Merrrry Christmas!!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year!! I know I sure did! Thank you to all those who sent gifts or cards. It really was a great Christmas, one to remember-especially for the fact that I woke up SICK. Eh! Sore throat and runny nose. The worst. Still suffering today, but I'll get better soon I'm sure. Plus I have an awesome companion who is taking good care of me.
We had a pretty good week. Not too many exciting things happened because everyone wanted us to call them "after the holidays" so we had a hard time getting appointments.
On Thursday the "traveling sisters" (Sisters Lowe and Webster-they just travel to each sisters areas and do exchanges and such) came and spent the day with us. Sis. Webster was sick, so I stayed home with her while Lowe and Little went to teach a new investigator we hadn't met yet. It turned out to be a really rockin lesson! Her named is Amber and she is 13 years old. She really wants to be pure in this messed up world. She comes to YW every week, and has been reading her scriptures and doing personal progress. What the?! She wants to be baptized on January 13th. We are so excited!! I have just met her once since then, and she seems very mature for her age and really has embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ. SO exciting!!!
Friday we had a Zone Christmas party. It was really great and spiritual at first, and then we played a bunch of games. Ooooh I hated that everyone was so competitive. I was so scared to play any of them and ended up failing miserably. Wahahah, my poor team. You can't blame me though- I had to try to catch a bouncing ping-pong ball on my lint roller. EVERY time it just bounced right off onto the floor! Somehow the elder next to me caught 17 in the 2 minutes we played. Stupid.
Also, at the party-the new missionaries in the mission stood up to introduce themselves. There was one senior couple (The Nortons) that stood up and talked. Elder Norton's voice sounded vaguely familiar, but I didn't think anything of it until he came up to me afterward and told me I was in his biology class at Viewmont in the 10th grade. What the?! So random and weird. Also the Pitts son who was in my graduating class was also there. It was like a high school reunion!
Our Christmas was good. I felt like a little kid because I woke up at 3 am so excited to open my presents, and so mad that it was only 3 am. We opened them all (when we got up at 6:30), and it was so fun and I loved it. Then we went to church and there were some great speakers and musical numbers. Then we had a Christmas dinner with a family from the ward and the Elders here. It was way good; typical turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc. Mmmm Mmm! Then I got to call home and talk to my family!! It was the best ever and so much fun. I wasn't that excited to call home for some reason, but as soon as I did, I was soooo happy!!!! I have the best family ever.
Also got word that my "homecoming" talk will be on March 11th. Tell all your friends!
I love the mission. I love Teays Valley. I love Sister Little.
The Church is true!
I love you!
Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell

Welcome to Teay's Valley!

Hello Everyone!!!
This has been a crazy and intense week, but it has gone by sooo fast-I can't even believe it.
Where do I begin?
Tuesday night I said goodbye to some great friends in Bluefield. I will really miss it there.
Wednesday we went to transfers and I met my new "daughter" (weird mission lingo) Sister Little. She is so awesome. Truly. She is from Morgan, UT, a huge soccer player, super easy going (like me) and we have so many things in common, but are total opposites too. Its weird, but we are having so much fun and love each other already. So our nice Zone Leader gave us his GPS so we wouldn't be too lost, and we headed on our way! Teays Valley is about 30 min away from Charleston. I'm still trying to get the feel for the area. Its pretty nice and populated, not as big as Beckley, but not as ghetto as Bluefield. Bigger than Buckhannon though. Meh, like that means anything to any of you. Oh well. Its a very nice area. Funny story-so we needed to go to Walmart to buy groceries and such, we had no idea where it was so we just typed it in to the GPS. We're just drivin and drivin and I'm thinkin, hmmm this seems really far away for a Walmart. But we got there, did our deals, and came back home. Come to find out later, it took us all the way back to Charleston for some reason! There is a walmart less than a mile away from our house! We had no idea. Way funny. We unpacked and organized, etc. The elders left the apartment very clean and nice (huge surprise) but the area book was a mess. We have SO many names of people they left us to visit, its overwhelming. We met a few people that first night so that was good. Weekly planning on Thursday, I just wanted to cry. Really. Its so hard to even know where to begin! We planned for a very very very long time, but seemed to have organized who lives where and when we can see them, etc. We did go tracting (come to find out we totally left our area, again, but this time to opposite direction, and tracted some random country street, haha). That night we found one of the ladies the elders were teaching (JoAnn), and had a really powerful and spiritual lesson with her. Sister Little is a complete and total rockstar. I seriously don't know why I'm even here. She is fearless and takes the lead, asks really great questions and is an incredible teacher . I'm just hangin out! JK, but she really is such a good missionary, and I feel lucky to be her companion. The Spirit was so strong in JoAnn's house. We invited her to be baptized even. She didn't say no, but didn't commit to it either. It was such a neat experience for Sister Little's first lesson.
Friday we met this crazy (as in awesome) less-active lady, who is really nice and loves the missionaries, but she has such a misconstrued idea of who God is. That was also a very interesting lesson to have... We had a huge Christmas dinner with some members in the ward. Oh, I forgot to say that our ward is split in 2 areas for missionaries, so we share the ward with some Elders. The 4 of us have been having dinner together with the members, but at the beginning of the year they are going to change that. We have this really neat lady who is our "missionary meal coordinator" and she calls ward members and sets up our dinner appointments! Aka we have dinner EVERY night which is way fun.
Saturday we drove around, trying not to get lost, but we did. A lot. We found a bunch more people, and had another lesson with an active baptist lady the elders were teaching (Brenda). We had a really great discussion about our basic beliefs and the Book of Mormon. Her grandson Eddie was there and we mostly talked to him about things-he seemed more interested. It was really great, and some good experiences for us both.
Sunday was excellent. There was a family from the Beckley ward visiting, so it was so exciting to see them and ask about all of my friends down there. The ward is great here, and this may be bad to say, but it is the most functioning ward I've even been in on my mission. They are very organized and helpful and people actually do their visiting and home teaching here! I saw the records!! In other places its a bunch of 0% or 11%, but here its like 78% or 95%. Whew! I was totally blown away. Also the speakers and teachers stay on topic when they are at the podium! What the?! Its so awesome!! We have already made friends with the Relief Society president, Ward mission leader, and the bishop's wife. So great!! Sunday night we had a stake Christmas fireside. There were some truly beautiful musical numbers that really brought the spirit.
So, ya. Pretty much a fabulous time. My companion rocks. I love it. I feel so blessed to be a missionary.
The Church is True!
I love you!
Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell

Brace Yourself!

So I got some kinda BIG news this week!!!! I got a call from President Pitt on Saturday, and I was so scared!!!! He told me:
A) I am being transferred...
B) ...and being doubled in (white-washed)...
C) ...to Teays Valley, WV (right outside Charleston)...
D) ...and TRAINING again!!!

Bah!!! I never expected this one!!! I've already trained once, so I thought I was done! I guess not! There is a new training program now, where training lasts 12 weeks (instead of 6, like it used to be) So I'll finish my mission with this new comp, who is named Sister Little. That is all I know about her. I am surprisingly excited and not really that nervous or scared. I've never been doubled in to an area before (unless you count Philippi) so this will be interesting. Our Zone leader served there before, so I already have my new address:

107 Arbaugh #6
Hurricane, WV 25526

Don't forget to write me everyday!!! :)
I am really excited for this new experience/chapter, but I am sad to leave Bluefield and especially Sister Walton :(. The Lord has a purpose though.
We had a good week, volunteering at the food shelter a lot. I really like that job. Its way fun.
Our ward had a Christmas party, where several people we invited showed up. That was very exciting. They also had a live nativity which was hilarious, because my favorite baby Olivia (who is super chubby) played baby Jesus and it made me laugh.
We also went to "Little Town of Bethlehem" down at Bluefield park with Elizabeth. It was really cute and fun to see. They had all these little buildings, like the "scribe shop" and "bakery" and you could go in and they would tell you about how things were in Christ's day. So fun.
Parker dropped us hard-core through a text. It was kind of funny, the way he worded things, but we were sad that he doesn't want to learn anymore...
I really am sad to leave here, I have grown to love so many people.
I can't believe its Christmas already!!! So excited!!
Hope you all are doing well.
The Church is True!
I love you!!
Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell

Hellooooow fellow citizens!!!!!!!!

Hi Yall. This week has been pretty exciting!
It snowed here while we were in Christiansburg. And was so extremely cold, i couldn't breath. Welcome Winter!
We met a really cool Muslim lady named Sobia, and had a really great gospel conversation with her, teaching the restoration and almost all of the plan of salvation. So awesome!
One day, we went tracting, and the first door we knocked on-was this older gentleman named Jim. He said, "Hey! My wifes a Mormon!" Wha?! They had just moved in 2 years ago, and her records aren't even here. That was so exciting. We went back another night (when she was home) and talked with them for a long time. They are the sweetest people ever! It was so neat to have been able to meet them. We are going to continue to visit/invite them to church.
We had dinner and a lesson with the Meades. We watched Finding Faith in Christ. I love that video SO much. Watch it again, if you haven't in a while. It truly does bring the Spirit so strong.
We also found a man named Robert, who was baptized into the church as a youth (he had no recollection) and his friend John. They both seemed pretty interested, especially John, who when he received his Book of Mormon, started to read it immediately :) We are excited to be able to teach them.
Also, a member named Georgia has this husband named Golda who wants to take the missionary lessons!! We are excited to start teaching them too! Many new people, so great!!
FYI next p-day will be Tuesday December 13th, because of transfers. I have no idea if I'm going or staying...
The Church is True!
I love you!!
Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell

Week of Splendor(this is an old post I never posted)

This week has been really good, and get ready to be really jealous!!!! So many cool things happened:
1. We got to take a ROAD TRIP to Charleston, with 8 other sisters!! It was fun to see everyone, previous companions (Jensen, Lowe, Leavitt) and others that I know and love PLUS got to meet a lot of new'ns!
2. We had a ROCKIN sisters conference, and we were all able to teach each other different principles. Walton and I taught "Receiving Revelation through the Book of Mormon" and we did the best! Wahahah, not really, but it went pretty well. It was neat to see all the different sisters teach, and they way that they teach.
3. We played way funny games that got us all laughing/crying so hard!
4. We ate good food, talked a TON and it was a joy. Minus the fact that there were 2 bathrooms for 18 sisters. Some smart ones (like me) decided to skip the shower. Ya right, I'm not waiting in that line!
5. We met EVERY missionary in the mission in Sissonville (just outside Charleston) for a HUGE mission conference. And guess who graced us with his presence? Oh, no big deal, just Elder Niel L. Andersen from the quorum of the twelve apostles. Say WHA?! So awesome. Elder Seldon of the Seventy was also there. We all got to shake their hands. All of us sisters were sitting on the front row, so we got to see every ones faces as they shook and apostles hand. It was way cool and there was such a neat spirit in the room. I was way scared to see/meet Elder Andersen, but he is way nice and not intimidating at all! Elder Andersen opened up the room for questions, and only two got asked (because of time), but they were really good. A) How does the Priesthood correlate with the Atonement? and B) As missionaries who are having problems at home, how can we best help our family members? Both really stellar questions (by two missionaries I know from serving around. Ha!) For question A, Elder Seldon answered and just talked about the origins of the priesthood (no beginning, no end) and how worlds were created with the priesthood etc. He also talked about Christ and his role as Savior, and how the adversary tempts us and used scriptures from Moses (about Moses being tempted) and Matthew (when Christ was being tempted). I'm not sure the question got answered fully, but it was really deep and interesting to hear/think about. Question B was answered very simply, yet profound. Elder Andersen said the way we can help our families, is to just "be as good as you can be." I thought that was beautiful. He said it doesn't really matter what you write home, but your example and obedience with eventually make the difference. Love it.
6. We got to see a lot of old friends/missionaries and that was fun.
7. We got a new car!! No worries, just a 2011 Toyota Corolla. It drives as smooth as a dream, and turns on a dime. I love it. Too bad the transfer is already half way over and I've got to pass the keys on Wednesday :(
8. I love Sister Walton. We have so much fun always, she is the greatest.
9. We found a new investigator named Betty last night. She has gone through a lot of hard things in her life, and recently a death in the family. She seems pretty receptive and open about the gospel.
So ya, life is pretty dang grand. I love being a missionary. The gospel is so exciting!
The Church is True!
I love you!
Love, Sister Kayla Gunnell