Kennadi's 11th Birthday!

Hola hola hola mama!!!

Como esta?? This week sure went by fast!! Im so glad Ken was able to play softball last week. Seriously Im grinning ear to ear right now. My sister rocks!! (and the rest of my family :)) I am seriously so grateful for Primary Childrens Hospital. They are taking such good care of Kennadi and you guys and it means the world to me knowing that they are treating you all like family. Please tell the doctors and nurses thank you for me! It brings me a lot of comfort knowing they are doing everything they can for Kennadi. Im so glad she had a fun birthday! It sounds way fun to me :) Cant believe she´s 11 years old. Is that movie the one about the dogs who can talk and stuff? The one we all wanted to see? hahaha. buy it. por favor. I´ve been wondering about the fire in Pine Valley! I was going to ask you and dad about it. Im glad its settling down though. Pine Valley is sooo beautiful. Is Miss sheila not teaching dance anymore?? Tell her I say hi next time you see her. I hope everything is going good for her! That sacrament meeting sounds remarkable in Pine Valley. It´s so true. We all have fires in our lives. One thing that I´ve come to know is that its how we face these fires. It´s all about our attitudes. We need to have faith and stay close to Heavenly Father and he will put out the fires. Fires are a way of cleansing. We are strengthened and can become cleaner. Thank you for updating me on PV! Is Ken able to take the sacrament? Do people come to our house to give it to her? If they dont, ask them to. The sacrament is the most important thing that we do at church. :) Everytime I partake of the sacrament I am filled with sooo much love and joy for my savior. He is my best friend! (and so are you!)

Question: am I not in the family photo of you guys with your shirts? hahahahah. I want to be... hahaha. That is so cool you guys are getting interviewed. I love my family! You guys are seriously the greatest humans on this planet. So loving and caring and have SO much faith!!!

Lake Powell!! So fun! Pres should go. That will be fun for her!! Sometimes I feel like im at Lake Powell because of the heat. I am as close as I can get to the sun right now. Everytime we go to meetings the Elders always say that everytime they see me I get darker and darker hahah. Is dad and Kenn going to San Bernadino as well? Or just you haha? That is so crazy that they play on the same field as the boys! That will be interesting for you guys I feel like! You are so used to baseball being at that ball park. I love San Bernadino trips. Brings back good memories. Crazy.. last year Jake Akins returned home from his mission and we saw him there for the first time! This last year went by so fast!

I GOT BOTH OF THE PACKAGES!!! GRACIAS GRACIAS GRACIAS!! I was soo excited! My companion and I were at our district meeting and one of the Elders said I had received a package. Boy was I stoked. When I got the package you could tell people opened it up but I feel like everything that you sent was in there. I took a picture to show you what made it! But seriously thank you sooo much. The blessings from Elder Holland and your letters meant the world to me and made me feel good! And the #kickitkdog shirts are so comfy. And cliff bars. Mom you know me so well. I love cliff bars. There aren´t any here and so when I saw those I was so happy hahahah. 

Okay so this week was great! It was filled with contacting all of the members and menos activos in our barrio. My companion and I worked really hard! hahha our bodies are so sore from walking everywhere, but its so great! Im so grateful for a body to take me to all the places I need to go! Our area is pretty big and we had a 7 page list so we were super busy every hour of the day and Im so happy about that. Days are so much better when we have a purpose when we work. 

So funny story. After a great lesson, our investigator offered us some water. She gave my comp and I a pitcher filled with water and cups and walked back into the kitchen. So this investigator has a dog and my companion was petting it. I poured some water in the cup but spilled a little bit on the floor. I needed a rag so I asked my companion (while doing hand signals as well) Como se dice esta? She thought I was asking how do you say petting the dog? So she told me. So I went to our investigator and asked Tiene un "pet the dog" (en español) and they both started to crack up. I was so confused until my companion finally told me what I had said. It was her fault ;) hahaha nahh but it was super funny. They she told me how to say "do you have a rag". Anyways. It was super hilarious. One of those "had to be there moments". 

Cool story: (sorry this email is so long) My companion and I were contacting on the streets and there was a lady that I knew we needed to talk to. So we stopped her and offered her one of the pamphlets we give out and she told us that right before, she was on the bus and prayed to our Heavenly Father asking what is the truth! What is her purpose! WHAT! Goose bumps ALL OVER. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth!!!! Heavenly Father is so good. He places certain people in our lives for a reason. Its kind of sad though because we asked if we could come visit her and teach her more but she didnt want to give us her address. So hopefully she reads the pamphlet and feels something! And I hope we see her again in Caucel. 

Things are going good here in Caucel! Im doing great! Im so grateful to be here right now. You all know that, but seriously. So happy to be here. God is good. Im so grateful to be doing His work here on earth. It´s hard but very rewarding. Something that I always think of 24 hours a day is if what Im doing right now is something Jesus Christ would be doing. Am I using my time wisely? Im a representative of Jesus Christ so I need to do my best to make sure Im doing everything I can do to represent Him correctly. It helps me be more obedient and feel closer to Heavenly Father. I challenge you and whoever reads this to always ask yourself if you´re using your time wisely. For example, visiting grandparents, spending time with family, serving people who are in need. We have been blessed with so much and we should help others and serve others every single day. Thats what Christ would do. I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH. I hope you and the rest of the fam has a fantastic week. You guys are the best. Talk to you next week!!! 

Love, Hermana Gates

#kickitkdog

1) YAY! SUPER STOKED I GOT MY PACKAGE! GRACIAS!!

2 & 3) Whenever we visit this one family in our ward they ALWAYS make us limonada. Its sooo good. haha. 

4) Representing the toughest girl I know!!!

=

All-Stars Week!

MOM!

Wow, sounds like a lot is going on at home!! So glad you are all doing good! This week flew by! First off.... KENNADI. Happy Birthday on the 13th!! I love you so much and I hope you have a great birthday!! I LOVED the pictures you sent me! The family pictures with you all wearing the tshirts are soo cute. I showed my companion and she loved them. Thanks for sending me those! Ahhh Hunucma. Hahaha... so I like being in Caucel where theres no trees. Because when there´s no trees there´s no mosquitos. Ya know what I mean? haha. It was a really great experience traveling to the pueblo and teaching with a different companion because I learned a lot! I´m so grateful! When we got there it started to pour so the rain washed off my repellent and I got eated alive by mosquitos. It wasn´t very fun.. ahh. But now they dont itch so im good! At times I feel like im in Lake Powell! haha. Question: When is the gates family going to Lake Powell? Meghan Brindley has not found me yet. I´ve actually been in Centro every day this week for meetings and I check the offices each time to see if any packages have arrived and I haven´t recieved anything yet.. So i dont know.. How long will she be in Merida? Do you know what areas she will be in? We are about 30 minutes away from the mission office. Yeah the mission office is right in Centro. And no, no sign of the package you sent me 3 weeks ago.

Okay So I talked to Elder Tingy and he said that this notary signature was for you to take over my account? Why dont I just give you my password to my account and you can access the MACU account on your iphone and transfer my money from that? It would be so much easier I feel like. So I can still own it and we wont have to go through this process haha. Tell Lonne and Nancy thank you for the money!! That is so nice of them!

Hermana Terry has been serving for 6 1/2 months, I believe. 

I dont really get all of the counts that you talk about with Kennadi but it sounds like they are good!! Im glad!! I hope and pray that she continues to get better. That is seriously so awesome that she got to play softball. Im sooo happy! She is such a fighter and the strongest girl I know, thats for sure. We live in the best place in the world. The community is seriously so amazing. We are all just one big happy family!

So this week we had meetings on Thursday and Friday in Brisas. This meeting was about the 8 principles and we did TONS of practices.. hmm. my favorite... hahahaha not... BUT I learned so much from the other missionaries and presidente! Im so grateful for each one of them. We were out of our areas all those two days so we didn´t get to teach people in Caucel which I was really bummed about. I dont like meetings that much. I just want to work hahah.. Esta bien though! 

Before I forget... MOM. So the other day my companion brought up POPs in Costa Rica!! Remember Pops?? The ice cream shops? Ahh man I told her when I travel to Costa Rica after the mission we are going to pops hahah.

With the lessons we did have this week, they went really great! We taught one of our progressing investigators about the Plan of Salvation and it was so great! She understood everything and is so interested in the gospel, it´s amazing. Ahhh. Seriously the moments we have with our investigators where the spirit is so strong are seriously the best. I cant help but feel comforted knowing that im supposed to be here right now in Merida. I LOVE THIS WORK. Its hard. but its oh so good. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! Thanks for all that you do for me!! Talk to you next week. :)

Love, Hermana Gates

#kickitkdog

Happy 4th of July!

HEY MOM!!!

Happy 4th of July! I totally forgot it was the 4th of July today. I guess that's what happens when you´re in a different country! When I got to the mission office today, one of the Elders was wearing an american flag tie and that's when I remembered haha. I hope you´re having a good forth! Caucel is nice area. Nicer than most. Its actually the hottest area in the mission becuase there are NO TREES. haha. Esta bien! Tomorrow I go on an exchange to a place called Hunucma. Is filled with trees so I'm excited haha. YAY finally shade. The members here make fun of me because I'm burnt. Dont worry I use sunscreen! So when we were in centro I saw tons of bus´ like the ones we rode in in Costa Rica and I thought of Meghan Brindley. I was looking for her but I didnt see her. Hopefully she finds the Mission office and drops it off there. And no sign of the package yet... Hopefully it makes it!! Thank you for sending all of those things to me! You're the best. And I havent heard anything about the pants for the sisters.. I dont know if I'd like them... I wouldn't really feel like a missionary, ya know? So we´ll see what president says! That's so fun that you guys will be spending the forth up north! I'm sure you guys will make many memories!!! It sounds like everyone is doing good! How are you doing with everything?? I continue to pray for you and each person in our family every day!! 

Life in the mission field is great! On Wednesday we met the new mission president of Merida! It was sad to say goodbye to Presidente Garcia and Hermana Garcia but I'm excited for these new ones. They are so nice! Presidente Ruiz has been the translator for the apostles and prophets whenever they come to Mexico so thats cool! He's super awesome and so is his wife! 

I met a sister missionary here is also from St. George!! Ahh tender mercy! Her name is Katelyn Terry. She is cousins to Ivy Wittwer & Kyleigh Wittwer so thats super cool! She´s way nice. 

Past couple days I've slept on the tile floor because it gets so hot here and the hammock has been super uncomfortable lately. Its fun hahaha. So listen... the other day my comp and I were walking in the streets and I heard that one whistling song by the Scorpions!! haha made me think of you guys and uncle Todd! Everytime we hear songs that we know we plug our ears because it is so tempting to sing to them haha. So funny though!

On Saturday my comp and I went to clean the church with the bishop and members. As we were finishing up cleaning there was this lady who walked in and wanted to talk to us! You could tell she was stressed out and overwhelmed so we sat her down and listened to her and told her about the gospel! It was so awesome! It was amazing to bear her my testimony of the atonement. She is golden. We are going to continue to teach her. The Lord truly does send people our way when we are keeping his commandments and staying diligent everyday!! 

Ahhhhh.. you have no idea how much I love this gospel. I LOVE IT. I have blisters all of my feet, mosquito bites all over my legs, sun burned head to toe but I am SO HAPPY!  I truly believe that is because I have the opportunity to be a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ. There´s no better calling for me right now! Seriously I love you so much mom!!! Thank you for everything you do for me and the family. You are so strong. I hope you have a safe 4th of July. It can be kind of crazy in Park city! haha.... Have a great week!!

Love, Hermana Gates

#kickitkdog

1) This is Hermana Terry. She is from St. George!

2) Jesus (member) me and my companion!

3) Mayan book of mormon!! Im learning some mayan here so that's cool!

4) Streets of centro!! Merida is seriously SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! 

6)......and I officially completed 2 months. WHAT?!!! Time is flying.

Wasabi

Hey Mama!!!

So good to hear from you! So to answer your questions! 1) We have tables and two chairs for studying and whatnot. We also use those for breakfast. 2) Ummm I mean our bathroom is a lot nicer than some that are here in Merida. Its really small but Its a bathroom so im grateful! Our Kitchen is nice. We only have a microwave, fridge and little portable stove. 3) For breakfast we just have cereal and fruit! There´s not a whole lot of time to cook anything. Im loving froot loops hahah. 4) So for food. We eat after we exercise in the morning which is between 7-8. At 2 we eat with members and thats pretty much it hahah. When we get home for planning at 9 Ill have some fruit. But thats all as far as food goes. Pretty simple!

Yeah, I met up with Elder Tingy. Hopefully I signed everything correctly! My talk during the zone conference went really well! I was definitely the newby! I wasn´t very scared. Presidente came up to me after saying I speak like an apostle hahaha. I might have been too direct with my thoughts hahaha. Yeah it was all in spanish. I saw Hermana Wolfgramm at the conference which was sooo nice. I love her!! She is seriously the best and shes doing so great in her area! Im so happy for her.

The mosquitos are the worst! Ill send you a picture of my legs. They are covered with mosquito bites! My companion said that its only bad with the rainy season. So when it gets even hotter there will be less mosquitos hahah. Yes.. Its gonna get a whole lot hotter! I haven´t heard anything about the package yet.. so hopefully it gets here soon! 

Every new person I meet here asks if im related to Bill Gates. HAHA. NOPE!! I tell them he´s my uncle... Our investigators are seriously the best! They are so much fun! I love having lessons with them because they are all super interested in what we are teaching them and are liking it a lot. Theres no better than feeling than helping them learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Its fun to see the change in their lives! I love them all a lot.

People stare at me here all the time. Im the only blonder hair blue eyed girl and it sometimes makes me feel a little uncomfortable hahahah. And whenever we have a lesson we ask the investigator who they would like to say the prayer and they always choose me... I think they want to see if I can actually speak their language. ha. ha. ha. JK

I LOVE MERIDA SO MUCH!! Im meeting so many incredible people and they are seriously the best. I love sharing what I know to be true. This gospel has shaped me into the person I am today. Without.. I dont know where I´d be! Its brought me so much happiness and joy, peace and comfort. Im so crazy blessed. Well I love you and I hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for everything Mom!!!!

Love, Hermana Gates

#kickitkdog

1) my favorite thing that ive eaten here so far.. the sushi.. get this. the sushi restraunt is called "wasabi"

2) the sunsets are the best!

3) I hate mosquitos. ahhhh.