UTAH IS SO COLD I COULD DIE

I'm freezing.

Love, Sister Hinkle

Just kidding. But really, it's so cold that the other day the family we were eating dinner with gave Sister Swain and I blankets to wrap up in while we were eating because they felt so bad for us, hahaha!

So Mondays our zone leaders deliver all of our mail from the week to us. And I got a care package from Brother Ed Henline and a cute card from Sister Sandy Williams! It was so nice!!! They are sooo so so so nice, and it was so funny to get two things from people in Buckhannon in the same week. It's so nice to know people were thinking of me!

Speaking of sending me things (don't worry) Christmas is coming up! So this is what I want (don't worry) as my present! I want pictures of my family! There's a little picture album sitting on my desk in my bedroom at home and it's empty because I didn't get a chance to fill it up while I was home. So if yall could snag some pictures all my brothers and sisters and their families and Mema and Heidi and Richard and anybody else you can think of and then put them in that album, that's alllll I want! :) Oh, and maybe my cats and Charlotte too. It'll be great to put faces with names when I talk about everybody!

Oh, speaking of people I love, last Monday we had dinner at the Berry's house! And Sister Berry surprised me with a green meal. Because, ya know, I'm a greenie. It was so funny! And she read green eggs and ham and we cracked up the whole time. I love that woman!

We've been raking a lot of leaves this week! It's fun to be able to do something outside (something that isn't walking, at least). I am becoming quite the raking pro.

I miss WV a lot, but I like Utah, the mountains here are GORGEOUS! Sister Swain is super fun to be with. The little girl who we're working with has been coming to Church AND activity day!!! Hurray!! Hopefully we can set a date for her to be baptized on soon! She had a date but her mom wanted to push it back, so we're going to try and set one this week for the beginning of next month.

Speaking of baptisms!!! President Chambers wants us to have a "white Christmas" this year, which means they want people getting baptized ON CHRISTMAS DAY! What better way to show Jesus Christ you love Him and want to follow Him than getting baptized on the celebration of His birth?! Hopefully we can find some investigators by then, though. I'm happy and I love it here, but the work is hard! I wanted a hard mission and boy did I get one. Hearts here are so hard, people have such twisted misconceptions of the LDS religion, which is super funny because, you know, we're everywhere.

 It's hard but it's what I'm here to do. I know there is SOMEONE out here waiting for me to help them. Someone in Kearns who is waiting for the gospel to be brought into their life. We just have to keep knocking and looking and working. No problem, though. I'm not worried.

There's a quote by my main man and favorite apostle Jeffrey R Holland, he said, "If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived." And that's true. So I just have to keep on a workin.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Dad, remind Mom to get the cranberry sauce out of the outside fridge before dinner is over and give her a giant hug for me because I can't. Oh, and assign someone else threaten all of the kids with wedgies when they aren't being quiet since that's my job, haha.

I love you! Be happy!

    Libby

Every dog hates me and I spelled Kearns wrong.

So this week was CRAZY. Where do I start? We had a zone conference and and Elder and my companion and I sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives, and we each had SOLOS and I was scared out of my mind! But apparently we did well, because one of the men in our stake presidency heard about it and asked us to sing at the Christmas Fireside in a few weeks! I'm super excited! I also had to give a talk yesterday. It was written Sunday morning and let me tell ya, it was the Spirit who wrote it, NOT ME. I did a looot of praying while writing it.

So Kearns has got the Olympic Oval right in the middle of it, and we walk by it every day. It's where they do ice skating stuff? Like speed skating and hockey? I don't know a lot about it. But it's super cool looking! I'll send a picture of it in another email. Oh! Speaking of pictures, I realized that no one at home has seen me with my super cool name tag on! I took one to show you all! It's blurry, but whatever I don't have time to take good pictures, haha.

So the SECOND that Sister Swain and I step onto a street every dog knows it and goes absolutely NUTS. It's horrifying to think that less than a centimeter of fence is between us and the jaws of everlasting death. We're going to start a tally of how many dogs try to attack us on a daily basis.

Oh, have I mentioned how fat Utah is making me? Pretty darn fat. Yesterday, for instance, we woke up to our landlord leaving us muffins, got candy at Church, got invited to a farewell with lots of refreshments, our landlord gave us soup and monkey bread when we got home, and we visited a couple of ladies yesterday and left WITH AN ENTIRE PIE. WHAT? YES. AN ENTIRE PIE FOR THE TWO OF US. Not that we didn't totally attack that thing, though. I have a picture of that, too. It is absolutely demolished. Anyways, it's a good thing we don't have a car because I'd be rooounnddd if we didn't walk so much.

It's getting really cold here. Like. So cold. So today we're going to invest in multiple pairs of tights, leggings, other various warm things. Hand warmers and toe warmers (thank you so much Megan) are life savers. LIFE SAVERS, I SAY!

Okay, so back to being a missionary, we're going to start knocking doors this week. I'm excited! Knocking doors is exciting because sometimes they're like "Come on in Sisters!" and other times they're like "We're Catholic,sorry" actually, it's usually "We're Catholic, sorry". Why is everybody Catholic here?!! I'm getting better at door approaches and talking to people on the street. I love sharing the gospel! One of our investigators came to Church yesterday! Her name is Kennadee and she is the cutest little girl! She loved it and I am so excited that she had a good time! We're hoping to have three baptisms in the next couple of weeks, we had to push some dates back because of lack of Church attendance, hopefully they'll come this week! I'm in a very small area but there is a TON of work to do here! I love it! I love serving the Lord! I love my companion and how much fun she is, I love the people in Kearns. I just love everything. Maybe not getting barked at by dogs, but other than that I love everything! Haha

One of my favorite people here is a woman named Sister Berry! We stop by her house at least every other day. We call it our candy stop because we get a drink of water and she lets us pick candy from her kids Halloween bags!! Hahaha, she is so full of love and such an example of who I need to be! Her and her husband are people who are FILLED with charity! They are constantly serving others and are always working on being friends to everyone around them.

I'm safe, I'm happy, I'm fat.

Love,

Sister Hinkle

Awesome pie

Awesome nametag

<3

Olympic Oval

Kerns!

Okay so first I apologize because for some reason I thought I had pday last Monday. BUT! They're regularly on Mondays now, SO now you know when to expect me. 

So on Wednesday morning me and like 17 other missionaries hopped on a train and took our looooong looooong long 45 minute journey up to the South Jordan station. Hahaha, then we went through orientation and I got my trainer, who is WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL, Sister Swain! She's from Hawaii and we were INSTANT best friends. We are WHITE WASHING in the Kerns Central Stake, it's a mostly Spanish speaking area, we cover two wards. We started getting less lost here like Saturday, haha. The amount of inactive members is INSANE! There are supposed to be over 600 people attending Church in one of my wards, and only 150 come, in the other over 400 and about 200 come. We walk everywhere, which isn't bad because the members here FEED US SOOOO MUCH. Like last night we came up with two giant pieces of cake and a container or squash, and the woman we live with (we call her Oma, which is what her grandkids call her) made banana bread and pumpkin bread and sloppy joe stuff. SO MUCH FOOD! 

The woman we live with is named Linda and she's awesome! She used to be a neurosurgeon! And she's got super cute dogs that we get to pet a lot. Yay animals! 

We visited a woman last night who has a doll collection and (this is for Mom) she has an original Shirley Temple doll from the 30's!!! I got a picture for you! :) Everyone treats you like you're their family here (at least the members do). Everyone here either is a member and loves the Church or is inactive and HATES the Church...and then there are the ones that have other religions. I love every single person here though, even if they don't love me! Hahaha, some people don't treat us like we're even humans. No matter what though, we still stay happy because we know we're doing the Lord's work. No matter how many time we get yelled at while walking down the street or how many doors get slammed in our faces. We are truely happy. I love this place and I love the people. We teach mostly young children whose parents are less active or inactive. It's great because this way we're teaching the children AND their families and bringing them ALL closer to Christ! 

I know that Christ LIVES! He loves each of us! He died for each of us so that we can return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. They are the source of ALL joy! Focus on serving others and you'll be able to feel Their love like you've never felt it before! 

Provo temple is ridiculously gorgeous inside, I'm going to send pictures from the MTC and here in Kerns. (I'll send more flattering ones next Monday) 

I love you! Be happy! I'm going to go buy a bag of oranges :) 

My comp and me, my mtc zone at the temple and my mtc district in front of the map, shirley temple doll.

Sister Swain and I!

MTC Zone! 

MTC Zone!

Shirley Temple Doll!