Dear Elder

December 23, 2010

Thanks so much for your letter! I was so excited when it came in the mail. I’m so sorry that I haven’t written. It seems like life gets busier and busier every day. Can you believe that it has been 6 months!? I’m so proud of you! I have been keeping up on your Blog and am so impressed with your hard work and your testimony. You are such an incredible missionary and I can see that you have blessed the lives of your companions, the members, and all those that you teach. I’m so glad that you chose to dedicate two years of your life to serve the Lord and to teach his message of hope and love. That is exciting that you get to talk to your family on Christmas. I guess by the time you get this you will have already spoken with them. How was it!? ;) I remember when I had brothers out in the mission field that I was always so excited to talk with them on Christmas. One year, we had two different missionaries to talk to. So fun!

Things have been good here. I am actually only working one job now! Are you so proud of me? I’m working full time at UCCU in their online support department. It’s not my favorite, but it pays very well and UCCU is a really great place to work. I’m full time, so I’m working the 40 hours a week and going to BYU part time at night. This semester was probably my favorite so far. I took World Civilizations, Humanities, and Book of Mormon.

My World Civilizations teacher was Dr. Kerry, who has a degree from pretty much every Ivy League school in the world and knows everything. He even references his sources while he is lecturing. He just pulls it out of his head, it is amazing! We got to read so many good books in his class and I learned so much. After the first day of class I was thinking about dropping the class, but he was so passionate about what he was teaching and the books we were required to read were book that are actually worth reading, so I knew he wouldn’t be wasting my time. It was such a good experience and I loved the class! I highly recommend him as a teacher, so keep that in mind for when you come back. : ) Humanities was kind of blah, but the teacher was pretty funny which made class interesting.

Book of Mormon (second half) was amazing. Sister Morgan was my teacher, and she actually worked with my Dad up at the church office building for many years. She has such strong testimony and she can’t help but testify of the truthfulness of the gospel with every word that comes out of her mouth. I loved her class because she was so passionate about what she taught and she wanted nothing more than to strengthen the testimonies of her students. I always always felt the spirit in her class and it was such a blessing for my life. Something funny that I picked up from her is that she always will say “Its okay, the church is true” or “I can’t even begin to tell you guys how true the church is”. I love it when she says it because it is true and she says it so easily. It helped me to know that you don’t have to full on bare your testimony in order to tell people the church is true, you can just say it! My friend Chelsey and I have started to remind one another that the church is true all the time. Whenever we call and leave one another a voicemail we say “just wanted to call and remind you that the church is true…” and then we leave whatever other message. It has been so much fun to be able to add that in to my life and have the constant reminder of the truthfulness of the gospel.

The only other update is that I went to New York back in October! Such an amazing experience, I loved it! When I was a Beehive in Young Womens, I had a leader who I absolutely loved! She was about 25 at the time and she was such a good example to me. I loved spending time with her and talking with her about anything and everything. She was the person that I wanted to grow up and be, because she had served a mission, married in the temple, was pregnant with their first child, and had the most incredible knowledge and testimony of the church. She moved back East about 3 years ago and has been asking me to come out and visit her ever since. She and I kept in touch over email and she was always so kind to answer my questions about life and about the gospel. She is the nicest, sincere, and honest person I know.

Anyway, so I went to New York to visit her! I decided in August that I wanted to go, and bought my ticket for October. I went for about a week and half. I left the Monday night/Tuesday morning after General Conference (which was Oct. 4/5th) and came back on Wednesday the 13th. It was one of the most spiritually enlightening experiences of my life, and it was such a relaxing vacation. Although it wasn’t my very first time flying on a plane, it was my first time flying all by myself! It was a little scary, but it went really well. I took a red eye flight and flew from SLC to Atlanta, Georgia and then on to Rochester, NY. I left SLC at 12:50 am and arrived in Atlanta at 6:20 am their time. I had a lay over of about 3 hours and then left at 9:47am to Rochester and arrived there at 11:50. It was the most amazing experience to be able to fly on a plane. Like I said, it wasn’t my first time, but it was different when I was by myself instead of with 150+ Timpview Band members. The view was incredible and being able to see the lights on my way to Atlanta and then seeing the amazing green landscape of New York on my second was so cool! Before we started the decent we were way up in the clouds, and I was able to take a couple of really cool pictures without any of the flight attendants get mad at me for having electronics on. It was amazing and so unreal. The New York landscape was incredible too. It was completely green and there were so many farms.

I finally landed in Rochester around 11:45, so a couple of minutes early. When I went to get my luggage, it was nowhere to be found. I called my Dad and was like “so…what do I do now”. I kept looking and then saw my bag! It was in the Delta bag claim office! But, lo and behold, it was closed and locked. I went upstairs to the checked bag line and was finally able to get a Delta representative to come and help me get my luggage. I’m not sure how it happened, or why I wasn’t on that flight, but my luggage had arrived on an earlier flight than I did. I’m still baffled as to how that one happened, but as long as it got there in one piece, I was okay with that. After I grabbed my luggage Katy Storey met me with her two daughters. She greeted me with the biggest hug, and it made me all the more excited to be there.

There were so many places that I got to see and visit that I don't know where to start! To prevent this from turning in to a 10 page long letter, I will tell you the highlights of the trip.

First off, I loved spending time with Katy Story, her husband Ross, and their two super cute daughters. Their house is so cute and they have a huge yard! Katy is an amazing cook and I learned a lot from her while I was there. Katy was the early morning seminary teacher. She spends time each day preparing her lesson for the next morning. It was so fun to be able to help her prepare and give her insight from someone who not too long ago was in Seminary. They were learning about the Doctrine and Covenants, which was such a good learning opportunity for me, because everything they were studying, happened right where I was vacationing! Their church is right next to the Whitmer farm. The sacred grove and Palmyra temple is about an hour away, and the Susquehanna River is about 3 hours away. So many historic sites that went right along what I was able to study with her. It worked out perfect. Katy and Ross are such good examples of faithful church members. They have so much faith in the Lord and it is obvious in every decision that they make. The spirit is so strong in their home, and they are doing their very best to raise their children in the gospel as well.

Church Sites! Katy's house is in Geneva, New York (upstate New York) which is about an hour from Rochester, 5 hours from the big city, and right next to one of the Finger Lakes. It is right in the middle of all of the New York church history sites. On I think Thursday the 7^th of October we started our tour of the church sites. The first one that we went to was the home and farm lands of Martin Harris. His house is very large and extremely beautiful. Afterwards we stopped by the grave site of Josephs Smith's brother Alvin. It was super peaceful at his grave and the spirit was very strong. After that we headed to the Book of Mormon publication site. It was way cool to see how the Book of Mormon was printed and the floor that the prophet Joseph would have walked on. They had a lot of historic information, and it was amazing to learn more about the process of the translating and printing of the Book of Mormon.

From there we went to the Sacred Grove. Before I went in to the grove I toured through the Smith Family log house and the home that Alvin built for the family. It was so cool to see some of the things that they would have had and the actual house that they live in. It was especially cool to see the house where Joseph Smith originally brought the gold plates home to, and the fireplace that he removed bricks from to hide them. You could tell that some of the bricks had been removed before, and so they weren’t as straight as what they originally had been. After we toured those homes, Katy let me go in to the Sacred Grove on my own to spend some time pondering. I ended up spending about 45 minutes in the grove, and the time passed so fast! I walked for about 10 minutes before finding a bench in an incredibly beautiful area. I took a few pictures before sitting down to ponder for a minute. Before I went in, I had been thinking about if I had a question that I needed/wanted answered while I was in the grove. Its kind of hard to go to a place as sacred as that grove was and not want or expect some kind of miracle or revelation. As I sat and pondered on the bench, I decided to just sit and allow the spirit to teach me. Although the heavens weren’t opened to me, it was one of the most peaceful experiences of my life. The trees were just starting to change colors, the air was warm, and everything was so quite. The grove is a lot bigger than I thought. While I sat on the bench, I pondered a lot about the first vision and about Joseph Smith. He truly is a prophet and I know that he saw what he said he saw. The spirit that I felt in the sacred grove confirmed to me what I have believed my whole life and it strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. Those grounds are, just as President Hinckley said, the second most sacred place in the entire world, and you can feel. It was so strong that you wanted to reach out and be able to touch it. I have never been so engulfed by the spirit before in my whole life, and it was an experience I will not soon forget. So amazing!

After the Sacred Grove, we stopped by the Palmyra Temple and the Hill Cumorah to take pictures. The Hill Cumorah is beautiful and super steep! The Palmyra temple is amazing as well. I loved that on all the windows they had the stain glass with Aspen Trees on them. It is such an amazing connection to the sacred grove, especially since you can see the sacred grove from the temple grounds.

On Saturday October 9^th, we went to Harmony, Pennsylvania, which is now Oakland, Pennsylvania, to see the Susquehanna River, the home site of Joseph and Emma, and also the grave of Joseph and Emma’s son Alvin as well as Emma’s parents. The drive is about 3 hours, which is a long time, but we were able to drive through the most amazing country. The colors of the trees were starting to change, and everything is so green and beautiful out there. I thought Utah has a lot of trees, but New York made me remember that Utah really is a desert. Utah is beautiful, but its still a desert. On the way to Harmony we stopped at Glenn Watkins canyon to go hiking for a little bit. It was super wet that day, but it was incredible! The canyon was so beautiful and the water falls and river was amazing. A little farther down the road we passed through Scranton, Pennsylvania, which, if you’re a fan of the show The Office, you will know that that is where the TV show is based out of. I was super excited and tried to take a picture…but we passed through it pretty fast.

The first place we went to in Harmony, Pennsylvania was the cemetery where Isaac and Elizabeth Hale and of an infant son Alvin born to Joseph and Emma. This cemetery was the oldest cemetery I have ever seen. Many of the headstones had been cracked in half, were almost completely buried, and some of the words had been completely rubbed off of many of them. It was so peaceful there though, and it was such a cool experience to see the names and dates of the people who were buried there. The graves of Isaac, Elizabeth, and Alvin had been replaced by the church to preserve the original grave stones.

The cemetery is about 100 meters away from the Restoration of the Priesthood monument and another 50 meters away from the home site of Joseph and Emma Smith. So we stopped by the Priesthood Restoration monument, which is huge! It stands around 15 feet tall and is a statue of Joseph and Oliver receiving the Aaronic priesthood from John the Baptist. One of the coolest parts about the monument is that you can hear the river in the background. We also went to the home site of Joseph and Emma Smith. Their home is no longer there and the foundation of their home is mostly buried by the grass, but it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We read about the home and talked about it for a minute and then I walked over the area. I have been so shocked at how strongly I felt the spirit. Yet again, the spirit was so strong and it testified to me that Joseph and Emma really did live there and that the 15 revelations that were received and the parts of the Book of Mormon that were translated in that home were true. It all seemed so subtle, but the impressions and feelings that I had were overpowering. Every time that I stepped on those grounds there was such a strong and prevalent difference. So amazing!

The next place we went to was the Susquehanna River. It had been raining for a couple days, so the road to the river was super muddy and bumpy. We got out of the car and started walking along a path that led down to the river. It was so quite and beautiful because the path was completely surrounded by trees. All you could hear was the sounds of the river in the distance. Ross was walking in the front and he stopped and just stood there for a second. He turned to the rest of us and said did you feel that? The spirit is so strong here, and it was. We took a couple of pictures of the path, which are so amazing and peaceful and then continued toward the river. The water by the river was super muddy, so we weren’t able to really touch the water. We talked about the history of the area for a little bit and took a ton of pictures. The Susquehanna River is most definitely a river, and not a stream. It is probably about 50 feet wide and I have no idea how deep. It was so beautiful and the sun was shining off of the water just right. It was super muddy and we all slipped a couple of times, so we ended up with quite a bit of mud on our shoes and clothes. On the way back from Harmony, Pennsylvania, we stopped at Cornell University in Ithica. I thought BYU had old buildings, but Cornell had some incredible architecture that was super old. It was cool to see college students on another campus and to experience the atmosphere.

The next day, Sunday the 10^th, we went to church. The Storey’s church is so incredible. It is right next to the Whitmer Family Farm, which is where Joseph Smith stayed for quite a while, and where the first meeting of the church was held. The spirit was so strong in the sacrament meeting. It was fast Sunday, and the missionaries had brought an investigator to church and he stood up to say something. It was the coolest! He talked about how he thought we were all such good people and that he really felt the spirit in the sacrament meeting. He kind of talked like a gangster, so it was really funny, but I loved that he was so excited to share what he felt. I bet you get to see that a lot our in the mission field! I can’t wait for the opportunity.After Church I took a tour of the Whitmer home. The spirit was so strong there. One of the coolest things I learned was that whenever anybody in Ross and Katy's ward is ordained or is given a calling, they are set apart in the Whitmer home, because that is where the church was originally organized. Is that not the coolest thing!? I thought it was.

The last big thing I did before I left was go to Niagara Falls. It was so amazing and I got some really good pictures. The falls are huge! I got to go on the Maid of the Mist boat and ended up soaked, but it was so worth it. The Falls truly are a wonder of this world and I loved getting the chance to see them up close and personal. We had a picnic about 30 feet away from the horseshoe falls, which was way cool. The mist was everywhere, but it was awesome!

From Niagara Falls I headed straight to the airport and headed home. I almost missed my flight that was leaving from Rochester at 3:27 pm. I arrived at the airport around 3:15, so I ran in, hurried through security, and ran toward my gate. They were calling my name over the intercom while I was turning the corner. I was super stressed at the time, but looking back at it, it was pretty funny. I arrived at the JFK airport in New York at about 5pm and had a layover of 2 hours. I sat and read for a while, grabbed something to eat and it was time to go again. We loaded the plane and left about 20 minutes early. After we left they announced that we would be arriving to Salt Lake about 45-60 minutes early! Wow! We ended up pulling in to the airport at 10pm. I was so ready for bed! It had been a long day, and the 2 hour time change wasn’t helping either.

I loved my trip to New York so much. I’m glad I got to experience the East a little bit. I don’t know if you have already been to all of these church sites, but if you haven’t, it is definitely worth the trip. The experiences I had there have been such a blessing in my life and it has strengthened my faith and testimony.

Other than that trip, there hasn’t really been anything else big going on. I hope everything is going well for you. I really am so proud of everything you have been doing. You have such a strong testimony and spirit and I know without a doubt that the Lord is so pleased with everything you have done on your mission. Keep it up, and focus on the work. Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you, or if there is anything you need. Don’t forget, the church is true!

Kaytlyn M

Sneezing Panda (HD)

Do You Know?

Do You Know What It Feels Like

To Have The Sun Shine For You?

A while back in Relief Society a girl told a story about how a friend of her's turned to her one day and asked "Do you know what it feels like to have the sun shine for you?" The girl told her friend no, to which her friend replied "Well you better get on that. Because you are a child of God".

So the question is....

Do YOU know what it feels like,

to have the sun shine for you?

If you don't, I think its time ya do.

P.s. The church is true.

New New New

So I Have This Job See

....

Actually...I Have Two.

My first job is at Famous Footwear. I interviewed at Famous Footwear in June of 2007, so one month before I turned 16. I started working officially the week after my 16th birthday and have worked there ever since. My manager Chelsey, is AWESOME. She is an incredible boss and has been so nice to me(especially with my crazy schedules due to band, family, and work). The week after I graduated from High School, I was promoted to the position of Assistant Manager. I love shoes and I love working at Famous Footwear. It has been such a good learning experience and I have grown so much from it. The only problem with Famous Footwear, is that I don't get the same amount of hours every week. Chelsey has been really good about giving me whatever she could, and in August and December I can have as many as I want, but I usually got cut down to 20 or even 10 during January, February, and October. So although I loved working at Famous, the hours were not the most ideal for me.

The second job I have is at Utah Community Credit Union. I applied for, interviewed, and got my intership with the Credit Union at the end of my Junior year, so in May of 2008. It was interesting to learn about the credit union and about the whole banking system. I was an intern all through my senior year and loved it. I worked with Kellie and Lisa and learned a ton from them. The summer after graduation a position opened up at the Riverwoods branch, which is where I did all of my training at. I applied for it and got the position. I have worked with a few different tellers, but mostly just Mel, Loryn, and Karlee. Mel is the head vault teller at the riverwoods branch, which pretty much means she runs the place. Loryn is the assistant vault, so she helps Mel run the place. And Karlee is a part time teller just like me. I have loved working with them and have made some awesome friendships. I love all of them and am so grateful for all that they have helped me with and taught me.

So the reason that I applied for the job at uCCU even though I had just recieved a promotion and a raise at Famous Footwear is because of hours. I really needed the consistant hours and because UCCU could give me almost the exact same pay with guranteed hours, I kind of had to take the job so that I could pay for school and a car and all that fun stuff.

About a two years ago, a rumor started at Famous Footwear that they were going to open up a new store in the University Mall. They kept saying that it would happen in the next couple of months, and low and behold....nothing happened...until this last November. Famous Footwear's arch nemisis is Shoe Carnival...well sorta. Shoe Carnival built a store that is just a few blocks away from the Orem Famous Footwear where I work. Business didn't go down a ton, but corporate got word of it and decided to do something. Plans started to go in for a new store in the Mall, and on November 2nd it was made official. Chelsey, my manager, called me and asked me to come in to work before I went to class that night. When I walked into the store she explained to me that it was finally official, that we were really opening a new store and that it should be up and ready to go in March. She then told me that she wanted me to come on full time as her assistant manager and offered me an awesome pay raise. I had to take it. I would be getting 40 hours a week instead of 25 and the pay raise was something that I would never ever refuse. Besides the logical reasons, there was also the fact that I love working at Famous Footwear and I love the people I work with there.

So...I took the offer and am going to work full time at Famous Footwear. Because of this decision, I have to quit my job at the Credit Union. Sad day.

MEL START READING HERE

So today is my last official day at Utah Community Credit Union. It is the last day that I will be covering my own scheduled shift. The good thing though, is that my awesome branch manager is going to keep me on as a temp. Which means that I can still work a few saturdays a month, and I help out covering shifts.

So this super long blog entry is to say thank you.

• Thank you to Brandon, for keeping me on as an intern, even though I missed the week of training. Thanks for hiring me on as a teller, and for being so understanding when I quit.

• Thanks to Kellie for coming to Timpview and setting such an awesome example for me of what a good assistant manager does and how to be a hard worker.
• D
• Thanks to Lisa. For putting up with me every other lunch at Timpview, for giving me trash all the time, and for always being there to talk to.

• Thanks to Loryn, for working with me every afternoon for months. Thanks for laughing and joking with me, and thanks for watching movies with me on Saturdays.

• Thanks to Karlee for being an intern with me. For being my friend. For helping me be a better worker, and for having such an awesome attitude about everything.

This one is going to be a long one.

Thank you Mel.

What for you ask?

For:

Training me. Teaching me. Being understanding. Listening. Being patient. Helping me. Correcting me. Teasing me. Laughing with me. Taking a class with me. Helping me with homework. Calling me a turkey and a snot. Being my friend. Playing the wii with me. Teaching me to open the vault. Laughing at all of my OCD habits. For being such a good friend even when I'm being a total butt. Telling me all your "one Rules". For giving me trash. For making me Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake. For bringing me back Cherry Coke Chapstick from Vegas. For bringing me cherry coke(yum).

Thank you so much Mel. For everything you have taught me and for everything that you do for me. I really am truly sorry that I'm quitting and that I have to leave. I have loved working with you and I'm going to miss seeing you every day. You have been such an awesome friend and you have helped me through a lot. Thank you for being a great supervisor and for being so patient with me when I was off. You have been an incredible example to me. You have taught me so much about work and about life. You are an awesome spirit with you and I'm so grateful for you testimony and love of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank You Thank You Thank You

I love you so much Mel and we definitely need to hang out more often.

Because we are friends, and we always will be.

WITH love,

Kaytlyn Monsivais

RWT4L

"It's Repetitive" "And Redundant" "Its Repetitive" "And Redundant"

Especially watch at 1:45. :)

So My last post was about the not really car accident that I was in with my car Paul Anka, whose name sake comes from the 60's teen singing sensation Paul Anka

as well as the dog in Gilmore Girls named Paul Anka.

So, here is the repetitive and redundant repetitive and redundant part. I got in an accident with my car Paul Anka. So about a week ago, I was driving on University Avenue. The same University Avenue that I got in the first accident. Except I was on my way home from work and I was going in the opposite direction. The light over by Will's Pit Stop turned green and all of the traffic started to move as normal, including me and the huge Ford F250 in front of me. But, here is the thing about me and driving. I am very much a traffic-should-just-move-as-normal type of driver, which means I do awesome on the freeway and not so well with traffic lights and dumb city drivers. So when traffic starts moving, I move with it, and when the car that is four cars in front of me decides to stop I totally space it and don't do so well with my driving skills. So the car a few cars up decides to stop and so does the huge truck in front of me. When I finally realized this I slam on my brakes and try to move out of the way, only to hit the very pretty truck in front of me. The truck was fine, because it is after all a truck. Just a few scratches here and there, but no real damage. My poor Paul Anka however, took a little bit of a beating.

Now remember how I ran into a truck? Well trucks generally have a tow package which means they have this solid metal 3-4" square rod sticking out of the back of their vehicles. So, because of this unfortunate but very useful piece of metal pulled from the earth I now have a very large gaping hole in the front of my bumper.

So despite this VERY awful looking hole and the slightly bent hood, Paul Anka is okay and so am I. Poor Paul Anka.

"Its Repetitive." "And Redundant." "Its Repetitive." "And Redundant."