Kristen's Mission Email - Week 6

HELLO!! 

We're about 3 weeks into the mission now and it is getting a bit more natural each day. I have started a google photos album, so if you wanna see what I'm up to day to day OR want to see my adventures every once in a while, GO AHEAD AND JOIN!!! Link below🤙❤️

Kristen's Google Photo Album

Here's the rundown:

Baby's first exchanges!!

WATERMELON JUICE

Interviews w/ President

A 3 course member meal

Bummer work week :( 

I got to go on exchanges with my lovely Sister Training Leader, Sister Briones. We are scarily similar. 

1. Her name is also Kristen 

2. She grew up in Angeles, Philippines (where my dad served and we traveled) 

3. Her parents work for BYU Pathways (my mom teaches in the Pathways program)

4. She's gotten to travel all over the world because her dad travels for work too!

She was so sweet and I loved getting to be over the YSA (Young Single Adult) ward for about 24 hours. We went to Mt. San Antonio College campus and talked to so many people in such a short amount of time. I loved getting to go to institute and talk to some people my age. I'm so lucky to have such loving young mission leaders. It was an overnight exchange so I got to stay the night in a 4-pad (4 sisters in one apartment) which was so fun. 

Sister Shrader and I could not stop giggling over memes we had saved before the mission. However, it made me so grateful to be in a 2-pad where I can have some quiet time and my own space (all 4 sisters are in one room because there isn't A/C in the other). It was basically a sleepover party. We went out for a zone sisters lunch the next day to reunite with our companions at Mr. D's Diner. 

Much of our work here is connecting with members, so we have been working to meet and visit with as many as we can. One was sweet Sister Zavala. She is an 80 year old Honduran grandma obsessed with Elvis (she named her bird and her son after him). 

She asked me if I was Latina and didn't believe me when I told her no, at least until I showed her a picture of my family. This happens a lot on the mission. "Sister Kline...What are you??" I'm Canadian. That's all I've got. 

Anyway, she gave us the most heavenly watermelon juice Sister Pennington and I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I didn't know I needed it in my life until I found it. I would imagine the holy manna from Moses' time was of the same caliber. 

On the mission, the president will meet with each of his missionaries individually to evaluate lots of things—emotions, experiences, faith, the work, etc.

The La Verne zone got their turn this week. We didn't realize the zone leaders had shifted everyone's appointments an hour earlier at 10pm the night prior, and so when we got an unknown caller (I just got the SIM card in my phone) in the middle of our lesson, we forwarded it. And again when they called back.

We hurried out of our lesson (this was with the yappy new convert) to make it to our interview, and called the person back. I was aghast when I realized I had hung up on President. Twice. Fortunately, he and Sister Jones were full of grace when we explained the situation and realized we should've been there 20 minutes ago. 

The schedule lined up perfectly with breaks that we didn't mess anything up with our tardiness. I loved getting to talk personally with President Jones, and he says he will miss my presence in Arcadia and wishes I could stay. I expect I'll leave for Adelaide at the end of this transfer, which is about mid-August. But, who knows!

Our most special member meal this week was with Sister Enis. She is very elderly and struggles to walk (or at least quickly), but she managed to prepare a full 3 course meal of gazpacho, chalupas, and ice cream sandwich casserole. She had chips and guacamole in the parlor while she finished serving dinner, set out the fine china, and graciously served each course one at a time.

I can't imagine how much effort she put into feeding us that evening, but something tells me she misses hosting guests. We felt very special! 

Sadly, most of our friends have dropped us (stopped responding) this week. And we didn't find anyone new this week. But this next week, we have so much service lined up and I'm confident we'll have some good interactions there. Unfortunately, not all weeks are the same when it comes to meeting and teaching people. But it's a new week and we've got some of God's children to find!

My spiritual thought is just my testimony of the Savior. Part of our missionary purpose is to help others build faith in Jesus Christ AND His Atonement. Our gospel is built upon the atoning sacrifice of our Savior. I would not be on my mission without His power and grace. We are imperfect people that have the perfect gospel in our grasp. We need only reach out (see my drawing below) and come unto Him to feel that burden lift from our shoulders. His hand is always reached out.

Church is a hospital. It's not for the righteous, high and mighty, or perfect. It's for sinners—people just like you and me! We go to church to receive relief and to "refill our prescription" for the week. And those pews are filled with other "patients". We don't know what ails them, but we know that them being there tells us all we need to know.

I know Jesus Christ loves you and me and everyone else. I know He felt all we have and will feel, and I know He will walk every step with us. He wants us to be light, to be happy, and has provided those resources. I love Him, and choose to believe in His gospel each day I wear this tag. I hope this week is "baller" for all of you. Please reach out with any questions you have and I can't wait to hear about life back home. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Sister Kline

Smoky Skies in Utah

The skies in Utah have been filled with smoke from wildfires from all over in the west. 

Colorado had smoky skies for most of the week, but the smoke had cleared out by Friday thankfully.

Amy captured this cool shot of the red sun while sitting at the rodeo.

Misha at the Renaissance Faire

The Colorado Renaissance Faire happens every summer in Larkspur, Colorado. 

Misha and her friends decided a few months back that they wanted to get a group together and go. They invited around 10 people but only 6 could go the day of, and one pair of people had to leave an hour in cause they had a concert that was actually in the afternoon and not the evening. 

The whole group had been planning their costumes and showed up in their best medieval garb, though a lot of the faire goers wore their day to day clothes. Lame of them. 

When the group first got there (after 3 hours of traffic!!) they immediately got food, which consisted of turkey legs and fish and chips. Once they finished that, they found a few shows to watch that happened periodically around the fair. 

One was called the Kamikaze Fireflies, who put on a circus type show, and one was Jacques the Whipper, who whipped stuff. He has some stuff on YouTube if you wanted to look him up. 

After the shows, Misha and her friends wandered around a bit and looked at all the shops. There were probably over 200 different stalls selling all kinds of stuff. That took a couple hours, and by the end of the evening, there was just the jousting show left.

It was new to the faire this year, so everyone made their way over to see it. It was pretty cool. After that, the group was ready to call it day and get out of their uncomfortable (and hot) outfits. 

On the drive home, they stopped for food at Raising Canes for some chicken, and then called it a night.

Hiking at Brainard: A Two Moose Day!

Chris and I drove to the Brainard Lake Recreation Area to hike. He was getting over his Australia cold and some jet lag but assured me that he was fine to hike. 

We arrived at the entry to the park. Chris had forgotten to download the reservation QR code, so I was trying to download it as we drove up the mountain. Fortunately, as we got close to the entrance, I finally got two bars on his phone and got the reservation downloaded. Whew.

You can still get into the park without a reservation, but it is at least a two-mile hike in. We picked up a guy trying to thumb a ride to Brainard Lake to fish. We figure picking up hitchhikers inside the park is fine. He was planning to fish for the day and was grateful for the lift.

Chris and I got started on our hike. We passed by Mitchell Lake on our way up to Blue Lake. The elevation gain wasn't too crazy—about 1,000 feet over 3 miles. Far better than 1,000 feet over 1 mile!

We passed by a small lake and spotted a mama moose resting on the other side.

We hiked to Blue Lake and found the trail much busier than the last time we hiked a couple of years ago.

The wildflowers were in fine form all along the way.

This lady was wearing a head to toe mosquito net jumper.

Chris had thought he had the map of the trail downloaded, but it wouldn't work. So while I tried to hike to the top of a waterfall, he stood on a high point where he actually got service and made sure it was downloaded.

I'm not a big fan of scrambling over rock fields, and we did a little of that. On our return trek down the mountain, we stopped at the lake where we had seen the moose the first time and found a spot for lunch next to the lake.

These two crazies were jumping into the lake. "Oh, Sh*t!" she said as she resurfaced and quickly climbed out.

Our lunch view.

This hike was just over 6 miles. Chris suggested we should go to Long Lake and walk around it—thinking it was only another two miles on a fairly level surface. It wasn't too far from the Mitchell Lake trailhead.

I suggested we should drive over to the parking lot and I am so glad we did. It was further than the 1/4 mile Chris thought it was.

We set off on the second hike and not too far along the trail, spotted a moose crossing the stream. We were only about ten feet away. So cool.

The hike around Long Lake was a little longer than Chris thought but the views were beautiful.

By the end of the 2.8 miles I was DONE. Both of us had sore feet and were glad to relax into the front seats of the Audi.

Apparently I am allergic to my Merino wool socks. My leg has been a little red over the past couple of hikes, but today was the worst of it.

A Pic of Kristen

I received a text from a sister in California with an attached picture of Kristen and some other missionaries serving at her home.

"Hello this is Sister Praeger from the La Verne California Stake. Your missionary was amazing this morning helping our family in our yard! I just wanted to share this picture with you!"

Her son is on a mission in Thailand and she says how much she loves it when people send her pictures of her missionary.

A Trip to Buccee's

The Buccee's convenience store and gas station opened in Colorado a couple of months ago. Apparently it is big in Texas. There are 100+ fuel pumps there.

Misha and her friends—Olivia, Mallory, Ian, and Ashlyn—drove from Denver to check it out.

They enjoyed some pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and tasty treats.

Even after a couple of months of being open, Misha said it was still packed with people.

Chris in Australia

Chris spent a week in Australia. He got busy with work on Monday morning but sadly announced that he had picked up a cold along the way. He spent some time in Sydney, flew to Canberra for a conference, and then back to Sydney at the end of the week. Fortunately his cold wasn't too bad...just not fun.

He left for home on Thursday afternoon Colorado time and arrived home on Friday afternoon. So good to have him home.

I knew that I would need to be more proactive about having some human interaction while he was gone. I had a few appointments, got my hair done, and of course chatted with Kristen.

Have I Mentioned that I HATE Weeding

While Chris was in Australia, I knew I needed to do some weeding at the beach. I put it off, but I could see the weeds on the beach from the house. So, it had to be done!

I woke up before 6 am on Thursday morning. We had a showing later in the day and on the off-chance that the people looking went down to the beach as well, I wanted to make sure that it was tidy.

I put on long sleeves and pants, added the bug spray, and got started. 

After about an hour and a half, I looked up to see one of my neighbors, Margaret, walking down the path to the beach with her morning cup of coffee in hand. She had just come over to chat.

I kept on working as we chatted, and after two hours, the beach area was presentable. I packed up my stuff, said goodbye to Margaret, and dumped the last bucket of weeds by the river.

I HATE WEEDING!

Solo Selections in the Springs

While Chris was in Australia, I drove to Colorado Springs to work with Jennifer Baker, our designer, on making a few more selections.

The traffic was bad from the moment I got on the freeway around 8 am. There was an accident about five miles ahead on the freeway. That slowed me down by a half hour. Good thing I had left a half hour early.

As I got closer to Denver, the morning rush slowed me down some more. I would hate to have to drive through this stuff everyday!

I probably could have made it to my first appointment without having to stop and find a restroom, but with the two slowdowns, I knew I would have to stop. I found a random nail salon that was open as the Target I was hoping to stop at was closed for construction!

Even with the slow downs and the pit stop, I was only a couple of minutes late arriving at Arlun Flooring.

I worked with Jennifer and Heather in finalizing the hardwood, looking at kitchen backsplash, choosing carpet, and selecting the grout colors for the bathrooms. Jennifer and I spent about two hours there and then had to be at our next appointment at Ornamental Man to pick out wrought iron railing.

Cabinet colors, hardwood, and carpet samples. You can't really tell a lot of variation in the carpet, but they are all different colors.

Ornamental Man has a very basic website with just a few pictures. He could improve that a lot. So, we had to go in person. We will do a horizontal railing for the deck and an vertical railing for the interior. I found this picture of the styling for the railing that Chris and I both like (from another railing website!).

After a fairly short meeting with the railing guy, Jennifer and I drove back toward Denver for our final appointment of the day with the Jeff, the lighting guy, at Urban Lights Denver.

We got a lot accomplished; it helped that I had spent hours going through ideas and making some pre-selections. We are still looking for a light to go over our stairway, still looking at ideas for kitchen island pendants, and maybe a few ceiling fans.

I had asked all three girls earlier in the week for their opinion on a bathroom vanity light. They all picked the same fixture.

Sadly, I left Urban Lights right at 5 pm and got stuck in the downtown Denver traffic again!

Advice from TJ

Kristen asked her "friend" TJ (they broke up before she left on her mission) for some advice as he is recently returned from his mission.

"Being a missionary is hard and scary and I don't like it. I don't know how to find enough joy in it to push forward for the next 18 months. I don't know who else to ask who might understand what I'm going through and I want to do this so bad but it's the same thing everyday and I'm not sure I can do it. Please send any advice or motivation." Thanks, Sis Kline 

TJ replied in a straightforward way that Kristen really needed to hear: 

"I've got a few things to say, hopefully God gets whatever point he needs to get across at some point in this message. First off, for most missionaries, the first month or 2 are definitely the hardest, the MTC butters you up and you come out all excited with all these ideas that they've given you and you expect to be a great missionary cause you memorized 2 scriptures and your missionary purpose so you're so prepared. 

"Reality is much different than what the MTC makes it out to be though, The days are long, it's fairly repetitive, companions are hard to get along with 'cause of differing ideas on how to teach people, and it's just frustrating to get rejected over and over again. But might I suggest watching a video on gospel library that talks about Gordon B Hinkley a week into being a missionary and wanting to go home cause he felt like he was wasting his time. Look up "Preparation of Gordon B. Hinckley: Forget yourself and go to work". 

"The only way to find true happiness in the mission is to forget about yourself. If you're thinking about how many lessons you taught that day, or what lessons you taught that day, you're doing it wrong and it will be repetitive and you'll drive yourself crazy. Instead try and think of those you are serving. It will never be repetitive unless you are teaching someone with dementia the same lesson a second time haha

"Other than that it will always be a different person, with a different need, that needs to hear the gospel in a specific way with different examples. I'd just do some good long deep studies about charity and thinking about others instead of yourself. There's a few really good BYU talks in the "Selflessness" category that talk about the difference between selfishness and selflessness that I think you could benefit from. I hope this wasn't too brutal, I know that your leaders, your STLS, your president and companion will all be better sources of people to talk to. But I hope something of value got across to you." 

"Sorry I wrote that pretty late at night and kinda forgot to write a bit. My tone was a bit too gloomy. The part that I forgot to write about is that as you start to see your friends progress and come to church and read the Book of Mormon and all, there truly is no greater joy. I had weeks and weeks of no one coming to church and wondering what I was doing wrong. And then one Sunday we had a few friends finally make it to church, and the joy you feel seeing them walk through the door is absolutely unmatched to anything else I've ever felt. 

"Once you find joy in other people's success (companions, investigators, members etc) the mission with it's ups and downs will be the greatest joy of your life. You'll find that out for yourself though I know you will. Good luck this week!"

Kristen's Mission Email - Week 5

HELLO PEOPLE!!

I hope you're all doing well! It's been consistently sunny and 90 degrees every day since I got here (we get offered water by almost everyone). No news on my visa yet, so keep praying for it's speedy arrival! 

It's been a super busy week here in California. Here's the rundown:

• TEMPLE TRIP!
• New Missionary Orientation
• 7 NEW FRIENDS WOOOO!🫶
• Pioneer Day Picnic
• 3 tiny me's 

Last Thursday, we got to do a mission-wide temple trip to the Los Angeles temple. We split it into two days, so half of the mission was there my day. We drove down bright and early, which took about 2 hours one way because of traffic. 

District

I loved the opportunity to go to the temple, especially since the mission only goes a few times a year. God's timing is wonderful!!

Kristen and her mission leaders, President and Sister Jones

Sister Pennington

We did a missionary orientation on Wednesday with all the new arrivals from the last week. We got some lessons and trainings from the mission leaders, APs (assistants to the president), and the senior couples. It was a lot of sitting and listening, but I enjoyed the time to shake up our usual schedule and learn some more. Plus they gave us cheesecake bites that were so yummy. 

This week we made 7 NEW FRIENDS! Friends are people we are teaching and working with. Our goal was 2 this week, so we were shocked at all the people God put in our path. 5 of these new friends are from Egypt and speak Arabic. 

One is a mother and son, and the mother speaks very little English but is excited to learn more, and her son is kind enough to translate most everything. Apparently she was a famous singer back in Egypt. 

The other 3 were friends/roommates we met on the way to another friend's house. They were all happy to meet with us again and each accepted a Book of Mormon. 

Side note: We handed out SOOOO many BoMs this week, it was crazy. And we always had one when we needed it, even if we didn't know why we felt we should grab extra. Our last two friends are both single dads, and we're hopeful that we can grow their faith and bring them all closer to Christ! 

I try to hype myself up before we go contacting/finding by saying "I'm about to meet another child of God!!" and that is so exciting (and also mildly frightening) to me that we get to interact with so many people each and every day. 

Our stake had a barbecue/picnic for pioneer day, which I was not aware was celebrated anywhere but Utah. However, I'm not complaining because they had a) ice cream, b) snow cones, and c) the dj played 3 Taylor Swift songs. That is a total win in my book. 

We had dinner with a member family this week with three little girls (not old people, i know!🥳) that are basically me as a child. They wear sparkly dresses, sing and dance, eat buttered noodles, and fight over who gets to play Mario Kart. That was my childhood in a nutshell. They are so sweet and funny.

They sat a few rows behind us during sacrament, and a few minutes in, we hear a loud whisper of "Mommy, can we say hi to the sister missionaries??" I couldn't help but giggle. 

Here's my spiritual thought for this week: The gospel is made to be cyclical. I'd like to note that the reason we reteach the same principles and stories every few years, especially now with Come, Follow Me, is because we learn something new each time we do. We learn something new each time we read the Book of Mormon. We learn something new when we watch a talk that wasn't impactful years ago, but suddenly is now. 

The words don't change, but our willingness to hear and what we are ready to learn does. Isn't it amazing that an 8 year old can understand the gospel, but some learned person can never truly comprehend or know all the complexities of the gospel in this life? It's both simple and endlessly complicated based on our needs and readiness to receive revelation.

The gospel truly is for everyone and can be understood at whatever level we are ready to learn. I love you all and get all giddy and excited when I hear back from y'all. Thanks for the prayers. God be with you! Til we meet, Sister Kline

Selling Furniture

Amy has been emptying out her apartment of the excess furniture that her roommate left behind when she bailed on the apartment back in December.

She has sold cubbies, a queen size bed, couches, rolling carts, and more. I think she has sold about everything she needs to sell and will start packing up stuff in a few weeks.

Her apartment is beginning to look a little bare!

She has to be out of the apartment on August 14th. She can't move in to her new apartment until August 18th. Fortunately, she had already planned to come home that weekend for the air show in Colorado Springs.

She and Chris will fly back to Utah on the morning of the 18th. He has meetings in Park City, but he kindly agreed to help Amy get moved in before he heads up the mountain.

Landing in Sydney

Chris landed in Sydney on Sunday morning. We chatted a bit while he flew, but he slept for half the flight and wifi was spotty otherwise.

He texted me about 3 pm Saturday afternoon. It was 7 am Sunday morning in Sydney.

He was happy to finally reach his hotel room, get a bit to eat, shower and relax. Just a bit. He attended Sacrament Meeting at a local ward at 10:00 am. His first uber driver canceled on him, so after ordering another one, he was a little bit late in arriving.

We chatted about house stuff after he got back from church as I am going to Colorado Springs this week to work on the iron railing design, more flooring, and then lighting.

After chatting with me, he went for a "walkabout" to get some fresh air and to try and get acclimated to the time change.

Chris bought a ticket to see the new Twister movie at the local IMAX—$30 US! for one ticket. Good thing work paid for it.

Chris Working in San Francisco

Chris spent a week in San Francisco with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) planning, learning, and team building. 

Chris' boss Will.

Not only was the setting great, but he also enjoyed time renting e-bikes with work friends and riding across the bridge and around the mountains.

"The road on the north of the bridge goes by all the World War II sites. Really cool. Gun batteries."

Riding and enjoying the scenery was a nice way to end the day after long days of sitting and brainstorming and talking.

The guys liked the biking so much that they rented bikes again later in the week.

On Friday evening, Chris had a little extra time while waiting for his evening flight to Sydney, Australia. He joined the engineering team for dinner.

"Went to in dinner with the engineering leaders tonight. Different crowd, but they are good to be my friends. Definitely helpful."

Sharing My Gardening Knowledge

I am by no means an expert on gardening or designing a landscape, but I have learned a few things over the past 25 years.

A friend from our ward, Tara Luschin, texted me with a request for help:

"Hey Jolayne! I’ve heard several times how great you are at gardening. We just closed on our new house and need to plan the landscaping in the back. I was wondering if you’d be willing to look at our back yard with me and maybe give some tips on areas where certain plants would grow best? Or a good way to set up a garden?"

She sent me some pics of her back yard. I sent her some ideas to get ideas flowing and asked what kind of things she wanted to grow in her garden.

I have a companion plant chart that I have created for my garden, so I sent that over. Here's a page from it: 

"This is helpful when planting a garden to know which plants thrive next to others and which plants you should avoid planting next to each other. If this doesn’t include the vegetables that you want to plant, google 'companion plants'. 

"I planted in garden boxes and used the square foot gardening method, so the # of seeds/plants per square foot relates to that."

I used to follow a blogger based in Utah that shared planting charts by zone. I can't find her now, but I'll keep looking. Regardless, there are a lot of other blogs that offer similar information.

I sent her my list of favorite trees and shrubs. (I keep this in my file: If I ever build a house again.)

Trees

Autumn Blaze Maple

Sugar Maple Tree

October Glory

Ornamental Pear Trees

Flowering Crabapple

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

 

Evergreen Trees

Colorado Blue Spruce

Emerald Green Arborvitae

Baby Blue Eyes Spruce

 

Bushes

Chinese Holly

Sherwood Compact Mugo Pine

Little Quick Fire Hardy Hydrangea

Annabelle Hydrangea

Butterfly Bush

Dwarf Burning Bush

Autumn Amber Sumac

 

Shrubs

Hostas (like shade)

Hens & Chicks

Red Twig Dogwood

Azalea

Diabolo Ninebark

Rhododendron

Weigelia

 

Perennial Flowers

Poppies

Peonies

Dahlias

Tulips

Ranunculus

Coneflower

Roses

Mr. Goodbud Stonecrop

Columbine

Lenten Rose

English Lavender

 

Annual Flowers

Begonias (like shade)

 

Grasses

Karl Forrester

Japanese Forest Grass

Dwarf Pampas Grass

Northern Lights Tufted Hair Grass

 

Ground Cover

Ice Plant

Veronica

Phlox

I also sent some links for garden boxes from Costco. (Just google them if you are needing garden boxes) with this advice:

"I would not go any bigger than 4 ft wide as it gets hard to reach into the middle. Even then I put some concrete pavers in the middle so I can step on those and reach better. "

Tara came to look at some of our trees and bushes. She brought her kids and they were instantly bored. One of her daughters said to me, "Why do people even need a yard this big?"

Why indeed. 

Feeling Down as a Missionary

The reality is, living life as a missionary is a huge change from a teen's normal reality. Kristen is no different in feeling a little down.

I love how her sisters, who would much rather tell Kristen to come home because they miss her so much, are rallying around her on Messenger and doing their best to strengthen her and show their love.

Some sister wisdom from our family chat:

Misha: God gave you the ability to feel these feelings for a reason. Don't be mad at them for being there. Try to accept and just feel them while you have the time to.

We want you to be happy. We think about you the time.

Your companions are just your sisters that are there for you now. Reach out to them now.

Amy: You are supposed to be where you are KK.

Do you need yarn? (Kristen loves to crochet.)

Kristen's Mission Email - Week 4

I am officially out in the field in sunny Southern California and I've had a crazy few days! Here's the rundown: 

• I MADE IT TO ARCADIA! 
• We are pinkwashing (aka replacing the elders in the area) in Covina/San Dimas 
• I put someone on date for baptism my very first day out.
• We're teaching her and getting her ready for that next step! 
• My ward is 90% old people (literally a walker/wheelchair every other pew) 
• I've met some real interesting people so far 

It's been an eventful week. It's hard to believe I was at the MTC just a few days ago. The days here are so long but time moves so fast. Believe it or not, I was companionless for about two hours at the beginning of this week! The rest of my district was each getting on their respective planes. 

When it was my turn, we took the Frontrunner and Trax to the airport. I might have been a little more experienced than my 16 other travel companions headed to Arcadia as well, so we went way slower than I'm used to. 

We got off the plane in California and were greeted by the mission leaders quickly after, President and Sister Jones! They were very kind and President Jones served his mission in Australia so he was excited to meet me and the other elder who got reassigned, who is coincidentally named, Elder Jones. They also left on their missions on the same day, just a few decades apart. Funny. 

We have a big transfer day ordeal where each trainer is brought up and then their new companion is announced. For a high stress travel day and the complete switch of training center to field, I was overwhelmed. 

When I was called up to serve with Sister Skyler Pennington, I was holding back tears over the anxiety of it all. I got to talking to my companion and felt a bit more at ease. She has been out a little over a year and I'm her first official greenie. She is so sweet and thoughtful, originally from Oklahoma. Then I found out, I'd seen her twin sister (not identical) at the MTC! She spoke to us on our very first night and talked about her conversion story, and I remembered her talking about how her twin sister was baptized soon after her.

Sister Pennington

So she's basically famous in the MTC sphere. She's only been a member for about 2.5 years, and I am in awe of her desire to serve a mission so soon after. I'm glad she did because she is a great trainer and we have a lot of fun together. We are assigned to a town called Covina, and like I said, are pinkwashing. 

Our president essentially felt like we needed sisters here and so we transferred out the elders. And got their apartment. Unfortunately you could tell elders were living here before. Side note: IT IS SO HOT HERE.

You probably could've guessed, but being more inland, it can be quite warm and so is our apartment. We're surviving and love when it's overcast. We had several appointments set by the elders on my first day out. We met some new members, some old members, and some people who just started taking lessons! 

One special person, Jessica, essentially asked to be baptized. We were shocked by how forward she was, but were SOOOO excited for her. Her faith is awesome and we've gotten to meet up with her several times this week. We made her baptismal plan yesterday, but have to pass her off to the YSA missionaries since she's in the age range. Regardless, we're so glad we could help her thus far and will hopefully get to see her be baptized in the future! 

Our ward, while fairly active, is SO OLD. You might say, Sister Kline, you're being judgmental. No, I'm being accurate. 

You look out on any given church activity, and you might think you walked into an old folks home. It's a sea of silver. However, old people are very kind and they're happy to have sisters serving in the ward now. 

We had a relief society activity and while the demographic was 60+, the attendance was higher than anything I've ever seen. And they feed us well. But I'm not kidding there is always a walker or wheelchair on every other pew at church. 

As you would expect, we talk to so many people each day. And as you'd expect, you run into some oddballs. Well, as a welcome to the mission, I ran into all oddballs on my first day. One lady showed me her family and dog ashes. And talked for almost 1.5 hours about anything but what we came over to talk about. 

One family had their house decorated for Christmas year round. They put too much effort into it a few years ago and didn't want to take it down. Understandable. 

And overall, we receive a LOT of unwarranted trauma dumping. We went over to help a lady in the ward fix her phone, and ended up finding out all her family lore and drama. It keeps the days interesting for sure, and it's been awesome to see what we really do as missionaries. 

Spiritual thought for the week: We've been inviting our members to make their prayers more meaningful. I learned in the MTC that that could mean listening for a little bit after praying, but it also might mean acting right after praying. God can't speak to us if a) we're not listening and b) we're not going to do anything about it. 

I would encourage you all to make your prayers more meaningful, and to do so, pray to know what would deepen your connection with our Father in Heaven. For me, that's praying maybe 10 minutes before I go to bed instead of right before, so I can be more attentive and intentional with my words, not rushing it because I'm tired. When we realize how incredible it is that we have a direct line to heaven and actually use it, miracles happen. We learn how the Spirit speaks to us. And we learn just how much our Heavenly Father cares. So don't forget to pray! I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you. Best wishes!

Sister Kline

Hike from Bear Lake to Lake Odessa to Fern Lake Shuttle Stop

We left the house around 7:30 am for our RMNP reservation to the Bear Lake Corridor. We should have left earlier to avoid the crowds waiting to get into the park before 9 am without a reservation.

We waited for about a half an hour at the main RMNP gate. We waited for about five minutes more at the entrance to the Bear Lake Corridor. If you don't have this specific reservation, you can only get into this section of the park without a reservation before 5 am and after 6 pm. It is the most popular area of the park and most people don't understand that you need to have a specific reservation for Bear Lake. As we wait in line, you see that lots of people get turned around at the entrance kiosk.

We parked in the Park and Ride lot. By the time we arrived, it was mostly full and the line for the restrooms was about a 15-minute wait. Chris dropped Misha and I off at the restroom line and went in search of a spot.

We then had to wait in line again to get on the shuttle bus. 

This place is much too popular. Chris and I have decided that even though we have more reservations this summer for the Bear Lake Corridor, we are going to find somewhere else to hike.

Fortunately, the hike to Lake Odessa was not a popular hike today. We passed a few people on the trail, but it was fairly quiet. Hot too. It was 103° at home and still quite hot in the mountains for hiking. The first part of the hike was hot and intensely uphill. We stopped every so often to catch our breath.

We did pass a few small ponds along the way, a butterfly, a marmot, and Lake Helene. We climbed up on a huge rock overlook to stop for lunch. Lunch with a view that overlooked Lake Helene behind us, Odessa Gorge below us, Notchtop Mountain in front of us and Grace Falls.

We enjoyed lunch and then continued on toward Odessa Lake. From here, it was all downhill. 

Chris and Misha soaked their feet in the stream for a bit. I stuck my water bottle in the cold lake to see if I could get my drink colder. Chris tried his Life Straw to drink the lake water (he is fine one day later so I guess it worked). We watched a guy catch fish after fish and a crazy girl float on the water (she eventually got dumped as she tried to climb out of her floating device).

After Lake Odessa, the scenery changed quite a bit as we hike through a burn scar area. Did you know that if you take a picture of a flower on your iPhone and then swipe up, Apple will identify the flower for you?

Click on the pic to see the deer standing in the shade of the rock.

This flower is called Fireweed and grows prolifically among the burnt out remains on the mountain side.

After hiking ten miles, we finally reached the Fern Lake Shuttle stop. I stretched my legs and feet and then settled in for a wait since we knew the shuttle bus wouldn't arrive for about 45 minutes. Chris and Misha walked over to a stream where they soaked their feet in the cold water.

We finally got on the shuttle bus that came a few minutes early. It was air conditioned and felt oh so good.

After getting back to our car, we drove to Estes Park and stopped for ice cream. Misha felt it was well deserved.