Happily Hectic :D

Hermana Kristen Tuft - tired but in Antofagasta safe and sound and with her companion, 
18 June 2013

Hermanas Bruce, Tuft and Delgado, Presidente Bruce

Mission Tradition- when new missionaries come they shine their shoes.

Last report from Provo Utah!

Look out Chile!

Hooray for Hermana Tuft!

Sister Tuft with Sister Heslop!

Antofagasta Chile District! President and Sister Caywood are located in the center!

Sister Tuft with Sister Bri Barnes, headed for San Diego California mission today!

Hello Everyone!! :D

Hahaha it's just been one of those weeks.... It's been wonderful, don't get me wrong, but everything is just up in the air right now! Last night, we had our first ever devotional at the Marriott Center and Elder and Sister Arnold from the Seventy spoke. I'm coining Sister Arnold's term when she said life is sometimes happily hectic. Which is completely true right now! You wouldn't think that being in the MTC I could be so busy, but I am indeed. But I love it. :) And can I just express a little bit of excitement to you all??? I'M GOING TO CHILE IN 5 DAYSSS. That's all. Honestly that explains my mood and happiness right there. :D It's hilarious though because....I don't speak the language, I've only been out of the country once, my longest ever flight was no more that 8 hours, I've lived in Utah my whole life, pero está bien! I'll learn the language in no time as I work hard and rely on the Lord, the flight is 18+ hours, but I love flying and we'll be mostly flying through the night, and I'm excited for the adventure of a new culture. I'm a happy camper. Honestly, how is anyone not a happy camper?? Life is so good if you just stop and look at all the wonderful blessings the Lord has given us, rather than seeing the "bad" things every day we should choose to see the good. Hakuna Matata. :)

One of these blessings I have come to realize more and more in my life is that of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The past few days I have learned more about my Savior than ever before. Sunday night, we went to watch the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar. He gave this talk a few years ago in the MTC, but I wish you all could watch it! I loved the analogy he gave; he said that the natural man is like Cookie Monster. "I want cookie now, give me now, etc." Or for us missionaries, "I want investigator now, give me baptism now, etc." He frankly but kindly reminded us that this mission is not about us. It never is and never has been. :) When we turn outward, instead of inward and selfish, we see the true Character of Christ.

Last night I also felt of the love my Savior has for me. We were in a room FULL of missionaries. Just imagine this for a second: 4,000ish missionaries in the Marriot Center, with half of them in the choir (which was amazing, we sang Called to Serve) and a member of the Seventy testifying of this Gospel and of Jesus Christ. The power and Spirit in that room was something that I will never forget. Some of my favorite thoughts from their talks were when Sister Arnold said, "Maybe we have untapped sources that can empower us." Which I fully believe for everyone with a desire to change and become better! "Ask and ye shall recieve, knock and it shall be opened unto you." "Resolve right now to do your best every day." Elder Arnold said that we need to, "Catch the urgency of the work. Your mission will effect you for the eternities." "Our most important goal should be to bring souls unto Christ. How do we become fully converted?" "What is your Heavenly vision? What will be written in your book of life? Your book of life will be a literal accounting of your life thoughts and actions... Through the Atonement, we can have a sentence taken out, or a page, or a chapter, or half the book if necessary. Th day to change, to repent, to return to Christ is today."

Things with our "investigators" are great! Another funny moment happened on Friday... :) We were in our lesson with Pedro and things were going so great! We were sure that if we committed him to baptism right then that he would definitely say yes. So I went ahead and asked him and he said YES, but then I asked him if cinquenta de Junio would work. Yep... quince is 15. Cinquenta is 50. And he, being our very committed-to-character teacher that he actually is, smiled, laughed, and said yes. So we have a baptismal date for the 50th if anyone wants to come! :P 1,000,000 errores is the key to learning Spanish and I think I've hit about half way! :P Just kidding, not even close. :) Está bien. :D

I'm sure I will have MUCH to tell next week, but for now adiós!! :)

Con amor,
Hermana Tuft

To mi familia:

Hello!! I love you all so much! :D And I can't wait to talk to you on Monday. :) I wish I could talk to all of you, but I understand that life is crazy busy. :) I should be calling at about 11 or 12, just fyi. We leave here at 9:30 am, so after we're all checked in and such I will find a phone to call. :) Should I buy a calling card here, or are you sending one Mom? I'm not sure how much time to get.... I am so crazy excited. Thank you all for your letters and love and support and prayers in my behalf. Megan and Tom those pictures are SO adorable I love them. Whoever did them did a great job. :) Thank you for sending them! And just a quick little side note....I thought Father's Day was last Sunday, as I'm sure you discovered Dad... So sorry! But I'm just claiming to be super on top of things... :) Happy Father's Day again.... :D I said goodbye to the Caywood's last night because they have to leave on Friday to help their son move, so that was kind of sad for me. Kinda like another piece of home leaving, but I am so grateful that I got to be in their branch!! It really helped me a lot. Also a little shout out for Shop Hop this week: Have a little extra fun for me and tell my "other mothers" how much I love them and that I hope they have a blast without me, even though it'll be hard.... ;) And Lindsay!! LOVE every second and work super hard and please write me you silly girl. :) Kyle, I would love to get a letter in Spanish to translate & struggle out a little response if you have a little bit of time. I know you're busy though. :) Spencer, what jobs are you working this summer?? Dad mentioned something about Sister Eldon's, and someplace else I believe...? I love you all so much! :D Happy Father's Day!!

Lots of love,

Kristen

Hoy es un dia!!

Hola everyone!

Honestly, I really don't have too much to write about so I will just apologize in advance for the short letter.... :) Some awesome news though!! We get our travel plans in 2 days!! :D I love it here in the MTC so much, but I am just so darn excited to get to Chile. Even though it's thousands of miles away, it's winter there right now, and I don't speak the language... But things are looking up regardless! :P Our teacher kind of gave us a reality check yesterday with our Spanish. We can understand pretty much everything, much more so if he repeats it, but it is coming. And I can form sentences, but it takes a little while. But it is coming! I get confused with all the different conjugations mostly, and Spencer just FYI, I wish I would have had you start to teach me por y para. :) Live and learn right? :) Hoy es un dia! :) We also taught someone via Skype yesterday, which was an interesting experience. I liked it, but I wished it would have been someone native because then I could test my knowledge.... :) But it was still good to teach! I feel like we've hit another wall with Pedro and Victor, but we're going to try something new tomorrow so we will see how that goes!

My testimony this week has been strengthened so much. I loved having Fast Sunday here at the MTC. We had a mission conference and the MTC Presidency spoke to us. It was pretty much 2 hours of them covering the whole gospel and I loved it! Something that I especially liked was how much they emphasized the Book of Mormon and what a miracle it is. The Lord truly is mindful of us and of our needs. What a blessing it is to have the Book of Mormon and the ability we have to be able to read it every day! Our devotional on Sunday night was about Joseph Smith, and it made me remember all the church history sites we got to go to as a family, and their importance! So many miracles happened, and still happen today. I wouldn't be on this mission without the miracle of modern day revelation through living prophets! :) Dah. I love this gospel and I love my Savior.

Last night for Devotional we had Elder Tad Callister from the Seventy Presidency I believe? He is a genius. I really want to read the Infinite Atonement when I get home. And my goal is to start (and honestly I could probably finish it on the plane ride) Jesus the Christ. So I'm very excited for that! There's so much to do and so little time around here it's crazy. I'm laughing because an elder in our zone just said, "I always don't know what to write home because I think, 'What did I do this week? Oh wait, it's the exact same thing as last week!'" All in good humor of course, but that's about right. Just learning until our heads hurt and studying like crazy so we can be the best missionaries we can be. :)

One challenge I would like to leave you all with is to read Preach my Gospel. That book is so amazing and it can help anyone, missionary or member, just the same. We were challenged to become Preach my Gospel Missionaries, but we can lead Preach my Gospel lives as well. Just some food for thought, and something to study if you are needing something to study. :) I love you all so much, thanks for your love and support and prayers in my behalf. Nos vemos!

-Hermana Tuft


Para mi Familia:

I love you all!! Just so you know. :D I really appreciate all the letters and thoughts; I wish I had more time to respond to them, but I like just being able to hand write them... I hope you had a great time at Girls Camp, Lindsay!! I would love to hear all about it. :) And it was so great to hear from you Spencer! I'll send a letter back either today or tomorrow. :) Are you all getting ready for trek?! That is going to be so much fun. I also loved those videos of Audrey, Megan! (And the meme made me laugh so hard. :D ) She is getting SO big!!! She is so adorable. :D Just to Jess & Kyle, I saw Elder Jordan Henstrom here so that was kind of fun! And I told the mailroom to keep their eye out for Nicole, because she is so great and they are going to love having her! :)

So some news for you all: I don't know if this has been announced and you already know about it, but apparently there is a mission conference 6 days after I leave at the Marriott Center. It's a huge deal, they're having 2,200 people in a choir (missionaries and members) and the rumor is flying around that President Monson will be there. That's purely a rumor, I don't know if that is actually true or not but it would be kinda cool! Except I won't be here, but that's okay! :P I am so excited to get my travel plans!! Dah this is really happening.

I do need a few things Mom... :) I accidentally dropped my alarm clock today....and it broke.... So I can send you a picture of it if you could possibly get me another one.... So sorry!! It was just from Walmart and I love it because it's cordless, small, and very light and it tells the temp in Celsius and Farenheit, which will definitely come in handy. I also could use another can of hairspray (the black Treseme I think.... anti humidity one....), like 4 AAA batteries, another Downeast white cap sleeve undershirt, and dry shampoo :) Sorry, those are things that I forgot to bring.... And what should I do for a calling card....? Like to call at the airport? I guess I can just see when I get my plans and I'll be sure to let you know what time-ish I should be calling. I hope it's at a time that I can talk to all of you!

I don't know what else you want to know, if there's anything you'd like to know just let me know and I'll be sure to write more next week... :) I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Talk to you soon :D

Love,
Kristen

MTC Pictures

Kristen and all of the sister missionaries in her districts! Way to go Hermanas!

Kristen's whole zone gathered for a group picture!

Kristen got a rice crispy treat from her Mama Quezada across the street! (Thanks Patti!)

Kristen and Hermana Heslop (her companion) in class!

 

Week 3 in the MTC!

The MOM says this blog thing is getting easier and BIG THANKS to Jessica Tuft for helping/DOING so much. :)

Hello all!

Every week the Elders count down to when we leave and this week they were freaking out because we only have 2 more Wednesdays here! It's a really weird thought... It's been a fantastic week though!!

Last night we had our Tuesday Devotionals, and guess who came?! Elder Zwick and his wife! I was so so sooo excited because I just read his book a couple months ago, and Hna Heslop was nice enough to go down and meet him afterward. It was so exciting. :) He focused a lot on Christlike Attributes and how to develop them. He gave us 6 steps to follow, and he likened it to before he was called to the Seventy when his construction company was building the Portland Temple. I wish I could share the whole talk, but I'm just going to share the steps... :)

1. Start with the end in mind. Who do you want to become at the end of your mission/life? 
2. Strong Desires and Commitments. What are the desires of your heart? Set prayerful goals now! 
3. Willingness & Discipline to Work Hard. God is patient with our efforts; ask Him to show you your weaknesses that they may become strong. 
4. Prepare for challenges. You will have setbacks, but you will be changed by a profound new knowledge of who the Savior is. 
5. Structural and Spiritual Integrity. "Called to Serve," Elder Perry, 1991 
6. Total Dedication to the Lord. This is what we do, and WHY we do it. What is the intent of our heart?

It was a great talk. One thing Sister Zwick said that I really loved is our circumstances do not define who we are. Just some food for thought. :) On Sunday, we had Elder Stevens from the Missionary Dept. come and speak to us. He had a talk prepared, but when he got here he found out that we were going to be watching Sister Monson's funeral immediately following, and changed it completely. It was a great lesson on following the Spirit. He had us sing Come, Come Ye Saints with a MoTab video and it was so powerful. He said we should understand that that song is a great and powerful missionary anthem. So we've been singing it a lot around here. :) We just sing s lot in general. I love it. :D

Okay! Some stats for you all: 48% of the MTC right now is sisters. SO AWESOME! :D Our zone (as of today when the new district comes) is half & half. The other district of all elders left for Mexico on Monday at 3 am, so that was sad.... They were in the same spot we are right now when we first got in. So they've been "big brothers" to us. And now...we're the oldest district. Kinda a freaky thought. But it's fun. :) The West Campus opened yesterday!! Elder Zwick kept saying that it was a historical day, because the devotional had to be broadcast over there last night! (Some of the people here got transfered down there, and people will be dropped off there I think today.) We have 4,000 missionaries here right now, but as of the end of July they say it'll be up to 7,000. 1,300 a WEEK will be coming in by the end of July. Right now they only have 700ish per week, and before the announcement it was 200-500 per week. So needless to say Wednesday's are pretty crazy around here. :)

Dad asked about how investigators worked here at the MTC, so I thought I would share more on that. Right now we are teaching "Pedro" and "Victor". They are actually just our teachers, but they are role playing investigators that they taught on their missions. Pedro is 18, he's graduating high school in a month, and works after school every day with his dad. He lives in Argentina, and he's really receptive to the things we're teaching. Victor is a 34-year-old dad that has 3 kids and a wife that he is trying to support, but doesn't have a good job. He's very discouraged and unhappy, but he's starting to understand more from our lessons and it seems like he's happier the past couple days. :) We rotate teaching, so we teach them twice a week for the first hour of our class time, and we only teach one lesson per day. Kinda confusing, but it's such great practice, and it's nice to have people to study for. Our teachers have NEVER broken character before (even with previous classes), but Hna Heslop and I broke Hno Staples the other day. We couldn't think of the word for men because we were trying to explain how women can't hold the priesthood. We literally sat there for about 5 minutes just trying to think of the word! Hno. Staples smiled for a split second. And we lost it; we just started laughing because we knew we knew the word, and he could have easily told us. But he didn't. As we were leaving and he was closing the door, he said, "Los hombres." And then we lost it again. Because it's such an easy word. Dah. It was frustrating, but hilarious at the same time. And it doesn't sound as funny through email, but it is what it is. :)

We also had the chance to teach in the TRC again yesterday. We spoke with a lady named Hna. Silva and she shared her conversion story with us, and by the end of the 20 minutes, we were all crying. I understood most of it! And the spirit was so strong. It's just another testimony builder that we aren't the teachers, but rather the Holy Ghost. And he knows what we need to hear and teach. It was an incredible experience.

I honestly am starting to think in "Spanglish," which I am so excited about! Little by little, each week gets better. :) It truly is a miracle. Thank you all so much for the prayers and support in my behalf. I really do appreciate it. Sorry this letter isn´t super exciting! Each week is pretty much the same, just with a few little stories here and there. My schedule is pretty much the same every day. But it´s okay! It´s the same schedule, but the stories within the day change. I did get to see Elder Willmore before he left! His companion had a camera, but neither of us did so hopfully I´ll get the picture one of these days. I also saw Hna Kelsi Jensen last Thursday!! I didn´t realize she was coming in so soon, so it was such a great suprise when I saw her! And I also saw Sister Leishman last Sunday, so that was fun to!! :D

This is an amazing work, and I am so grateful I get the opportunity to serve right now. I feel so blessed every single day. This week I realize how unimportant it is to focus on learning Spanish right now, so I'm just focusing on teaching and listening to the Spirit, and I know the language will come. The Lord takes weak things and makes them strong. So I have no doubt. I love this gospel. I love my Savior, and I am so grateful that I get to teach the people of Chilé so soon. Until next week!

Con amor,
Hna. Tuft


Hello family!! :D

(I only include this because then I don't have to send it out to ALL the family on email.)

I hope all is well at home, other than Mom stabbing her finger...and the mixer exploding.... But other than that it sounds like things are pretty great! :P Just a random side note really quick; I can roll my r's now Mom, because Cynthia helped me regain that talent in voice lessons.... Hahaha so that is not a problemo. :P So you didn't ruin me. :P I've been loving the rain!! The Conce missionaries in our district hate it, because that's what they're going to be welcomed with when we get to Chilé, but I love it because I know I probably won't see it for a couple years! (Unless I'm in the mountain areas I learned, closer to the Andes...so who knows. :P) I hope the first week of summer is fantastic! Don't waste the days by sleeping in every day Spencer and Lindsay.... Too much to do, and too little time... :) Please send a picture of the dress you made Lindsay! I'm glad to know that Mom didn't bleed on it... ;) Small world moment: I got the picture/bio of my new mission president, and Hna Hutchinson in my district is from Moscow and knows his son! He's getting married this summer she said... So that's going to be a crazy next couple weeks for their family.... I'm glad you got to run into Mrs. Giffing the other day, Dad! And that the plants are doing well. :) I loved that class. :) If the peas come on within the next couple weeks I sure would love a small bag of them if at all possible... :) And Dad your comment about saying hello to me as you drove by made me chuckle, because we all think about how we used to pass by here and wave to the missionaries, but now we are the missionaries.... So it's weird being on the other side of that scenario... :P I'll write you both back separately like I've been doing. I like that best because then I can actually think of what I want to say, instead of feeling rushed with our computer time... :) I love you all so much! Thanks for everything and for being my family. I couldn't have asked for better. :) Lots and lots of love,

Kristen

Kristen at the Temple

Spanish is COMING...I'm learning patience!

"THE MOM" IS STILL LEARNING TO BLOG and can't figure out how to keep it all in the right margins! Photos to come later today. HELP! I need somebody! ;) ~Pam

Hello all!

I'm just starting "Week 3" here at the MTC! They count the 3 days that I got here as week one, so technically it's week 3. But it's only been 2 weeks that I've been here. :) I'm loving it. Everything here is busy and crazy and there is no spare time at all, so it's great but P-Days are something that we really look forward to around here. :) The new Hermana's in our district said this morning that last night was like Christmas Eve, because it's just a very exciting day. And we told them that the day is about as fast a Christmas too, so use every minute wisely! :P

I had a little thought the other day that I wanted to share. So in August, I started my first day of college. That day was the first time I had ever picked up a pencil to actually draw... I was scared to death. I spent 3 hours drawing a tea pot, and it didn't even really look like the tea pot I was trying to draw... So I was discouraged for a little bit, but I went back 2 days later and tried again. By the end of this school year, I could draw something that resembled a human face, which was a HUGE improvement for me. I never thought that day would come that I could draw semi-well. So I was thinking about that as I got discouraged in class the other day. Taking drawing has thus far been the hardest, most ambitious thing that I've done. Now, I can say that learning a language is by far the hardest thing I've done. But I just have to wake up each day, pick up that pencil, and continue to improve. Hopefully by the end of my mission I can speak a language that sounds semi like Spanish. :) And I know that day will come!! Which is such a testimony builder for me and I am so so grateful. I know I could not do this alone. The Spanish is coming along, it is just slower than I wish it was. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go to something called the TRC (teaching resource center) where we get to talk to members for 20 minutes, get to know them, and leave them with a short message. It was so much fun! They were very patient with our choppy Spanish, but it was so great to have a semi-conversation with a native speaker. Hermana Heslop and I really loved having that experience. And we get to do it once a week! So that should be a lot of fun. :)

We also have two new "investigators" named Pedro and Victor. We haven't had the chance to teach Pedro yet, but we got to teach Victor on Monday. It was such a heavy experience. Victor is a dad/husband that only has a job on the weekends, is looking to find more work to support his family, and he is just a very sad person. It was hard because whatever we said to him or asked him, he would give one word answers and acted like he didn't want us to be there. Our next lesson we are going to talk more about happiness and prayer, so I hope that it will go better. It's harder I think to know that's how some people will be in Chile... I'm excited to share the gospel with them, and hopefully they can accept it and become truly converted to see the happiness that it can bring them.

Last week I didn't get to say much about my teachers, or my district, or my zone, etc. So I'm going to do that today! :) We have 2 main teachers, Hermanos Lounsberry and Staples. (Hermano Lounsberry was Matias ps... :)) One teaches half of the day and the other one teaches the other half of the day. They're both great! They try to speak to us in Spanish all the time, which sometimes is a little slower for us to understand, but I can mostly understand what they're saying all the time now! I know that they aren't speaking as fast as they normally would, so that'll be an adjustment once I'm gone, but it'll come. :) I love my district!! We have all the different personalities possible, but it makes it fun and we all get along so well. They boys are so goofy. Sometimes I forget that they're only 18 and 19, but other times it's hard to forget. They put our purifying water bottles to "the test" this week. It was disgusting. But they work! Yich. I honestly I am still grossed out by that one. And I will just leave it at that. :) Elder Funaro is the only other one in our zone (and I swear the whole MTC) that's going to Antofagasta. I hear different missions in Chile all the time, but I have yet to meet another going to Anto. :P

Also, random little side note, I've been looking so hard for Elder Willmore that got here last week and I haven't been able to find him! I have an Elder Jackson in my district that was roommates with Matt Fitzgerald and Jacob. Small world. :) There is one other district that's been here longer than us and they leave on Tuesday. They all went to Vegas and Boise last week to get their visas so they're actually leaving! (They're all headed to Mexico City Northwest, Kyle!) And our branch presidency is also fantastic. :) I didn't say much last week, but I am so so grateful to have a couple familiar faces a couple times a week when I get to see President and Sister Caywood. Megan wrote and said how much of a miracle it is to have them as my presidents, and I have to say it truly is. The Lord works in mysterious ways. :)

Last night we had the chance to hear from Elder Nash of the Seventy. It was such an inspiring talk! It was one of those powerful, "go gettum" talks. He talked a lot about the Doctrine of Christ, and focused on the Atonement. He said, "The Atonement is the hinge on which all eternity swings." How true that is! I never thought of it like that before. At the beginning of his talk, he had us raise our hands to show what different continents we were going to. I thought that there would be a ton for South and Central America, but the most hands went up for Asia!! I would say about 1/3 to 1/2 of the hands were up for Asia. It was crazy! There was a buzz of excitement with that one. The work is hastening very quickly, and it is fun to be here in the middle of it. One of the other things he said that hit me pretty hard was when he read 3 Nephi 27: 13-19. He said, "The Father sent [His Son], and he knew he would be obedient and do his will. Is it any different for us? Submit your will to the will of the Father. If you're too tired to get up, you get up anyway. If you're too hot to keep working, you keep working anyway. If you'd rather take a nap than study, you study anyway. Miracles will come." That was one of those "WOW" moments. It is hard to get up every morning, but on Sunday we had a speaker for Devotional (Mary Ellen Edmunds) and she encouraged us to wake up every morning and re-accept our mission calls every morning. That honestly has helped me keep the best attitude. It makes me remember why I'm here and also that there are people that I promised in our pre-mortal life that I need to go find and keep that promise. It just makes me so excited! :D Love life. :)

And I have my notes from Elder Nelson, so I'll share a few of those with you (thanks Dad for reminding me! :)) The first two are from Sister Nelson:

• "Pray to be led to the people whose ancestors are praying for you! We will then be helping those ancestors in turn by getting their work done.” 
• "Tune out the world. We have to realize that one; they're more alive than we are. Two, they are eager to receive their ordinances vicariously, and three this church is the only church with the power and authority to perform these ordinances." 

The next few are from Elder Nelson:

• "You are baptizing to help them qualify for exaltation, not just to bring them into the church. 
• "[This earth] is not a place to rest; if we wanted to rest, why bother with mortality?” 
• "Having character is better than being one." 

He focused a lot on "Men are that they might have joy, so smile! Tell them your name, make eye contact, connect with them, and truly get to know them. You are their link to the Lord Jesus Christ from where they now are, to what they can become." He also challenged us to study from the Topical Guide under Jesus Christ. There are 18 pages and 57 different titles for Christ. Perfect to study one each week of the mission and become closer to Christ! So I challenge you all to do the same. We can always come closer to Christ. Always! :)

That's about it for this week! We're finally getting into the swing of things, so it's nice to have a set schedule and study as much as possible. I just have to remember I wasn't meant to learn a whole language in 2 weeks. I've learned a lot, but I have a long way to go. :) Patience and diligence is key. :)

Love you all! Thanks for your love and support and letters! :)The church is true!!!

Much love,
Hermana Tuft

To the Family:

Oh how I miss you all!! :D Congrats Spencer on your choir award!! That is so awesome, I wish I would have taken the time to hear your song before I left. You better keep singing so you can sing to me when you get home. :) I loved getting the family pictures! They look so good! :D I realized last night as I was bearing my testimony how much I missed you all, but these 18 months will just fly by. The past 2 weeks definitely have! It works better if I just write you all back snail mail style for now, we'll see what'll work best in Chile, but for now I'll just keep writing that way. :) I'm so sad to hear about Sister Monson. They didn't even tell us here! I thought that that might be news they should share... Oh well. We all found out one way or another. :P And crazy tornadoes!! That's nuts. It's good to hear about things going on in the world. And are they really trying to impeach Obama, or is that just rumor...? If possible, can you send me the weather for the week...? I really miss not knowing the weather. :) I hope your dress turns out well Lindsay! I'd love to see a picture when it's done. :) Mom, it depends on when our DL, Elder Noe, gets our mail. The mail room closes as 7, so if he gets it after dinner than I won't get it until the next morning, so it all just depends. But for the most part I get them the same day! Thank you! :) The whole zone says you're the best mom ever. And I agree. :D Dad, one more thing I wanted to share that Elder Nelson said is that we are never alone. Our ancestors are constantly with us. e said something that might give us comfort is that we can pray and ask Heavenly Father to send us specific people, or specific attributes to help us in our lives. When he said that I thought of Peter. I think he is with you more than you think, just helping you find everything and helping everything work together so smoothly. Have you heard anything else from Jack? I'd love to be updated every once and a while on how things are going. :)

I've got to get off now, but I'm going to try to send pictures again. Let's hope it works! I'm going to send it in a different email this time... If not I'm just sending my card home. :P I'd love it if you kept your eye out for a lightweight robe, Mom! Just one kinda like what you wear around sometimes. That would be fantastic. :) Thanks for the sun burn stuff, I didn't get a chance to read the whole label, but it looks great! And the picture made me laugh. :P I'll be talking to you all soon!! 

Lotssss of love! :D XOXOXO
-Kristen

P.S. Can you please send Grandma and Grandpa's address? That would be fantastic. :D

First Day at the MTC!

Hermanas Justina Quezada, Kristen Tuft and Bri Barnes