Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Gisselle's Baptism! - New Companion Elder Brough!


Hey everyone!!! So, this week was super hectic... and flew by!! Time is really starting to go fast. I can't believe that I've already been out for 8 months almost!! Dang! Oh, and tomorrow (the 16th), is my birthday!! YAYA!! I'm not a teenager any more. :).. the big 20... so i'm pretty excited about that... I already feel older. :)... But sadly, to my parents dismay.. i don't think i'll ever grow up... definately gonna stay immature.. haha.. but ya, enough rambling... time to get down to business. :) Monday night was pretty sad... we had our last family home evening with the Smiths, it wasn't much of a family home evening, cuz there was a lot of crying going on... but we had some fun still.. :).. . Other than that, it was apretty normal Monday.. Tuesday was epic!!! In the morning, I did Gisselle's (Queenie's daughter.. she's like 21 or 22) baptism interview and she passed with flyinig colors, and got baptized on Sunday!!! I'm so stoked for her!! She is such an awesome person!! :) She is really similar to Queenie.. you can't leave her presence without a smile on your face haha.. So ya, that was pretty sweet... The rest of the morning was pretty good... We taught some pretty good lessons, and there are some way cool people we are working with.. I'm way jealous of Elder Ostrin and Packard...(they are the missionaries in May Pen now).. In the evening, we went to the Sterlings for dinner... Thats where all the adventure started haha.. we had some fried chicken, and cake and stuff, and they went in a circle and everyone said something about the missionaries who were leaving.. that was way nice... :) then we went outside and they had planned to have us over for dinner on my birthday to throw me a little party, but since i was getting transferred, I guess they decided to do it early... cuz next thing I knew, Sister Sterling threw a plate of flour on me, and Elder Lee was seconds behind with this big basin of flour... basically they floured the crap out of me.. haha.... but no way was I going down alone.. because the minute the flour hit me it turned into a hell and powder war. . :) haha.. .flour was everywhere!! I definately took some of them down with me.. :) So ya, it was a blast!! It was tough to say good bye to that family... I love them so much!! Definately gonna link them after my mission is finished... Shout out to the Sterlings!! :) After that, we went back down to racetrack and had another lesson (covered in flour), and then went home at 9:30 to pack... I'm getting to be a professional packer I think.. because it only took about an hour.... :).. the worst part though was that it rained all day, and our clothes were on the line.. so i packed up my soaking clothes... definately don't hope that happens again... Wednesday was transfer day, and transfers went smoothly... It's actually pretty nice being in a truck... I didn't think I would like it at first, but I got used to the AC in the truck real fast!! haha... I don't sweat nearly as much now... But ya, I think the worst part of transfers was taking all my wet steamy nasty clothes out of the bag.... Apperently flour molds really fast.. cuz the shirt that had flour all over it was covered in mold.... so ya, i just threw it away... but everything else was still good, and one nice thing about the Kingston house is that it has a washing maching!!! So sweet!! so i was able to wash my clothes that night and hang them on the line... Definately way convenient. :) ... My new companion is Elder Brough.. He's way tight... and I think we're gonna have a good time together and have a lot of success. :) To be honest.. the rest of the week was kind of a blur.. I did a trade off with Yallahs with Elder Snelson... and that was alright.. Yallahs is super bush.. like way crazy...At one point we rode our bikes for like 30 minutes and didn't see a single person.. haha it was an adventure for sure.. Saturday, the Elders who were in the bus with Elder Walker when the shooting happened went to his funeral in Sav... and I was with a couple other missionaries in one of the other areas in Kingston.. it was a super long day... because neither of them really new the area yet, so we rode around all day and just talked to people... it was a day filled with rejection, but we were able to find a few pretty cool people, so it was definately worth the effort... It was just kind of frustrating because we have the best message in the world and we couldn't find very many people who were interested, but we were able to keep a good attitude and keep at it. :) Sunday was pretty much my fist day in the area..., and church here seems like its gonna be pretty cool.. I'm exctied to get to know everyone.. cuz not knowing everyone is definately not as much fun.. .. They recruited me to be the branch piano player (pianist just sounds weird).. so that should be an adventure.. my sight reading skills are definately going to get better haha.. Teaching in Kingston is sweet!! Its definately way different than anywhere that I've been before, but I love it already... one of the funny things Elder Brough pointed out, is that at one point, we were walking into this ghetto with our scriptures going one way, and eveyone passing going the other way had their ganja and stuff... so that was pretty funny... we definately look out of place, but I'm excited.. it seems like its gonna be an awesome transfer!! Monday was epic too.. .We had a zone leader p-day, and played some basketball in Portmore... it was so much fun!! and afterwords me and Elder Gardner wrestled... He's a way cool guy.. the Calls from Soda Springs are related to him, and I think that I might have met him once before our missions.. He's from Star Valley Wyoming.. He's a really good wrestler.. he won state in Wyoming and wrestled at college for a year before coming out... We wrestled after the basketball, so we were both way tired, and we stopped after about 3 or 4 minutes, because nobody knew how to keep score, and neither one of us could pin the other.. It was a way even match... I think we were tied when we stopped.. but ya, we were just too tired to do anything else... Hopefully we get to finish the match sometime... So ya, it was fun to get to wrestle again... But ya, the week is going good.. I'm really excited to have a full week and everything get back to normal because transfer week is always really hectic... but ya, time is short.. until next week nuff love!! Elder Kraus

5 comments:

  1. shout out to you my dearest son elder Kraus we miss you so much but the work must go on, hope to see you soon one day take care my boy love Jen

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  2. Funny! Elder Gardner told us he was going to get to wrestle. Sounds like they both had a good time. I love reading his blog and hearing about his experiences. Thanks for sharing. Happy birthday to him tomorrow:) (p.s., I'm elder gardner's sister....)

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  3. Glad to hear that there was a wrestling match, Elder Gardner said he was excited to have someone he could wrestle with that knew how. Sounds like it was a great match. I will be visiting Lewiston next month would be fun to meet up. I am Elder Gardner's Mother (Tami)

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  4. Hey Tami, I've got some family that lives in Lewiston, Idaho, but we live in the St. louis Missouri area, and now are currently in the process of moving to Muscatine, Iowa, my husband has started the new job there already and we'll be over in a few weeks.. It sounds like the boys had fun wrestling, I'm sure he gave Dustan a good workout with all those Gardner wrestling genes :) Dustan really has fun with it! It'll be crazy for him to come home to a different home. But he seems ok with it all, moving here from Soda Springs was a big transition for us, but things have been great. If you ever need a place to stay when visiting Nauvoo Illinois, our new home will be about an hour and a half away.. This first post here was from Jennifer Sterling from Jamaica, some thought it was me.. haha She is like Elder Kraus 2nd mom :) Talk to you later Jennifer

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  5. Hey thanks for the invite to stay at your home. I've been to Nauvoo once when I was young and would love to take my family there. My husband has a sister that lives in Iowa. That is quite a move from Soda to Iowa how is the heat?? Thanks for sharing your son's letters with us other Jamaican Moms.

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