Email: December 27th

Hey everyone!

Thanks for all the letters, emails and dear elders I have received! I thoroughly enjoy mail :) Thanks Mom, Jaye, Cy and Ange for all writing me a small email to me :) I was wondering where my siblings had gone! hehehe :P.

Angela - why do you need to use my ipod account? Why can't you use yours? Plus, dont steal my music...it will authorize your ipod and de-authorize mine, which means, I wont have the music. Make your own account? Its really easy.

ANYWAYS! Christmas was really good. On Christmas eve, all of us sisters in the dorm room sat around and told each other one of our favorite stories of Jesus Christ. It was Sister Pantigoso's turn and instead of telling us about her favorite Jesus Christ story she begins to go around the circle telling each of us which Christ-Like attribute we have. She got to me and said, "Sister Kinkead has the attribute of love. She tells everyone that she loves them and if she doesn't, you can see it through her actions." That made me really happy. This past week has been really hard and stressful for me. More tears, more doubts and lots of negative thoughts but hearing that from one of my fellow sisters? It really helped. Afterwards, Sister Pantigoso told me to look under my pillow and I found a letter all 5 sisters had written and signed. They each told me how much I meant to them and to keep holding strong. They even gave me a candy bar :) It was SO sweet. They know how hard its been at times for me and by sharing their love like that brought tears to my eyes. Sisters look out for Sisters. :)

Christmas day started out real well. All 6 of us sisters sat in our room and opened up our gifts around our tiny tree hehehe. Thanks mom for your package :P. Thanks Hillary for the Calendar and socks! LOVE IT! I cant wait to use it :) Thanks Bryce for all the stuff you got me. Hehehehe. Thanks Derek for the 8 lbs of candy you sent me hahah! Heather, thanks for sending me the things I needed! I also loved the letter. I read it to my companion lol. All the gifts were GOOD! Later on in the day we sat for 7 hours in Devotionals and firesides :|. I slept through a ton of it too :/ Its hard! Youre tired as a missionary! Russel M. Nelson came to talk during one of the devotionals. It was......ok. I sat and counted how many people were sleeping during it hahaha, I am horrible! But seriously...it wasn't that good of a talk. I asked the sisters how they liked it and they all said nothing because they didn't want to be negative lol. On sunday we had relief society and Sherry Do (sp?) was there. I got to hug her! Bwhaha!

Sister Speth and I had another teaching appointment. It went AWESOME!!! We get better and better each week! Her and I were teaching the Plan of Salvation and I definitely felt the spirit. I almost cried bearing my testimony of the atonement and of Jesus Christ. Our investigator was our teacher this past week and he even said he was impressed! Job well done!

Guess what? I got sick AGAIN this past week. Its probably due to stress. No lie. I finally got fed up with coughing non-stop during the night and during the day so I had Elder Law give me a blessing. He told me I was the second person he gave a blessing too. Awww hehe. And guess what? The next day the coughing was gone and Im better! Thank goodness. I love the elders in our district. They are seriously like my little brothers. I love them a lot. Elder Law especially reminds me of Cy. He was real athletic in High school - played Lacrosse. Hes a good boy :)

I finally gained 3 lbs in the MTC! w00t!

The language still comes as a struggle but its coming slowly. I get real fed up sometimes and think about how great it would be just to go home but I know it will be worht it in the end. A mission is hard. A mental rollercoaster. For anyone who is reading this and who is planning to serve a mission, start preparing NOW. You will be grateful you had.

If you're not LDS and want to know more about the church? check out mormon.org :)

Well everyone, I think thats about it for me! I hope you all are doing well and I miss you!!

Lots of love,

CECTPA Kinkead :)

Email: December 21st

Hey Everyone!!

I hope everyone is enjoying the christmas season and since I wont be able to wish everyone a Merry Christmas on Saturday..Merry Christmas now! :) It hasnt felt like Christmas at all here in the MTC. We sing lots of christmas hymns (Which I am so sick and tired of now lolol) but thats about it. ALTHOUGH! Brother Crowther, one of my teachers, lost a bet and had to bring in a small christmas tree and lights to decorate our room! ITS SO GLORY! I walked into class yesterday and saw the room decorated and I was like, "AHH! BROTHER CROWTHER! I WISH I COULD HUG YOU!! YOU ARE THE BOMB.COM" Hehehehe. I love it.

I want to thank my mom, my sister Hillary, my aunt Jodie, Cori Payne, Lana and Bryce for all sending me things in the mail! How thoughtful! I loved the cookies you sent me, Lana. I shared them with my class and they all enjoyed them :) Mom, Hillary and Bryce? I am saving your packages for saturday :D Cori and Jodie? Thank you for the money. I have been using it to buy essentials at the bookstore :)

Mom - I need the address for Home Depot and the Ward. I want to be able to update people! I also need a calling card so I can call you from the airport Feb 2nd! oooooo! :)

Ok! SO! Everyone..there is a thing called dearelder.com! GET ON IT!!! Dearelder.com allows you to make an account and write me a letter. The post office prints it off the same day you write it and then Ill have something to read the same exact day you wrote it. So..if you feel like saying hi..or just telling me to hang in there lol...get on there and hit me up. I think you need my mission info...which is BUL-SOF 0202. My dept date is Feb 2nd. I think thats all the info you need!

For all those who are writing me, I learned that the mail system in bulgaria is SKETCHY. The teachers told me that sending packages to bulgaria is fine. Every package has gotten there. HOWEVER, Letters dont always get to bulgaria. Many letters that were supposed to get to my teachers did not..so...After the last week of January? Email me. No more letters. I dont want to deal with losing letters and not know whats going on.

Whose the new ward chorister for the ward anyways? I cant believe whats going on with Donna Murray, mom. Ill keep her in my prayers. For sure.

So..Bulgarian is coming along. Yesterday was my first day where sentences with adjectives, possesives, definite articles and pluralization was actually coming together and making sense. Bulgarian is such a tough language but its coming....slowly lol.

Sister Speth and I had another TRC. (Go and teach a fake investigator). It went better this week. Even though I was real choppy with my bulgarian, the lesson itself went well! Our investigator, Ryan, told me at the beginning that he loved reading and was reading a series with 13 books. He told me he couldnt wait for the next one to come out..in a year. I knew exactly what series he was talking about...The Wheel of Time lol. So..later on in the lesson we talk about how the Book of Mormon compliments the Bible. I explained in an anagoly how The Wheel of Times series is much like The bible and the 14th book that hasnt come out yet is like the Book of Mormon. Without one book, the whole series is incomplete. you need the whole series to make it full :) I wasnt going to tell that analogy but it felt right and I knew it was a prompting from the spirit. It was real good. I made the investigators life tie into the scriptures, which is always nice for the investigator, it makes them understand better. Sister Speth thought it was awesome. After we got out, she was like, "THAT WAS SWEET!" Hahaha :)

In my personal study, Ive been reading the General Conference issue which is way good. Ive also been studying my scriptures a ton, along with finding topics that are in the Bible and expanding on them through the Book of Mormon. Its definitely nifty for skeptical investigators...even though I havent had any yet lol. Our teachers push us!

So funny story mom. The polish sisters in our dorm room love staring me down. They dont really say much..just stare me down. I told Sister Speth about it because it annoyed the crap out of me. Why do they stare? Do they have something to say to me? Sister Speth looks at me and says, "Maybe they are just jealous of you Sister Kinkead...or maybe they think you are beautiful so they just stare at you...*shrugs*" HAHA! I was like, "Oh my gosh..that is something my mom would say!!!" Hehehe. I love it.

Angela - Another funny story for you. Yesterday at lunch, I begant to quote from "Reject Cartoons". I started off by saying, "Everybody DANCE!" And then the whole table, with another table started quoting, "Its tuesday, did you bring your coat?" and "I am a BANANA!" HAHAHAHA!! It REALLY made my day. I know that it made yours too hehehehe.

Fun fact about Bulgaria - They dont pasturize their milk as much as we do. Also, they dont store it in refrigerators. They zap it with radiation and put it on a shelf...in a bag. What the heck?! Hahaha Its so different...hopefully I'll like the milk!

Hmm...anything else? I cant think of anything. The days are going by a lot faster. Im studying as hard as I can but Im still having so much fun while I do it. At times, I get annoyed out of my mind with my companion but I just shrug it off and know that its just Satan trying to get to me.

I hope you are ALL doing well! I love you all and I miss you!! Have a Merry Christmas and remember, Christmas is about Christ...not presents :P

Sister Kinkead :)

Email: December 16th

Hi Mom! and anyone else who reads this..Cy, Ange, Hillary, Jaye or Dad lol :)

I miss you ALL!!! I hear Jaye is interviewing for a job in missispi?! Good for him! Hillary's little Lily is walking? What a cutie! Cy finished his Ohio State application? Awesome! And Angela got the room of her dreams, thanks to Hillary, what a blessing!!

Well! Im sure you are all dying to hear all about me. I've got 23 minutes to tell you whats going on in my life! My P-days are on tuesdays. I wasnt able to write an email last week due to being in L.A California. My district had to go there due to getting our visas checked. We had to make a personal appearance. It was WAY FUN! California was nice and warm and everyone would treat us like celebrities! One man bought my whole district ice cream! How nice :)

My companion is Sister Speth. She is 21 and from Salt Lake City. Her and I are AWESOME together. We are compeltely opposites but we work well. Shes really easy to read and I can usually tell how shes feeling. She thinks its so crazy how well I can read her. At certain times of the day she'll say, "Sister Kinkead, what am I feeling?". Ill tell her and she'll be like, ":O!" Lol I love it.

Bulgarian is HARD. My first week was full of lots of discouragement, doubts and tears. The MTC is HARD. Its an emotional rollerocaster. Dont believe anyone who says the MTC is a breeze lol. I got here thinking I would be able to pick up the language like that! I thought the language would just be given to me...no no no no NO! lol! That is NOT how it works. You really have to stretch yourself spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Ive learned a lot about trusting in the Lord 100% and putting my faith and hope in the Lord. I also learned to have confidence in Christ and not myself. Christ can make me into something I could never do on my own. :)

Ive worked diligently and hard and this past week has been a lot better since the first. Ive learned how to pray, read, sing, testify and start the first discussion all in bulgarian! Last week Sister Speth and I had the chance to "contact' in bulgarian and give the first lesson in english to a bulgarian couple. We have to teach every week on thursday and every week it gets more intense. More bulgarian and less english. I love it! Sister Speth froze up in the bulgarian part so I took over and bore my testimony of God in bulgarian and then we went into the first lesson. Its so funny...She does really well teaching the lesson and I do really well speaking bulgarian. We compliment each other :) I love her!

My zone is awesome. The Polish and Bulgarians are together. The "Pols and the Bulgs" :) Its so fun. Everyone is like a big family. I love it.

My MTC teachers are all 22 yr old boys lol. Its way weird having boys a year older than me teach me about the gospel and the bulgarian language. They are awesome though. I feel the spirit so strong with them. Last night Brother Mattinson read us the dedicatory prayer for the Bulgaria mission. It said in there that there are many "select people" there waiting to hear the gospel. I thought that was really cool. It really touched my heart. Bro. Mattinson went on to say that when he was in the MTC an apostle was talking to him after a devotional and told him that "Not just anyone goes to Bulgaria. Bulgaria is special." That also struck my heart. I have such a love for the bulgarian people and I dont even know them yet. I cant wait to teacht them about our Heavenly Fathers plan for us.

Angela - Funny story, you know how you always say Jank? or thats Janky? Well! Janky in polish actually means "good". Funny huh? lol I thought you might like that.

I went to the temple today for my second time. I did sealings instead of the endownment session. It went REALLY well. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sister Speth and I went to the Celestial room afterwards. I thought it was huge! She was like, "This is..small.." Im like HAHA Try going to the Ohio temple lol. :P

Mom - I need some beige/brown panty hose...I ripped the only pair I had. I also need some black/brown panty hose socks. Ask Hillary what those are. I also need some more black panty hose. I may even need another pair of black shoes. The pair I had slip off my feet really easily and Ive been wearing my back up shoes and they are giving me blisters to no end...so...ya :/ Ill let you know about the shoes but try to get me some panty hose/socks. Thanks :)

Kim, my friend, got married. So crazy! I hope shes doing well.

Oh! I cant receive any packages after the 22nd of this month..so if anyone is sending anything - send it before the 22nd of this month.

What else do you want to know?? Write me and ask me! I could write so much more but I need to be getting off here. Time to start some laundry and respond to letters Ive received! I appreciate everyone writing me and supporting me. I hope youve enjoyed this email! I hope to hear from you all soon! I love you all!

With love,

Sister Kinkead

P.S. - Ive ate so much here at the MTC and Ive gained 0 lbs...how crazy is that? lol