Third letter from Hope

Yesterday we received the third letter from Sister Kenfield, She is doing very well at the MTC, The Tagalog language is challenging for her, but she says it is still coming slowly but surely. She says that she almost has the purpose down in Tagalog. And then she is going to start on the baptism invitation. So things are coming along, but please pray for her. Remember when I wrote about Maria, their "investigator", well she says this in her letter: And now the women that played Maria is my morning teacher, her real name is Sister Webre and she is from Brigham City, it's kinda weird that she is teaching us in ENGLISH. Hope also says: I think that I am growing spiritually. She also mentioned that one of her sister room-mates is from Cedar City, they never knew each other until they got to the MTC, Just goes to prove it's a small world. Hope also states in her letter: Bedtime is no problem at all thankfully! Yea we are late almost everyday because one of her room-mates is never ready in time. I am still pretty speedy:)It snowed Tues-Thurs. It was no fun at all! This mission is a big deal because its awesome and some people will never be able to experience the awesomeness. She says during her gym time she plays 4-Square, she loves that game. She also mentioned that it would be nice to hear from some of her young women. So Enoch 3rd Girls, drop her a line or two at www.dearelder.com Her name is Sister marina Hope Kenfield, her mission code is PHI-LOAG est. departure date is May 21, 2013, the web-site is pretty much self explanitory. just make sure you use the drop box and click on Provo-MTC. She says her name is said like this in Tagalog-- Pag-asa She also mentioned that she saw a friend from school 3 times so far, and that was nice. And the rest of her letter was more of answering some of my questions that I had, and I don't want to bore you with that info. But anyway, our Precious Girl is doing what she is supposed to be doing. She seems so happy and cheerful. I will share this part of her letter, it was at the last: So I was just studying language and I heard the sweetest sound, one of the sisters was practicing her violin and she was playing Nearer My God To Thee. Coincidence? I think not!

Second letter from Hope

I received Hope's second letter yesterday! She started out her letter by saying "Her cup is half full", I was so happy to hear that, we had, had a discussion before she left about how some people view the world with their cups half empty, those are usually the people that complain about everything, and then we talked about the people that see life with their glasses half full, and I discussed with her, which one she would be while on her mission, and of course she replied "half full", and she is totally living up to that. She also mentioned in her letter that she really enjoys the food at the MTC, I am so glad, because she is such a picky eater. She said that at mealtimes, her zone sits by the window, and she really enjoys that, but if you know Hope, she loves the outdoors and being outside. She also said in her letter: Learning the Tagalog language is hard, but I have this comforting feeling that it will all be ok. Also in her letter she wrote this: So today (4-16-2013) we did a session at the temple super duper early at 6:30 and I was freezing. It was so cold out there, so today when I got my package from Aunt Hilary I opened it up and there was a coat inside it :).(we didn't send her with a coat, because it wasn't on her packing list, and she won't need one for the Philippines. But didn't realize that Spring was not on it's way yet, and Winter is still lingering in Provo.) Last night all 6 of us stayed up late telling stories, it was so fun and totally worth it, cause today when we got back from the temple and after we studied, all of us took a two hour nap and slept right through lunch. Then when we woke up we went and got sack lunches then came back to our room and had a picnic, then went to do laundry. Laundry was nuts! There were so many machines and so many missionaries but I got all my laundry done. She mentioned that her companion is sick and her district leader has strep, so she wanted me to send her some Emergen-C, What is funny about that, the day before I got this letter, I put some Emergen-C in her package Mike and I sent. Hope also said in her letter: She loves getting letters, Spread the word about dearelder.com, have Cierra announce it in YW cause I would love to hear from my girls. Ha I showed my room-mates the pics of Courtney (her stuffed animal pig), and they were laughing so hard. On the 17th, she went to a devotional and Richard G. Scott came to the MTC and spoke, she says: It was wonderful the choir sang Nearer My God to Thee, (her favorite), so I knew it would be a good one! He spoke about faith in the gift of tongues and faith in prayer. He also kept commenting on how many sisters we have here and how we will be blessed throughout our lives for choosing to serve the Lord. And I learned what an Apostolic blessing is because that is what we got here last night. So everyone, Our girl is doing good. She is learning, and please pray for her to grasp the Tagalog language, I know that she is in need of that right now.

First Letter from Hope

I received the first letter from Hope today! Yay!! She is doing wonderful, she shares a room with 5 other Sister's, and she has a companion (Kasama) named Sister Crook, and since they met, they haven't been apart. And they get along very well. She mentioned that the spirit is so strong at the MTC, and that she just loves the feeling there. She says that she is in Tagalog class for 7 hours a day, and her instructor only speaks to them in Tagalog, she has found this challenging. But she loves every minute of it. When she first got to the MTC, She was given her Tagalog books, they weigh 15 pounds, so she gets to lug those around for the next 5 weeks, and I think she even takes them to the Philippines with her. She says that the food is good, and that she gets so hungry. Bedtime isn't hard for her, but getting up in the morning is. She seems to be loving every minute of her new journey, I am so glad! Also she wanted me to tell everyone that if you use dearelder.com to write her a letter feel free to do so. Just go to www.dearelder.com AND basically it will walk you through what you need to do. Her name is Sister Marina Hope Kenfield Mission:PHI-LAOG Departure date from MTC MAY 21, 2013-----You will need this information to send her your letter, I tried it out, and it is a fun website.IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS call me! She also mentioned that she saw a Sister from our ward, and she was so glad to see her. During class they have a teacher playing the part of an investigator, and this is what she wrote int her letter: Me and my Kasama just got back from teaching our investigator for the second time. It went better than yesterday! We understand her better and we are going to talk to her again on Monday. Lucky for us she is just a teacher playing the part because her "character" is Maria a women who has 4 kids and just lost her husband and you can just feel the spirit and the feeling that her eternal salvation is on the line. Our Precious girl is learning the language and feels the spirit, and taking her hew calling seriously. YES! Well folks, that's about it. I will post more letters as they come. And once again thanks for following this blog, I really appreciate it.

Just Thinking

Good Morning, It is Saturday April 13, 2013, and I am just thinking about Hope, and what she is doing right now, I look back at the past few months, and I realize how time has just flown by. RE-CAP-- January 4, She announces that she is going to go on a mission, then she meets with the Bishop, gets all of her dental and doctor visits out of the way, meets with Bishop again, he signs off on her paperwork, she meets with the Stake President on February 6, She receives her call on February 21, she has her Farewell on March 31,And reported to the MTC on April 10th. Now that was one quick preparation. she only had six weeks from the time she received her mission call to reporting to MTC. As I look back at the preparations, I truly cannot believe that we got everything on her checklist! We were so busy getting things in order, I felt that I was going on the mission with her. So on Tuesday, it hits me, this mission is the first thing that I Can't walk her through, I Can't hold her hand, I Can't lift up her spirits when she is feeling down, I Can't be there when she needs me, this is the first thing in her life that she truly has to go and do on her own. And I tell you what, handing her completely over to Heavenly Father is a leap of Faith, because I know that he Will be there to walk her through things, he Will be there to hold her hand, And He Will be there to lift up her spirits when she is feeling down. And he Will always be there when she needs something. Now that gives me comfort to know the the almighty is taking care of my precious girl. I was just thinking about that, and I thought that I would share it.

WEBSITE COUNTDOWN CLOCK

Well she is off!!!

Well she is off!

     Today was Hope's drop off day at the Missionary training Center! Her drop off time was 1:00 p.m., She is going to be such an amazing missionary, and I know I keep saying that but I truly believe that she will.

     The four pictures above are 1- My four little duck pups-- Faith, Scott, Hope and Cierra, 2- Is the traffic going into the MTC,(That traffic was crazy, insane!) 3- At the curb 4- She is walking away with her host, you can see her pulling along a purple suitcase and her host pulling the other. 

     When we arrived at the curb, between slot number 14-15, Her host opened the back door and said, what do we have today, a Sister or and Elder, we all pointed to Hope and said, "A Sister"! Then we popped the trunk, got out her luggage, and then we said our Goodbye's, it was bitter/sweet. My tears were of sadness for me, and happy for her. Then we watched her walk away to her new journey. Godspeed my daughter, Godspeed.

     Oh how I am going to miss that precious girl, but I know that she is on the Lord's errand, Who could think of a better way to serve the Lord? And I know that she will give 100% to her new calling. 

     What a special day it has been, we left Enoch at 9:05, arrived in Orem at the Golden Corral for lunch at 11:45 a.m., Faith and my Mom came to lunch, then my sister Claudette showed up and ate lunch with us, it was so nice. But I didn't have much of an appetite, but it was great to sit as a family one last time and visit. The Golden Corral had so many missionaries and families there, I was in aw of it, What a beautiful site, to see all of these different families, from all different walks of life, having one lunch meal with their loved one, before taking them to the MTC. Glad I got to see some of that today.

     Like I said earlier in this post, traffic at the MTC is nuts! Cars and people everywhere, I know that God has extra helpers on Wednesday's that we can't see, because it would be chaotic. But we got her dropped off.

     I know that the next 18 months for Hope will be such a great building block for her, I know that she will learn things about other people and about herself that she never thought she would learn. I know that when things become difficult that she will find it in herself to take a deep breath, think for a minute, say a prayer and get back on track.

     For those of you following this blog, I thank-you, I have no idea who is following it, but I am so glad that I can write down my thoughts and feelings here, I feel it is like a journal. I will be posting her letters here, so stay tuned. 

     That's all I have for now. See you in 18 months Sister Kenfield

     

It's Official

      It's Official:

Hope was set apart this evening as a full time missionary, by Brother Scott Jensen a member of our Stake presidency. What an awesome experience it was this evening!
For some reason my phone likes to take pictures with a yellow hue, need to fix that! 
So tomorrow Mike and I and the kids will drop 

Sister Marina Hope Kenfield

 off at the Provo MTC. I know that she is going to do such a great job out in the mission field.

3 Days to go...

3 Days to go!
As I sit here thinking that Hope will be entering the MTC in just 3 short days, I am at aw at the person that has evolved in our home, Hope has gone from a teenager, to a young lady, to a missionary!
Today between conferences they did a short program about the MTC in Provo, and I am so glad that I watched it, it gave me an idea of what will happen on Wednesday, when we say goodbye to our precious daughter, and sister for 18 months. Hope is going to be a great missionary.
There is so much in my heart today, it was just 1 short week ago that she gave her farewell in church, and let me tell you that this past week week has flown by. And to think in 1 week Hope will have been in the MTC for 4 days.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and I mentioned that this mission call is the first for a female in our families, no where in our family history have I a found a girl that served a mission, so this is a BIG DEAL, and she replied, "It is a Big Deal"
Also, during general conference yesterday, President Monson announced that a temple is going to be built in Cedar City, Utah! Happy Day! now we will have a temple in our back yard, well it will be 10 miles away, but heck, it's going to be right here at our fingertips. And then during conference my beautiful daughter Cierra looks at me and says, "Mom, I can get married in the Cedar City Temple", and that hit me like a ton of bricks, and I  answered " Yes You Can" ( hopefully that won't be for a while). The Lord is truly blessing us.
Well guys, thanks for reading. Will keep you posted.

This is what is on Hope's Cedar Chest: