April 25 - Email

Guess who moved into the room right next to me? CALLIE HORTON!!! Yeah, I know I am one lucky girl to have one of my best friends right next to me :) Brightened my day quite a bit! Also, we got a new district in our zone and I got to welcome them in with the zone leaders. So, that was cool and fun. But, my voice sounds terrible because of my cold.

Turn to the Lord in all you need, turn to the Book of Mormon and pray with all your heart!

April 18 - Email

On Tuesday, I had a really hard day. I just felt like giving up again because of the Spanish. I just feel like I'm never going to get it. I never understand anything in the lesson and am so slow when I give it. After I gave my lesson, I started to cry. I was just so overwhelmed. Then we went to Tuesday Night Devotional. The speaker was Richard G. Scott! Let me just say that his talk was exactly what I needed to hear. It was about prayer. He said, "When we get no answer, it shows God's trust. He trusts us to move on with our own righteous choices." He said that our choice to be a missionary will bless our lives eternally, in our homes, in our choices, in our life. He then gave an apostolic blessings on the missionaries in attendance. He said in the blessing, "Be thankful that God sometimes lets you struggle before your answer. You grow in character, you grow faith. He will do whatever He can to restore your confidence in Him. Never feel that you are unworthy to pray. Prayer is gratitude. Nothing offends God more than being ungrateful." He then blessed the missionaries and sat down. We sang a song and a sister came up to say the prayer. Elder Scott got back up and shooed her away. He said that he needed to say something else. He said, "Remember the Lord has called you to succeed, not to fail. He will not abandon you. He has given you this opportunity to find out things about yourself that you have never known. Remember that you have been called. He will fit your abilities to the tasks. Heavenly Father knows who we are, what we need, and who we will become." And then Elder Scott sat down and we had the prayer. Amazing! We were all in tears that night as we shared what we got out of the devotional. So after this, I felt so much better! On Wednesday my companion and I taught the two best lessons we have probably ever taught.

April 17 - Letter

I am still struggling with the language, but I am feeling so much better after receiving a priesthood blessing. I try to stay positive with my thoughts and try to pick out the good things I  do, instead of the bad. I try to look at how far I have come from the beginning and try to see the bigger picture. I try my best everyday with a purpose in mind and having faith that God will make up for the rest.
Some big news...me, Hermana Hansen, is now the new Sister Training Leader! So pretty much I am the Sister Zone Leader. There are two Zone Leaders (Elders) and then there is me (Sister Training Leader). The calling is over my whole branch! The new Zone Leaders are from my district, also. They are Elder Varner and Elder Stanford.

Tuesday, April 9 - Letter

Letters are like gold here, so keep me updated! I love hearing from everyone about everything! It makes me feel like I'm not missing out on anything!

Kayla's District at the MTC

Left to Right 

Hermana Savage - From Cedar City, very quiet, but so cute and super nice! She went to SUU last semester. She sings real well and plays guitar.
Elder Stanford - He is from California and a beach bum. He is really smart and graduated in 2010. He is really good at Spanish because he took it in college. He went to BYU Hawaii. He like plays every instrument.
Hermana Funke - my compañero (read below)
Elder Varner - Graduated from Bingham High, super funny and way spiritual! We joke that he is going to be an apostle. He always knows exactly what to say.
Hermana Staley - From Roy, Utah, went to SUU last semester, Love her! She is outgoing and played soccer in high school.
Elder Cavin - Our district leader. He went to Bingham High, is cool and fun, and a good district leader!
Hermana Savoie - From Louisiana and Texas. She went to LSU.
Elder Dial - Went to Bingham and played hockey there. He is very quiet but funny when he does talk.
Hermana Hansen - me :)

All the Elders are going to Cordoba, Argentina and all the Hermanas are going to Tempe, except Savoie, who is going to SLC - Spanish speaking.

Kayla's Companion

Kayla's companion at the MTC is Hermana Funke. She is from Oregon. She is the senior companion and is very good at following all the rules. She is excellent at Spanish, which helps me a lot. She is real fun and funny because she does weird things, like really weird!

Wednesday, April 3 - Letter

Wednesday has been my favorite day so far. I don't know why, maybe my attitude has changed or something. We just did our usual schedule; work out, get ready, eat, class, study, study, study, eat, study, class, teach a lesson, study, study, eat, study study, study, study, plan next day, prayer, prayer, prayer, go to bed (ha ha.) My teacher for class is kind of one of those guys that you don't ever know their emotion. But, that day I made him laugh at my jokes twice!! I was amazed! And he gave me a compliment, told me my pronunciation was good. Then he said, "But,..." So, that ruined it (ha ha.)

Tuesday, April 2 - Letter

After Tuesday night devotionals, we have a district meeting and share our thoughts and testimonies. The spirit is always so strong in our district classroom. Elder Stanford shared a thought, "when you are feeling that your mission is too hard for you, that you can't do it. It is because it is. You cannot do it. It is too hard. With the Lord by your side, is the only way you can do it." I loved this and as this amazing elder shared his testimony of the Savior, he shed some tears. None of us girls could hold it together once we saw a grown man crying!

Some more quotes from that night
"Our ultimate goal in life is to endure to the end. When we get to a place we want to be spiritually, this is not the end. We need to figure out what we need to continue to be able to endure."
"The real measure of our mission is in the lives of our grandchildren. The real test is how well our children raise their children."

Monday, April 1 - Letter

This has been the hardest thing I have ever done. I am not saying this to worry you! I am growing so much closer to God and Jesus Christ. And I know that the end result will be great. It is hard to have faith in myself, that I can do it (learn the language). Everyone around me is speaking Spanish and I don't know what anyone is saying!I know that I am suppose to be here and that God has planned for me to serve. I know that there are people prepared to hear the words that I will share. Also, by serving a mission, my family will receive so many blessings and so will I.
Easter was great! I may have been away from family, but this helped me see the true meaning of Easter.
Bishop Gerald Causse spoke to us about when we meet Jesus again. He said that working on your testimony of Christ is the best way to prepare for a mission.
We then had a testimony meeting with just our district. It was all in Spanish so, ya...
Sunday night devotional we sang "Called to Serve." Which we have sung a lot but this time we were in a huge gym full of almost everyone. I felt the spirit so strong and I knew I am meant to be here. I have always been waiting for the time I could sing that song as an actual missionary. Sheri Dew was our speaker and she said, "The Savior isn't our last chance, He is our only chance!"

April 4 - email

Easter was great, Bishop Causse and his wife spoke to us. Elder Ballard didn't come. I guess it was a rumor. But I felt the spirit so strong, it was amazing! Easter was just about Christ, not the candy or presents. I asked my district what they thought was my first name. They all guessed Ashlie or Alicia. It made me laugh because of Ashlie Wardle (how everyone says we look a like). I can't wait for conference! So excited! This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Thank you for fasting and praying for me.
P.S. If family and friends want to send me a letter, they can use DearElder.com. It is a great way because I get those letters that day. It is the best thing to get letters in the MTC!

March 30 - Letter

Como es stas?

Seriously this day was beyond crazy!! I definitely felt like, "what am I getting myself into!" But you know, I am happy to be here! First thing I did was go check in, get the essentials, and then someone showed me to my room. I dropped off all my luggage, went and got my books, and then went into a classroom. The teacher was speaking in Spanish! It was crazy because I had no idea what I was suppose to be doing! We had more classes and then the MTC Presidency spoke to us. It was really nice.
My companion is from Eugene, Oregon. Her name is Hermana(Sister) Funke. She is already very homesick. I'm not homesick at all, so that's good. Elder Ballard is coming to talk to us on Easter! Way Cool! I had to talk today, in class, in front of a ton of people (in English luckily), but way scary! I passed though, so don't worry. I've seen Mitchell Daw, Sara Clark, Jaron Dixon, Mackay Dunn, Jake (something), Abby Bell, Mark Kunz, and Brea Linton.
P.S. I need to send so much stuff home!

Spiritual
Minded
Is
Life
Eternal