First Area

Stephanie's Mom, Kristin, here. I'm posting Stephanie's last letter and her new address in California:

I am here! Where is here exactly? Redwood City. When I first heard the name of where I was going, it reminded me of Arthur for some reason.

My address is 

1033 Jefferson Ave Apt #5

Redwood City, CA 94063

I would recommend sending mail and whatever else here because the mission office is a ways away and we don't go down there very often. Also, because of all the missionaries in our mission, forwarding mail from the mission office out to us is a little slow I think. just FYI.

I am serving in a Spanish Ward here (big surprise, I know). There are 6 missionaries assigned to the ward, 4 Elders and then 2 Hermanas (that's me). Our ward boundaries include 3 cities, but our area is just one city. The Elders cover the other two. 

My companion is Hermana Monical, she is 21 and from Wisconsin. We get along really well, she has been out for 3 Transfers. She was trained for the first 2, then she was transferred to Redwood City for 1 transfer, and now she is training me here in Redwood City. We are both still getting to know people, haha. It is great though, because she is really motivated to work hard so we are getting along really well. Her Spanish isn't much better than mine though, so we are learning Spanish together too. Generally President leaves companionships together for 2 transfers, so I am glad we get along. She doesn't have much experience in the field, but she knows a lot because she is a good missionary.

We do a lot of work with less active members in our mission, because there are a lot of people who are baptized and then fall away. We have a huge list of less actives that we try to go visit. Then we have our investigators, we have 6 investigators. Some are progressing better than others. Yasmin and Lourdes are progressing the most, Yasmin is basically ready to be baptized, and Lourdes, her mother would be except that she works on Sunday. She was introduced to the missionaries by her friend Olga Lidia, who is her coworker. Olga Lidia has a strong testimony, but her boss only lets her have Sunday's off once a month. It is really sad that their job at KMart is more important to them than coming to Church. Especially because they both have the desire to attend Church. I know that it is important for them to have jobs to provide for their families, but it is important for them to come to Church.

On Sunday, Lourdes actually got work off so she could come to church with us and Olga Lidia got work off too. It was great! It is so valuable for investigators to have a friend in the ward. It works a lot better that way. Anyway, after Church on Sunday we got permission to take all of them to the temple visitor's center. So Olga Lidia and her husband drove all of us up to the Oakland Temple Visitor's center. It was pretty great because we were able to help them feel the Spirit. Lourdes cried during the Christus Statue presentation. Then we had her watch a Joseph Smith Restoration movie. Then we talked a little bit, and then we just walked around the visitor center and the temple grounds. I was lucky to be able to go to the temple, which is out of the mission, in my first week here. Yasmin wasn't able to go with us yesterday, so we are hoping to take her up there soon. The temple is actually closed for construction right now, but luckily the grounds and visitor's center are still open.

Things are going really well overall, there are still some times when we have lots of people who aren't home when we try to come visit them, and those time are discouraging, but there are other times where we teach someone something and I feel so wonderful because I know that we are helping them to come unto Christ.

Keep me updated with how things are going! Let me know what questions you have for me. I forget what things I need to tell you because they become so routine for me. 

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

-Hermana Bair

June 8, 2013

We had a wonderful opportunity to be the group of missionaries who were shown off to visiting Baptist ministers. I guess it is fairly common for groups of non-LDS people to come tour the MTC and hear a little bit about what goes on here. It is less common for those visitors to be leaders of other faiths. Anyway, they came to the MTC, met with the MTC President, Elder Hinckley and a whole bunch of HR people here at the MTC and talked about our church and the missionary program. I guess there was a bit of tension about why our church is trying to "steal away" their members. In their opinion, we should be happy that they are good people who have come unto Christ and we don't need to be stealing them for our church. Anyway, after that tension, they came to our classroom. We were the 1 district of missionaries in the MTC they chose to show off. They came in and asked us questions..

"What would you say to me if you met me on the street?"

"Why are you serving a mission, paying for it, and delaying your education?"

"Why are you different than other young people your age?"

"What can we say to the youth in our congregation to help them be like you guys?"

"What do you do when you aren't in school?" (With further clarification, we found that he was asking what we did on Preparation Day.)

 

We answered all of the questions superbly of course! And basically the general answer, was that because we love Jesus Christ and we know he loves us, we want to make sacrifices to serve him. They were really impressed with us. (Our teacher was very proud and so were the MTC people). There was such a spirit of love in our teeny little classroom with tons and tons of people (more than were in the picture). We didn't even know until later that there had been some tension about the whole converting people thing. They also had us recite our missionary purpose, which was interesting because we don't really know it in English because we always recite it in Spanish. We struggled through it in English. We got the gist because we know it so well in Spanish, but the words weren't exactly the same. Then luckily they let us recite it in Spanish, and we did that really well. (Our teacher about had a heart-attack when they asked us to do it in English. hahaha. ) Every time one of those ministers opened his mouth it was to praise us for how much we loved God and how much they loved what we were doing for Christ.  It was pretty awesome. One of the guys was really sweet and he said a prayer and blessed us before they left. It was funny because he put his arms around the people next to him, and we all folded our arms and looked down. It was a little awkward for the Elder next to one of them, because they guy grabbed his hand, but then he was standing next to a Sister, so he obviously couldn't grab her hand. Also, after we took the picture, one of the guys wanted to hug each of us, including the sisters. We felt a little awkward, so we made it into a group hug kind of thing. We are pretty sure it was better than refusing to hug the guy. And since the President of the MTC was there, I think we are OK. Haha. (President Nally is in the bottom right corner of the picture). I am right in the middle, but I am standing between the two tallest guys in our district and I look really short.
Anyway, that was a really cool experience. I am very grateful for it. We got a little taste of what it will be like to be a real missionary who frequently gets to share their love of Jesus Christ with others.

HOLA!!

The days are all starting to blur together. I can remember things that happen, but I can't remember when exactly they happen. Last night in our room, we were trying to remember what had happened that morning and it was hard. We kept suggesting things that had happened this week, but on other days. Its weird. Eventually we remembered what we did in class though.

This week, especially towards the end, we have been really trying to speak more in Spanish. Yesterday we tried to speak for the whole day in Spanish. Most of us did really well. Our class average was 94.8% of the time. (I am pretty sure Hermana Braddy is using a different percentage scale than the rest of us or the average would be a little bit lower). It is so much easier to speak in Spanish when we have been talking in Spanish.

My companions are still driving me crazy, one in particular, but we are learning how to deal with her and I am doing A LOT of praying. On the first day they told us we must always pray in Spanish, so that is what we do. It is weird to go to a devotional or something and hear a prayer in English. Also, sometimes things come out in Spanish without me even noticing that I am speaking Spanish. That is true, especially for little things, some of the more complicated sentences are a different story. Anyway, the Spanish is going really well. Pretty soon we will have covered all of the grammar concepts in class then we will focus solely on reviewing and practicing.

Each week that new missionaries enter the MTC, I see more peope that I know. It is really weird. Especially when it is people that I didn't expect to see. Haha

The food in the cafeteria is okay. I don't really enjoy much of it.  Usually it is okay, or decent, but occasionally there is something so disgusting that we dont eat it. There are different cafeteria lines to choose from for food so that helps when there is something gross for lunch. Because we have no choice but to eat in the cafeteria, usually I just suck it up and eat what is there. I think I pretend to like it so that I can survive. :)

I still love the other two Hermanas in our district. They are both great. I think we will be friends after our missions. Which is a plus, because Hermana Ruesh's family lives in Hawaii and she invited us to come visit her after our missions. I am totally going to take her up on that! I just have to pay for a plane ticket and I am good. :) Haha. I would like her even if she didn't live in Hawaii though. Funny thing though, Hermana Bumstead doesn't like Hermana Ruesch. I am not sure exactly why they don't like each other, other than that their personalities are different. I also like Hermana Gwynn a lot. She is wild and crazy and loves to sing all the time.

Love, Hermana Bair

Letter dated May 25, 2013

Hola Familia!

Things are great here in the MTC. We are done teaching Ricardo, and next week we will start teaching David and Octavio (again, our teachers acting as investigators). Our teaching skills are improving, and we have found that if we help Hermana Braddy practice before the lessons, she participates more. Which is good, even if she is basically reciting memorized phrases and can't deviate, because at least she isn't just sitting there awkwardly. I feel bad for her because our teacher, Hermano Finley refuses to speak anything but Spanish to us while he teaches and I think she understands less than 10% of what he says where I understand 99.5% of what he says. Luckily Hermano Salisbury, our other teacher, speaks to us in English sometimes or there would be more breakdowns happening.

Our district is hilarious. Almost all of them are pretty great. We laugh a lot, which is awesome. Hermana Gwynn especially laughs a lot, and she has a loud laugh that is hard for her to stop. It is the kind of laugh that makes other people want to laugh too. Here is an example of a funny moment from our district.

Hermano Finley is teaching about some grammar principle, (indirect vs. direct object pronouns). He uses the word verbed in his explanation. Then he explains that lots of Spanish speakers don't follow this rule, so you will have to learn or modify your learning based on what you hear in the field so you can communicate well. Then Elder Ludlow complained about how ridiculous that was. Hermano Finley said that no one speaks well in English so why can you expect Spanish speakers to speak perfectly. Elder Ludlow: "At least I don't use the word "verbed"? (We all laugh). Then Hermano Salisbury says "Elder Ludlow, how are you doing?" And Elder Ludlow says: "I'm doing good?" And we all laugh more because he made one of the most common English mistakes ever.

Anyway, I'm sorry that it probably isn't that funny to read, it was funny at the time.

Hermana Ruesch tends to say things that she doesn't quite mean the exact way they come out and then the Elders twist her words to meet their own purposes. I think they have teased her about having a crush on half of our district and hating half of our district at this point even though that is not really true.

So our schedule is super wacky...

6:30 Wake up

6:45 Breakfast

7:15 Class

10:15 Personal Study

11:10 Lunch

11:55 Language Study Time

1:15 Additional Study Time

2:30 Gym Time

4:10 Dinner

4:55 Class
8:00 TALL (A computer program that helps us learn the language)

9:00 Daily Planning

9:30 Back to dorm rooms

10:15 lights our

10:30 Bed Times

This is just an example, our gym time switches every day. We get to go to the gym 4 days a week, then on the others we are supposed to exercise on our own. Meals are always at those times, and it is super early. Especially after dinner, but I don't mind too much because I am not one of those people who always needs to eat. Since we don't have much time to get ready, we try to wake up earlier. Or at least I do, so that I have a little bit of time to get ready. Showering either happens in the morning (very rarely), after gym time (we have half an hour to get ready) or at night. Its a demanding schedule, but since I am not very high maintenance, it doesn't normally both me. I have no problem getting ready really quickly, but it is frustrating to be ready on time then have to wait.

Nick, congratulations on the MAJOR AWARD. Now we have two major award winners in the family, I hope you got a trophy and placed it next to Mom's. Really, though, congratulations. You are an excellent lacrosse player. One of the other girls in my district, Hermana Reusch is from Layton and her boyfriend played lacrosse. I think they were D1 though, because I don't think you played them this year. I don't remember what high school he played for. Good luck with the rest of school! Enjoy it, because the day school gets out for the summer you will probably be bored. Haha

Thanks to everyone who wrote me letters! It is so fun to get mail in the MTC. We didn't get our first mail until Monday because our district leader was checking the wrong mailbox. On Monday when he came back with no mail, we kindly demanded that he go back and asked why no one in our district had gotten any mail haha.

Being in the MTC will be good for lots of things, right now, my Spanish is good enough that I can communicate with people and I can teach lessons. But, judging by how fast I have been learning and improving in the little time I have had here, I will be much better by the time I leave. We don't just study the language, we study the gospel to help us have more knowledge, and we study how to teach.

We taught a practice lesson to some of the other Elders in our zone last night. We had about thirty minutes to prepare, but we had been practing earlier to teach on Monday. It was one of the best lessons we have taught so far. Maybe it is because the other Elders have been here for 2 weeks longer than us, but our Spanish is better than theirs. Or maybe it is because it isn't as intimidating to teach them as it is to teach our teachers. Haha.

Ask me any questions you have for me, and I will try to answer them next week. It will probably be just as random as this though, sorry.

I have seen so many people that I know here! I saw Rachel Leishman (former roommate), Tessa Pitcher, Brittany Charlesworth, Sister Keele, the Robinsons obviously, several people from my last student ward, and lots of other random people that I know.

I haven't taken too many pictures, so I am not sending any yet, but I will try to send some soon. I have some pictures, but it just isn't worth trying to figure our how to hook up the camera to the computer.

Anyway, I need to go switch my laundry so that it will be clean. I am getting so sick of my clothes... Especially some of the skirts. They are long enough, but some of them are closer than others. With those, it is hard, because I have to try to be extra lady like as I go about my day. Write me letters throughout the week, and include any questions that you have for me.

I love you!

Hermana Bair

NEW Mail box number

Due to Stephanie's amazing Spanish speaking skills, she has been moved to a different district and thus has a new mail box number: #198. Please send all correspondence to that new mail box.

Hello! This is Kristin here, Stephanie's Mom, taking over her blog for the next 18 months! I'll post some pictures, letters, etc from Stephanie so you can live vicariously through her blog and pretend you are serving your own mission!

Dropping her off at the MTC on May 15th was a quick experience. We arrived at 12:29 pm and were greeted by a Senior Elder Missionary. He asked where Stephanie was serving and put a pink Post-It on our windshield and directed us to the driveway on the left. We pulled down and went to the empty space behind the car in front of us. The cute sister missionaries greeted us with waves and cheers. A Sister Missionary from New Zealand greeted Stephanie as Duane (Stephanie's Dad) unloaded the luggage. We did quick hugs with a few tears and then she was escorted away and we drove away. Completed the MTC drop-off extravaganza by 12:31. Done. See ya' in 18 months.

Mission Contact Information

I'm off to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am so excited! I love San Jose and I am not even there yet.

To contact me for the next 18 months, you may find the following information useful...

MTC:

Sister Stephanie Dale Bair

MTC Mailbox # 218

CA-SJO 0626

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

Mission Office:

Sister Stephanie Dale Bair

California San Jose Mission

3975 McLaughlin Ave Ste A

San Jose, CA 95121-2631

Email:

stephanie.bair@myldsmail.net

I don't think I will have a lot of time to email, so feel free to email me, but dont expect long, thoughtful response. Actually, don't expect long, thoughtful responses from me ever, but especially emails while I am a missionary.

I love the gospel! I love you all! Don't miss me too much! :)