September 11, 2011
Happy Monday! I hope that you had a great week! Just so you know, there are only 20 days until General conference and 104 days until Christmas. (I only count down to the important things). Just a heads up, this is going to be a long email, because it was an awesome week and I learned some amazing things!
I think that is so great that your district does Whopper Wednesday. That is a pretty genius idea. Cheap greasy food has a tendency to be exactly what you need some days. That is awesome that you were able to spend time with Elder Watson. It sounds like you were really able to help him and I’m sure that he will remember your kindness throughout the rest of his mission.
I loved the picture that your Mom put on your blog about the massive Tree Burl. I was a little bit curious about it after I read your email so I did some quick research and you and your companion are pretty much right. A tree burl is just a growth on a tree that is caused from the grain growing funny. Its usually because of stress, injury, fungus, or virus. I’m fairly certain that you could turn that all in to one grand slam gospel principle, but I can’t think of one right off that bat. (No pun intended)
I’m glad to hear that your mission is passing by quickly for you. I agree that life is like that sometimes though, where one day is so incredibly slow and then the next day everything is flying by. Before you know it your two years will be up and you will be heading home. Don’t waste a minute, because this is a chapter in your life that you won’t experience again. A full time mission as a young person is something that so few experience, but that is such a remarkable blessing. Learn all that you can and like I said before don’t waste minute. The more time you devote to the Lord, the more you bring glory to him, and the more he will bless you with every aspect of your life.
This past week was pretty busy. Lots of places to go, people to see and things to get done. It’s kind of funny that in High School you usually have a week or two of classes before you really dig in to homework and textbooks. It isn’t that way in College at all. All of my teachers started lecturing and handing out homework assignments on the first day of class. So far I’ve been able to keep up with the work load, and I know that a huge reason for that is because of the support that my Heavenly Father is giving me. I have been super blessed over the past two weeks to be able to manage my time and get the things done that I needed to.
In my last email I told you that my goal was to go to the temple every Thursday morning since I don’t have class. This last Thursday was the
Because my Thursday morning was filled with service, I didn’t get a chance to go to the temple, but I figured that I would just go the next morning so that I can still say that I went that week. Friday morning came and I got up early to get ready and head over to the Provo temple. If you recall, my first temple trip on Thursday morning only took about 25 minutes to get in and out. Friday’s at the Provo temple are a whole lot busier than Thursday mornings. I ended up being there for about 2 hours! It was such a neat experience, and I’m glad I didn’t leave early…even though I missed my Intro to Music class. Oops.
While I was at the temple I had a chance to meet a Brother Matthew Adams who was one of my Uncle’s companions on his mission. They served in Korea way back when and it was cool to talk with him for a little bit. Super nice guy and it was really awesome to have that connection. I love having those kinds of experiences in the temple, because it is a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. I think we are all going to be quite surprised at how many connections that we have with others, and all of those connections will reveal themselves on the other side.
I took my friend Chelsey (from Famous Footwear) to dinner and movie on Wednesday in honor of her 27th birthday! It was so fun to just hang out with her. It made me realize how much she means to me as a friend and how well she and I get a long. She is definitely one of my very best friends. I spent Friday night with her as well at a craft night. I didn’t really have a project that I wanted to work on, so I just went to help her with some of the scrapbook pages that she was doing. It was really fun.
Yesterday I went with 8 of my siblings to a park on the other side of Provo to play soccer. It was a blast! The age group of people playing ranged from 29-11, and we all loved it. I see my siblings a lot, but we don’t always get a chance to just play together. We goofed around for a while and then split up the teams and played 4 on 4. The game lasted about an hour and we laughed and joked the whole time. Just for the record, my team totally won. : )
The BYU Football game was yesterday. We played Texas at Texas. We did really well in the first half, but Texas really came back and taught us a lesson in the second half. The final score was 16-15. Texas won. It was a bitter sweet game. We definitely seemed like more of a team than we did last week, but the second half really got us, and we just didn’t finish like we should have. Ah well. Next week we play Utah, and that should be an awesome game! I’ll keep you updated.
So at this point, I might recommend just sending me a message about how you are doing and reading the rest of this email later, because it’s a pretty beasty email, but it’s your call. :)
Today was such an awesome Sunday! It is probably going to double the length of my email with how much I learned today and about how incredible and true the church is. To start off, I went to Julina’s sacrament meeting because she was speaking today. Her topic was The Atonement. It was based off of a talk by M. Russell Ballard entitled The Atonement and the Value of One Soul, which he gave back in April of 2004. I totally recommend reading it if you get a chance. She did so great, and I was really touched by a lot of the things that she said. She talked about how Heavenly Father loved us enough (and loves us enough) to let his only begotten son to suffer and sacrifice everything in order to give us the chance to return to him. She related the first vision and talked about how Heavenly Father wants us to feel of his life and that is why when he speaks to his children, he calls them by name. In the first vision, the first thing he said was “Joseph”. It made me think about how in Priesthood blessings they are always started with the individual’s name. Kaytlyn Ruth Monsivais. Something that I have really appreciated about my parents is that the only time that I hear my full name is when I receive a priesthood blessing. They never use it in a negative connotation. It makes the meaning of each of my names, especially my middle name, more meaningful to me, and I love that.
Julina also told a story about the closing interview that she had with her Mission President and how she expressed to him her concern of whether or not her service and mission had been accepted by Heavenly Father. She said that she didn’t’ feel like she had received a confirmation and that he was a real concern for her. She kind of expected him to give her comfort and tell her that she had served honorably, but he didn’t. He flat out told her that it wasn’t good enough for Heavenly Father and that she had indeed fallen short. She said that the more he talked the more her heart just ached. At the end of all of this he then said, but that is what the Atonement is for. It is for when haven’t done enough and when we have fallen short. That is what Christ is there for, to help us and complete our offerings and service. He makes us whole.
The girl who spoke after her did an amazing job too. She spoke on the Atonement as well, and you could tell that she really had a testimony of what she was speaking about. She brought up something at the beginning that stood out to me a lot. She said “All that is unfair and wrong in this life can be made up, and more, in and through the atonement”. Everything. She referenced Alma 7:11-12 saying that Christ has experience all the “Pains, and afflictions and temptations of every kind….that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people”. How cool is that. Christ knows all of it. It isn’t just sins or temptations. Its pains and afflictions of every kind; depression, anxiety, faults and shortcomings, tempers, lack of faith, and whatever else it may be. We don’t have to be a bad or sinful person to be able to truly experience the atonement. We just have to be imperfect, and we all are VERY imperfect.
The sister who spoke talked about how for a time she struggled really badly with depression and that it was really hard for her. After a while she finally turned to Christ and the Atonement. She let him help her be whole. She said that it was only because of the Atonement that she was able to be healed. In the following years she had many close friends who suffered and struggled through the same things that she did and it made her appreciate what she went through and experienced even more. Because of that trial she was now able to go to these close friends and say “I know exactly how you are feeling, because I have been there. I have felt that, and I know that you can overcome that and be made whole through the atonement”, which is exactly what Jesus Christ can say to us. He knows exactly how we are feeling. He knows what it is like because he has been there and he knows. He also knows that he can help us and that we can be more than we can possibly imagine if we will turn our lives over to Jesus Christ.
In our preach my gospel class today the teacher did an object lesson. He passed around a bag with a bunch of random objects in it and had each of us choose one object. He then had us all prepare a short lesson about the object we had and we were supposed to teach a gospel principle. I thought it was a genius idea and it really made each of us think and come up with a creative way to teach. I think that it is a good thing to practice because that is kind of how missionary work is. You come in contact with a random person (like the object) and from what you know about them you have to come up with a gospel principle that applies to them and teach it.
Tonight there was a CES fireside. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke along with his wife. I think that Sister Oaks may be my new favorite person. She has such a cute personality and is so amazing. She spoke about being a Young Single Adult and she gave 5 truths that will help to protect us and to help us be successful and happy. The 5 truths were: 1. The Lord loves ALL of us. 2. We are not saved in Isolation-This life is not about ME. Serve others. 3. Be the best disciple of Christ that you can be. 4. Learn to recognize the whisperings of the still small voice. 5. All singles should remain active members of the church.
I wanted to say Amen at the end of every sentence, because I agreed with and felt so strongly with everything that she spoke about. One of my favorite things that she said is “We did not fight a war in heaven to only get half of the plan or half of the package. You will be blessed with the blessings of eternity if you live worthy. Don’t be frustrated if the blessings do not come in your time. Worry more about being a disciple of Christ and less about getting married.” I don’t know if you had the chance to listen to them speak or if you have access to Brother and Sister Oaks’ talks, but I totally recommend both of them.
The last thing that I wanted to share with you is about something that Ryan Adair sent in the email that his Mom sends out to everyone. Ryan wrote that he had been concerned that he was just going through the motions with his scripture study, prayer, and in his missionary work. He didn’t feel like an effective missionary and he felt like he was having a hard time receiving revelation. He expressed this concern to his Mission President and his Mission president responded by giving Ryan a paper with the following information on it:
"This was all I was given to prepare to be a Stake President from a General Authority.
Read, study, apply, and rely on these things. This is the remedy for greatness."
D&C 76:5-10, 12
Moses 6:31-34
2 Nephi 32
Consistency and Intensity
I’ve been thinking about my own scripture study recently and have been trying to figure out how I can have a more effective and I’m going to try to apply these scriptures to my life so that I can hopefully be a better disciple and witness of Jesus Christ. I hope that you enjoy the scriptures and I hope that it helps you and your companion as well.
Wow. Well talk about the longest email ever.
Have a most incredible week, and I hope to hear from you soon! Remember, you still owe me a lengthy letter. :)
Always,
Kaytlyn Monsivais