Jan 22 - 30, 2019

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Merriwa, Western Australia

This week-and-a-half was pretty good.

We had an exchage with the Padbury elders; I was with Elder Fielding in their area. Both of the elders in that companionship are pretty new to the mission, so we went to try and help them with their area and finding ideas.  But both of them are solid as; they are skux missionaries and they are onto it all!

Exchanges with Elder Fielding 

More exchanges with Elder Cheek and someone else in the back seat!

This week we had interviews with President Bennallack. It was good. He was busy as, so we did it over Zoom.  

This week was also Australia Day--Saturday was the holiday, so Monday was also included in the public holiday.. So, that's why our P-day was moved to Wednesday... it was pretty good. We did service up in a suburb called Two Rocks... It's about as far north as you can go without going country, maybe an hour north of Perth City, give or take.  But we did the service as a district, and it was pretty good.  I got to see a family who used to be in my first area.

Emailing from the library today as a trio!

Otherwise, we are still covering our whole ward as a trio; it's fun! We are working with some families that the sisters were teaching before they got transferred... So, things are starting to look up for us!  Hopefully, with the help of the Bishop, we can work closer with the Elders Quorum and Aaronic Priesthood Quorums to unite more with the members and give them more of a desire to share the gospel!

Elder Kleven

Tell the World I'm Coming Home!

Monday, January 21, 2019

Reston, Virginia

This is it. Allow me to tell you about my last two weeks on the mission. 

There was a deliciously exciting snowstorm last weekend that resulted in our cars being grounded for 2 1/2 days. I thought I was going to go crazy because 1) It was freezing outside; and 2) I don't know how to handle myself when it's freezing outside. I survived, though! When we finally were able to use our cars again, Sister Perschon and I went to clear our car off so we could drive safely without any potential hazards obscuring the driver's vision. As we were walking outside, I looked out into the clear, wintry scenery and said, "Wow! I love the snow! This is beau--" and then *BOOM*. I was sprawled out on the ground and had, apparently, discovered what black ice was. As I laid helplessly on the pavement, a nice man came to my aid. How nice and embarrassing. It wasn't until later that I realized that I had somehow managed to slam my knee against some solid object (the ground?), and I then had a sizeable bruise and lump there. After some tears and Sister Perschon refusing to push me in a wheelchair, I'm recovering quite nicely. The Lord doth bless. Sister Perschon does take pity on me every now and then and will carry me through treacherous snow mounds like a champ. 

Kleven & Perschon in the snow

Sister Perschon and I had the most delicious sweet potato fries that I am depressed I only discovered now.

I also went on my last exchange. It was fun! Sister Wood and I were supposed to teach J* (one of my friends from the Wolf Trap ward), but he was stuck at work. I got to talk to him on the phone, though. Pleasant fellow. It was a bittersweet thing having my last exchange! Although, the heater broke that night, and so we bundled up for bed before maintenance could come the next day. When we woke up, it was 54 degrees in that little apartment. I could feel my body slowly start to go numb and waited for the moment that my nose would fall off. But then my hero, E*, came and fixed the heater for us. Nice guy. 

Last Exchange

We also had my last District Council. Another bitter sweet experience! I was asked to give a training right before, so I decided to train about Hope. Elder Bennett talked a lot about it when he came to visit the mission. He specifically pointed out a part in Preach My Gospel. It says, "[Hope] is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance." This specific sentence is what I focused on and how we can exemplify hope as missionaries. I had to bear one last testimony to my district, and I didn't cry! I am successful! We also took a "dying picture" because another Elder and I are going home in two days. You may view the attached images.

Oh! I wore pants for the first time as a Sister Missionary. It was weird. 

We went to NARMF (New and Returning Member Fireside) last night, and it was, again, the most magical experience. We almost weren't able to go, though. You see, we're only allowed to go if we bring someone we're teaching, a less-active member, or a recent convert. We had been trying to get someone to come with us all day and as we were driving around after dinner, we called Ebony again (this was probably the 6th time we tried calling her about it. I would be worried about being annoying, but this was a matter of great importance), and she finally answered and said she could come!! Miracle! I saw Grecia there, and she said she has been doing awesome! I miss that lady. It was a great night, and as I was sitting there, I realized that this was the last time I would be there. Let's be honest, people. That thought hit my emotional button. I just love the spirit of it all. Isn't being a missionary wonderful? 

So, that's it. I am so happy for the time I was given to serve in northern Virginia and the wonderful people that I was able to meet. The Lord knows us and He knows that I truly needed to be here at this time. 

Love,

Sister Kleven 

January 15 - 21, 2019

Monday, January 21, 2019

Merriwa, Western Australia

This has been a really good and busy week. We had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) on Friday, and we had a guest speaker, Brother Donaldson from the Missionary Department. It was cool! He gave us some new ways to teach and find. So, we are no longer going to tract, and when we teach, we try to keep the lessons like 20 minutes and meet heaps of times. Apparently, that really helps speed up their progression. 

We just found this new Aboriginal family to teach. They have a lot of potential.

Otherwise, I'm in a trio with Elder Hampel!!! Yeah! His comp has officially gone home... Sad, we tried to help him adjust to the mission as much as we could, but he still didn't seem to want to be here... Will send pics next week... 

Elder Kleven

January 8 - 14, 2019

Monday, January 14, 2019

Merriwa, Western Australia

This was a slow and fast week. We had two exchanges: One with the Alkimos elders--I waz with Elder Tilivarua from Fiji; he is awesome, and a crack up! And the other exchange was with Elder Ti'ikana from Kiribati. He actually used to stay with Elder Mortenson and me in our flat. It was good to see him again. And he was keen to see the area again and to see a few familiar faces.

Kleven & Ti'ikana

Lately, we've been working with a less-active member.  It's weird; this guy doesn't believe in Joseph Smith, but he does believe in the Book of Mormon. So, we have had some long discussions with him, but he is looking up anti-Mormon stuff and doesn't want to find the answers. So, we probably won't see him again until he starts to show that he is keen to actually accept and progress in the gospel. 

Otherwise, not too much for this week.

Elder Kleven

PS: Forgot to take a pic of Elder Tilivarua and me... 

The Best 18 Months

Monday, January 7, 2019

Reston, Virginia

Caplin, Kleven, & Perschon

Okay. I know I haven't written a weekly in a few weeks, but I've just been oh, so busy. 

Christmas has come and gone *sheds a tear*. I'm still going through the grieving process. 

Mission Christmas Dinner with the Nielsons & the Cooks

The best thing happened the other day. We were at the church waiting for the elders to show up for our district party (which was super weird, by the way) and Sister Perschon and I were roaming the hallways. She said "Hey! Looks at this!" And lifted the cover to the fire alarm and was going to pretend to pull it. Well, she didn't know that the alarm would go off when she removed the cover. It did. And I freaked out. I just yelled "OH NO!!" And took off running down the hall in the opposite direction. I don't know why I did this, but I did. She started chasing me and said "Should we call 911??" And I didnt want to call them but I didn't know what to do so I stopped and ran back to the alarm to see if I could break it somehow to make the alarm stop. I just slammed the cover closed and started hitting it over and over. Well, it actually worked! The annoying alarm stopped! I thought it was the funniest thing in the whole world. Mostly because of all the adrenaline I had. We waited all night for the firefighters to come pulling up, but they never did. I will never forget that night. 

...Okay, so it may not be that funny, but I still think it's hilarious. 

The district party was fun. It was last P-day because we weren't supposed to be out on New Year's Eve. So, instead of locking us in our apartments, we were locked in the church. We played sports and musical chairs. It was thrilling. Mostly because I got to wear pants, and I am exceptionally talented at all competitive things. 

Happy New Year!

NYD with the District

Sister Perschon said "You've formed into a beautiful ginger of God" this week. That was nice. 

Oh! I hit my 18 month mark this week, so Sister Perschon and I had to celebrate. We went to Taco Bell. 

Taco Bell celebration!

Also, attached is a picture of me with the delightful Cutler clan. They took us to lunch one day, and it was so fun to see them again! I sure do love those people. 

The Cutler Clan

Anyway, everything is going great! I can't believe how fast time is going. I come home in two weeks. I've tried not to talk about it but I realized that I have to accept the inevitable - which is that I have to pack. But I still have a long time here, and I intend to make the most of it. We are teaching some really cool people, and a recent convert here was just given the priesthood. I love being able to see the work progress and it's such a huge blessing for me to be a part of it. 

Love you all!

Sister Kleven 

January 1 - 7, 2019

Monday, January 7, 2019

Merriwa, Western Australia

G'day, G'day!!

This was a good week. It wasn't much; we did heaps of finding.  Just trying to smash out the finding! We haven't found anyone to teach for a little bit, and we need some new people in the teaching pool. We have a strong potential, and all we need is to set a return appointment for them to be considered as a new person we are teaching.

In other news, we have been really trying to work with the zone and help them to get all the numbers for correlation on the Area Book Planner app on the phones...  So, that's something that we've been trying.

Umm... what else... Sunday had a miracle... we were out finding and when we were walking back, there was this less-active member that came and stopped us in the road. We had previously tried to visit them a couple of times, and they just invited us over for dinner that night..  It was AWESOME!!  Otherwise, not much else happened this week... OH! we went to transfers and we picked up Elder Hampel and his new companion because they are in our ward, too!! The sisters have been transferred out, and now Elder Hampel and Elder Orbeck area whitewashing the area.  (Elder Kleven said whitewashing means changing an area from elders to sisters or vice-versa.) 

Oh yeah, we also had a visit from the JWs, and, of course, I got a pic with them:

I also found a friend while tracting:

Otherwise, nothing much else. 

Elder Kleven

Dec 28 - 31, 2018

Monday, December 31, 2018

Merriwa, Western Australia

This was a pretty good week. It hasn't been very long since we last emailed because of Temple P-day. 

So, real quick, we had an exchange with the Joondalup Elders -- I was with Elder Boaza, for the seventh transfer in a row... Every transfer we have had an exchange for the last seven transfers... It's been heaps of fun!

We also had a meeting for all the new zone leaders. This meeting lasted four hours; it was a bit long.

I also learned about the Australian Robin Hood, "Ned Kelly." He was basically Robin Hood who had an old-fashioned helmet on. He's pretty cool. Heaps of people have statues of him as their mailboxes. 

Here is a random cat we found while tracting. And a Ned Kelly statue. 

Elder Kleven

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

December 25, 2018 - Christmas Day

Merriwa, Western Australia - Reston, Virginia

Salt Lake City, Utah - Las Vegas, Nevada

Christmas Day brought the best gift of all - Skyping with our missionaries! 

On Christmas Eve in the USA, we talked to Elder Kleven because it was Christmas morning in Merriwa, Western Australia. He is doing well, looking tanned, and enjoying everything about being a missionary! After we Skyped, he and his new companion, Elder Cheek, were going to spend the day in service projects and appointments with members for brekkie, lunch, and dinner. His month was spent lighting the world through Christmas Caroling all around Perth and in administrative tasks and training (a part of the mission you don't think much about before you're there!). He has seven months left, and he's determined to make the most of each one of them.

On Christmas Day, we talked to Sister Kleven, who is in her last area - Reston, Virginia, with a new companion, Sister Perschon. She's preparing to come home and we spent a little bit of time coordinating a few of those things, but she's still got her head in the game and is soaking up every last bit of the mission experience and of the opportunity to focus on representing Christ to the people in northern Virginia for as long as she can. She has loved being in leadership as a Sister Training Leader (equivalent of a Zone Leader), meeting with and helping other sister missionaries, and training at various meetings when needed. She's starting to check things off of the "last time I do this" list, such as attending her last Zone Conference, experiencing her last transfer, meeting her last companion, and so on. It's a bittersweet time, for sure. 

Dec 18 - 27, 2018

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Merriwa, Western Australia

This was an awesome week!!!

We had Christmas, and Skyping... 

Christmas Skype with our favorite Elder!

This week, we also had two zone service projects. Now ,this has been a massive pain because President Bennallack wanted each of the zones to have a zone-wide service for Christmas. So, we set ours up long before the month of December. And two weeks before Christmas Day, we got a call from the Dianella Zone Leaders saying that they didn't have a service project for Christmas, so President said they could take ours and we would set up another one, which was available, in our zone. That was easy enough, but helping the missionaries in both North Coast and Dianella Zones understand what was going on was the pain. But, it all worked out in the end. We ended up helping a Catholic College, which was feeding the homeless and those who were alone on Christmas. It was pretty cool! We helped them set up and take down. We would have liked to help them actually serve, but everyone was Skyping then. 

I now have a new companion, Elder Cheek. He is from England and is crack up! He is one of the few who have seen Ace Ventura.

Elder Kleven & Elder Cheek (new comp from England)

Perth Temple on a sunny summer day at the end of December!

Not much else otherwise. Also, we went to the temple today. 

Elder Kleven

Why Can't Every Day Be Like Christmas?

Monday, December 17, 2018

Reston, Virginia

Delightful week, everyone! Can you believe that Christmas is only next week?  I can't! 

Saying goodbye to Sister Bagley

Sister Bagley feeling a little bit trunky!

It's slightly warmer today, so that's a bummer.  I mean, I love not shivering to death on people's doorsteps, but this time of year, people expect it to be freezing cold.  I did not expect 50-degree weather!  But it's fine.  I've been assured that it will, in fact, get colder.  All I'm doing is dreaming of a white Christmas! 

Sister Perschon & I delivering mail (gifts) to the missionaries in our area. We are Santa.

Sister Perschon (my new comp in Reston) and I been having a great time teaching people and helping lots of people understand the gospel.  I forgot how much I love family wards and teaching people as a family.  I also don't mind having a nice, home-cooked meal with a big family on Sunday nights.  It just has a good feel to it, ya know? 

Sister Perschon & I sharing the gospel with everyone in a community book box.

To help spread the Christmas cheer, we tried to go to downtown Reston and hand out free hot chocolate (with Light the World pass along cards), but everyone was cranky. (We had to steal a plastic chair from the church, but it only got a little bit wet from the rain, and we put it back where we found it.)  Man!  We were swore at a lot.  I kept trying to tell the people who I was with that "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"  They either didn't believe me or simply didn't want to, because we didn't actually sing. Anyway, after quite a few rejections and one acceptance, security came over with their giant yellow umbrella and told us to leave.  I gave him a cup of hot chocolate, and then we packed everything up and left.  We didn't let that deter us, though!  So, we went to a local grocery store and set up camp there.  After trying to be nice to people and spread the love of Christmas, some workers told us we needed to talk to the manager.  We talked with three different managers before getting the "go ahead".  As we were outside and trying to hand out hot chocolate, I saw one of the members from the Wolf Trap ward that tried to run away from us! I had to yell "Hey! I know you!!" for him to stop.  Apparently, he just really didn't want some cocoa.  But we had a nice chat.  I tell you this because he was probably the person we had the most success with.  Hopefully, people will remember that we stood outside in the cold to bring warmth (literally) into their lives so that when we knock on their door at some future time, they will say, "You were nice people - I'll listen to your message."  We did have fun, though!  I laughed a lot and got to know the Salvation Army bell-ringer.  

Lighting the World with Hot Chocolate & the Hermanas

I saw the new Mormon Message this week about Samuel the Lamanite.  It's called "Samuel and the Star" and I advise (or invite) you all to watch it.  It's adorable and truly does bring the Christmas spirit!!  

Love you all! 

Sister Kleven 

Dec 11 - 17, 2018

Monday, December 17, 2018

Merriwa, Western Australia

This has been a fantastic week...

This week, we had a rather ordinary week. We had exchanges with the Joondalup Elders, and I was with Elder Tumenbaatar. It was fun. He is from Mongolia.

Exchanges with Elder Tumenbaatar from Mongolia

This week we also had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference), and Elder Ian Ardern (from the Pacific Area Presidency) was there and gave us some BOMB training... it was awesome!! He helped us learn how we can better help our missionaries and be better leaders and missionaries ourselves.

MLC with Elder Ardern

This week, we have been playing tennis for morning sport, and it's been really fun. Elder Mortenson has been teaching me a thing or two, which has been pretty good.

SO, there have been some changes in the mission. A few of the zone leaders have been dropped and new ones have been called.  My companion (Elder Mortenson) has been transferred into the Dianella Zone (where the zone leaders were dropped), and I will be getting a new companion here -- Elder Cheek from England. 

Just a quick thought I wanted to share with yous: As I've been reading through the Book of Mormon, I've realized how many times Christ is mentioned and How often we don't mention him in our every day lives... As we have been caroling in the shopping centers, others have come up to us and thanked us for bringing Christ back into Christmas... It's something that I 've been thinking of, and as I've tried to bring Christ into more of our everyday conversations, I've noticed an increase of the Spirit with me... I haven't really extended any invitations or challenges so far, but something I would invite yous to do is to include Christ more in your everyday conversations, try your best to keep him on your minds, and I promise you that you will feel an increase of his Spirit and feel more of the true meaning of Christmas this time of year.

Otherwise, not much else to report on...

Elder Kleven

PS: Photos from Christmas Zone Conference