April 27, 2013

Hi Mom! 

I wrote you a letter just now, so I don't want to say any of the same things, but I will say that I am so excited to go to Poland. A tiny bit scared but that's only because it will be a change! Thinking about a year and a half from now have having to come home actually makes me want to cry... not because I won't want to come home, but because I will love my friends in Poland and the cities of Poland! But anyways despite my small fears, I really am excited to be doing this! I just have to constantly remember why! It's because I want to serve the Lord and tell others about this amazing gospel!

It's been sad to say good bye to our teachers and friends that we made here! The MTC has been such an amazing place! I've told you tons about it but it really is so cool to be surrounded be so many people speaking/learning so many different languages and learning about the gospel! There is no place like it here! One thing that I've learned and am REALLY going to learn in Poland! Is that I have to let go 100% to my pride! If i'm embarrassed to speak bad Polish, I'm not going to be a benefit to anyone! and if i hold back, I won't be helping anyone either!

I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow evening! I love you so much!!! (Kendall gets to call us tomorrow before she leaves for Poland on Monday- yay!!)

Love,

Kendall

 Kendall's Polish Teachers in the MTC, she has loved them all

Kendall with the teachers and students in her Polish Language Classes

April 22, 2013

Well first and foremost: I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!! We leave the MTC on Monday April 29th and fly to Amsterdam, which I hear is just absolutely beautiful! So that will be a fun 1 hour that we have there! And then we fly to Poland! Holy Cow!! I can hardly believe it!! So this will be my last PDay until I'm in Poland (so don't be expecting a letter next week from me because I'll be on the plane!) Which reminds me mom, could you send me a thing of peanut butter to take!? haha the very last package I might receive for QUITE some time! haha

Well this week was so fantastic! Last week I had a little bit of a roller coaster week. It seemed like every hour was changing between good and bad and then discouraged and then optimistic...it was actually quite exhausting! But this week my compnaion and I decided that we would make an extra effort to be as positive as we possibly could! And holy moley the change in this week was out of this world! One thing that I realized makes me so much happier is when I don't let myself get offended by things. When I am easily offended, I go into self pity mode, which then makes me think all about myself, which then makes me selfish, which then acts as a wall between me and the Spirit! And I cannot afford to have a wall between me and the Spirit! I need the Lord's help in EVERYTHING I do here! Literally EVERYTHING! When I'm wallowing in my own self pity, there is no room for the Spirit to speak to me because I'm just thinking about myself! So when I resolved to not take offense to things, I became worlds happier! I understood people around me better as I gave them the benefit of the doubt and feel all around happier and more optimistic! So there's my little self improvement experience I had this week!

This week, a big theme was being filled with good. Our relief Society speaker on sunday used the visual of squishing a water bottle that is empty and trying to squish a water bottle that is full. Satan cannot "squish" us when we fill ourselves with good and Christlike things! Each time you do something good, you add a drop of good to your bottle. The good things that you don't do or the things that you do that aren't necessarily good, do not take any water from out of your "good water bottle". When you tell your family you love them...that's a drop of good in your water bottle. When you clean the dishes without being asked...that's a drop of good in your water bottle. When you sincerely listen to someone...that's a drop of good. When you say a prayer...a drop of good. When you are grateful...a drop of good. The list goes on and on! Each time we do something good, we expand our capacity to have the spirit with us, which in turn makes us even more filled with good! When we are this filled with good, there is no way that Satan will be able to "squish" us!

I love you all so much! Keep filling yourself with good things and with Christlike things so the Holy Spirit can make your "water bottles of good" over flow!! I know He will!
Love love love! and talk to you next time from Poland!!
Love,
Sister Blake :)

P.S. Neilsons! I ADORED the package and the huge disney family photo! haha
P.P.S. I LOVED the package from Hudson's cute 1st grade class!! So fun!!

 Matching companions: Sister Barth and Sister Blake

April 15, 2013

Greetings!!

2 weeks left of this glorious place! Not counting down or anything :) I really do think I'll miss it once I leave here! But I really am so excited to get back into the real world!! The airport will feel like disneyland!! haha Lately I've actually been feeling like there is no point in me being here in the MTC and it was really hard to stay motivated this week. But on Sunday, something really cool happened. Like I mentioned in a previous email, I am the coordinating sister (or now called sister training leader), and yesterday, after a long day of feeling like I wasn't doing any good in the world, 2 different sisters came up to me and told me how much they appreciated me and looked up to me! Even though I don't even feel like I deserved this sweet praise, it uplifted me so much! I have been helping people even though I'm not in Poland! I have been making a difference! I was so grateful for what they said. They'll never know how much it uplifted me and how much I appreciated their kind words. They made me realize that I can make a difference wherever I am and in whatever I'm doing!

 

Another thing that got me pumped up about being a missionary was a devotional that we had last night. The speaker was the head of the media department in the church or something big like that and he discussed a lot of the things that the church has been doing to spread the word that Mormons are happy, loving people who believe in Jesus Christ. Some of the things they've been doing that are really big are in New York City and in London. The church has been making themselves in billboards and on busses in both of these huge cities! They have uplifting signs in subway stations and even a huge one in Time Square! He showed us the statistics of how many people viewed mormon.org from last year to after they implemented this campain this year and some of the numbers had an increase of over 100%! It's so amazing!! And it got me so excited that I'm serving in Europe because there are signs EVERYWHERE in London right now! If any Polish person goes to London on vacation, they'll come home and have questions and we'll have answers!! I'm so excited that I have this amazing opportunity to change people's perceptions of Mormon's not only by what I say and how I act, but also by simply wearing Jesus Christ's name on my name tag! What an honor! This is a ONCE and a lifetime opportunity! and I'm so grateful to be apart of it!!

 

Something funny that happened is yesterday I lost my missionary ID card, and I went into a devotional and a girl behind me said: "HEY!...I have your ID card!" I thanked her for it and asked how she found it slash how she knew it was me? She said: "Someone was asking whose it was and I looked at it and said 'I know her! She has really big blonde hair and is a hipster!'"....what?!?! a hipster!??!! hahaha oh gosh...apparently that's the rap I've created for myself in this place...the curly-haired blonde hipster! ahhaha I was cracking up

 

Thank you mom, Ave 330 girls and Cami for the DELICIOUS treats!! SOOO delicious!!! Thank you so much for your thoughfulness :)

 

Everyone! I love you all so much!!! I pray for you always!

Love,

Sister Kendall Blake (the curlyhaired, blonde, hipster)

Kendall's roommates run into Kendall at the Provo Temple: Kate, Kendall, Elise and Maddie

April 8, 2013

Holey Moley! Is it really week 6 already!! That means that I leave for Poland in just 3 short SHORT weeks!! I have grown to LOVE the MTC soooo much!! There is a really special spirit here! There are thousands of young people all going to serve the Lord all over the world! People have put off education, jobs, friends, and even marriage to be here to do what the Lord has asked them to do! It really is such an amazing thing that this true church is beginning to reach every corner of the Earth! The Book of Mormon is a world wide book! My dream would be to see the Book of Mormon on the New York Times Best Selling book list! Wouldn't that just be the neatest thing ever?!

I don't know if any of you noticed it, but my district and I definitely did! There was a song sung during General Conference called "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise"...in the second verse, the glorious choir sang: "Ye heralds, sound the golden trump to earth's remotest bound. Go spread the news from pole to pole..." STOP! Pole to Pole! As in people in POLAND!!!! How amazing! The song was written for us!! As missionaries, I am a herald of the Lord! I am going to Poland to do His work and and helping and lifting and encouraging others and teaching them about the wonderful news that we have a Savior that loves us! I just can't get over how amazing it is that at this point in my life, while I'm on a mission, I get to be the Lord's angel...His messenger! to tell the world of this news! From POLE to POLE!

On that subject! how great was general conference? It was so amazing to hear all those talks about missionaries and the new missionaries since last October's announcement where the mission age was lowered! That I am here in the MTC watching the following conference session! It was really so amazing! I loved it!

Thank you Mom for the fun easter pakcage! And, thank you Makena for delivering it!! Thank you Dad and Lu for the package too! I ate the cookies and they were so great!! YUMMY!!! And Megan, your sweet Easter package was so nice of you! Family, I love and miss you! Not in a distracting way missing you, but in a lovingly keep you in my prayers!

Until next week!!

Love,

Sister Kendall Blake :)

my method of learning the vocab ;)

April 1, 2013

Hello all family and loved ones!!

 

Happy Easter!! I loved celebrating Easter here! Yesterday we had the coolest thing happen! All the missionaries were in one huge room and they had Sacrament meeting in there and they passed the sacrament to 3000 people! The person that spoke to us was the General Presiding Bishop...Bishop Causse! (big deal!) It was pretty great! I watched the following video about 10 times this week! Every single time it makes me cry! The video shows a depiction of what it would've been like to be in the Americas after Christ was risen! You can read about this account in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi chapter 11. It just testifies to me so strongly that Christ really did come to this Earth and really did visit his "other sheep" (John 10:16) who were in ancient America! He knows us and cares about us on such an individual level. Please go watch this video:

 

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/book-of-mormon-presentations?lang=eng&id=2007-01-0008-my-joy-is-full#2007-01-0008-my-joy-is-full

 

I hand typed this link ^^ so everybody better watch it! :)

 

In addition to Easter, this week has been a good one. I've been trying to learn how I can have a positive attitude about every day. Somethings things can get a little discouraging or people might irritate me a little bit, but I know that I won't be as happy and won't have the Spirit as strongly if I let these things get to me! So I have learned a way that helps me to have a good attitude. Every time someone is bugging me or I'm just in a funk, I say a prayer and ask Heavely Father to make me joyful and to bless me with His Spirit. Then I read my scriptures for a little bit. Everytime I finish reading my scriptures, I always feel so much better! Something else that happened that was a neat learning experience this week was that I was just annoyed with my self and my hair was irritating me and my clothes were itchy (all really silly and vain things to be worried or annoyed by!) but I just resolved in my mind that as soon as I walked through the classroom door, that this was going to be a great day...and guess what!? It DID turn out to be a great day! I got to know my teachers on a more personal level, I understood the language lesson, and it was absolutely gorgeous outside! I loved that expereince! Every day we have can either be a good day or a bad day based off of how we THINK it is going to be. One more really neat experience this week was this: I was called as the coordinating sister (which means that I got to welcome in all of the new elders and sisters this Wednesday!) It's been such a blast! I love getting to know them all and it seriously is an assignment from heaven because i have loved making new friends here and now my assignment here is to just make friends! It's the best! But anyways, I have to leave my companion for a little bit sometimes and go on splits with the zone leaders...so we're in a co-ed three-way companionship for just a couple of hours...but they had to go into the male residence hall for a minute and I was left outside...at night...completely alone! I know I know...what could happen on the MTC campus? But it was still a little unnerving and I just felt so vulnerable! That night, as I was saying my nightly prays, I was still sort of shaken up about it for some reason, and I asked Heavenly Father to comfort me from this weird and vulnerable feeling I was experiencing...I continued to pray for other things but I all of a sudden was overwhelmed with gratitude! The prayer turned into me not even asking for anything else and just feeling so grateful for everything! I know that the Lord blessed me with this attitude of gratitude because He knew that I would be calmed down and peaceful if I remembered everything good! It was truly so amazing! If any of you who are reading this are feeling a little unnerved or something is just off, pray that you might be grateful and start counting your blessings! I swear that this works!

 

CARLI, BAILEY, and NICOLE got here this week!!!! I got to greet them and it was sooo awesome!!!! I was so happy!! I saw them all within like 30 seconds of each other! What a sweet reunion it was!! I get to see Nicole every day at meal times! And I see Carli super often too!! Bailey I don't see as much but when I do it's really fun! This is the new BYU here! haha

 

Funny thing this week: My companion and I were on my top bunk bed about to say our companionship prayer when we got to talking about some other things and got distracted... after our conversation Sister Barth said: "....hmmm...what was I going to say?" .. me: "...Dear Heavenly Father...??" Maybe it was funnier if you were there but we were cracking up!!

 

Well, I love you all so much!! I hope things at home are going well!!

Kocham was! (pronounced "koe-hahm-vahs"...meaning i love you all!)

Siostra Kendall Blake

 Carli Stone (cousin), Kendall, Nicole Hawkins

 Carli, Kendall and Nicole

Kendall, Nicole Hawkins (friend from Laguna and BYU), Bailey Tibbitts (friend from PCHS)

French speaking missionaries that Kendall has become good friends with in MTC