The Visa has arrived!

Kyrie: "As of 9:17 pm on Friday night, I have been aware that I will no longer be graced with "ya'll", "sweetie", or church in English for the next year. I'M GOING TO BRAZIL!!! Biggest shock of my life. Sister Wegener has a little joke about always telling me president called. She usually would do it in the morning and I would laugh and shake my head because I knew it wasn't true. So when we got a call from president so late at night, it just seemed like any other phone call we get. He asked us how we were doing and then asked us if he could do anything for us. It was only after this that he had Sister Wegener put him on speaker phone. He then very mildly asked if we would mind being companions in a small area (I'm thinking we are going to open a new place)... for 9 hours together (I'm thinking, well that is strange)... on a plane to Brazil ...on Wednesday (...speechless...Yeah!). He told us our visas are in Salt Lake so nothing is for sure about Wednesday until they are in his hands. We still don't know what time we are leaving. I feel like I'm in limbo right now.

We are trying to say good-bye, while still being missionaries, but then we have to pack... It's kind of stressful. I'm happy, excited, nervous, sad, ecstatic, and every other emotion you can possible feel. We were telling the other sisters about the people we were working with and I got the biggest wave of emotion wash over me. I love the people here. I've loved getting to know them and pray over them and cry over them and worry over them. However, our time is up here. It's been wonderful. It gives me a little taste of what it's going to be like at the end of my mission. I'll be surprised that it's time to go because I won't be expecting it to be over. I'll hope that I did everything that I could while I was there. I'll miss the people I'll have come to know. Just goes to show you that you've got to love every minute of where you're at because pretty soon you'll be looking back and wishing you were there again. I'm excited to move on... It just came as a complete surprise. I better get my Portuguese going!

We went and got a blessing from a member in our ward yesterday. Don't worry Mom. I was blessed with protection.

I guess that's all that's really been on my mind the last few days. We went tracking one day and decided that we wanted to walk down the road a little further. We felt like we were in the middle of no where! It was so funny. We met some nice people, got to know some mosquitoes real well, and decided that this was something that would totally happen to us and we sat on some porch chairs on a wrap around porch with a man talking about the gospel. It's great."

She leaves tomorrow morning on a flight to Florida than off to Brazil:) We got to talk to her for only about 10 minutes but it was soooo good to hear her voice, she sounded great and happy:) She is going to call again tomorrow morning! You can still email her at kdangerfield@myldsmail.net she would be happy to hear from any of you. Also, once we find out her address I will post it:)

Sweet Home Alabama:)

Hello!

Sorry it has been a while but if you haven't heard, Kyrie got temporarily re-assigned to Alabama:) She said that it was good flight but they lost her luggage! She has to ride a bike everywhere she goes, she said that they have no sidewalks so they ride their bikes on the freeway!! Scary! She has the same companion as she did in the MTC, which is fun:)

Her new address is:

1809 - F Woodbrook Cir.
Alabaster, Al 35007

New letters:)

We have gotten a few letters from Kyrie since the last time I posted, but here is a little bit from them:

"It was funny when I realized something was going on with my skirts. I noticed they kept sticking to my knees and I thought that was just random. I also noticed my knees seemed dry as well. As I rubbed the spots on my knees, I realized it wasn't my skirts that were going crazy...I have developed callouses on my knees! I'm quite proud of them actually!" :)

She was challenged the first day to always pray in Portuguese and every letter says that it is coming a lot better! We always talk about how glad we are that she is happy and we couldn't be more proud of her!

okay... take two!:)

So I sent Kyrs a letter and she sent one back that had an address with a few different numbers ... I am still not sure how it worked but here it is:

Sister Kyrie Dangerfield
MTC Box #132
Bra-Pan 0117
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

She's Off!

Well she's off! She's been gone for a week now and we just got her first letter on Saturday. She gave her blog to me (Kellie!) while she's gone to give you updates and things she says in her letters.

Kyrie said she couldn't believe she was already in the MTC. She was the first of her companions there, she is in a trio. They are all going to the same mission! She says, "Watch out Porto Alegre!"
She says that letters are like gold there and they check the mail twice! So... here is her address!

MTC Mailbox #132
BRA-PAN 0125
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793

We love you Kyrie!:)

Life Insurance

It was brought to my attention last Sunday that I made an interesting metaphor about the gospel without realizing it. Here's what went down.

I was sharing my testimony and talking about how my friend's husband went door to door selling life insurance. In our conversation, she said that and I commented, "Oh, I could never do that!" She looked at me funny for a second and it was then that I realized that as a missionary, I was going to go door to door! We laughed about that for a moment and then I really started to think about it. The only way you could get me knocking on any person's door would be if I had 100% confidence in my product, I knew it worked, and I knew it could help them too.

I shared this and people laughed when I mentioned the knocking on doors part. It made me feel really good because I can never make good jokes in church! Afterward, I had friends and neighbors tell me they enjoyed my testimony. However, it wasn't until the end of the meetings that I understand why. Someone mentioned that they liked the way I had called the Gospel life insurance (and may I add Eternal Life Insurance).

I was struck dumb for a moment. It was NOT my intention to make this correlation BUT it made perfect sense. I'm going to go sell people life insurance. The thing is, it'll only work if they use it properly. Wow... I sounded kind of smart without realizing it!

Sometimes I think we learn more by sharing what we know and then examining what we said. I know it worked that way for me!

We're Off to See the Wizard!

A good friend once told me that perception is reality. I didn't believe it at first. Reality or real things are true and the truth consists of things as they were, are, and will be. I thought things are what they are and nothing can change that. But then I thought about the difference glasses make. Things could be blurry and out of focus and then wahla! you can see. It's what we are looking through that can skew what we are seeing.

What sparked these thoughts was my sister's play The Wizard of Oz. A quick overview will remind us that the Scarecrow wants brains, the Tin Man a heart, and the Lion courage. Each thinks that they haven't got what they want because there is no physical evidence of it. All the Scarecrow has is straw, the Tin Man is hollow, and the Lion gets scared of rabbits.

What they don't realize is that they each already have what they want. The Scarecrow can TALK for crying out loud! Of course he can think. And the Tin Man cares for Dorothy and starts crying when things go wrong ... that shows a compassionate heart. Then we have the Lion. The Cowardly Lion. I think that it's brave to admit when you're scared of something. He has enough courage to face the Wicked Witch of the West. I think he just had to believe in himself.

Then we have Dorothy. A girl who thinks that someplace else will be so much better than what she has. Before Glinda tells Dorothy to click her heals, she mentions that she had the way to go home all along. However, she had to learn first that her heart's desire was no farther than her own backyard. She had to see it through a different lens.

Not to mention the Wizard. Just because the people thought he was a wizard actually made him that way in their eyes.

I think perceptions shape us more than we know. Some good. Some bad. I'm a bigger believer in "perceptions are reality" now. Not that I don't think the truth is always there; we just have to see it with the right eyes.