New Address! San Diego Bound

Hermana Sarah Koelliker

California San Diego Mission
7404 Armstrong Place
San Diego, CA 92111-4912

Hermana K Sighting

Some of Sarah's friends got to see the babe on her temple walk last Sunday!

Big News!

Hola friends and fam!! as im sure most of you have heard, a sister passed away in my mission last week from an E Coli infection that took her into cardiac arrest. Although it was probably her time to go, it was tragic and made the church really cautious about what missionaries they want to send to such a remote part of south america. sooo as many of you are aware, I had two cardiac procedures when I was younger and have had a couple small irregular heart symptoms along the way. I was cleared by a cardiologist to serve anywhere, however the medical department for the church feels better about me staying in the United States for at least a couple months. That being said, I am reassigned to serve in the CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO mission. I received the new call this morning and will be flying to california on tuesday. I was told that I will have the option to be reconsidered for Argentina in a couple months but for now I am excited to serve in my new mission!! San Diego is a beautiful place with many spanish speakers also so I can't wait to get out there.

I want everyone to know that I am healthy and even though this wasn't what I was planning to happen in the MTC, I couldn't be more excited because I know that this is God's plan for me and I am willing to serve where ever he calls me.There are so many unexpected things about life but through Jesus Christ there is always peace and always joy. So everyone keep the faith and know that God is mindful always.

I love you all and am praying for you!!

xoxo Hermana Koelliker

Another Week in the MTC

haha my schedule here is pretty much the exact same week to week so not very many exciting things to write about. lots of spanish and scriptures and preach my gospel so good stuff.

One of my favorite things here is the devotionals every sunday and tuesday and this week i could just feel that we were going to have an apostle and then on tuesday at dinner it popped up on the tv screens and elder cook came it was super cool everyone was excited because it has been awhile since one of the twelve have been here. he talked a lot about faith and how that is the most important quality for a missionary to have. he quoted president hinckley who said that 'if our missionaries had more faith they would have more sucess" he told us that as long as were inviting, were doing our job no matter how it turns out. and he also said that we are the message and i think that goes for all members, people see how we act and see the light that shines through us and want to have that for themselves. 

On wednesday we got to be hosts for the new missionaries- the people that stand on the curb haha i cant decide if i enjoyed it or not. first i got to host an international girl from brazil- she said shes from like two hours outside of brazilia and she was the sweetest thing on the planet even though she didnt understand half of what i said and the second girl was from Lehi Utah. That was sad cause i had to watch her family say goodbye to her at her car and they were all crying kinda like my family. she only had a few tears and when she walked in with me she was apologizing haha and i was like trust me you have it a lot more together then I did. anyways though i tried to make them feel welcome and happy that first day is crazy.

Thats about it for the mtc excitment this week haha im still eating fake lucky charms for breakfast every morning and soggy quesadillas for dinner but its good stuff. the mtc is an amazing place im kinda of sad that my time here is almost up but it will also be good to move on.

we had a lesson with an older women this week who told us real personal things from her life and wanted to talk about forgiveness and we all ended up crying at the end of the lesson haha and she told us shes gonna try and sneak food in for us for our next lesson hahah it was really cool though. most of my zone plays volleyball during gym time and they always get mad at me and my companion and a couple others for not coming to play but after i found out that the average sister missionary gains 30 pound i better do something worthwhile during gym. so dont worry im not 200 pounds yet.

all is well i am so happy there are so many good things in life ah i love every minute i have. i pray for you all and love you so so much! 

xoxo hermana koelliker

20 Days Til Argentina

Not much exciting this week just a lot of studying!! yesterday I gave the best spanish lesson so far so I was happy about that haha one of our "investigators" ends up having to give us a spanish lesson the whole time we teacher but its okay cause shes already a member. haha two days one of the girls that I lived with orginized a "silent dance slam" in the bathroom at night hahah it was a blast but shhhh no dancing allowed at the MTC.  One of the branch presidents wifes had all the hermanas go around and say the biggest thing that they've learned from the MTC so far. For me I've come to realize that the only way we can get through the ups and downs of life is by trusting God. He has a plan for all of us that is far greater then we can imagine and we have to trust Him in order to continue in faith. Elder David Evans spoke this week and talked about the doctrine of Christ and how it starts with us submiting our will to the Fathers. I am continually striving to do that because thats where true happiness and peace comes from.

 I love you all and hope you have an awesome week! you're all in my prayers xoxo

Semana Dos

holaaaaa

every wednesday when the new missionaries come in it makes me feel so much older haha but in reality I've really only been here two weeks...a girl in my district was saying that we've served 15 days of our mission out of 545 then we decided that it might be better not to count. haha being at the MTC its easy to forget that this actually isnt my mission and that in a couple weeks there going to ship me off to a foreign country where I'll teach real investigators AHH that will be crazy!!!

this week we got a second teacher that comes in the afternoon now (was our investigator before) hermano roberts hahah and we found out that he's dating one of my companions friends, kinda weird but it was funny. Anyways though he taught us how to teach the entire first lesson in Spanish in two minutes. lol obviously the spanish struggles but we could all teach God is our loving heavenly father-families are central to the plan-revelation in every dispensation- saviors earthly life- apostasy-restoration-BOM- prayer IN TWO MINUTES ah crazy! were not going to do it that fast for real investigators it just helps to get the order and everything down.

right now we have 3 "investigators and then we do member lessons (like home teaching) once a week so we usually teach like twice everyday. two of the "investigators" are our teachers haha its so funny they go into like a room down the hall from our classroom, take of their tie and name tag and turn into an actor. one of them always pulls out their phone when they get bored and it drives us insane hahah anyways though when we finish our lesson they say pause and then give us feedback. the other people we teach are all fluent in English so if we can't think of a word they usually help us out, but ive gotten really good at the line "lo siento mi espanol is muy mal" haha idk if I even spelled it right but its supposed to mean sorry my spanish is very bad. ive learned so so much spanish these past two weeks though I actually know a lot more then I thought I could this fast. Its much easier for me to understand then to speak though, I almost always know what the investigators are saying but cant always figure out a good reply with my small vocabulary.

something that ive heard a lot of speakers say here at the MTC is that we need to ask the Lord to make us an instrument in His hands. As President Monson says "When you are on the Lords errand, you are entitled to the Lord's help." If we are praying for and seeking opportunities to serve, the Lord will bless us and give us His help. This doesnt just pertain to missionary work but through our whole lives!

these past two weeks have been amazing!! I really love being a missionary- everyone always says that and now I understand why. Thanks for all the prayers, letters packages, and support!

I love you all and am praying for you!

xoxo hermana koelliker

ps a new missionary joined my district yesterday- we were super confused about why he arrived 2 weeks later then the rest of us but he was in the Mexico MTC this past summer for weeks then went home and came to provo now. hes going to quito ecuador

pps one of my teahers served in argentina so we were asking him if he got sick on his mission and his response was "I was healthy sometimes" hahah doesnt sound very promising

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

Week One

haha I can't believe that its only been a week! I feel like I've been here forever but it a good way! hahaha when people say that the MTC is spiritual prison they arent kidding but a good prision! all the gates and tall buildings just make this place so secluded that when you catch a glimpse of the street you remember that there is an outside world. but the spirit here is honestly like nothing I'v ever experienced before its amazing! I love it!!! I think that the spirit is so strong because the function of the MTC is centered around Jesus Christ.

anywayyysss first off like i said my companion her name is heremana safston from mesa arizona. both her parents served missions in spain and she lived in spain for a little so she knows a ton ton of spanish which has been super helpful for me because i am the only one that doesnt have any spanish experience. We are very different but we get along really well!! I live in a dorm room with her and two other girls that i love!!! hermana neville and hermana patton. then there are four others in our district all elders. out of the eight in my district there are five of us going to argentina and then the rest are going state side.

every morning we wake up at 6:30 which much to my surprise hasn't been THAT hard. then at 7;15 we go to breakfast at the cafeteria....which is the evil step brother of the cannon hahahh i mostly eat fruit and cereal there and raspberry lemonade there but at the meals we always sit with our zone which is my district and then two other districts all speaking spanish of course. k then on a normal day we would go from the cafeteria to our classroom and we have our teacher hermano rios who served a mission in argentina also. we have class from 8-11:30 ish then lunch then more class from 12:30-3:30 then gym time for an hour which is the best i love it we go to the gym were theres a track and workout machines up top and then we can play volleyball and basketball on the bottom. Me and my companion like to work out the same so we usually run and then do some of the machines and play a little volley ball if theres time at the end. then after gym time is dinner then from 6-9 more study. thats just the average day though it varies cause tuesday we have service in the mornings then today is only night class and sundays are the best days here!!

sundays we still have a pretty full day but we get to watch music and the spoken word in the morning all the sisters and then relief society and then sacrament is just with my zone so its small and we have to prepare a 3 minute spanish talk on a different topic every week and the branch president randomly calls on whoever he wants so you just have to be ready but luckily i didnt get called on last week cause that would've been a train wreck. Then the afternoon is the best cause we can chill and go on a temple walk and then dinner and devotional.

the fake investigator we had last week was named raimundo, the lessons went alright haha one of them was really good and we walked out and started jumping up and down screaming cause it was so good but most of them werent that good hahaha and the worst part about it is that we found out that starting tomorrow hes going to be our teacher ahhhhhhh

anyways though it has been a good week! i see sister hall at least three times a day which i love!! usually in the cafeteria. 

I understand why people say make it til sunday, not because the first couple days are bad but its just that once you get to sunday everything picks up and moves a lot quicker.

I get made fun of for eating 5 packaged rice krispie treats a day hahaha but i dont care cause there so good and i can only eat so much cafeteria food!!

thanks for all the letters and dear elders I love hearing what everyone is doing! sorry everything in here is so scattered.

this week my branch president gave a message about enduring to the end and I loved it. he said that the short moment between stimulus and response is ours to decide if we will use it to come closer to Christ or move in the opposite direction. So everyone us it for the best and try to eliminate complaints and other negative reactions!!
I LOVE  YOU ALL AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

 the mtc is an amazing place. have a fantastic week 

xoxo hermana koelliker