Kristen Mission Email - Week 15

HELLO PEOPLE!! 

 

You know what time it is? It's transfer news time!! My visa is still not here, and so I am going to be in Arcadia for another transfer! And I am going to UPLAND with SISTER GOSS!! I don't know anything about her other than she's a sweetheart and it's her last transfer! 

Here's the weekly rundown: 

• Exchanges with Sis Shrader and Hermana Rigby 
• JASON!! 
• Math for a service project😵‍💫 

We went into the YSA area as a trio for exchanges this week and it was so much fun! If you didn't know, Sister Shrader is literally my favorite human, all we do is giggle and I love her so much. Unfortunately, she's going home this transfer, but we had a great time and kind of a last hurrah by getting marriage advice from her bishop, trying mochinut, eating Costco pizza, and making friends! 

I also LOVED getting to know Hermana Rigby better, she is so precious and such a good missionary. 

We made a new friend this week named Jason who was previously taught a few years ago. Sister Pennington felt like we should go visit him and right as I raised my fist to knock on his door, he walked out to mow his lawn. Talk about God's timing! 

He was down to meet again later this week, and when we went back, we got to answer lots of his questions and he was so open. He asked us, "So, what do we do next?" and my heart was so happy. Pray for Jason!!

Remember when we did like 8 hours of service organizing and moving stuff in one of our member's yards a while back? Well, she took us to lunch this week and asked us if we'd go back to her house to help her untangle her 300 ft. measuring tape. Of course we said yes, but then we ended up measuring her very large yard for concrete measurements. 

I'm sorry for saying I'd never need high school math in real life because after all that, I had to take the area of her new measurements and add them all together. When she said we'd need to find the square footage, Sister Pennington gladly gave me the calculator and started untangling the measuring tape. I hope I don't get a grade because I don't think it would be passing. #sorrybea #mathisdumb #concretemeasurementsarehard 

Spiritual thought!! In the Bible Dictionary, it's notes how the word "atonement" is derived from "at one". That means when we utilize the cleansing and healing power of Christ's Atonement, we are made whole, closer to our Savior, and become more in line with God's will and plans for us. He loves you so much!!! 

Have an awesome week and wish me luck with transfers!! 

Love ya!

Misha Home for a Quick Trip

Misha came home for a quick trip. She did laundry, relaxed, cleaned out her car, and did some car upkeep.

We went to dinner at Cafe Rio.

Her dog "Patch" got a wash too. He's been her favorite since April 20, 2003.

Biking Any Chance Chris Gets

Chris loves his mountain biking and makes an effort to go any available weekend when we aren't hiking in the mountains or taking care of house business in Monument.

He went a couple of weeks ago with a bunch of friends and again this morning (on his own). As it is the last week of September and fall is getting into full swing, the roads going to the mountains were packed with people.

Even the biking trails are busy. He still has fun and it rejuvenates him for the week.

Should We Make a Realtor Change?

That question has been on our mind lately. Fact is, the homes in our price bracket just aren't selling.

We made an appointment with an agent from Denver to talk about a potential change. Nothing official, just talk. That was scheduled for September 14th at noon. We hadn't had a showing in 7 weeks and were really concerned. On Friday the 13th at 10 pm, I got a showing request for 2 pm the next day.

We met with the Denver realtor at noon, had a good talk, and came away with some good ideas regardless of whether or not we make any changes. BUT, we figured we couldn't use the reasoning of no showings to end our contract since we had one and then another a few days later.

Instead, we made some tweaks to our listing, lowered the price and early next week we are going to un-list from our current MLS and re-list on the Denver MLS. That will have the bonus of new eyes on our listing and reset our days on market to "0"!!!! That's huge. 

Why stay with our current realtor? Using a different one will be a substantial payout to them and we are hoping to be the karma and blessing in our realtor's life that he was in our life 20 years ago.

Lots of prayers and fasting for a home sale in October. We'd appreciate any prayers you could offer on our behalf.

Celebrating with Julie's Girls

All of Julie's girls have birthdays close together. Kelsey on Sept. 30, Makayla on Sept. 19, and Madelyn on October 5. Amy drove to Layton to celebrate with the girls at a corn maze (and with all of the cousins too).

They got a lot of fun pictures. The morning pretty much wore Amy out and she came home around 3 pm and had a nap!

Fall Colors in Frisco

Misha and her friend, Olivia, drove up to Frisco on Friday afternoon to see the fall colors. Besides having heavy traffic they were rewarded with some pretty awesome color.

Misha got some great pictures.

Amy - Job Interview

Amy interviewed for a full-time position that recently opened up at UCCU in the branch she works in. There were three people that applied for the job; Amy had her interview on Friday. The bosses were hoping to get all of the interviews done and let people know by Friday evening.

Unfortunately, it was so busy that they weren't able to get the third interview taken care of. So, Amy has had to wait over the weekend to find out the results. 

New Pathways Semester and Calling

The BYU-Idaho Pathways program is growing by leaps and bounds. All teachers are now called as worldwide service missionaries and there is a separate religion department at BYU-Idaho just for the Pathways teachers.

Our new semester started two weeks ago and is already in full swing. The first of the semester is busy with adding new students, finding out why some students are enrolled but never intended to be, and sending out announcements. 

This is my second semester teaching "The Divine Gift of Forgiveness" and it is an amazing course. The bonus is that I don't have to spend quite so much time in weekly lesson preparation. I just tweak some ideas here and there and move things around as I feel prompted by the spirit to meet the needs of my current class.

Teaching this course and in the Pathways program has been such a blessing for me.

I got this in the mail this week.

Fall at Pelican Shores

While I didn't really think that Chris and I would still be in Firestone for fall colors, but here we are. I can see the leaves out front beginning to change and becoming a little more red each day.

It's about to get even better!

Kristen's Mission Email - Week 14

Hello people!! Another exciting week in the California Arcadia mission! 

No news on the visa yet, but if I'm staying here another transfer, we'll know by next email! Prayers up!!! 

Here's the rundown: 

• Zone conference with Elder Boom! 
• Book of Mormon stand blitz! 
• Parking lot church invites! 

Of course I'll start with the most significant event. We had a super uplifting zone conference including a mission tour! 

Elder Hans T. Boom from the Seventy visited and spoke to our mission. It was so cool, I always love seeing authorities outside of broadcasts because they can be real and spiritual with you at the same time. 

I'll insert a spiritual thought from some of my favorites of his remarks here for the week! 

• Even though the field is white and ready to harvest, it's hard work! It's necessary to sharpen your sickle frequently (i.e. taking breaks, talking with God, reading scripture, etc.) to continue effectively working. 
• Don't just share the message of the gospel, but let it become you. Doing so gives you a tangible and noticeable radiance—that's the Light of Christ! 
• A successful missionary is an obedient missionary. "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power." (President Benson) 

Of course, he touched on all kinds of things but what really stuck out to me was the emphasis on obedience. Not only for missionaries, but for everyone in the world—each commandment, each thing God asks of us—is an opportunity for Him to bless us and consequently, those around us.

If we want to know our Savior better, we should think about how we could become a degree (or a few) more obedient. Doing so, we really can come to know our Savior AND the power of His Atonement better.

Kristen and Sister Shrader

We did a Book of Mormon stand for our blitz this week. We had a table with a sign that said ASK US ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON and lots of copies available for anyone interested. The elders who usually run the stand had us take shifts for the day.

We taught with one of the members in their area, a returned sister missionary from the Temple Square mission. Here we are, patiently waiting for some kind soul to pay attention to us when a man walked up to us and said: "I'll join your religion if you three will be my wives!" 

Well, he thought he was pretty funny. And they say chivalry is dead. Regardless, the blitz was a fun idea and I was so anxious the whole time, but we might try it in our area.

As a district, we're trying to invite 100 people to sacrament this week (we hit it yesterday!!😁) We were pretty low in numbers and me and Sis P weren't about to let that slide. We drafted a bunch of passalong cards with our church address and info on it and said if we passed them all out, we would get some froyo (frozen yogurt) after as a reward. 

We pulled up to our local Target parking lot and started handing them out. No one tells you how much anxiety walking up to random people in a parking lot gives you, but at some point, you just have to have 20 seconds of courage, especially with high stakes like frozen yogurt on the line. 

Update: we got froyo. I was so brave!

I love y'all, don't be strangers!!

The Basement is Poured

We were excited to see our lot and house taking shape on our last visit.

The basement has been poured, the plumbing is in, and the dirt work has been done to backfill against the foundation. Let's just say, that dirt cost a lot of money!

Chris drove in his driveway for the first time.

We tried to map out walls, front porch, and back deck. It was fun.

A Cloudy Flyover

While Chris and I were visiting the Parade of Homes, the morning had started out to be overcast and cloudy. For our first stop, we got out of the car and heard the sounds of F-18s flying over. Because of the clouds, we couldn't see them until a brief moment when they flew out of the clouds.

It was awesome. We went into the model home but heard the sounds of another flyover and rushed outside to see (and feel) the planes flying over.

Colorado Springs Parade of Homes-Again

Last year, Chris and I attended the Colorado Springs Parade of Homes and it led to us finding a builder and starting the process to build a new home and make a big move.

We returned again this year to get ideas on interior paint color, lighting, flooring, decorating and design ideas, and landscape ideas.

The walls of our new foundation are poured and framing should begin September 30th. It's getting real!

Revised Retaining Wall Plan

I appreciate that our builder is concerned over the details that impact our foundation as well as contribute to the exterior look of our house.

Chris and I met with Steve (the owner) and Christine (project manager) to go over the retaining walls now that the foundation is poured, plumbing lines are in, and we want to protect as many of the trees and the view as possible.

We've changed the location on a few walls from the original plan and added in length to others.

Lighting Meeting for Sunnyvale Ct

Our purpose in going to Colorado Springs over the weekend was threefold: we had a lighting meeting for our new house, we met with the Alliance owner to go over the exterior retaining walls, and we wanted to attend the Parade of Homes.

We met with the lighting team—Ronny and Diane—and mapped out outlet locations and interior and exterior lighting.

They will now transfer the ideas to the floor plans and (fingers crossed) we came in under budget!

Llama Llama

Amy attended a podcast party (not sure what that was all about) but she said it was packed with lots of people. And there were llamas too.

Aren't they so fluffy? The llamas names are "Mac" and "Cheese".

Kristen's Mission Email - Week 13

Hi people!! It was a busy week for us, we've been teaching way more than last transfer! We are loving it!

Here's the haps: 

• Urgent care trip🤭 
• The county is on fire🔥 
• Visa update: I don't have it #happy4months🥳
• 3 months as a missionary!!
• 🫶 -Spanish exchanges 😻 
• Memorized the Living Christ💗 
• First mission talk🫨 
• First earthquake😯 

Okay, don't freak out, I didn't bash my head again or anything. We went to urgent care this week to get Sister P some antibiotics for her cough which has been here for about a month now. It was pretty uneventful, but a fun little side quest from mission life. Her cough seems to be getting better? 

We had heard earlier last week that the fires in the area had the entire San Bernardino mission evacuated. The smoke and ash was getting bad in our area, and Tuesday evening we saw the actual fires on the mountains near us. It was pretty freaky and we saw it spread rapidly within a few hours. Some people started getting evacuation notices on their phones, but we were told to wait it out. 

My parents would've been so proud of my little 72-hr kit I had ready at the end of my bed. Everything chilled out the next day, even though we were declared in a state of emergency. The smoke and air quality has been awful ever since, but we're all well. 

Nothing on the visa yet, but I've kept up my trend of making hilarious cakes. It's been 4 months of waiting. Prayers that it gets here soon!! 

I've been a missionary for 3 months (technically tomorrow). Time is fake and so weird on the mission, how has it been so long already? Spanish exchanges are so funny to me because I look like I should start speaking Spanish and my cute not-Latina-looking STL starts speaking fluently and explains I know nothing. It's kind of a brain break because I get to sit there and nod and look pretty and assume that everything being said is totally awesome and spiritual. 

Side note: Sister P and I knocked a home where a lady who spoke only Spanish started bashing us and thought I was faking not knowing Spanish and continued to bash us for 10 more minutes, even though we kept saying "No habla Español" and "no comprendo". That was a little goofy.😁 #ethnicallyambiguous 

The California Arcadia mission invites all missionaries to memorize the Living Christ. When I heard this I figured I wouldn't be here long enough for that to matter and said no way José....then I was here my second transfer and President Jones asked me how memorizing was going....I broke the news and he asked me how much I could do in four weeks. Of course I had to do all of it. And I did. And it's such a cool document! Read it if you have the chance. 

I gave my first talk of probably many on the mission yesterday. Thanks Amy for the topic suggestion 🫶 I think I cooked a bit. 

Also, happy to confirm that apparently earthquakes are real. Every once in awhile we get notifications on our phone that there's earthquakes nearby but we never feel anything. But this week, I felt one!! The earth just shakes sometimes. Weird. 

Like I said, we've been loving how much we get to teach! Please pray that we'll be able to find more prepared people to help grow closer to Christ! 

I talked about tender mercies on Sunday and here are two invites to take with you:

1. Seek to recognize the Lord's tender mercies 

2. Seek to be the tender mercies in someone else's life.

I promise as you do those two things, you'll see more of those personal and specific blessings in your own life. God is so aware of you!! Never forget that! If you want to hear more, give the whole talk a read.

Let me know if there's anything I can pray for you for! I love hearing from you all, you've got someone in your corner in CA! 

Love ya!! 

Sister Kline 💗

Amy Selling Her Car

Amy is selling her car.  Chris and I suggested that she drive the Mazda that Kristen was using (so there wasn't a car just sitting in Utah for the next 18 months). She was able to pay her Mazda off, get the title, and listed the car.

Amy likes to have things neat and tidy, and her car is no different. It is in great condition to sell. Hopefully it sells faster than our house!

Riding the Estes Tram in Estes Park

Last year, when Chris and I finally decided to ride the Estes Tram after driving by the entrance every time we drove to RMNP, we discovered that it was closed. Bummer! 

The tram was built by Robert Heron in 1955.

…Mr. Heron traveled to Europe to study the tramways and became more fascinated with their design and capabilities. Because of the steep terrain, many trams in Europe do not require any towers to support the wire ropes. The entire length is a free span between the bottom and the top stations. The Estes Park Aerial Tramway utilizes this design. A free span is fairly uncommon in the United States and this type of design affords a very smooth ride. ~ Estes Park Aerial Tramway 

The tram was purchased by Gondola Adventures and began running once again in May 2024.

I wanted to create a post on my website about the tram and suggested to Chris that this would be one of our last opportunities this season to ride it... and who knows how often we will get back to Estes Park once we move to Monument.

The weather in Estes Park was perfect. We had figured that it would be windy at the top of the mountain, but it wasn't at all. We watched kids feed the chipmunks, enjoyed the scenery, and walked a short distance to the peak. You can buy a bag of peanuts for $3 in the Hungry Chipmunk Cafe at the top of the mountain to feed the chipmunks.

Since I had blisters on my heels and was wearing flip flops, Chris and I opted not to climb all the way to the top of Prospect Peak. Besides, we had already hiked almost 10 miles!

Is the tram expensive? Yes. It was $73 for the two of us.

But the views were outstanding, the weather was perfect, and the company was ideal.

Hiking toward Lawn Lake in RMNP

Lawn Lake is a hike that Chris and I have set out on twice now and not finished twice now. The first time, we got rained on and raced back down the hill as the trail became a small trickling river.

Saturday we started up again, not really planning on getting to the lake which was 6.5 miles one way. I am breaking in a new pair of hiking boots and could tell that both of my heels were developing blisters. Around 4.5 miles in we decided to turn around. Still, that's 9 miles round trip so not too shabby for hiking.

The trail was actually a lot busier than we have seen in the past. We hiked back down for a couple of miles, found a big flat boulder to sit on, and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Some people chatted for a bit as they passed by.

I put bandaids on the blisters, but I should have done before starting the hike. Oh well. I might have to return these boots for a pair that is a little easier on my feet.

The leaves in the mountains are just beginning to change. Give them a couple more weeks and they will be brilliant yellow.

The weather could not have been more perfect. It was a little chilly when we started out, but that's actually pretty ideal over hiking in the heat of the afternoon.

A Rockies' Win

Misha has attended a few Rockies Baseball games in Denver, but never when they have actually won.

Misha and a group of friends attended a game on Friday night and the Rockies pulled out the win in the last few seconds of the game.