6 Down 3 to Go

Hola Mi Familia!

Como Estan? Estoy muy animada cada dia! Okay enough spanish for now.

Mom!!! I got your fruit snacks and oreos this morning and my district is going to LOVE you.:) I sure do to. I am not going to lie I have NO desire to write a letter right now. We are about ready to leave for the temple and I just want to go do that. I wrote you a hand written letter that has a very neat story in it and i want you to read it together cause it will be something you all want to hear. Soo that should be there soon...

This week has been long. It has been good but long. I am fine but I feel like this week has been more challenging.

A Few Funnys.

- Elder Baldwin tells the best stories ever. He tells them in spanish and it is terrible but it is soooo hilarious. We are always rolling on the floor laughing. I think Elder Baldwin is one of my Favorite Elders! "cuales su problema pollo???" haha. I recorded part of one of his stories so that maybe you can see it sometime. He just has so much attitude and he is all shaking his head and talking in different voices. He told us a story about when he had chickens and then how he was getting them water and how the glass jar broke and he cut his wrist open. So a very simple story from his past but it lasted for like 20 minutes and we were all dying of laughter. All of our Elders are so fantastic. I seriously love my district so much. We all get along really well and we study and work hard but we also can have a ton of fun which is a needed balance to stay poco loco instead of muy loco!

-I had quite the skirt malfunction. We were kneeling in prayer at the end of class and I was wearing a really long skirt. It got caught under my shoe and when I stood up it slipped down the back of me. ooops! :) Good thing the elders were in front of me and the Hermanas were not paying attention. It was funny though

- Elder Seastrand and Brown like to draw pictures of people on the board. Lets just say...they are pretty terrible and ugly to put it nicely. They are funny though. They always say "Hermana Rife or whomever..>Look sideways." Then they draw us. Yesterday Elder brown said okay come look cause Me and Hna. K were in the Hall. I go to walk in and Elder Brown puts his hands up and says...Wait before you look you have to promise me one thing....Whatever you do...Don't get Offended! haha :) It was funny. He doesn't want to hurt anyones feelings. He is so sweet. He is definately a southern gentleman but still reminds me of a little boy. :) haha He is our new district leader as of a few weeks ago and as of last week Elder Mann and Baldwin our our new Zone Leaders.

Every single wednesday morning hermana K y I get up early and go get sack breakfasts. It is so funny cause we go looking like crazies. We are always super hyper and it is just fun.

-Last night while Hermana Kelly was in the shower I dumped a bunch of cold water on her and she yells" I am going to Kill you" I go running out of the bathroom into hermana Mills and Rowe's room. All the other hermanas in the bathroom that heard her are like "What happened?" I say to our Hermanas...She is going to kill me I think i need to sleep in here tonight. A few minutes later. In comes Hermana K. in her pink robe dripping wet. She just looks and me and says...I am going to kill you Hermana Rife. Then we laughed for a really long time and I am assuming that she will get me back eventually! :)

A Few Events.

- Yesterday we had the oppurtunity to meet the newest member of the church. She just happened to be from our mission in Houston and lives in the same area as the mission home. Her son is in the MTC and she wanted him to baptize her so their whole family flew up to provo and he was able to baptize her. After her and her familia came up to our classroom with the MTC president and  We were able to meet them. Her husband isn't a member yet but I think he will be soon. I think that is super cool that The missionary son got to baptize her. So I am sure we will be seeing them in the near future!

- We watched the Greatest rerun of Missions are Forever by Jeffery R. Holland on sunday night after devotional. The talks by the apostles are the greatest. They get me so excited to go to the field. I feel like Sundays are rejuvenating. Yesterday we had Elder Carlson speak and he did a great job too. He talked about how we needed to follow through with our decision to come on a misison and talked about obedience. Obedience is talked about all the time here but Jeffery R. Holland put it great when he said.. The Lord is giving you these commandments so that he can bless you when you keep them and Obedience Transforms people which i believe is true.

- I feel like a mission is like having to swim across a huge lake. As long as you are being obedient the Heavenly Father and Jesus are right there with you though and they know what way to go and what to do. All you have to do is keep breathing and keep swiming hard. But we can rely on them so that we don't get tired and we can do their work. "Most of the Heavy lifting is done on the other side" Hno. Harker told us that and I really feel like it is true. I know that as I rely on the Lord and do what he tells me I can complete this task. I am so excited to be here. I am even more excited to get out to the field.

- Probably my favorite district (next to my own) left on monday. It was sad to see them go but good as well because we are next to go. They were a great group of elders. We had a lot of fun with them. I played for them as they sang army of heleman in spanish on sunday. The spirit was strong and it was great! I miss them already though.

-I am excited to see whitney. She lives on my floor. We may or may not have looked in the system :) Thanks to my elders. I love seeing elder austin everyday! He is a great kid!

Time is up and I have to go. Sorry this email is all over the place. A letter is coming though. :) Love you all so much. Keep doing what you are supposed too. I miss you. Hope to hear from you soon. Until next week.

Remember who you are and whom you belong to.

Hermana K. M. R.

I have also included in this blog post an email I sent Kynsie.  I was a little later than usual today in sending it to her but I wanted to make sure she had something in her mailbox when she was sending our email for the week.  So...I was typing it as fast as I could type and then quickly sent it to her.  I had been chatting with Katelin while I was typing Kynsie's email.  As I sent it to Kynsie - - Katelin chatted me and told me that Kynsie's email had arrived.  I went to look at it and saw a second little email to me.  I was so happy!!! It was as if she were so....close! 

(Thought I would share!!!)


Hi Kynsie,

I wanted to send you at least a little note before you get on to send us your email.  I didn't want you to get on and have there be nothing  there for you.  :)  I still feel bad that first week you were in the MTC and you got on and there was nothing from us.  Still so... sorry about that!!!

Hope you are having a good day today.  I LOVE ya and think of you lots.  Did you get the cookies yesterday and did they arrive in somewhat decent condition?  I was in such a hurry packaging them that I have worried about them ever since.  Hope you and all your mission friends were able to enjoy "Our Famous Oreo's".  Last night when everyone got home, Tyler asked if there were any of them left.  (They knew I had made the cookie part of them the night before.)  I told him that I had six left but I had decided to take those last few over to Whitney Wilcox.  He was like"NO WAY Mom!!!  So you should consider yourself pretty lucky Kynsie.  No one else got oreo's except you and Whitney!  :)

I am not sure what else to tell you because I wrote everything that I could think of in your letter that I sent with the package.  Other than I forgot to tell you that Sis. Nixon was excited to tell me on Sunday that she had seen our "sweet daughter" at the temple last Wednesday.  Also, Tyler I think feels bad that he only got a "index card letter" last week!!!  I told him, "Well, have you written her?!!!"  He said he was going to write you that weekend.  But...the weekend seemed to get away from him again!  He does need to write you.It was kind of funny though to see his face as I pulled out Kendra's and Tanner's letters.  :)  Also, Kendra has written you again but I forgot to put it in the package yesterday.  Last night when we went over to Wilcox's they told her that Whitney could give it you today but I don't think Kendra ever took it back over so you should be getting a letter from her again soon!  

Well, I guess I will end for now, but I just thought I would tell you, I think you are being so thoughtful in writing EVERYONE and making them all feel so special and very important.  :)  I was describing to Grandma just a day or so ago how I could just imagine you....sitting there ...and writing as fast as your  little  hand could write to everyone!!!!  It has really been great!  Thank you...as always you bring a very positive spirit into our home and a breath of fresh air.  I appreciate you so VERY much Kynsie and I hope you realize how much you have added to my life.  I love you and look forward to hearing from you again in just a few minutes probably!!!  Have a fantastic week!  

Love ya, Mom

p.s.  Kendra just came home from the temple and I think was secretly hoping she might just catch a glimpse of you!!!  But she decided she better leave so she wouldn't!!!  :)

p.s.s  Also, I hope Whitney gives you the hug I gave her for YOU!  :)  Tell her hi from us again and that she will be GREAT!


Hi mom! I just got your email! Love you :)

Receiving this little message just made my day!!!  So fun having a missionary out!  :)

Mom & Dad
Sorry I forgot to tell ;you a few things.  I've seen Lyndsay Wygant and she is doing great as well as Gentry Frandsen ( I went w/her to Europe) and Ilekia Arakai (a girl from H.S.) and Rex Saito's ex-girlfriend.  I just got back from the temple and saw Sister Nixon and Sister Jarman!  It was cool!  I'll send those names home but I need a bigger envelope!  :)  Hermana Kelly's Birthday is on the 18th of this month.  I was thinking maybe you could send her some cupcakes or brownies or something!  I don't know what do you think?!  I also saw Tucker.  He is doing so great!  I see him daily!  He's so cool!  :)

                                                                    okay love you lots
                                                                          got to go to dinner & class
                                                                                  -Kyns

Kylee!
Hi Sweet Girl!  I just wanted to say hello and I hope you are doing great & having a super fun time at school! Keep working hard.  I love you lots!  Are you still in dance?  Keep smiling!!!

                                                                           <3, Kynsie

Ty!
 Hope you are doing great!  I have been thinking & praying for you!  Keep working hard in school & being friends with Everyone!  I Love the MTC!  I Love this gospel & I am so grateful for our family!

                                                                           2 Nephi 31  -  <3 Kynsie

Tanner got a Letter!!!

Tanny!
How are you bud???  I Loved getting you letter & pictures!  They were so fun. Your teeth look great! :0  It sounds like you had a lot of fun at Seven Peaks!  It sounds like you have a busy schedule at school!  Are you liking your classed?  I bet mechanical drafting is so sun!  I always thought that seemed cool!  :)  The MTC is still great!  I love the spirit here!  I also love getting your letters.  It makes me super happy!  :)  I enjoy learning Spanish as well as gym time!  We go play volleyball & frisbee a lot & it is a lot of fun.  Be Good!  Choose the Right! and help Mom.  Love you tanny!  Miss you lots!  Write me soon!

Tan!  You snuck outta camp? Bud!!! Ha Ha Be Safe!  :)

                                                                             <3 your hermana Kyns

 On the back there was a letter from Kynsie's companion:

Hey Tanner!
Thanks so much for writing me :) !  I feel pretty honored to be a part of the Rife's fan club!  :)  I also love the outdoors.  I love taking pictures of people (only happy ones :) )  I saw parts of you video & congrats on getting the braces off.  It's liberating, eh?  Well hope to hear from you soon!  Be Good. No, But really.

                                                                             Cuidese!
                                                                              Hermana Kelly ( Your sister's #1 favorite companion)

Kynsie also wrote Kendra!  But I'm not sure where she has put her letter!  She likes to snag them up when they come for her and she somehow disappears with them!!! Kendra will have to post it later!!!  :)





                                                                                 

Always nice to see a friend!!!

Katelin's brother-in -law Tucker entered the MTC to serve his mission to Eugene Oregon Spanish Speaking on August 28, 2012.  Kynsie has seen him a lot at the MTC and I saw this cute picture of the two of them on Tucker's blog.  I couldn't help but steal it!  :)

Another Week in the life of Hermana Rife

Can I just say we LOVE getting letters and Emails from our Kynsie!  Last Friday August 31, 2012  we all got letters from her and everyone was so excited!  Today I just finished reading her email and she absolutely had me laughing so hard and then of course tearing up at the end of it! ( She must take after her Mom because she is doing the same thing from the sounds of her email.  :) )    You will have to read it.  Enjoy!!!

Hi Everyone! :)

I feel like the biggest cry baby! Honestly I cried last night when I recieved all my dear elders. I cried when I opened up that package and then I cry again when I read the emails I just got it! WHAT IS THIS???? :) I love hearing from you all. by the way it isn't crying it is just my eyes tear up! :) I have a lot lot lot to tell you. I hope i can get it all in because it is important.

Thank you for your letters and packages! It is the best ever. We didn't get mail since friday because of labor day so yesterday I got the package from you mom with all that candy and the camera cards. THANKS! and the best part was those temple names. Yesterday I got a dear elder from Nick, Kate, Uncle Rich, JESSA J (who has written me EVERY WEEK cause she is amazing!!! :) and wanted a personal shout out in my letters home! ;)), and from Ken. I think I got every one! It was so good. I was loving reading them. I don't know if I ever told grandma thank you for the donuts soooo if i didn't i am sorry and i hope you had a fantastic birthday. Everyone in my district loved them. :)

Okay sooo on sunday we watched president monsons birthday party for our fireside. It was really good and very nice to hear real music!!! :)  Bye bye Babalonia that is what our hermano harker says to us. My favorite was Phantom, Memories from Cats and OH MY GOODNESS Bring him home. That singer was AMAZING!!! Elder brown was sitting next to me and was asleep. I was like how is he sleeping. His head kept bobbing it was hilarious and then he would wake up and look at me and then close his eyes again. Such a cute boy! I love all The elders in our district. We have a great District.

On monday i was driving around the streets of Provo. If ken was working then i was  at Rite Aid and really close to her. Hermana Kelly has been Super sick with a nasty cough and cold so we had to go get cough medicine for her. It was the most bizzare thing riding in a car and being in rite aid. I was hoping that i didn't see anyone.  I was just ready to get back to the MTC not going to lie. :) Mom you will be so proud of me, through the mtc insurance we get free flu shots so the guy asked me if i wanted one and i said yes...and I got it. ALL by myself. Then he gave me two little chocolates sooo pretty sure it was a perfect trade off! ;) haha. The other day Hermana K was coughing sooo hard at night so i drug her into the bathroom and made her steam her face in the sink. we made due with what we had. I got out my vix, told her to rub it on her face, clogged the sink with lots of paper towels and then made her put her face by the running hot water with a towel on her head for 20 minutes. She kept saying, AH i can't believe you are making me do this but after she was not coughinig any more and it is super funny! A sister wanted in and said...ummm is she okay and i was like yeah...don't worry about her..She is fine! :) Some other elders have been sick too. Elder E'smith and Elder Baldwin. It is the GROSSEST thing ever we were outside studying and elder baldwin didn't have a tissue so he walks to the grass and snot rockets the mucus out. SOOOO gross and then they all keep spitting it out it the trash. I gag every time. When he snot rocketed it out i almost threw up. After telling him to NEVER do that again and stop being gross he continued to tell me that he was trying to make me not home sick because he was being like a little brother would be! :) right right...haha I still think he is great but we are working on making these little gross habits of theirs go away! haha :) We have had "You make me feel like a natural woman" stuck in our head here and then when we went to rite aid it was totally playing. I always think of dad when that song comes on. I don't know why. We might have danced a little bit to it in rite aid. :)

Speaking of not wanting to go home...I have been talking a whole lot in my sleep. I had the craziest dream that I didn't get set apart right so President Hollister told me I had to go home so that President Gagon could redo it. So I was telling him how i didn't want to go home but he made me. I got home and I was all sad and i didn't want to leave cause i was afraid to see people and then pres. gagon couldn't set me apart the right way for 3 days! 3 stinking days. So it was a long time. I fell alseep on my bed in my dream and when i woke up i thought i was at home and i freaked out. I sat straight up and realized i was in the MTC and i am not going to lie i have never been happier sleeping on a nasty old matress with sheets that smell danky! :) I was so glad to be in that position! haha. Hermana Kelly said I was speaking full sentances and I said " No, but you really don't understand, I love it here and I don't want to go home! I kept trying to convince them to let me stay. haha It was funny! I keep talking in my sleep and sometimes parts in spanish.

Last week the Fire alarm went off in our building at 6:20 so we all had to evacuate and it was hilarious because there were girls in towels and in there pjs and in robes outside and Elders and others were walking by. Lucky I had sweats on and just hadnt done my hair. We were outside for like 30 minutes and then we saw our Elders and elder brown said...why is that girl in a towel and wow hermana rife...you look really...ummm tired. hahaha. :) Nice compliment right? we joke about it now! Some girl left her curling iron on by the tissue box and it all went downhill from there. Luckily nothing bad happened.

Yesterday, I totally forgot I asked for those temple names. When I saw them under the letters I was so excited. I started crying then i showed them to Hermana K. and she started crying that she and I get to do them together. I am so excited to go to the temple in about 30 minutes. I haven't ever been more thrilled. :) So thank you for sending them. Like this is missionary work and our family that we get to go through for them and they can keep progressing. :) Pure Awesomeness.

I love this Gospel with all my heart. I feel so blessed and strenghtened by it each day. A quote Elder Baldwin shared with us was this "Sometimes we want to grow without having any challenges and we want to gain strength without any struggle but we can't grow when we take the easy way." We have the chance to learn and grow from our trials and so we need to take that chance and try to see what we learn from our trials and challanges. I love the Book of Mormon. Right now I am reading in Alma 14ish-26ish and I have enjoyed studying about missionary work and the dedicated missionaries Ammon and Amulek were in all of their trials. How they always turned to the Lord to do his will. I also loved what Elder Kopichie (something like that) said yesterday about repentance and the atonement. He said "It is a chance for us to get a new view of ourselves, the world, and of God" The atonement gives us that chance and we need to use it to decide to change and become what our Heavenly Father expects us to become. As we learn and grow and change ourselves from the natural man into the potential that we can be He will bless us so much.

it sounds like everyone is doing great! :) Love you all soooo sooo soo much. I am grateful for your examples.

Remember who you are and Whom you belong to.

Hermana K. Rife.

Ps. Mom - Holly Burgimister can get you those recipies. She was the one who told me how to do it. I used the Suger scrub. If you want some of that orange extract it is in the Bathroom I think It is in a brown Doterra bottle or you can just use lemon/peppermint exstract and candy. Kate can help you find the recipies on line! :) Talk to you soon. Glad jenn had her baby and that she is healthy and that YW is going great. Love you