She's a real little missionary!

H'yall Happy Memorial day!! That is too bad the weather is being silly. It is nice and hot here today maybe you should all come out (just kidding)! The day has been nice so far and busy. We got a call from the mission office stating that they wanted us to clean out our car and bring it in. We went over to the neighbors and used their things to clean the car really nice inside and out. They cooked up some steaks and other stuff and we had a bbq for lunch. They are such great neighbors and are willing to do anything to help us out. We hardly ever leave a members home without them giving us some food item. They are the best! We went to the mission office and got our brand new car that is red! We love it so much already! We got to talk to President McConkie for awhile which was nice. We got invited over to the bishop's house for a bbq tonight so we are excited for that! Our district is just us and a pair of elders. One of them is the district leader and is great. We have district development meeting every Tuesday 11 at the church. There are three wards in our building and the elders take care of two and we the other one. We see them on Sundays and Tuesdays. Our zone leaders are both wonderful they are such great elders. They both work really hard so we can have a good zone. I have not met any of the other elders that are in our zone yet but I will at zone conference. We had a fireside yesterday where President McConkie spoke and it was wonderful. My companion sang a solo and did a great job. We had made fliers for it to invite everyone to it but nobody came except for two recent converts. We had a new convert move into our ward recently and he is awesome. He is from here but was living in Hawaii when he was baptized in March. We went over to his parents house this week and had dinner with them and they are the nicest people in the world. They live right by the lake and have a beautiful home. You will have to come see their place some day it was great. Brother Hensley is the new convert and his parents are not members so we will be working with them. We visited a recent media referral that we had gotten. We hadn't been able to meet with him before and almost did not get to this time. We were pulling away after knocking on the door and he came out from his backyard and asked who we were. We briefly met with him and shared a message on the plan of salvation. He asked if he could have a Book of Mormon so we gave him one and set up an appointment for later this week. We are so excited! While contacting yesterday we met this lady named Mary who is great and was interested in what we had to say. We also gave her a Book of Mormon and will meet with her this week. Our baptism is postponed again probably to the 11th. He has to keep going out of town to deal with some family problems.We are not worried about him though we know he will be baptized. We have this investigator named Shannon Mercer who we met awhile ago and had a wonderful plan of salvation lesson this week. He has a lot of property and has done a lot with it. He has a beautiful garden and we walk in it every time we go. He also takes pictures for a living which is pretty cool. I am glad seminary graduation went well for riley. I am so glad you had a missionary experience this week mom!! Keep those up! I know the missionaries in California will be happy to meet them. I really did go golfing last week and would have gone again except it was a holiday. I had so much fun out there putting the ball and driving the cart! They do have a lot of golf courses here so I guess it is popular especially in Mertyle Beach. I did here about the stake center being destroyed in Missouri. The bishop's wife showed us some pictures of it. That is sad when things like that happens. We heard about people getting sucked out of homes and vehicles which is so devastating. When Sister Riley takes us out she does pay for our meals which is so sweet of her. She is out of town in Utah for awhile so we will have to wait for her to come back. Well how do you feel having your last child graduate from high school this week? I am sure that feels pretty strange. It is cool that all six of us graduated from the same high school. I got his announcement this week and I was so excited and put it up on the fridge. I also got one from Scott so they are both up there. Cute pictures. Riley you are a really handsome brother. Me and my companion spoke in church yesterday and I was not as prepared as I would have liked to be but it was okay. We only had five minutes each anyways. I spoke on always being a member missionary throughout your life. It was an ensign article from September of 2008 by Elder Cook you should read it. Anyways it is time for me to go so y'all have a great week! Matt- Happy Birthday tomorrow! Good luck with graduation! I love y'all so much! I have the best family in the world! Always strive to find opportunities to share the gospel and plant those seeds in people for future missionaries. Love, Katelyn

96 degrees with a chance of fly swatters

Happy Copsicus (note:Copsicus is a silly made up holiday our family celebrates sometimes) to y'all!
I hope you are all having a great holiday! I also hope you all had a great week! Mom- you sure do ask a lot of questions and I hope I can answer them all. I will answer the ones you sent with my journal. We go grocery shopping at Walmart everyday p-day so it is just like I am home. We have a washer and dryer in our place so we can do it anytime we need, which I love. We had a few days where it was off and on downpour rain but otherwise it has been very hot. It is 96 degrees right now so it is definitely hot already. We do have two air conditioners one where we study and one where we sleep. The moms we wrote poems for are Sister Marsh who is the Bishop's wife who is just like our second mother. The other one is Sister Riley who is our next door neighbor who takes us out to lunch each monday (she framed her poem). We also wrote one for Sister McConkie and she really enjoyed it too. We drive a Corolla and my companion drives. The senior companion always has to drive and I am the designated backer which means I stand outside the car while she backs up. Jeff sends me typed up letters in the mail every once in awhile which is sweet. I have seen a couple of Piggly Wiggly stores but have yet to go inside of one. There are so many different religions here in South Carolina. There are Jehovah's Wittness, Baptists, Methodists, Lutheran, Southern Baptists, Presbyterian That is all I can come up with right now for you. Today we went golfing with the Bishop's parents and it was so much fun. I had never been golfing before so I knew it wold be interesting. I was the designated putter and by the end I was pretty good. I also got to drive one of the golf carts which had always been a dream of mine. I think they want to take us out again soon so that should be fun. Nothing too exciting happened this week to report, Our baptism is postponed again until June 4th. He is going out of town to help his brother with some family problems so he asked if we could move it to the 4th. He did stop smoking and drinking tea so we are very happy. He participated more in gospel essentials which was great to see. We did a lot of walking this week in the nice hot sun! The bugs just love us way too much and have become quite annoying. We need to get fly swaters to keep them away! We did get a new investigator this week and some appointments set up for some other people we found. Each week we have an hour to read and compose emails. This last Friday, the bishop's wife took us to a place called Shealy's. It is an all southern food place. I didn't really try anything new, but stuck with fried chicken, rolls and some other things. They have all sorts of a variety there. I think you would like it. I need to broaden my horizon and try new things and now is the time to do so. Transfers are this week and Sister Wright and I are staying together since she is training me so I am excited. I met a couple of other sisters at the missionary fast and testimony last week but that is all. My mtc companion is in a city called Tabor City which is on the other side of where we are. It is the only city on the mission that is in North Carolina. I am becoming really good at contacting people and sharing a message with them. We are working on teaching more together as a companionship. I just need to do more of my part. I think I am finally getting the hang of that. My companion is great and helps me out whenever she can see that I am stuck. Although I still do not like role playing I am just doing it. I have not run into sister Moore at all yet. She must have seen a picture of me somewhere I don't know. I would like to meet her though. The scripture I want on my plaque is Joshua 1:9. I don't care what picture you use just make sure it is a good one. I can't remember where it is at sorry. Brad and Mandy- congrats on the baby being a girl. You have such cute little girls. Have you thought of any names yet? I am sure you will have a boy someday! Riley congrats on the scholarship that is great. I have got to go but thank you all for all your love and support. You are the best! Love Katelyn.
P.S dad we do take water bottles with us daily one frozen and one from the fridge. Look at walmart for root beer flavored otter pops. You will love them.

Katelyn the "greatlyn"

Hey'all,
How are y'all doing this week?(ha ha) I knew you would never forget to write me! I so look forward to your emails every week. I love hearing about home. I have been trying to learn "Southern" but it has not caught on yet. Anyways, I had a great week! The person we had on date to be baptized on May 14th is having to put it off until the 28th. We had no idea he had a smoking and drinking tea problem but he said it would be easy to stop. He said he doesn't smoke much but it might be harder to stop drinking tea. We look forward to the baptism on May 28th and we know he will be ready by then. We have been meeting with this girl who is named Jessica. She is the girlfriend of a recent convert. We met with her on Saturday and I put her on date for baptism for June 11! I was so excited as it was my first time doing so! She committed to come to church the next day and she was really looking forward to it. She was telling her sister about it and she brought over some anti-mormon material. She read it and it made her feel horrible. She still made it to church and we answered any questions she might have and plan to meet with her later this week. We know and she knows how great the church will feel in her life. Satan is definitely working hard on her so she needs to continue to study and pray. We had a special missionary fast and testimony meeting yesterday. It was 3 different zones missionary's testimonies. I am really glad I got to participate in it. My companion and some elders sang a musical number and it was really great. I haven't received my journal yet but I am sure I will get it soon. It could be stuck at the mission office or something who knows. I have paper to write on when I run out of pages. Thank you for sending it! You didn't tell me about the cute mail unit you did at school, but it sounds like fun! I know I enjoy getting pictures from Jane and Annie. They make me proud to be their aunt! I can't read blogs so if you ever want to copy and paste things from it I wouldn't mind! I enjoyed reading the one you sent to me. It made me laugh it was so cute. A member of the relief society presidency came up to me this week and told me something cool that she came across. She was looking on a friend's blog and saw that one of the blogs that they follow is Brad and Mandy's. She saw the last name and knew I had to be related. She said she looked at it and commented and told about me. I think you should all look at it if you have not. The connections you make when you are away from home- I love it! We go over to their house every once in awhile when we are in the neighborhood so we can use the restroom. The problem with living in the country is that there are not very many opportunities to use the restroom. Whenver we are out we have to remember where a member lives so we can go over there. Riley... good job on winning in the state tournament I am very proud. I heard your comment about the three pack being as strong as ever. I hope graduation goes well! Send me pictures and I will give them to all of the cute girls here in the south. The name Belinda doesn't sound familar. I hope you get the job though. Good luck and work hard. Kelli congratulations on your new calling! I am so happy for you and I know you will do a great job. Have fun with it! Thanks for the letter it was great! You are such a wonderful example to me. Anything new with Matt, Stacy and Graham? Brad and his family wrote me this week and told me that they find out tomorrow what they will be having. I am so excited. Let me know as soon as you know. Although I won't be able to read the email until next week. Allison, hope all is going well with you. Thank you for the emails I really appreciate them. A service opportunity you could do is to write your testimony in the Book of Mormon and sending them to missionaries just like me. I will think on more and get back to you. Mom you asked a question last week and I totally forgot to answer it and remembered later. You asked if I gotten any sun and I most definitely have. My face, arms, and legs are very tan. I have a cool tan line on my feet from my shoes. The weather is hot already and it is still May. We are in for a long hot and humid summer. We will probably just melt from the heat. We will stay cool by drinking lots of water and putting on sunscreen so don't worry. I will send you picutres soon. Well, my time is running out so I will have to say good-bye. Thank you for your prayers and support. I love knowing that my family loves and cares about me. Thank y'all for the wonderful examples you are to me. I love y'all so much. Love, Katelyn

She's our southern gal!

Hey'all-
It was so great to be able to talk to everyone yesterday! It was the highlight of my day. Everyone sounded just the same so that made me happy. After we talked we went over to dinner at a member's house. It was really nice to have dinner with more people. It is usually just my companion and I sitting at the table by ourselves. We usually don't eat dinner until about 8:30 each night anyways. If we do it earlier it takes away from our proselyting time. Also more people are home at dinner time anyways so we can get more contacts. Dinner was so delicious! There was a lot of good food and I enjoyed it. Another lady and her husband came for dinner and brought the most delicious banana cake ever! Once I get the receipe I will send you a copy so you can make it. Apparently she makes a really good pumpkin cake just like yours that is famous and I can't wait to try. Dinner went a little long, but a new convert and his son were there and we gave a short message about faith. My poetry skills are coming in handy again. We wanted to do something special for our 2 "other " moms for mother's day. Sister Wright is an artist so she drew them a bouqet of flowers and I wrote them each a poem. All I have to say is that I got that talent from you. They were not home last night so we gave Sister Riley her poem this morning and she loved it so much. She told us that she was going to have it framed as it touched her so much. It made us happy that we were able to make her happy. We didn't have time to go out proselyting last night as we had to do comapnionship study. While I am being trained we have to do 2 hours of comanionship study everyday so it is a lot of fun. We had a great week this past week and remained optimistic and positive that miracles would happen. We were able to accomplish or come close to accomplishing all of our goals. I am continuing to learn so much each day about being an effective and obedient missionary.
When do Brad and Mandy find out what they are having? I hope it is soon! It is great that they got a new car so they can fit another car seat in it. When does Riley graduate? Are you going to have graduation party with the cousins since they are graduating? Allison, my companion wanted me to ask you if you would remember these people -Teisha Haskel or Courtney Calder. They were her roomates for a little while and then moved over to the front where you were. She can't remember the Bishop's name but if you said it, he would come to her. Do you remember it? I love how we all lived there at the same time and didn't know it. Thank you so much for telling me all about the wedding and the honeymoon I really enjoyed it. I got teary eyed but I did not cry while reading it. ;) I am so glad everything went well and that you had a nice time on your honeymoon. Did you get anything cool wedding gifts? Save something good for me! Dad- how was the rest of your birthday? What did you have for dinner? I missed having the ice cream cake with y'all. What did you get for your birthday? I am sure you had a great day and I was so glad I got to talk to you on your birthday! Mom- what did you get for mother's day? Did the primary sing in Sacrament meeting? Our's did and it was so cute. We got to go to Primary yesterday as they had something to give us. They had saved up their pennies so they could buy a Book of Mormon that we could give to someone. It was pretty cute! We stayed in there and got to sing songs with the kids. There was something else I wanted to tell you while we were on the phone yesterday. Happy Anniversary!!!! I believe this marks 31 years!! I am so glad I have faithful loving parents like you guys. So many people are missing that in thier lifes. You are the best people I know! I am so happy that we can be together forever! Anyways have a great anniversary tomorrow! I love y'all so much! Thank you for your continued love and support. Have a great week! I am fixin' to go soon so y'all have a great day! Love, Katelyn ( I hope you enjoyed the new Southern phrases that I have learned so far. It really is like a foriegn language sometimes!)

Week # 3 and still going strong!

Hello all,
I am doing great! This week flew by so fast as we were working so hard. It takes a lot of time and energy to be a missionary but I love it so much! Thank you for your advice (referring to role playing). I will take it to heart! It is hard sometimes not to get a little emotional when things are hard but I am putting the difficult things aside. You know how sometimes I would get emotional when we would talk or role play and it would get me out of it or avoid it. My companion gave me some advice and that is to just say you like it and just do it. I can't avoid role playing we do it everyday. I think Satan is trying to tell me I can't do this but I can. I just need to put my trust in the Lord and not myself and just do it. I know when I put my trust in the Lord He will help me to have confidence in what I am saying. Enough of that stuff, I wanted to talk about the call on Sunday. I am so excited to call you guys! All I really know is that we can call anytime on Sunday and we can talk for 40 minutes. We do have a cell phone but don't get the best service where we live so we might go to a member's house but I am not sure. I imagine I will call sometime after we get out of church. We have chuch from 9-12 the same as you guys do. My guess would be sometime between 12:15 and 12:30 MST. I am not sure if I will get to call on Saturday night to let you know an exact time for Sunday. My best advice is just to keep your cell phone with you and I will try to call you around that time.That storm that came through didn't touch South and North Carolina at all. We have not had any tornado training at all but the Relief Society is making me a 72 hour kit. We had a big rainstorm the other day that was pretty cool to watch. Jeff has written me one letter since I have been in South Carolina. That is the only letter I have recieved. I look forward to receiving your letter and pictures about the wedding!. We had an awesome miracle this week. We met this lady while out contacting the other day and had set up an appointment to meet with her but she later canceled as something came up. We were in the neighborhood a few days later and decided to see if she was home. We met with her and shared a lesson with her. She seemed very intersted in what we had to say. We invited her to come to church and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she would come to church and would bring her sons. My companion asked her if would like to be baptized and she said yes and then asked if her sons could be baptized also! That is rare when you ask in a first lesson so we were very happy. We were so excited and said yes they could too! Her name is Zulema Jones and her sons are 9 and 10. She is black and has the most beautiful blue eyes. We also met her husband who was also intersted so we will teach them more this week. They didn't end up making it to church and we were sad but hopefully they will come next week. My brother Riley- I wanted to tell you that I gave away the Book of Mormon that you gave to me. I gave it to an investigator who we are working with. I told her who wrote in it and she thought that was pretty special. Please send more of those and encourage everyone to do the same. Those really are the best ones to give out. Mom, I was wondering if you could send me one of my journals that I left at home. I will be needing it soon. Also, I was wondering if I could get a picture of Bauer. I know that sounds strange but I would like to have a picture of him. I am glad you got the opportunity to relax after the wedding. Allison and Riley how was the honeymoon? I gave a good news minute in Relief Society and announced that my little sister got married. I was so excited to be able to do that! Did anyone watch the royal wedding? Well, I am down to my last few minutes so I should probably end. I look forward to talking to everyone on Sunday! I love you all and thank you for your continued love and support. I thank the Lord everyday for such a wonderful supportive family. I hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon!!! Love, Katelyn