Saturday, April 24, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Greetings from Argentina!-April 21, 2010

Hello family!
I made it! Can you believe it? It took a million years to get here, but I am finally here. After I talked to Kayela and Karli in Georgia, we got on our flight to Buenos Aires and flew over night. I wanted to talk to someone, but I sat next to an Asian lady who didn´t speak English. That was probably a good thing though because then I slept instead of stayed up talking. I was absolutely disgusting when we got off the plane, but what can you do after traveling for two days? We got a van to take us to the other airport in Buenos Aires and we drove my the temple on the way there. I can know understand why it´s taking a year and a half to renovate - it is completely gutted! We could see out the other side! Kinda sad... Then we waited in the intranational airport and a plane took us to Bahia Blanca. I actually accidentally left my passport on two of the planes. An elder brought it out for me on one of them and I remembered and went back for it on the other plane. My whole travel group thought I was ridiculous and that I lose everything and they actually told that to the assistants when we arrived so they think I´m nuts. Oh well... they might as well know what they´re getting. I talked to this guy next to me on the plane to Bahia Blanca and tried to convince him that God exists. I don´t think he believes me, but I told him that I am going to come talk to him when we´re both still floating around as spirits after we die so that should be fun if he continues to not accept it in this life. When we got to Bahia Blanca, the assistants and Presidente Detlefsen and "the hermana" (that´s what they call her here - I think it´s kinda funny because it sounds like the first lady or something. I guess that´s kinda what she is) met us there. It was so exciting to see and meet them. We went back to the mission home, which is really nice, and ate a delicious dinner and introduced ourselves to everyone. There are 13 new missionaries that came with us - 4 hermanas and 4 elders that came from the MTC and 2 hermanas and 3 elders from the Buenos Aires CCM. Apparently it´s a great time to get into the mission. The president is great - he´s really funny so that was exciting and he doesn´t speak any English. To make a long story shorter, we stayed at a hotel overnight, but our bags didn´t get here until this morning so I looked really good today. That was a lie. We ate breakfast and then had to go get our documentos and then we went to the mission office to meet our trainers. They made us listen to the rules for a long time and finally we got to find out where we´re going and with who. My name was actually the first one called. The assistants had this dramatic slideshow that showed the area and then shot in pictures of one companion and then the other. So I am going to an area called Loay with Hermana Davis. She´s blonde and really cute. She´s from Colorado and went to BYU before the mission. She seems really nice and I´m excited to work with her. We´re going to have a lot of success, I predict. On the slideshow, it also said how many people are in our area - around 8000, which seemed like a lot until we got to Mar Del Plata and there were 100,000. So I´m going to La Pampa, to a tiny pueblito. It´s going to be very different from the city I´m in now, but it sounds like a lot of fun. So far, I absolutely love Argentina. That sounds cliche and it probably is, but the weather has been so nice and it´s not even humid. Some of the people look kinda white, but I definitely still stick out. Also, we ate some facturas (pastries)and some gelato already and I think I might give up that goal of not gaining weight. It will be worth it if I can eat as much of those as I want. The accent is also not as bad as I thought, but they definitely use the zsh instead of ll and y and it´s great. I´m already starting to pick it up. There are 22 sisters in the mission now and about 140ish elders, I think. So I´m getting on a bus at six and driving four hours to Santa Rosa and then taking a taxi to our house in the middle of nowhere. It´s going to be so great! I can´t wait to start teaching people and doing some real missionary work. My mission president and this mission and all the missionaries I´ve met here seem so perfect for me - I´m positive that Heavenly Father knows what he´s doing. I´ll have some more stories once I do something besides travel and I hope it´ll be good stuff to report. Actually, I know it will be. :) I´m praying for all of you and I love you so much. Congrats on being able to get married, Kortni and Jonathan! I´m very happy for you and very sad I can´t be there. Good luck with everything. Know that I´m praying for you. Also, my companion is Hermana Davis, just like one of Kayela´s companions! Twins! Have a great week!
Con amor, (I figure I´m in Argentina now so I better start using some corny Spanish phrase in my emails)
Hermana Seegmiller

Monday, April 19, 2010

So long, farewell...April 13, 2010

Hi family,
Well, you might have heard by now, but I am finally leaving the MTC. That last sentence was probably a little deceiving because it makes it sound like I'm happy. I am way excited to go to Argentina and finally start teaching some real people and be a real missionary, but I am definitely sad about leaving the MTC. I love it here and I'm going to miss my crazy district. This week, we got to be hosts for the new missionaries. It was way fun and it made me feel really old and knowledgeable. We also get to do it this week. I hosted for a new hermana who's going to the Utah Ogden mission. She's excited and I told her that my friend, Brett, went there and it's basically the best mission ever (except for Bahia Blanca Argentina, of course). This week, I discovered the toasters in the cafeteria and started to take advantage of them. I made two pieces of toast every morning, but then I really only wanted one so I would give the other one to Elder Matagi because he's Samoan and he can eat a lot. I guess I started influencing everyone else because they all started making toast for themselves. But then I didn't have anyone to give my extra piece to so that was a problem. I gave it to Elder Spencer one of the days this week and he said," You make really good toast, Hermana. It's one of your better qualities." It was really meant to be a compliment, but it didn't quite work out. The elders in my district are still figuring out how to give a compliment. I told them about how Daddy got called Elder Seismil on his mission and they thought it was funny so they like to call me that a lot.
Anyway, about my travel plans... I'm leaving the MTC at 5:00 am this coming Monday, the 19th of April. Our flight to LAX leaves at like 8:30 or something and then we get there and our flight to Buenos Aires leaves at like 10. And our schedule says we arrive in Buenos Aires the next morning at 7:45 am. I am really hoping it's not a 22-hour flight so I think that we stop in Georgia or something and then continue the rest of the way. I don't know where I'll be able to call from - maybe Salt Lake and that would be early in the morning. We shall see... but answer your phones. You probably won't even be able to understand me because my accent's gotten so good. Also, Kylie's cousin, Hermana Durham, is our travel leader. It's gonna be a fun trip!
This week for service, we ripped apart cardboard boxes and put them in the crusher! It was really fun. The MTC worker (who's a student at BYU) told us to rip apart the boxes and stomp on them. He said," Just pretend they're the boyfriends that jilted you before you came." And I yelled," What is that supposed to mean?" And Hermana Tingey said," Oh, is that why you think we're all on missions? Because we got jilted by our boyfriends?" He felt kinda bad afterwards, but we just thought it was really funny. So for anyone who thinks that, I did not come on my mission because I got jilted by my boyfriend. But if he had jilted me, he would be in worse shape than those boxes after they went through the crusher. hehe...:)
Also, for some reason, this week out of nowhere, Elder Shawhan started quoting Star Wars, during that scene when they're stuck in the trash compactor and Luke is yelling "Where could he be?" over and over again. He's actually really good at it so he does it all the time and we all die laughing. That's just so you can picture what's going on in our classroom. We have so many ridiculous quotes now and I wanted to make a tape, but we shall see if we get around to it.
We started practicing door contacts with Hermano Dallon this week and I accidentally mixed up my words and asked if I could enter his house "sin permiso" (without permission) and he slammed the door in my face. We tried some more approaches and he kept rejecting us. I felt pretty stupid and like I don't actually know very much and I'm not ready to be a missionary. I started getting scared because I'm leaving in less than a week. We had personal study a little while after that and I was reading in John (Because they suggested it in Conference - by the way, John is good stuff. I would definitely recommend it.) and I came to the story of when Jesus fed the 5000 people. I kinda thought about it in a different way this time though. I read it and saw it as I was the little boy who had the 5 loaves and the 2 fish. He didn't have very much, but he gave everything he had to the Savior and the savior blessed it and made it enough to feed 5000 people. So I guess I figured that it doesn't really matter how much I have to give (how much natural talent or ability with missionary work), because as long as I give everything I have to the Savior, he will bless me and it'll be enough to bring the gospel to 5000 people... or more. :) It was very encouraging and helpful to me. I know that's true in every aspect of life - there are lots of things we can't do on our own, but we can definitely do them with the Savior's help. I know I can do this with his help and I'm still kinda scared right now, but I'm excited beyond belief!
Oh, Mom, I was also wondering if there are any extras of my mission picture of me holding the BOM. If there are extras, can you send me some? I feel like my district would really get a kick out of it if I gave them those pictures. They all know how ridiculous I am know so it would be a good reminder for them. Man, I love my district so much. They're so ridiculous and we have so much fun. I'll miss them, but I will definitely see them again, especially since a bunch of them go to BYU. I'm also way excited for all the people I'm going to meet and I know I'll love them so much. Anyway, I hope you are all doing well. I'm praying for you and I'm so grateful for your support and neverending supply of candy that is getting sent to me (don't worry though, I'm pretty sure i'm not going to break 500 pounds before I leave). Also, I really like Jordy's idea about getting us both on the phone on Mother's Day. I don't know how that's going to work, but if we can figure it out, I would really enjoy that. He finally wrote me back this week! He said he thought he already had...typical Jordy. Well, have a great week! Pray for me! i love you.
Love,
Hermana Kasidy Seegmiller

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

April 6, 2010-Conference Weekend

Hello Family!
How's life back on the homestead? The MTC is so great and I'm getting sad that it's coming to an end. I do see Landon Roberts at basically every meal time. He asked me when I was leaving when he got here and I told him I still had like three weeks left so he told me," It seems like you left forever ago." It kinda seems like that to me too, but I've been loving it. But Landon got here after me, is leaving before me, and is like the fifth group of missionaries that have done that to us so I think it's about time we get to the field. Speaking of which, we actually met with the Argentine consul today, which means we are one step closer to getting our Visas. They told us that we don't actually know if they have our Visas until we get our travel plans, which should be happening this Friday. I hope everything works out. But it was way exciting and now we're all pumped about Argentina. This week was really awesome. I have been so excited for conference since I got here and then it finally came. Conference as a missionary was everything it's cracked up to be. I think it's because we think about this stuff all the time and the apostles and prophets talk about it so we are all ears. It was great. It was kinda funny since it was mostly about teaching your family the gospel and I'm on a mission. It made me really excited to have a family one day and there are definitely a lot of ways I can use what was said. I mostly just liked listening to the testimonies of the apostles and prophet. When they testify of Christ, you know they know it's true. I loved it. During Cheryl Lant's talk, I was sitting next to Elder Keeling and at one point in her talk, she said," Look at who you love the very most." so of course I put a freaky look on my face and turned my head slowly to look at Elder Keeling. He rolled his eyes and gave me a typical elder Keeling look. It was classic and he laughed. I was also thinking about our family and my mother a lot when they were talking about those things in the talks and I would say that I got pretty lucky. I think I can definitely look up to the example my mother left for me because she is so solid in the gospel, she is so faithful and has a testimony of Christ, she is so willing to serve, and I think that if I was to serve my mission as she served hers, Heavenly Father would be very happy with that effort. I think I also did get a testimony and learned a lot about the gospel from our family. Chery Lant also said, " We are the ones God has appointed to bless these people and bring them to Christ." She was actually talking about children, but it definitely applies to those people I'm going to help teach in Argentina. I just gotta be ready to bring them the gospel. I'm so excited to do it!
Also, this week was really exciting because it was Easter! So fun. Turns out holidays in the MTC are really sweet - I got two packages of candy from Mom (by the way, my district loved it and says thank you times a million) and a package from my friends with bunny ears and ridiculous masks and more candy! So we have a lot of candy in our district right now and it is starting to make me sick, but it's delicious so I will suffer through it. :) Also, Hermana LaPray's grandma sent her like forty plastic Easter eggs so we had an Easter Egg Hunt in our hallway. It was a little surprising and very entertaining to see how much everyone enjoyed it. Yesterday, we went to the RC again to make calls and I called one lady named Sabina to ask her if she got her BOM. Turns out, she had no clue what the BOM was so I gave her a summary of the first lesson, which I thought went pretty well. I was speaking in Spanish and I was kinda struggling, but everything made sense and it sounded good to me. She asked me a question about how we're all worshipping teh same God so who cares what church we go to so I tried explaining about authority and she interrupted me to say," No habla espanol bien y no entiendo ingles." which basically was telling me that I stink at speaking Spanish. She should have just slapped me in the face because that would have hurt less. I was a little confused, but I told her that I am learning Spanish and she said, "OH no. Habla muy bien. Puedo entender cada cosa que dices." So I'm really confused now about how my Spanish is, but it still hurt my ego. I guess it was humbling so that's a good thing. I do feel like my Spanish has improved since coming here. Anyway, the MTC is so great. I love my district and my teachers and my companion and playing volleyball and the food hasn't killed me yet. :) Travel plans this week! I'm praying for you all! I love you and am so grateful for the support!
Love,
Hermana Seegmiller

Monday, April 5, 2010

March 30, 2010

Well hello, dearest family,
Another week at the MTC has already gone by. Isn't it amazing how fast time moves here? I guess you wouldn't know, but it really does fly. Also, is Kayela's email address kayelas@yahoo.com still or does she use a gmail one now? I want to send her an email because she still hasn't written me, but I don't know her email address for sure. A while back, we got some new sister missionaries in our zone and the coordinating sister put together a list of "you know you're a sister missionary if..." things and I keep meaning to share them, but I always forget. So... You know you're a sister missionary if... You can get ready and look decent in 25 minutes (sometimes we take more time than that, especially since my companion had pneumonia, but I'm working on it), Your feet smell - it's the nylons (that is so true and I would say it's probably the worst thing about missionary work so far), Going to the bathroom takes forty minutes because you have to wait for your companion and somebody decided to only put one stall for the women on each floor, the give away box is a treasure box (i actually got a free skirt and some lotion from the give away box...nice), and my personal favorite - You accidentally bump into an elder and you feel like you need to purposefully make it awkward because it would be worse if you didn't (Oh man, that is so true. And I'm pretty clumsy so I bump into elders or accidentally touch their hands when walking or stuff like that all the time. I'm not flirting - it really is an accident :) Anyway, I thought that list was pretty funny so I shared it.
Something really random that happened this week was that I met an elder who met Kortni and Mom on the plane out to the MTC. He just came up to me in volleyball and said that he'd met my sister on the plane coming from New York. I remembered that you guys were visiting Hayley, but I didn't really believe him so I made him describe you. When he finally said that Kortni had served her mission in New York, I believed him. He said that Kortni told him to look out for me and he'd written my name down somewhere, but when he saw me in gym, he knew that I was who she was talking about because I looked just like her. I've never thought Kortni and I look the same, but it was totally random and cool. I later found out that he's in my zone so I see him like every day now.
Also, last week when we were coming out of the temple, this old lady grabbed one of the elders in our district's arm and talked to him about how great it was to be a missionary and how much she loved it. She said," I've been back from my mission for forty years and pay day's still coming!" Hermana LaPray joked about how that's going to be us someday when we're back from our missions and we freak out the little missionaries by talking about the good old days. But Elder Matagi corrected us and said," No, no. She's been back from her couples mission for forty years!" She must be really, really old then. I'm not sure I actually want to live long enough to have that experience, but I guess we'll see what happens.
So this story made me think of McCall, but I didn't have time to write it just to her so everyone gets to read it and make sure she gets it. I was talking to Elder Shawhan this week in our classroom, just chatting about nothing really special and he accidentally spit while he was talking and it landed on my lip. He finished his sentence and then looked away, but I thought I would wait until he looked away to wipe it off so he wouldn't get embarrassed. I don't really know what I was thinking though because Elder Shawhan doesn't really get embarrassed. Anyway, so then he kinda saw me wipe it off and said," Yeah, so did I spit on you?" and I just laughed and said yes. He said that he thought he had, but then he thought that it was kinda weird that i wasn't wiping it off right away. So I was trying to be nice, but then he thought it was really weird so that's maybe not the best route to take when someone spits on you. The reason that made me think of McCall is because she's the one that showed me this Ellen Degeneres comedy video about this exact situation - when someone spits on you and you both know it, but you want to wait until they look away to wipe it off. She said that it makes no sense to not wipe it off when you both know it's there. It's not like the person is going to be like," What? You don't want that there? Why would you wipe my spittle away?" Anyway, after Elder Shawhan spit on me and we talked about how it was awkward that I hadn't wiped it off right away, I remembered what Ellen said about it and I started cracking up. Then for like half an hour after that, I would continue to think about that and how weird Elder Shawhan thought I was and start cracking up again. It was pretty funny. :)
So Hermana LaPray pretty much had pneumonia this whole week. It was really sad for her, but she just slept all the time, which left me basically alone in the room to read and study by myself for hours at a time. It got really boring and I started to go a little crazy so I'm really glad she's basically back to normal now, although she is having trouble concentrating. She'll be totally healed soon though and I'm so glad to have her back. Also, before I forget - Elder Shawhan's first name is Dylan and he's going to the Denver Colorado South mission. You don't have to write him, but you asked me for his info so I thought I'd give it. Also, I would like Reese's eggs and Butterfinger eggs plus a box of See's Candy with my favorites (Butterscotch squares, some bourdeaux, molasses chips). I would just love that.
So an hermana in my zone bore her testimony this past Sunday and she's leaving for the field tomorrow. She said that she's not afraid because she knows that God will be with her and that the message is true so nothing else really matters. I have been kinda freaking out lately because we are supposed to leave here pretty soon (it says the 19th, but we're not totally sure) and I am not totally sure if I'm ready, but I completely agree with her. As long as I'm doing the right thing, Heavenly Father will help me and I'll be able to do what I've been called to do. I'm really excited, but I will be sad to leave the MTC. It has been a good time and my district is like my family (they're not as good as my real family, but they're pretty awesome). Anyway, I hope you all watch conference this coming weekend. Our prophet is going to speak to us. I'm way excited, even though I have to watch it in a big auditorium with 3000 elders and no food (it's a crime, right? conference without food!). I love being here and I love feeling the spirit and knowing that I'm doing the right thing and knowing that the church is true. I love you all and I miss your craziness!
Love,
Hermana Seegmiller
P.S. Karli sent me cupcakes this week with the faces of all of my district members on them and they were so adorable. We loved them and they were delicious! :) Gracias.