E-mail from Hermana Kleisler

Hi Guys!!

I have been here three weeks now, can you believe it?  
I am loving life!!I sent a letter a few days ago that
wasn't as positive as the rest (that letter is coming
your way Jennie) but seriously so much has changed in
a few days! My comp and I had a rough patch and then
we learned from it oh so much!! We are becoming a
companionship now, not just two people who do every-
thing together.  Seriously it is so awesome!! It is a
good thing that everything is good with me and my comp
because my district is seriously hurting!!! If you
remember please keep my district in your prayers.
Oneof our elders, elder Sass is going home today.  
We don't know the exactreason except for he chose to
leave and the presidency here has been trying to get
him to stay but he made up his mind and he leaves
tonight.  It is really hard on all of us because we
became a family and it is so hard to see our brother
leave!! I am especially hurting for his companion Elder
Leonard.  I love elder Leonard, he is such a happy guy,
funny, lovable, a lot like me!lol But seriously he has
been so sad the last few days because his companion
just gave up and it has been so hard on him, I just
want to give him a great big hug, but I cant!! Also
my district is sick!!! Everyone is sick, yesterday
for an hour of class there were only 4 of us instead of
10!  Luckily I gotover what I had when I entered the
mtc and I haven't gotten this sickness!!So ya oh and
one of our elders had to go to the hospital today because
they think he might have to get his gall bladder removed.  
So ya, district 44d is struggling.  But our district
leader said he really appreciates us Hermanas. We are
all doing great and we have been supporting our elders,
whether it be supplying them with drugs (that would be
me- I am the drug dealer of 44d!)orgiving them emotional
support, he told us to keep up the good work!  Ok so
on to other things.  I am so spoiled!!! I get the most
letters out of everyonein my district and I got 2
packages today and one yesterday!! Thanks everyone!!
It seriously means the world to me, keep the love coming.  
Now if anyone sees a certain Amy Skousen, she is in big
trouble and you need to tell her that for me!! I have
not had a shred of news on how my girls are doing or
any much needed pictures!  Anyway I am doing so well
here and I am not homesick at all.  

 It was snowing this morning as we walked to the temple,
blah!! I only like snow if I can play in it or snow-
board!!  Ok so thanks for all of the conference talk
favs and quotes, I love it!! I have some responses to
your questions.  Yes I did get to watch the yw broad-
cast, I wrote a letter to mom including all of my
conference thoughts so if you post that on the blog
mom, thanks!  Yes to mom Miss O’Bryant has my blog
address that is how she got my address at the mtc.  
Sorry my ipod is being such a pain, I will be patient
and not make you feel guilty about it, sorry.  Cristina
yay for getting your braces off soon! And Lindsey Frost
thanks so much for the letter!!!  Mom thanks for the
Suns updates keep them coming, including what playoff
position they are in.  

Ok now time for the spiritual stuff.  I have written
in many recent letters that I love my teachers here,
but I will say it one more time!!! My teachers are the
best ever!! I have been learning so much both language
and doctrine!! One of the coolest things I learned this
week was how to be a detective while reading my scrip-
tures.  I learned how to search them and feat on them
and for the first time ever I LOVE my scriptures!!  
I am not just learning skills to make me a better
missionary I am learning skills for life!! I am also
having fun while learning.  My hermana teacher took
us on a "field trip" to learn Spanish “ing” words.  She
had us walk around campus in a line while saying things
like walkinig, runningdancing, all in Spanish while
doing the action.  It was pretty hilarious and fun and
I will never forget “ing” words!!  We had an awesome
meeting yesterday with Hermana Mortensen and the
hermana teacher for the other sisters in our zone.  All
six of us sisters got together for a girl sonly lesson
and it was so fabulous!! We talked about the strengths
sisters bring to the field and the spirit was so amazing
and our teachers are so inspired b/c those were just
the things we were needing to hear this week!!!  I have
also been growing a lot personally, once again my
teachers are inspired, one night this week i was being
particularly rowdy and my Hermano teacher came over to
me opened up my preach my gospel and highlighted a
section for me and asked me if I would study it this
week.  The section was diligence.  The next morning I
devoured that section and all of the scriptures listed
for it and then the scriptures hermano wing gave me to
look up as well.  I am working really hard on focusing
and staying on task and being reverent when I need to
be and being silly when it's appropriate.  I have learned
so much all ready in the mtc about, well everything!!
If I was to come home today(YOU COULDN'T MAKE ME COME
HOME NOW- JUST SO YOU KNOW!!!) I would be a way different
person then I was three weeks ago!! Ok well I am running
out of time!! I love you all and I appreciate the letters
and love- keep it coming!!! Until next Friday, adios!!

Oh ps thanks for all the stickers I was out, instead
of being known as "sister suns" I am actually "sister
stickers", I have been stickering everything!!!
Especially the back of peoples name tags, I didn't get
to do everyone’s b/c I ran out so when I got the
package my whole district was happy!! lol

Love Hermana Kleisler

Your First E-mail from Hermana Kleisler!!

[Editor's note: This was sent last Friday, but I couldn't figure out how to copy and paste her e-mail to the blog without it messing up all the margins. So, I'm typing it in. If anyone knows how to copy e-mails and post them, please let me know!! ]

Hey guys!!! It's your first missionary e-mail from me!! How cool is that? First off I want to say thanks to all of my supporters and those who have sent me mail!!! My absolute favorite time of day in the mtc is mail time!!!! Thanks to mom, Jennie, Kevin, Kilie, and Cristina who have all written me!!! You have no idea how much I LOVE hearing from you guys!!! The days when my district comes in without handing me a piece of mail I want to cry. I don't cause I am too cool for that- lol!! But anyway, I love getting mail, hint, hint, hint!!!!! Ok, so for those of you who haven't written me yet I am going to go with the assumption that is lack of things to say instead of laziness or being too busy!! So, I have an assignment for all of you who read this, write me this week!! If you don't know what to write just tell me what's going on in your life. And the EVERYONE, what I would really love is you including what your favorite talk from General Conference was and tell me about any thoughts or impressions you had. I would so LOVE that!!! So enough about mail. I wanna talk about me!! lol Ok, so today is my first official preparation day!!! We went to the temple this morning and it was fabulous!!! As they said the prayer in the session they asked that everyone would be able to go home and still be able to have the spirit with them throughout the rest of the day. I thought about that and realized just how lucky I am, I LIVE at the MTC so when I go home I can feel the Spirit anytime I want. You honestly have to try not to feel the Spirit here!! It is just that amazing!!

Another thing I want to tell you about was my first time at the TRC, the place where we teach volunteers lessons. They pretend to be investigators and we teach them for real!! We had to do fifteen minutes in Spanish and that part was tough, but then we taught a 35 minute lesson about the restoration and it went really well. It is so neat to be able to practice this stuff before you are sent out in the field to do it for real!!!

Mom, I wanted to thank you for the cookies!! My district was VERY appreciative and the elders are pretty much in love with you. lol I was hoping the package was my ipod, but you are still working on it. I will look forward to having it sometime next week hopefully!! I miss the beautiful EFY music I always used to listen too and the sweet spirit that it brings! Ok, so as long as we are talking about stuff I need, I wrote in a letter that I need gym socks!!! I am seriously wearing panty hose with my Nike Tennis Shoes right now, you would laugh your head off if you saw me!! All of my Nike gym socks are dirty!! Luckily we are doing laundry in about an hour, but still I don't even have enough socks to get me through the week once they are cleaned. lol Another thing, you asked about how my clothes are holding up, they are doing well, but my shoes kinda are only okay, but one of the sisters in my zone has Mary Jane type crocs that are black and they are so PERFECT for the MTC!! They would be horrible for the mission field but for here I really want some!! Please!! Okay, that's enough bugging you to send me stuff. Lo Siento

Ok, so to answer some of your questions, it is COLD here, last week it snowed and it has been cold since!! No me gusta Utah!! I am sure back home it is like 90 degrees, no fair!!! I am still a little sick, the flem just won't seem to go away- lol!! My Spanish is coming along well. I have been here only a week but I can testify, pray, make an appointment, meet someone, talk to them about their life, and also I can conjugate a lot of verbs!! Pretty cool for only one week!

My companion and I are doing well and I am learning so much from her!! We are seriously complete opposites, night and day. She is really analytical and I just do whatever I feel like, she stresses out and I just don't care. We compliment each other quite well. We continue to communicate and make our companionship stronger. She learned that she has to tell me when she needs me to be serious and I had to tell here that I do not like it when she quizzes me with Spanish words or gospel doctrine as we walk to class or wait in line at lunch!! I like my little bit of free time to be just that - free!! I have to stay sane- lol!!

In about a week and a half our companionship will be a treo. Hermana Wilken is leaving to the Dominican Republic MTC befoer her mission to Puerto Rico, so Hermana Ure will be with us. That will be cool.

Ok, well that is all I have time for. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!!

Love,
Hermana Kleisler

HERMANA KLEISLER'S PICTURES!

"My first day! Which gives it away more: the dork dot or the shell shocked look on my face?"

Editor's note: the dork dot is the orange dot on her nametag that the new missionaries (newbies, greenies) have to wear. Needless to say, they all look forward to taking that dot off!!

"My companion is going to Uruguay, Monte Video West Mission. And of course I point to Tejas! Our missions are so far away from each other!"

"The infamous giant world map! Don't I look like a happy sister missionary going to Texas? That's cause I AM!!"

"Me and my companion Hermana Crookston"

Enjoy some of the first pictures Kristi sent from the MTC. Knowing how much she likes to take pictures, I'm sure we'll be getting many more!!

Editor's note: I'm kinda new at this whole blog thing, but it feels like I'm just putting all this out there into outerspace. I sure would appreciate some comments and feedback, so I know that SOMEBODY is reading this! THANKS for supporting and loving our sister missionary!

A Request from Sister Kleisler

I got a letter from Kristi today and she can't tell if people are getting her letters.
She wrote:

"Oh and hey, on my blog will you put something on it asking people to let me know that they got my letters and respond to them? I always worry that you guys don't get them because you don't say anything about them."

You can log onto DearElder.com and e-mail her. They print them out every day at 11:00 a.m. our time and put them in her mailbox so she gets it just like a letter. Since she has almost no time to e-mail, it's the best way to communicate with her, and you don't even have to go to the post office! The letters don't even have to be long, she just likes to get mail!! All the information you need is on the post below.

I will be posting some pictures and her e-mail tomorrow. Thanks for all the support you have all given Sister Kleisler!!

Kristi's First Letter Home & MTC Address

I got Hermana Kleisler's first letter from the MTC today. It was short but happy. The first line of her letter said "Who ever knew a little black name tag could make me feel so proud! I love the MTC!" She said her companion is "WONDERFUL". Her companion is Sister Crookston from Colorado, she's going to Uruguay. Kristi's in a room with 5 other sisters, all who are learning Spanish, but she's the only stateside sister in her district.

Hermana Kleisler's MTC address is:

Sister Kristi Ann Kleisler
MTC Mailbox #113
TX-SAN 0528
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

Her estimated departure date is May 28th, so everyone has plenty of time to write our favorite sister missionary!! Thanks for all your support and love for Kristi!!

It's a Missionary!!

Kinda sounds like a birth announcement...

It's a missionary! Here she is! Hermana Kleisler's first picture! She's finally here!

It's definitely a new beginning! Many wonderful couples have the assignment every Wednesday to greet the arriving missionaries at the MTC. One of these couples took a picture of Kristi and the elders on her shuttle and sent it to me. I was so surprised and grateful when I opened that letter from Utah! What a comfort to see a picture of her actually at the MTC safe and sound! So here's the picture. We're waiting for that first letter and e-mail from the MTC. I'll let you know when I get one. Until then, enjoy Hermana Kleisler's first picture!!

She's at the MTC!!

Several people have called me to check on Kristi, so I guess it's time to update the blog! I don't have any pictures yet, so I'll add those when I get some. We took Hermana Kleisler to the airport at 4:30 this morning. She only let us stay in line with her for a few minutes and then declared that she would only cry more if we stayed, so it was time for us to go. We met a couple of other families who had missionaries leaving at the same time- it was easy to pick us out! One of the elders was going to the San Antonio - Spanish Speaking mission too, so I was happy Kristi would have someone to hang out with and ride the shuttle to the MTC with. We watched her go through security and she was off!
Kristi called when she got to Salt Lake and her voice was just full of excitement. She had a great flight, was feeling good, and was raring to go. She had fun with the 3 elders that were on waiting for her flight and when she got on the plane she heard someone calling her name. She turned around to see Bishop and Sister Burton on the plane! They were heading to Idaho and were excited to see her as she began her journey. When she got to SLC, I recommended that she get some lunch since she may not get a chance to eat again until dinnertime. She stopped and got a pizza that she took down to baggage claim. The elders she was with all were bummed they hadn't thought of that! Kristi exclaimed "When you're a couple of years older, you think of these things!!" She seemed to be having fun being older than them (and letting them know about it)! So with that, she was off to collect her suitcases and get to the MTC. I'm not sure they'll know what hit 'em!! Good luck Hermana Kleisler! We sure do love you and we'll miss you like crazy, but oh, we're so proud!!