Aboard the train

Ahh, hello everyone!!
I feel like i have so much to tell you i don't even know where to start! thanks for the packages mom, getting mail is the best haha :) my district and roomates have been loving all the candy trust me. Hmm well the MTC is great! I love my companion and we get along so well. I have literally seen multiple people that i know every single day. I probably know 15 to 20 people here that i knew before my mission. It's the best seeing old friend and catching up :)

The first week we started teaching Victor, which is actually our MTC teacher pretending to be Victor... Haha but actually the teachers are like freaky good at portraying these investigators and think and act like a totally different person so it feels like you're teaching a real investigator. Anyway, we started teaching him and the first few lesson went really well, then we taught him about the restoration and it just flopped. That same day we started teaching our TRC investigator which are investigators hired by the MTC to be taught by the missionaries. Sometimes they are members, sometimes they are real life investigators and you never know which one! Ahh, all i do is try and figure out if they're real haha. But they are really good actors if they aren't. Anyway, our first one was this lady named Lawanna. Yes that is her name and she is a black lady from Arkansas. The picture of her that we got was her looking really sassy so we thought she'd be one of those really talkative funny sassy people. Nope!

So we go to teach her the first lesson and we were going to take most of the time to just get to know her and talk to her so that was mostly the plan. We get there and sike! we have to skype her. So that threw us off, then we skype her and she is like super ornery and acting like she doesn't want to talk to us. We'd be like "tell us where you're from" or "tell us about your family and what you like to do" and she'd just give us one word answers and then stare at us.... sooo we started rambling and it just went so badly. Then only about 15 minutes in she stops us and says "can i reschedule for tomorrow? its just really busy around here and i need to reschedule." we were like "ummm sure?"

So then we were feeling discouraged and went back to the classroom feeling super bummed. We had to teach Victor again that night and we were determined to redeem ourselves. Hahaha in our prayer before the lesson my companion even said "please bless us that as we teach Victor we can somewhat redeem ourselves." and guess what... we did!! it went so good and he commited to being baptism!! my first (fake) baptism! ;) haha it's so funny how we knew it wasn't real but that didn't make us any less excited. Last night he also committed to read the book of mormon and go to church so Victor is the bomb.com.

On sunday we had our first fireside which was T.C. Christensen who was the cinematographer of a ton of LDS films like 17 miracles, Ephraim's Rescue, Emma Smith: My Story, and stuff like that. He shared a bunch of cool stories about the pioneers and showed clips from 17 Miracles and stuff like that. At the end he had everyone in the audience who was a descendant of someone in the martin-willie handcart company stand up. So many people stood up! It was so cool. Then he told us how no matter where in the country he travels, whenever he asks that question, so many if not more people, always always stand up. Those people's testimonies literally lasted through the generations. I love it.

My MTC teachers are amazing too. Their names are Sister Ellsworth and Brother Kimball. Gosh i just love them so much :) Sister Ellsworth is like the most intelligent person and the best teacher i've ever had. She does role plays of lessons for us and all i can think the whole time is "i want to teach just like you!" Brother Kimball is super funny too. He's a total hipster and is from Seattle WA. He does ballroom dancing at BYU, loves to bake cinnamon rolls, and told us he is baby hungry hahaha. He said if he could be a single father right now he would because he just wants to be a dad. I died laughing, he is so funny.

Speaking of role plays, we do then constantly! I probably do like five or six a day. But they help so much!

Tuesday was our second devotional! I was actually in the choir which was super fun. We sand Lead Kindly Light, which is only one of my favorite hymns eeeeverrr. So i think you can look for that devotional online and if you do, you can see me on the camera :) Stanley G Ellis spoke to us and he's one of the seventy. He has 9 kids and every single one of them served missions, so each one of them came up and shared their testimonies and it was so cool. One of his daughters went to Paris, France and talked about the speed trains their. She said no matter what happens, whether you chose to get on the train or get off, the train was still going to keep moving forward. She compared those trains to our missions. No matter if we choose to be a part of this great work or not, its going to keep moving forward. Except if we choose to get off, then we are going to miss out on SO MUCH. Heavenly Father is going to still bring this gospel to the world, the only difference will be that you will miss out on meeting so many people and experiences who will change your life. She told us to not get off the train! Don't give up! And to thank Heavenly Father every day that you get to be on board.

So, I don't know about you guys but I'm staying aboard :) its hard here and i get tired and feel like my brain can't absorb another piece of information, but somehow it always does. Then i get home at night and just pass out from being so tired, but its a good tired.

Actually everyone take a moment and recognize that i have successfully woken up at 6:30 every day by myself. THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN. So holla at the spirit for waking me up ;) i also go to bed at 10:30 every night. but on the reals i am definitely taking a nap today for P-day.

Also, I tried to send pictures today but the computers here are really dumb and won't let me. so sorry! I'll send you some next week from VIRGINIA! Woot woot!

The MTC is great and all, but I'm ready to go. I feel so bad for missionaries who have to stay here for like 9 weeks. Nope! I would die.

Also, my district is the best and we've all just become best friends. It's me, my companion Sister Lopp, Sister Webb, and Sister Johnson, then a bunch of little 18 year old elders! We seriously laugh all day and sing hymns all the time. We struggle to focus a little bit, but if we didn't laugh a little we'd go crazy. So I love them. All the sisters including my companion are going to the West Virginia mission so Kade and Heather you can look out for them! But me and all the elders are going to Richmond, so I'll get another companion for the flight that i don't know. I think she's a spanish speaker. Our flight leaves at like 7:45 on Monday so i think i'll call you before then. We have to wake up and leave at 2:30 in the morning though! So we'll see how that goes. I have a layover in Detroit too.

Ok well i'm running out of time and i wish i could reply to everyone but i can't!

Just know that I love you all and I miss you! Keep being awesome.

Xoxo, Sister Fowers

Quick hello!

So it's not even my P-day but they told us to send a quick email to tell you that I'm alive! My real P-day isn't until Thursday, so I won't write you a real email until then... sorry! The MTC is so good though! I don't really get why people don't like it or get homesick because I think its so fun! My companion is soooo awesome. Her name is Sister Lopp and she's from Orem. She was an ambassador at dixie and plays softball so she reminds me so much of Maisie! It's kind of freaky actually. Plus she was senior class president too, so we're pretty tight ;) My district is awesome, they're all these 18 year old boys and they just make me laugh so hard. The food here is kinda nasty, i mean its good but i get sick of it. They give us ice cream though, so i'm always down for that. :) haha I don't have my camera but I'll send pictures next week!

Oh ya and MOM THIS IS URGENT. I FORGOT MY HAIR STUFF SO PLEASE SEND IT TO ME, ITS IN THE THING WITH OWLS ON IT, PROBABLY UPSTAIRS SOMEWHERE. hahaha i always forget something, smh.

and friends, if you want me to write you send me a letter or your address because i didn't write down any!!

Love you guys though, you're the best!

Sister Fowers :)

An Acceptance Letter

first of all, mission call acceptance letters might be something that people don't usually post anywhere because it's kind of personal, but for me its something that i want to post to keep a record of it for myself, and also to kind of share with you guys my testimony and how i felt about my mission call.

if you don't know, after you receive a mission call you send an acceptance letter back to the first presidency accepting that call and they actually get it and read it. kinda cool. it can only be so many characters long so you have to try and fit everything you want to say into a short little letter.

so here's mine!

2014-04-10

Dear Brethren

I am so deeply grateful and honored to accept my call to the Virginia Richmond mission. While waiting for my call to arrive I found myself worrying about where I would be called to serve. After a lot of prayer and scripture study, I now realize that it doesn't matter where I serve, but how. The Lord knows my heart and knows the exact mission that will help me to grow in ways that no other mission could. He knows the people's lives that I will touch and the things I will learn from them. I am so grateful to be a part of this great work. It is so exciting! There is so much to do and I hope that I can represent the Savior every day as I put on that little black tag. I have a testimony of this gospel. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. Not only do they love us, but they love us perfectly. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God and that he restored Christ's church to the earth. I have a testimony of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon. I'm so grateful for the guidance and peace it brings into my life. I know I can turn to it for answers today, even when it was written so long ago. I'm so grateful that I can be with my family forever through the ordinances of the Temple. I have a testimony of family history work and the blessings that it can bring into our lives. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that he leads and guides us today. I'm so grateful for the atonement and that through it, each of us can repent and be made whole again. I hope that I can be a faithful disciple as I serve the people of Virginia. I love this gospel. I can't wait to be a part of the greatest work on the earth. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, amen.
Sister Kaycee Fowers