"Do you believe in Reincarnation?...because I wanna come back a thigh master"

Uhm, first of all....I'm freaking out. I've been waiting all week to finally be able to snag a computer and hear from Kelsey. I basically ran to bed last night, just so I could wake up earlier and the entire walk up to campus I was like, "i need to record my reaction. i'm gonna freak out. I'm not allowed to scream in libraries right...oh gosh. oh gosh. oh gosh."
I may or may not have skipped over President's email...just so I could check kelseys.

BIRMINGHAM ALABAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HIJOLE!!!!
I'm so stinking excited. We both got states with "A"...it was meant to be :P haha. Also, I've already told Kels this, but she has successfully made me cry. Which is a challenge. Thats only the 4th time in 11 1/2 months. and the third was this week with Cody. Man, I must be loosing it or something. (smiley face)

also, I already apologize if this email suddenly halts. I'm talking to kelsey now, and my little fingers just can't type as I my brain is going.

alright... other things

SO
thanksgiving.

one breakfast appointment
"cocktail hour" --non members...we drank gatorade
THREE thanksgiving dinners
three desserts

I had a coma/ thanksgiving hangover all friday.
it was bad.

buckle up sister...those southerners are gonna deep fry everything.
deep fried twinkies anyone?

After all the festivities we had this amazing lesson with Cody. We were talking all about the priesthood, and some other awesome personal things. There was this moment in the lesson where none of us were saying anything, and this line from my blessing popped into my head..and then I felt, "you thought you were here to save them...but some, like him, are here to save you"
it was...incredible. to say the least. I can't even describe what went on in that lesson, but I can't deny that spirit. Or how much Christ loves us...or how He will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to take care of us.

We woke up at 4 am...drove 4 hours to Tucson. had a 3 hour training. drove 4 hours back, and still miraculously made it back in time for our dinner appointments and splits. loooooooooooooooooong day.
doing it again tomorrow.

We got in touch with this girl Whitney, my age. We all instantly clicked. She's been hanging around the institute for about three years, and is friends with all the ysa members. Tons of missionaries have talked to her, but she's only let 2 teach her. They never got past a second lesson..and nothing has really happened from it. She came to institute where Elder Brubaker had us to an impromptu Plan of Salvation lesson. She came up after and asked if she could have a lesson.
We taught her Saturday, and while talking to her we asked if amongst all the missionaries if anyone had given her the book of mormon. They had, but after talking we found out no one had explained what it is. We taught her all about it, and she got super into it...and then somehow it turned into a law of chastity lesson (on a first...say what?!) and she loved all of it. She actually said, "oh i'm so excited!"... ding.
she told us that she's going to start reading the book of mormon (which she has never done) and that she'll text us summaries. then she asked if we could teach her again.
We taught her last night about the restoration and she agreed with it...and was getting excited too. it all made sense. She has to leave for a few weeks, and we were really sad to see her leave for a bit. In this past week we've gotten really close. but she said, "we can have lessons on the phone. and you can text me scriptures to read"..we told her if she found a chapel out where she's at we will :)
I adore that girl. instant friends.

oh, another thing that made my week. We ran into a guy the other day on the street, named Jesse. We asked if he was excited for thanksgiving, and he just got this sad look on his face and said it wasn't going to be a good one cause of things going on with his family. I asked if we could bring something over and he's like "yeah! yeah I would like that"
We made all the food you sent me, potatoes, corn bread and pumpkin bars and brought them over to his house. His mom answered the door and she's like, "are you the nuns from the bus?" we just started laughing and she said, "jesse has been talking non stop about you two..how you're so pretty..and the nicest people he has met. he was hoping you would really show up...and you did. he's going to be so excited". so we had an awesome talk with his family. They invited us to have thanksigiving dinner with them, which we totally would have...if we didn't already have three set up. But it made my whole day-- and yeah, we finally cleared it up to them that we weren't nuns.

well. life sounds super exciting at home! keep all the updates coming. love you dad keep going strong.
loved the pics you sent of my little Grady..and i'm excited about Mrs. Clause. I tell people here. no big deal.
I live in a christmas snowglobe anyways.

love you all! HAPPY DECEMBER!
xoxo
hermana aguas

OAISDJFLASKDJFASIOPDFJSLAKDJF;ASLKDFJDKDFU;IOASDJFSA still so excited kelsey!

"you hang out with the guys in the black suits right?" "ya!" "you mean like the Vulturi off twilight?!"

basically i'm gonna give blips cause I've been having major comp issues.

so.

 

we had a training in Benson Arizona on Wedesnday where Elder Bradley Foster of the 70 gave us a training. It was awesome, and we ended up talking about how personal our relationship with our Heavenly Father is. Some of the best parts (besides the spiritual stuff) was driving 3 hours with the elders, trying to throw/dodge sunflower seeds we threw at each others cars, they sang happy birthday to me at the meeting, and I got to see my buds Elder Maughn and Elder Densley again!! oh, it's been too long

 

We saw Cleophus the other day, aka rafiki. He was asking me when I get to see you all again and I said in July. He said, "really? that's too long..you're super funny and have a warm personality, and I bet they miss you a lot." Then we started talking about his birthday this upcoming week and he said that he wasn't born in a hospital and so nobody really knows how old he is. He could really be 5 years younger or older than he is. And then when he came to the states they told him they didn't have a birthday, so he just picked one! He just fell over laughing saying, "I don't even know my own birthday! and my passport says a different day, so I'm a little confused".

I also asked what he wanted me to make him for his birthday and he said, "i don't know. I want to eat like an american. so uh..maybe ice cream and boofalo (buffalo) wings"

 

so to add more of the new mexico experience. there are parts that are straight out of little house on the prarie. Really, you just walk into some peoples places and they have those campling tin utensils as their normal things, with a blazing fire, and we eat sloppy joes out of a dutch oven. pretty sure it was their own cow as well. oh the stories that were told in that little cabin. We're spending christmas there :P

 

Ps, no mom we're not spending thanksgiving at the mission home. we live 4 hours away. the members/ysa take care of us..so we already have 2 thanksgiving dinners set up, and all the food you sent me, we are making and taking it to this guy Jesse who I met on the street the other day who can't afford thanksgiving. He's super sweet and I thought he was gonna cry when I told him I wanted to come visit him on Thanksgiving.

 

remind me to tell you about the dog who ate a mans finger, and the deer hanging out of little metro car.

all people say to me is, "welcome to silver city"

it is nuts here. so funny.

 

have a very very very lovely thanksgiving. i'm heading over to northern tucson tuesday (look for me kayci rae) but then heading back to nm that night. i'm excited, and remember everything we're grateful for. especially the restored gospel, which makes it possible for us to receive revelation and be sealed to our families forever in holy temples.

man, the gospel is so cool.

 

also, i've decided they should make the book of mormon into a movie. everyone would watch it and love it.

just sayin

 

love you!!!

good luck friday dad!

-kait

we're going to baptize the sin out of this city. it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it

Where to even start with this week?

Well it snowed! I never thought I would say that on my mission. It didn't stay, but we did have a little layer on our jeep when we woke up, so I was pretty excited.

So last Monday we had an fhe with the YSA. Cody (i'll have to tell you stories on him later) was in charge and we did a walk of faith. We had a lesson and then we all had candles, and had to walk this path that he told us to by ourselves with only a candle (light of christ) while carrying a large rock to represent our trials. This woman came out of her house as Hermana Sanchez and I walked by and she's like "what is going on? I was sitting in my house, and I just felt this amazing feeling/spirit come over me, and I looked out and saw all these moving lights!"
We talked to her for a little, and we're going back to teach her.

This girl Erica came that night, she's been coming to a few of the activities, and she came up to me and started asking me questions about the church. After I had basically answered all her questions just with the Restoration, she told me that she had found a book of mormon somewhere and that she's been wanting to read it, but didn't know where to start.  We've been seeing her quite a bit, and she is the sweetest girl in the world. There was a camping trip for the YSA on friday that she couldn't go to, but she made a "survival kit" for everyone that went, and hand picked scriptures for everyone and wrote them on each of their kits. She is so cool.

And then, there is Cleophus. He LOVED the faith walk. He wouldn't even blow out his candle afterwards, because he still wanted "the light". He came to church on Sunday and I was a little nervous because all the classes were about tithing and food storage, but he loved it. especially tithing! I asked him how he liked church and he said in his super thick kenyan accent, "it was awesome!"
We got Brit, Cody and Sean to all come have a lesson with us after and we talked all about the book of mormon. We talked about them sailing across the "great waters"..and he asked if that's what I was named after...but at the end, everyone talked about how they feel the spirit differently and we extended baptism again. He thought for a minute and he said, "yes. yes I want to!" So now he's preparing to get baptized in December, right after my birthday.

what else? ohhh goodness, remind me to tell you all about Holly sometime... that was an adventure. Let's just say after talking to her for 10 minutes she looked at me and said, "you look really scared. are you ok?"...i'm handing her off as a spirit world referral.

so the other day Hermana Sanchez and I were making cupcakes for this kids birthday. We haven't used the oven yet, because members feed us everyday. I walk into the kitchen after a few minutes and its all smokey and smells really really bad. I open the oven and its on fire! The elders before us had made a pizza, dropped it in there, and didn't clean it out. So we clean it all up, put in the cupcakes again and call it good. It smelled bad again, so I open it again, and there's another fire. I was crackin up. Hermana Sanchez wasn't too happy. And it took all day to desmoke our house, but it was great. I laugh a little bit more each day with what I find out here in Silver.

Well, I guess I'll just have to tell some other stories later. It's super windy here...anyone up for flying kites across state borders? sounds good

have a good week. I'm praying for you dad
love you!
love,
hermana kaitlyn aguas

p.s. I saw a dog that looked just like Sirius Black and cody saw a mountain lion the other day. not a big deal.

"Everyone wants to be on the Jesus Team"

Dear Family,

I have some very important news. My investigator, Cleophus, sounds like Rafiki. 

Love,
Kait

We had an AWESOME day the other day. So we had an appointment with Cleophus for Saturday and he cancelled on us Friday night because he had a commitment come up. I was super bummed because he said that he's been praying about whether he needs to be baptized again (he's catholic). Well, Saturday morning we go walking towards campus and Hermana Sanchez just yells "CLEOPHUS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"...and there he was, just chillin!
We set up another appointment for an hour later at the institute. We got there, and we forgot the keys, so we just went and had our lesson on a bench under all the trees. We were talking for just a little bit and he turns and asks, "How do you baptize?"
We pulled out a picture/pamphlet of Jesus Christ being baptized, and we explained it a little more. He was really quiet and he started reading the pamphlet. He went over "Why do I need to be baptized?" and "What is the Gift of the Holy Ghost"...then by divine intervention it turned strait to, "How can I know?". He then read a part that said, "when you are baptized with the proper authority, all your sins can be washed away"...he asked "what is the proper authority?" We brought it back to Joseph Smith and he asked if he could be baptized again, and how long it would take to prepare. We extended another baptismal date and he said he needed to pray about it. I asked if we could pray right then, and so he said a prayer..in the middle of all those trees...asking to know where the Lord's kingdom is once again..and the spirit was SO strong. He said amen, and said that he felt better and less confused.
oh I loved it.

We also have this other kid named Robert, who we've been trying to teach...but just have never been able to meet up with him cause he is super busy with the football team. When he's not playing, he's either working out for football or watching football. Last night we were at the institute and we're like, "we really want to meet up with Robert" but his football game was going on, and he just couldn't get himself to leave. after a few minutes his friend had given up and was saying that he wasn't coming. Then Hna Sanchez and I, almost at the same time said, "what about halftime?". We took preston's phone and called him, just asked him to come over for a few minutes. AND HE SHOWED UP. and we started talking, they played a little bit of pool as we were talking, and he stayed. Then Cleophus showed up and started listening/playing too. With both of them, Robert decided to miss the game he was watching (big deal for him). And he's coming back!

I love the YSA

as for other events, the leadership conference was cool. looooooooooong drive to tucson, but we had four sisters in our jeep so that was fun, and then we had a giant sleepover with six of us. Makes me kinda nervous to go back to college, not sure living with 6 girls is my forte. but then I got to see a bunch of my friends at the training, so it was worth it.

halloween was good too. Hermana Sanchez and I dressed up as Elders for the halloween party. What made it better, was that was the first time the ward saw us--broke the ice real quickly :)    The members are spoiling us here..its pretty great.

yep. life is good. How is everyone back at home? can't believe brett is done with soccer! tell everyone I say hi!
love you...have a LOVELY november!!
love,
hermana aguas