03.10.11

"holla family and friends!!

well it has officially been 8 days of me being in the mtc! i feel like so much has happened and i have so little time to tell you. but first off i was to start by saying gracias gracias gracias to everyone for your letters and packages!! I couldnt believe how many people sent stuff. i feel loved and appreciate all of it!!! Did you get my letter i sent on the first day? I didnt get any responses so i wasnt sure if you ever recieved it. well... i love the mtc!! it was kind of hard to get used to at first because of the strict schedule from 6:30 to 10:30 at night but it is great and althought i feel tired a lot I am getting used to it and it is great. well my district consists of 4 elders and 4 sisters. which i dont think is very common but it is awesome! if you had asked me a week ago how my district was i would have told you that we were all kind of quiet and reserved but 1 week letter and everything is different. my district is crazy!!! we have a lot of fun and get along really well.  we are all going to my mission but one elder is going to columbia bogota. 

          My companions name is hermana hamman and i absolutely love her!! she is from twin falls, idaho we get along so well and i honestly couldnt ask for a better companion. we have a lot in common and she is hilarious and we are always laughing. During gym time we have been run/walking around the track together and it has been so great to have someone that will work out with me. My teachers are hermano brown and hermana cannon and they are both AMazing!! i feel so lucky to have them as teachers! they both returned from their missions not too long ago and have so much to teach us and so many stories to tell us. it is awesome! one of the things they do a lot at the mtc is role play. and role play = my biggest fear!! but our teachers are always thinking of investigators they taught on their missions and they pretend to be them while we try to teach them. i have slowly gotten to feeling more comfortable with it but i really do know that it is the best way for us missionaries to learn and grow to be good missionaries when we get to the field. it is crazy to think how much i have already learned in the 8 days of being here. we are literally in the class all day and sometimes we get crazy after being their for too long but we call it home and our district is a little family. we went to the LRC on tuesday for the first time and i am not going to lie i was scared out of my mind. this is where they give you a fake investigator and you have to teach them. our task was to introduce ourselves and talk to them for a little bit in spanish and then teach the lesson in english. it ended up being not to bad, i know i have a lot to work on but i think that it is great practice to get used to what it is really going to be like. on sunday they asked all of us to try our best to get up in church and bare our testimonies in spanish. I was just sitting there thinking i have been here for 3 day.. how am i suppose to do that?!? so i tried my best to learn as much as i could to bare it and then because of time i didnt get to bare it but i now can attempt to bare my testimony and pray in spanish. 

                 Another thing that our branch does is every sunday they just randomly select an elder and a sister to speak that day. they tell us the topic the week before and we have to prepare our talk to possibly give the next sunday in spanish. this week is it on the holy ghost and i am attempting to write this talk in spanish but it is difficult because i dont know spanish but i just have to remember that we are all learning spanish and if anyone makes a mistake we all understand.  learning spanish gets super stressful at times because we hear all of the missionaries that have been here way longer than us speak all of this spanish and we dont understand a word they are saying but i just have to remember it has only been a week and continue to learn as much as i can. i have officially seen everyone i know at the mtc. i ran into sister horsepool on sunday, sister farley several times and two other friends from idaho sister cheney and sister gormely many times. it really makes my day when i see familiar faces!  when i see sister horsepool (going to russia) and sister cheney ( going to japan) i realize how grateful i am to be learning spanish and not those languages. 

                   Today is p-day and we got to go to the temple this morning. ahhh i cant tell you how amazing that was!! it was so nice to walk off campus and feel the peace of the temple. i thought of mom a lot while i was there because i was always going with her and i was missing that but going as a missionary was wonderful and i know that i am going to be looking forward to every thursday because of that. haha life is good!  i am happy to be here and i know i am suppose to be here right now! i am learning so much and i am excited to learn so much more!! i miss you all and you better keep writing because to a missionary a letter is just a ray of sunshine in the day! love you lots!!!

love,

Hermana Van Wagenen

p.s. everyone has a difficult time pronouncing my name!! haha"

03.07.11

We got a letter from Kara today of her first day! She seems so happy and we are so excited to hear more from her.

"Hello Family!

My mission president told us that sometime today or tomorrow that we need to take a minute to write home. Today has been a really overwhelming but awesome day. Right when Grandma, Grandpa, and mom dropped me off some elders were standing there ready to help. They grabbed my suitcases and brought me to a building were they checked me in and gave me my room key. The first sister I met was going to Fresno Spanish speaking, crazy huh? Then a mentor sister came and helped me bring my bags to my room then we were off to get my books and head straight to my classroom. Which was were I met my companion, Sister Hamman. She is from Idaho Falls, ID and she is a little bit quiet so it should be interesting with both of us being a little more quiet but I’m sure it will be great! I then met my district, which consists of 4 elders and 4 sisters (I don’t think it is very common to have it even like that but its kind of cool.) Everyone in our district is going to Argentina Resistencia except one elder who is going to Columbia Bogata. Is that Emerson’s mission? Our teachers seem great; we got to meet with them for an hour. We got to know them and learned how to pray in Spanish. One of our teachers just got home from her mission two weeks ago so im sure she is going to be awesome! After that we walked to a big meeting to met our mission president and on the way there I ran into Sister Gormley (Kelsi Gormley). I met her freshman yeah in Idaho and it was so great to see a familiar face. After the meeting with the mission president was dinner. The cafeteria is pretty big and missionaries re everywhere but as I was about to leave dinner I glanced around the room and all the way across the room I saw Hermanan Farley. Oh I can’t tell you how happy I was to see her. We got to talk for probably 15 minutes. She seems like she is doing great! Then we met with a group of about 20 missionaries and watched missionaries teach an investigator and then we had the opportunity to talk to the investigator. It was cool to watch this. Then we came back to our classroom and met our zone and then by about nine we came back to our room and had the chance to unpack and now I’m writing you! :) There has been a lot to take in and everywhere I go I feel like a lost puppy. We have a bright orange sticker on our badge because it’s our first day so everyone is so friendly and were welcoming us to the mtc. It was really great! Everyone is so friendly and happy here and there really is the strongest spirit. It just makes me happy! All is well and I’m happy to be here. I love you so much and I hope everything is great!

Love Hermana Van Wagenen"

Final Countdown

Well its official.. I was set apart tonight and am now officially a missionary. (well I guess not technically till I enter the mtc.) I am leaving early tomorrow morning to fly to utah and I report wednesday. It has been a crazy/sad last couple of days saying my last goodbyes and finishing last minute things but I am so excited to start this next adventure in my life and I know that it will be such an amazing experience. I am so excited to serve the people of Argentina!

I will be in the mtc for 9 weeks here is my address:

Sister Kara Van Wagenen

MTC Mailbox #231

ARG-RES 050

32005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604-1793

These were after I was set apart so we felt it was necessary to be awkward.

My wonderful sister Lauren will be posting the emails I send weekly on here for anyone to read.

AWKWARD HAND HUG

P.S. dearelder.com is the best thing ever! Anyone can type a letter and send it to the mtc and it will arrive either that day or the next day and best of all its FREE! I would love to hear from you

SEE YOU IN 18 MONTHS :)

love you all

News!!

I guess its about time that I share my EXCITING

news with the blogging world

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this news consists of:

name tags

interviews

skirts

and teaching

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yep I'm going on a mission!! :)

I had my final interview on tuesday night

and my papers were submitted wednesday morning.

I am now anxiously awaiting my call and I couldn't be

more excited!!! :)

Where do you think I will go?

I would love to hear thoughts.

(we are getting a map and marking where everyone thinks)

and the winner is...

Last night we had a ward

HALLOWEEN

party which was out at a

member of our bishoprics potato

farming barn and after much

thought and searches on google my roommate

Jenn and I figured out the perfect costume..

can you guess what it might have been?

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Yes you guessed it. We are Idaho potato sacks.

We thought it fit pretty well with the potato

farming season and living in idaho and all.

(fhe family all dressed up)

There was also a costume contest

and people had to vote for best cotume.

and you best believe we won! haha

prize was a silver painted potato

and some candy.

(can you tell we live in idaho? haha)

today I went to check the mail and found

this lovely package from my mother!

Thanks so much!

Packages are the best thing ever!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Truths of Life

A couple nights ago my roommate called us into her room to read us these and we all just sat there laughing because they are all so true. Read them.. you wont regret it.

Truths of Life

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm prettysure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this - ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dang it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and runaway?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

20. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

21. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

22. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

23. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

24. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

25. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

26. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far..

27. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

28. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my behind everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, firsttime, every time!

p.s. I'm not a fan of

scary things. Can you tell?

Last night we went to a haunted corn maze

and it was fun but can I just tell you

that guys with creepy masks and chain saws and I

don't get along.

attack

my roommates sister works there and she dresses up

like a ringwraith from lord of the rings.

so scary! you can kind of see her in the

back of this pic.

got potatoes?

our pantry currently looks like this

yep there are at least 14 bags in there.

a member of the bishopric is a potato farmer

so he invited us to come out during spud

harvest week and see what it is all about.

those are all potatoes behind us.

they fill huge building with them.

i had never seen so many potatoes in my entire life.

now i have potatoes to last me forever.

i now feel like a true idahoan!

besides that I am busy with school and

having fun with my awesome roommates

and tons of new fun friends.

“…it is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course, and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions.” - Elder Uchtdorf