Last Snail Mail from Mexico Just Caught up to us...

(Probably written Feb. 13, 2014…received Feb. 26, 2014)

Dear Family,

I am doing so great and loving life.  It's so wonderful here!  Also, the weather here is pretty perfect.  It's just after 9 in the morning and we are sitting outside enjoying the sun.  Oh, life is great.

So let me tell you about the dedication last Sunday.  Elder Oaks came and it was great.  He spoke in English.  There was a translator standing up on the stage right next to him translating.  Elder Oaks could only say a short phrase and then he would have to pause and let the translator speak so the Latinos could understand.  The translator did a very good job.  He (Elder Oaks, not the translator, haha) talked a little bit about PMG (Preach My Gospel) and about teaching with the spirit.  He said, "If a missionary is to teach by the spirit, a missionary must be clean and pure in every way."  I really liked that.  He also talked a little bit about how, with the lowered age change, we are younger and required to do more, but that we are equal to the task.  He told us that we need to reach out to everyone we see, everywhere…on the streets, on the bus, in the marketplace, etc.  He told us not to wait for members to fill up our schedule with contacts but to go out and find people to reach.  He also mentioned that our highest aspiration is to become like our Heavenly Parents.  We are servants of Jesus Christ and as such, we take upon us His name.  Sorry I can't tell you a whole lot.  It was all very good but my words alone couldn't do it justice.  It was cool in the dedicatory prayer, he (Elder Oaks) said that everything from the walls of the MTC in were dedicated to His (Christ's) work.  And that includes us as missionaries!  Wow!  It was awesome!

Pdays are awesome.  It's fun to do laundry, clean, and write letters.  I just took a break from writing and played the piano for a little bit.  It was so nice!

I can't believe my time in the CCM is drawing to an end.  I'm so excited.  I will miss the people here.

My teachers are so amazing and patient.  Their names are Hermana Balderas and Hermana Velasquez.  I love them both.  One service project we did was to distribute bottles of water (water jugs).  They have a well here but even so, we only drink bottled water.  We got to stand in a truck (the back of the truck) while it was driving.  It would stop where we needed to drop off water and we'd jump out and carry the water jugs where they needed to go.  It was really fun.  Service is always really fun here because it gives us something different to do.

So the latest on my sleep talking…one of the hermanas heard me say "Yo quiero," which means "I want."  Haha.

So I've noticed a lot when people answer the phone they say "Bueno.  Not really sure why; it must be a greeting or something.

So by the time you get this I could be in California, miles away from Mexico.  Holy cow, Mexico City really is huge!  For a small town girl, it's quite the sight.  Haha, they have a Sears here, a Walmart, a Sam's Club, a McDonalds, and I'm sure much more.  There were some signs that looked like road signs pointing you in the direction to find the Walmart and Sam's Club.  It's pretty funny.

It's common when we greet our teachers or other women that we give them a hug and a kiss.  I've got the hug down but I'm still working on the kiss on the cheek.  Sometimes it's a real kiss and sometimes it's like putting your cheeks next to each other and making a kissing sound, I think.  Anyways, I find it kinda weird; I don't know how to kiss them on the cheek so I just try to do the cheek to cheek thing, which I don't really understand.  I don't know if anything I said made any sense, sorry.  The men usually shake hands and then give each other a bro hug.  Haha, they pat each other on the back with their other hand they're not using to shake hands.  Once again, I don't know if that makes sense.  Lo siento.

Being a missionary teaches a lot of great skills for life.  We plan out our days (well, they are pretty much planned out for us here).  We have things planned from about 6:30 to about 9:30-10:00.  We are supposed to be in bed by 10:30 which is never a problem for me.  After a full, busy day, I am tired.  Waking up at 6:30 really isn't bad either.  I think I've gotten used to it so that's good.

Our Branch President and his wife are amazing, the Christensens.  They're from Utah, I think.  Every so often Hermana Christensen makes us homemade cookies which are so good.  And guess what?  The Christensens are Hermana Huff's great aunt and uncle.  She must be related to everybody.

The trees here are beautiful.  I wish I had the skills to climb a palm tree, but I'm pretty sure that's against some rules and it would not be dignified in a skirt.  That is the truth.  It's fun seeing the palm trees and there's also a pretty tree with purple flowers.  Some of them have already bloomed and they are so pretty.

Haha, so we were walking home when a Hispanic man came up to us and was like, "Como se dice 'falda'?" And we say, "Skirt." Hermana Huff spelled it for him and then he said, "Your skirts are very nice, cute."  Haha, they are trying to learn English just like we are trying to learn Spanish.  I love when they ask me questions about English because that is something I can help them with.

We finally got some Latinas in our casa.  That means we don't have an extra 2 rooms to get ready and shower in.  Haha, now we can work out our showering schedule, which is good because in a mission or life it's important to be able to work together and make compromises.

We all share things.  I've worn my roommates jewelry or some clothers.  Right now my roommate is using my mirror and tweezers.  Or my companion will use my hairdryer.  I love how close we all have become (Hermana Huff, Hooper, Ellingson and I).  They are all wonderful and I love them.

Hermana Hooper is from Arizona and she is going to San Fernando, California.  We are all 19 except for Hermana Huff.  She's 21.

So as for shoes, I really like the born flats, the ones we got at the mall.  They are pretty comfortable and cute.

We sleep on bunkbeds, but the only time I hit my head was the first night.  It happened only twice and so far I've been good about remembering not to sit up in bed.

I know that there is a ton for me to learn about the Spanish language and about the gospel.  I hear that learning really takes off in the mission field so that's what I'm counting on.  I'm learning here but I just wish I knew more.

So I have bruises on my knees.  I"m not sure if it's because I cross my legs a lot because I'm in my skirt, or because I kneel down on the ground and say a lot of prayers.  Maybe both, but esta bien.

I have loved seeing another culture and experiencing new things.  I feel so blessed to be a missionary.  I can't believe that I only have one more P-day here…it's crazy!

I guess the CCM is close to the airport because I see planes flying in and out all the time.

That's cool, Mom, on how you wanted to see my plane as I left Idaho Falls.  We didn't leave for a little bit because they were washing off the plane or runway with something for some reason.  We were probably just delayed a little bit so that you could see my plane.  Heavenly Father blesses us with tender mercies everyday.

I am so excited to serve a mission because I know that it will bless my family's life.  And that's what is more important to me…all of you.  And I know it will bless the lives of these I teach.  I can't explain my excitement.  I know I say it again and again, but I love this gospel and I love life.  La vida es hermosa.  La iglesia es verdadera!

Love Siempre,

Hermana Killpack

P. S.  One of the hermanas said, "Through the atonement, we can be free of fish."  Pescado=fish; Pecado=sin

And from the outside of the envelope:

P.S.  I just saw a cockroach for the first time!  It was dead in our casa.  Ewwww!  Now I know why I wasn't called to serve in Mexico.  I hope to never see one again, but we'll see how likely that is…haha

Ready, Set, GO (into the mission field)!

February 20, 2014

Oh mother I am doing so well. I really am loving life and am doing wonderfully. It is the highlight of my week to hear from you guys. It's good to know that you are doing well. 

Yes, Hermana Huff will be flying with me. We are going to the same mission. Also Hermana Miller will be with us too, I believe. 

The language is coming slowly, but coming. We are expected to teach in Spanish, have been ever since the 2nd day. It was a bit frustrating at first because I didn't know any Spanish so I wondered how they expected me to teach in Spanish. It's been a humbling experience. 

I can't wait to get out to the field and try to teach myself the concepts that we are learning. Here we learn a new concept almost everyday. However, the way that we are being taught is almost a review. It's hard to review something when you've never learned it before. So at times that has been a struggle. I do certainly however know a lot more than I did when I got here, so that is good news.  

I am so excited to fly to California! It's going to be nice to be back into the states. However, I will miss the people here. Whenever I teach I feel such love for the investigator. Even if I'm just practicing. We come up with an investigator profile of some real person that we know and use their story. I feel that it is a gift I have to love the people that I'm teaching. 

I have loved having Hermana Huff as a companion. We taught one of our best lessons last week. We worked together really well and were able to be unified in our teaching. She has helped me so much. 

Haha so for the new things I've tried this week...I tried bon bons for the first time in my life. So if anyone were to ask what how I'm doing in Mexico, just tell them that I'm eating Bon bons. Hahaha that'll sound good. I've also tried mango, starfruit and an asian pear. It really has been fun trying new things here. 

Our last service project here was washing the outside of one of the houses. We had a pressure washers and buckets of soap and brooms. They seriously use brooms here for EVERYTHING. Anyways we used the brooms to clean the outside of one of the casas. I was excited because it felt just like my summer job of washing truck. Except trucks are higher. I told my district that this was like my job and I think they were impressed. Anyways I got a turn with the pressure washer but it was only a baby. I told my district that this really wasn't a powerful pressure washer. (I, knowing so much about pressure washers of course, ha), anyways we all got a turn to use the pressure washer on the house which was pretty fun.

This past Sunday I sang in church. It was supposed to be a duet but turned into a quartet. I was the only person singing soprano. I was nervous but it was fun. We sang Oh mi Padre. It was fun. I also talked in church about obedience. I talked about Abraham's obedience to the Lord to sacrifice Isaac.  

They are working on fixing something; I'm not really sure what. When I saw this I thought of Dad and how he would be all around this kind of thing observing their work haha!

Today I saw the smallest banana I had ever seen. I thought it was adorable. 

I took this picture of the palm trees this morning when we were walking to breakfast.

This is our light switch. At first I thought it was funny how you flip the switch to the side instead of up or down. 

This is my bed. The bottom bunk. The beds here aren't terrible comfortable but I have slept pretty well every night. I'm sure that's a blessing from the Lord.

This is where we get our water. We only drink filitered water. 

This is our living room we never use. Haha

This is the district that just left this past Monday. The girl in the blue dress is the one I stayed in the hospital with. I love all these girls so much!

My placa (nametag) is a little dirty whoops but I love wearing it everyday and being a servant of the Lord.

A quote from Hermana Huff (one day we were going through the food line and they were monitoring how much whip cream we were using):  ¨I like how they trust us with people´s salvations but not with whip cream.¨ Hahaha yeah what is that about? 

Something that I heard that other day that I love is ¨We have a short time to serve but an eternity to look back.¨ That's so true. Whether that's serving a mission or serving in life. We need to be diligent in serving others and in doing the Lord's work. How sad would it be to look back and think that we could've done better. 

We need to do our best to serve others and build up the Lord's kingdom. 

One day we were having a class and some of the boys were getting sleeply so our teacher made us all do 20 jumping jacks. That's fun in a dress. Haha I love my teachers here, I love my district here, and I love the people here. 

Sorry this is all randomly thrown together. 

But my time here has been so great. I truly have learned a lot and I know this is where I am supposed to be. I hope all of you are doing well. Yo se que esta Iglesia es verdadero. Yo se que por medio de Jesucristo podemos hacer todas cosas! 

I love you all so incredibly much. Please all have the best day ever!

Love your favorite Hermana,

Hermana Killpack

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Sunday, February 23, 2014

So I get to write you again tonight! We leave tomorrow at 3 in the morning. I am so excited! I can't believe my time here is over. It has been so wonderful. 

Today has been the best day ever! 

I will try and call tomorrow. I hope that everything works out. I will be traveling with Hermana Huff and Miller. They are both so very fantastic. 

So since I wrote only a couple days ago I don't have a whole lot more to say but I will think of things. 

I just learned that the great great grandpa of my mission president, President Pratt, is Parley P. Pratt. How cool is that?

Okay so I know this picture is really cheesy but we had fun. These girls are so amazing! This picture is with my district.

So I am just sending you pics...not sure which ones are good because I haven't had time to look over them. You are allowed to show other people only the good ones haha

(Note from the Mom…I put them all in.  They were all great :)

Or maybe you shouldn't use any other these. I look kinda gross... haha you can choose.

Sorry 'Im just sending you a lot a pictures.

And I keep on realizing that every picture I send you is gross. Lo siento.

 

I love my teachers here. They are both so amazing and loving. 

Oh I just remembered! I did finally get your letter! The date that you wrote it said Jan 19 and I just got it this past Friday. I was happy to get it. 

I´m doing fantastic. I have only seen 1 cockroach here and it was dead so that's great. Maybe 3 spiders, and too many to count mosquitos. But thankfully I haven't been bit a whole lot. 

It's crazy to think that I´m leaving the CCM so soon. It doesn't seem real. Like how it didn't seem real when I was saying goodbye to you guys. I am excited to get out to the mission field and get to work. I don´t know a lot but I know enough. I have loved my experiences here. There are so many. Some of them are simple but they still mean a lot. 

We just had our last supper in the comedor. To celebrate, I had nutella. Sometimes we weren´t sure what they were feeding us but you can always be sure of the nutella. Haha. 

So I haven't had any blisters although some shoes are more comfortable than others. I like my oxfords when my socks cooperate. I have gotten a lot of compliments on them haha. I also really like my born flats. They are definitely one of my fav, if not my fav.  

 I am excited to hopefully hear from you tomorrow. I hope all is well with you. I don´t know when I´ll be able to write next but I´m sure you´ll just take comfort knowing that I´m in the US again. 

I am excited to be able to shop at a Walmart. I´m looking forward to being able to get out and go places. :) 

Sorry that I send so many pictures. I need to get a usb drive and put all of my pictures on that. But remember you can send me pictures too! I would love pictures!

And I say sorry about sending so many, and what do I do? Send more. 

This is me just chillin in my closet. I was done packing and waiting for Hermana Huff to finish so that we could weigh our bags. After weighing, rearranging, and weighing again I think I´ve got it. My smaller suitcase actually weighed more than my bigger one. Both close to 50 lbs.

From the Mom again:  We were able to talk with Hermana Killpack briefly as she flew from Mexico City to Phoenix and then on to Santa Barbara, California.  It was WONDERFUL hearing her voice! 

Later in the day, we received this email from her mission president:

Dear Brother and Sister Killpack,

Thank you for sending Sister Ashley Rae Killpack  to the California Ventura Mission.  She  arrived today smiling and in good health.

You may expect a letter from your missionary soon, along with a photograph of her  with Sister Castro and me.

We welcome her  into the Lord's service and thank you again for sending such a valiant missionary.

Fernando R. Castro

President, California Ventura Mission

Eleven More Days of Mexico!

Mom!!! I love being here! I learn so much everday! Its hard to believe that i have only 11 more days but I´m super excited!!! 

So this week I was in the hospital..............but don't worry. I stayed the night with a girl in our zone who was sick with pneumonia. 

We took turns taking 12 hour shifts to stay with this hermana at the hospital. She is going to Nicaragua next Tuesday. She is finally out of the hospital and doing better. It was funny because the doctors and nurses would talk to her kinda slowly because they knew that she only knew a little bit of Spanish and then they would turn to me and repeat everything very fast. I guess they thought I was a Latina. Haha sure fooled them ;) 

The view from the hospital. I only got 3 and a half hours (of sleep) that night in the hospital. 

The poor hermana was on some medications that were making her sick. I held the garbage when she was throwing up and I just felt so bad for the poor girl. I also played some music for her to listen to. They had given us a phone so that we could call our branch president. He is also the doctor here. President Christensen. On the phone we listened to music. Music was the only thing we could do to help her not think of the pain. I played music for her for 2 hours in the middle of the night. After a while she was able to sleep. I slept on a couch. Even though I got next to no sleep I was wide awake to help her throughout the night. I consider that a blessing.

Also last week at the temple visitor center the hermana that was giving us a tour said to me, "You speak really good English."  Guess I must be fooling everyone. Whoops! Hahah Spanish is coming. It's easier to understand than it is to talk. I know that through hard word and dedication that I can master the language eventually. 

So the funny thing here is that the have like a toast bar with toasters, nutella, and peanut butter. They don't want you using knifes for the pb and nutella for some reason so we use spatulas.  It is so funny! 

So something here that reminds me of home is that there are sprinker heads that stick up out of the ground after they are done watering. I was so excited to be able to push them down into the ground with my foot. I remember at home we would race to see who could get to the sprinker head first to nudge it down back into the ground. I don't really know why this was so satisfying but I loved it. Haha I think I even converted my companion into loving this crazy simple thing. 

Haha I love the way the Latinos say Killpack. It is so cute and something I'm going to miss for sure. 

So when I want to the hospital this Sunday night it was the first time I had been in a car in 25 days. Isn't that crazy! Haha driving here is crazy and if I drove the way they do you would tell me that I'm not driving again. 

For several months.... maybe. 

Haha I really thought we were going to get in a lot of crashes but we have been safe. 

As for the dedication I will probably write about it and send it in a letter. I'm not really sure how I sent the last two. maybe pouch. But that is really interesting they both came on the same day, and btw the oregano really did burn me. My lip and underneath were burned and started to peel a little bit. Another whoops! haha 

So I wish I had more shirts like my red one you sent me with. It is light, nice looking, and can be worn by itself. I would love more like it. Also, compared to my companion and roommates I brought no accessories. I would love more belts, necklaces, earrings, whatever.  But if not that's fine too. By looking at what some people are wearing I can tell who read the rules of clothes and accessories and such. Some people are just way too cute here! Hahaha .

So I've told you that there are always sirens going off. They almost sound like sirens from a video game or something. I've just gotten used to hearing them all times of the day. That's so awesome about George Garcia and Cody Babneu! Have Andrew tell Cody congrats for me. A couple weeks ago I saw a missionary that looked just like Cody 3 years older. It was awesome. I'm so happy for Cody. We had 2 classes together and he was an awesome kid! 

I took all of these this morning. Oh, P. S., Mexico City is HUGE!

\

Love my companion. We were being silly this morning!

All the houses are so close together it's crazy! 

These buildings are our classrooms. Our classroom is in the Joseph F. Smith building. 

So I haven't got any letters or packages or whatever from you. Hopefully I will but if not I'll let you know. Also last week when I ran into Sydney I was saying how cute I thought she was and that I wanted her to marry Josh. She laughed and said that Josh was welcome to email her!

So this past week we had a devotional and one of the elders in our district went up to talk to the speaker afterwards. The speaker was of course Hispanic. The elder was talking to him when all of a sudden the speaking said ¨Exito¨ and so the elder was taken aback and left because he thought that meant to leave, like exit. But what it really means is success. The speaker was trying to tell the elder to have success and the elder thought that he was just telling him to leave. It was really funny. The differences between English and Spanish can be quite hilarious sometimes haha. 

So every week we get the chance to do service. Last week we were helping with chairs for the dedication. Something else they had us do was clean leaves. Yes, we had a wet paper towel and we were cleaning leaves, wiping the dirt from off them. Haha it was so strange and comical all at the same time. 

So the weather there sounds like it has been crazy!!! Sometimes in the evening when I think its a little chilly I have to remember that you guys are really freezing in Idaho.

So something that I like to eat here are pears. They have really good pears that we eat just like apples. It's really fun. Also they give us so much meat everyday. I am trying not to eat so much meat because there is always some kind of meat everyday and it feels excessive. I eat a lot of fruit. Either pineapple or watermelon. So delicious!

That's so cool about getting 2 letters from me! I would be excited to get 2 letters from me ;) haha.  And called to teach gospel doctrine! Thats so awesome! I know you'll be great at that. When I teach, I try to teach like you. You always word things so well. But of course that is kinda difficult in Spanish. But it's also a good thing because when I teach, I have to teach really simply because that's all I know how to say.

I can't believe that I really am in Mexico. I know that Lord has prepared me to come here and be a missionary. It has been such a great experience. I know that learning to live with a companion really can help prepare you for marriage. You have to learn how to listen and compromise and work together. It's been such a wonderful experience learning this. Mi compañera is so great! I love her!  

Oh guess what. One day at lunch I sat by this girl and we started talking. I found out that we were both in the same humanities class this past semester. She thought I looked familar. I never formally met her but we were in the same class with the same teacher and the same time. It really is a small world after all. hahaha. 

The hospital that I was in is called Hospital Angeles Lindavista. Sorry my thoughts are so jumbled. Just wanted to tell you all that I can. This hospital is the best one around they say. It was really big. 

Nutella on Ritz, huh? I'll have to try it when I get back into the States. Mmmmm. 

Well I'll see if I can send you another letter today. That would be fun. I love writing to you guys. I love sharing my experiences with you and I LOVE hearing from you. Tell Emily that I hope work is going well for her. Tell everyone I love them more and more each day. This gospel truly is amazing. I am so excited to be a missionary. I´m glad they called me on a mission! I love life, I love this gospel, and I love you all so very much. I pray for you everyday and know that the Lord will take care of you. Happy Valentines day! I love you!

Love your favorite Hermana of all time!

Hermana Killpack

P.S. I'm not sure if they celebrate Vday here so I guess we´ll find out tomorrow. Love ya!