First Week in the Mission Field 1/26/2015

Dear Family,

How was the first week in the mission field? Go watch or read Maze Runner. And that's about the best description I can give you. When Thomas wakes up doesnt know where he is and everyone is saying all these names and things he doesnt understand. You don´t know who anyone is or where you are. But like in the book everyone knows what your feeling because they all went through it too. The guy that wrote maze runner is LDS. I think in that book its really him just expressing his first week leaving the MTC. 

Although I don´t really know whats going on I love it. I not only have one amazing trannier but dos. God knows me well :) He knows I need all the help I can get. I am convinced the three Nephites are women. Because I think my tranniers are two of the three. Not kidding they are perfect. And now they have the BFG to take care of. Really I need you to write down in spanish how tall I am metric words and how tall Dad is, because that's the only thing people want to know about me. ´"WOW, how tall are you?" "How tall is your dad?" And I don´t know in meters or what ever its in. 

My first day we taught a lesson. Well my companions did and I smiled. It was like watching the District, they were that good. The lady, (Dolly) agreed to be baptized. She then said the closing prayer and balwed. The spirit was so strong. All of the lessons we have taught have been amazing. My trainers keep telling me, "not every lesson goes like this, you're just good luck." I guess this week has been one of their best weeks. Go and watch the movie Mulan. Mulan is really cool, and does all these amazing things, thats my companions. And then there is that cricket. That says nothing, but is in the movie the whole time. And they all claim the cricket is good luck. Yep thats me. 

But really its been so much fun. I love it. I really miss my MTC friends but I love sharing the gospel. Even if all I can do is bare my testimony I am glad. The people here in Spain are amazing. I love them. I can´t even speak to them and I love them.

Honestly I am happy. This whole week there were many times I wanted to get frustrated, but I keep tellling myself, "You always have a choice. So choose to be happy." Its easier said than done, but very possible. I know becasue I had to make the choose to be happy this week. And guess what. I was happy. It´s magic. Okay so its just common sense. But really I love it.

Okay so let me rain on my parade for just a second. I miss the MTC food. All the missionaries in my apartment eat like birds. We would eat A cheerio for breakfast and then they would ask me if I was hungry. In my head I was like ´"really is that even a question. I´m 6 foot and you are giving me a cheerio." But luckily we went to the store the other day, so I'm eating just fine. :) Its just different not having all my meals made for me. Big baby kate is growing up. 

I really feel so blessed. Thank you for your prayers. I feel them everyday. 

I love you! 

Love, Hermana Kelemen

Letter From Kate's Mission President 1/21/2015

Dear Parents of Hermana Kelemen,

We received your daughter into our mission yesterday morning. We brought her to the Mission Home and fed her lunch. She was excited, and seemed ready to get to work. We enjoyed spending a good part of the day with her, to tell her about our Mission and to get to know her better. She is wonderful.

We met with her trainer to discuss the new 12 week training program. During this 12 week period, your daughter will have an extra hour of companion study each day, and will be given specific things that she must report to the Mission President. We know that this is an inspired program, and will help missionaries learn to be better teachers and better followers of Christ. Please encourage your daughter in this program. It will help her to develop tools that will help her to have a successful mission, and a more successful and fulfilling life after her mission.   

Hermana Kelemen has been assigned to Barrio 8, which is in the area of the Madrid Temple. She will work with Hermana Carroll, who is from Arizona, and Hermana Toone, who is from Utah. They are happy, obedient missionaries and will be good first companions for your daughter. 

Please send any letters or packages to the Mission Office for the duration of her mission. We have such a large mission area and mail times are very unpredictable, so that if she gets transferred while the mail is in transit it is very difficult to track her down. Don’t forget to put her first name on the package! 

Our mailing address:

Calle Fuerteventura, 4

2nda Planta, Oficina 8B

San Sebastian de los Reyes, 28703

Madrid, Spain

Our Preparation Day is on Monday. Hermana Kelemen is instructed to email her immediate family every week. We look forward to getting to know her and working along side her in this great work here in the Spain, Madrid Mission. We already love her. Thank you for sharing her with us!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Jackson

Spain, Madrid Mission

"Magic Underwear" 1/16/2015

Madrid Soccer Stadium with Elder Rex, Hma. Kelemen and Hma. Moser

This week was really fun. For P-day we went to the real Madrid stadium.
I'm not a huge soccer fan, but this made me want to be. It was pretty
cool. My time in the MTC is soon coming to an end. I want to cry. I
don´t want to leave my district, most of us are going to different
missions and to be honest i don´t know if I will see a lot of them
ever again, at least not in this life. They really have become family.
People say its hard to say goodbye to your family when you leave for
your mission. But honestly its nothing comparied to saying goodbye to
the people you meet. Because you know your going to see your family
and friends again. Its weird because this month flew by, but at the
same time... I felt like this is all my life has ever been. The park
of course was so much fun. My compaion was from Californa, and she is
one of the newer missionaries, who just come for two weeks. She
already knows spanish, so this time we actully made progress with
people that spoke spanish. I loved serving with her. She was like me.
Not afraid to talk to anyone. The first guy we talked to was on the
metro. The metro is the train. We only are on it for 4 min to get to
the park, but in the 4 min, this man took a book of mormon and said he
was coming to church. He was the one asking us where the
church was and what time it was at.... it was SUPER cool. He was
ready. My testimony really grew from that. We did nothing, it was all
him. There are people who are looking.

Okay random really funny story. At the park we ran into an American guy. 
He asked us ´hey you girls doing that 2 year thing for mormons?´ we were 
shocked and glad he knew who were where. But honestly thats ALL he knew. 
Except for one other thing... he asked us he had a big question for us about 
our church and wondered if we could help him. Excited we said YES, that is 
why were are here! He then said ´are you wearing that magic underwear... like
RIGHT now?´  Creep. it was really weird. But we said yes. He had SO many 
questions about it and about the temple. I told him to go to LDS.org and told 
him the church put out a video about all his questions he was asking. He was 
so happy to hear this. He took a restoration pamphlet and we shared the first 
vision. He kept telling us he wasn't interested in our religion, but he wanted to 
know stuff about it. ??? Sometimes I wish these people could hear themselves. 
Anyways SO glad you shared me that video. Because i didn't know how to explain
that. It was funny. I love it. Next week i will be in the field. Here is my message
to you, pray for my trainer. She has no idea what is about to come her 
way....B.F.G. I love you mom. You are great. Tell the family i love them to. 
Thank Lena for sending me letters, I love hearing from her. 

Love, Hermana Kelemen

This is my sister. We are twins in heart, and we look the same!
Everyone gets us confused so we did this.

Teaching in the park 1/8/2015

This week was yet another adventure in the MTC. Teaching in the park 
was a ton of fun this week. One lady was sitting all alone on a bench and 
when we came up she looked at us and then quickly tilted her head back 
and pretended she was asleep. It was so funny, i mean in my head i was 
like ´really lady we just made eye-contact don´t go pretending you are in a 
deep sleep.´ So I just went and started blabbering my spanish to her. She 
tried to ignore me, but I just kept attempting to speak spanish. Finnally she 
started to kinda talk to me, but in the end she wouldn't listen to any message 
or take anything. 

Then some other people we tried to talk to REALLY didn´t
want to talk to us. As we started small talk, one of them asked us
where we were from. As soon as we told them this guy smoking, laughed
and said ´Go HOME!´´ They were just laughing at us and making fun of
us. My compaion was really hurt and didnt want to talk to them. I
think im weird. Because I just laughed along and kept talking. Because
heres the thing, yeah they can make fun of us or what ever... but
really the jokes on them because we are trying to give them eternal
life. They may be laughing at us now, but one day they are going to be
wishing they were listening.  (mabye thats an evil way of thinking
about it).

But we did find people who where ready to listen. Four of
them spoke english, and we taught the first vision three times. Two of
them i really feel like were ready. this one girl we found told us she
was trying to find the right church, and she took everthing we gave
her. But my favorite guy we talk to out of the four was our last one.
we only had five min left and wanted to talk to one more person. he
was sitting on a bench and when we came up, we learned he spoke
english! he told us he was from australlia. We told him we were
missionaires for the church and then he quickly said, ´Girls what your
doing is great, but i don´t believe in God.´ He then went off about
all these examples in history where bad things happend to good people
and how if there was a God he would never let that happen. We tried to
testify, but he just wanted to talk. He remined me of Grandpa Kelemen.
:) But he told us of a book he was reading. I couldnt remember the
name, he said it was called something like ´to rise again? written by
a guy named Joshua. he said there was a picture of a toothpaste bottle
on the cover. he said its sold in america. ? Anyways he went off for
20 min about this book. Hes half way thorugh it and said ´this book is
amazing, who knows maybe at the end I will have diffrent ideas about
God.´ This guy is ready for the gosple, or is being prepared, i just
know it. Anyways he kept telling me to read it. I told him i loved to
read. this is what i said ´´I promise to read that book. I will go
home and find it and read it, if you promise to read this book.¨´ I
then gave him the Book of Mormon. We quickly explained what it was.
And this is what he said ¨´Okay i will read some of this. Maybe not
the whole thing, but a good chunck.¨´ I was cool with that. I know if
he starts it, he will finnish it. I told him he had to promise me,
because i promised him i would read his book. and this is what he said
"I promise, and although you will never know if i read it or not, i
will, becasue i keep my promises.´  In my head i was like SWEET,
sounds great. I think my compaion thought i was a bit crazy, but i was
serious. so mom look for that book. thats all the clues i have about
it, i have some reading to do when i get home. let me know if you can
find it. Anyways it was really cool. I love that old australlin.
Really if I could i would have stayed and talked to him for hours...
and he would have talked..(im telling you grandpa ks twin.) Anyways it
was really good. 

Things are great. The native speakers came yesterday
to the MTC and our district, switched zones so we are now with them.
They are LITTLE. I am now the big white BFG of the MTC. really they
are so small and don´t eat anything. I eat more than them all combinded. Im
a monster here. lol go America, im representing us well. anyways i
love you! 

thank you for your prayers. I feel them, i really do. I love
you so much!

love hermana kelemen

Pray for their Ancestors 12/30/2014

yes i will get you a scripture for sure... next time. i have a couple
in mind, i just need to pick. thanks for letting me know how christmas
was. i really do love to just hear whats going on. im pretty sure my
goal was to leave the usa, which i did that twice, so i rock. mom
remember to read the lincoln hypothise. we had a devotional about the
aposity and about the good people who were not lds, but were directed
by God to bring the gosple back on earth. the whole time i thoguht
about that book. and the whole time i thought, ¨"go lincoln". i wish i
brought my tshirt of him. oh well

oh yes another story about this week. There is a rummor i can beat box
and break dance. every hermana and elder keep asking me do dance for
them... strange.... maybe its because i sometimes i sing and jerk my
head... or rock during the hymns... i don´t know. oh yes i got the
christmas card, so so so cute.

tell me what i left in that bag and then i will tell you if i need
anything. Christmas in the MTC was so amazing. I loved it. Here is my
message for the family. I know you pray for the investigator. But in
the Christmas devotinal Sister Nelson said, "pray for the ansestors
(that are ready for the gosple, waiting in the spirit world)
postarity." Does that make sense? She said if you pray for those
people, you will have the help from their ansestors. that was cool.
anyways, so when you pray for missionaries pray for that.       This
week in the park was amazing. The first lady we talked to spoke
english... she was sitting alone and looked sad. As we got talking to
her she told us her Christmas was awfaul (please edit this) She never
said why, but we explained who we were and what we did. we asked if we
could share a message. We talked for a long time about the Book of
Mormon and the first vision. it was amazing. When I bore my testimony
i really felt like i needed to tell her God loved her so I did. I told
her I knew God loved and cared for her and was mindful of her, she
then stared to cry. She kept saying she would come see the temple. she
woulnt give us her contact info of take a Book of Mormon, but I have
high hopes. It really was a neat experience, the spirit was so strong.
I know she felt something, and she knows it. That was Gods Hand in my
week. I finnally could express myself in english... it was so nice to
just beable to say what you feel. I am so grateful for that. I know
God loves these people. Tell the family i say hello, tell them i love
them all. 

love, hermana kelemen

MTC district at the Spain, Madrid Temple

P-Day

Shoplifting 12/23/2014

Thanks mom for emailing me... oh wait you didn´t. jk lol. Our pday is tuesday (today), because Thursday is Christmas. Also i need Julia's email and stuff, did I already ask for that? Next week my pday will be on Tuesday as well, heads up. So for the skype thing, if things don't work out or we can´t connect email, GAIN.GIORGINO (at sign) gmail.com

...anyways I'm still the joke at the MTC. I shop lifed the other day. I didn´t mean to, i just walked out with something i forgot to put down. And when we were halfway back i realized and then hand to run and sneak it back it. I had to sneak, becasue I can´t speak spanish and explain what I did. Anyways another typical Kate moment.  

We had a guest speaker onsunday. Guess who it was? David Archuleta. Yep. He came just to our little baby MTC and spoke and sang to us. He sang us that song in the 'Meet the Mormons' video, it sounded a thousand times better in reallife. (You have to tell uncle Jed that, he loves that song). Anyways it was really cool. I got frount row :) He told us about his mission and this music life. He was so humble and he really had this peaceful spirit. I never was a huge David Archuleta fan, but he really impressed me. His story is also really cool. And again one of the most humble people I have ever met. (Oh and I got to shake his hand
and talk to him) if you want I can tell you more about it when we skype... if you care.  

One thing thats so cool about this MTC, (I wanted to tell you last week, but I ran out of time) we go teaching every Saturday in this massaive park. Like we take Book of Mormons and pass along cards and pamphlets and teach. Yes none of us no Spanish, but we do it every 
Saturday. We can to it because there are so few of us. It's really neat. We did it the first week we were here, and oh boy were people scared. Here's the thing I've learned. I'm not scared to talk to people. My companion this week and last week were both really scared. I don´t know why but im just not. I think it's because I've done  so many embarrassing things in my life and this point it's like nothing.

Really we talked about the different struggles missionaires have, and I realized I'm so blessed. I'm not homesick, I love the food, I love the MTC, I love my companions, I love that we get to go out and teach. I mean the one thing of couse that holds me back is the language. But I'm just glad that nothing else is. Going to the park on Saturdays is really neat. I will have to tell you more about the experiences I have had there on Christmas. Also think of questions and fun things that are happening, so you can tell me. I want to hear about whats going on. So be thinking so we don't just sit and stare.

Anyways mom I love you. Tell the fam bam I love them too. Oh and when we skype I want dad to be wearing his Christmas present. Okay? Oh funny quote of the week. Hermana Lovell told us we got to wear pday clothes on Christmas. Anyways later my compaion was telling our district how pumped she was for Christmas, she said "who ever said Christmas in the MTC was going to be a bad thing, like for reals?" and Hermana Smith (the funniest person) said "yeah we get to wear pday clothes man!" Okay so it was funny at the time, you had to be there. Point of the story is, Christmas here at the MTC is going to be so much fun.

Love, Kate

The MTC in Spain 12/18/2014

Dropping Kate off at the airport to fly to Spain.

Kate had mom edit the letter she sent before sending it, but I decided to use the original unedited version; it is better because Kate's inability to spell is just part of her personality.

FROM KATE:

i am skyping you at 5pm spain time on christmas, so i
think that 9 for you. edit this before you send it out
to everyone :) 

this week has felt like 10 years. not kidding. i feel
like i know all the girl so well. mom this mission is super fun! 

my spanish is great. the other day me and my compaion hermana moser

taught the first vision. we gave our investigator a papflet and asked
him to read it. he said it couldnt. we thought that was strange, but
what ever we just read it. he kept saying something to us in spanish
and we didn´t understand so we just kept going. finnally in english he
said "hey girls this is in italian" yeah like i said i have great
spain.... its okay luckly me and my compaion had a great laugh. and so
did the whole mtc. 

all the goofy and imberrising things seem to happen
to me and hermana moser. but im kate kelemen, iv always been a goob,
so im not suprised. a sister yesterday came up and said "any funny
thing happen to you today?" at first i didn´t get what she was talking
about. then she said "your stories are always funny they make my day!"
im glad me and hermana moser are making everyones day... with our lack
of spanish skills. its good. people get really frustrated with the
language, i mean i do to. i feel bad. but iv learn to laugh about it.
which is good, because it helps the other sisters relize they can
about it too. anyways i love it. 

the mtc is super duper small, 24 girl
and 8 boys thats it. the mtc has fresh squesed juice everyday, so i
love it. i love the mtc so much. and all the sisters are rad. i love
you tell everyone i said hi. sorry i don´t have much time. :) oh and
president lovell has a message for jake, "get a girlfriend!"  

love
kate the mate