Learning continues

Let me just start out by telling you how happy and jealous I am that Mack and Daniel got to come over and hang out and I am just living in Texas. !!!

The week has been really hard... Hermana Donis and I have had a lot of inventories about our companionship. I love her to pieces but it is so hard having such different cultures and backgrounds and understandings.. Plus I have just been so hard headed and irritable lately. Pray for Hna Donis

I was able to go to the temple this week though, and I had a beyond wonderful experience there. We went with the Longs (MY FAVE PEOPLE) and apparently my future in-laws. They are convinced  I am marrying their son who is currently serving in SLC. Soph, go find him ;)

Amanda congrats on having the cutest house in all of the world. My sisters are so cute and I just wish I could cut off your heads and hang them in my house.

So good news, I have gotten a McFlurry 5 days in a row this week. 

Irene and her girlies are ON TRACK for baptism on the 30th. She is beginning to just GLOW! It is the most wonderful thing. I don't know what i have ever done for God to bless me so much to be apart of her transformation. She is BEAUTIFUL!

Here are the things that are important: Personal and family prayer, personal and family scripture study, fasting together as a family once a month, Dad interviews once a month, and going to the temple. These things are easy, but because they are easy, sometimes we just don't do them. Our pride gets in the way. Kind of like Naaman in 2 Kings when all he was asked was to bathe in the Jordan 7 times, but he was angry because he expected some great and noble task. It is by the SMALL and SIMPLE things that great things come to pass. Be teachable. Be humble. Trust in the Lord and follow him. When  you walk with the Lord, you will never be lead astray. I know this from experience. 

This isn't very long but my hands are freezing. I will have to write you an amazing experience I had this week in my letter to y'all. I love each one of you so deeply. Please choose the right. 

Be safe, be smart. 

Love,

sister Kynaston

zone training

Irene's beautiful girls

catsssssss

service is fun

Una vez mas....

Hola Familia y amigos! Espero que tegan una maravillosa semana! :)

My week has been so dang fun. Hermana Donis is teaching me so much Spanish slang. I have never laughed harder in all my lliiiffee. 

She has the craziest stories of all time.. gnarliest life. She has been active in the church for about one year and she is a phenomenal missionary. She is an amazing cook and she is so loving to the people here, in Borger. 

So many wonderful things are in store for this area. 

I feel like I have so much to write you about, but not all of it is group email appropriate, so I will write you an awesome letter this week.

I haven't purchased an SD card yet, but I will in a second and I will come back on really quick and send you a picture of mi nueva companiera.

We went through a sonic drive through and I ordered and then I turned to Hna Donis to see what she wanted and she like couldn't translate it into English and I had no clue what she was saying so she just started laughing so hard and I started laughing and I couldn't talk, and the lady taking my order was like "ma'am. Ma'am. Hello ma'am?" and I COULDN'T TALK, it was the worst time to have a laugh attack. That happens in all of our prayers too. At night, we just stay up so late talking and laughing, and when our District leader calls, he's so awkward, and we just secretly laugh. We LOVE singing along to all these EFY cd's that she has and she is showing me all these amazing Spanish songs. It is so awesome. 

LOS EXTRANO y'all (texican)

I became a true Sister Missionary this week. I sang "I am a Child of God" with Hna Donis to a family and it was really awkward, haha. 

Honestly this week has been super hard and emotional because I am just dealing with a lot of change right now and Satan is working really hard on me to get me home. Hna is an angel though and is helping me so much. I love being a missionary. If i ever have to take off my nametag, I'll freak.

We have been teaching this WONDERFUL woman named Irene and her 5 daughters (and one on the way). She's a single mom and all her girls have different dads and she is getting baptized on the 30TH! The Atonement is incredible... she is doing so well, but Satan is a bum, so pray for her to continue to be strong. She, and all her girls, are GORGEOUS, I will get a picture of all of us soon.

I am sorry I have lost my sense of humor and my emails are really lame, but I will try better to remember the funny things that happen. I am lame, sorry

I love each one of you so much. I wish I could tattoo that on the back of your eyelids. I pray so hard every day for y'all. Be happy. This gospel is about happiness. Do the things you know are right. Be exactly obedient. Follow Christ. 

Satan loves to break your faith. So guard it relentlessly. BE CONFIDANT

All my love,

Sister Kynastonkmnoasnjask

Sometimes you get lost and drive to New Mexico

I don't have a lot of time because I had a ton of emails (thank you) but things have been so crazy! In the middle of Brother Scroggins funeral, (Sister Vance and I had to speak), we get a call from the AP's saying that we needed to go home and pack and be out of Borger in 2 hours because of the storm So puffy faced and crying we ran home and I packed a couple outfits and Sis vance had to pack EVERYTHING, we raced out of Borger and drove to Lubbock and stayed with the STL's in Shadow Hills. Then the STORM HIT! It was so crazy. We weren't allowed to go outside the whole day, so we just nair-ed our mustaches and waxed our eyebrows, made planner covers, sang, played apples to apples and talked. It was so awesome. Sister Vance was sort of going crazy. I got along with the Sisters there so well, they are my best friends. Then Sister Vance's flight got delayed so that was a mess and they transferred me to Regal Park to go serve with Sister Nichols for the week and it was so much fun. She is an ANGEL and my new best friend in the whole world. SO MUCH LOVE! We mainly just walked around all day getting cars unstuck. The roads were terrible, so we weren't allowed to drive. We walked about 7 to 8 miles every day in the ice and slush and I just loved getting to serve with Sister Nichols. I got to go to a temple session with all the departing missionaries and President and Sister Heap, it was amazing. Sister Vance hugged me in the celestial room and it was awkward. 

Then when the roads cleared up, they drove me back to Borger, it was really hard to leave Sister Nichols in regal park, but i knew Borger needed me. my new companion is HERMANA DONIS! She is totally Spanish and is learning English!! HAH I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I love talking to her, she is teaching me so much Spanish. For sure I will be fluent by the end of this transfer. She is like 4 foot, so smiley and sweet, a convert of like 2 years, and I love her. She cooks amazing food and shopping with her is the dang best! She has the strongest testimony, and you guys, we are going to see MIRACLES happen in Borger. 

I am so excited to really get to work here. 

We had one of our investigators and her 3 kids come to Church yesterday and it was so amazing. The people here are really starting to progress! it seems like they were all just waiting for Sister Vance to leave, lol. 

I am almost done with Jesus the Christ and Mom and Dad you should read it together, it is so amazing. I just tlk about it with my ward mission leader all the time! YAy for learning things!

Hermana Donis has a lot of health problems so we can't go running. but I am totally fine because I have had shin splits for a week from walking around in 2 feet of snow. 

I love you all. Thank you so much for your love and support. I was SO NERVOUS to talk to y'all on Christmas. Sorry if I said a lot of weird things, I just had mush brain from seeing all of you! I just cried and cried in Sister Long's arms after I hung up and then The Bishop and the Elders came over and we all eventually just started joking around and I felt a lot better. It was a wonderful night.

I love being a missionary. I love getting to know and serve all of these people. I love the temple. I love the Scriptures. I love my Savior. 

I can't figure out how to get my camera to work and my SD card doesn't work so I have no pictrues this week, but I'll work on it! 

I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Other small emails:

* My skin is still poopy but I had a really good prayer with God and a really good talk with Sister Nichols and a really good scripture study, and I feel just really good about it all. This, too, shall pass. I love you so much. I had the longest week when I wasn't able to talk to y'all. i want so badly to respond to everything everyone sent me, but I don't have time. But I loved every email and laughed and cried my way to the top. THANKYOU SO MUCH! I am doing so well,! I love all the sister in this mission so much. I have met my best and eternal friends here. We are all going to Disneyland. The Funeral was really hard. I cried my face off.

Pray for Irene and her girls! They are all getting baptised, i know it!

i am doing my personal progress again out here to get my honor bee, but guess what? I am doing it all in SPANISH! I have a Spanish PP. it is so crazy. 

I am going to be so fat by the end of this transfer, sister donis feeds me so much. 

Happy new year! i Will write y'all a letter today. I wrote you one in Lubbock, but because of the weather, you probably haven't gotten it yet. esta bien. 

take care of my sisters. 

Give Isaac a GIANT hug from me, whatta champ. I love you1

*i am watching sister donis write her family in spanish and it is making me so happy :)))

*I loved all the presents you've gotten me. I sleep in the itchy throw every night and i love it. I wore the skirts the whole time I was in Lubbock, and I use the bag to carry all my bathrrom supplies in! PERFECTO

*mom my heart is breaking I missi you so much today and i wish you could chat with me or I could call you and tell you what is going on in my life and what i feel but I cant and I just really miss talking to you and going to costco and san pelligronos and chocolate crossaints and i lov eyou mommy and you are so sweet and my best friend in the whole wide world and i can't wait for you to meet al my missionary friends one day amd everybody says that they cant believe I just got done with training because i am so confidant and a good teacher. what blessings!  I hope I get to be a Sister training Leader sometime on my mission. Sis Nichols was one, and I loved my week with her

*So I tried to drive back to Borger from Lubbock and I got TERRIBLY lost and accidently drove to New Mexico and I just cried and cried hahahahah. President Heap called me. It was really bad and really embarrassing. 

This week

I don't have a ton of time and my hands are really cold, so this email might end up being really hard to read. SoRRy.

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC! That darling kid is 8 now! I am so excited for him to be baptized. What an important, wonderful step in life. Take some cute pictures for me :) We had a baptism this week for a boy named Nathaniel  (18), and Sis Vance and I are teaching his dad, Jose. While his son was in the font, he turn to me and asked "Can I take a picture?" And I said, "No." and he got so mad, haha. Duuumb.

This week has been a lot of running around all over Panhandle.. Sister Long (who I am obsessed with) Took me to my doctors appointment in Amarillo on Thursday and it was so fun! Then afterwards she took us to this ROCKIN Indian restaurant. it was the best food I have had my whole mission. Then on Saturday we went to Lubbock to go to the TEMPLE! It was so wonderful. I got to do  sealings for like 2 hours, haha. The temple is the best place in the world. I just feel like a princess in there. 

Some not so fun points this week consist of a lesson we had with an investigator who went off on us for about an hour over how we are just here because this is the religion our parents raised us in and how we don't know anything..  My heart was beating so fast and I accidentally sort of yelled my testimony at him, "LET me just stop you right there. Do you think I am out here fueled only by the faith of my parents? You. Are. Wrong. I know this church is true with every fiber of my being. Everything we have shared with you is the truth." -He cuts in saying "But you were probably raised in this faith by your pare--" "YEAH I WAS because guess what, IT IS TRUE! Now, we want to share it with you. Will you read this pamphlet before our next meeting." Investigator: Yes. Me: Great. See you Monday. 

It was a rough lesson. But the spirit was so strong. I really love these people but sometimes they just make me so mad. 

So I have been studying the Atonement a lot recently and I have found some of the most interesting finds.. I don't have time to share all of them, but i will share a little. On the night of Golgotha, The Place of the Skull, Jesus was nailed to the cross, spiked crown on his head, blood on his face, lacerated, sweating, crying out in suffering.. It was all so intense and terrible, but to make it supreme, to make the Atonement infinite, the Father had to withdraw his spirit from Jesus. And that has sustained Jesus as it sustains all of us. As it left him, he cries "My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?! Then Gods spirit came back, and Jesus died. At that moment, Jesus became the Christ. This hit me so hard to read about because can you imagine being the Father on the night of Jesus's death and suffering? It was a terrible experience for Heavenly Father. 

Since this began to clarify itself in my mind and I am learning of the Atonement, he's become my personal Savior. I love Jesus. I love my Heavenly Father. I have never realized before what they went through for me and you guys and all of us. I have learned to love God with all my heart and feel closer to them. And I love to testify of their great mission to us and their great sacrifice. Both the Father and the Son- what they went through for our sakes. 

This church is wonderful and truer than true. Heavenly Father and Jesus love us so much. I love you guys so much. 

Thank you and be safe and remember them this Christmas season. 

SISTER KYNASTON

She was so mad because no one wrote her this week.

Well Well well well. I feel really sad right now because I am a huge emotional baby and I am sorry y'all have to deal with me. I love each of you so much. So much. I could not be here if it weren't for you.

I want to start out the email today by bearing my testimony. So often we think of Jesus on the cross or suffering in the garden, but this time of year we get to remember Him being BORN! Bringing life, light, joy, peace, and everlasting happiness to the world! He came to bear our burdens, walk beside us in times of grief, strengthen our weaknesses, wrap us in His perfect love. Our Savior came into the world to SAVE us. Save each one of us that will come unto Him and accept Him. He is truly the light of the world. The world is growing more and more dark and evil, but I know that everything is going to be okay. He has told us time and time again to FEAR NOT! He is my joy out here and I love being a missionary and testifying to every person I meet that He lives. That a Savior was born so that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again. I love Jesus so much. He is my closest friend. 

Something that is so wonderful to experience is when it's fast Sunday and everyone who gets up to share their testimony is a convert and they just cry at the pulpit THANKING the missionaries for finding them. I love the work of Salvation so much. It is so dang hard at times, but the fruit of our labors is the sweetest in all the world. Heavenly Father loves his children so much. 

A really old couple we have been teaching, Daisy and Andy, ended up in the Hospital this week. We got to go and visit them and pray with them. It is such a blessing when Heavenly Father allows for you to feel a little piece of the love He feels for His children. It is so overwhelming for me sometimes, but it is truly wonderful to feel how much he knows and loves each one of us. Holding Daisy's weak shaking hand and we prayed with all our strength that she could be relieved from some of her pain and get some rest was so emotional for me. I love her so much. She was able to feel peace after we prayed and go to sleep, it was a miracle. They are out of the hospital now and at home! Thank the Lord!

Also, this week I found my companion in the kitchen eating cereal with GRAPE JUICE instead of MILK! I just stood there screaming and laughing at her and I told her she just made my weekly email. 

Do not be afraid to stand FIRM in your faith. Be ANCHORED in truth. Listen to what the Prophet says because it will stand tall and strong in a world of shifting values and ideas. Remember that Jesus is the Christ. This is HIS church. 

I love you all so dang much. Thank you for all your support and love and prayers. My heart feels so much peace, so thank you. I will be seeing you in 18 days and I am so excited. I love each one of your so deeply and I will never ever ever let any of you go away. 

SISTER KYNASTON

ps Mom my camera broke and I am using Sister Vance's

NUESTRO ARBOL DE NAVIDAD! :)

I am so so so sorry for the way i lef things today during email. Like I was telling Hannah, I don;t realize how much i rely on y'all until i feel like you're not there and then the pain of being so far away really hits me hard... Thank you for your prayers. the Lord is letting my heart be at peace. I will have a good day and I hope you aren't mad at me for being such a baby and needing so much attention in the hard time with you Sister. i really don't mean to detract, I am so sorry. Being away is just hard and Borger is a hard area. The mission president interviewed me this week and told me that Borger is different from all areas on the mission. you have to measure it's progress in centimeters where other areas it is feet or miles.. But the Lord placed me here to learn and grow and that is excatly what I have been doing. He has been so good to me. 

I want you to know how beautiful you are mom. You radiate and glow. You have grown more and more beautiful with the years and I hope that happens to me. PLEASE take caare of my sisters and keep them safe from spiritual danger. Satan knows how much they mean to me and how badly I love each one of you. God is watching over y'all too. Keep the Faith. Follow the prophet. Be a member missionary. have the missionaries over for dinner. Share the new LDS video for christmas on your facebook.

I love you endlessly 

my hair is getting long! Jack pump in the backgroundddd

Dear mom, no legs haha

I don't always dress like this but I thought it looked Christmassy

trying to take a jumping picture

burnt peanuts look like poop

Hi (80 lbs later)

Family! I love you guys so dang much. I don't have a whole lot of time today to write, so i will write out a long letter complete with pictures and stickers. You'll all probably be in Boise by the time it comes. I will just sent it to Grandma's house. #imsmart

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving was just so wonderful, but also the hardest trial I have had on my mission thus far.. So when a Mexican person feeds you, you are expected to eat ALL that you are given and to also have 2nds. They seem to think that if you don't eat their food, you are rejecting them. I don't know who told them that, but that's what they think. So now try to imagine 3 Mexican Thanksgiving dinners. HA! Let's just paint a picture of little Sister Kynaston at the end of the 1st meal: I looked down on my plate and saw that I still had a lot left, so i started to slowly put more food in my mouth, sweat began to drip down the back of my neck, everyone talking around me seemed like it was going on in slow motion... I was SO sick after leaving our FIRST dinner appointment... I woke up on Fridaymorning with the sorest stomach and lower back. Did you know that can happen? Now we know. Pray for me. 

Also something that is not cool is now that the weather has dropped, all the mice in TX think that it's okay to come live with us. The other night my companion and I just lied awake in our beds at like 2 in the AM because we were surrounded by mice running by our beds and crossed the room. Then the next night we lied awake in our beds to the sounds of snapping mice traps and the squeaking cries of death. #mylife

There was this HUGE ice storm this week and it covered EVERYTHING in this thick layer of pure ice. I couldn't even open our car door. It was so awesome. Sister Vance and I are just in tears where ever we go from laughing so hard because we keep falling, haha. LOVE IT. 

It sounds like this week has been a pretty rough time for y'all, but I want to bear you my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. After this life, we are "..taken HOME to that God who gave us life" (Alma 40:11). We are brought into the Lord's rest. He loves us so so so much. We are being so looked after here. It was part of the plan to struggle here and experience pain. Salvation isn't easy. We may have to experience one of the tears Jesus wept while suffering in the Garden. When you ask yourself, "Why is it so hard?" Remember you aren't the first to ask that question. Someone much, much greater asked it as well. We are NOT alone here. 

I love you all endlessly. You are my light out here in TX. I never feel alone, because I know I am not. 

ALM,

Sister Kynaston 

Pictures:

Iced over e'ry thing

Me and Sis Vance being happy on THNKSGVNG

Me at dinner number 2 with the Harnandez's

we made pies together

Cacti everywhere

I am getting fat, but it happened so softly...

Oh how I just LOVE my family!!! I am certainly missing all of you this holiday season. I am very happy and taken care of here in Borger though. The ward seems to think I am way too skinny to be taking care of myself so we have TONS of dinner appointments. :) 

This week has been pretty awesome, I guess. So last Monday, I don't know if you all heard of even CARE but the Panhandle had 12 tornadoes and it was INSANE. I have never experienced such crazy weather..We were out knocking doors and this lady answers and just starts screaming at us because there is a tornado outside and we needed to go home, haha. We did make sure to schedule a return appointment before we left though ;) So yeah, pretty crazy. What was NOT FUN was the next day because the tornadoes had blown in the COLDEST WEATHER I have EVER had in my life. We were out proselyting and the tips of my ears started to BLEED it was so cold. No bueno.

90% of my diet this week has been hot chocolate. Also, if you have ever wondered how many no bake cookies you can eat when you make a huge batch and your companion is trying to be healthy so she won't eat any... the answer is all. All of them. You eat all of them.

 I've decided that my main drive to learn Spanish is so I can understand Oscar in the Office in the episode where he "roasts" Michael Scott. 

This week for service we got to go garden in a lady in our ward's house. She is a wonderful artist and she makes the COOLEST jewelry. She wears patchouli as a perfume and she reminds me of Sophie. Anyways, She has the most wonderful garden... I really love working in it. I am SO having a garden when I come home. Also she told me that pools with algae in them are really healthy for dogs to drink out of, so i thought i'd tell you that so you know it doesn't kill oliver when he drinks from the fountain in the back.

Thank you so so so dang much for the wonderful package. I ate the whole box of good and plenty while we did our weekly planning. It was so awesome. i almost started to just cry when I saw you sent money.. I am so lucky to have you guys send me stuff I need. The people here live in such poverty and just need so much.. it is really eye opening to how much stuff we have that we don;t even need and how much we can HELP others.. thank your for helping and supporting me. You are amazing

So i learned this week that the city of Borger has about 15,000 people and guess how many different churches there are here? Guess. 67! HA! Everybody thinks we are just apart of a local church.. it is frustrating. Our ward is so awesome here though. Some of the STRONGEST converts ever. It is pretty small though.. So small that our sacrament meetings are pretty interactive with the people speaking at the pulpit and the congregation. Everybody participates. It is hilarious. I love it.

the mission leader guy in our ward, Brother Bair, had us over for dinner the other night and he told me that he was so impressed with me! He said that I had grown "leaps and bounds" in my 6 weeks here. That was sort of embarrassing to hear because it just made me think of how terrible and awkward I must have been like my first 2 weeks here.. hahaha.. And then something really embarrassing happened, after that nice comment, Sister Vance gave the closing prayer and she accidentally said the word "breast" instead of "best" and it was like my days in the CCM and I just started laughing so hard.. i TRIED and TRIED to hold in the laughter... but it came out. It was really bad timing. Oh dear heavens. I am the worst. Breasts aren't even funny.

Alwight, I basically am done with my weekly report... Oh we started teaching this older couple named Daisy and Andy and I just love them to pieces. I wish they were my 4th set of grandparents. (Loy and Jan are my 3rd). OLD PEOPLE YAY

Have the best week and a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Love you all endlessly 

Sister Kynaston 

the worst experience of my entire life

Cold dumb day of dumbness

we ate this huge pizza and I don't have any regrets

I found this DARLING Kitty darling kitty dfarling

we are starving and poor

i tried to get a picture of the tornado weather