A new summary of Kaitlyn's latest letters. It sounds like she had a great Christmas time and is learning a lot from her mission experiences.

Hi family!                                                                                                               Dec. 16, 2013

Oh hey! Did you all get to open the package I sent for you?! I hope you did! Also, I forgot to ask last week if I am allowed to open the package from the ward? Last night I really wanted to but I didn’t…I did ask Sister Hendricks to pick out the letters for me to read though, hehe. So I read the letters. And do you know what’s cool Savannah?! I read your letter and MY HAIR WAS CURLY! That’s the first time I’ve curled my hair on the mission! Isn’t that cool?! But Emma and Savannah, I loved your letters, so thanks! Also, I am glad that you two like your Christmas sweaters so much!

So guess what I got to do today? Go to the zoo! Sister H is going home really soon and so our District Leader, Elder C, arranged for us to go to the zoo with a member he knew from a ward he served in. So this morning we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! That’s why I am emailing so late in the day!

This week, though, was pretty awesome! Guess what?! We have someone who is going to get baptized on December 29^th! J There is a lady in our ward named G____ and a daughter of hers, who is 14 who she recently got custody of, is not a member and we got to teach her the first lesson last Friday and she committed to baptism! It’s so cool! I am so lucky to be able to teach her and have her be so excited to get baptized! Her name is V____. Anyway, that’s basically the biggest miracle of the week and it’s extra cool because Sister H will have a baptism the Sunday before she flies home. She’s really scared to go home and is actually dreading it and it’s sad because I am not exactly sure how to help her not feel too worried. It’s kinda weird, too, because I am such a new missionary and home comes up a lot because she is leaving soon. But it will go well! She’ll be okay!

Mom, that’s so awesome that you got to go help teach S______! Way to go! Isn’t it so cool to be teaching the missionary lessons again? Do you ever miss your mission? 

Each P-day I come up with a theme scripture for the week from what I read that past week in the Book of Mormon. So right now I am in Alma and I just wanted to send you all my theme scriptures for the first part of my mission and also invite you all to pick a theme scripture for at least this week and try to remember it throughout the week and strive to be more Christlike, especially during this Christmas season.

So here’s the list:

Alma 1:25

Alma 7:15

Alma 15:17

Alma 21:16

Alma 26:36

Alma 28:14

Alma 34:40-41

Alma 39:15-16 (That is this week’s theme for me!)

Love you! Oh and I opened one of the little packages this week that I got because I couldn’t help myself and I LOVE the Sister Missionary Album card things! That’s so cute! Thanks! J Hehe.

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week and that you are all reading your scriptures every day! I will talk to you next week! And I will also try and send pictures in just a few minutes!

LOVE YOU and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

<3 Sister Kaitlyn Tarr

Hi Mommy!                                                                                                          Dec. 23, 2013

So first off:

I will call you first if you want me too! If you want, you could try to have David and Brittany on Skype while I am FaceTiming you and then we could just all talk for 40 minutes together, which would be ideal. I’m excited to talk to you all soon! 

Things with V______ are going well! We are just really hoping and praying that she will gain a real testimony of the things we are teaching her and that she won’t just get baptized because her family are members. We haven’t been able to make contact with C____ (the salon lady) but we are going to her salon today to get our eyebrows done and see if she is there! 

For Christmas Eve we will be going to two dinners! At one we will have goose, so that’s kinda fun! This is the schedule for Christmas Day:

9:30-Breakfast with the Ricks

11:00-Skype/FaceTime/call our family at the Woodward’s

12:00-Lunch with the Elison family

3:00-Dinner and a movie with the Paligo family

6:00-Go to the Strickland’s and teach the Family Mission Plan!

7:15ish-Watch a movie as a District

9:00-Plan for the next day.

So I hope that 11 a.m. my time, (6 p.m. your time) will work out! I’m sorry if it’s right in the middle of your Christmas dinner! But if you could tell David and Brittany that, that would be awesome!

Sister H is actually flying home on January 2, right after New Year’s Day! SO I will get my new companion on the 1 of January when we go to transfer meeting and I will find out next Monday who it is and whether I will be staying in the 15^th Ward for sure or not!

I’m so glad that Daddy is home and that you all get to spend time together! I hope you all have a wonderful Mexican buffet too! Oh and I LOVED the pictures that you sent!  I do print some of them out and hang them up on my wall so I can look at them and I am grateful that I get to do that!

I’m happy that the girls are so excited to have time off from school!

Mom, that is SO cool that you got to be a part of S_________ lessons and her baptism and her new member lessons! Way to go! I know the Lord will bless you for the missionary work that you are doing? Speaking of missionary work…have you been able to do what I invited you to do as a family? J (You will know what I am talking about if you opened the package that I sent you that you are allowed to open.)

Hyde Park at this time of year sounds amazing! And so does Harrod’s! That’s cool that you could all go and have a fun time together!

I love you all and I had a great week! We got to have dinner with a family on Saturday and teach the family (mom, dad, two sons, they have two daughters who weren’t there) and the Spirit was so thick it made it hard to breathe. It was a really neat experience. Strive to always try and have the spirit with you and the family all the time because it is so awesome!!!

Okay my scripture challenge for you this week is to read Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 and it’s all about the birth of Christ! So read those and try and remember the most important part of Christmas…Christ!

Well, I’ve gotta go. I have some other things I need to do and I am running out of time. I love you and the family SO much and can’t wait to talk to you all soon on Wednesday!!!

With much love, and wishing you a very merry Christmas indeed,

<3 Sister Kaitlyn Tarr J

Hey Family!                                                                                                                Dec. 30, 2013

Thanks for talking to me last week on Christmas! That was so fun!

Going skating at the Winter Wonderland place sounds like it’s going to be a blast! And you’re going to the largest screen in Europe? That is ridiculous! Haha.

Wow, that is really cool that he (President Neu, in the Staines stake sent a Christmas email to Kaitlyn, which she responded to) shared my email! It was a really short reply too. I’m glad it made you happy and I hope it helped some people feel the Spirit. (Pres. Neu was visiting our ward and was talking about missionary work, when he shared her email with the ward.  It was so touching because of the unexpectedness of it.)

That’s so awesome about S_______! Tell her congrats from me! (S______ was confirmed in church)

V's baptism last night was great! She will be confirmed next Sunday! And the YW made her a candy card to welcome her into YW’s, and they said they were really excited for her to join them, so that was way awesome to witness. Now that V is baptized, we don’t have any investigators, but we will be working really hard to find some new people to teach!

I found out today who my new companion is going to be! I will be staying in the 15^th ward and I will stay junior companion, but my new companion is Sister Hansen! I don’t know her yet, but I’m excited to get to know her! Sister Hendricks is still pretty sad that she’s leaving this week. I think it’s surreal for her. But I know she’ll do great! And it’s pretty funny because some people in our ward have offered their sons to her…haha!

That’s cool that the Elders are coming over for New Years’ Eve! Our mission rule is that we have to be inside our apartment by 6 p.m. so we don’t have any plans for that night except that Sister Hendricks will be packing! I hope you have a great New Years’ Eve though! J

Oh guess what we are doing today?! A member in our ward is taking us to the Garden of the Gods! You should look it up! It’s supposed to be really beautiful! I’ll take lots of pictures and send some next week, okay?

That’s pretty cool about the new Spanish people in the ward! And mom, way to go for talking to them! A language exchange sounds really fun too!

That’s awesome that 85 people were at church! Especially because the first time we went there were only about 30-35 I think, including us!

Oh! Did you hear?! Brittany and John and going to have……….a BOY!!!  Cool, right?! I am so excited for them!

Dad: Thanks for that little lesson about the three types of choices! I will definitely keep that in mind!

Mom: Keep working hard toward Zion! Because it really will be wonderful when we all get there!

Well, I love you all! I hope you have a great week and that I answered all of your questions! You are awesome! Keep being steadfast and immovable in the gospel, okay?!

With lots of love and wishing you a happy new year,

Sister Kaitlyn Tarr J

By the way the scripture of the week is Alma 49:17 about Moroni! It’s awesome.

Hey! I also really like Alma 42:31 and Alma 39:16! I got an email from President Ball today. So if you want to include those scriptures or just one of them or change one of them for the British plaque (you don't have to, the other scripture, Alma 8:32 is fine, it was just a last minute scripture that I picked) then that would be cool. But you all can pick! I love you!