Two by Two: October 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Ways to Contact Katie

So I have done some research and it turns out that the easiest way to communicate with Katie other than emailing her at: kate.raynor@myldsmail.net is through the pouch mail at the DearElder website.

To accomplish this and get letters to her on a regular basis, you need to go to www.dearelder.com. From there you select the "Pouch (Free)" option which takes you to a page that looks like this:

Pouch Deadline:

4 days,
4 hours,
1 minutes.

Letter Selection

DearElder.com offers FREE same-day letter delivery to the Provo MTC* (for all letters submitted by 12:00 pm MST Mon-Fri)! FREE mail to all pouch LDS missions and mail to all other missions for just the price of a stamp! Select the LDS mission you wish to write to and click "Instructions" to learn how our system works or click "Write a Missionary" to send a letter. To send a letter to your missionary in the Provo MTC, simply select Provo MTC from the drop-down menu below.

The Pouch Deadline tells you how much time you have to type your letter into the website. From there - the DearElder website will print your letter out, fold it the correct way, and send it off to Katie all for free. I tried it last night and it was great. Thank you DearElder. Good luck to everyone who wants to write Katie a letter.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Week 1 Philippines

Hey everyone, I'm only going to do one letter this week.  The internet
is super slow and I only have 30 mins for family.  SO, I am going to
write as much as I can in the next 5 minutes.  The Philippines is
crazy.  Its like downtown Lusaka but crazier because there aren't road
laws and there are animals everywhere.  I tried dried fish last night.
It was pretty good...  My Branch Pres, President delaCrauz told me that
he would give me balut next week--we'll see. They speak a different

Tagalog than they taught me in the MTC. I have no idea what anyone

is saying.  My companion doesn't speak much English at all. The first
night there were bugs all over the beds so we walked a mile to another
companionships house and slept on the floor.  The ugly croc-flats are
awesome-everyone has them but I might need some more eventually.  It
is so green here-like Oregon but greener.  Elder Christensen (My MTC
DL and ZL) is in the same branch as me.  It is awesome.  We get super
excited whenever we see each other.  (Probably because our companions
don't speak English).  Also, people pee EVERYWHERE.  Its nasty.
Packages:  They need to be USPS.  They CANNOT be any other carrier or
they will cost me $200 when they are received.  So US Postal Service
only.  Send to mission home.  Put pictures of Christ on them.  Don't
mark that there is anything in there that would have to go through
customs or I will have to pay a lot of money.
I tried that weird oink meat that they had in Zambia-strange.  Mom,
where should we be in the Book of Mormon?

My flight was super long.  A man had a heart attack in the seat behind
me on the way to Japan.  Pretty scary.  I love you all.  I will try to
upload pictures, I don't know if they will work.

Mahal kita.
Sister Raynor.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Another Ashley Surprise!

Well, as if she didn't surprise all of us with her mission call, once again - Ashley pulled a fast and covert operation on all of us. Well, that is until the day before - that day being Wednesday October 16, 2013 when she received her endowments at the Portland Temple. Caroline was her escort, Ashley looked so calm and sweet - like she'd been there before. It was a special, quiet, and I guess you could say very private day - the way Ashley is happiest. She was beautiful.

Magandang umaga: Week 6

Kamusta pamilya ko!!

This is my last email from the MTC! Hallelujah. I am so excited to be flying to the Philippines on Monday morning. I can't wait. Today, we are spending the day trying to do laundry and pack. Things are so hectic. But we are going to the temple later so I'm sure that the calm spirit there will help soothe our anxiety :)

So this week was pinakamabuti-the best.

On Tuesday, we moved back up to the Main MTC campus. So that totals our moves to 3 times. But I'm glad that I was able to experience both campuses. I wouldn't be surprised if Ash ended up down at Raintree/Wyview--the latest rumor is that all the English speaking Missionaries are being sent down to West campus. I don't think that either of the campuses are better than the other. Raintree is super pretty- there is a huge pond in the middle of the complex and tons of trees and grass. Main campus has more--the temple, more missionary-friendly services. Overall I had a great experience in both places.

On Wednesday, we had our weekly devotional. ELDER OAKS CAME---IT WAS SOOO COOL! He walked in and everybody stood up and got quiet so fast. It was amazing. It was a worldwide MTC broadcast filmed here in Provo. Very neat. He talked a lot about missionary work-go figure

On Thursday, we had our last class with one of our teachers. It was kind of sad but it just means that we are getting closer to leaving.

On Friday, we had In-Field Orientation. So cool. They taught us a lot about working with Ward Members, planning, and just being missionaries. There was actually this French RM who looked just like Andy Tygard. I thought it was him for a second but it wasn't, because he is French. I'm not sure if Ash is watching the district but if she is- I met Elder Christiansen from the District because he works here at the MTC-he is like a celebrity at the MTC.

Also, our flight plans have changed-I think I already told Mom about this- so I go from SLC to Detroit to Japan to Manila.

Also, my address for the Philippines:

Sister Kate Raynor

philippines olongapo missions

km.140 National Highway

Mangan-VACA Subic

2209 Zambales

Philippines

Well, next time I email I will be in the Philippines. I love you all. I think my PDAY will be on Mondays. Mahal Kita.

Nagmamahal, Sister Katie Raynor

Sisters Raynor and Udall

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Yet again, Katies New Address.

For those of you who like kickin' it old school and want to write Katie an actual paper letter:

Snail Mail:

Sister Kate Raynor

Oct 21 PHI-OLO

2011 N 900 E Unit 227

Provo ut 84602

E-Mail

kate.raynor@myldsmail.net

Magandang hapon! Week 5!

Magandang hapon and pamilya ko!

Its almost over!! We got our flight plans on Friday. So we are leaving one week from Monday (October 21) at 3:30 AM to catch a 7:30am flight to Detroit and then we have a layover from 1pm to 3:40 (detroit time) so, I'll be calling you then Mom. From detroit, we fly from Detroit to Manila. We get to Manila at 10:55 Local time. So I don't know how long that flight is, I just know that it is long. Tagalog is hard but it is getting there. I learn more everyday. I don't have very long to write and so I'm just going to send some pictures. Love you all. Alam ko po na totoo and Simbahan ni Jesucriso. Mahal kita.

Sister Raynor.

Our Zone Leaders

Friday, October 4, 2013

Magandang hapon!: MTC Week 4

Pamilya!!

Wow! It is week 4!! It's crazy--one week from tomorrow we get our flight plans! This week has been a blast. I've had so much fun but it feels like it will never end. All the days kind of blur together. My camera needs a card reader and so I can't send pictures until Mom sends me one. So we had some pretty funny things happen this week' I´m not sure if all of you will think they are as funny as we did: So we have this Elder in our district named Elder Larron. He is from the Marshall Islands and speaks little english. He is a character. He is always talking about how he used to get into knife fights in Marshall and how he is going to beat people up--he's just joking (we think). So the night before we all moved, the Elders from my district were in bed at about 10:45 and there were some other Elders out in the hall being really loud. So Elder Larron storms out into the hall and says : "Elders. I say unto you, this night I will kill one Elder. Goodnight." Luckily none of the other Elders in the hall could understand his broken english. So last week, we had three new districts join our zone and some of the Elders are sharing a room with our elders. At one point, Elder Larron "jokingly" said that he could stab them through the bunk bed (he is on the bottom bunk and another elder is on the top). Then yesterday, we were walking to TALL (Technology assisted language learning) and a knife from the cafeteria randomly falls out of his pocket. We died laughing. It was so funny. We still aren't sure what his plan with that knife was. Lets just say he had to have a major talk with the branch President.

One other funny thing that happened this week. We have a Sister who is obsessed with Halloween and so she requested that our teacher brought orange and black expo markers. The next day he didn't bring them and when she asked why this is how he responded(in a super rushed voice): "I was running late and then I sat in my car and then I realized that I forgot them and so I got up but then I ripped my pants so I just sat back down and drove to school". Sure enough he turned aroung and there was the biggest rip down the back seam of his pants. It was so hilarious,

Sister udall and I have been teaching a new investigator this week. His name is Ronald. We love him. By the third lesson, he was asking us about baptism and then today we set a "date".

Tagalog is so hard. I get really excited when I speak english because I can express myself. It turns out that the reason I talk so much is because I'm really good at speaking English. We always get stopped while walking around bacause everyone is always saying hi to each other. Our conversations usually go like this:

others: "Hola Sisters"

us: "Kumusta"

others: "bien. Y tu?"

us: "Mabuting Mabuti"

This is usually followed by a very confused look from a very confused spanish speaker. Sometimes I really like that there are similarities between spanish and tagalog but it gets super confusing. Speaking of which, I can FINALLY say The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints without breathing-like a real Filipino: Ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga Banal sa mga Huling Araw, Say that five times fast. Nevermind, I can't even do that.

I love the MTC but I am definitely ready to not be here anymore. But I know I have SO much more to learn before going to the Philippines. I hope all of you are doing well. Mahal Kita.

Sister Raynor

PS My guro (teacher) had a talk with us today about the bathroom situation in the Philippines--he taught us the difference between your right and left hands- you shake with the right and wipe with the left---he explained all of this while he was squatting, showing us the proper angles of a good squat...

Sister Udall and I

The District

On the way to the conference center

Sister Beckham---'the current rachel to my kathy.

All of our names translated to Taglish mine is Ssiter UIan(rain)O(or) UlanO

I thought i'd just throw in some screen shots from the relief society broadcast