Ashlyn: Week 2 in mexico!

So this week wasn't much different from the last week. I got to Skype my family! it was so fun to see all of their beautiful faces and to hear all their voices. I miss them but I know that I'm supposed to be here and that I'm doing the right thing serving a mission right now.

We don't have many investigators; only like 5 and I don't think that 2 of them will last but we'll see! pray that they do last! We had an inactive member and his ''spouse'' attend church on Sunday with their daughter. His ''spouse'' isn't LDS and they aren't really married.  It's normal just to call someone your spouse and live with them without actually having it legalized. They didn't stay for the whole three hours but apparently the last talk in Sacrament meeting was about the law of chastity which they aren't living. Hopefully they will continue to attend church! They are such kind people!

Well I found out yesterday that the last hermanas in this area turned out to be lesbians and ran off together. and they haven't had sister missionaries in this area since then until us. 

yeah...

Well we've had potatoes every single day this week except for yesterday. According to my companion potatoes aren't a normal Mexican food so maybe they think that Americans love them a lot or something... I'm super grateful for the meals they provide us. This one family fed us so much food I could not finish it all and I felt really bad but they were so kind and just teased me about it. 

I love tacos! they're so yummy! I also love tamales! I do not like Mole Dulce. Mole picante is pretty good though. We've also had a lot of pasta. Oh and they put catsup and mustard on their pizza. 

Anyways the language is getting better. I can pick out definite words when they speak now and its not all one big jumbled noise. 

I love you all!

Hermana  Naegle

Christmas Day Skype with Ashlyn!!

           Christmas Day.....We got to Skype with Ashlyn.  She is doing great!  She doesn't understand 70% of what is going on around her,  she has no food in her house, she was accosted by a drunk man, she had chili dogs for Christmas dinner, and she says that being in Mexico is the hardest thing she has ever done, but she seems more grown up than ever and she is learning so much.  Her testimony is strong and she has a desire to keep pressing forward, knowing that if she keeps working and trying, it will get better and she will grow to love Mexico and its people.

Katelyn: Week 6 Dec 26th

Hello, I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was awesome. Thank you for the presents; they were perfect. We had such a great day yesterday. We woke up, opened presents, went to breakfast, emailed, and then had a little bit of free time before we went to a Christmas talent show. Some of the missionaries are so gifted. The very best one was this Elder who put on an incredible magic show.  He got a major standing ovation afterwards because he did such a good job. Also, Lehi Bennion sang "You Raise Me Up" and he did so well! All the sisters are in love with him now. ;) After the show we went to lunch, which was our Christmas "dinner" (turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, etc.). Some of the sisters that we are good friends with brought decorations to the cafeteria and we tried to set it up like a real table, with napkins and a tablecloth and everything. It was really fun. I have been so blessed to make such great friends here. These sisters are going to serve in Albania and they are leaving on Tuesday. I will miss them like crazy but I'm excited for them to be able to start teaching the Albanian people. Anyway, after lunch we went to choir practice and then we had our Christmas devotional. Elder Bednar came and everyone was SO excited. You could feel the spirit just wash over the room when he and his wife walked in. It was wonderful. He did a huge question and answer session instead of giving a formal talk. They passed out 200 cell-phones and anyone who wanted to could text in a question and he received the texts on his i-pad and chose some to answer and had his wife answer some. It was really cool. I texted in a question and it didn't get answered but that's okay because I had other questions on my mind that I received answers to while he spoke. It was such a great experience. It was like a huge Christmas present to all of us.

After the devotional we went back to our classrooms to have a devotional review with our districts. I love my district a lot and it was fun to be with them and share my testimony with them and hear theirs as well. Everyone got something different from the devotional and I think it's amazing how real personal revelation is. We all have different struggles and questions, and we all can receive the answers that we need if we choose to be in situations where the Spirit is present. After the review we got to hear a jazz band perform and it was so beautiful and relaxing. We ate a sack dinner in our residence hall and just got to talk and enjoy Christmas with the sisters. One of them has an amazing life story and she shared it with us. She got married to the love of her life in the temple and several months later found out that he was addicted to pornography. She decided that she wanted to make things work and she did everything she could for two years to try to help him and save their marriage but he ultimately did not want help and told her that he didn't want to be married anymore. He became mentally and emotionally abusive and told his parents that she was the one who wanted a divorce. When the parents spoke to her about it, she explained the truth and that was the first time she had told anyone about what was happening (except for a marriage counselor they had seen). She went through much and now she is here on a mission and she is such an inspiration to me. I think she is so amazing and listening to her talk about how people with addictions need love and compassion was neat. I know she will be able to do amazing things on her mission and I am very grateful I got to meet her. 

After dinner we watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas program broadcast and it was probably the most beautiful Christmas music I have ever hear. It was incredible and fun because everybody was so happy and everyone got a bag of kettlecorn. We did a clean-up service project afterwards and then we headed back to the residence hall. On the way; however, we ran into the elder who is here from Hungary- Elder Kettler. He is so cheeky and enthusiastic (I wish I could imitate his hilarious accent to you right now); it was a blast to talk to him and ask him how bad our accents are. He thinks we're terrible and he tells us but he is also very encouraging and positive. I've never been told that I was bad at something in such a positive way. I'm even on the verge of laughing as I type this. I don't know if it's him or if it's because I am so excited to meet the Hungarians and start working in the field. I won't be able to say or understand anything in Hungarian at first, but that's okay. I don't care. I'm just happy to be on a mission and to be able to see how the Lord can work miracles in my life and the lives of others. A Finnish sister that left for the field already emailed and said that she was asked to introduce herself in church and she accidentally told the congregation that she was serving in the toilet. Hahahaha! Oh, we laughed really hard about it but we're all very aware that that's going to be us in a few weeks. We're nervous and stressed and full of joy about it. It's going to be great. I love you so much and I hope that you have a truly wonderful and rejuvenating Christmas Break. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Love, Sister Naegle

Katelyn: Christmas Email

Hello! I hope you are all having a bunch of fun right now opening presents or maybe eating cinnamon rolls. I've tried to deny how much I love Christmas in the past but I can't anymore. Even here at the MTC I was up at 5:30am wishing it was later so that I could open my presents. :D It's so great to be here. I feel super spoiled after reading Ash's letter. I had scrambled eggs and half of an old-fashioned donut for breakfast. They actually served real eggs today and they were delicious!! And the donut was the closest thing I could get to a cinnamon roll. We got to listen to one of the general authorities last night and we are going to hear from one of the apostles today. My companion and I sing in the choir and we're singing "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt" today at the devotional. It is so pretty!! Mom, you would love it. Look it up on YouTube in honor of me.

Did my teacher send you the picture of our district? He was supposed to but his wife just had a baby and it's highly likely that he forgot. Oh well. We're not allowed to send pictures during email this morning because they don't want the whole system to crash since all the missionaries are emailing. Oh my gosh!! I just realized that Ashlyn gets to call!! If you haven't talked with her yet tell her that I love her and that she is doing great and I am so proud of her and I miss looking for her at devotionals. Maybe you're talking with her right now! Ahh, I feel left out already! :)

Thank you so much for the package. It was wonderful. You know that I am an expert package feeler and I figured out what most of them were but I didn't know what was in the little box from Mariah and I was so surprised and happy about the earrings! Yay, thank you! Tell Mariah thanks for reminding me that I have Jordan. My present will come in the mail later this week. Mom- thank you for getting the watch for Elder Heilein. It was perfect and he loves it. He wears it all the time and he was so happy to finally have a watch and he showed it to everybody. He says to tell you thank you so much. Tell Grandma that her Christmas package was the best thing ever. It came on a really hard day and I appreciated it soooo much. I will write her she just won't get it for a while because she's in Texas. Well, I have to go. I will email as usual tomorrow because it's p-day. Don't worry about me. I'm having a great day and I'm having fun. Thank you thank you for everything. I will try to send pictures tomorrow. Love you! I hope your Christmas is perfect.

Merry Christmas!! Boldog karacsony! Love,

Sister Naegle

Ashlyn: week one in mexico Dec. 23rd

Hola dear family and friends of mine!

Well this has been the hardest week of my life. I haven't cried or anything but Its so hard! I can't wait to call my family on Christmas!

Well my house is pretty nasty. The elders before us didn't clean anything and we had to live in filth for five days until Pday when we could clean it. While cleaning the kitchen I was trying to get rid of all the spiders and their webs under the sink when I broke one of the water thingys and water started to gush out. SO our floor flooded and it took us forever to clean it all up.  In my defense the thingy was so rusty and old that it would have broken on its own in a few days. I just sped up the process.

Well we have a total of three investigators. We've taught two and we teach the other today in a few hours. It's been hard. all our ''new investigators'' have fallen through and the work has been really slow.

The language thing is hard. Those of you still in the MTC learn verbs and nouns like crazy and practice outloud! I really wish I would have practiced more outloud. Also reading the Book of Mormon outloud in Spanish really helps with your pronunciation.

OK. Well back to my living conditions. I shower out of a bucket because we don't have hot water. My bed is mostly just springs, no fluffy comfort or any of that unimportant stuff. I also don't have a blanket. I have learned a few things. One of them is that most Elders (no offense) don't know how to clean. Our house was filthy when we moved in on Tuesday. So nasty. Well we cleaned it up today and its so much better. I think I killed about 6 or seven spiders, a million ants, two beetles, one or two roaches and there were about twenty dead flies.... all in the kitchen, I don't know how many my companion killed in the bathroom and I don't want to.

Our ward is awesome. We share it with four other elders. Their names are Elders Juarez and Wait and Elders Alexander and Pecheco. They make up the rest of our district.

We have district meetings every Wednesday morning.

I haven't had a real language study. My companion's name is Hna. Leija. She's really nice and super patient with me. However I don't think she understands how important language study is since it keeps not happening. Oh well. I'm praying that it will be better this next week.

We did eat tamales out of a minivan my first night. It was extremely sketchy, but I took some of that stuff you gave me, mom, to prevent parasites and I haven't gotten sick...yet. Elder Wait is super sick, him and his companion eat at taco stands all the time and it's made him really ill.

I love my personal study. Its the only time I can do something in English and I understand exactly whats happening. Its really the only thing that keeps me going because I don't know whats going on about 70% of the time.

Bus rides are like a roller coaster. Its like riding a very unsafe version of the Indiana Jones ride at Disney Land. There are a lot of speed bumps and the drivers speed in-between them and then slam on their brakes right before they go over them. Instead of ''sea legs'' you need ''bus legs''. The worst is when there's so many people you get squished up next to other people. We've only had that happen once because we try to avoid the really full ones.

 They didn't have me speak in sacrament meeting witch was a huge relief; although I know it will happen soon if not this next week.

Well the church is true and although its hard I wouldn't be anywhere else. Even though I think probably a million times a day that I want to go home, I don't really mean it and I don't want to leave.

Well I love you all and I will send some pictures next week.

Love, Hermana Naegle

Katelyn: Week 5 Dec. 19th

 HUNGARIAN....

STUDYING HARD....

THE HUNGARIAN, FINISH AND ALBANIAN SISTERS....

 SILENT NIGHT...

This week we had a really great lesson, some mediocre lessons, and a very bad lesson. Hungarian is beautiful, but it is a beast to learn sometimes. There are a boat-load of endings and getting the right sentence structure is like trying to hold a moon-beam in your hand (Sound of Music fans, holla!). Anyway, it's coming along and we've finished learning all the tenses and most of the big grammar things so we can really start to progress now. In the end it doesn't matter though because when the Spirit is present in a lesson I find I am really able to say most everything that I need to say. It's crazy. I am not a little kid making things up. The power of the Holy Ghost is real. I have a testimony that when we are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have his constant companionship if we are worthy. I am getting really, really excited to go to Hungary. Even though it is hard here, I still love it and I'll be a little sad to leave but I am really looking forward to getting to work and meeting the Hungarian people.

We met a missionary from Hungary this week. He was very, very nice. His English was excellent (I've never heard an accent like that before!) but he told us that we were going to suffer a lot with the language. :D I think he meant "struggle". 

Well, I've gotta go. Send me pictures, please!! 

Have a good week!

Naegle Nővér

"I made it!" Ashlyn gets to Guadalajara...Dec. 16th

Yesterday Ashlyn flew from Salt Lake to Guadalajara.  She had a layover in Dallas and she got to call home and all of us got to talk to her.  It was wonderful!!  She sounds great, although she was very teary at hearing our voices. She has really bonded with her little group of Hermanas.  There are 9 of them that went together (one sister did not get her visa, much to their disappointment).  They will be the first American sister missionaries in the Guadalajara mission.  We are excited to talk to her again on Christmas and find out all the details of her arrival in Mexico.
I got an email late last night that simply said, "I made it safely and I'm alive! Love you!" 

Katelyn....Week 4

Oh my goodness I only have 17 more months left. That's right. It's all been fun and games up till now but I think two days ago I was just hit with this wall of feeling "anxiously engaged" and I love it. It's like my initial fears are gone and I am ready to just get down to the nitty gritty and learn Hungarian. It's hard for me because I've never had to actually sit down and go through tedious memorization exercises before. I was always fine in school because I am good at cramming for tests and I am good at understanding things conceptually so I could just figure things out. But with Hungarian I have to memorize details that just exist because they exist. It's an interesting challenge. I realized a few days ago though that the Lord is already blessing me so much because after I am done with my mission I will be able to use these skills with the LSAT or any other thing I've always wanted to do but have been too scared to try my hardest with. I am learning how to use a whole day and how to work really hard. And it is really, really fulfilling. 

Big event of the week. Ashlyn came up from West Campus to sing in the choir specifically so that she could see me one last time before she leaves. I knew that it was coming up, but I wasn't really emotionally prepared for saying goodbye and I didn't realize until she waved me down and told me right before the devotional started that this would be it for a year and a half. I am ashamed to say I could not keep it together and caused a little bit of a scene. I didn't try to, I just started crying and then we sang hymns and primary songs during the devotional and everything just kept reminding me of my baby sister and all the times we had sung together during my whole life. Also, I knew I wanted to write her a letter and give it to her after devotional so I sat there and cried and cried and wrote the letter and all the missionaries were like, "What is with that sister? The pressure of the MTC must really be gettting to her." I'm pretty sure the sister sitting next to me thought I was crazy but it's only fair because during choir practice I kept thinking that she was crazy since she kept moving her hand in time to the music and swaying and getting all into it and I was super annoyed. :) There's already a conductor; I don't need a crazy sister to lead the choir from the soprano section. Anyway, the sisters in our zone were super nice to me, and I was able to write my letter and still get some really great insights from the devotional. It was Elder Cook and it was a really, really good talk. I was very grateful for it. Afterwards Ash and I had a few minutes to ourselves (with companions in the background of course) and we got to say goodbye and then Ash started crying too, finally! So it was all very emotional and heartbreaking and the elders in my district were like, "What do we do? This sister is bawling!" and some of the missionaries in our zone still have no idea what happened to me, but I'm trying to spread the word. Everyone was very nice and the older elders who have girlfriends at home knew to just be sweet and one of them tried to give me chocolate. :) 

So that's the drama of the week. The Finns are leaving this week and we're totally heart-broken but they inspire us. We know that if they can learn Finnish we can learn Hungarian. We are getting more and more excited to leave for the field. There are so many people who need what we have. They are our brothers and sisters and this is a work that I will be involved with for the rest of my life; not just during my full-time missionary service. The Gospel is true. It brings joy to all who accept it. That's why a bunch of kids come here from all over the world and give up their lives for a little bit so that they can give to someone else what a missionary gave to their grandparents or greatgrandparents or maybe even their parents or themselves. Everyone here is here because he or she or one of their family members is a convert. It's so amazing to hear people's accents and life stories. 

To be continued...I have to run!!

Love you all!

Sister Naegle

Ashlyn sent pictures

Ashlyn in front of the Mexico City mural at the
airport in Las Vegas, where she went to get
her visa.

At a devotional??

Hermana Naegle and Naegle Nover at the MTC

Ashlyn....Dec. 7th

Well our trip to Vegas was fun but rather anti-climatic. We woke up at 3:50 a.m. to get to the Wyview chapel at 4:30. Our flight was supposed to leave at 8:30 but it was delayed until 9 because they had to blow the snow off of it. When we got there this service missionary named Elder Greer picked us up and took us to Del Taco to pick up lunch then we went to an LDS institute building and ate there and sat around for like three hours until it was time to go to the consulate. It was as impressive as we were made to believe. The consul was really nice he scanned our pointer fingers and then took our picture, I looked mad in mine. There wasn't a problem with my visa, they even used the paper that I messed up on. I got to see my passport for about two minutes then they took it away again. I'm OK with that its too much pressure to make sure I don't lose it so I'm glad they keep it safe for us although some missionaries don't really like it. Well we got back home at 10:15 pm and finally went to bed somewhere between 11:30 and midnight. We were so tired. The next day two of the other sister in our district left to get their visas at Salt Lake so now only one sister in our district hasn't gotten her yet. I'm worried that she might not get before we leave. Please pray for her. her name is Hermana Warburton. 

Our district is really close. Its been awesome only having hermanas in our district. We have bonded so much and we are a lot more obedient than the other districts. I love my district so much. I'm going to be sad to leave them. I know that they will all make amazing missionaries in Guadalajara. I can't believe we leave in 9 days!!!!! AH!!!! I'm getting nervous and excited and so many other feelings. My spanish is improving a lot but I'm no where close to being fluent. I do have the feeling that I will learn really fast once I get out there though because I'll be speaking it 24/7. We are the first American sisters going to Guadalajara so some of us will probably be training on our third transfer. EEK! But I'm excited to get out there and teach some real investigators! I love feeling the Spirit in our lessons. Its the best! It makes me want to go out and never stop being a missionary! Its really the best when you go in there and you know you've planned by the spirit and then you teach by the spirit and then you leave feeling accomplished and amazing and on top of the world! 

I love our teachers so much! Their names are Hermano Salisburry and Hermana Elsey. Salisbury went to Salt Lake spanish speaking and Elsey went to Agentina. They are both so amazing and know so much about the gospel and we can really tell that they care about us. 

Things have been slightly tough with my companion. I've been struggling with loving her and I haven't been able to figure out why since my nature is to be naturally loving and compassionate. Well when we were teaching Hermana Elsey as Carla it hit me why. I hadn't been feeling that she loved me back. She has a hard time opening up to people and really letting them know that she loves them. So I pulled hermana Elsey aside last night and just told her how I was feeling and that I didn't want to end this companionship with a feeling of relief that I wanted to be sad to no longer be her companion. She told me that her and hermano Salisburry had been worried about us and didn't know what to do either. She was really comforting and told me that I was doing a great job and to just keep doing what I was doing. We talked for like half an hour it was really nice I felt a lot better about I've been doing as a  missionary and she told me that I have really been progressing. AFter I talked with her my companion decided to talk with her too and I think they talked about the same thing. Hermana Elsey gave us some homework to have a REAL companionship inventory, so we did. I was really up front and told her exactly how I was feeling. I was a little nervous because I was scared that she might take it all a little to personally but It turned out really well. I said the prayer before we started and I prayed for the Spirit to be there and to be able to say the things we needed to say with out being offended and it worked! Prayer works! I have such a strong testimony of it! SO we both know that we don't love each other 100% but we are both working on Charity especially not being "easily provoked" (Moroni 11:45?) 

Well I'm out of time because I have to go get my hair cut at 10:15 but know that I love you all and that I think about you and I'm praying for all of you!!!

Adios!

Hermana Naegle

Katelyn...Dec 5th

Hello! 

Good news! We finally had a good lesson with our investigator "Ga'bor". It was such a relief. But then our next lesson with our other investigator didn't go as well because he had a question about what the Spirit feels like and we couldn't answer it Hungarian. :( Oh well, we will keep trying. 

It snowed all day on Wednesday so we pulled out our awesome coats with furry hoods. It was really fun. I don't know why, but the snow made all the missionaries really excited and happy. Probably because it reminds us of Christmas. And it was really pretty. I love my coat. It is super soft and warm....like a really nice blanket in coat form. And I really love my boots. They are plain but very, very comfortable and warm and they keep me from slipping everywhere. 

Right now I'm listening to the Finns and they are cracking me up because they're leaving soon so this week they can only speak Finnish. It's called Consecration week and we will do it before we leave. We had our first "Speak Your Language" day earlier this week. We were only supposed to speak Hungarian...yeah....it was interesting. But fun. I think the next time will go better. I always cheated by saying, Hogy mondjak (which means "How do you say....") before everything I said so that I could just say stuff in English. It really annoyed my District Leader. :) But don't worry, I put in a good effort and I think I will improve a lot for the next one. 

I'm getting to use my musical talents here. My companion and I and two elders from our district are singing Abide With Me 'Tis Eventide on Sunday. And I checked out the violin earlier today and played hymns for half an hour. It was so nice and fun to play again. I want to play in Sacrament Meeting sometime and maybe audition for a musical number sometime in the next few weeks. The violin here has a really nice sound. The bow is in pretty bad shape though....I just wanted to take care of it and fix it. I miss mine. 

Hope you all have a great week. I love you a lot. Thank you for the DearElders. Letters are the best. 

Much Love, 

Sister Naegle

P.S. Clarissa Morey got called to Bolivia! Sariah and I have emailed a couple of times. It's so fun to both be on missions now. So special.

Katelyn sent pictures Nov.29th

Katelyn....Nov.29th

Hello again. We're emailing today instead of Thursday because yesterday was Thanksgiving and everything was closed down so we had to find different times to do our p-day stuff. Yesterday was an awesome day. Elder Nelson spoke to us in the morning, and it was broadcast to all the Missionary Training Centers worldwide. My companion and I sing in the choir so it's possible that all the MTC's in the world have seen me singing in my bright yellow sweater. You know the one. :) We walked to the temple and sang a bunch of hymns in Hungarian, and then we returned for a Thanksgiving program. (Oh, and they fed us a very nice Thanksgiving dinner for lunch.) We were sitting close to the front and an older sister asked us if we would help in a skit, so I got to play an Indian woman in a super ridiculous Thanksgiving skit. My line was "How". It was me, Sister Erlandsson (my companion), and a sister from the Finnish district. We're kind of famous now for being the Indian women, and everyone made fun of us. :) Ash was in the front row and she kept laughing at me. Everyone had fun. The MTC really tried to make Thanksgiving fun for us. We ate a sack dinner because the employees go home for their thanksgiving dinner. We had a picnic in the room of some of the Albanian sisters and it was really fun. The Albanians and the Finns are super nice to us and we get along great! We're in the same zone/ward and we live on the same floor and have classes on the same floor and eat at the same time so we see each other a lot. They have all gone out of their way to make my companion and me feel welcome, which is nice because we are the only sisters in our district. 

After dinner we had a big service project and then we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue. All the missionaries got to watch it together in the big auditorium and it was super fun for everybody. In all these events I got to sit by Ashlyn a couple of times and we got to hang out for a good 20 minutes or so and take pictures and everything. It might not sound like a lot but 20 minutes is super long for a missionary schedule. 

Mom had a bunch of questions for me so I'm going to try and answer them.

P-day is Preparation Day. It's a day that we take off several hours to do things like laundry and shopping. We email for an hour on p-days. While we're at the MTC we get to go to the temple on p-days. We've been once so far, and since the temple is closing for maintenance, we'll only be able to go one more time before we leave. Maybe two more times. It was really awesome when we went. We went in the morning last Thursday with a bunch of missionaries from our zone and it was so relaxing and uplifting. It was so wonderful to feel of the spirit there and remember that one of the most important reasons we are on missions is to help people come unto Christ so that ultimately they can be sealed to their families in the temple and live with them forever. 

It was funny because during the session, one of our teachers walked in to help and I was so confused because I thought for a second that he was there as part of the MTC experience, like to check up on us or something. Turns out, he just happens to volunteer at the temple every Thursday. Threw us all for a loop.

My companion arrived the same day I did. We are the only ones in our room, and I'm pretty sure it will stay that way because there are some empty rooms in our hall. We are the only ones with just two in a room. The Finns and Albanians all have four per room. They've been here for three or four weeks and we're going to be sad when they leave. But it will make us excited to leave for the field ourselves. 

We have four teachers: Brother Grossen, Brother Runnells, Sister Moody, and Brother Beaumont. A lot of the time we call Brother Beaumont "Peter" (pronounced PAY-tare) because he was our first "investigator". We had to teach him lessons in Hungarian during our first week or so here, and it was horribly embarrassing for all of us because we knew so little and we thought he was actually Hungarian for a while because he wouldn't even speak Hungarian to us in the halls. So mean! But then he became our teacher and we all gave him a way hard time about it. He is super easy-going and fun so he's one of our favorites now.  All of our teachers served in Hungary between one and four years ago. They really love and care about the Hungarian people a lot and we like it when they tell us about the country and what it's like. Apparently the home-cooked food is excellent there. They will be our teachers the whole nine weeks, except Sister Moody because she is pregnant and will have her baby a couple of weeks before we leave. I'll try to get a picture of them and send it to you. 

Well, I've gotta run. Literally, in gym. Thanks for the packages and mail. Aunt Melissa, thank you so much for the gift. So clever! It is adorable, and I've already used some of the things. Browns-thanks so much for the treats! I felt so special. :)

I love letters and DearElders! It makes any day 100% awesome when I get something in the mail, so if you've got a minute, type up a dearelder at dearelder.com and let me know what's going on in your lives. 

I love it here! Please pray for me and my companion that we'll start getting really good at giving lessons. It's still scary to teach in Hungarian but we're getting better. Thank you all for your prayers and love. I love you! 

Until next week! Love, Sister Naegle

P.S. The Christmas lights are up now! So pretty and special.

Ashlyn sent pictures! Nov. 30th

Ashlyn....Nov. 23rd

We've actually heard quite a bit about the typhoon in the Philippines. One of the Hermanas in the District read a letter from her friend's mom about her daughter who was there. Probably in the same place as Jordan. It was miraculous that they survived. Their apartment flooded and they had to climb out onto their roof to stay alive. Then they had to hold on for their lives to keep from being blown off. After the typhoon the people started going crazy and there were gun shots everywhere. A member of the church who had a plane recognized the missionaries and that they were trying to get out and made several trips to fly them out. It was an amazing story we all cried when we heard it. Thats so touching about Jordan. I hope he's alright and that he'll be able to go back out on his mission. 

I have to apologize about not sending a letter last week. I have repented and I'm sending several out today. 

Also thank you so much for the camera! I've taken a couple pictures but I will send them to you next week. I want to get one with my entire district first. 

So about my leg I just strained it lunging for the ball in 4 square. It's not a big deal but the doctor wanted to send me in for some physical therapy. It only hurts really bad after gym so I figured I would take care of it before it turned into something worse. When the lady called you I was in the room and I heard your voice! I had to really control myself to not grab the phone and talk to you. I almost shouted out that I was there but that wouldn't have been professional. It made me a little homesick for the rest of the day but not too bad. Elder Harrell bought me a Twix to make me feel better.  He's one of our zone leaders.

I would love some ortho sport. My back is really tight and I think that I just need to start massaging it before I strain my back as well. Also some lemon oil would be great and peace and calming. I'm not sleeping very well and I keep waking up. I've been praying that I won't be tired. I still wake up during the night but I'm not as tired during the day. 

My companion and I have bonded over a trial that we both have. I have found that if I just take time to talk to just her she's OK for when I talk to others. She is definitely a type four. Imagine a grown up female version of Jacob....She is really great though and I do love her a lot. I have been seeing the reasons why we are companions lately and its given me courage. I do miss my alone time. That's probably the hardest part about having to be in a companionship I can never just be in a room by myself which as you know I really like to do :) . 

So our meals are all really early so by the time we get back to our apartment we are starving! If you could send some snack foods that would be great! I would love some cheddar sun chips they're my favorite...

Well expect some letters in the mail! I love you all so much!

Hermana Naegle

Katelyn's first email...Nov. 21

Hi everyone! I'm so glad it's finally p-day so that I can write you! (And finish moving into my room.) I'm on the main campus of the MTC. I share a room with my companion, Sister Erlandsson, in one of the "residence" buildings. My companion is an awesome T1. She's a cutie, and she reminds me of Sariah a lot, partly because she has dark skin and curly hair. Although she actually is part Mexican. :P hahaha. We are the only sisters in our district, and there are six elders. Two of them are international. One is from Germany (Heilein Elder) and one from Austria (Hoferl Elder). they are really awesome for learning Hungarian from English teachers. We all love them because they have accents and they are so funny. Actually, everyone in my district is really funny which is not always a good thing since we end up spending a lot of time laughing our heads off instead of learning Hungarian. I think we might be getting a bad reputation for being the loudest district. :) but we are learning a lot. The very first day our teacher had us learn to bear a short testimony in Hungarian. We spend almost all day in our classroom being taught or having personal study or language study, so we've spent a ton of time together and have gotten to be friends. We are all bummed right now because one of the elders flew home this morning because of a worthiness issue. We miss him but his goal is to come back in six months so we're all praying for him and looking forward to serving with him in the field. 

I am lucky because I haven't struggled with homesickness. Some of the missionaries here have a really hard time the first week. I saw Ashlyn again though, and I totally cried a little. We were so excited and I was trying to find everyone in my district so they could meet her. They all think that we look exactly alike. What!? 

Anyway, the food here is totally fine. I was worried before I came but there are always fairly healthy options and I'm pretty sure I've lost weight. We get to work out for an hour each day so I always try to make it count. And I'm buff!! I've been trying to learn how to do the machines. And on one of them (a leg press, I think?) you can only go up to 400 lbs and since that's what the elders were going for i decided to see how high I could get and I got to 380. Super proud of myself. 

One miracle I've had is that I haven't had any problems with low blood sugar, which is amazing. There isn't really time to eat a snack in between meals but I haven't had a problem. I have a testimony that when you follow the rules, the Lord blesses you to be able to do everything. I am learning Hungarian, but it definitely takes faith every time we have to teach a lesson in Hungarian. I was feeling pretty bad about how I was doing during lessons so I finally talked to my teacher about it and she made me feel a lot better. I'm a lot more motivated now to learn everything I can.

I love being a missionary. I am already so sad that I only have 18 months. I love learning and the spirit comes so quickly here whenever you invite it. Personal study is one of my favorite things. I have had more insights into the scriptures in the last week than I have had in months! The Gospel is real. None of us would be able to do this if we didn't have a testimony. I can feel Heavenly Father helping me through every step of every day. I love you and I hope you are having a wonderful time getting ready for the holidays. Hope to hear from you soon! 

Much Love, 

Sister Naegle

P.S. Tell the YW thank you for the package. It was SO fun to get it. Everyone was jealous. :)

Week 2 from Ashlyn.....Nov. 16

That's so awesome about Josh being so social and Jordan getting invited to a birthday party. Tell him he has to go it will be really fun! 

So I have gotten to know my zone a lot better. My nickname is "madam susio sister training leader ma'am" susio means dirty/sneaky it makes me sound like some mean crazy old lady.... (and yes there's a reason for the susio part but i'll tell you in my letter) I'm trying to get the Elders to change it but they are pretty stuck on it. Well I'm planning on writing a letter with more personal stuff in it. So you can tell Mikaela to be looking for one in the mail. Tell her that I love her letters they make me so happy! Also if you could send me some more stamps I'm afraid I might run out before I leave the MTC. Also what kind of stamps will I use in Mexico? U.S. stamps or are there some type of international stamps? 

Thanks so much for the camera! I'll be looking for it on Tuesday. I'm so excited to send you pictures of the MTC its actually kind of pretty. I saw Katelyn on Wednesday! It was only for a few minutes but it was cool to see her. She looked so pretty and excited to be there. Did she cry when you dropped her off? becasue she didn't look like she had. Well I'm so proud of her and she will be an amazing missionary. 

I might not see her again in the MTC though because our zone has already been invited to the main campus to watch the Sunday and Tuesday Devotionals. L. Tom Perry came on Tuesday. It was a great devotional. He talked about how important companionship study is and being with your companion. Speaking of companions I must tell you ours is good for the most part. However on Sunday she kind of had a break down about how she had felt left out when we walked back from the main campus after the Sunday Devotional. I don't really know what to do. I like talking to the other missionaries and its not like we don't spend enough time together during the week. She's not big on socializing so our P days are mostly work work work.... I just want to talk to other people! when i do though she doesn't join in but just stands to the side impatiently and I start feeling really bad that I'm having some fun. I think she's a bit shy.... (I still haven't decided what type at this moment i'm leaning towards a 4/2 but I still haven't dropped the idea of her being a 1).  But other than that its really good. We work well in lessons together and we are able to bring the Spirit which is probably our strong point. 

I'm a little bit frustrated with the language. I feel like if I was English speaking I would have the missionary thing down but its so hard to communicate in Spanish. I know that its going to be one of my hardest challenges in the beginning of my mission. We don't study it as much as I would like and I feel like everyone is progressing faster than I am and then they expect us to speak it like 24/7. I know I need to put more effort into it and its my goal for this next week. So I will let you know if there's been any change next Saturday. 

Well I can't think of much else to say. I received a package form the ward. It was really fun and was the second package I got that day! I love getting things in the mail it makes me feel loved and that people are thinking about me so tell everyone thank you for me. It was so thoughtful. 

Love, 

Hermana Naegle

Dropping Katelyn off at the MTC on NOv. 13th....yes I am crying!!

Ashlyn's first email...Nov. 9, 2013

Hola! 

Thanks for the email. The part about Jared made me almost cry! That is so sweet of him, he has such strong faith for a six year old. Its been really good here. We have one classroom where we spend most of our time. Its in an apartment bedroom and is tiny. It gets really hot in there despite how cold it is outside. 

We taught our first investigator last night. She's really nice and we committed her to praying twice a day. Tonight we're going to commit her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

What I need now is to be able to understand Spanish so that when I teach I know what they're asking and how to address their needs. 

I also really need my temple recommend its in my temple bag that should be in our room. Tell Katelyn that I'm super happy that she found shoes and that I'm looking forward for her to be here even though we might not see each other. Tell her that they keep you busy enough to not get homesick. Even though I think about you everyday I don't desire to go home. I know that I'm supposed to be here even though its really hard and I don't have time to just sit and take in the day. At least we have daily planing sessions and I know what I'm doing and when, which is really nice. 

I was wondering if you could also send me bobby pins? 

Well since you asked for lots of daily details here are some of them:

I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. the hot chocolate tastes funny. we went to go do our laundry and realized we didn't have any detergent, if you could send that I would appreciate it! I have to go see the "nurse" about getting my last Twinrix shot, but it was closed this morning, Its very cold and I'm glad i brought both my new jacket and by blue leather one. You do need your scriptures on the first day so tell Katelyn to bring them, she can send them home if she buys new smaller ones but its very embarrasing to not have scriptures. Spanish is coming. I'm making flashcards. I figure if I make a million flashcards I can learn a million words! So we'll see how that works out, right now I have about twenty. The hardest thing for me is understading what others are saying, but even that is starting to get a liitle better. My companion is really good at it. I have to plan district meetings twice a week and I have to ask people to give prayers and to "facilitate the conversation". I have a meeting thats supposed to train me on my responsibilites as the Sister Training Leader tomorrow. I don't know if my companion is supposed to come with me or hook up with another companionship. our district consists of eight sisters. Me and Hermana Ashbocker share and apartment with Hermanas Newbold y Ford. They are really really nice. I've been so blessed to be surrounded by amazing sisters. Our district gets along really well. WE have a lot of fun together and we've all said how sad we are that we won't see much of eachother outside the MTC. Right now 18 months seems like forever, but I know that it as fly by. These first three days have already flown by. Our teacher, Hermano Salisburry says he's really impressed with us. he's funny and sarcastic, but he's really good at teaching. he knows that he can't just tell us everything that we have to find it out for ourselves. He won't let us take anything except our scriptures into our discussions with Juana (our investigator) And Kyle Chipman (did I tell you that he's here? I've talked to him a couple times. He was really excited to see me. His spanish is ALOT better than mine, but he has been here for two weeks more than me) says that he can tkae whatever he wants! and other missionarios that I have tlaked to say the same thing. 

I can say a simple prayer and bear a simple testimony in spanish. Each time it gets easier and I'm surprised that they're not always the same I am somehow able to say different things each time. They are still very very short but you can still feel the spirit. 

Well I love you all!!!!! Adios!

Hermana Naegle

,

Tell everyone that I love them and that I think about them. Give Jared some snuggles for me and tell Jacob that I'm glad he's my brother. 

My P-days are Saturdays so that's when I will be emailing. 

Portraits we had taken of Katelyn the day before she entered the MTC

Dropping Ashlyn off at the MTC.

This is Sister Ashlyn Naegle being dropped off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. She will spend six weeks here learning Spanish before she heads to Mexico.

Ashlyn's missionary portraits....she's ready to go!