A few more pics from the MTC

Week 4- She really is my daughter :)

hey everyone,

so this week has been crazy! Last Thursday was pretty rough. hearing about another death, and of someone i know, in Tooele was hard. But i got an amazing blessing from two of the elders in my district, and the Hermanas in my zone gave me the most amazing letter ever. It was much needed and so helpful. On friday, Hermana Barrus who is one of the missionaries in my zone had to go home because she broke her kneecap in 3 different places and had to go back to the states to get surgery on it, and it was really sad and hard to see her go. She wants to be out here more than you can even imagine, so please everyone keep her in your prayers. She is a strong girl and i know she will get through it! But please pray for her, and for the doctors that will be doing her surgery tomorrow! Saturday was good, just a normal day! And on Sunday we focused on the Restoration all day! It was amazing! I am so thankful for Joseph Smith and i am so glad we have the restored church on the earth! Monday was good as well! On tuesday we had a devotional broadcast from the provo MTC and Russell M. Nelson spoke! It was amazing! And they showed the choir and zoomed in onto Elder Slade!!!!!! Pretty sweet, huh?? It made my day! haha Yesterday was a pretty good day as well! Nothing too crazy happened but it was a good day! And today we went to the temple! The temple itself is closed but the visitors center is still open and it was amazing! They had the missionaries serving there do a tour with us so we could see all the different ways to use the temple for our investigators! It was really cool, and sooo pretty! We watched a video about Gods plan for families, and it was confirmed that I really am Moms daughter and i wasnt found under a rock or something because I cried the entire time! haha i am just so thankful for the opprotunity we  have to have eternal families. it is such a blessing! And it was a good reminder that this time away from my family is nothing compared to the eternity with them! and i am so glad i get to teach others about eternal families! Overall it was a really good week! I LOVE you all SOO much! I hope the first part of summer is good, and i hope you guys have a great week! 

Love,

Hermana Searle

Dear Elder

This is the link for Dear Elder.  It is a great way to write Kylie a letter.   Once you get on you will select the tab titled "write a letter" and there will be a drop down menu where you can select Mexico MTC.  There are instructions on the website to help you.  But basically, you will write her a letter and choose how you want it delivered.  You can have it printed (which she will love) and/or emailed.  I chose both when I did it.  Thanks so much my friends.  I know she will love to hear from you.

http://www.dearelder.com/

Week 3- Moving day, Abram Beazer, Dreams of home...

hey everyone! so this week has been great! the classes are just normal nothing too exciting happems. but we had two devotionals. in one of them was a brodcast and it was elder Bednar and it was amazing! it was about how Christ did so much for us so selflessly and it just made me think a lot. he was rejected, and faced so many difficult things for us. and he never thought about himself, or asked for much in return. I want to be more like that. Christ loved everyone and even when people did things he didnt appreciate he just had so much love for them. this week i also realized that when i get home from my mission i still wouldnt even be old enough to submit my papers if they hadnt changed the age. i feel so lucky to be able to serve at 19 years old! it is a huge blessing! i cant even imagine doing anything else with my life right now! at the other devotional my district had to sing. haha and lets just say, me and singing arent a good combination especially when its in spanish! haha but it wasnt too bad! I keep having weird dreams here. i keep dreaming about being home and wake up super confused so thats not very fun haha. but its all good! This week we had to change houses because they were doing maintenace on ours and when we were moving we didnt really want to pack everything so we just took a million trips and it reminded me of when Brit and i carried a mattress down the street when they moved hahaha. last random thing of the week, i was sitting at dinner last night and i like looked up and Abram Beazer was sitting at a table by us! Crazy, huh? It was cool to see someone i know! He just got her yesterday so im kinda jealous he just got to see his family! haha but its been a pretty good week! I hope all is well at home! I love you guys!

love,

Hermana Searle

Week 2- Skype and earthquakes and thunderstorms oh my!!

hey everyone! so it has been another crazy week here! we have had skype with our families, 2 earthquakes, big thunderstorms, lots of classes, a couple investigators, and a trip to the city! it has been a good week! we didnt feel either of the earthquakes but the one was at 2:30 in the morning and that was not fun waking up to the earthquake alarms! haha but its been good here! today we went to the consulate to finish our visa stuff and it took FOREVER we left at 7:20 this morning and just got back like 20 minutes ago! it was crazy! its so weird how different stuff is outside of the MTC grounds! it was so so so good to be able to skype with the family on sunday! I cant wait until next time and hopefully i will have a webcam! I am so glad to hear everything at home is going so great! It sounds like you all have a pretty exciting week ahead of you! So cool story, on Tuesday we had a lesson with this guy named George. And i dont even really know what all I said, or what all he said but the spirit was so strong! It is the strongest its been since i have been here! I started bearing my testimony and i dont even know how i did it because i can only say like 20 words in spanish! But it was amazing!! He was telling us how he is catholic but wants to know more about our church and agreed to bring his family to the next lesson. But he really is an RM who got home like 3 weeks ago haha but at the time it was cool because we didnt know he was a member so we really tried to get him to come learn more about our church! It is so fun being a missionary and i love it so much! I hope you guys all have another great week! I love you all so much! Good luck with everything going on this week! 

love always,

Hermana Searle

Skype...kinda :)

Well today is Mothers day which means Kylie was able to Skype!!!  Yay, except for the fact that the computers at the CCM  don't have webcams...boo!!!!  Therefore, she was able to see us but we could not see her.  I was pretty sad about it.  But, it was so great to hear her cute voice.  She sounds really good and she is staying super positive.  She did cry a little when she first saw us and then again when we had to say goodbye.  But, I think overall she is really enjoying her new life.  She has a best friend, Hermana Brooke Newbold.  They get along great and I think they will be lifelong friends!!  I am so thankful that she has found a BFF:)  It will definitely make things a lot easier.  While we were skyping I opened the mothers day gift she had bought for me before she left.  It was a build-a-bear that she had made for me.  Sweetest thing ever.  If you push on its paw it has a recording of Kylie's voice saying "good night mom, I love you"  Yup, that made me cry.  A couple weeks before she left she said that to me before she went to bed (like she does every night) and I said "I'm sure going to miss hearing that"  Well, sweet girl that she is made it so I don't have to go 18 months without hearing it.  I love her!!!!  I think overall she is doing really wonderful and she is going to be a fabulous missionary.  I am so thankful we were able to talk to her.  Now, if only Christmas could get here really quick!!!

Our first Pictures from Mexico :)

 

Mexico MTC

 

The girls in her district

 

Cute girls

 

Hermana Searle with her best friend Hermana Newbold

These are their best Hunger Games faces :)

 

Hermana Searle with her companion, Hermana Smith

 

Hermana Searle and Hermana Newbold on Pday

 

I love this picture so much!!!

 

A little touch of home :)

LDS Hunger Games...haha!!

hey everyone!
so the first week in the CCM has been so crazy! on the day we got to mexico we were to the airport by like 2:00 pm. we waited for all the missionaries to get here and then went on school busses to the CCM. the way people drive here is insane! haha it is so crazy and i am so glad i never have to drive! when we got here we had orientation stuff and then met our companions and got to go to our casa! My companion is Hermana Smith! she is awesome! she is from west point utah! we share a room with Hermana Richins, who is from St.George and Hermana Newbold, who is from south Jordan! Hermana Newbold is my best friend haha i love her to death! our district is sooo fun! we have 6 Hermanas, and 6 Elders! They are all so nice and fun! We make learning Spanish a blast! our teacher is Hermano Hernandez and he is David Archuletas Latino twin!! haha they are like identical but Hermano Hernandez is very latino! he is so funny though! he knows english but not very well so we teach him more english as he teaches us spanish! he always does that weird hand thing mav does haha. And he makes us go have conversations with the workers here who only speak spanish. its fun! we are constantly busy! we have like 5 classes a day and then we have yummy food for our meals. we are so tired every night when it is bedtime so i sleep so well! The days go pretty fast but i somehow feel like i have been here for like months! haha. fun fact about the CCM.. It is practically the LDS  hunger games here! We are in a fenced in area, we are in districts, Saturday after lunch they said "this is your last meal until next week" (fast Sunday starts Saturday after lunch), and there are all these canon sounds alllll the time, the teachers say its fireworks in the city, but we never see them. haha its really funny we all laugh every time one goes off. the weather here is perfect! it rains all the time but usually when we are in class and then just feels perfect! It is still surreal to me that this is my life now. i have always seen missionaries and even here see them and cant believe i am one of them! It is so cool! i feel like i never really know what people are saying or what is going on but i still just am so happy! the spirit is so strong here!! last night was my first "Christmas Eve" of my mission. Christmas eve is just the night before pday and it was so fun we played games and just acted like normal teenagers again. it was nice to just be able to do something other than study! Dont get me wrong, i love thos work and i love studying spanish but sometimes you just need a break! however my break didnt last very long because first thing this morning i was informed that i am speaking in sacrament this week! haha and it has to be a 6 minute talk all in spanish! haha so that will be interesting! i feel like this email is crazy and scattered but basically i love it here! i love being a missioonary! it is hard being away but i know this is where i need to be! I love and miss all of you!! I hope you have a good week! 

love always,

Hermana Searle

She made it to Mexico :)

We were so happy to get a short phone call from Kylie when she arrived in Dallas, Texas.  She said the flight was good and that she slept for most of the trip.  She said she was hungry and was going to go get something to eat.  She didn't have much time so we told her how much we loved her and then she had to go :( We then patiently (okay not so patiently) waited until we finally got a brief email from her when she arrived in Mexico.  She wrote "Hey everyone!  I made it to the MTC!!  The flights went well!  I am glad to finally be here!  We seem to have a pretty good group of missionaries!  My pday will be Thursdays so I will email again next Thursday!  I love you guys so much!"  I was a little sad that it was so short but I am glad to know that she made it safely.  I can't wait to hear from her next week and find out how her first week in Mexico was.  We got an address for her and you can see it on the right hand side of this blog.  Please write to her if you can.  She will appreciate any letters she gets.  Thank you!!