E-mail May 31, 2008

Wow - what an eventful couple of days, yet at the same time so dreary.  Dad mentioned that it is raining a lot - here in Florida we get rain storms in the afternoon and its funny 'cause you can see the steam coming off the cement and sidewalks.  The rain is warm and comes down straight - I'm use to rain going sideways.  My little $3 umbrella is perfect, it fits in small spaces, covers me, and so far hasn't broken.

Let's see, I wrote Tuesday and right after writing to you we went out and I met Scott and Cass.  Scott is a Deaf Student at FSU and Cass is his interpreter.  I got to talk with them for awhile, I'm pretty rusty, but it was fun.  Later Scott left and I talked with Cass for almost an hour.  I told her about what I was doing here, asked her about the Deaf Community in  Florida, apparently most of the deaf people congregate in Tampa and Miami, both are out of my mission boundaries - sigh.  Cass gave me excellent advice on the state tests and getting into Sorenson.  

Wednesday we had a 1/2 Mission Conference.  One of the four men that compiled "Preach My Gospel" under the direction of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency came and gave us good advice and told us some great stories about how certain things came together in the process of making and writing PMG.  I also got to see Sister Hartman again - that was fun - she is really tan now.  She is serving in Panama Beach and apparently doesn't use sun screen.  I also saw Elder Hall, but didn't get to talk to him for very long.  The other Elders from my MTC district are in the other 1/2 of the mission, so I didn't get to see them.

Thursday we went to TCC with Elders Call and Durfey and I got to finally teach my 1st First Lesson.  It was a lot of fun 'cause the Elders were there too and the spirit was really strong.  We have another appointment with her on Tuesday - keep your fingers crossed.  For TNT (Thursday Night Thing) we went to play Putt-Putt (that's what we here in the South call miniature golf).  I made 3 holes in one, I am oh so proud of me.  I still lost by a lot however, because when I didn't get a hole in one it took me around 4-5 strokes to get the ball in the hole.  While we were playing we had three investigators with us.  We compared the gospel to putt-putt, it was a pretty impressive analogy if you ask me.

The post office is really close to our apartment so I can go pick up the package - no problem.

Tell Grandma 'Loney and Lisa thanks for their letters - it was wonderful to hear from them and tell Lisa that is exactly what it's like, I feel for her.  If you want a good description of mission work in the South, talk to Lisa.  She knows what it's all about.

The Church is true, the book is blue, write Kelli letters and have a nice day.  All my love - Kell

E-mail May 27, 2008

Thank you so much for all the good advice and ideas on how to contact people. We went tracting on Sunday and found two new investigators. Tracting is much easier than contacting, they are already there and we don't have to try and stop them to talk to us. They will tell you within a few seconds if they're interested or not. Sister Smith wants to pick a word like rainbows that we have to insert somewhere in conversations to make us think harder. I think plenty hard, I don't need to add something else to my worries. The little stinker is going home in 15 days and wants to try everything she hasn't so far. Friday night we're going to Lake Ella and "Sing Tracting" which is when we walk around singing hymns and passing out pass along cards. She is making me spread my wings a bit, if I didn't love her I'd hate her.

Yesterday we went contacting at the mall again, it is so much easier to talk to the sales people than the customers, customers can get away, sales people are stuck. I got a coloring book for when we have 5 minutes of down time, I'm very excited. I also got a FSU shirt for only $10. I was proud of my savvy shopping skills. All 3 of us bought the same shirt, how cute are we? We had a BBQ later for investigators, I learned how to play chess - sort of - I can think two moves ahead, after that I get lost and confused. Ashad was patient with my mistakes. Ashad is from Iran, he's been in the US just over a year and speaks great English. He brings his dates to activities with the missionaries, we are teaching three of his past dates. He's not really interested in joining the church because of family traditions, but he wants his girlfriends to be Mormon. I'll take what I can get. We had a good long conversation with Elder Call - he is very genuine and a good guy. Elder Call told us that other day that he thought all Sisters were Elder seducing distractions, but he thinks that we're "Freaking "A" Missionaries".

These three freaking A missionaries have two lessons today, assuming that they don't cancel on us, but keeping faith, all will be well.

Are you still going to send me that DVD of Whitney singing? I can only watch it on P-day, but I'd still like it.

Sister Summerhays says I need a multi-vitamin since my companions are dying. She doesn't know that my body repeals illness.

Anyway, I love you all very much, thank you for all the love and support. Dad thanks for all the great advice, I'm printing it out so I can study it more. Taylor, have a great summer and enjoy the library, it's a peaceful place. Which cemetery in SLC did you go to? The one up by the U is amazing, it has huge monuments, made of all kinds of stone - I think it's the Mount of Olives Cemetery, if you're going to go look at graves that's the place to look. I haven't had time to really wander any cemetery's here, but I walked by two, someday I'll have to go check it out.

Church is true, book is blue, write Kelli letters and have a nice day. Sister Kelli Wilcox