (Vernal, Mt. Timpanogos, and Provo)

Just a few facts about Utah Provo Mission. There is a lot of work to be done and I will be there until May 9, 2012 to help with it!

Utah/Idaho

2010-09-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

After our trip to California we came home for a week or so, attended a funeral, and then headed off to Utah to get some of my things and visit friends and family. It was such a good time. While in Utah I got mission clothes and shoes, visited my school (even worked a few days), went to church at my old ward, met up with Kelsey and the Hales, played vball, went on some scooter rides, ate Cafe Rio and Gellato, and most important spent lots of time with family. On Sunday Ron's family, Kodie, Chandler, Mom and Dad, and Kelsey and I went to temple square. It was such a good time. Kels and I got our traditional temple square picture, saw a model of the SL temple, and walked around the temple grounds and Church History museum. There was so much that went on in Utah I won't take the time to write about it, but it was all so much fun. Before we went to Utah we stayed at Gerrit's for a few days then headed to Christine's house. I am amazed at how fast everyone grows up. I am so glad that I was able to visit all my siblings before I leave for my mission. I am so grateful for the examples and love that they have for me. You guys mean the world to me and I am grateful for you support and love that you show to me. You guys are the best!

California

2010-09-09T13:21:00.001-07:00

This post is a little overdue. I guess about a month ago I flew down to California to visit Greg's family and Ryan's family. I flew into San Francisco and drove back to Greg's house with Greg and Melissa. They were down in San Fran for a meeting and Mom and Dad were already at their house watching the kiddos. So I met up with them to make sure I saw them before I leave for the mission. Anyway, while down at Greg's we worked on their yard, well Dad, Greg, and Scott worked on it, I played with the kids, Melissa and Mom. Some of the things we did was shopping, In-N-Out, relaxing, playing games, and enjoying each others company. It was so good to see Greg and spend time with his family. I can't believe how much the kids are growing.

After a few days at Greg's we went to Ryan's. While at Ryan's we went to Manteca one day. Ryan, the boys, and Dad wanted to go to some sporting goods store so they went and Mom and I went shopping. Some other things we did was watch Tater's football practice, the boys and I went to the pool, In-N-Out (again), Jelly Belly Factory, played games (Taboo), and enjoyed time together. It was fun to spend time with them. It has been a while since I saw them and the boys are getting big, but I am glad they still love to cuddle with me. Taylor even tried sneaking on the bed to sleep with me a few times- not a shocker there.

I miss both families and am so glad I got to spend time with them before I leave for my mission. Here are a few pictures of the trip. On our way home we drove up Highway 101 along the coast/Redwood Forest and somehow we couldn't find the big tree you drive through but we did see a bunch of cool sites and huge trees and of course the ocean (my favorite).

Drum Roll Please....

2010-08-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

My call came today! :) I have been called to serve in the.... get ready for it... the Utah Provo mission speaking Spanish. It is not a joke, I promise. I laughed when I read it too. I am very excited to be going there and to be learning Spanish. I report the MTC in Provo on October 20. So I leave in exactly 2 months from today.

Guesses

2010-08-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

So I still don't have my call. I should be getting them today or tomorrow. Well the mail came today so hopefully tomorrow. If you want to guess and haven't feel free to.

Sunday = Big day

2010-07-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

I found out last night that I am getting my branch president/bishop interview AND stake president interview Sunday. I am excited! That means my papers will be in Sunday night and then I should be getting my call on the 12 or 19th!

Almost there

2010-07-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Today I got my medical and dental exams done and as far as I know all is good to go! I finished my end of the papers and submitted them. Now I am just waiting for my interviews and then for the call! It is such an amazing feeling to know I am doing what I need to be doing and what Heavenly Father wants me to do. Everything has just fallen into place. Once my papers are officially in the guessing game can begin.

What do you think it is???

2010-07-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning I woke up with this bite on the back of my left thigh. i thought it was mosquito bite but then it started swelling really bad which made me think I got bit by a spider. I have had many bites before but none of them have done this... triple in size and turn different colors. The center is purple, then red, pink and a ring of white around it.

Yesterday at work it was getting worse and worse. By lunch it was the size of my palm. By the time I got home it was as big as my hand. No bueno! I decided I should probably get it checked out since it is not normal at all. So I went to the doctor and she gave me some meds to take. Since then it has gone down in size but still itches really bad and has turned purple. This is what it looks like today...

I hope it keeps going away! On a side note, I just have my medical and dental exams for my papers and then my interviews :) They are coming along and I am hoping it will be in by the end of next week. I will let you know when they are in and when the guessing begins.

One Step at a Time

2010-07-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

I started my papers last week and will have them in by the end of the month. I think I finally have everything figured out, just need to finish and get my medical and dental which are in a couple weeks. After that I have my interviews with the branch president and then stake president. I am super excited for everything. Life is just falling into place and I love it!

As far as the rest of life goes, it's great. I am working and really wish I was done, but I need to keep working. I can do it! Only another month and a half. This last weekend I went to a murder mystery dinner party. I ended up being the killer haha. Then Saturday night I went to a benefit concert for Haiti that Rachelle planned. It was really good. The second half was amazing! That is pretty much life. Keeping busy with work, church, friends, and mission stuff.

It's Just the Beginning

2010-07-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

After much thought and prayer I have decided and feel SO good about this decision.. I am going to go serve a mission! I am super excited about it and super scared. It is amazing to see a rainbow at the end of your trials. I found the scripture that one of the sister missionaries shared with me it is found in Words of Mormon 1:7. It says:

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.

After reading this scripture and getting my answer in different ways I know that this is what I need to be doing. I am so grateful that everything is falling into place thus far. I hope that the rest of it will as well.

I have had my pre-mission interview and will be starting my papers this week. I will keep you updated with everything!

P.S. If you know anyone who is looking for a car.. I am selling mine

I Just Don't Know What to do with...

2010-07-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

Myself! This week has been so overwhelming and stressful. Monday night I was sitting at FHE and tears were on the urge of coming out. I tried holding them in as long as I could, since FHE is my calling. I last until 8:30 when my friends starting noticing something was wrong so I took off before I had to really talk to anybody. I was talking with my friend Danielle out by our cars and she said I should go get a blessing when I got home. So I did that. When I got home, I asked my dad if he would give me a blessing. I didn't tell him what was going, but in that blessing I got comfort and guidance. Since then life has been mellowing out a little. Still stressful but getting better.

Some things that are going on in my life right now are:

1. Work. People are work are so dramatic and somehow things involving me get around the warehouse. It is very frustrating when people you don't want to know stuff, know things about you. We have been working like crazy the last 2 days to get our orders done that are supposed to be tomorrow. It is quite insane at work and it will be a miracle if it get all the way done! I hope I get my 3 day weekend they are promising us.

2. Career. I am having the hardest time finding a teaching job. I find openings like crazy but don't get interviews. I had one interview and it went really well. The group was really impressed; however, they picked someone with a master's degree. :( I was kinda upset about that but realized there is something better for me. I still haven't found work. So I am playing with the idea of going on a mission again. I guess it was about 2 years when I had the thought of going on one and now it is back. I am going with the mindset, but I think it is changing, of IF I don't get teaching job then I am going to go on a mission. I was talking with the sister missionaries about it last night. One of them is a lot like me so I figured I would get some help and thoughts from her. I have told her a little bit about what is going on and she gave me this scripture to read. As I was reading it I got the chills and a thought of maybe I should just prepare for a mission now.

I am just confused on what to do with my life. Everything is so up in the air, it's crazy. I hope that I make the right choice and that I will be comforted and blessed with whatever the Lord has in store for me.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am so grateful for my dad. He has always been there for me and I know he always will be. He is such a great example to me. I am so glad to have him as my father. There are so many things I could write about dad and why I am grateful for him, but that will have to wait until I have 2 hands to type with. But I love you Dad and am so grateful for you! Thanks for everything!

Chuckanut Drive/Bellingham

2010-05-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Last night Rachelle and I decided that we are going to make a new tradition. We used to go to Boston's as a tradition but decided to start exploring Saturday nights and would take pictures. So last night we went and did Chuckanut Drive in Bow up to Bellingham and then explored Bellingham a little bit. We saw some gorgeous views and a beautiful sunset! After the sun was down we went to Starbucks! Oh I am starting to love this new tradition.. way better than Boston's! I love you Rachelle! Oh and she took all the pictures! This is just a few of them... there are others I'll post those later.

Utah Certification

2010-05-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

So after a LONG battle with trying to get my Utah teaching certification I finally got a phone call and an answer. Drum roll please...The state of Utah has decided to accept my application! Wohoo! I am so excited. I have been trying to get it since November. Turned in my application after I got everything form BYU-Idaho and everywhere else I things from and sent it in over a month ago. They weren't going to accept my application because I didn't have a test for Idaho completed. It is an Idaho based test and is only good for Idaho. They decided this was a very valid reason and so I am finally getting my certification! I am excited.. now just waiting for the job to go with it.

On a side note, my talk is coming along. I am ready for it to be over with.

Invitational Sunday

2010-05-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Last night after institute the branch president, who is amazing, pulled me into his office. We were chatting about life and how I am battling getting my certification- yes still! After we were talking for a little bit he was like I have two things to ask you. One is about a calling and the other is about invitational Sunday. I believe invitational Sunday is a stake thing that each ward is doing individually. Anyway, on May 23 the singles branch is having their Invitational Sunday where the members are encouraged to bring non-members and less actives to church with them. Missionaries from around the stake will be there I believe and it sounds like a really big deal. Well, he asked me if I would speak at it about the Atonement or Restoration or something along those lines. Good thing I have a week and a half to think about it. President Vaughan told me if I need any help to let him know and he would be glad to help. Besides asking for his help, I am also asking you guys for thoughts/ideas on this topic. I am excited to give a talk about it but have no idea what to talk about, especially with everyone that is supposed to be there. I am kind of intimidated about the whole thing. Oh and it has to be 15-20 minutes too! Please send me your thought and ideas to help with this. He really wanted me to focus on the Atonement or Restoration but I could talk about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, things that go along with either of those two main topics if needed. HELP!!!!

Homeward Bound

2010-05-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

So I didn't get the job I interviewed for, really didn't think I would. It was the worst interview I have ever been in. I thought I did well but the guy I was interviewing with kept cutting me off and criticizing me. It was bad. But, since i didn't get the job and I needed one, I came to my last resort and moved back home to work at JanSport. I started this week and am already ready for the summer to be over as far as work goes. I wish I could just enjoy my job at JanSport like I enjoy teaching. Teaching makes the day go by so much faster and I love it. JanSport is just a job for money. But anyway, I am home, working, freezing, and trying to get used to life in Washington again.

Interview tomorrow!

2010-04-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I got an email from a principal at Granger Elementary saying this: "Granger Elementary School, Granite School District, would like to interview you for an hourly teaching position. This position would begin as soon as the hiring process is completed. This position would require qualified applicants to work with struggling reading and math students in a small group setting. There is no contractual promise. This position would end at the end of June 2010. Please respond to this email as soon as possible so an appointment can be made. Thanks for your interest." I was quite excited when I checked my email and emailed her back right away saying I was interested. A few days after I got another email saying this: "Congratulations!

You are one of 16 applicants being considered for our 2 hourly teaching positions at Granger Elementary School. We will be conducting interviews on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at the school. We are located at 3700 S. 1950 W, West Valley City, Utah. We are in a beautiful new building located behind the Redwood Drive In.

The position you will be interviewing for is a teaching position working with small groups of students (about 5) on fluency and comprehension skills using the Read Naturally program during the morning hours. Each group runs 30 minutes seat to seat. You’ll be picking up the students from their class, taking them to a teaching station, teaching and then returning them to their class. After a lunch on your time, you’ll be working with small groups of students on math, using the computer program “Study Island” to address number concepts, problem solving, and measurement. You’ll need to be flexible as your teaching space will change throughout the day.

You’ll be working about 6 hours per day, 4 days a week, Monday through Thursday. The pay is on the teacher salary scale and runs about $25/hour with a Bachelor’s degree and no teaching experience. It takes up to 2 weeks for the district to make the decision to hire after we make the recommendation. Once that decision is made, the position starts. We’ll be working through June 24th.

If this job is one you’d like to interview for, we’d love to see you on Tuesday, April 27th at ____11:15____. Come to the office, bringing your resume and any information you’d like us to see. We don’t have your file in front of us, so use this time to let us know all about your skills.

We look for to meeting you."

Yep, I go in for an interview tomorrow! I am quite excited about it but sad to not be subbing at my school anymore if I get the job. I asked my principal to write a letter of recommendation for me and she did. I read it and wanted to cry. I love her! So cross your fingers and pray that I get it. It will be good to have a more permanent job for a few months at least.

Summertime??

2010-04-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

The weather has been beautiful! It is so nice to be able to go outside in shorts and flip flops or a skirt and not get cold until night time! Minus the snow I woke up to Tuesday morning this week has been beautiful and warm (around 70). It is supposed to be nice for a few more days.. yay!

Yesterday I went on a field trip again with the fourth graders at Kelsey's school. This time they went to the Hogle Zoo. I was quite excited about going to the zoo. It has been 5 years (last day of high school) that I have been to the zoo. It was such a nice day and I only had 3 kids I was in charge of. It was great! The kids were great until the end. They were getting tired and whiny. Overall the Hogle Zoo was a lot of fun but I decided that Woodland Park is still better. I was very excited to see the baby giraffe, baby elephant, and baby tiger. When we got there I found out that the baby giraffe died. Sad day! The giraffe's are probably my favorite thing to see at the zoo. But I did get to see 4 other giraffes and the other babies. Refer to the pictures for more on what we saw... I took a lot and won't bore with all the pictures. I'll post the pictures later.. this post is long enough.

On another note... I have subbed three days this week after tomorrow. Subbing is still going well for me. I am getting anywhere from 2-3 days a week on average. Some more and some non at all. But I usually work every week. I am still subbing a lot at my school and love it! The kids there are awesome minus all their behavior problems. A lot of the issues are because of family things. It breaks my heart but I have come to a new love for those kids with some of the things they go through daily. After school today I was talking to a few of the teachers and one of the teachers told me they are cutting back at least one teacher next year. I am still hoping they will hire me despite it all. Another teacher told me go check out summer school. So I went to talk to the lady over it and she said they will probably be looking for another teacher but would let me know for sure. If they are then I have the job! Wohoo! It will only be for a month but it is only 4 hours a day, $25ish/hour, 3 hours of teaching with 1 hour prep. What a perfect job! I am crossing my fingers and praying I get it. I am also going to go apply for a reading specialist job. It is not somehting that I really want to do, but it is a job and the district will train me and get me certified, so why not! I just hope that work falls into place and I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Other than that, life is great! I am loving life and trying to learn from it everyday. I am grateful for everything that I have in my life. My thoughts and prayers are with the Cruickshank's at this time. To read more about what is going on there click on their blog from my blog lists. It was quite heart breaking and makes you evaluate your life and appreciate all you have. Get better Scott! Beside's that, I am back on the market and trying to find someone. I guess I should stop with this post before it takes you 3 days to read it. I love you all!

Easter weekend

2010-04-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! I had spring break last week so it was nice except for everyone left me this weekend. Becky's parents were down so she was with them and Kels went home for her dad's funeral and the Hale boys were with Becky or doing their own thing. So I spend time with Ron and his family. The week was pretty good minus all the snow and cold weather! Becky and I went to the temple Thursday. Friday Ryan and I went out to dinner and to a movie. That night my old roommate Rachel came into town and stayed with me. Saturday was general conference. I watched it by myself in front of my computer then Ron picked me up later and we went to Cabella's and out to dinner. It was good to spend some time with him. That night Rachel and I went and had some Gelato's and drove around Salt Lake. She is getting ready for her mission. I am super excited for her. She is going to Ohio Cincinatti Spanish speaking and leaves May 12. It's crazy but I am happy for her. Then Sunday, Ryan, Amber, and I went to General Conference at the conference center. Afterwards, Becky, the Hale's, and I went to Idaho for the funeral on Monday. Monday I went and saw Liz and her family then came back and went to Aunt Helen's birthday. The weekend went by quick but it was tons of fun.

I am so grateful for the talks that were given in conference. It has made me think a lot as well as strengthening my testimony of the gospel, especially my Savior. I am so glad I am a member of the church and have the gospel in my life. It is such a strength to me. I am grateful for our Savior and for the Atonement. I am also grateful for my family and for the examples that each one of you bring to me. There are so many things in my life to be grateful for that I will spare you the details. But I want you to know that I love my Savior and all He has done for us.

The Hokanson's

2010-03-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

In a previous blog I told you about my friend Kelsey's dad. Things weren't getting any better or any worse. Yesterday Kelsey calls me when she got off work. I thought she was calling to see what I was doing, so I yell in excitement that it's spring break only to not hear a happy answer on the other end. I hear Kels crying. I immediately asked what was wrong. Through the tears, Kels somehow managed to get the words out that her dad passed away that morning. My heart sank! I didn't know what to think. I can't even imagine what Kels is feeling. When Kels got home we shed many tears together and talked about it. After several hours and tears Kelsey went home with her brothers to be with their mom. They are all doing pretty well considering the circumstances. I am amazed at Kelsey's strength! She is such a great friend and I know that I can count on her for anything. Right now they are making funeral plans and spending time together as a family. I think a few of us from Salt Lake are going to go up to the funeral on Monday.

Kels I want you to know I love you and am always here for you! You are amazing! I love you!

Festival of Colors

2010-03-27T19:26:00.001-07:00

Today Kelsey, Becky, and I went to this Festival of Colors down in Spanish Fork. It is a Hindu thing to celebrate spring (I believe). At first I wasn't sure what was going on then Kels showed me some pictures before we left this morning and it looked so cool. So we ventured down to Spanish Fork. As we were arriving at the temple there we got really excited. We went and bought our chalk and started throwing it all over us and others, as well as others throwing it on us. I was nailed right in the ear to start off by some random person. Then they went and got Becky in the face. When the actual celebration started it was really cool. The arrangement of colorful chalk went flying in the air. The color was so vibrant and you couldn't breathe when you in the middle of it all. We found out the hard way. But needless to say it was a blast. We are already planning on going next year but going way more prepared with face masks!

Standing in line waiting for the shuttle "school bus"

Who's the genius who wrote this? I think they need to learn their spelling...

Where the party was at

Waiting for the shin-dig to start.. yes we were covered already

Throwin' some chalk

After the big cloud of chalk.. we were in the center and couldn't breathe so we moved

The aftermath....

When you least expect it

2010-03-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

Life is good besides being sick once again! Monday I woke up with a sore throat, went to work and started losing my voice so I thought I was getting laryngitis again or allergies or a combination of both. Well Monday night I was feeling a lot worse and knew it was more than allergies. Tuesday I wake up for work and had a hard time breathing. I still went to work but stopped and got medicine on my way home. I am feeling tons better but still don't really have a voice and a stuffy nose, but at least I can breath a lot better.

On a happier note. I got a second date! Wohoo! And now this Friday we are going on a third date. I am super excited about it. Ryan is such a good guy. Thank you Ali and Jason! I still think it is pretty funny that his name is Ryan. Like mom said, you must be attracted to guys with the name Ryan. I told her that I guess I am. But as for now, we are not officially dating but like each other. I will keep you all updated. But life is great and I am still looking for work for the summer and for next school year.

I am so grateful for my roommate Kelsey! She is such a strong girl! Kelsey is going through one of the hardest things in life right now. A year ago last February, Kelsey's dad was diagnosed with Oral cancer. He had gone through all the treatments he could. When they thought it was over they guessed wrong. About a year later, this February, Kelsey's dad went to the doctor to have a check up before surgery. While there they discovered a sore on his chin and did some testing. The tests came back and more testing was done. After all this, they found out that he has lung and throat cancer and was given 4-6 months to live. He could have treatments but that would only prolong death. So needless to say, Kelsey's dad is miserable and going downhill pretty fast. Kelsey is holding on a lot stronger than I would ever be. I just love this girl! She is such a great example to me. I couldn't ask for a better roommate! I love you Kelsey!

I Gotta Feeling

2010-03-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was so much fun.. it made the weekend fly by so fast! Friday night I went on a blind date with a guy named Ryan. Ali and Jason set it up and came with us so it wouldn't be completely awkward. We started the date off my going to a hockey game. Grizzlies won and we all had a great time. After the game we went to Winger's and got dessert then headed to Ali and Jason's and played games. We ended playing games and chatting until about 2 in the morning. It was so much fun! I haven't been on a good date in so long. As Ryan was leaving he asked for my number, so that's a good sign right? :) I am still waiting for him to call, hopefully I won't have to wait much loner. Then on Saturday Kelsey, Becky and I went over to Old Navy and got some cute skirts. Afterwards, we met up with Jeff and Brad and went to Park City for Brad's birthday. It was fun, we went shopping at the outlets then their grandma took us out for dinner. She is super sweet and funny. After Park City we went back to our apartment and played games until we realized we were losing an hour of sleep and parted. Sunday we went to church, then Ali and Jason's for dinner then back to our house for ward prayer. It was such a good weekend it flew by so quick. I hope the week goes by just as quick, so far it's not.

Job Fair

2010-03-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a job fair held at BYU. My friend Becky and I went down. It was a joke trying to find parking. The first place we tried right next to the Wilkinson Center was full so he told us to go park at the other visitor center. We get there and as soon as we pull up the guard put a sign up that said lot is full. So Becky asked her where we can park and she was like over by the Marriott Center. So we go over and find our way there and couldn't find parking. We finally found parking and then ventured to find our way around BYU campus. Eventually we found the place and we were both nervous. As we are there we found a sign that said what districts were there. So we scoped out who we wanted to go see and walked around.

I wasn't planning on visiting with out of state districts but I spoke with San Jose school district and was kind of impressed but nothing really struck me. I kept going on through districts. I talked with Canyons, Alpine, Weber, Logan, Granite, and Nebo. Still not really any good feelings. I loved Granite schools, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I work for them already with subbing and did my student teaching with them. Same with Canyons. Well, we were about done and we found Tooele School District and were like why not. So we listened to the spiel about the district. Depending on where you are at in their district they will pay your housing. Sounds good to me:) As I continued to listen I was becoming quite fond of this district. After all was said and done I walked away with a good feeling. So I am hoping that something will come from it. There are building 2 more elementary schools and a new high school. I am hoping that it will work out and I get job with them or Granite Schools... we'll see come the next few months! Cross your fingers and pray it will work out!

Bucket List

2010-02-28T15:53:00.001-08:00

I decided if I don't make a bucket list I probably won't get things done that I would love to do so here it goes (and not in any specific order)....

1. Go to 6 of the 7 continents
2. Visit all 50 states
3. Get married in the temple
4. Have a family
5. Road trip with friends
6. Run a half marathon
7. See a play on Broadway
8. Skydive
9. Swim with the dolphins
10. Learn Spanish and other foreign languages fluently
11. Go on a cruise
12. Learn to snowboard
13. Get my endowments
14. Go on a gondola ride
15. Buy a house
16. Get a teaching job
17. Ride a Zamboni
18. Go to as many temples as I can
19. Ride in a hot air balloon
20. While visiting the different countries... give to them in some way

This is the list I have for now.. I will be adding no worries.

Finally Official

2010-02-22T11:36:00.000-08:00

I finally got my diploma! Wohoo! I am officially a college graduate! It feels so good. I was nervous opening up my diploma and then when I opened it up it was such a great feeling to know that I have accomplished something big in life.

Now I am just waiting for forms back from BYU-Idaho so I can apply for my Utah teaching certification. Hopefully it won't take long. Once I get that things will hopefully be getting better. I am nervous for finding jobs here. I have heard 4 districts in the Vally are cutting back teachers. I am really hoping that the school I student taught at will hire me. I am subbing there quite a bit- thank you for those who fasted with me a couple weeks ago work is picking up. Last week I subbed at my school I student taught a couple days. One day I went in in the afternoon for a Kindergarten teacher and was talking to her before she left. She told me she was excited that I was her sub and that she heard I was a good teacher (I have never talked to her before in my life). So I know that I am being talked about at my school and I know the principal loves me. The teacher also told me there should be a couple openings for next year. Keep your fingers crossed. I would love to work at that school. The kids love me, I love them and I love the staff and the school. I am just hoping it works out! I should find out I think by the end of April!

As far as the rest of life goes, I am doing well. I moved in with a friend and it has been so good. She is going through a really hard time in her life right now and I am so glad I am there for her! I love her and am so glad to have her in my life! I love my ward and the good friends that I have made here. It is nice to be close to my family and see them whenever. Life is great.

Temples... to dot the Earth

2010-02-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

I love my friends! For the past month my friends Becky and Kelsey as well as myself made a goal to go the temple once a week. So far so good! We also decided to try to get to all or most of the temples in Utah. As of today we have been to 3 of the however many there are. We have been to the Salt Lake (many times), Jordan River (which reminds me of the Seattle temple), and the Draper temple. After we went to all of them we decided that we should get pictures at them as well. So last Sunday we got two of our guy friends to be our photographers and headed out to the Draper temple and got pictures.

I am so glad that we have made this choice. It has been such a blessing in my life and such a great way to feel our Saviors love. I am grateful for the temples and the blessings it brings and that I am able to be worthy to go and do baptisms for the dead. I look forward to the day that I can go and get my endowments out.

Crafts

2010-01-27T15:39:00.000-08:00

This last weekend Ali invited me over to do some crafts. Friday we made some vinyl bags and then Saturday I made this bag for my school stuff. Since I don't have my own classroom yet I am using it as my overnight bag when I go stay places. It is super cute and I love it! Thanks Ali for the fabric!

This I Know

2010-01-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Haiti Quake

2010-01-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

I just found out that a friend of mine from High School was doing missionary work in Haiti. Katie Zook has been there since September. While browsing facebook I found out that Katie was found under rubble of the school she was teaching English at. Katie was found alive with a lacerated spleen, bruised lungs/legs, fractured spine and was transfered to Cuba and will be in the states tomorrow. I am so glad that she is alive and doing fairly well. She is such a sweet girl. It was be a tragic loss but she was doing what she loved. As of right now things look better. I am praying that she will continue to be strong and recover. Love you Katie. Thinking of you! To see more of what Katie did you can check out her facebook page it is: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000272061851&ref=ts. After looking at her pictures you can tell that she had a love for the Haitian people. There are also articles in the Herald and Arlington Times about her.

Bring it on 2010!

2010-01-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is already 2010! Last year flew by but so much happened. Here are some things that happened...

Walked at graduation from BYU-Idaho in April
Made it through the whole summer without a calling in church
Went to my best friends wedding
Made a roadtrip/move to Utah starting in WA-CA-NV-ID-UT
Student taught in the 3rd grade
Officially graduated college in December
Looking for a teaching job in Utah

Over Christmas break I went home for a few days then went to Idaho and spent time with family there. It was good to see Gerrit and Ashlee and the kiddos. They are getting so big. I wish I saw them more! Christmas itself was good and it was nice to be with family and enjoy each other. Then New Years came and more family came to Gerrit's house. We stayed up all hours of the night but had fun hanging out and playing games. Now I am back in Utah trying to get settled back in and do the following this year......

train for and run a half marathon
get my Utah teaching certification
get a teaching job in Utah
find myself a boy and date him :)
have fun
try new things
get into better shape

I wish all of you a great new year and hope that this year will be a good one!

When life throws you lemons, make lemonade

2009-12-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

So I have decided that I have definately graduated college at the wrong time. There are hardly any jobs for Elementary Education and even subbing is really slow. I finally got a sub job for this last Wednesday. It was only half a day but I figured it was better than nothing. It was my first sub job and was at the school that I student taught at. It felt good but wierd to be back there. I miss those kids even though I was in a second grade classroom it still felt good to be back doing what I love. Like I mentioned I had 2nd graders, well it was the worst class, in my opinion and in a few others, at the school. There is not really any classroom management in the room but I told the kids that I was here for three months and know the rules so if they were to try anything on me I would know what to do. In the end they were pretty good. Really chatty but good. Then this morning I got a call at 8 from the same school, Oquirrh Hills, and they asked if I would be able to sub next Wednesday. I gladly accepted realizing it is going to be a crazy day with leaving to go home that afternoon as well as subbing all day in Kindergarten. It will be worth it though. I am excited to finally be kind of working.

On another note, Monday I get a call from this random 801 number and called it back after I listened to the message. It was a call from Canyons School District wanting to set up a screening interview. I called them back and said I was still interested and they asked when I could come in for an interview. I told them whenever and they said how about 11 today. It was 9 in the morning. I gladly accepted and rushed to get ready. The lady I met with was a sweet lady willing to help me anyway that she could. She also told me that they just filled a position but there should be a 3rd grade opening up soon. So yesterday I looked online and sure enough, there was a 3rd grade opening at Altara Elementary. So I emailed the principal and told him I was interested in the opening, had my screening interview and attached my resume. Now I am just waiting impatiently to hear back about the job.

Even though the times are rough with jobs and the economy I am still finding myself mostly at peace. It has given me ample time to study the scriptures and draw closer to my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for my education that I have recieved and am putting my faith and trust in the Lord at this time. For it is his will and not mine. A couple weeks ago for sacrament meeting we had a lot of talks/lessons about aligning our will with the Lord's and by doing so we will gain a greater understanding. After this topic and hearing the words that were prepared I have been trying to become better and do what He would want me to do. I have blessed by it already and have come at peace with things in life. So as for now I will just be sitting, waiting, wishing, and hoping as patiently as I can for a job to open and things to work out the best that they can for me.

Utah Grizzlies

2009-12-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

In November I went to 3 Grizzlies games. It was a lot of fun. The first 2 games I went with friends and the last one I went with Ali, Jason, and the kids. All games were good but Grizzlies only won one of the 3, which happened to be the best game.

Really blurry but the starting line up for Utah was coming out right by us

Fight! The refs let them fight for a bit. Idaho threw down a Utah player.. oh it was intense.. blood and all

Jason, Ali, and the kids joined us at the game

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

I have so much to be grateful for this year. I am grateful for mom and dad and for pushing me to stay in college when I was ready to give up multiple times. I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to attend and graduate from BYU-Idaho with a BS in Elementary Education. I am grateful for my students they became my kids and I learned a lot from them. I am grateful for my family and for the love and support that they have given me. I am grateful for my ward and for my bishop. He is amazing! I love that man. I am grateful for my friends that I have and for the ones that I have made down here in Utah. I am grateful for so many other things but I don't want to bore you so I will just thank my Heavenly Father for those. But the one thing I really want to mention is my gratitude for my Savior. Without Him I wouldn't be where I am today. I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving and are grateful for the things in your life. Love you all!

It's Official

2009-11-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

I am officially done with college! Today was my last day of student teaching except there wasn't any students so I went to Amanda's class with my friend Kelsey and we didnt a project with them for a couple of hours. My last week of student teaching was good. The last 2 days were the longest ever. We had parent-teacher conferences so I was at the school until 8pm both of those nights. But in the end it was worth it. Now I am just awaiting my diploma and for BYUI to finish their end of the work so I can apply for my Utah Cert. As for now I am signed up to sub for the district I student taught in. Hopefully this will lead to a job! The time as flown and I am grateful for my education and for the joys that it has brought to my life already. Yesterday was an emotional day, the kids cried more than me but I love those kids, even the naughty ones.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

2009-11-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It felt like it was just August and I moved to Utah, now it's the middle of November and I have a little more than a week left of student teaching! I am so excited to be done but at the same time I have no idea what I am going to do until I get a job. I am applying for a P.E. position at my friends school and am hoping I get that. I am also going to put my name on the sub list so that I can get my name out there. So either way I should be good. The only bad thing with subbing is that you never know when you are going to work. But it will all work out. Life is starting to fall into place and things feel right. I'll keep you updated on the job situation.

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

2009-11-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

I found my camera cord! Wahoo! Now have fun enjoying all the dozens of pictures! Saturday Ali, the kids, and I were on our way to the fabric store when we looked over and saw about 20 of these.....

It was pretty hilarious! We all got a laugh out of it. Especially the ones in the back. The fans must have not been working in their suits because they had a lot of extra baggage! Not something you see everyday.. especially on bikes and on Halloween!

Dance Party

2009-11-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

The night we carved pumpkins we had a dance party and the girls were goofing around. We had a fun night. (see post previous to this to get the full scoop). I know my pictures dont make any sense or aren't in any specific order but at least they are on.

Halloween Part 2

2009-11-04T18:18:00.001-08:00

Weekend of Halloween.... where to begin? Thursday night I took Kylie and Amanda to my school carnival for a little bit. They didnt' want to dress up but they had fun meeting my teacher and some of my students. They told me that they had fun so I am glad. Then Friday Missy and I went to WinCo with the girls and found a 25lb. pumpkin for $1.44! We weren't quite happy about it so I told the girls I would carve a pumpkin with them. Well Kelsey called me and said that our group of friends were wanting to carve pumpkins so we decided to meet at my house and then carve pumpkins and hang out. The rest of the group bailed out but Kelsey, the girls and I had fun dancing and carving our bat pumpkin. I didn't get pictures of our final product but it was really cute! The girls did a great job!

Kelsey trying to carve the pumpkin.

Me showing off my "mad" skills of pumpkin carving

Kylie tracing the stencil to the pumpkin

Amanda gutting the pumpkin.. she asked us who wanted ice cream... haha

A couple weeks before for a friends birthday party we did a pumpkin carving contest and Kelsey and I were on a team. The rules were that it had to be scary. So we thought of making a pumpkin puking would do the trick. Well I guess not, the one with Michael Jackson carved into it won. I guess it definately is scarier! But we had fun.

The after picture.

Kelsey and I gutting out the pumpkin at the party.

Halloween Part 1

2009-11-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Halloween a girl in my ward threw a big Halloween Party. There was a lot of people there but we left the party just in time. After we left the party, within the hour, a group of U football players came to the party wasted and with alcohol. Needless to say they got kicked out in a hurry. But after we left the party we went to a restaurant called Village Inn and went in our costumes. We got some pretty interesting looks. Especially me. I was then in a pumpkin costume. After Village Inn we went to Brad and Jeff's house to watch a 'scary' movie called "The Shortcut". It was definately not that scary, more comedy than anything. But it was a pretty fun night!

The group of girls getting ready to go to a Halloween Party.

Kelsey and I in the car on the way to Village Inn, not sure what our faces are about.

Randi and Kelsey playing their part of their costumes

Brad's back up costume.. a pumpkin

Kelsey, Berkley, Brad, and Jeff were trying to put Kristen's hair into dreds

Oh where oh where has it gone?

2009-10-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Camera Cord,
I have lost you. Where are you? I would really like to update my blog with pictures that are on my camera but I need you. You are not in the spot where I last put you. Would you please show up soon. You are wanted and needed. Please return quickly!
Love, your owner

Yes, I lost my camera cord. I usually keep it in my computer bag but it's not there. I have no idea where it is. I hope I can find it soon to post some pictures of some recent events that have occurred. As soon as I find it, I will put pictures on. Until then, you will just have to read my blog without pictures.

All is well here. Just applied for a job in the school district I am student teaching in and hopefully I will get it. I am almost done with student teaching- 3 weeks- but i am not counting down or anything. In 2 weeks I have my presentation to do to a board and they determine if I pass or not. I hope all will be well. It should be, but you never know! Wish me luck!

Kids Say the Darnest Things

2009-10-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

This week has been a really long week. Tuesday after school I found out that two of my students had lied to me about attending the after school tutoring program and have been leaving school 5 minutes early. I was quite upset about that and let me tell you, they did not get away with it. Wednesday myself and the classroom teacher talked to them and then I kept them in for their 3 recesses. They weren't too happy but neither was I. I made them write me a letter telling me what they did and why it wasn't okay to do that. The letters were pretty hilarious! I am pretty sure they learned their lesson and to not mess with me. Then Thursday I had my supervisor come and observe me. I bribed my kids so that they would be better. It was the best they have behaved all week! So today I brought them some cookies.

So the Salt Lake Fire Department is our school sponsor and they came into the school to talk to the 3rd graders about emergencies, what to do and what the fire department does. Well, to say the least those firemen were quite attractive and most of them didn't have rings on which meant that I could look right? Well, of course I did! The first half of the presentation we were inside then they went out and showed the kids the ambulance and gerny (not sure how to spell it) and the hazmat truck. Well one of the cute ones was on the gerny and they were giving the kids a scenario. The scenario was this: the cute one wasn't breathing and they were doing chest compressions. They asked who would come and give mouth to mouth. All the kids covered their mouths and were yelling "eww!", "gross" and "no"! It was quite funny. Then here I am standing off to the side watching the kids and was jumping up and down inside yelling pick me in my head. Then one of my students walked over to me and was like: "Miss Dickson, you can give him mouth to mouth." I was laughing so hard and told her, why yes I could. It was pretty cute. But needless to say, there was no mouth to mouth but some good looking firement. Off to next month and seeing them.

The Most Important Things in Life Aren't Things

2009-10-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I love that quote and it kind of goes with my life right now. I went to the doctor tonight and found out that I have laryngitis and I have to take it easy and try not to talk (that's going to be hard, good thing I have a lot of lesson plans to do and unlimited texting). Besides having laryngitis, life is pretty good. Dad just came down to Utah to visit. He helped Aunt Betty travel down here for her mission and was able to stay about a week. It worked out perfectly. I had no school Thursday, Friday or that Monday due to UEA (fall break) and a teacher professional development day.

Monday I went in for half a day and then Dad and I attempted to take a drive through the American Fork (Alpine loop) and end up in Provo. Well there was too much snow and ice over Alpine loop so we just drove around where we could. The drive was really pretty. On our way down we found about 6 deer. So we turned around and pulled over to get a picture. Dad got a really cool picture of 2 deer crossing the deer. I'll have to steal that from him sometime.

That Thursday, Dad and I took Kodie and Chandler with us up to Idaho to see Chris and her family. It was good to see the boys playing soccer and basketball, despite the cold. Kirk was trying to get Chandler to ride his motorcycle with him but Chandler wouldn't do it, so we convinced Kodie too. At first she was a little apprehensive but once they arrived at the High School she was grinning from ear to ear. While we were sitting at the game Kodie showed me her leg. I asked her what happened and she told me that she burned it on the bike. I showed Chris and Kirk and we got her taken care of. Luckily it wasn't too big and that it was cold enough that the burning sensation didn't stay long. It was good to see Chris. It has been a while.

Overall the whole weekend with Dad here was good. I am grateful Dad came and I was able to spend some time with him. We don't get the chance to do that very often. Thanks Dad! I love you!

What to do...

2009-10-08T15:48:00.001-07:00

Life has been soo good up until today. Life is still good except my voice is gone. I came down with a sore throat two days ago and then yesterday my voice was kinda going away and now today it is gone! It makes student teaching hard. Good thing I have a great teacher who stepped right in and picked up from where I left off yesterday. My students were telling me I had the swine flu or larengitis. It made me laugh. They are such good kids even though at times they are pills. But I still love them. So couple funny stories for today with my students. One of the girls was totally bugging me for my number and I was like no. I don't give out my number. (big no no for teachers that do- so my teachers at school told us not to do). Then one of the girls today, while at the student store, was like I got this for my boyfriend. I asked her who it was and she told me it was a boy in our class. I looked at her and started laughing in my head. These girls and their so called boyfriends. I really need to start taking tips!
So anyway.. back to the no voice... I am hopefully going to the doctors to see what's going on. I hope it's nothing. I'll keep you posted.

My New Found Love For...

2009-09-22T18:10:00.002-07:00

UTAH! I love Utah! I never thought that I would love it as much as I have been. I have been here for about a month now and it feels like I have been here forever! Some of my favorite things that I have done or experienced down here are:
1. The temples! I have been to the Salt Lake temple a couple of times to do baptisms and love it! My friend Kelsey and I try to go at least twice a month. One Sunday we went for a drive out to the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temple. The Draper Temple is one of my favorite ones. The view is gorgeous and the temple is gorgeous. One of these days I will go inside it to do baptisms.
2. Family. I love spending time with Ron's family and Jason's family. It has been a lot of fun getting to know them and hang out with them. I have gone to Chandler's lacrosse games, cut up peaches with Ali, done crafts with Ali, gone to the movies, and play volleyball with Ron and sometimes Jase. Last week I was over at Ron's before volleyball and we were watching America's Got Talent. There was a contestant whose name is Grandma Lee. Kylie asked me what she did and I told her that she told dirty, inappropriate jokes. Then Amanda goes, with a straight face, "ya, sometimes grandma's tell dirty joke." I was laughing so hard I just about started to cry.
3. The fair + Kelsey Hokanson = Good times at the Boys II Men concert for free. This last Friday Kelsey and I were going to go to the Boys II Men concert but it was sold out so we just went to the fair. We ended up heading over to the grandstand where the concert was and started watching the concert from outside the gate on out tiptoes. Then some people came up to us and told us they had 2 extra tickets and asked if we wanted them. Of course we did! So we went in and watched about an hour of the show. It was way good!
4. Student Teaching! I love my kids! Although at times I want to inflict some type of pain for not listening or being rude but I guess their kids who need a lot of help. It has been such a great learning experience for me and I wouldn't trade it for anything. My kids keep me laughing. I'll try to keep you updated on those things. Yesterday I had playground duty and some little 1st of Kindergartner's came up to me and was like "duty, duty...." it was funny!
5. My ward! I love my ward. It is one of the best wards I have been to! My bishop is President Monson's son and is hilarious and such a sweet guy. Members of my ward are just as awesome! I have gained a lot of new friends and only know about a 1/4 of them so far. Yes, it helps that there are some cute boys! :) Last night there was a stake FHE outside. By 9:00 we were freezing cold so 3 of us girls and about 7 guys went out to get Hot Chocolate at a nearby restaurant. It was good getting to know others in my ward.

There are so many reasons why I love it here and I am sure many more to gain! I look forward to the next little bit and seeing where my life takes me.

Getting Tips

2009-09-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

So being in 3rd grade has been a fun yet interesting experience thus far. I love the kids but sometimes, mainly when they are talking and not paying attention (most of the day, I just want to scream at them and tell them be quiet and just listen for once. But I don't I hold it in and try to not get frustrated.

Anyway, the first week of school one of the girls told me that she likes this boy in the 4th grade. This boy is all she talks about, thinks about, and writes about in class. It's quite funny but way too obsessed. Today we showed me a note that she wrote him. It said "you love me? check yes or no". I tried not to laugh but I rolled my eyes and gave her a hard time. Well earlier this week or the end of last week another one of the girls was like Ms. Dickson... I have a boyfriend. I was like not you too! And gave her a hard time. Well, today to make the relationships in the class get more interesting, another girl was like Ms. Dickson I have a secret to tell you. She went on to tell me that she has a boyfriend. I had to give her a hard time but told her she better show me what he looks like. Well after lunch recess the 2nd girl got a keychain that said her name on it from her boyfriend. The teacher and I were like "what! how can they get boyfriends but not us!" I was joking around with the teacher and was like maybe we should get tips from them. I thought it was pretty funny. The girls just laughed and the boys were like you don't have a boyfriend, as well as some of the girls. It was definately one of the highlights of the week. It made me laugh. So maybe I will get some tips from my class on how to get a boyfriend... i'll let you know if it works! :)

1 down 13 to go

2009-08-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

I have officially completed week one of student teaching and so far have survived. My class of 3rd graders are really cute with some challenges. It will be interesting once I finally take over the class. As for now I am just being patient and wishing it was done with so I coudl have a job. I do love student teaching though. It has been a great experience so far. I have seen a lot of things that I was taught at school being put into the classrooms and being really effective. Some of the teachers at the school have even said that BYU-I students come 4 times more prepared than from any other school. So with that said the standard is high and hopefully my chances of getting a job are a lot higher as well. That's it for now... week 2 here I come!

Destination: Utah

2009-08-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

Mount Shasta
Shasta Lake

After going through six states total, stopping off in California and Idaho to have some fun with friends and family, I finally made it to my final destination: Utah. My trip was so much fun. Mom, dad and I left early July 29 and headed to Stockton, CA to hang out with Ryan and his family. The first thing we did when we got there was...
You got it, IN-N-OUT! One of my favorite places to go in Cali (food wise). Since Ryan, Cara and the boys were still at football practice for a few more minutes we decided to stop and eat until they were done.

Our week until Sunday was pretty fun. That Thursday we went shopping for a little bit and I found a new swimsuit for cheap! Then the next day the boys took us to the pool one day and yes I got fried but no worries it is a tan now. It was pretty fun. Taylor wanted to ride the paddle boats but the lifeguards there were really odd and told us in 5 minutes someone would be back to help us. Well more than a half hour later and no one showed up so we just left. Taylor had to go get ready for football practice anyway and the girls had some serious shopping to do.

Saturday Colby had his last basketball game. Their team was undefeated, so it was a good game (competition wise) for the last game of the season. Needless to say, they hung in there and won by one point. The final score was 14-13. Yay Colbs!

After Colby's game Taylor had punt, pass, kick and then got his football pads. Taylor had beaten the record in punting, but only for a little bit. He was quite proud of himself. Good job bugs! The rest of the day we just hung out and enjoyed each others company.

Sunday we headed up to Greg's in Chico and stayed there until Friday. Sunday we went and saw their new house in Paradise. It is pretty cute. I can't wait to see it when they are all moved in and the yard is done. The rest of the week we watched the kiddos and had some fun. We went to Barnes & Noble and the pet store. Thursday a missionary that served in our area came up with his fiance and brought a date for me. It was pretty fun we went to Costco for dinner then In-n-out for shakes and then to the park and played a couple mean games of Sorry. It was fun and good to see Elder Barrow and meet his fiance. Kaelyn and I also had a dance party and she was laughing so hard I thought she was going to wet her pants. It was a fun time in Chico.

Greg and Melissa came back Friday and then we headed off to Elko, Nevada and stayed the night with Aunt Vicki. The drive to Elko is pretty boring but I got some cool pictures of the mountains.

We saw oranges construction cones for what felt like the entire stretch from Greg's to Elko.

Then Saturday morning we headed out early to get to Twin Falls, Idaho for one of my good friends Emily's wedding. She looked gorgeous and so happy! I love that girl and they guy she married, Jordan is perfect for her. I have gotten to know him over the last few months and he is everything that she deserves. We met up with them at the temple when they got out and then we went shopping in between the luncheon and the temple. After the yummy luncheon we took off and headed for Ron's. I felt kind of bad for leaving and not staying for the reception but it was another 4 1/2 hours after the luncheon until the reception and I didn't want to drive in the dark.

Saturday night we got into Ron's and took off again. Jason couldn't make it to the Salt Lake vs. Seattle soccer game and gave us the tickets. It was so much fun and we had some great seats! Thanks Jason! I cheered for the Sounders and was the only one in that section. Despite the loss to Real Salt Lake it was still a really good and I have discovered a pretty cute soccer player who plays for Seattle. Just a little infatuation.

That's my life for now. Student teaching orientation starts next week and then on the 24th student teaching officially starts. I am pretty excited and will keep you posted.

California.... where my heart is

2009-08-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

I love California! The weather down bt Sacramento is perfect, not too hot and not too cold. Not only is the weather perfect but with family down here it makes it a lot easier to want to move here. There is so much that I want to go see but there is never enough time when I come down. Being in Cali for the last week I have fallen in love with it more and more. If I could I would move down here in a heart beat. I guess for now it will just be my place to come and visit. Pictures of the trip will be coming soon!

It's finally here!

2009-07-23T18:42:00.001-07:00

I finally received my student teaching placement. I will be in Kearns, Utah teaching at Oquirrh Hills Elementary School in the 3rd grade. I am excited about it! I had a feeling all along I would be in 3rd or 4th and here I am. I am ready for the challenge and the fun that this experience will be.

Jon Schmidt

2009-07-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Ron sent me this email about Jon Schmidt and his new song that is Taylor Swift's Love Story meets Coldplay's Viva la Vida. It is so cool! I love all of his music. He is very entertaining. I saw him in concert up here a few years ago and loved it! This song is very interesting and creative. You should check it out!

His website also has playlists that you can listen to. I love it! His website is www.jonschmidt.com

Seattle Sounders

2009-07-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, July 11 I went to a Sounders game with the Singles branch here. It was interesting but fun. It was my first MLS game and a good one at that. The Sounders played Houston Dynamos and won 2-1. Houston scored in the first half and then Sounders scored one in the first and one in the second half. After half time I decided I should take a few pictures I took one of the game as a whole and then as I was taking my camera out one of the Sounders players went to go score a goal. I totally had it and when I went to look at it a girls head that was walking by was in the picture and I missed it! One of the Sounders players bicycle kicked it into the goal. Overall it was a good game and it was very crowded. The fans there are crazy and really into it! It was great. After the game I saw this older man who was wearing a bright green pimp suit! It was a highlight after the game! I took a picture on my phone.

After the game a big group of us went to Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious. Even the food and of course the cheesecakes. I split a meal with a friend and then ordered a lemon raspberry cheesecake. It was heavenly and I have been craving it since I have had it. I will definately have to go and get some when I move to Utah. It will be a lot closer.

Mom & Dad

2009-07-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad finally updated their blog but had to change their blog address. Mom couldn't remember what the other one and so we just created a new one. Anyway, their new blog address is http://joegisela.blogspot.com or you can go to their page from my friends and family. It is still called momma and papa.

The New Way to Lose Weight

2009-07-09T20:00:00.001-07:00

The last week was quite an interesting week. Last Thursday Greg and his family came up to visit. Friday I went to work got off at 12:30 then came home and had a headache and a really bad stomach ache. As Friday continued on I was sitting outside watching Dad and Greg paint the house and continued to feel pretty crummy. Come Friday night and Saturday I definately had the flu. Not only was it over a holiday and family was visiting but it lasted for quite a few days. Come yesterday I was finally able to eat and keep it down or in. Needless to say I am 10 pounds lighter and am feeling much better now. However, Greg's kids have it now. Sorry guys!

I also have an update on student teaching placement. I still don't know but should be sent to me end of next week! Hopefully they send it on time and I get it before I leave. I am so ready to know! All this waiting better be worth it.

Anxiuosly Awaiting

2009-06-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

I am constantly checking my email and everything else to see if I got my student teaching placement. Day after day nothing shows up except email from those who have already heard and are looking for carpool. All I want to know is what school, grade, when I start and what the heck I will be doing actually. So amidst all the waiting I am growing very impatient.

IDEAS???

2009-05-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

So I am helping a few of the ladies from the home ward throw a baby shower for Sherilyn and they put me in charge of games. I am trying to come up with a few new games that haven't been played around here. If you have any ideas I would really appreciate it. The shower is this Thursday.

On a side note, to my last blog about getting my endowments out. The branch president told me I was too young to go and get them and went off about other things. THat is a whole other story that if you want to hear me rant and rave about then ask. Life is going pretty good. I am loving the weather up here and have been burnt a few times but i still love it!

It's been awhile since...

2009-05-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

So it has been awhile since I have worked at JanSport again. Let's say like 9 months. Well, no worries, I am back there for you Greggor. I absolutely did not want to go back to JanSport, but I couldn't find a job anywhere else so I went back. I turned in my app one day and a few hours later I got a call asking me to come in and get started on paperwork the next day. Two weeks later, I started. My first day I went in for orientation- why we have to do it every time we go back there is beyond me- but anyway. I went in and then after orientation they sent us home and said don't come back until MOnday, that was Thursday the 30th. So I go into work Monday and worked 7 hours, Tuesday worked 4 but got a phone call after i left to say don't come in. Wed worked a few hours then finally got to full 8 hour days. Well today and at least for the next week we are working overtime trying to get 60,000 some odd units (bags) processed and shipped asap. It's been crazy but in the end it will all be worth it. Hopefully this will be the last time I am employed for JanSport. Work isn't too bad thanks to having like 6 of my friends working with me.

Also on a side note, I went in Wednesday night after institute and had a "meeting" with the branch president for the hopes of getting my endowments out. I am just waiting to get the okay from stake president. I really hope that I get approved. It is something that has been on my mind and impressed in me for the last while. If not I guess I will just have to accept it and find the good in it. While at my meeting I was really frustrated with the branch president. He was talking to me like I knew absolutely nothing. But that is a whole other story. I'll keep you updated...

Graduation

2009-04-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

I did it!
Me shaking Elder Anderson's hand

Elizabeth and I after graduation

Mom, Dad and I after graduation

Family that was there

I did it! I graduated college! Friday, April 10, 2009 I walked with 1,000 something other graduates. There was about a 100 in the education department. For graduation we had the opportunity to hear and learn from the newly called apostle Elder Anderson. He gave a wonderful talk on Wisdom. After commencement the education department also got the chance to hear from him and President Clarke at our commencement. It hasn't really sunk in yet that I graduated college. I don't think it will until the fall when I don't go back to Rexburg. All that I have left is my student teaching. I still don't have the exact placement but I do know that I will be in South Salt Lake somewhere. I just want mom and dad and my "idaho" family to know that I love them and am so glad that they were there with me to share this wonderful accomplishment with me. Thanks guys!

I will survive

2009-03-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

I hope I can survive the next two weeks! It is going to be crazy. Next week I have big projects due one right after another and then the next week I have finals. Why can't my professors just choose one or the other! I mean, it's more work for them and obviously a lot more stress for us college students. I know that once I get through the next two weeks it will all be worth it! Graduation is in exactly 2 weeks. From this time today (about 3:30pm) I will be a college grad with student teaching left to do in the fall. I am so excited to be done and not have homework! Let's just hope I can get my school work done and everything else on my to do list!

One Step Closer

2009-03-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

I am one step closer to graduating! I am so excited and wish it were tomorrow! Today I went to grad fest and picked up my cap, gown, tassel, and a bunch of other free stuff the Alumni Association gave us. I am even more excited about it now! I think the senioritis is kicking in big time, even worse than in high school. I am trying to stay focused and motivated but it's getting harder and harder everyday! April 10 here I am come! I am ready, excited, but scared all at the same time. I am going to have to face the real world and hopefully find a job very soon!

Student Teaching Update

2009-03-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

I just found out that I won't get my placement until late July. I am bummed out about it but at least I know I am going to South Salt Lake and will be living in Murray with Aunt Carol. I am excited to be almost done. There are 5 weeks left of school and I am starting to lose motivation to do homework. But I keep truing to convince myself 5 weeks left, keep going! So we'll see. I walk on April 10 and then I am headed home until August, when student teaching starts. I hope I find out my placement before the end of July.

Where do I go?

2009-02-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

Today I received part of my student teaching placement. I am going to South Salt Lake. I don't know what school, grade, or anything else yet, but I am quite ecstatic to be going to South Salt Lake. I will update about this when I get more info.

Ready, Set, Go!

2009-02-10T19:44:00.001-08:00

School has been pretty good lately. Some weeks are busier than others, but that's to be expected. I have been in fifth grade and still loving it. I am having a hard time with the teacher. I don't really teach much and when I do, I feel like it's the boring stuff that she doesn't want to teach and that she doesn't want to give up the core curriculum things. However, I will have to teach them soon! I have observations to get done. Besides being at the school, I have applied for graduation and everything is set and good to go for me to walk in April but graduate in December. I am so excited and can't wait to get out of Rexburg and move on with my career. I don't know any more information about graduation except that it is April 10. I will keep updating as I know more.

Jamestown

2009-01-28T21:28:00.000-08:00

While visiting Ryan and Cara, we decided to go explore and see a historic area around the area, so we headed over to Jamestown. It was really interesting. We wished we had gotten their earlier so we could have looked at the trains longer, but it was still neat. Jamestown was in many movies and tv shows including, Little House on the Prairie and one of the Back to the Futures (well the train anyway). I really enjoyed getting to know the history. I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed our time there. One day, I would like to go back and do a dinner train/tour that they do, during the spring and summer months.

"I so fashable"

2009-01-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas break, while at Greg and Melissa's house the boys went to a tool store while the girls stayed at home. Kenna and Kaelyn kept themselves busy while entertaining us with a fashion show. We told Kenna to model for us and well, she did. As she was showing off her stuff, she would go "I so fashable, I so fashable". I was dying laughing. She is adorable! It was really good to see them. I wish I would have taken more pictures. Mom and dad have more. I'll have to help them with that when I go home over the summer. I hope you enjoy Kenna' s fashion show below.

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-28T21:12:00.001-08:00

For the week I was home in Arlington over Christmas break it dumped snow! By the time we left for California we had at least 2 feet! It was crazy! We ended up leaving earlier than we planned for Cali because the schools were cancelled, so mom could leave earlier. Here are some pictures around the house of all the crazy madness of snow.

22nd Birthday

2009-01-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

For my birthday my old roommates took me out to eat in Idaho Falls at Olive Garden. I tried a new dish and fell in love with my food. It was amazing! After dinner we started to drive to the mall and on our way we saw a gorgeous sunset. It was very bright and interesting. After we went to the mall we headed back to Rexburg and went and saw The Express. It was a really good movie. I hadn't heard anything about it, but really enjoyed it. It was a fun night. I am so glad that I have such good friends! I wish they were closer! On my actual birthday, Liz invited me over for dinner and made me zesty italian chicken and pink raspberry cake. It was also delicious. I am also glad that I could spend my birthday with family, especially since my cousins are the closest ones to me in Rexburg. Then later that night, Kylie and a couple of her roommates came over and were dressed up in old dance costumes and brought me coffee cake. It made me laugh.

Kylie, Candice, and Ali in their crazy outfits
Idaho sunset

Laura, Rachel, me and Myranda

Myranda and me at dinner

Back in Grade 5

2009-01-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day back in fifth grade and I love it! I am doing my senior practicum, basically a really good look into what student teaching is... in the sense that i am in the schools for 2 full days a week. I was very nervous into going into 5th grade, just because I have only been in 1st and 2nd for my classes. But I think I found out where I would like to teach when I get a job. The older grades. The school I am at is amazing. It is the largest elementary school in the state of Idaho with 12,000 students. The principal is super nice and way excited to be at his job. Today he gave us hints and he said to ask him any question.. he will even help us find great teachers to work with. I am pretty excited to go in and learn more everyday with the fifth graders.