first talk in spanish with only 5 minutes of prep.

k hi!!!! ahhhh i miss you all!!! how is everyone?????

this week has been really weird and crazy. last tuesday at like 9 at night they called us and said we were gonna have an emergency transfer. and hermana aldas left us!!!!!! noooooo i was so sad i love her like crazy!!!! but we got a new companion hermana conforme...the weird part is that she hasnt even been to the mtc yet. she is from ecuador and is going to brazil, but missing a paper, so she is just with us for 1 or 2 more days. shes pretty funny. loves anime, you know the regular. haha. and she isnt used to the altitude so we literally have to stop every like 3 min so she can breathe, and hermana fischbuch and i just straight up laugh.

gosh this area is a little bit tough. people say that our mission baptizes in the coast but here in quito is hard.  we have all these investigators that start to progress, but then none show up to church. its sooo freaking frustrating!!!!!!!! my spanish is getting better though. yesterday hermano luis came up to me and said i needed to give a 15 min talk in sacrament 5 min before sacrament started. ummm yeah you know my thoughts. ohhhhhhh shoooooot. i started laughing and said uhhh en espanol?? and he was like si se puede! oh freak so anyones somehow i pulled it off and gave a 10 min talk about el libro de mormon en espanol. after i felt pretty good because our mamita and her family were like you speak better then this other sister in our mission that has 6 months here. so yeah i felt better.

gosh this week though has been tough. before i left ryan talked to me about how satan can work on us. and holy crap i dont think ive ever felt satans power more in my life, which freaks me out cause im on a mission. but i dunno just like thoughts like i should go home and why am i here?? and finally i talked to hermana fischbuch about it because i just needed to tell someone, and she was like satan does that because he knows there is people here that only you can reach. this has really hit me hard. because i know there are people here that are ready for the gospel, but we just need to find them!!!!!!!!! i have been feeling better too!! so no one fret!!!

the best part of the week was for sure when we were trying to find this families house that we had contacted. we had been looking for like 15 min and finally asked these nice people. and they were so helpful and even ran down the biggest hill and back up to get there cell phone, cause we cant carry phones here cause its dangerous. but then it was getting dark and so the police like pull up in there care and are asking us whats going on??? and we are like uhh were just trying to find this house. and the police is like oh ill call them. so then the police are like on the phone with our investigators and pretty much we have the whole city looking for them. and then the police were like this area is dangerous so we will drive you. (mom dont freak out i feal way safe haha) but we were like uhhhh sorry we cant get in other peoples cars...and they were like uhhh do you know who we are??? we are the police!!! bahahhaa we were dying!!!!

anyways hopefully we have a great week this week. we´ve been working with the members a lot more to try and get them to do there visits and stuff cause sometimes we feel like we have to do EVERYTHING. but the bishop is so sick here i love him and his fam so much.

oh also hna fischbuchs bday was this week but she was sick so we had to stay in for the day...but at night the bishop had us over and smashed her face in cake. yup it rocked.

what else?? oh today we played tenis and it was awesome. and i taught hna fischbuch a our coug hip hop dance and yes took video. its pretty dang priceless.

but really i am learning a ton here. i love the quote about true doctrine understood changes behavior. this is so real. because people will choose the right if they understand the doctrine. and this is our job to teach them. also i have been thinking so much about happiness. sometimes its so hard here. just walking and knocking doors and all that. but then i realize what truly makes me happy?? its not what we do...but who we are. life can be tough. maybe you dont wanna go to work, but how amazing is it that you have a job?? maybe we feel like we have burdens, but how amazing is it that we are given burdens so that we can learn pure joy?? gosh its good stuff.

this gospel is so true. and i love you all so so so so so so so so so much you dont even know!!!!!!!!!

keep doing all that you are doing. and know im here workin hard, prayin hard, and playin hard.

god speed.

love always 
karl

an update in photos

Sending Love From Santa Ana...

supppppp errybody!!!

 

ahhh life is good in quito. man i don´t even know where to start so much.  okay first things that i forgot to tell you all.  The week before i left the ccm elder christofferson came!!! how sweet. yup just met an apostle no big deal.  man he was incredible. i can´t remember if i told you guys that or not?? but his message was so powerful because it was so simple. Like it was nothing i hadn´t heard but it was just powerful.  He told a story about how when he was called as an apsotle he felt inadequate and was standing with the others in the temple.  and pres packer was looking at him funny...and finally he said is something wrong pres packer?? and he said I AM SO HAPPY YOU ARE HERE. I have thought abuot this a lot here because my emotions are so up and down.  I love the mission, i LOVE MY COMPS oh my gosh they are gems, but its hard when you cant speak and you are just trying to show people you love them.  But then i have realized that it is kinda a blessing i can´t speak fluent. because the things i can say are simple, yet hopefully powerful.  the gospel is simple, and i know that i am supposed to be here. yes it might be hard sometimes, but el valor de almas es grande en el vista de dios. eh???

anyways life really is good!! im loving it. man everyday i get home EXHAUSTED. mostly from the freaking hills in this place hahaha its like a hike 24-7. In the mornings we run sometimes in this gorgeous park...but there is the biggest hill at the beginning. i seriously die...plus quito is something like 12000 ft high so there is literally no air. but its awesome.  

the best part of this week was probably saturday...we had this huge activity with the young men and young women in the ward. we went on divisions with them and taught. i was freaking out because i was like the trainer for 3 girls and i have been here 2 weeks. but hermana mino came with me, she served in columbia i think and she is a killer missionary. it was great for me though because it made me speak. i´m acutally not that afraid to speak so thats good. and the people help me out so much!!! it is the best.  anyways the activity was awesome and we got pizza after...so ya like best day ever. 

oh and weird the elders had this activity fri night for members and investigators called noche de cine. so we thought they were gonna show like a church movie but they showed the blind side...i guess they got permission but it was weird to watch an actual movie...not complaining though. i ate popcorn and made up what they were saying in english cause it was all in spanish. nothing like sandra bullock with a latina accent. it rocked. 

hmmmm what else?? OH WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY. with the cutest girl ever stephanie. she rocks she is 9. her mom wants to be baptized bad too but theres all this messy stuff with her dads divorce and so were trying to work on that. we also have an investigator angel who has a date...but didnt come to church. gosh thats the hardest part everyone is like pumped ya ill be there and then doesnt show. and we found this family that i think things might happen with but the girl had a baby this week so were trying to get some baby blankets and go teach!!!!!!!!!! anyways the work is great. my area is super catholic...uh that is understatement...but still a lot of people are receptive. im getting pro at teaching the restoration haha. john was right when he said that teaching that is so powerful...how it is layed out in preach my gospel is seriously perfect. 

oh some great stories....okay so my first day here it was POURING RAIN with my luggage ya it was nuts. but since then hasn´t rained which is good i guess!!! oh also i bore my testimony about how i was so thankful to be here in PERU. and yes i am in ecuador...so that made for some good laughs...also the other night we were getting copies for ward council and the guy asked my comp if she was prego...we DIED LITERALLY DIED. 

oh my comps. they are steller. man i wish i could be with them for 2 years. seriously the best. hna fischbuch and me are for sure gonna chill hard at byu after the mish...oh also mom and dad you know the family that we went to prague with...tristan?? and leslie?? yea that is hna fischbuchs aunt which is way cool. 

thats pretty much all for this week!!!! 

but know I LOVE MY FAM AND FRIENDS SO MUCH AND PRAY FOR YOU ALL CADA DIA. i´ve been loving the scripture in ether 12:6...blessings come after the trial of your faith. thats real and i love it. 

i love this work. i love these people. and i´m so grateful to be here. miss you and love you!!!

keep workin hard, prayin hard, and playin hard, and listening to beyonce. what a diva. 

kar

Finally in Ecuador.

okay...so have you ever had that moment when you know the Lord is just for sure looking out for you?? yeah i had that moment this week.  It was a crazy week. we got here tuesday and chilled for a bit then slept with all the new girls and two girls already in the mission. the apartment was way nice cause it is where the nurse lives so when you are sick you go there. But i was the only person that didnt know spanish before so that was fun haha the latina chicks are awesome though. then wednesday we had classes all day like a mini ccm. it kinda sucked cause i felt a little lost and also i got pretty sick. i had a temp of 102 and the chills all day and lets just say whatever was going in me didnt stay in me hahha. moats tradition right?? anyways i was only sick for 2 days but i didnt wanna be lame and say that so i kinda just fought it and stayed in the classes. probably some of the worst days ever but its over righT!! k thenthursday everyone came for transferes and to get our companions. there was this way cool girl named hermana fischbuch and her companion hermana aldas...fischbuch is from texas and has been here 8 months. aldas is from ecuador and is waiting for her visa to mexico...but they said they were gonna be in a trio...so when they got called up i was lke oh please have me cause its the best of both worlds a gringo and a latina...and guess what...the Lord must know me pretty well cause that is who I am with!!! It´s awesome. Hna fischbuch went to byu to so thats fun and were the same age. She doesnt let me talk much english though which is good for me. that is probably the hardest thing so far. 

i think people forget about the beginning of their missions when they are copletely lost in the language. thats kinda how i feel. i can understand maybe lke 25% and i speak okay, but not great.it is frustrating cause i want to be effective and make friends and let the people know i love them, but i don´t feel like i can do that great yet. PERO. its getting better every single day!! 

but anyways ahhh missinary work is incredible. our zone is santa ana. right in quito. all the pics you see of quito on google...ya thats where i am. our sector is vargas though so we have 2 areas in that monjas alto and jardin de valle. half is really nice and half way poor. gosh super humbling. i have taught already probably like 20 lessons. incredible and we have a litle girl estephanie with a baptism date for the 20th. her dad is inactive and her mom wants to join, but her dad is still maried to another woman. loco in ecuador. so thats interesting. we also have some other investigators that have a date but not progressing as fast. we have this family the carillions it was my first lesson with them and they accepted a date. so hopefully the progress. also a lot of our job here is to reactivate. the ward is realy strong though and helps a lot!! really life is good. i wont lie and say it isn´t hard. this is for sure the hardest thing i have ever done. but i know poco a poco i will learn more and feel more confident!!!! 

anyways i guess i leave you with something i found wayyyyyy sweet in jesus the christ this week. it was when a man asks jesus to heal him..he doesn´t say can you heal me? he says WILL you heal me?? we all need faith like this. Christ and our Heavenly Father can do anything and everthing. just know they can, and ASK. they cant help you if you dont ASK. i am gonna get better at this, at having faith everyday and knowing that without a doubt they are there for me!!!

k ill send pics or ill try right now...but know I LOVE YOU ALL MORE THAN ANYTHING. gosh good thing fams are forever...cause i cant wait to be with you all FOREVER. 

peace and love. workin hard prayin hard and PLAYIN hard. 

love always 

kar

Hermana Beyonce

read the tag

this week has been way good and hard too...only because i have met like amazing people here and some best friends and a few of them left for their missions last night so i was super bummed. its all good though. i havent told you a ton about my district. they are the best people in the world. seriously everyone is amazing. i am gonna miss them so much. we are having a pretend christmas so im pumped about that. only 6 days till xmas!!!! hahaha yes thats how bored we are...gotta keep it exciting. 

but this week was sweet cause we went proselyting again. everyone in my district got paired with latinos except me...i got paired with hermana harper who is 2 weeks behind me and suuuuuper chill. i love her. but i was confused cause i was supposed to be like the latino in the situation. and i was like uhhhh i dont speak spanish too well. but it ended up working out cause we had a teacher come with us hermano chavez. such a baller. he is an unreal teacher and missionary. but some way cool expeiriences happened. the first was we were walking one day and chavez was like lets turn around and we randomly took a turn and then ran into this guy. we told him we were missionaries and he said he has been inactive for 10 years. he said he was baptized by 2 sisters and when he saw me and harper walking he thought of them and said we were the angels he has been searching for. it was soooooo rad.

then we saw this lady sweeping outside her house. such a humble house they had nothing. but we went in and her daughter was there with her son. we taught them about the restored gospel and she goes i have one question, why be baptized?? so we told her to follow christ and to be clean and then chavez looked at me and said invite her to be baptized. i was soo nervous hhaha but i memorized the invite in espanol. so i just threw it down and she said yes. what the heck i was dying!!!!!! so we are for sure sending the missionaries to her. they all agreed to go to church the next day too.

this week i have really noticed that its not really me doing anything. i barely know spanish and pretty much just smile hahaha but the spirit is the best missionary around and god has truly prepared these people to hear the gospel. they are starving for this message!!! its sooooo coooool. makes it all worth it. i love the ccm but i feel like i am reaching this point where i like cant learn more until im just thrown into it. i will still work hard and everything dont worry but im just getting antsy to kill it in the field. i know the first few months will be extra hard but spanish is starting to click and im just gonna do my best and rely on the lord.

this week we watched a devotional by bednar to missionaries. it talked about the attributes of christ and turning outward instead of in...if you guys have a chance you should look it up. it is unreal. sooooo amazing. and i have realized that there are so many times that i turn inward and turn selfish rather than being like christ and turning outward. so thats my goal this week and pretty much my mission to really just forget myself and serve!!!

playing harry potter

my running partner hermana chil left yesterday so im way bummed but i think some girls in my district are gonna run with me so im pumped for that. me and moir are gonna make a workout for the week using the stuff jenni has sent me. i freaking love activity time cause it is like my one hour of brain freedom for the day.

also my comp jameson is an unreallllll singer. she sounds like zoe deschanel and so after activity we have 30 min to get ready and for 20 min she sings and i just dance in our hall way. haha i sound sooooo nerdy saying that but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!!!!!

anyways thats pretty much my update for the week!! life is great. the best days here are ice cream days so i live for that. im learning a ton and realizing just how much better i need to be so i can be ready for the people in quito!!

   

ps. everyone send me your addresses cause im trying to write letters but i have no addresses!!!!! love you all!!!

yo se que el evangelio de jesucristo es verdadera y bendicire su vida cada dia!!

love always kar

another week down!

hey hey everyone!!!! ahh thanks for all the love. gosh i feel so loved everytime my email loads because i have just letters and letters. it makes up for the rest of the week cause mail here sucks!!! the only letters i have gotten are from john cause he is in south america. so i dont thnik the dear elder things are working to well but ill keep you posted!! hopefully this week!!!!

 

so this week has been way great!!

 

first im gonna start with what i have learned.

it has been hard cause with my lack of vocab spanish words everything is so simple. but my comp and me were talking about it and that is actually so amazing because the gospel really is simple. i think sometimes life can get overwhelming and confusing and confusion is not apart of gods plan. simplicity is the way. its like there is a god or there isnt and clearly there is!! anyways that has helped me alot. also i have learned to just be bold and confident. i dont conjugate everything correctly but the spirit doesnt have a language!!! so when im teaching im just like what the hekc and i just go for it and even though its wrong grammer it doesnt matter cause testifying is testifying!!! that being said though. spanish is getting easier. its starting to click pretty good for me. granit i have suchhhhhh a long way to go. but i can pretty much go into a lesson and somehow put some words together that make sense. the funny thing is i only know gospel words. like in the real world i am gonna be in trouble. but ask me to testify or say a prayer. man im all over that!!!

 

our teacher told us this rad story this week about this kid that wanted to go home. but they were proselyting and teaching this guy and he brought in three chairs for only 2 people. and they were all conrfused and he kept saying that there was a thrid person there. she said it was an angel with him. we were all bawling it was soooo sweet. i have the best teachers here. seriously they are like on point allllll the time.

 

okay some funny stuff that has happened this week...my comp hurt her leg so she was icing it and had this bag of ice but it melted to water. and she through it to the trash but it exploded like a water baloon all over the wall and our teacher bro bejar was just like que en el freaking mundo. oh my gosh we were dying casue it was in his latino accent.  he is hilarious. were teaching some people to say funny stuff here. like this latino girl learned how to say sucks to suck. i was dying. the latinos are way way cool i love them!!!!!

Hermana Moir

 

the ccm is not bad though. it gets repetative but i am loving my personal study time. i never knew how much i would love to read the bom. and also pops i started reading jesus the christ. oh my doctrine. its so deep  but i am learning a ton. i try to do a chapter or 2 a day of that. im on 6 and just realizing how bomb christ is. i seriously cannot wait to meet him. and i cant wait to meet mary too. what a boss!!!

 

how we feel sometimes in the CCM

dad im gonna read all those talks this week. i just took pics of them. but thanks sooooooo much for them!!! i love the talks so keep em coming!!!!

i hope mom and kristy are doing good!! it was weird having them here cause i was like ahhhh i could see them right now!!!! but i hope they are safe and i know they will love peru. i just wanna squeeze every peruvian woman 24 7 cause they are the cutest people everrrrrrrr. 

Que en el Mundo

hahaha que en el mundo is pretty much the saying here at the ccm. just what in the world.

 

this week has been unreal. hard but soo so good.

 

ill start with the hard...there is no other way to describe my feelings here then the word humbled. i seriously thought i was on top of the world when i left...but then i got here, cant speak any spanish, cant communicate my feelings, and on top of that i dont know like any doctrine haha. yesterday i was seriously struggling with this. but i just said a prayer that i would have an answer of why i am here and how i can be better. cause like 20 times here i have questioned why i am speaking spanish. i cant say anything!!! i was outside doing personal study and we have these teachers here that help us during that time. and this stud of a guy who served in ecuador came over and just sat by me...hermano anorga. and somehow in broken spanish we talked a bit. he asked me what i was doing and i said im reading preach my gospel from cover to cover cause i havent even read this book and i am supposed to be teaching it to others. i was just frustrated with myself for not preparing better. and he gave me the best lesson about doctrine and principles. he said doctrines are truths that dont change and principles are truths that we can do or change if that makes sense. and then he asked about laws. and we talked about commandments. then he said i know you are here for the principle. he said you have so much love to give the people and that is so much better then being on a mission because its a law or because you think it is what you are supposed to do.  he said you can know all the doctrine but with no love you will be an awful missionary. and even if you have just a little doctrine and tons of love you will be amazing. it was so cool and i felt so much better.

 

okay the good part of the ccm is though is that i seriously dont think i have laughed harder in my life. i have yet to be sick but i am sick with giggles. like not kidding 24 7. my teachers tell me to focus like 5 times a day and i am focused im just laughing the whole time. its cause the things people do here are so funny and i think they are only funny cause im stuck in this box called the mtc and cant get out so everything just becomes hilarious. for example. we have this elder, elder roos. and bless his heart he is the sweetest guy. cant speak one word of spanish though i pray for him every night. but our district leader was asking if we could wear flip flops to play volleyball during activity time and elder roos goes umm i dont wear flip flops...my mom tried to buy them for me and i was like mom i dont wear no thongs. oh  my gosh i seriously spit out my water. i was on the floor laughing. stuff like that happens everyday. its the tender mercies up in here haha.

 

my comps...okay hermana jameson is a life saver. she is seriously the tightest girl ever. we get along sooooo well. i love her to death. my other comp. hermana saenz i kinda wanna punch sometimes because im pretty sure she is here to flirt with boys. i wanna die. she is always late and not focused and it sucks cause me and jameson will be killin our lessons and then she is not on the same page. i know i need to be patient but its hard. im so glad i have jameson though.

 

so saturday was nuts. we have been here 10 days and we went proselyting in lima for 5 hours. just me and my comps and we had a teacher go with us. so we just knocked tons of doors and intercoms and said our shpeel that we memorized in espanol and then she would take over once we had no idea what was going on. but we got in two doors and gave a sweet lesson and the people asked me to pray both times!!! i was freaking out. but it went well!! my prayers are super repetative cause i have no vocab but honestly spanish is rough but i am starting to do good with it and put sentences together on my own. we taught a 20 min lesson last night with no notes. thats whats up.

but this guy we taught jose on sat was so cool. he said he felt peace and you could tell he was just ready for the gospel.

 

i got this sweet quote from this girl here about why pres hinckley said girls need missions. he said that they are being prepared to be mothers of gods army. its a super sick quote so look it up. i feel like this time is definately not mine and i owe it to the lord and to my future fam to just kill it out here.

 

life is real good though.

thats all for this week.

peace and love everyone. work hard play hard pray hard

 

karl