Week 68 - February 11, 2014

Buenas Tardes Familia!

How is everybody doing?!  I hear that my mother is posting falsehoods about how much time I have left!  Ignore the Facebook post!  I still have an eternity to serve!  :-)   I can hardly believe that my last transfer starts next week.  I am not really sure where the time has gone.  I am hoping I get to stay in Rio Grande with Hna Budge.  There is no reason to change us, so hopefully we will stay.

So we have had a fun week.  Where should I start...

I received a package Thursday last week from UPS so I had to sign for it.  The funny part was when I opened the door and he says I have a package for H-her-hermana.  Hehe people who don't speak spanish are funny when they think "sister" is my first name.  I just go with it and tell them it is pronounced Ermana.  Not sure what my mother was thinking giving me a name with a silent H on it.  Weird. :-)

So I hear that good old Washington was buried under snow this week.  I think it was last week that we had a tiny bit of snow, but nothing major.  It does however get cold at night even if we get to enjoy nice 60 degree days.  I have to tell you the sad story of the fishy.  As background, whenever my family has ever been slow to respond to an email I often send the following email "Fishy why are you sleeping?"  Usually they respond very promptly.  Well as I was on exchanges this week we went to this house and they had a pond.  A very cute little pond out in front of their house.  However, a tragedy occurred in that little fateful pond.  I have included a picture because I couldn't resist.  Two poor little fishies are sleeping never to answer again.  The pond froze and these little fishies in their attempt to escape didn't quite make it out and now are forever frozen there little fishy bodies stuck in the ice as a sad witness to all that ABQ can be cold at nights.  So no making fun of me for being a cold weather pansy.  It's so cold in ABQ that things meet their end!

The Fishies

Other than that I had a really good exchange.  I went to the singles ward with Hermana Morris.  That is the sister who's brother served in Ridgefield ward.  We had a good time and we taught some good lessons.  There was a little miracle involved with this exchange as well.  We were actually suppose to go on exchanges on Tuesday night, but I was sick so we had to reschedule.  We were planning on doing it this week, but then another companionship of sisters got sick on Thursday night, so we ended up doing it pretty last minute after zone conference on Friday.  The miracle was that on Friday night, Olga and her son Justin were getting baptized at the stake center.  I had been wishing that I could go, but even though it's in the zone, it's too far to travel.  Well with the exchange being moved to Friday I was in Los Lunas that night and we happened to have a baptismal interview for the other sisters that night at the stake center.  So I was able to see Olga right after she was baptized and get a picture with her and tell her how happy I was for her.  So the Lord works in mysterious ways.  Sometimes even through fevers. :-)

Exchange with Hermana Miller

Olga, Justin and Dulce after the baptism

Another cute story tied to that fever is when Crystal (one of our investigators who is going to be baptized at the beginning of March) was texting us because we had to reschedule our visit since I couldn't go out that night and work.  After we got all of our new plans arranged Crystal texted me and said "I will pray for you because now I know how."  It was one of those moments that melts your heart.  It is such a blessing to know that I am helping people in their lives.  Something as simple as teaching someone how to pray to their Heavenly Father has such a huge impact on the rest of their lives.  It's another moment that just shows me that this mission is exactly where I am meant to be.

Tug-o-war with Sugar, Crystal's dog

Another miracle we had this week was finding Mona and her daughter Johana.  Well we actually found them about 2 weeks ago but we weren't able to have our first lesson with them until this past week.  We had this great lesson as we built Jesus Christ's church with Jenga blocks.  It was interesting because she has an almost two year old son who really liked the Jenga blocks and thought it was lots of fun to throw the Jenga blocks around.  You know you are an experienced missionary when you can teach while Jenga blocks rocket past your face without getting distracted.  We actually went back last night and Mona had found one of the Jenga blocks that we had missed in our clean-up from the last lesson.  He was really throwing those blocks!  Mona is really excited about the Book of Mormon.  She said her mom had a copy on her shelf but she never knew where it came from.  She also was interested to find out that Joseph Smith didn't write the Book of Mormon, but that it was written here in ancient America and that Joseph Smith only translated the book.  I am excited to see where this little family goes.

Well if I ever had any fears that I won't get married, they have all been put to rest.  For one of our dinners I ended up helping the Sister finish making homemade flour tortillas, which are delicious by the way.  Anyway as I was cooking them on the hot plate they were getting really big and fluffy.  Well she walked over and told me that if you can make tortillas puff up like that it means that you will get married and be a good wife.  Good to know.  It reminds me of the time I was like 10 in cooking 4-H and the guest at my breakfast turned to me and told me that "You make good wife."  Yep as I recall I spilled hot chocolate all over the table after he said that because I became so nervous. :)  So, I not only know how to make some fantastic tortillas, but they have predicted my wonderful married future ahead of me.  From all of the proposals I've received on mission I'm sure I can find someone. hehe  Plus the the tortillas have spoken, so what else is there to say.

Well last but not least we have had some great member missionary work this week.  One of our recent converts, Manuel, invited us to come share the gospel with his buddy.  By the time we got to the lesson he had three other people there as well ready to listen to the lesson.  All he did was ask them if they wanted to sit in and they all said yes.  It was interesting teaching 4 different people at once, but also challenging because you are trying to address all of their individual needs and teach a lesson as well.  It went really well and they all are learning more about the church right now.

Our other recent convert, Olga, had an interesting week as well.  She hasn't been able to come to church since the start of the year because she works a night shift and with our ward moving to 11am it was too hard.  She kept asking her boss to change her days off from Thursday/Friday to Friday/Saturday so she  can come to church.  They originally told her yes and then they changed and told her no and they kept giving her the run around.  It's a sad thing to see because I have seen so many people who stop coming to church because of work and bam 5-10 years have passed and they have forgotten their testimonies about the gospel.  We have been praying a lot for Olga and on Saturday we stopped by to see if she was home, but we weren't sure if she would be sleeping.  She opened the door and was super excited to see us and proceeded to tell us that the night before she had quit her job.  She was so happy and excited to tell us and she kept saying that she has faith that God is going to help her find a new job and that she wants to go to church.  Sure enough she was at church the next day.  I absolutely love her and her desire to put the Lord first.  What a great example she is of faith and trusting in God.

Well that was a long letter.  I'd better stop writing otherwise you will all fall asleep at your computers.  I love you all so much and we'll talk to you in a week!

Les Quiero,
Hermana Klaus

Week 67 - January 4, 2014

Querida Familia,

So I was pondering on the date, and 8 years ago today I got my license to drive.  Crazy!  Where has the time gone?!  It seems like just yesterday that I was learning how to drive, but it wasn't.  Good thing I got my license because it has come in handy on my mission.  I don't think I or my rear end could have survived 18 months on a bike! hehe  So yay for getting a license a long time ago!

It has been the time of tumbleweeds here in ABQ.  Hermana Budge I have tried in vain to run down a tumbleweed.  There can be 4 or 5 tumbleweeds just rolling in front of us taunting us with the roundy explodiness, but they go too fast or too slow and we can never time it just right to watch them burst into a million pieces.  It has been entertaining to watch other cars to enjoy the epicness of exploding a tumbleweed, but alas it is just not the same as getting the satisfaction of doing it yourself.  I don't know how much longer we will see them rolling around, but maybe there is still hope.

Winter definitely isn't ready to let go quite yet.  We had a little snow shower last night.  Hna Budge was like a little Utah girl on Christmas to see snow again!  :)  I am now too much of a Texan/New Mexican and it just makes me cold!

Hermana Budge and I are having adventures of all sorts.  We have to take care every time we walk out of a room in the apartment because it seems like one of us is always hiding behind the wall ready to jump out and scare each other.  We've had some good reactions.  Hmm maybe I'll have to find a way to buy a nerf gun without her seeing and then we'll see who's surprised!  It's wonderful being able to serve with good friends and have fun, but always be ready to get down and work hard as well.

One funny thing that happened this week was during companionship study.  I seem to always be losing pens, but I've been really careful not to misplace this one pen I have been using.  Well we were reading together in preach my gospel and I went to make a note and all of the sudden I couldn't find my pen.  I am looking all over for it.  On the desk, in the desk, on the floor etc.  Hna Budge is looking around too and we can't find it.  Well it's one of those moments where you just can't let it go so as we continue with companionship study I am slightly distracted about where in the world my pen could have gone.  I mean it was on my desk one minute and then the next it was gone!  I used another pen to write my little note and we were both just baffled about the mystery of the lost pen.  Probably 15 minutes later when I have pretty much forgotten about my mission pen, I start to feel my hair fall out.  I reach up to fix it and wouldn't ya know my pen was stuck in my hair.  I had my hair down that morning and then without remembering I had used my pen to knot up my hair, so it was off my neck.  I started laughing and Hna Budge probably thought I was a little nuts until she saw where my pen had been.  I got to give her a bad time too because she saw me looking for my pen all over and she never noticed it in my hair either.  Needless to say I have my pen back and I will try not to lose it in my hair again!

This weekend was awesome.  We had stake conference and the Saturday night session was one of the best conference sessions I have ever been to.  It was all on missionary work, which is why President Miller wanted us to be there.  They had about 6 people give short 5 minute talks on a variety of missionary topics.  One of the neatest ones was the Young Adult in the singles ward who actually opened up his mission call in front of all of us.  The Stake president had been sweating bullets all week because his call wasn't coming and wasn't coming.  The stake president kept sending texts...did it come yet, did it come yet?!  Finally at 3pm on Saturday the call came and that is nice, because it meant he only had to wait 4 extra hours instead of a few extra days to open his mission call.  He was shaking on the stand as he opened it.  He got all teary eyed and his voice cracked when he read to us that he had been called to the Madrid Spain Mission.  If that doesn't help people feel the spirit of missionary work I'm not sure what will!  The entire room was electrified!

This other man told a story about a little boy who really wanted to help share the gospel, but he was told that he was too little and that he couldn't.  Well that little boy was so sad that he went to the town's graveyard and he got on his soap box so to speak and standing on a broken down stump he started to preach to the empty grounds.  He bore his testimony on the Savior Jesus Christ, the restoration, the plan of salvation, our purpose on earth, and everything else that he could think of.  He spent most of his "preaching" talking to a run down rusty car with all it's windows shattered.  Well that Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and the little boy sat in the bench feeling sad that he couldn't share the gospel because people told him he was too young and small when an old man got up to bear his testimony.  Nobody recognized the old man and when he spoke he thanked the little boy for sharing his testimony with him.  He said that I was laying in the backseat the entire time and your simple testimony is why I am here today.

Then the Stake President was hilarious.  He told of the time he tried out with his friend (who wanted to meet a girl) for a yell leader on the cheerleading team.  He talked of the horror and humiliation of the open audition.  He had us all rolling in our chairs laughing.  He told the stake that he was waving his spiritual pom poms and telling us to get in the game.  It is time for missionaries and members to work together to bring this message to all the world.  I hope that people don't just say oh that was a nice conference and then leave things the way they are.  If you're satisfied with what you are getting out, then keep doing what you are doing, but if you want more, then put in more.  There is no greater joy than to share the gospel.  We don't have to be perfect to share the gospel, but we have to share the gospel to become perfect.  I know that is the truth and that we can all put a little more work into our own missionary efforts and the Lord will pour out his blessing upon us.  I love each and everyone of you and I am so grateful for the prayers that have been uttered in behalf of myself and all of the missionaries around the world.

Les Quiero,
Hermana Klaus

Week 66 - Pictures

The Pretty Board that they made for the Elders

At the Aquarium

With Hermana Miller on a starfish

At the botanical garden in a carrot

On a mushroom

In a pumpkin

Stinky Onions

Teaching the dragon

Week 66 - January 28, 2014

Querida Familia!

Como le va?  Estoy muy bien gracias!  So this week we had some sad news in our tripanionship.  We got a call on Tuesday evening and one of the spanish sisters down south became ill and she had to go home, and because we were the trio Hna Escalante was asked to go to Las Cruces and be Hermana Biancardi's new companion.  We were all bummed, but we were still happy for the time we did get to spend together.  Apparently we learned too quickly how to be an awesome trio, so we didn't need to stay together.  One neat thing about that was President Miller mentioned to me this past week that when it was transfer planning last time he felt like he should make a trio, but he wasn't sure why.  Well not even three weeks in and we can see how inspired it was to put us in a trio.  However, that does mean that the person that actually knew the area is now gone and Hermana Budge are trying to figure out our new area.  Plus the Elders came in last week, so we had all of that to get prepared and hand over.

Funny story about giving the Elders their area.  At first we planned to buy some pink crepe paper so we could decorate their apartment all pretty (my old apartment) but the zone leaders needed the key early to put stuff in their apartment, so we never got a chance to go through with that plan.  However, we did have their investigator board at our apartment, so we had fun making it pretty for them.  There first reaction was priceless.  We were just laughing.  I am sure that now having had it for a week it must look a lot more manly. :-)

So today we are emailing late because we decided to go play again this morning.  Today we went to the aquarium with the Tome sisters, Hermana Mitchell and Hermana Nunez.  We had a lot of fun.  Lots of fishies everywhere!  We even got to pet a sting ray!  He was a little slimy, but after the first touch you just want to keep touching them.

This past week we had interviews with President Miller.  Some people take a little longer than others.  I think I spoke with him for less than 5 minutes.  I guess that means I must be doing ok if he doesn't seem to be worried about me at all.  :)  After our interview he asked me to translate a call for him with a new senior sister who just arrived from Peru and is serving down in El Paso.  I said I would, but I was super nervous to talk on the phone.  Well it turned out that she was with another senior couple down south who speaks both languages, so they ended up translating and I was off the hook.  Whew.  I am sure I could have done it, but it would have been intimidating to translate for the President.

This week we have been focusing on finding.  It seems like we are always focusing on that.  Hmmm, there must be something about finding people and missionary work that is just closely related. hehehe :)  We have been talking to lots of great people, but it is always frustrating when they set up an appointment with us and then don't answer the door when we come by.   It wouldn't hurt our feelings if you tell us no in the first place, but it is sad when we can hear you inside with all the lights on and you peak through the curtains "very sneakily" and then don't answer the door.  Sigh oh well it's just a part of the experience.

Our most exciting news of the week is that Crystal has accepted a baptismal date along with her two children.  We had an amazing lesson talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and then they picked a date for the middle of February.  Well then right after that she became madly ill with the flu and the poor dear has been throwing up all week.  To make sure that she has enough time to fully feel better and that we can teach her everything, we are probably going to be changing her baptismal date for the beginning of March.  It has been so wonderful to watch them little by little learn about the gospel and see their desire to follow the Savior grow.  I will keep you updated on what happens with them.

All in all, it's been a another wonderful week.  We still have lots of work to do, so we will keep on moving.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Les quiero mucho!
Hermana Klaus

Week 65 - January 21, 2014

Hola!

So how has everybody's week been? Mine has been fantastic once again!  Being a missionary is just so wonderful.  If I could have a little more sleep I would be a missionary forever!  Hehe.  Hna Budge is getting her missionary legs under her and she is entering into the perpetual state of tiredness!  :)  Even if we are tired we still are having lots of success as missionaries.  We've seen lots of little miracles this week and I would like to share one of them with you.

So last week we were in a lesson and it was a little bit of a longer lesson and towards the beginning I realized that I needed to use the restroom, but we were in the middle of teaching and it just wasn't one of those times where you could stop the lesson and go.  So I said a little prayer that I would forget the need and be able to concentrate on the lesson.  That little prayer was answered and we finished the lesson and as we walked out of the door I remembered my need (which increased dramatically) and so I said another little prayer that the Lord will help me find a potty soon.  Well I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord has a sense of humor because he answered my prayer just not in the way I expected.  He sent me an entire truck full of toilets (see picture) and I was laughing so hard it was a miracle I didn't wet my tights!

Miracle of the toilets

Dad you would be proud of me.  I put my non engineering brain to work the other day and I hooked up a DVD player at these investigators house so we could watch the restoration video.  Well after I had finally hooked up the first one we realized there was no remote so no way to play it in spanish...grrr.  They had another DVD player so I used my great ability to work with technology, which means I just plugged and unplugged random things, until I finally got the DVD to work.  We still had no remote, but then inspiration hit and I discovered a little hidden panel and using the channel buttons I was able get it into spanish.  We had spent like 20 minutes trying to figure out this tv thing, so when it finally worked Hna Escalante and Hna Budge cheered at the exact same time and then laughed at how easily pleased we are as missionaries.

We also had a lot of little miracles as we were out talking to people on Saturday.  We ended up walking for about 3 hours and we just talked and met a whole bunch of interesting people along the way.  One man told us he didn't go to church because there were so many, so how could he choose or know which one was right?  We told him we had just the answers he was looking for and he was very interested in the Book of Mormon.  To show his gratitude he gave us tamales.  We weren't really hungry and we were walking and far from home, so we weren't really sure what to do with three tamales.  We just started walking and we had to smile at how strange we must have seemed walking down broadway carrying tamales.  So last week we received three coca colas and this week it was three tamales!

Tamales

Another miracle this week might seem small to some, but it was a truly a tender mercy from the Lord.  Well on Wednesday I realized around lunch time that I couldn't find my favorite placa.  It just happens to the placa that I have lost on multiple occasions and have always managed to find in the end.  Well I started looking and looking and looking and I couldn't find it anywhere.  I knew I had worn it the day before on p-day, but I looked through my bags, on my clothes, in the laundry, in the car all over the house and couldn't find it.  I was a little sad because I have worn that placa my whole mission and it just is special to me and I was really worried that it had fallen off my clothes at Walmart or some other place and that I wouldn't have any idea where to find it.  Well I went into our room and I kneeled down and offered a simple prayer that Heavenly Father would help me find my lost placa.  I went back into the other room to finish lunch and as I sat down at my desk clear as can be the thought to check my pink coat entered into my mind.  I went to the closet and sure enough still attached was my placa.  It was the one place I hadn't looked, because I forgot I had worn it.  The simpleness and quickness of the response overwhelmed me a little and I sat down and with a few tears in my eyes offered thanks.  Not so much for the lost placa's return, but for assurance that my Heavenly Father knows me and he cared enough to help me not be worried and sad over my placa that I would have eventually found, but that he took the time to answer my prayer.

What else?  So one thing that I love is hearing when people get baptized that I have helped in some way.  I think I mentioned a while back that Stella was getting baptized and she did.  She is the one we found outside in her front yard and we just started talking to her.  Hermana Fallentine was able to attend her baptism and Stella talked about how she has been searching her whole life for the church and now she has found it.  Afterwards she came up to Hna Fallentine and said "Thanks to you and sister Klaus, I am now a member of this wonderful church!"  It's an amazing feeling to know that you played a small role in helping change someone's life.  Ultimately the spirit is the real teacher, but I am so grateful that I can be instrument through which he can work.  I also found out that another cute little family that I was teaching in my last area is going to be getting baptized in February.  They were staying with family over the holidays and we were teaching them and then when they went home the other sisters there continued to teach them and they are loving all of it!  Blessings Blessings Blessings!

So I guess you could say this week was the week of miracles and blessings.  I wish I could express better what it truly feels like to be a missionary and what it's like to witness so many miracles every day.  Hopefully this letter helps a little bit.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us and he wants to and he does send each of us little blessings every day.  We just have to slow down and recognize them.

Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus

Week 64 - January 14, 2014

Querida Familia!

It's basically been the most epic week of my mission.  I will admit that before this week I was always a little wary of being put into a trio, but I never want to go back to a boring old companionship again!  I am in the best trio that ever walked the earth!  (Well except maybe the 3 nephites hehehe ;) ) Our trio consists of Hermana Escalante, Hermana Budge (my greenie) and myself.  Hermana Escalante is from Midvale, Utah.  We served in the same ward last transfer, so we already knew that we were going to be companions and we were really excited.  She is an expert drawer and laughs at my meager attempts to draw a baked potato which she says looks like a rock.  Hermana Budge compromised and said it was a potato rock.  They just don't see my artistic ability...truth be told I don't see it either, but that's beside the point.  My next companion in the tri-pod of awesomeness is Hermana Budge from SLC, Utah.  She is fresh from the Mexico MTC with so much greenie fire that I need to carry around a fire extinguisher just in case!  She is awesome and we are having a lot of fun helping her with spanish.  My favorite one this week was when she prayed during a lesson to "Nuestro Cuaderno Padre Celestial" translation "Our notebook heavenly father"  Yep we've had a good laugh at that one.  She told us later on that she asked him to forgive her for calling him a notebook.  I think he did, so no worries Hermana Budge. :)  This tri-panionship was definitely inspired.

Ok what else this week.  Well it was my birthday this past wednesday and now I am old.  We had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and that was just the beginning of a very sugar-y day.  We were able to see a number of people and one of the investigators in my old area wants to be baptized.  That was the best birthday present.  Then dinner was a lot of fun.  We went to one of my favorite families.  Hermana Rodriguez has the two cutest little girls ever.  One of them is Emily, my diva.  She is so funny.  They bought me cheesecake which was super yummy and they sang to me.  Just to clear up the picture I am not a 114, but 24.  The two blue candles stand for 10 and the four well you get it... :)  I also had fun doing the splits that night.  I bet you didn't know that I was that flexible eh?  Other than that my birthday was pretty normal for a missionary.  Then on Friday it was Hna Escalante's birthday so we did it all over again.

Oh so fun thing we decided to do as a companionship.  Before Hna Budge came we told the Elders that we were going to make her back us up with the glow sticks my family gave me back when I trained the first time.  We also have a nice orange vest in the closet that who knows what elder decided leave behind.  Well when Hna Budge got here we decided to do it a little bit differently.  We decided to trick the Elders.  Hermana Budge uses the back up lights and the vest only when the Elders are around and we are all dying because they think that she thinks that this is the right way to back up.  We are seeing how long it takes them before they say something to her.  Last night the Elders backed up before we did and of course didn't have lights, so now we have planned to let Hna budge ask them the next time we see them why they aren't using their lights.  We shall see how they respond!  Elders! Buhahaha.

As you can see we are all getting our daily exercise in...my abs are killing me because we have been laughing so much together.  But more important than the laughs, which are important, we are teaching really well together.  We have had some really powerful lessons and we are being blessed with some amazing people to teach.  We are a little sad because some of them we will have to give to the Elders next week when they come, but for now we are enjoying getting to teach all of them.  This week has also been a week of a lot of blessings.  People have been sick a lot and the Elders have been blessing a lot of people.  Soledad was not doing well with her blood pressure.  It was super high.  We asked if she wanted a blessing and she said yes.  We went back later with the Elders and they gave her a blessing.  Yesterday we went by to see how she was feeling and she looked so much better.  She said she had gone down a 100 points and the doctor was amazed.  We asked if the blessing helped and she just said "of course it did."  The faith of that lady is amazing.  I also received a blessing for my little bug that didn't want to go away and the day after my blessing I was feeling all back to normal.  What a blessing to know that the priesthood of God has been restored and just as in the times of Christ we can call upon those who are worthy to give us blessings of health and comfort.  I know that you all are anxious to know what happens this week in the tri-pod so I best be finishing, so we can start our next adventure!

Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus

The 114 (oops 24!) year old cake.

Emily the "Diva"

Doing the splits (with a little help from Emily)

Katie and Hermana Bills as "twins"

Race to eat the chili suckers. 

When Hermana Budge showed up they decided to have a mexican candy eating contest (the hot-chili suckers).  Hermana Escalante won since she is half mexican (Katie said that was like cheating) and Katie said that Hermana Budge didn't really eat any of it.

Final Battle

The missionaries had been talking about the final battle where Michael will lead the followers of Christ against satan.  They all talked about their weapons of choice and Hermana Escalante drew them.  Katie is on the back of the dragon with the Indiana Jones bullwhip that shoots lightning. :-)

Week 63 - January 6, 2013

Buenos Dias Familia!

Wow!  This last week has been quite the week!  I don't know where to begin.  Well at the start of last week I started feeling a little funny.  On Wednesday we headed out to go teach.  We walked to our first appointment and had a good lesson.  Then we headed back to get the bikes to head on to our next plans.  I wasn't feeling good, so I told Hna Gubeli that I needed like 15 minutes and just laid on the couch.  She was also feeling ill, so that worked for her too.  Well time passed and we weren't moving.  I ended up having a fever and horrible stomach pains and was pretty miserable.  We come to find out that 5 out of the 6 missionaries in our ward all had the same symptoms.  We were able to go back to work the following day, but I think we've all felt the strain on our bodies these past couple of days.

Combine being sick with the fact of transfer news and this has felt like the longest week of my entire mission!  Well we finally did get transfer news on Saturday and it's a big one!  It all started with a text from President Miller asking me to call him.  So naturally I started to freak out.  I couldn't figure out what he wanted to talk about.  Well it turns out that I have been called to train!  I didn't think I would train again on my mission, but I guess so.  There is only one spanish sister coming into the mission this time.  She is just like me a year ago!  Crazy!  So tomorrow morning bright and early we go and get her from the transfer site.  This will be my first transfer up north since my first day, so I am excited to get breakfast!  yum!   So that is the part about training.  Then after that call we still had to wait to figure out transfer news.  So the call came at like 10:30.  Hermana Gubeli is being transferred and so am I.  Well sort of.  I was told to move all my stuff to the other sisters' apartment.  They live in the building right next to us.  So I will be in the same ward and I will be in a trio with Hermana Escalante and my greenie!  It's going to be a wild transfer!  We were actually sitting in the other sisters' apartment when the call came and we started silently screaming and then the zone leaders said they would call the central sisters and let them know.  So we silently laughed as they told them exactly what they had just heard with our phone call.

In the mission we have our own little lingo.  If you train a new missionary you are their mom.  If you are their second companion you are their dad.  If you back up train you are their step mom.  You are sisters with the other people your mom trained.  You are born when you come to the mission and you die when you leave.  Whoever is the companion that you are with when you die kills you, etc.  Well I think my mission is turning into a soap opera.  So hermana Escalante was also trained by Hna Cruz so we are sisters.  So the title of this transfers novela is "The transfer where my sister is trying to kill me and steal my baby."  Hehe the mission does things to you! :)

I think those are all the big things.  One last little miracle for the week was we received a referral this week.  Well actually it was sent to the english sisters but right on the paper it said she wanted to be taught by spanish sisters so they gave it to us.  On saturday we had plans to contact her at around 4 and we had other plans throughout the day.  At around 2pm we felt like we should go and contact her instead of waiting until four.  So we headed over there.  We walked into the trailer park and a lady was on us like flies on stinky cheese.  Luckily we had a name and trailer number for the reason to be there otherwise I think she would have kicked us out.  Anyway so we walked to the trailer and the door was open.  We called through the open door and at first she was like I'm busy but we said her name and she told us to wait.  When she came to the door she told us that she at first thought we were traveling through, but she forgot that she asked them to send us.  She kept saying it was so weird that we found her at home because she is never home at this time because she works and she just ran home during her lunch break to iron some pants for her little boy.  She invited us to come back at 7:30 and teach her.  We had a great lesson and she is really interested.  She is looking for peace and I know the gospel is just what she needs.  I am so happy and excited for this new transfer!  Have a great week everyone!

Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus

p.s.  I still accept birthday cards after my birthday, so don't worry if you don't have it in the mail yet it will still get to me ;-)