Week 60 - Busted

Hello!!!! 

This week was great!!! We were able to set 4 baptism dates!!! Halla!!!! I am so stoked for the work that is happening now! We are really finding great success and I am excited to keep finding what the Lord has prepared here for us!!!!! 

Yesterday we had Elder Sexton of the 70 come to church and he is so amazing! So bold!! We had two investigators in that ward, and at one point he started talking about baptism and why it's so important and he was staring straight at them telling them that they need to be baptized! It was so insane to see from the pulpit! But it was so cool!! And they loved it! After the meeting we asked what they thought and they said the whole meeting was directly for them. LEGIT!!! He also was about to sit down then he was like I just had a prompting from the spirit and I have to say it. He then started talking to someone in the congregation telling them that he knew they were fearful of a mission, that they could never have the confidence needed to go, that they were never going to be good enough to be a missionary. He then very directly said this is the adversary  and that the Lord would have no greater joy than having them be his missionary, that they were more than good enough and that the needed to prepare to go now. It was crazy to hear! I could only imagine how it felt to be the person he was talking to! Half the congregation was in tears and the spirit was so strong!! It was so cool!!!!!! It was a great day at church and I am so glad we got to be there!!!! 

In other news I was driving yesterday and I got pulled over again!!!! SO DUMB!!!!!!! I think it's game they play in Blackfoot though because almost everyone in the zone was pulled over in the last week, they just look for the missionaries and pull us over to scare us!!!! The cop chuckled a little and just said use your blinker when you change lanes!!! I totally did!!! Ridiculous!! It made for a funny Sunday though!!! That makes twice on a my mission, although I would rather get pulled over now than at home, Idaho/Wyoming benefits they don't really give missionaries tickets! Thank Heavens for that!!!! 

In other news I also got an email from Elder Duano (Joseph now) today, dad do you remember him? You went out with him and Elder Wright, anyway apparently him and Elder Ah puck (Vanston) have been hanging out with Jordyn in Hawaii. This picture is so weird looking to me!!! Two worlds just collided my brain doesn't know how to handle it!!! But hey I am glad they get along! It's still odd looking but I wont complain! 

Well we have to go to Idaho Falls so I don't have anymore time, but I will try and write more next week! I hope you have a fantastic week!!!

Love, 

Sister Kaycie Sondrup 

Week 59 - Drawing a Blank

I honestly am having a hard time remembering what happened this week...I know it was good, but I just cant remember right now...I do remember we got to go to the temple though!!!! YAY FOR REXBURG!!!! and in another piece of exciting news I got to see Annie!!!!!

It was so good to see her again and it was so nice to go to the temple again! Oh my goodness it felt like I hadn't been in forever!!!!! SO GREAT!!!!!!

We also got to see Lisa this week and she is just to cute!!! I love that women to death!!! She really is terrific!!!!!!!

We had Jehovah Witnesses come to our door...that was really weird...it was strange to have things be reversed on us but they were super nice!!!

We went on exchanges twice this week and it was super fun. It's really cool to see how other missionaries work and how they teach I get to learn a ton!!!!! In another event their were 50 million emergency transfers this week and now sister Manymules and I work with a set of sisters who are in Aberdeen/American Falls, I thought Star Valley was small, but they valley has nothing on these places! TINY!!!!!! It's going to be super fun though and i am really excited because they are Spanish sisters and surprisingly I am getting so good at understand  it, cant speak it to save my life, but I can at least know whats going on!!!!!

This week we also got to talk to the police, someone broke into the family history center, random I know, and we happened to be the ones who reported it, it was strange and I can only imagine what members thought as they drove by and saw the missionaries talking to the police.

Ok well I know this is scatted, but I don't know really what else to say. The church is true? Just kidding, but really it is, I have had some amazing studies this week and it truly is so interesting to keep learning, we are never done, there is always something new, and I love that fact!!! Hope you had a great week!!! Thanks for writing and I am sorry this letter is so lame!!!!!

Love you lots!
Sister Kaycie Sondrup

Week 58 - McAdoo Street

Hello!!!

This week was great!!!!! The work here is really picking Up!!!! We were able to find lots of new investigators, and just have some fun!!!!!!

Highlights of the week would include...

Yelling at some guy!!!! Hehehe, but really we did...But first back story!!!! A couple of weeks back at district meeting we were talking about street contacting and the Elders asked "Sisters what do you do to start a conversation on the street?" and we told them well we've kind of gotten into the habit of complimenting them, we tell them we like their shoes, or their bike or something and then they like to talk to us, really it works like a charm and I have kind of realized that if you think something nice, you should just say it! So that's what we've been doing, and the Elders said that's cool, we just ask walk up to everyone we see and ask them if they know where McAdoo st. is, then strike conversation from there. I guess it works pretty well for them. Anyway so what happened this week was we were driving, and saw this guy walking on the street and we just knew we needed to talk to him so we sped around the corner, parked, prayed, and jumped out of the car to try and "happen" to run into him. Well he walked faster than we thought and he was way ahead of us, so I didnt know what to do, but I knew we needed to talk to him. So next thing I knew I was yelling at this guy "HEY!!! EXCUSE ME!!!! EXCUSE ME!!!!!" and after what seemed like forever and after chasing him for a minute he finally turned around. Now picture this, I was running after him, and when we caught up I was tired (because running is awful) so I was panting and holding my sides praying I didn't get a cramp because we just ate dinner, and he was like "what do you need?" So I thought of the first thing that came to my head, and as soon as I started to say I was struggling not to laugh, but, I asked him "Do you know where McAdoo Street is?" Sister Manymules was holding in laughter, but thankfully he didn't notice! Long story short we ended up walking this guy home and taught him the Gospel the whole way!!! We even ran into some JW's on the way and they were super nice!!!!!!! Sadly he doesn't live in our area, but he is really excited to hear the lessons and we just know he is going to get baptized!!!!! I felt a little like a crazy person, but hey the salvation of someones soul is worth it right?! Promptings from the spirit are the best, I think my execution may need a little help though...But hey I followed through and we did what the Lord needed! So it was great!!!!!!

So we live out of our area...In fact we live  in the District Leaders area, and this week we were leaving the house and got in the car to find this note

Cracked me up!!!! Especially because the boundary for our area is 4 houses down!!!!! Glad he didn't know we went to Pokey to help the Sisters that morning...It made me smile though, now every night we sit on the boundary line and call him to get permission to go home. Might have backfired on him a bit, but hey I think it's great!!!!

Sorry this is kind of short but I cant focus today, really any day...School will be fun at home...I hope you all have a great week though! Love you lots!!!

Love,
Sister Kaycie Sondrup

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week 57 - Zander

Hello!!!! Ok so I have zero focus today, so this email may be short, but be you should be impressed I'm even getting it off...Anyway this week was something...probably the longest week of my mission, but it was great!

Ok so to start things off we had zone training week which was fun, but the zone leaders decided to do Personal Priesthood interviews as part of it, which was a great idea, until they ran an hour and a half over...Sister Manymules and I were responsible for keeping the other missionaries busy so we had to keep coming up with ideas of practices and practices and practices. It ended up working out though and we had a great time, I was a little nervous there for awhile though!!!! Keeping 20 teenagers entertained is SO HARD!!!! But thanks to the Lord we managed it! I hope they learned something though, I know I did!!!! Thanks to this training though we've set some amazing goals as a zone to have 54 baptisms by the end of the year in Blackfoot alone, maybe that number doesn't seem to daunting, but I know it will make us stretch and I am so excited to start working at it!!!!

Speaking of baptisms...

Lisa has been to sick to meet, and I started to fear that we wont be able to help her get baptized before she passes...But I know whatever happens it's the Lord's will, he has a very specific plan for her, and I know whatever happens is because it's what he needs.

This week though we had an amazing experience concerning baptisms!!!!!! The last 6 weeks I've been in Blackfoot we've been trying to get a hold of this boy named Zander, who supposedly really wants to get baptized, well up until this week I had never met him, and now I certainly wont forget him! On Tuesday Sister Manymules, and I went to the church to pop into mutual, and when we pulled in we noticed a man outside in the church parking lot wearing a tank top practicing his roping, and a boy riding his scooter. Well we really have been applying the concept of talking to everyone lately, and we saw this man and his son and decided we really needed to talk to them, so that's just what we did! Well when they introduced themselves guess who the boy on the scooter was...ZANDER!!!!!!!! MY HEART WANTED TO EXPLODE!!!! Finally I met this great little boy!!!!!! Well the stories were true and Zander is so prepared to be baptized it's insane!!!!! We talked with him and he even started to tell us a dream he had the other day about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and when we asked him how he knew it was them he simply replied "Because I know them, and I recognized them". This little boy is seriously so amazing it makes my heart melt every time I see him!! So this was Tuesday and we went back to his house Thursday and he was sitting on his porch waiting for us. That doesn't happen, normally people hide from us, but not Zander!!! We taught him the first lesson and he asked us "so when can I get baptized?" WHAT?! anyway we set a date with him and we set up another appointment for the next day because he wanted to see us that bad!!! Well come the next day our lesson was at the church at 1:30, and by 1:15 he and his cousin were waiting in the parking lot for us, and when we pulled in they looked up and the biggest smile overtook their faces and an emotion I can only explain as pure joy came across their faces and I truly felt there was no better work in the world that I could be doing than that. Which is so true!!!! Everyday we see this remarkable boy it just gets more and more apparent how prepared he is, the Lord has a great work prepared for him, and I cannot wait to see it!!! Everyday we meet with Zander now his first question it "Can I get baptized tomorrow?", sadly he cant as he has to attend church first, but as soon as he can (oct.31st) I know he will get baptized! I am so excited to keep working with this boy, and I am so grateful to be here to learn from him!!!!!!

In other events this week I was struggling!!!! We just couldn't find anyone to teach, like nobody!!! DARN YOU HARVEST SEASON!!!!!!!!! So one night Sister Manymules and I were driving by the pool, and was like "Sister you know what would be amazing right now and make everything better? just being able to smell chlorine, it smells like home and I miss it" So you now what did? Sister Manymules literally turned the car around, downed a bottle of water handed it to me and said "Lets go get a bottle of water!" WHAT THE HECK?! Probably one of the most random things ever, but it was so great!!!!!!! When we walked in they looked at us really weird, but then after we explained they were like "HECK YES YOU CAN HAVE SOME WATER!!! DO YOU WANT A JOB AFTER YOUR MISSION TO?!"  Hehehe probably not, but now I have a bottle of pool water and it is so glorious!!!!! Like really as far as highlights go it easily goes Zander, and then my pool water, so great!!!!!!!

But I have no focus left!!! I hope you all have had an amazing week and know that you are loved!!!! Keep the faith, and really start applying everything you learned at conference there truly were some amazing messages!!!! Love you all lots!!!!

Love,
Sister Kaycie Sondrup

P.S. Here's my potato facts
1 acre yeilds about 4,000lbs. of potato
the average farmer has 160 acres (this is excluding big companies like non perill)
4,000x160=640,000 lbs. of potato per farmer
in Blackfoot alone there are almost 1000 potato farmers so that make 640,000,000 lbs. of potatoes produced in Blackfoot alone. Crazy right?!

anyway love you!!!!

Week 56 - Harvest

Hello!!!!

Ok so this week has been great!!! To start the week I said goodbye to some of my favorite missionaries ever!! But I know they will do great at home! They also happened to take my camera and this is what I got, thanks sisters...

Anyway, the rest of the week was great! I got Sister Manymules on Wednesday on she is amazing!!!!! She joined the church at age 17, and just over a year after that she came out on her mission!!!! She has a way great story and she is going to make such a huge difference here especially because we serve right outside the Indian reservation and she is Navajo, her nationality alone has already helped us get in tons of doors, and then her understanding of Native American beliefs and Christianity helps even more!!!!! This is going to be a great transfer and I know we are going to see some amazing miracles!!!!!

So apparently in this last week Sister Manymules and I became the zone moms, we kind of already had that role, but it was amplified. The funny thing is the zone is primarily Elders, we have 2 sister companionships in the zone other than us, and everyone else is Elders, well this week we worked with the sisters as always, but the Elders called for help to, instead of emotional issues though they called about physical issues, mainly, lack of food. It was pretty funny Saturday we got a call from the zone leaders and we answered and they were so awkward like hey....sisters...we have a question.... Finally we were just like spit it out what do you need?! And they were like "We spent all our money for the month and now we have nothing to eat!!!!! Do you have anything we can eat?!" What?! first we asked cant a member feed you? Then we felt really bad because they were like "well we only have 15 active members (the cover the Spanish branch that stretches from Pocatello to Idaho Falls with everything in between) and we are allergic to gluten, and the only thing they feed us are Tortillas and they're full of gluten!!!!!" Poor Elders, so feeling a little bad we asked the member we live with if they had anything and together we were able to put together a grocery bag of food, and some chicken in rice for them. When we gave it to them they almost stated crying! They were like sisters if you weren't sisters we would give you a hug right now, and even though you are sisters were still really tempted to hug you, but we'll refrain. Oh thanks Elders, anyway it was pretty funny, now the zone refers to us as mom, that's a little weird, but hey it's always good to help out!

In another eventful story I got to go on a tour of a potato harvest/cellar this week!!!! I had some really cool facts about it but I forgot them at home...so next week!!!!!! But check out some pictures!!!!!!

did you know Potatoes have to be air conditioned or else they'll cook themselves as they sit in the cellar? Also this Cellar is just under 1/4th of the way full, and those potatoes are already stacked 30ft wide and 20ft tall!!!! Crazy!!!! Imagine how many potatoes Idaho produces!!!! NUTS!


On a more spiritual note though, I want to talk about harvest, and not the harvest of potatoes, I want to talk about the Lord's harvest. You see the season and time for His harvest is now. There has never been a greater work than the work now, and I am so blessed to be apart of it!!! We had mission leadership council this week, and it was great, but as a council we set some goals that seem so impossible to meet!!!! But the thing is the Lord has prepared no greater a time than now to reach these goals. Case and point with our new investigator Lisa. She is so amazing! We met her while walking the street trying to find a house, she was outside smoking, and we got to talking. Never before have I met a more amazing and Christ like individual than Lisa. She is so terrific!!! I cannot believe all she's done in her life, and the work she still does despite how sick she is!!!! And when I say sick I mean sick!!!!! She has a pick line, and struggles to even leave her house, she's in the hospital every other week and she is past ready to return home to her Father. In fact the first time I met her I wanted to cry, here was this beautiful amazing spirit who has done amazing things in this life, struggling and telling us she's tired, and ready to be done. That first day we met her you could tell she'd lost her hope for a brighter tomorrow, she's lost her faith in the promise that we can do all things as we put our trust in the Lord. That's whats been so amazing though to see her regain that testimony! To see her very countenance change as she's allowed the light of Christ back into her life. Never before have I felt more compelled to see someone be baptized and confirmed a member of the church than I do for Lisa. I know her time to leave this mortal life is fast approaching, but I know that Heavenly Father still has a great work for her. She will and is an amazing example of Christ like love and service, and everyone can learn something from this dear sister. I just pray we can help her recognize her worth even more so that she will continue to grow and change, and that she will truly be the daughter her Heavenly Father needs her to be when she departs this world. I am grateful to be apart of the Lord's harvest!!!! And I cannot wait to keep finding those prepared souls who are just waiting fro this message!!!

I love this work and I am so grateful to be apart of it!! It scares me to think I only have 6 months of this service here in Idaho left, but I do look forward to going home and putting to use my new skills, and continuing to help others for the rest of my life! For this is the plan my Father has for me, and I do not plan on departing from it!!!! Thank you so much for your constant love and prayers and I hope all is going well for you!!!!

Love,
Sister Kaycie Sondrup