Al Otro Lado Del Cielo

Hello everyone!  

First of all, I want to apologize for not writing ANYone back. I am so so sorry. There is literally NO time. Even on P-day. Can you please tell Julie Holman that I love her so much and please don't hate me?! And THANK YOU SO MUCH for the chocolates, the mustaches, the bug lotion!!! (saves my poor legs) and the CD! We listen to it every day! Thank you so much!!  Also AMANDA CONGRATULATIONS! Your baby is going to be so cute and I am SO excited for you!! :) 

Okay so Hmm let me look in my planner, what happened this week...

Dinner with Griselda was great! She made fried plantaines. It was so cool! Pretty much everyone we eat with serves chicken, rice and beans in some sort of different way to put it together haha. I love mexican food. Her life is really sad but she is so happy to be a member now. its great seeing the gospel really bless peoples lives. we have a movie night coming up and we are watching "Al Otro Lado de Cielo" the other side of heaven in spanish and have invited a lot of less actives, and hopefully we will have a good turn out! We visited a lady who has been less active for a very long time, and we asked if her daughter who is 10 wanted to come out of her room and meet us, and asked her if she wanted to come to our movie night and to church and if we could come by and teach her (she isnt baptized) and she said "yes! please mom?" it was so sad because it seemed like the mom was making excuses but then when we asked the daughter herself, the story was different so we are going to start teaching her! she is soo cute.  That is the Cantu Family. The mom is the only one baptized. um also the daughter of the Garza family, the one whose phones we used for mothers day,  have a daughter who is about to be a senior and wants to go on a mission, she came with us to visit another less active who she knew when she was little and she said it was so sad to see her and that she was so different :( I hope they come back to church. we found 6 new investigators this week! thats the most we have ever gotten in a week and taught the most lessons we have since ive been here! one family said that they always sit outside and always see us, but was sad that we had never went over to talk to them, and when we finally did and they were so happy! They told us that "we look like 6 yr olds" in spanish it means more like you have a pure countenance. They told us "you can tell that you are close to God. please pray, I know God will hear your prayers" it was cool! You can totally tell the people who are ready and willing and the people that are... flojo. I dont know the word for it. lazy? Pedro is still stubborn and wont pray, even when we arent there... but we keep trying. Just trying to work with a lot of less actives and the new people we have found!  A lot of people love to just listen and to compare the differences with their church, but arent really interested, its hard to know what to do in those situations. but we teach everyone who is willing to listen to us, any maybe their hearts will change. I looked in my planner and its mostly nothing exciting, I think thats because we have been finding a lot of new people to teach. also I ate dinner with the Ferrins yesterday. That man is so interesting. haha he is jealous that dad married a bolivian, he wishes he did... that was awkward when he said that.... really awkward. He also told me to tell dad: he found our information he would like to know. the lady with all the guinea pigs... who didnt want her kids to get baptized... he found out why.... and it was because she was afraid her husband would take them away from her. I dunno... just passing the message on haha.

what are the odds that he is in my ward?! so strange. he is in the stake high council so i hardly see him at church. he is married to a mexican woman who doesn't speak english so thats why they are in a spanish ward, they have 3 kids and the oldest is 10 i think... anyways he is funny. he also said. i dont know if you were aware but your dad spoke very very good spanish. everyone was surprised when he would speak. so hey- compliments to dad! haha he was also trying to teach me to speak ketchua... uhh... anyways. thats all i can think of. 

i love you so much! thank you for your prayers and your love! take care :)

hermana dedrick

Sorry for all the spelling errors... hopefully that email made sense. we were trying a former (that is how we find all our new investigators) and kept trying her but she was never home but her son always was. the first time we contacted him he said he wasnt going to answer to door but did. then he started telling us deep stuff about him, and he said i never tell anyone anything, its hard for me to open up. and I said" well hey, you really opened up to us! why do you think you did that?" and then he realized that he had haha and was like "wow, hm. i have no idea." so we told him about the plan of salvation and came back another day and his mom was there! but he wasnt. so we talked to his mom (the initial lady we were looking for) and eventually he walked in the door! so we talked to them together. He asked us how to pray and gave us a return appt! im excited. hes super great, super timid and shy. he is a huge kid, 25 with a 5 yr old baby. his wife who he is now divorced to, got married when she was 17! what. crazy. anyways. thats enrique and leticia. and they are pretty cool- im excited to teach them.

Cinnamon Rolls Do The Trick!!

Pedro and Victoria.

Say No To Drugs, Say Yes To Tacos!

One of Krista's Dad's old mission
companions, Kevin Ferrin,
is in the ward Krista is serving in!!!

Holaa!!!!! :)

So last Monday we had FHE with Esmiralda and Christopher (the one who we made a cake for). It was okay.... they are such a great family.  We were trying to get her daughter to join in on the lesson but she wouldn't. Esmiralda had Lendy when she was 18 and Lendy had her first kid when she was 15!!!! and Lendy is now 26. CRAZY. We also have been meeting with this girl named Nancy, and I love her!!  She questions everything and claims that she is a pagan. but we just think she just says that because she likes the idea of it haha but she is the only person that actually keeps her commitments! I love it!  She prays every day and reads, too!  She is super smart and I love it!  We also have been teaching Pedro to read and we have also been teaching him to pray for over 6 weeks and he still has been refusing to pray out loud, but last night we got him to pray!!!!  Well, sorta.  We pretty much forced him to! While hermana flores kept trying to persuade him, I knew that wasnt going to work so I just got on my knees, and pretended he said "ok" haha so everyone else followed me, and waited and he still wouldn't, so Hna Flores said "repeat what I say" so she said "Dear Heavenly Father..(in Spanish)." "Now what are you thankful for.." and he just went from there!!!  It was so exciting!!! We also invited him to be baptized.. I'm not sure what he said, but I think it was along the lines of "eventually" ...we'll see.  Last night we also invited Sandra to be baptized... I'm not sure what she said either... I think she needs it to be explained a little bit better. I think she will though. she said "pues, si, pero, i was baptized when i was a baby in the catholic church,"  so anyways... we will explain it better next time.  We ran out of time because we had to be home, but that is exciting!  We also had to go on another transfer with an English sister which is sooo frustrating. because my companion knows just as much Spanish as I do, so in one of our lessons... well it was just really not good.  We had a lesson with this man named Dolores, and it did not go well, but we went back to teach him again and apparently we thought we told him that we were going to bring him a gift (a Book of Mormon) and he thought we were asking for an offering. oops. There is also another family, Joaquin and Brenda, they are not married, but Joaquin was baptized 6 years ago with his active family that lives next door. He is not active, so we have been teaching his "esposa" Brenda. And we got them to go to church on Sunday! It was so great! We brought them cinnamon rolls at 8 and they showed up at church at 9!  It was so perfect!  Hopefully our lesson with them tonight goes well.  Well that's about it.  We meet interesting people all the time... OH YEAH so we were waiting for a member who was coming with us to Brenda's lesson and guess who walked right in front of our car across the street!?!?! CARLOS!! We have been trying and trying to get a hold of him but he wouldn't answer or return our calls!!!! So I jumped out and yelled "Carlos!!!! (with a big smile of course!) Como esta!!?!?!" and he points at his watch and says something and keeps walking.... so I say NO NO!!! COMO ESTA! and I motioned for him to come over but he kept walking. REALLY?! I was SOO bummed. and mad. how rude! anyways. hahahah. i guess that's life. Sorry buddy! There goes your salvation. But yep! That is all I can think of for now. OH and on P day since it was a holiday we weren't able to email!!! So instead, we used that time and went to the bakery!! It was this HUGE building - kinda like a candy factory, but it was a bakery factory! with Mexican baked goods!!! It was so fun! Oh and a woman named Griselda got baptized! Hermana Flores taught her a little bit and then she was supposed to get baptized, but she went to Hondouras and when she came back she got baptized! So she is feeding us tonight.  Also, Elder Davis who has been here for like 9 months of his mission and baptized 10 members in our ward, is leaving today, so they had a party for him and forced me to eat SO much food. I was full for 2 days. The people here are so fun, I love them. I hope everything is going well! 

I love you so much! 

Sister Dedrick :)

As I Have Loved You - Love One Another

Happy Birthday to Christopher!

The sisters made Christopher a cake for his 12th birthday.

Hola mom! 
     How was taking Tommy to the MTC?! How did it go!? Are you still in Utah? How was the weather there? Was it hot?  It's super hot here! I drink water all day long and don't even have to go to the bathroom (guess how much I sweat!?) Its in the 90s and humid :) 

I don't remember if I told you, but we are teaching Pedro to read. It is hard for me because I am not good at Spanish! Haha so I am learning with him. We taught him the vowels and added some other letters to the vowels. He is a super slow learner, but hopefully he will get it! And then gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon! 
     We had zone conference with our mission president, that was super awesome! 
     We have been finding a lot of less actives. It seems that all the recent converts are less active, but also there are a TON of less actives that haven't been found in years and years (10+) so we are trying to work our way in. Some of the stories are really sad. We found Maria Cantu (EVERYone's name is Maria) who is a mom and she is the only one baptized in her family and she is just super bitter. We didn't know much about her before we started teaching the 1st lesson, so we taught about how the gospel blesses families, and she got super defensive and said that her family can't be together forever because they won't go to church or be baptized, so that we were talking about something beautiful that she could never have. It was so sad. We invited her to be an example to her family but she was too bitter, but we are going to keep going back to try to soften her a little. I really hope she will come to understand the Atonement more. I know that would really help her. 
     We have found so many less actives! Some by accident too.  We live in the poorest city in Houston (so I have been told) in the poorest ward and so the ward here is very ... well they kind of know it and don't value themselves. They all have a bad attitude and want to be in other wards, I think that is why a lot of them don't come to church or ANY activity. More than half of the ward is less active. Way more than half. So we are working on that a lot. We are planning an activity that is a movie night. We are going to watch The Other Side of Heaven and have pizza and popcorn.  We  are encouraging everyone to come and bring their family, extended family and friends, in hopes of getting them excited about missionary work and also to help them get to know each other a little bit better. We are trying to change everyone's attitude about this ward. It is so sad. Esmirada and her son Christopher just got baptized in February and Christopher just turned 12 and got the priesthood!  We have been teaching them a lot, and we made him a cake for his birthday. They love us!! haha. They always feed us. We actually hardly ever get fed because no one will sign up for the sisters... we have 3 sets of missionaries in our ward... and everyone always signs up for the elders but not the sisters! haha!  It makes my companion really mad but I think it's pretty funny. Another cool thing- we kept trying to contact this former investigator, but she would never answer the door so we talked to her neighbor!   We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and he was super interested in the fact that God knew us before this Earth!  Hopefully we can catch him at home again. (It's super hard to catch ANYone home for some reason) I think most people don't have stable jobs.  I still haven't heard from Carlos at all!  I had bought him a super awesome tie! and Hna Flores had bought him a white shirt! So we are probably going to give them to a recent convert/less active. He doesn't like to come to church because every time he does they tell him he should be wearing a white shirt, and he doesn't have one. (no wonder there are so many less actives) I am really learning the importance of fellowshipping. It makes all the difference. It helps people feel comfortable and gives them the opportunity to find their testimony. They can't do that if they are not comfortable at church. But anyways, I don't have much else to say. Just working, sweating. Killing cockroaches. Every. Day. I feel bad for the elders. None of them have cars. I don't know how they're alive. I love you and hope you got home safely and that everything is great! 
Love,
Krista

Happy Mother's Day!!

Its like a mini library.... 

We put a Book of Mormon in it!

Sister Holman sent us moustaches so we had to try them on!

We got Julie's awesome package right after we learned that Carlos
was not going to be baptized after all.  We were so bummed,
 but this cheered us up and made us laugh!
THANK YOU SO MUCH JULIE!!

Hi mom!!! It was so good to talk to you! Sorry I didn't have very long to talk, and Im sorry I didn't really get to talk to dad or Tommy!!!! Tell him GOOD LUCK!!!! I am so excited for him. The MTC was SO fun and he is really going to love it there. Tell him to just have fun and enjoy every second of it because 12 days will go by so quickly. Good luck on your trip! I hope you have a good experience! Thank you so much for the pictures of Jace! I cannot wait to meet him! Aunt Anita said that Lane had to take a test the morning that he was born... how did it go? Is everything okay?  Julie sent me some powerful bug spray!!! So I am good now, but thank you so much! :) 

So about Carlos, we don't really know what happened, especially me, because I couldn't understand the conversation haha but apparently he works from early in the morning until 10 pm everyday but Sundays- and he said that is his day to rest and prepare- like do laundry and stuff. We haven't talked to him since early last week. However Pedro, I don't know if I told you about Pedro, but he is an older man that we finally got to come to church last week and also yesterday! He doesn't know how to read but we are teaching him how! Our first reading lesson is today. Which is cool. We are also teaching a Colombian lady who is a neighbor/friend of the Garzas. The work is extremely slow. All we do is knock doors because the ward isn't very helpful, and we just don't have many people to teach. We decided to plan a movie night and watch The other Side of Heaven and have the ward invite friends and get them excited about missionary work,so hopefully we can find more people that way. It was a very slow week but hopefully we can find some people soon!

Also thank you for the card! Julie sent me a ton of things from amazon, she sent me mustaches, and a cardboard cut out of Johnny Depp  and bug lotion and a million oreos!!!!!! Can you please tell her Thank you SOOO Much! They actually came on Thursday which is our 3 hour weekly planning session that wasn't going well, after Carlos told us he had to work on his baptism day... so it came just in time to make us smile while we were upset. Julie, thank you so much! Here are some pictures! This week we also had another exchange but it was with an english sister.... so we went down a nicer neighborhood where they spoke English but we didn't have    much success. We did find this cool mini-library though. The English speaking missionaries have a completely different experience than we do. Everyone we meet accepts what we say and praises God but they are stuck in their Catholic mind set- the English speaking missionaries encounter lots of baptists and other religions that just try to bible bash with you. Every English speaking person I've talked to says something about how we are evil for being racist against blacks (which is something i am so confused about- blacks and the priesthood? I don't even know how to explain that) and we exclude homosexuals, and we are polygamists. UGH! And they never listen to what we have to say. but the Catholics are nice- they just hide in their house when you come back. 

It was good to talk to you. I hope everything went well with Tommy's open house and farewell.  I wanted to hear more about that! Also what is his address?? I want to write him while he's in the MTC. Have a safe trip! I love you! And good luck tommy!!!! I love you so much!

krista

Tender Mercies

Krista with her district 
at the Houston temple.

The whole zone at the Houston temple.

Beautiful flowers from Julie Holman!
Sooooo sweet!!

Bikes loaded!  Sister power!

Hitting the pavement.

Bike up and down stairs - no problem!

Laundry + ice cream = p-day!

Hi Mom,                                                            May 6, 2013

Did you know that when it gets humid, lots of mosquitos come out? I counted 16 bites from one day :) Also my arm swelled up super huge! Haha but luckily it's not summer yet! So my companion that is training me refers to me as "The Bold One." Hahaha did you ever think I would be referred to as that? I have been blessed to have turned my shy-ness into ... well boldness I guess. Lots of people are rude and love to argue with you, but the ones that only speak Spanish are "soy Catholica" and they don't argue... well most of them. Some people are nice to talk to. Also, did you know that when someone has a baptism date, Satan works SUPER hard on them! Also, inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson, helps you weed out the people who aren't ready- which are the ones we are really looking for. We have had a lot of great lessons, but a lot of people we have had to drop. We teach lesson 1s (the restoration) 50 times a day, and are extremely lucky to get to lesson 2. Carlos Quintanilla has a baptism date for this Saturday!!! May 11th! I am so excited out of my mind!!! His story was a miracle. He was already found when I got here. Hermana Flores and Hermana Arcila were trying to visit a former investigator in the trailer park and Carlos walked past them and said "Hey! When are you gonna teach me!?"  They got creeped out because they had been hit on earlier, and it was dark, and in a trailer park... so they kinda shrugged it off but then he said "your church is the one that believes in apostles and prophets right?" So they went over to talk to him! Apparently he had been meeting with the missionaries when he was living in El Salvador a long long time ago. So they began teaching him! He was on lesson 3 when I got here, and so I got to teach him all the commandments and the Doctrine of Christ. So cool. I LOVE teaching him because he accepts everything we say- and always says yeah that is not a problem for me. Anyways I could go on and on but its so fun to teach him. We had him all prepared for baptism for the 4th but the ward had an activity planned on that day and so we had to push it to the 11th. So we have been visiting him and asking him if he has any questions in the reading. We are making sure to visit him as much as possible, like every other day, to make sure nothing happens. Hermana Flores is the coordinating sister training leader or whatever its called so she goes on 7 exchanges or more a month... I have already been on 2 and have another one today haha so on Friday we had an exchange with another trio so this time we had 2 companionships for our area, it was like a quatro-panionship. It was weird.  Anyways, we  planned to teach Carlos about the law of chastity that day but he was concerned about getting baptized!!! NOOOO but we talked him through it and he is getting baptized on Saturday .. I HOPE. I have faith. He is pretty solid. On Sunday he was asking about the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi and I was soooo confused because it was Spanish and I don't even understand those in English!! . As missionaries we always try to have a member present at the lessons... so we did this Sunday and they kinda explained it to him, but it was mostly Carlos explaining it to us!! Haha,  he is great.  I'm giving him the triple in Spanish that Dad gave me! He wants a D&C really badly but they don't give them to us, so I'm giving him mine, since I have a really nice one they gave us at the MTC.  We are also buying him a tie and a white shirt today. I'm super excited. Guess what!  I'm also singing at his baptism.. hahaha me.... singing... hahaha its ok though because Mexicans don't really sing very well so they will be used to it :) 

This past Sunday was just filled with miracles. We had another investigator come to church! His name is Pedro and he can't read! At all!!! He doesn't even know the alphabet. He is kinda oldish. we teach him every Saturday night. His wife works on Sundays so she can't ever come to church and that is always his excuse why he doesn't come- It was a miracle that he came this Sunday  He has been taught 5 times and we are barely on lesson 2. He learns extremely slow. But I love it. I think its great because he is amazed at how well I read in Spanish and how much i can say, and so he can relate to me because he can't  read Spanish, so its pretty cool. So he sat behind me and Carlos with a family that came with us to teach him. Hermano Jaime explained about Fast Sunday to him and invited him to Carlos' baptism this Saturday! (Which was what I was going to do after sacrament meeting)  and he is coming with his wife! boom! He said he is so glad he came to church and wished his wife could come to "feel" how beautiful it was there. AH MIRACLE! Ask me why! Because. Our ward is SUPER disfunctional- there are hardly any people in it. Last Sunday they prayed for the pope in the opening prayer. and in one of the talks, a guy said "repent or you're going to hell!"  Its also super loud with screaming kids and stuff. so I am SO SO thankful that he felt the Spirit. I was dreading that people were going to get up to bear their testimony about crazy things haha but it was good. ALSO we got 2 inactives to church that day!!!. We are bomb and the lord is great!!!  

Also I made it a goal to smile more because when I am sad or upset, I am bad at hiding my emotions and that day that I made that goal, we were knocking and a white lady answered the door and said, "you should leave, I'm a retired minister," and so we kept talking to her and she was so sweet and told us about how she helped her Mormon friend get ready for her wedding a long time ago and how she thought it was beautiful that we believed in families forever- and she said she could tell what kind of people we were through our smiles. Tender mercy- that that was my goal that day! haha anyways, i love it. This is great and there are so many miracles every day. Oh we also found a family that is inactive, we have met every family member of this family that could never be found- and so we are going to bring them all back to church! I'd say more than half of our ward is inactive.  Sadness.  Sorry there are so many typos, but I'm typing as fast as I can. 

Yes I got your packages! Thank you SO much!!!! I also got flowers from Julie!!! Please tell her I said thank you thank you thank you and so do my companions haha. She is so sweet!! We have new missionary training on Wednesday and I'm excited to see all of my MTC friends and see how they're doing! Anways. I have to email President Crawford now. I love you so much and I'll talk to you at 3 your time on Sunday!! 

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! I love you!

love

krista

ps. I'm going to mail you my pictures on a jump drive- it doesn't let me email videos because the file is too big. everything is bigger in Texas...

New Address!!!

Finally, I have a new address for Krista!  Here it is!

Hermana Krista Dedrick

 5718 Eskridge # 9

   Houston, TX 

     77023

Just got a brief update and a few pictures this week:

I'm in the Broadway 3rd Ward. Baytown is close but it's not in my area.

It poured and flooded on Saturday.  Carlos came to church this Sunday and is getting 

baptized soon. He's looking for his brothers and is going to try and get them to come. 

It's pretty cool. Things are getting better. 

Headed out to their 1st areas.

Hmmm, I wonder how that went???

Same shirts!  Hermana Post (on left) 
and Krista are both being trained
 by Hermana Flores.

Dinner at the mission home on arrival day.

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane!! Last P-Day at the MTC!

Me and Hermana Young

Hi Mom!                                       April 11, 2013

 I just got back from my last temple trip! I can't
 believe I leave on Monday- I'm freaking out!! 

 I'm sorry I will be calling you

 so early- I will get to the airport around 4ish 
here so by the time I get through security and 
everything I will probably have 30 mins to call 
at around 5:20 which is 4:20am California time... 
is that okay? 

I got to host the new missionaries yesterday! I 
got to wait by the curb and help them bring 
their luggage in and find their room and 
classroom! It was so fun and reminded me of 
when you dropped me off. I remember I didn't 
want to get out of the car!  Every girl I hosted 
hopped right out and barely said goodbye and
just  wanted to get inside! Haha I was totally 
opposite. It was fun.

This week was good. The time here is so 
strange. It feels like it drags on but at the same 
time it goes SO fast. And I am freaking out to 
go to Texas. I don't know Spanish yet!!!! Is it 
important that I know all the rules? Like 
subjunctive and stuff? I am so confused with 
it- I am hoping I will just memorize how to say 
things and pick it up that way.. hopefully that 
works!? 

Well, we had to practice teaching about porn-
ography in class yesterday.... IN SPANISH. I 
don't even know how to teach about that in 
English!? I had nooo clue what to say and it 
was awkward because I was practicing on an 
Elder. Um... any tips/advice? I have no clue 
what I'm doing sometimes. 

Also, did you know that there are cafeterias in 
Temples? Are they in all temples? 
We ate breakfast in the temple this week and last week. 
It was REAL food and not rubber fake food! 
It was awesome! haha. Also I saw Ryan 
Grochmal!!! Finally! It was super awesome! 
I so look up to that kid (Literally and not literally 
haha) He is learning Russian! I am SO VERY THANKFUL 
I am not learning a crazy language 
like that. On his name tag... those aren't even 
letters I can recognize. And the people learning Cambodian... 
their name tags are literally just squiggles. 
That takes a lot of faith- that I do not 
have haha. 

OH HEY I sent a letter about this because I was
 so excited! But Guess what guess what!!!!! 
So we have devotional every Tuesday night and 
I wasn't really paying attention in the beginning 
announcements but then all of the sudden I heard
 "Laguna Niguel" and I was like hey! Cool! And 
then he said Elder Tuttle. And I freaked out! I 
looked up and he looked so familiar! I think I 
recognized him from those Christmas cards 
they always send us! I didn't know they had a 
son Tommy's age! How cool Dad!!!!! Your best 
friend/mission companion's son and your daughter 
are in the MTC at the same time! I hope I can find 
him before I leave and take a picture with him!!! 
Also before I leave... what do I do with my extra 
stuff I don't want to take? I'll go ask and see if 
they will let me leave it here for you to pick up or 
for Jane to pick up.  I did see Katie Pope! 
(now Reselle, she got married) She works in the MTC! 
So cool! 

So conference was awesome huh! Wow. My companion was 
telling me to think of any kinds of questions that I 
had and that they would be answered during conference! 
I thought that was cool because I have never done that before. So 
of course I picked a question and Henry B Eyring answered it! 
I loved his talk! And it was also so 
neat because they talked about me and Tommy 
a LOT! The Lord is hastening His work! It was so awesome :)  
And that is so cool that dad invited 
his coworker/friend to watch it!!!! What kinds of 
questions did he have?

You know what has helped me a lot? My mission 
prep class. I learned SO much in those classes. 
I think I've learned a lot here but I learned the most important 
things in my mission prep classes.  

Hm well there is nothing much else to say- but
 that I am super nervous to go to Texas. Like 
really really really, but I am excited to not have 
to eat this food anymore.
Mom! I am so nervous! I heard that that part of 
Texas is pretty ghetto... Umm... I am..... not used 
to the ghetto.... and the swamps.... oh gross and
 there willl be milions of mosquitos... cockroaches! 
and bugs! ew!!!!!!! Anyways, I am just as 
excited as I am nervous... I think. Haha 

 I won't know my new address until Tuesday  
and hopefully they will let me email you and let 
you know, but if not, you can send anything to 
the mission home address which is on my blog! 


 Oh hey! You know what I just realized?! My friend
 Whitney Wright? Who is from Plesant Grove and 
was my first roomate? She is in the Charlotte mission!!!!
 Cool! Maybe you could look up her address for me so I 
can write her! Also... Has Mattie Warner gotten her mission call yet? Can 
you check on that too? Or Jayna? I have to know! haha Anyways, 
I love you so much!! Thank you 
for always writing me!!!! I love you! 
Email you again in a few hours :)

Love, 
Krista

Oh! Also, another cool thing we did! A lot of the 
elders had never given a blessing before so they decided they were going to 
give everyone a blessing before we leave! So I got mine yesterday! Some of them were super 
awesome- its just cool to see that the Lord entrusts that power in His young men. Its so neat :)

Only At the MTC

Hi Mom,                                                         April 4, 2013
So my companion, Lindsey Lockheart, is AWESOME and she wrote this from our experiences:

Well, it's official. This is my last P-day - I get shipped out on Monday. We leave the MTC at 3am. And then go to TEXAS! Yahoo!!! Am I excited? Absolutely. Nervous? You betcha. But this is going to be spectacular. I can tell. Texas is stupendous. Definitely the cooliest place ever, probably. As was well stated by my companion, "Ev'rythang's biggah en Texas. Encludin' my testimonay." For the record, she doesn't usually talk like that. Just when she is practicing her Texas accent. [Hahaha that was me]

So, with this being my last email from the MTC, I figured it would be appropriate to share with y'all some of the fun little things I have noticed about this fantastic little place:

ONLY AT THE MTC:

- There are 3,000 college students go to bed at 10:30pm.

- You can find teenagers singing the First Vision. In Spanish.

- Sometimes people will walk up to you and say, "I have to bear my testimony to you before I am allowed to use my email." Then they will proceed to do so.

- You might get asked on a date for two years in the future.

- There are backwards peepholes on all the doors that look into the rooms instead of out.

- Some of the boys here like to sniff old envelopes that smell like their girlfriends.

- A shower is a musical experience, during which you will treated to the vocal harmonies of all the girls in the surrounding stalls. And don't be alarmed if it is off-key, or if it is the same hymn over and over again. This is quite normal. At times you may be lucky enough to encounter someone country-fying "Secret Prayer."

- Water bottles in the gym present a fire hazard.

- Backpacks in the cafeteria are also a fire hazard. You are, however, allowed to bring the entire contents of said backpack, as long there is no actual bag around these items. This is entirely safe.

- It is possible you will happen upon the following conversation:

"Where did you serve your mission?"

"Hawaii."

"Oh, that's so cool!"

"Yeah, it was great. I would highly recommend it. Apparently the Lord didn't."

There's nothing quite like the MTC.

A spiritual thought for y'all: we are here fighting a war. A war between good and evil. But we have already fought this same war once before - we all fought together on the same side; we had the same Allies, and the same foe. And we won. We will win again.

Easter at the MTC

Las Hermanas at the Provo temple.

We love going to the temple!

Thank you, King Family!!

	Apr 4, 2013

Wow! Thank you for sending pictures! I always am sad that i miss this time of year when you getto pick all the fruit. Are the peaches almost ready? I am so happy for Tommy that he got his mission call!!! I am so excited for him!  I cant believe how soon he leaves!! I know for a fact, that all who are called- are called for a specific time. Everyone tells me you are called to a certain place for a certain reason, too, but I don't know that for sure yet, 'cause I am still in the MTC. But I know that we are all called at a specific timing and the Lords timing is perfect. Its called sacrifice. The Lord only upgrades. He only takes things away from you because he is going to give you something better. (Like everything I am missing while I am gone, and even missing Tiffany's wedding by a week...) This time to be a missionary and to be in the MTC is such crazy timing for me. I just think- there has to be a reason why I am here at this specific time. And I have learned so many times in the scriptures that (I think DyC 33:3 and DyC 138) He saved his chosen for this specific time, he saved us to gather Zion. It takes the elect to gather the elect. I have been told that within three months of my mission, I will be forced to be a trainer because every mission is doubling. At first I thought, are you kidding?! I am supposed be a pro within 3 months.. hahaha well that should be interesting. How crazy is that to think?! That I will be a senior companion and training brand-new sisters within 3 months... when I am still new myself. BUT I find much peace in these scriptures that tell me, I have been called at this exact, specific time, because The Lord knows that I am strong enough to do it. And it brings tears to my eyes every time I think of that. That He trusts me THAT much. Its crazy. I am one of his chosen ones, and Tommy is too. He will need to be a leader as well. I hope he is ready because ready or not it's happening!  AH it's so insane. The spirit here is so strong. I learn SO much and I don't want to leave. But at the same time, I am so excited to leave. I leave in 12 days.  

Oh, by the way, we got 2 new sisters in our room and they are both going to Tommy's mission, Charlotte, North Carolina!  Ah I am so jealous!! North Carolina ENGLISH speaking. He is going to love it. I am so excited for him, I can't wait to pick him up!!! 

So Easter in the MTC is the greatest thing EVER. I get Easter AND conference here. It's so cool. There is no better place to be (besides with you guys of course) than the MTC for Easter.

  Time here is so strange. It goes by so fast but also Sunday feels like forever ago. So Sunday was fast Sunday. We had a giant combined sacrament meeting with EVERYONE.  There were 3000 missionaries!!! That is the biggest sacrament meeting ever they said. It took 100 elders to pass the sacrament. Craaaazy! The spirit was so strong. Bishop Gerald Causse spoke about missionaries (Thats always the topic) He also spoke about the atonement. He said, as we experience the atonement in our lives, our desire to share it grows. We will be bringing souls unto repentance- we will desire their salvation. How cool! And actually I totally agree. I can't wait to love the people. He said the reason why love is so important in sharing the gospel is because love is a celestial respiration of the air of heaven. Wow! So that means, when we show love to others, it is showing them a taste of how heaven, and like you always say, Mom, it is only a taste of how much our Father in heaven loves them.

Then we had our own ward fast and testimony meeting. This was 4 districts so about 50 missionaries. It was the oldest district's last Sunday and the district just a week older than us' last meeting too because of conference, so it was super sad because I love them so much! But guess what. yep. I bore my testimony. In SPANISH. yep. I did it. It was super cool. I am so glad I did. The spirit was so strong. If I hadn't, I would have been so upset. I will bear it to you right now! I still remember what I said "Wow! El espiritu es muy fuerza aqui. Quiero decir muchas gracias por el ejemplo de nuestro missionarios. Yo se que cuando no puedes hacer muchas cosas, en es la verdadero- yo se que por medio JesuCristo todas cosas es possible. por que yo habla espanol aqui! Yo se que por medio la Expiacion puede limpiar al pecados. En el nombre de JesuCristo, amen." Okay so I think I said more than that but I don't really remember. Also, I can't spell very well haha It sounds much better in person I promise haha. :)  

Anyways then after that we had a devotional with Sheri Dew! She is so awesome!  I had no idea she wasn't married. But her talk has stuck with me and every day i think about it. It was about what I was saying earlier. We are the chosen generation. We have been set apart to gather Israel and are fulfilling King Benjamin's prophecy. We are on a divine errand and we are exactly where the lord wants us to be. We are in the middle of the time when he is hastening his work. If we ask, angels WILL minister to us.  Who could they be more interested in  than us who have been endowed with power to go forth to spread the good news of His gospel. I just thought that was cool. It helps me when I feel inadequate. Everyone we meet has been influenced by different things. I have been influenced by different things which is why I am here right now, but what about those we meet?  We don't know what millions of influences they have had . Also, what kind of influence am I giving?! - I am a rare influencer when I keep my covenants, I access the power of God. I am running out of time so i will wrap it up. She said that there are three things that Satan tries to get us with and that is 

1) He tries to confuse us as to who the Savior is. 

2) He tries to confuse us as to who we are. 

3) He tries to confuse us as to how to hear the Savior's voice. 

I know that now that Tommy has his call, he WILL have many more temptations. The adversary WILL be working on him as hard as he can, because he knows how much greatness he is going to bring about. and as long as he can remember those 3 things, it will be nearly impossible for Satan to have any kind of influence over him.

1.) The Savior has come to rescue us. He is not our last chance, He is our ONLY chance to feel hope, be healed, overcome insecurity and fear, repent, forgive. dissolve temptation, hatred and envy and receive exaltation. He will heal the broken-hearted, and the bruised.  The Savior is the answer and we can access His power by being obedient, by learning of Him, by making and keeping covenants by asking for His help and by leaving our fears and weaknesses on the altar. :)

2.) Know who you are. He is the father of your spirit. You are a child of God. He reserved the noble for the last days, to raise the noble and the FEARLESS to build Zion. He held the best for last. HE WOULD NOT SEND MEN AND WOMEN THAT HE COULD NOT COUNT ON to do this work. He is counting on you :) If we ask the the Lord, through the Spirit, he will tell you what he thinks of you. TRY it. I have. And it is the most incredible thing I have ever experienced in my life. Please do it. Ask the Savior to allow you to see yourself as He sees you. Ask to know what he thinks about you.

3.) The most important language is the language of revelation. Know what invites the Spirit and what drives it away. If you don't know how you personally can feel it, ask the lord to know how you personally can feel of the Spirit. plead for His strength and He will heal you.

So those were my notes from her talk, with some added commentary. (When I said 'I' it was me saying it!) haha so yeah. Dang it i have so much I want to write. This is so hard to only communicate once a week. There is so much I want to share, especially with Tommy. He is going to learn so much while he is here. I'm so excited for him. 

I was studying today and in the temple I learned so much. I love being surrounded by so many good people who I can ask questions when I'm confused, but i have some I want to ask you! Ihat does "the only begotten" really mean? because we are all his children but what is the only "begotten" mean? Also what does transfigured mean? I was reading in Mosiah 14-16 and i was confused haha  It's Isiah again! Anyways, I'll try and respond to your letters now. (sorry this is so long)

Love,

Hermana Dedrick