Some wonderful snippets from Sister Tarr's latest emails. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did! There are some pretty great pictures too!

12 November 2013

Family!

Hi! Sorry I don't have a ton of time, so this one will be a little short, but I really wanted to send you those pictures.

And...I am gonna be kinda lame and probably not do the specific person thing b/c I think it will be faster if I do it this way. Sorry!

Colorado is actually so funny because it's been sunny lately! Apparantly the really cold/snowy/windy winter doesn't come until January or February, and the weather here is pretty fickle. So the middle of October was pretty chilly, but lately it has been quite sunny during the day which makes it hot, and then just a little cold at night. It is interesting to see all the leaves here though, because I am so used to evergreen trees and pine needles instead of leaves, hah.

I'm still feeling pretty healthy! I have a TON of candy and treats at our apt though so that's not good for my weight...but that's okay! :)

Oh and way to go for being there to help with the lesson! Who are the Elders in the ward again? How did the lesson go though I want to hear all about it! :)

I'm glad that the exercise bike works so nicely! Watch your foot really closely though. There's a lady in our ward who has the same thing that you did and she's had to have a couple surgeries. I'm not telling you that to scare you, I just want you to be safe!

Have fun with the Stake Choir! That sounds like a blast! Especially for the Christmas singing thing in Trafalgar square!

Haha Savannah you have no idea how slowly the time actually moves out here in the mission field. I mean, looking back it seems fast, but in the moment, not at all! I'm sure I will change my mind about that as my mission comes to a close, but for now that's how it feels. That's not a bad thing that each day feels long though, it's just interesting and not exactly what I'm used to.

Ooh, okay not gonna lie, I am a little, well a lot jealous that I can't go to the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special...but I hope you all have fun! And Sas, you should definitely take the sonic screwdriver!

Brother ------ is SOLID for his baptism on the 30th of November! :)

And ------ (who is 9) came to church with her dad this Sunday! They haven't been for like 4 years! So that was awesome, and it means that if she comes two more times then she can get baptized!
So those are some neat things that have happened. I love you all and thanks for your support and awesomeness! Keep it up! :)
Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Tarr :)

P.S. Here are the scriptures you should look up: (there's a bunch, sorry!) Alma 10:25; 12:14-15, 13:28, 14:7, Mormon 3, Matthew 19:23-26, 28 and 17:14-21. Have fun with those! :)

  4 November 2013

I love ya too! My week was good. I'll tell ya’ll about Halloween later, but the mission rule is to be inside by 6:00 p.m. so we are not out that night. I did get to carve my first pumpkin last P-day with the Elders though so that was fun! I think I forgot to take a picture, but I'll try to send one of it next week. But mine said CCSM on it which stands for: Colorado Colorado Springs Mission. People kept giving us a bunch of candy as well and Brittany sent me a package (which was awesome!) which had lots of candy AND Amandee sent me a package last week too with candy in it and a letter! So I am definitely NOT going hungry. The dinners we usually get are super yummy too and filling. I haven't gained weight yet! But I am also still on a bike, which helps a lot!

I love you and Heavenly Father loves you too. I have started a list of scriptures that I add to and they are scriptures that I can read when I am having a hard time on my mission. Maybe you could start one of your own! I feel like it has helped me a lot so far. And you know what? I have really come to find out that priesthood blessings can help a lot. I got one last week and it helped a lot! And isn't it wonderful that Dad is a worthy priesthood holder?

Daddy! That's a fun, new calling! I am really grateful to you for being such a great dad and a good example. I have come to realize how lucky I am that my whole family is active and have testimonies, so thank you for being a "goodly parent" (1 Nephi 1:1) and teaching me how to gain my own testimony. That's exciting to hear about Peter and Anna's baby! And kinda strange to know that the Stake President will be different soon. And that I'll be released by someone I have never met.

Momma! You are awesome! (I just wanted you to know that.) Oh man, that package from Brittany MADE MY WEEK! It was awesome! Fall here in Colorado is SO beautiful, and I bet it's really pretty in Cobham as well!

The book of Jacob is probably one of my favorite books! Isn't it awesome how bold he is?! I really need to work on that; I am pretty shy when I first meet people. Have fun teaching that in seminary.

It's not cheesy to say you think about me all the time. That makes me feel happy and loved! I think about you guys all the time too! And I look forward to P-day because I can email you all back! :) But I am trying to be better about focusing throughout the week and not look forward to Mondays TOO much.

I got one (priesthood blessing) on Friday because of some stuff happening and I got to reread it and study Alma 8 and it helped me SO much. Yesterday I woke up feeling really tired and overwhelmed and discouraged, but I felt much better after studying my blessing and the scriptures. Don't worry about me, I am doing well, there are just some days that are harder than others and yesterday was one of those days. Being a missionary is hard and takes a LOT of work and effort and is a huge responsibility so you are bound to have some "down" days. But almost every day has been good and I've felt really excited to be a missionary. So about the stuff that happened:

Okay here is some crazy news: One of my companions, Sister Clawson, hasn't been feeling well at all lately and so we stayed in on Wednesday and Thursday to let her rest and scheduled a doctor's appointment for last Friday morning. Well it turns out that she has mono (it flared up, she had had it before) and so we let the President's wife know, which is normal procedure. But then President Anderson called and sent her home! I guess there was a mono epidemic last year sometime; it's pretty contagious if you live with the person who has it, and so a bunch of sisters went home then. But she went home on Saturday. She can come back in a couple months when she is recovered, but it was so sudden and a shock! So now I am in a regular companionship with Sister Hendricks still as my trainer. But hopefully Sister Clawson will do alright; she was pretty disappointed to be sent home for the time being.

Isn't that crazy?! So Friday night before she left, all three of us got blessings to help us in the transition and just in general. I can't remember how long it's been since I have had a Priesthood blessing, besides the one Dad gave me right before I was set apart as a missionary. Anyway, that was basically my week! It was nuts! But it is all okay.

Oh on Thanksgiving I think Sister Hendricks and I are going to run a 5K with some people in the ward and see how fast we can go!

I love you ALL! You are awesome; keep up being great! :)

Love, your missionary,

<3 Sister Kaitlyn Tarr :)

P.S. For your scripture study this week, try picking a hymn and sing/read the words and study the scriptures at the bottom! It is cool to see how it explains the hymn and it can really help you. I did Hymn # 124: Be Still, My Soul this week and it was awesome!

 

28 October 2013

Hello family!
Our missionary work is going pretty good! Our ward hasn't had a baptism in a year, but we have one baptismal date that will hopefully happen! So that's exciting! :) And we are working with some others, so we will see how that goes. We don't have any new investigators, but we are working on it. ITL-ing (Inviting to learn) is not very effective in this area because a LOT of people already have their own church and are not interested in us or do not like Mormons very much at all. However, the people we are working with are ….

Bro. ------- wife has been a member for 33 years and his grandson just got back from his mission and encouraged him to take the missionary lessons which he has been doing with us! But apparently, him being open to the gospel like this is a miracle. -------- is 8 and -------- is 9. Their parents are less-active, so even though the kids want to go to church, they don't ever come because their parents don't go and they can't be baptized unless they actually come to church. SO hopefully they will start coming to church! That's kinda what's been happening! They are great people and it's so neat to teach them and watch/help them grow in the gospel and with their testimonies.

That was it! So have a great week!

Haha just kidding!

I am so glad you all had a wonderful time in Spain! It sounds like a blast! I would have loved to be there, but being a missionary has been great as well! This Sunday there was a little bit of extra time and a mom of a missionary went up and spoke for a few minutes and said that her daughter said that she doesn't know what she wants to do when she comes home because missionary work is the only important thing! (Which is true to an extent, but there are certainly other important things as well.) It was just interesting to hear that because missionary work is done so that we can "invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." (PMG pg. 1)
We are saving people's souls and that is a HUGE responsibility! But in companionship study the other day we talked about how Satan works really hard on missionaries because he knows our potential and how much "damage" we can do to his kingdom and he tries his hardest to stop us. And it's not just missionaries he works on, he works on all of you too! So when it seems hard to share the gospel with your friends, or you have doubts about whether you should talk about the gospel, I can testify that that is Satan trying to stop you from spreading the gospel. So, I guess just be aware of that, and know that you have the power to tell him to go away! All you have to do is pray, or sing a hymn in your mind or out loud or read the scriptures and you can send his influence away.

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box.

Also, I have been having a little bit of a hard time with knowing that what I say really comes from the Spirit, and I had a pretty cool experience on Saturday night. That was Trunk or Treat night and we didn't have a whole lot of success with finding new investigators, but quite a few less-active families came, so that was good! But anyway, we were talking to an active family and transitioned into a lesson and Sis. H. had one of the kids in the family choose a scripture and he chose Alma 42:15 which talks about the plan of mercy and stuff. But after a few minutes of my companions teaching I felt like I should bear my testimony of how Heavenly Father helps us with anything and everything that we need. I told the family about how biking in this area is really hard because of the abundance of hills. And that particular day, on Saturday, we went up a really, really big, hard, long, steep hill. Partway up the hill I wanted to quit so bad, but I prayed and asked for help and, even though it was difficult, I did make it up. Mom and dad and family: there is NO way that I could have made it up that hill without help from God. I felt hopeless and discouraged when I looked up and saw how long it was. But I made it because God cares about me and He wanted to help me even though it was just a silly problem of biking up a hill. Okay back to the miracle. So I related that story and bore my testimony and the father of the family thanked me for what I said and that he really needed to hear that because he had been struggling with that. He felt like his problems that he was having weren’t important enough to God for Him to care about them. That was a miracle. I just related a little story and it was exactly what the man needed to hear. So I can testify that we are guided by the Spirit a LOT and, Elder Bednar tells us, that most of the time we will not be aware that we are being led by the Spirit.

Funny moment:   

We were biking up another hill and there were two teenage boys riding their skateboards up and Sis. Hendricks said to them, "I'll give you a dollar if you make it up the hill before us." But she was kidding. Anyway, so we kept going up and I said, "I'll give myself a dollar if I make it up the hill." And I guess they thought that was funny, so now it's kind of a running joke in our companionship. :)

I'm sorry that the beds were so hard, Em! But Spain sounds fun! Rifle-shooting and archery and water polo and horseback riding! Man that's awesome! :) Way to go mom and dad for acing the rifle shooting and archery! I think I want to try shooting sometime, but I will wait until I get home from my mission. Hehe. :) I am glad you got to get tans! Sorry about the bugs though, Sasa. And way to go for being able to get away from work, Dad! I bet that felt nice! The Pirates show sounds way cool as well! I can't wait to see the pictures! :)

Anyway, I've gotta go, but I love all of you!

I hope you have a wonderful, missionary-work filled week, just like I know mine will be like! :)

Your daughter, sister, friend,

<3 Sister Kaitlyn Tarr :)

P.S. You should read Ephesians 6:12-20 which talks all about the armor of God and check out Alma 10:6 which is cool because it talks about the 4th of July and also Dad and David especially should check out D&C 14:11! Love ya! :)

 

21 October 2013

Hello family! :)

This week has been great! Each day seemed to be way long, but the week blew by. Isn't it funny how that happens?

Okay so this week:

It snowed! On the 18th (Friday) it snowed! Isn't that crazy?! It was pretty cool though, and we played Christmas music that morning while we were getting ready.

We taught over 30 lessons, which is the most per week so far AND one of my companions was sick for 1 1/2 days! So that was a total miracle!

I'm doing much better on my bike. I can actually make it up the hills without walking, haha. So that's good!

Also, I look forward to P-Day too! I like hearing from you all! :)

Okay, you should totally check out D&C 9:14 and 1 Corinthians 16:13. I read those during my personal study the other day and I just really liked how forthright they were and how they basically tell us to suck it up and work hard.

I love you all SO much! And tell people in the ward and my friends over there hi from me!

LOVE YOU!

<3 Sister Tarr :)

P.S. My companions and I each gave a talk in church yesterday! Mine was about Preach My Gospel chapter 6 (Christlike Attributes) and how it related to missionary work of all kinds. I specifically talked about the qualities Charity & Love and Diligence.