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