Week 4

Hey! This week has been great! Everything's been going spectacular except for my companions cold, but hey its almost gone and I haven't caught it! The other day we were walking along trying to find a less active members house and as we were walking along the street, a whole heard of elementary children came down the street and we were swallowed up. Sad thing was that most of them  were our height or taller....

 

I was able to try some Lebanese food! it tasted super great! I'm also expanding my horizons in the food department and hey salad isn't so bad now. I can now eat cantaloupe, kiwis, strawberries, asparagus, green beans, pineapples, blue berries and some other things now...

 

I got to drive for the first time this week! It felt really odd to be driving again and I'm actually not sure if I'm technically supposed to be driving yet...but my companion hasn't felt well enough too!

 

Awkward moment for the week was when I accidentally called a female child a male...Although I'm not sure her mother noticed, thank goodness!

 

Something cool happened this week, we were coming back from an appointment and as we were walking towards the car I was wondering who we were going to go see next and a person popped into my head right away. At first my brain said, "pshh nooo, we don't need to see them, we saw them a couple days ago and you're seeing them in a few days." buuut we decided to go anyway and it ended up turning out well! The mom had bronchitis and her son was staying at his dads house and I think she needed to talk, so it ended up going well.

 

We got free girl scout cookies from really nice lady named Jennifer. She had been investigating the church awhile back, but then stopped since her husband was against it, but she was super willing to talk and you could feel her spirit really strongly and they'll both be baptized sometime I'm sure. At the end of our discussion, before we left she said, "wait...I just remembered. Yesterday my daughter was making some late valentines cards and she had told me that she made 2 extra ones for people that she didn't know...and I think they're supposed to be for you". Its crazy how in tune kids can be with the spirit sometimes! Then she gave us some Samoa cookies and some thin mints. Lets just say my first experience in trying samoas was a good one...

 

One of the members in our ward is named Karalee! Its pronounced the same and everything. A few weeks ago I had seen her name in our directory and wanted to visit her because of her name, but then she ended up signing up for our dinner, so I waited for that and then informed her that her name was a good one.

 

I was able to go running outside for the first time today! It was so great!

 

2 things a mission has taught me: 1. Plagiarize with pride and 2. stalking people is sometimes a good thing;D

 

Also.....So. About the thing I said the other day about Skyping people back home the missionary lessons...it is possible for me to do that if you find someone for me to teach, but the goal is to eventually get them to take missionary lessons from someone in the area. So if someone isn't willing to do that first, and would be willing to take them from me instead for a little while then that it fine. And also if its like a family member and stuff then that's fine also. Sorry that was so confusing when I was trying to explain it! if you have any other questions regarding that then let me know!

 

Another thing: with the blog kara has set up for me, I'm not allowed to have it posted on my wall I found out, just cause its stuff that i've been doing and they don't want people from here to go on there and creep ha ha but definitely have everyone in the family post it on their wall and stuff then people will be able to see it, I wish I could keep it up on my wall, but it makes sense as to why we cant. They did tell me that I was allowed to start a spiritual blog thing So ill probably do that, but keep up the blog you have going Leetle!!! I'm so grateful that you're willing to do it!!! and it gives people a feel of what I'm doing rather than just spiritual thoughts essentially. the website for is http://kalianaquinton.blogspot.com/ but I haven't put anything really up on it yet...so hopefully in a few days ill be able to put something up......

anywho, love you all!

Letter #2 that came to Karalee 

Oh goodness my companion and I have the randomest conversations about everything haha sometimes she reminds me of you and Kemi so its great! I think she'll probably come visit us after we both are home from our missions. Funny story...so this morning I was making something in the kitchen and I said something random, and from the other room I heard, "FOR THE LAAAAAST UUUUNIICORRRRN" and I ran in the other room since I was so surprised that she actually knew that movie, since no one every has heard of it. it was great.

 

 And we'll definitely have to sky dive when I get back! maybe you'll be up for some real sky diving then;) also, I'm going to print out your talks and read them!

 

That would be bad if you had bronchitis some lady out here had it the other day and we were hanging out with her, so hopefully I don't get it! that would really suck major butt!

 

Mom said that you have your zumba thing this Wednesday I believe? you'll have to let me know how it goes!! also...did you ever get a letter in response to your divergent stuff?? I cant remember if I actually sent one or if I only responded in my head...haha well if I didn't send one, Why must authors be so laaaaaaaame!! lol those books were very grand though. Has Q finished reading them yet? Aly actually finished them also, so you could have some intense conversations about it! haha

 

I think you asked me what the hardest thing out here is...I believe not holding the cute children is the hardest part! hehe there are so many cute babies. There's this really cute one that's named Jacob and he has brown hair and huge dimples and I just want to pick him up and take him home!

 

Question......is the main guy from austenland the guy that plays Loki?? I was randomly thinking about that the other day and I figured I'd ask you to look it up!

 

Also...do you have Nana's zucchini bread recipe?

 

anywho...love you!! everything is going great!!

A few pictures from the week 

Week 3

First off, sorry I wasn't able to email yesterday! it was presidents day so the library was closed! but here I am now obviously...

 

President & Sister Riggs

We had a zone conference and every single person in the zone had to take a written driving test. even the people that did not have cars. apparently in the past 3 months there's been 21 accidents so now they have to keep better tabs on how people are actually driving. I got a 100% no big deal or anything;) haha Although I cant drive until the first transfer is over.

We also had a "New Expectations meeting" for the new missionaries. We rode down with some elders and we found out that we'll be getting to use iPads within 3 weeks! the president has them in his office already I think they're just working out some kinks. At the end of the meeting we were all waiting around for our rides and so we all started up a game of basketball. Most of the sisters didn't want to play so it was me, and another sister, and our president against 5 elders, although since president is a pro, we did pretty well, although it was definitely an experience trying to run around in a skirt and just socks. I'm getting better at sight reading hymns, a sister in my district kept opening to random ones and having me try to play and I'm getting decent. I'm also learning how to play the guitar better. My companion has a guitar that's been passed between companionships so I'm learning more strum patterns.

Dipping grilled cheese in hot chocolate is oddly satisfying. We kept hearing about this huge snow storm from every house we went to and I didn't really believe it at first until I got home, went to bed, and the next morning there was over a foot of snow on the ground. We weren't allowed to go any where so I studied for awhile then worked on my mad coloring skills. Rapunzel didn't know what hit her.

On valentines day we had to dig our car out of the snow so that was an adventure in a skirt. Lets just say that you can do many things in a pencil skirt, but at times it can get pretty scandalous....;) I think my companion and I have unintentionally matched or semi matched each other almost every single day. We made a goal to try to take one picture a day, so that ill always have a couple to send home!

 

Out here you really realize how much the Lord takes care of his servants. A few times we've had appointments run late, and we check our phone only to realize that the next appointment has cancelled. It super interesting how things work out!

 

I believe the members are very intent on feeding us until we burst in this ward! We have dinner appointments every night almost, and they usually have some great dessert that they make and tell us to take home. I was asked to give a talk within the next couple of weeks and the night before church we randomly got asked to teach a lesson, but it went surprisingly well.



Sis Shawna Richardson

Sis Shawna Richardson - went to take a picture and they both fell down

Sis Shawna Richardson - LOVE clean/warm sheets

Sis Shawna Richardson - Sunglasses

Everything is just going super duper great! Its finally starting to warm up a little bit and its supposed to get in the 60s this week!

 

Love you all!!

Sister Kali Quinton

Week 2 & Pictures

So! in the MTC we had several people that asked my district to sing for their class rooms, and at our zone conference things, so we sang for people several times and it was super cool!

I already told you that my investigator Carla is going to be baptized. It was funny cause when she agreed to be baptized, it was the 2nd time we'd brought up baptism, we just hadn't asked her the first time because it didn't feel right at the time. On the day that we actually asked her to be baptized, my companion and I hadn't even planned on asking her, but my heart started pounding and my hands starting sweating in the middle of our lesson and I knew it was time to ask her, (and my companion was giving me an odd look as I started talking, but she figured I knew what I was doing) and voila! Carla said yes! That was extremely hard to contain my excitement in front of her.

My last Sunday in the MTC I played the opening hymn and even though it was fast sunday I completely forgot that I was fasting that's how nervous I was! It was crazy!

I believe I told you some false information on the phone the other day! So on the day we were supposed to leave the MTC, we were supposed to meet at the travel office at 4:00, and we got there and they said that our travel itineraries were all incorrect and it was actually supposed to be 5:30. Well we waited around for an hour and a half and took crazy pictures in the dark...Then we hopped on the bus and headed down to the train station, missed our train since the travel office hadn't given us tickets, then hopped on the next train. Then we had to switch trains in the middle of our journey. On the 2nd train, we met a man and we gave him a book of mormon.

I didn't realize until that night that, that man was the reason we had everything going supposedly wrong that morning. We found out that the bus we were supposed to take at 4:00 that morning, had left as was planned, and it took those missionaries straight to the airport. The reason we didn't have tickets for the train, was because we were supposed to go straight to the airport. But the Lord wanted us to meet that man, and you could tell that he had been prepared for a long time for this meeting. It was super cool! The Lord definitely knows each one of us and knows our needs!

Now time for the actual mission!

We got off our plane and our mission president and his wife were waiting right at the gate, and they are super nice! We went sight seeing right afterwards for about an hour, then we drove to the mission home and ate dinner. The next day we would have our transfer meeting and meet our companions!

We got to the meeting and we watched the movie the Saratov Approach! Such a crazy film! and yet it was super amazing and you could tell the elders really had a ton of faith that the Lord would strengthen them in their trials. I would really recommend watching it, although mom might have a balling fest;) It's a great movie though. My trainers name is Sister Richardson! She is absolutely fantastic and I swear we have the same brain! Shes my height and we have a ton of fun together. I accidentally walked in on a random sister in the bathroom....I don't think she had locked the door.....awkward turtle.....

Sister Richardson and I have unintentionally matched our outfits for the past three days. Its been an adventure! Last night while we were out tracting we looked down at a door mat and saw that the letters looked crinkly...so at the same moment sis richardson and I reached out our foot and touched it, it was pretty hilarious!

I'm doing super super great! I'm so excited to be out in the field! My apartment is cute and small and I work out to disney music in the mornings, while I'm half asleep. I finally was able to pick up some things from the store today and I've come to realize that I love pumpkin pie and grapes. I have a yummy recipe for pumpkin pie that I tried at a members home last night, you'll definitely have to try it!

Anywho, love you all!! :)

 -Sister Kaliana Quinton

(Kali will have to correct me on this later if I get the people tagged wrong) 

Sister Hunt 

Sis Hill, Sis Funk, Bro Ikahihifo (teacher), Sis Savage (Her whole district + her teacher)

Sis Wadsworth (teacher) & Sis Funk (companion)

Sis Taylor, Sis Funk, Sis Savage, Sis Wadsworth, Kali, Sis Osmond, Sis Hill (whole district + teacher)

Sis Taylor, Sis Funk, Sis Savage, Sis Wadsworth, Kali, Sis Osmond, Sis Hill (whole district + teacher)

Sis Osmond & Sis Savage (& some drawings of their teachers)

Carla (Kali's 1st investigator + her 1st baptism) & Sis Funk

Kali's District + a few other sisters 

District + Elder in her zone and Bro Hixon (center = teacher)

District + Bro Purcell (teacher)

4am waiting for the bus to the airport from the MTC on her way to DC

4am waiting for the bus to the airport from the MTC on her way to DC

4am waiting for the bus to the airport from the MTC on her way to DC

4am waiting for the bus to the airport from the MTC on her way to DC

DC

Sis Funk - Finally in DC !

District, finally in DC!

Kali's New Address

Kali made it safely from the MTC to her "new home." 

Her address is now:

Sister Kaliana Quinton

6302 Tall Trees Ln, Apt T1

Springfield, Virginia

22152

We don't have much of an update yet, the morning of her flight out they missed the train because none of the missionaries had tickets apparently... so they all missed their method of transportation... and thus when she finally got to call my parents to say hi it was for 5 minutes...as she was running to catch her flight. More updates to come on Monday she says! 

And if you want to write her she'd love to hear from you! Either at the above address or at kali.quinton@myldsmail.net