Dec 12-20, 2017

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 

Bunbury, Western Australia

Elder Codina is gone! Oh, well, we dropped him off at Perth on Friday, then I stayed with the Zone Leaders for the weekend.  Then we drove back up to Perth on Monday for some trainer training (I'm a trainer).  Then on Tuesday (yesterday) we got the Goldens, the new missionaries.  I'm with Elder Muaiava from Samoa.  He speaks really good English.  He has actually been out for almost three weeks already because he came in the middle of a transfer.  So, he was staying with the Zone Leaders up in Rockingham until I got him. (I can't upload pictures of us right now -- next P-day.)

So, this last Monday, after the Trainer's Training, I went with Elder Chapman and Elder Kitwonpak for the day; it was a fun day! Both are skux missionaries. (Skux is Aussie slang for "being put to great use.")

Yesterday, after we got back from Perth, Elder Muaiava and I went out to see some members and less-active members, and we came across a lady cleaning her rug.  And Elder Muaiava marched right up to her and started to offer help and was skux as missionary.  Anyway, we talked to her for a bit, and she said that she was looking to be baptized. We told her of the Priesthood, and she wants to learn more of that; also, she recently lost her husband.  Time was running late, and we set a return appointment for Saturday.

Otherwise, I'll see you when I Skype.

 

Elder Kleven

Dec 5 - 11, 2017

Monday, December 11, 2017

Bunbury, Western Australia

This was a fun week.  It was Elder Codina's last full week on the mission; he leaves for Perth on Thursday then flies to the Philippines on Monday.  We still don't know what I'm going to do while he's in Perth; I'll probably stay with the Zone Leaders.  So, my next P-day will be next Wednesday because next Monday is transfers.  Normally, transfers are on a Wednesday but because of Christmas they want to have a Zone Conference that is focused on Christmas, so the Zone Conference is going to be next Thursday, I think, which would be too soon after transfers if it were on Wednesday.

This Thursday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and that night some members had a Christmas party where they invited a bunch of non-members to the chapel and had performances by their kids and then showed a little bit about Light the World.  It was some of the best member missionary work I've seen. They wanted all the missionaries in the ward there because there were well over a hundred non-members there.  It was sweet.

The Busselton Branch had a baptism this Saturday; they came up to Bunbury for the baptismal font, so we got to see it. None of our investigators made it though, which was a shame.

President Fife spoke at our Sacrament Meeting this Sunday, which was sweet!

Friday we got to go to a stake Christmas performance up in Mandurah; it was really cool.

That's about it.

Elder Kleven

#LighttheWorld

Monday, December 18, 2017

Alexandria, Virginia

'Ollo.

 

Companions - Hansen & Kleven

 

This last Tuesday was an eventful day.  We had District Meeting an hour early so that Sister Hansen and I could go light the world that afternoon!  Anyway, we played a "How Well Do You Know Your Companion?" game, and Sister Hansen and I creamed everyone.  And you know why?  Because I voluntarily share information with her that I think is interesting (I am a very interesting person), and then I make her tell me about herself.  But we won and we gloated a little bit.  And then a lot.  What can I say?  I'm a gloater.  Then we scurried on our way and met some of the Elders in our Zone to make a video with them!  It's called "Kingstowne, VA Light the World, 2017" on YouTube.  Check it out.  We went around and hunted people down and asked them to be in the video and talk about Christ.  I was SO nervous about it beforehand.  I almost barfed in the free hot chocolate.  But I didn't.  And then I realized that I go up and talk to people all day every day as a missionary and that I shouldn't worry.  That kind of helped.  We would give them free hot chocolate if they participated and that was kind of my opening line to people when I walked up to them.  That was until I actually tasted the hot chocolate.  After that, I just asked people if I could ask them a question and if they said "No", that's when I would give them the hot chocolate.  Ha! Just kidding! (not really.  It was some pretty bad stuff) 

 

 

 

On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference, and no one asked me if I was a mini-missionary!  Because I am a real-life missionary.  And people know that.  There are so many new missionaries coming in and so many leaving that I am now one of the older missionaries.  That's flippin' weird, that's what!  But it was an inspiring day, nonetheless.  It was fun to be able to see all the missionaries around us and see President and Sister Huntsman.  

 

The flippin' hilarious truck we passed that I made Sister Hansen take a picture of because I thought it was so funny!

We had a lesson with A* on Thursday morning at 7:00am.  So, we rolled out of bed and went to Starbucks.  We usually meet outside, but it had snowed the day before and I wanted to keep all of my toes, so we went inside to seek refuge from the freezing weather.  That afternoon, we had a lesson with C*, and it was...interesting.  He's kind of tricky.  We have been meeting with him regularly, but he's not really progressing.  Surprisingly, he showed up with his Book of Mormon that we had given him, and he was in Helaman!  It had only been about three weeks since we gave it to him, and he was already through Alma!  Anyway, we hope that he'll be able to progress and consider being baptized.  We know that it will bless his life immensely and he will be able to feel the spirit to much greater and more powerfully if he is baptized.  We'll see. Then we went to check up on a potential investigator and ended up making her and her daughter new investigators.  They were interested in learning more, and we were more than willing to teach them!  And then that night, we went to a Hibachi Grill for dinner with the B* family.  They are our favorite people.  It was so much fun!  Apparently, my coordination or depth perception was off that day (or I just naturally suck) because when the chef guy man threw me some meat to catch in my mouth, it didn't make it anywhere near my mouth.  He did this three times until he was running out of things to throw my way.  The last one almost went up my nose, so I halted the proceedings right there.  Chicken in the nostrils?  No, thank you!  Brother B* did send more pictures of us working on the deck - see below:

 

Working on the deck with a power saw in the pouring rain.

More deck working, power sawing, and raining.

 

Saturday was a busy, busy day.  We started the day off with our ward Christmas party, and it was so much fun!  I really feel like I'm starting to be a part of the ward now and that people are comfortable with the missionaries that just hang around.  We had to leave early, though, because Phillip was being baptized that morning as well!  (Phillip is the miracle investigator whom the Elders maliciously stole from us.)  He was so happy to see us!  I was so happy to see him!  We were all just so happy!  I had to give a talk on baptism at the event, and it was so scary.  There were so many people there.  Also, the font was still being filled behind me, so I had to pretty much shout the whole time.  I was channeling my stage acting the whole time.  Did it work?  Nope.  Then that night, we were able to have a lesson with some investigators and it was great.  

 

Phillip's Baptism

Phillip, Sister Kleven, and Sister Hansen

 

I have loved being here, and I don't know that I can ever leave.  By the end of this transfer, it will be six months that I've been here.  It goes by so fast, though.  I love serving the Lord and serving His children.  I'll talk to you next week! Merry Christmas! 

Love,

Me

PS: The stylings of a sister-missionary apartment in Alexandria, Virginia at the close of 2017:

 

Notice the apron that I made at an Elk Ridge Ward Super Saturday.

Companion's desk.

My desk and our Christmas tree.

"Happy New Year! Me No Die! Tell God Thank You Me No Die!"

Monday, December 11, 2017

Alexandria, Virginia

Favorite moment of the week: A recent convert in our ward is from Sierra Leone, and we asked her what they do in Africa for Christmas.  She said that they all gather around the church and sing songs.  We asked her what songs they sing, and she broke out into this chant thing that says: "Happy New Year, me no die! Happy New Year, me no die! Tell God thank you, me no die! Tell God thank you, me no die!"  And you do this over and over until...well, until you just don't want to do it anymore, I guess.  But what made it really great was the fact that she did this in the middle of our Gospel Principles class.  I love her.  

On Wednesday, we went to District Meeting and it was a pleasant experience.  Afterwards, we went to a barbecue place because all the sisters in the district wanted to go.  It was fun!  I've attached pictures.  I got a huge cheeseburger, steak, oniony thing that would have made Ron Swanson proud.  Also, there were some pretty classy tunes that were playing over the speakers.  Tender mercies!  

So, our new miracle investigator, M*, turned out to not be a miracle after all.  We called him and told him about a Book of Mormon class that the Elders have on Wednesday nights, and he told us that he would definitely be there.  So we show up and call him.  Turns out he will, in fact, not be there.  Then he didn't come to church.  But he's super nice whenever we get a hold of him!  He's invited us over for some Ethiopian food and offered to give us a ride to church.  We're just going to have to continue to work with him.  That's all.  

We saw C* this week, and she was so cute.  I love going over to see her.  She gave me shirt that says, "Coffee obsessed" on it.  I was like, "C*!  The Word of Wisdom!" and she just looked at me over my glasses as if to say, "Pft, girl.  Nuh-uh."  That night, our dinner was sick so she sent us some pizza and we sent her a spiritual thought over text messages.  It was lovely.  Then we brought some pizza over to the Elders because they were sick and dying.  How greasy pizza was supposed to help with that, I don't know.  

And then on Saturday, IT SNOWED!  Our cars were grounded for the entire mission on Saturday.  It only snowed about two inches, but it was still beautiful!  We had to get rides all day and it was a pain in the butt because we didn't know that our cars were going to be grounded so it was hard to get rides everywhere.  We had to cancel a lot of our appointments on Saturday.  But it snowed!!  Apparently, squirrels don't freeze in the snow because they were having a jolly amount of fun jumping from tree to tree.  And I was having fun watching them do that.  

We went to church on Sunday and it was awesome.  Then we had dinner at the H* family's house, and they are probably the cutest people ever. Their family is adorable.  They remind me of the Wintertons.

With the H Family (aka Wintertons).

Anyway, I love you lots.  

Sister Missionary

Bleh...

Monday, December 4, 2017

Alexandria, Virginia

Remember our miracle investigator?  The one who came to church and told us he wanted to be baptized?  Well, we had a pass-off lesson with him on Tuesday night to the Elders in the Kingstowne ward.  It was so depressing.  Sure, we were teaching him about the gospel and all that jazz, but we still had to say the words, "The Elders will be teaching you now."  I was pretty happy when P* (the investigator) got sad and pretended to cry when we said that he had to go somewhere else.  The lesson was hilarious, though.  P* doesn't hold anything back when he has something to say.  *sigh*  I'm going to miss that taxi driver. 

On Wednesday, we went to district meeting in the morning and got to meet the new missionaries in our district!  There is a new Elder and a new Sister.  I just want to pinch their cheeks.  So cute.  After the meeting, Sister Hansen started feeling poorly, so we went back to the apartment, and I tended to my ailing companion the rest of the day.  Turns out, she had some sort of stomach flu.  I felt fine, though. Lucky me!  

On Thursday night, Sister Hansen was still sickly, but we had to go to Vienna and get the car appraised.  Do you even know how stressful a garage is?  I mean, where the flip do you have to park?  I almost had an aneurysm trying to navigate through the throng of broken-down automobiles and sketchy-looking mechanics.  The Lord was with us, and we were able to find the nice guy man who took care of our car for us.  Although, he did take to the dent on the car with a giant hammer.  I had to close my eyes as my baby was maliciously thwacked by the hunk of metal.  We went home after that so that Sister Hansen could die on the couch.  That night, the Franconia Sisters called us and said that they were given a referral that was in our area and that they had set up an appointment with him that night for us.  We, obviously, couldn't go, so they went in our stead.  And apparently he is a miracle, too!  He is so open to learning more about the gospel and was giving a heap of suggestions on how to be a better missionary (some of which were not terrible ideas).

Friday morning, my luck ran out and I started to feel sickly.  While Sister Hansen and I were both weeping and wailing on the couch and feeling sorry for ourselves, the Franconia Sisters showed up with a care package for us on their way to rake some leaves.  If I were well enough, I would have hopped in their car and made them take me with them.  I want to rake leaves!  I've decided that we're going to go "rake tracting" this week and walk around neighborhoods with a rake and offer to rake up people's yard whilst delivering a moving sermon as we are raking said yard.  Anyway, we sat inside and complained a bit, and then I just had this feeling that we needed to go to M*'s house (the miracle referral), so we buttoned up our coats and slipped on our boots and went our way.  When we knocked on his door, a lady answered and she said that M* was at work and wouldn't be home the rest of the night.  So, we left.  And while we were walking down the sidewalk to our car, M* showed up and told us that he was just returning from the grocery store and to please come inside. (He recognized our nametags.  We had never met him before.)  Anyway, we walk inside with him and I just looked at the lady and said, "Look who came home from work!"  She just smiled.  I smiled back.  Then we got to teaching him about The Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith, and he had a lot of great questions for us.  His favorite thing about the church is that we don't have a recited prayer, but that it's extremely personal to everyone.  He said that he would be at church this week and come to a Book of Mormon study class with us on Wednesday!  (Update: He didn't come to church. It's fine. I'm not bitter.) 

On Saturday, we went to Ward Coordination Meeting and then went home because we were still feeling all bleh.  Then we cancelled dinner with C* that night because there is no way that I could eat the seafood that she would inevitably prepare for us and not barf all over her kitchen.  When we called her and told her we were sick, she said that she would bring us some Ginger Ale for our tummies.  But then she said, "Wait - I can't get you any of that. You can't drink that."  And I went, "Um...yes,we can." And she just went, "No, you can't."  And so I went, "Yes...yes, I think we can." And then she said, "No, you can't! The Word of Wisdom, girl!  What's wrong with you??"  It was so funny.  I love C*.  Anyway, she ended up bringing us some Ginger Ale, and all was well.  

We had a good Sunday.  It was lovely.  

Au revoir!  

 

Sister Kleven

Nov 28 - Dec 4, 2017

Monday, December 4, 2017

Bunbury, Western Australia

SO!  This was a fantastic week!

Monday was Zone P-day; we got together and played soccer and ping pong.  Tuesday was District Meeting and exchanges with Bridgetown.  Wednesday we went to the temple (because Elder Codina had a recent convert who received his endowments), which was my first time in the Perth Temple.  We took a car from some Elders in the other district and drove up to Perth in the afternoon, went to the session, then I drove back, on the wrong side of the road, sitting in the wrong side of the car -- it was fun.

Elder Codina driving to Perth.

Driving into Perth

At the Perth Temple with Elder Codina's recent converts.

At the Perth Temple with Elder Codina.

Elder Kleven driving home to Bunbury.

Thursday and Friday we were desperately trying to get rid of all the Light the World cards.

Then Saturday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders.  I was with Elder Pryor, and we found someone who was interested in the church (who just happened to live in my area).  It turns out that Elder Codina and I met him before, but he just didn't remember me at all.  So, we'll drop by this Wednesday.  We also went to the park for one of the Zone Leader's investigator's party; they have a ton of little kids, and we had a water balloon fight with them -- it was fun.

This Sunday was really good.  We had one investigator at Sacrament Meeting, and not only that, but Brother G* was there. (He has been in Perth for the past two months because his wife has had some tumors removed.)  He came up to Elder Codina and me and said that he wanted us to come over for Family Home Evening in two weeks, and he said that he'll invite a referral family as well!  YES!  This is something that we needed!  He gave us the referral about two months ago, and we've been trying to work with them, but they aren't progressing too well; hopefully, this FHE will help the investigating family have a greater desire to make and keep commitments.  Elder Codina and I also went around and said goodbye to the E* family because Elder Codina only has one week left before he goes up to Perth, then onto his homeland of the Philippines.

 

Elder Codina saying goodbye to the E* family.

That's about it. Hope you're all doing well.

Elder Kleven

PS: Here's a sweet pic of me making Swedish pancakes (a Kleven family staple).