Pictures from Kaeley

Kaeley in the MTC



















Her study desk in her apartment in california



The Sisters apartment

 Kaeleys room and bed, and it is even clean :) 











P-Day hike, Kaeley and her companion

OCTOBER 29TH 2012

Hi ya'll!

   This week has been chalk full of events and mighty miracles. Monday night we had the very unique opportunity to go to a book club and answer questions they had about our religion! There were about 10 older ladies and most of which were Jewish! But they had just read a book and were curious about our religion. It was a lot of fun and they were very respectful and were just curious! It was such a neat opportunity. We also FINALLY got ahold of a family that has been on our "list" since we first got to Chatsworth! They live in a gated community (which there is a lot around here) and every time we go we haven't been able to get in...Well kind of. Mostly we didn't want to climb over the fence. Might be illegal or something, but if you see in the new 2 sister missionaries from our church caught climbing over the fence...it was not us! :) But we asked the Lord to provide a way that we could get in and we went and nothing happened so we decided to try the other gate down the street and the minute we walked away 3 cars pulled up! We ran back and just laughed the whole time and probably thought Heavenly Father got a kick out of that. But they are the sweetest family. They are from China so the mom has a hard time understanding but her 2 daughters speak great english so they were a big help. Thursday, the assistants to the president called and said that they had sold our car. And of course our next thought was...oh no...here comes bikes! But we just got a newer car with less miles! It’s a Malibu, which I love, sister mix is still warming up to it! :) Friday night was the wards trunk or treat night and chili cook-off. There were so many crock-pots of chili!!! But you got to eat as much as you wanted and then pick the best one. Sister Mix and I decided to get candy and tape them to pass along cards because normally a lot of people not in the ward come! We even got angel wings and were heavenly messengers! (pictures to come) But it was a lot of fun! We had a family that is less-active and her husband is not a member come and that was so great to see them there!!! We had another family come that we aren't teaching but they love to ask us questions and we have a good friendship with them.  We had an amazing district training Friday morning about how to help the members understand their importance in helping the missionaries find people to teach! Because tracting is not successful most of the time and members play such a huge part in that. So that was cool to see how we can better help the ward. Sunday morning we had a little earthquake and we felt it when we got to our church building. Kind of scary but only a 3.4 or something like that. It was a weird bouncy one too! The big one is coming!!! That is what people keep telling us :) no worries!! Sunday was also the primary program and it was so fun to see all the kids op there singing their hearts out for something that they truly believe in! We have been trying to think of good service chances to do for the community because that is a great way to get people to ask questions and put our name out there and that has been good. We have a list of about 20 things right now and are going to 100! Our ward mission leader is helping us with the list as well!!! It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord over this week because if it wasn't for the Lord...no missionary would ever be able to do what they do and for this work to be successful! I know that this is truly the Lord's church. Restored once again to the earth through Joseph Smith! The more I read about our history the more grateful it makes me for my ancestors that sacrificed everything to belong to this church! We have such an amazing Gift from our Heavenly Father and need to share it with everyone we come in contact with!!! The Lord is truly preparing the hearts of men to receive this message that we have to share!!!

     Thank you so much for all the pictures I enjoy seeing them! I am glad the family is doing well!!!  Thank you for sending that request in for my driving thing. I was going to start driving in our area as soon as it comes since sister mix is leaving and it will help me to know the area even more. Glad grandma is still doing well in the hospital and getting better! Give her a hug for me and Grandpa!!! Tell them I love them both!!!  Alyssa still needs to write me at some point.!! :) I do have one request. Please don't send any candy for thanksgiving or Christmas. We get so much desert and it is really starting to show! plus you can save some money!!! :) Thanks so much for sending me my jackets they were nice to have since it did get a little cold over the weekend! and for the candy!! I love pumpkins!!! my favorite! :)    I love you mom and dad and miss you heaps!!! (thats what they say in New Zealand! Stay safe! Love you sister Kaeley haws!

Kaeleys letter October 22nd 2012

Hey,

Well another week has already gone by and it is almost the end of October and it just started! That is the strangest feeling sometimes of super long days and then all of a sudden, it has been another month. Sometimes I can't believe how long I have already been out and yet at the same time, I wonder how I will make it 16 more months! Which is a good thing because I know in a few months I will be wishing for me to stay here be a missionary longer. The first little while is hard because you have so much to learn and do and make sure you are understanding before everything finally starts to click. And this week, well yesterday, everything that I have been learning but not really understanding how it all works together finally started to make sense as we had 4 appointments back to back! And they were all great! The spirit was so strong and the people were really starting to understand and I am kind of finally starting to understand my purpose as a missionary when it comes to teaching! This last week was transfer week and we got 15 new missionaries into the mission! It’s great!

Well unique experience this week... We were talking to this old man in his garage and he was working on something, (looked like he was trying to bend a random piece of metal in half,) and we were talking to him and he turned to get something and his shorts fell down to his ankles! It was a little awkward because we weren't sure if we should just walk away or keep talking but he just acted like it never happened and kept talking to us and just pulled up back up to his neck this time! It was really hard not to laugh but we did for a while after! And next random thing, a spider just ran out from my key board at the library. Anyway, we found a new investigator this week from going through old former investigator forms and she is a black lady who loves everyone and is so chipper and just so happy! She is going to be wonderful! There are so many nice people in Chatsworth, and it is an older community which plays a little bit into that. We have a couple ladies we are teaching that live in a residential home because they can no longer take care of themselves but the one lady is really hard of hearing and so we have to shout at her to teach her and it's really entertaining because most of the time she can't hear us anyway! We are teaching a lot of less actives right now that are just struggling with their testimonies but it is cool to see as we teach them and the spirit touches their heart that they start to glow and become more confident in their testimonies and their understanding increases. We have one lady who was, well still kind of is pretty negative, because her life hasn't gone as planned but we are having her write down 5 things she is grateful for and reading in the Book of Mormon and her entire attitude changed this last week! It was so cool to see her glowing and see that she is applying the gospel and the atonement in her life.

This week has been rather difficult and each day is a roller coaster of emotions. One minute super happy, next, just wanted to sleep forever! Haha. It is interesting trying to work through things and it’s just those weaknesses that you cannot hide from or bury them down because it is something that you have to overcome. In a sense it's kind of cool but at the same time, it can be very frustrating. But you just have to keep moving forward. Nothing else you really can do. So even when life gives you oranges, figure out a way to make lemonade. :) This week was a little hard again but not a surprise. Just keep going and that is all I can do sometimes. And I think it is just I am harder on myself than anyone so I am really learning how to have patience with myself when I don't get something. We are very well feed here! All the ward members love to have us so we get feed basically every night during the week which is nice and helpful saves on money! Plus I feel like I have made more money being a missionary from people giving us money for food than before! :) It’s interesting! I love you both lots and miss you both!!! Hope everything is going well for you! Love you Kaeley

KAELEYS LETTER OCTOBER 15TH

Hey!

This week has been pretty good. Nothing too traumatic this week to report! Which is good. We did have an amazing Zone Conference this last tuesday right after General Conference which was based on becoming a Preach my Gospel Missionary and also Elder Holland's talk, (which was my favorite, and just made Zone Conference that much better.) It was also a time that the departing missionaries got to bear their testimonies before they left this week! I am happy to report that TODAY is my 2 month mark. I made it two months...only 16 more to go! :) But It’s cool that it has already been two months and doesn't even feel like it has been. Time has already just flown by! We have taught a lot of lessons this week! We have 1 new investigator which brings it up to 4 and we have one with a baptismal date. Which is just awesome. She is a 14 year old girl and just has a strong desire to know about the church and be a part of it. Her aunt that is in our ward is trying to adopt her and it will be such a better environment for her to be in and should happen this week hopefully. We have had a lot of dinner appointments this week with members and the members in this ward are absolutely amazing! They have the kindest hearts and just want to help anyone they can. We had the opportunity to go to the hospital to visit a member of our ward that is there last night. He is so great and him and his wife are converts to the church and every time they see us, he talks to us about how there is nothing out there. It is all right here in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He has such a strong testimony and loves to share it with everyone! But we went and saw him last night and he always gives me grief for being the new missionary and the greenie and always invites me to pray because I am new and need all the practice I can get, or at least he says so! But I got to pray for him and it was so amazing the feel the love that the Lord has for him as I prayed for him to get better and to keep recovering. It is just amazing what the Lord can do. I never realized how much love the Lord has for his Children, and that love is incomprehensable . I don't think we can ever really know how much love the Lord has for each of us but we defintely can look at our lives and know that there is a Heavenly Father who loves us dearly and gives us such great gifts to use and have in our lifes. Especially people. We have met so many amazing people that have such amazing convert stories and it just strengthens mine that this is the Lord's true church on the earth because these people have looked everywhere! And finally found what they are looking for. It is so great. The Gospel is great and is there to help us get through life. We have been given so many tools to help us, the scriptures, prayer, prophets, church, the sacrament, friends, family, and the list could go on and on! If anything I am truly learning to never take things for granted and to always use them the best way I can to help the people around me and in return help myself. Keep praying and going to church and reading and studying the Scriptures. Its the small and simple things that will keep us on the path to eternal life and our Heavenly Father. Missionary work is the best thing ever. It is hard and I knew that it would be. Some days are better than others but you just keep going. And it's not in my nature to quit something. Sometimes I really want to and its hard to keep going when nothing happens but there is such amazing things that happen that make it ALL worth it and everything I have learned is just awesome and I wouldn't trade it for the world. The Atonement is very real and that is the ONLY reason I can get through each and every day. Sister Mix and I are teaching a family history class we are trying to set it up for everyone to come.we really feel that it will bring a lot of people in contact with the church and that is what we need! It hasn't been too bad here lately. Today is 101 but even that is better than 107!

I love you both lots and lots and miss you lots! I am glad things are good! I will pray for you and dad and I always do! Love you both! Love, ME!!!!! :)

KAELEYS LETTER OCTOBER 8TH 2012

Hey,                                                                                                      October 8^th, 2012

    Well this week has still had its ups and downs but mostly ups and that is a typical week of the life of a missionary. Sometimes I feel super bipolar...which can be a good thing and bad but mostly good because it is giving me even more to work on!!! :) Those are the best times when all your weaknesses are thrown in your face but it also gives me even something more that I can rely on the Lord and truly feel his power and atonement in my life. The atonement is so real and I have never felt it more powerful than now being on a mission and truly asking the Lord to help me overcome my own weaknesses.  It is great because I know my Heavenly Father is listening otherwise I would never make it through some days. Heavenly Father truly hears and answers prayers through tender mercies and sometimes we think he doesn't  but it is because it is something so small to help us through till the "big" answer comes. There is a song that I just love a part of it says "what if these trials in our lives are your  mercies in disguise." I just love that line and it is so true!

   Conference was AMAZING!!!! The spirit was so thick with every talk and just seemed to be even more so with each session!!  I seriously cried when the annoucement was made for sisters to serve at 19!!!! The door has just been opened for so many more sister missionaries! And Heaven knows we need them. It is so great that they can choose to go before they get so involved with school and thinking about getting married, that is just doesn't seem like an option.  My first two thoughts were Rachel and Raini and about going on a mission.  You saying that they thought about it too just made me want to cry even more!  So,  I hope you (Rachel and Raini) and the other girls in our family when the time comes, will read this and prayer fervently about going...because I can promise you that you will NEVER do anything as hard nor as rewarding as a mission. It prepares you for everything you will do with the rest of your life. You might think I am biased because I am out here but I am not...well maybe a little...but still. :) I would only encourage you to go because you truly learn who you are to Heavenly Father and learn how much he loves you and all of his children.   You have so much joy at the end of the night when your feet, back, brain and cheeks hurt from smiling so much... yet you can still smile and just feel so happy that you helped someone and served them.   It isn't easy but it is so worth it. There are hard days but there are great days that make you forget the bad. I don't remember who it was but there was an apostle who talked about sister missionaries and how  they aren't required to go but that we need strong mothers to raise the kids that will come into the world at a time that is going to be hard and a mission will teach you future Mothers everything you need  so you can be that kind of strong  Mother.  It went  something like that. If you can find it, you might enjoy it. Marriage is so important...but If you have a desire to go (D&C  4:3), the Lord will always use you and marriage will always be there when you get back. If it's right, the Lord will tell you! I promise you that. and even if you don't get a resounding yes and you still want to go... GO!!!! You will never regret it. I promise you that. It is such a great joy to me to get up and put my name tag on and become one with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and go to work. It's great!  Ok..I am done ith my advice and rant or whatever you want to call it  :)   

  My favorite talk was Jeffery R. Holland. I love that man. He is so bold and straightforward, yet he does it with so much love that it only makes you want to be better! He truly is inspiring. His talk was just so great and meant so much to me as a missionary. I loved how every talk, no matter what it was, always went back to using the Atonement. The Atonement isn't just a one time thing but something we have the beautiful privilege of using over and over again to help us become the person Heavenly Father intends us to be. 2 Nephi 31:20 pretty much rapped up conference for me in a nutshell. It was so great to hear from the living prophets are we are so blessed!

    This week has been good and busy. We have been meeting with a lot of less active members in the ward that are so wonderful and so kind.  There is one lady that we had the chance to meet with that she told us she got offended and left the church and a few years back, two missionaries knocked on her door a while ago and she told them to go away and never return. Then we showed up a few years later and she was so prepared by the Lord to accept our invitation to come back and talk to her. It is amazing to see how the Lord prepares people over time to accept the message we share. We have had quite a few dinners this week with members and every time we go for dinner and get to know them  I always walk away amazed and wondering,  why isn't the whole city of Chatsworth members because our ward has so many neat and inspiring people.  I just love them and their kindness and their willingness to be involved in the work and help us in any way they can. It's funny because this ward is so use to elder's that they cook a lot of food and then here come the sisters who don't eat near as much as the elder's. It’s great. Last night the family we ate with told us we couldn't say the “full”  word there because in their house it was a cuss word.  He is also from Hawaii and they eat a lot but it’s so great. I know my last letter wasn't that positive so I hope this one is because even though this week has been hard, It has been great!

 I am finally feeling better except I think I might be getting sick again but I am doing everything I can to not get sick because it sucks!   I want to work but if I get sick I can’t,  but it should be ok. Tell grandma I got her letter and Thanks and I miss her,  and I sent her one back if she can find it :)  I play the piano a lot and it is great because I miss getting to play it all the time. Normally about once a week for our training meetings but the Lord knows that is how I release stress so he provides ways to play it when I least expect it and it's great. Today we went to a place called the rock where you can see the ocean from there but it was super foggy...or smoggy however you look at it but we will go back sometime but it was great to be out in nature. Normally we do laundry, email, shopping, cleaning, napping, letter writing, napping...more napping...haha I wish!!!  Some Mondays are busier than a normal day in the week. The library is about 3 blocks from our apartment so not too far but we are at the apple store because it was closed today. Sorry to hear about raini's car! and my car! haha I am just really glad she is ok and nothing more was damaged or hurt but that stinks about it. I hope things work out for her. There are a million subways here but we haven't used it yet just because we keep getting money from older members who don't cook very much. So we still have the gift card !! Oh I thought of something else I want for Christmas...stamps!!!! :) That cd and stamps would be great and put the money you would normally spend into my mission. I mean it! :) That is the most important thing and I can never repay you for the service and help you are giving me to keep me out here. The Lord is truly blessing our family and I can feel it from here!!!  Tell grandpa I miss him lots and lots and lots but I am surviving :) hope dad isn't too tired from spud harvest! Make sure you get some rest and don't work too hard.!!!  I love you and miss you dearly! Keep going to CHURCH,  PRAYING and READING .  They spell CPR and truly are our lifeline to live with Heavenly Father again!  Much love Sister  (Me)  Haws :)

More Pictures

Kaeley and her companion in California, Sister Mix



She said this is her favorite street in California !!

KAELEY SENT PICTURES !!!

At the Provo Temple on her P-day at the MTC.  August 2012

 

Some of her district in the MTC.  Her companion is the Sister standing in front of Kaeley


She was on a hike in the "mountains" for thier p-day.  This one she labeled "top of the world???" She said it was basically just a big pile of rocks in the middle of the city that they called a big mountain.  :) 

 



New Letter from Kaeley - October 1st

Hi!

    Well...Things have been good...and bad.  But a good bad I guess you could say. It has been good because we have had a lot of training this week and that has been helpful in what we do on a day to day basis.  So we have lots and lots to work on and start to implement in our daily routine. And remember when I said tracting was better last week...that lasted about 4 days later.  We ran into this guy, who just laid into us about how we are spreading a lie and just a lot of other things and was just attacking us. We should of just walking away but we didn't and we kind of told him the what for about what he has said. We kind of got into it with him but then realized it was going in a not very good direction and we tried to change the tone and ask him have you ever read the Book of Mormon and he just keep saying you don't need it and you believe this and this and it’s a lie. We told him how can  you tell us what we believe if you have never even read the Book of Mormon and why would you limit God to what he is capable of.  He listened for  about 5 minutes and then just went back to his old argument that we were spreading a lie and weren't going to make it to heaven because we were serving a mission. I finally said its time to go, and we started to walk away and we told him we hoped that one day his opinion of who we were as people would change and wished him a nice day. Let me tell you, I have a lot of work to do on loving everyone because I really just wanted to punch him in the face and say how dare you. I am praying for Charity and forgiveness which is all I can do but we are both not fans of tracting right now. We didn't even knock on his door. We were just walking down the sidewalk and said Hi but it just surprises me how mean people can be about something they know so little about. Everything else has been good but that experience kind of shook both of us up for a little while. We know better next time to that when that happens to walk away. We have the right to not listen to them especially if they are targeting us. But that is my horrid story for the week. My good story of the week is that is finally cooled down for a few days but today and tomorrow...107! People say this isn't normally for this area and they don't really know what is going on. We have met some neat people this last week but none of  whom  were interested. Our  ward  is really helpful and are always so willing to feed us. Which is nice not having to worry about cooking a meal but I don't know if they realize that as sisters, we don't eat near as much as the elders!  It’s kind of funny to see how much food gets put on the table sometimes. We just laugh. We have 2 new investigators this week. We are teaching a 14 year old girl who has had a pretty hard life so far but her aunt is in our ward and they are adopting her and she wants to learn more about the church. The other is a grandson of a less active in our ward and they both are going to be taught the missionary lessons. He is 81/2 and super excited to learn more. There is so much work that can be done here but sometimes it gets overwhelming on where to even start. We are never really sure but that is where prayer comes into play and we just trust that the Lord will take us where we need to be. But you just keep working hard, hoping for the best and you just keep doing what has been asked of you and pray for the strength to keep going.   

 The fall pictures you sent looked beautiful and I miss seeing all that green!  It’s mostly desert here with maybe a couple of green trees but not very many.   Tell everyone Hi  for me!  Love you,  Sister Haws