October 25 2010

Hi everyone!! I'm here!!! This is my new address! write me everyday!!!

Sister Kayla Gunnell

9 Shawnee Terrace

Buckhannon, WV 26201

Its been great so far, even though i feel like I've been here a lot longer than a week (actually it hasn't even been a week yet) But i have so many stories and crazy things that have happened so far!

So we got on the plane Tuesday morning and i was so tired, we had to wake up @ 3 AM. well, that was boring. the Charleston airport is the tiniest airport i've ever been in! only one dinky baggage claim ha! we met the mission president (Thornock) and his wife, and they are great! i truly love them so much!! and it's really funny cause he only calls his wife 'sweetie' (hahahah Trisha!!) we got to the mission office and had a driving safety training thing... the roads in WV are so tiny! there is no shoulder on either side. they are also super windy and 'country road'ish, just like you'd expect. they call them "hollers" - the tiny one lane dirt ones. the fall colors are BEAUTIFUL!! there are trees of red and orange and yellow everywhere!!! its just fabulous! and there are no real mountains, only millions of hills :) its really pretty though. then to the mission home where we ate dinner and then had a nice testimony meeting. there was tons of us there, 5 from my district, 6 from the other district (all elders) one sister who came home from her mission cause she broke her leg came back with us, and 2 sisters on visa waits to Brazil. plus the AP's, so it was a full house. President let us go to bed early cause we were so tired. so nice. then to bed. the next morning he let us know where we'd be serving and who with. I am in Buckhannon (you say it exactly how it looks) with Sister Truex. This is only her 4th transfer, and she's served in Buckhannon this whole time. She's from Logan, UT and super nice. we're still working on getting to know each other better. Buckhannon is 2 1/2 hours away from Charleston, so a member drove us to our apartment. West Virginia truly is the most beautiful place!! Our area covers two counties, Upshir and Louis counties. Its huge. We have to do a lot of driving because most of the members/investigators don't live in Buckhannon and its more like 20 min away. Our car is a Malibu, its nice. i don't drive, i have to stand behind the car to make sure Sis. Truex doesn't hit anything, including me :)

There has been so many people we've seen! I've learned that missionary work really is just doing service! its great. we've discovered that a lot of what we are going to be doing this transfer, is less active and recent convert work. which is really good! apparently, since I've been here, we've run into several people that Sis. Truex and her previous companion sis. Durham were looking for! so that's really great! we've already seen so many miracles! also, the other night, a lady called us from Pennsylvania and said that she and her sister had joined the church, and her mom lives in Buckhannon and has agreed to meet with the missionaries! Woohoo! when does that ever happen? we saw her yesterday (Beth) and she is really great! there's nothing really that we believe that she has a problem with, (so far) except that she smokes.... so we'll have to work on that. we're going to teach again on Wednesday.

we're also teaching Judy, who is so great! she is working on deciding what day to be baptized, but we just cant get her to come to church! she is really hilarious, and everyone talks different and has funny sayings. one particularly funny thing Judy said-she was talking about some guy and said, "he's got a tough row to hoe!" oh West Virginia.

Picture all of the things you've heard about West Virginia: farmers, toothless, hicks, obese, trailer parks, poor, uneducated, etc. well, you're right! they are all true! and i love them all! but seriously, i thought those things would be stuff people made up. they're not.

we're also teaching 2 other guys who i guess are progressing pretty well, but i haven't met them yet.

we also went and taught a lady named Elaine. we're guessing she weighs between 500-700 lbs. she just sits in her chair all day and reads Glenn Beck and has tons of cats. if anyone remembers the story about when i used to work at solutionstream, and there was this old guy that would come and fix the computer stuff, and he had some amino acid deficiency that made him smell so bad you literally couldn't breathe being in the same room as him? well, that's what her house smells like. really strongly of cat urine it burns your nostrils to breathe. its awful. we chewed gum. she believes everything we've taught her, she just is very set on being a 'non-denominational' Christian. but i dreamed the other night that she got baptized, so hopefully soon! we figured we'd have to have 4 people baptize her.... crazy.

The Sunday before i got here, three of the cutest, smartest kids got baptized: ages 11, 9, and 8. they are so cute! they are part of the Chapman family (ill explain below) so we go and visit them a few times a week. One hilarious thing the 8 year old boy (Grant) said to his 11 year old brother (Austin) at dinner the other night. He was like "Austin! You just received the Holy Ghost and now you're going to hit me?!?" it was way funny. they are precious. the 9 year old is a girl named Taylor.

The Chapman family is basically the entire ward. I'm not kidding. There is Grandma Chapman who has 13 children, 79 grandchildren, 88 great grandchildren, and 9 great-great-grandchildren. This is not a lie. only about half of them are members/active. but almost every single family in the ward is somehow related to the Chapmans. Fun fact: their oldest son, is the youngest sons father-in-law. West Virgina. Ya. The oldest son and youngest son married a mother and daughter. weird. we went to their family reunion last night. I wish i could have take pictures. at the reunion, i was talking to this boy named Ethan, who is 8 and really wants to be baptized! a lot of parents want their children to take the missionary discussions before getting baptized, so we are going to start teaching him this week. he was so cute and told us "its my lucky day! I'm 8 so i can be baptized" hahahah. so cute.

Also I'm scared for my name here, I'm worried they are going to start calling me Sister Gun. they keep making jokes about how i carry a gun where ever i go. i think it is not hilarious....

we are also starting this thing where we teach families every night. its for us to practice teaching, but also for families to feel more comfortable doing missionary work. they make a new goal every week (pray as a family, read scriptures together, pray for missionary experiences, invite others to come to church, etc) and we visit them once a week for 8 weeks (i think) i really like it! and we're already seeing good results of them inviting nonmembers to church or other activities. its so great! we do 7 at a time, one a night. so we're pretty busy. we don't do a lot of tracting, just a lot of teaching (to be honest, we've only knocked on 5 doors this whole time-fine by me :)

also, they really do eat road kill. a ward member was butchering a rabbit for his friend when we went to their house. sick.

There is this other family in the ward, named the Hinckle's. The dad is a glass blower for a living and his stuff is really cool!! look it up online (its probably there) Ron Hinckle Glass in Buckhannon. Christmas presents anyone?

There is this other old old city in our area called Weston. We drove through it, and there is this super awesome huge old castle looking building that was a hospital during the Civil war. then it was an insane asylum after that! now they do tours and use it for a haunted house. seriously, the coolest place I've ever seen. i want to do a tour, but its like $50 and I'd probably be too scared.

i hope this email doesn't sound negative! i truly do love it here! the work is great!! its so fun and i love being a missionary.

my testimony has truly grown, and i know that our Heavenly Father loves all of His children, that He truly is mindful of each of us! And that He will always listen and answer our prayers. The church is true! I love you!!

Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell

PS sorry I'm not the best at captializing everything...

it's insane i know, we only have like....4 days left. i leave super early on tuesday to west virginia!!! our whole district is super excited.i may call home at the airport, depending on how i feel-cause it might make me too sad. but i might.

time has gone by way faster this week than the whole time we've been here. i printed off some pictures and i'll be mailing them today for you. woooo! we've had some really goood devotionals, yesterday was richard edgely of the presiding bishopric. his talk was really great, about missionary work. he quoted a little quote by pres. faust and said:

Faith is the Power.

Obedience is the Price.

Love is the Motive.

Christ is the Reason.

-Pres Faust

I thought it was pretty profound and beautiful.

we sang in the chior "lead, kindly light' it was really fun! i dont think i've ever sung in such a big chior. sis denison and i sang alto, and sis lowe sat by us and lipsynced (because she thinks she can't sing :) ahahah and just wanted a seat for devotional)

I also heard these two quotes: "simplicity if the ultimate sophistication"-uchtdorf and "complexity is of the devil"-ballard. Ha!

On sunday we had the 1st councelor in the general primary presidency sis Jean Stevens talk about trrue conversion, it was great. and there is a sister in the MTC right now who is going to temple square. she is the 1st sis missionary ever from the country of Jordan. she shared her conversion story and it was pretty great. then at the end we sang that precious new primary song (the one we sang in the program before i left) called " i know that my savior loves me" and it made me cry. i love it. and i miss my primary kids, tell them so. Later that night we got to watch the joseph smith movie and i bauled my brains out. i love that movie!!

i've been learning so much i feel like my head is exploding.

yesterday we got to be host missionary's for the new ones coming in. so fun. i first hosted 3 international sisters from denmark, honduras, and london. that was fun. they are going to CA-san fran/oakland, temple square, and SLC. then one sister from oregon, sis garlock (i think?) but she knows the foster family in our stake, and her and mindy used to be roomates. so cool. it was really fun though, and it feels like i came to the mtc 3 years ago.

its been really great to do roleplays lately, because i'm discovering even though the investigator isn't 'real' you truly can have the spirit there and help the real person anyways. its great.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRISHA!!! yesterday. did you get what i sent you? not much, more funny, but i hope you got it and loved and. and i hope you love being 16.

PS, when the basement flooded, did any of my books get ruined? specifically my history of the church set? i'm so scared.

i've been doing super well! nothing crazy going on. sis denison and i are getting along great, as usual. we are going to hang out when we get home. i'm going to miss her! i really wish she was coming to my mission... :( the other sisters are great too. and our district is finally becoming more unified and 'hanging out' more. we are going to the temple as a district. im really excited to go to the temple today!

cherie-i saw your cousin kim and her husband in the celestial room when i went last week. crazy. i told her to tell you hi from me.

thanks everyone for all of your letters! i love you all! you are great!! next time you hear from me, (besides letters i'm writing today) will be from WV!!! or, wherever the Lord sends me :)

i'm so happy that we have this gospel! it blesses my life in every aspect. God is our loving Heavenly Father, and He loves YOU!!!

I love you too!

Love, Sister Kayla Gunnelll

Kayla wanted me to let you know she leaves the MTC on October 19th. So I am guessing she really wants us to send her special letters and packages filled with cookies and hot dogs....

Hello everyone! thanks so much for your letters and emails! but i want more!! seriously, each day here feels like an eternity! shauna, i also feel like i have been here 3 months! no lie! so send me letters and dear elders all the time because it truly makes time go by faster and don't worry, doesn't make me homesick. so send me a letter every day!!! well, things have been going really well! this week has gone by so slow and fast at the same time (makes sense? i dont know) every day is SOOOOOO long and the weeks are short. i knew we'd be working hard, but i didn't realize we'd have 16 HOUR DAYS!!! ya... so tired. all the time.

it was really great to see conference in the MTC all of us missionaries watched it in the gym on really uncomfortable seats, but it was great! i'm totally in missionary mode, every single talk i was figuring out how i could apply it to missionary work; teaching, or being a missionary, etc. it was really great! I really liked elder holland and elder gong's talks. mostly, i liked everyones.

the food here is surprisingly good. nothing to complain about. me and my companion sis. denison usually eat really healthy :) except late at night when we're stariving and eat snickers ice cream bars from the vending machines :) sis denison and i get along really well! we have so much fun together! we have similar personalities and have awesome teaching skills. we love teaching together and wish we were going to the same mission to be companions the whole time. the other girls in our room are fun too. we really all do get along, and 'hang out' all day.

i'm so happy its p-day! i'll be writing tons of letters today, and i'll prob send pictures next week (they have a thing you can print them off) but i dont really have any exciting ones yet.

one day at lunch i was sitting by these elders and waiting for sis denision, and one elder sat next to me, next to his group. then i was just eating, and a different elder said "hey! elder gun-nell, and sister gunn-ell" we were like "huh?" ya! he was a gunnell (millionaire rich way to say it) and i am gunnell! soooo crazy! he is from maine, and a convert. from our family line? no idea. well, we took a picture together cause we thought it was super weird and random. he left to the phillipines on monday though. wierd!

the mtc is really busy and crazy all the time. every minute is scheduled. sis denision and i have taught our 1st investigator at the TRC (Where daniel and i used to volunteer) it went really well! we like teaching together. every time i get stuck, she backs me up and i do the same for her. we have also practiced teaching to our district and random missionaries outside, and teachers a lot too. we're awesome!

we had a big fireside all about hymns and it was so great! we sang a lot. did you know i love to sing? well, i do :) and there is always a hymn or primary song stuck in my head. always. wooo!!!

I am doing really well, and truly loving it here. i feel like the next 2 weeks will go by a lot faster. i havn't been homesick at all, so that's been truly a blessing. also, what about that package your going to send me? i truly hate wearing nylons :) we get to go to the temple today. and do laundry! so excited, but more for the former. feels like i haven't been to the temple in years!!!

i'm really grateful to all of you, for your love and support and everything. keep writing me!!

The church is true! You are a child of God and He loves you!!! and I love you too!!!!!

Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell