Living in Paradise!!

Heyyyyy!

So i'm officially in Las Vegas, specifically in a town called Paradise, (pretty much right by the strip) and I am loving it! It's like 75 degrees all the time and super sunny.. pretty much feeling like paradise right now quite literally. I'm serving in a singles ward so we only teach people ages 18-30, which makes it a little harder to get through to them ( young adults can be pretty immature and self-centered sometime..haha ;) but it's really fun too.  My companion's name is Sister Crane and she is super cool! We were besties in the pre-life for sure. The first day we got to stay with President and Sister Neider and they are also so amazing. President Neider used to be in the general Young Men's presidency and even spoke at general conference one time! Love them :) 

Well the people here are pretty.. interesting and apparently we're serving in the ghettoish part of Las Vegas. But every day is full of excitement. We've been teaching quite a few less actives that are starting to make a lot of progress so that's pretty sweet! We've had the coolest experiences while contacting so far..we met a 6'6 black man who pretty much taught us about Jesus for 20 minutes and why there doesn't need to be any churches and that we all just  need to love one another..and he definitely has a point, but we're hoping he'll open up and want to listen to us because he would be a solid member. We gave him a Book of Mormon and are gonna check back with him soon! We went and visited a former investigator who had recently gotten out of prison..he opened the door holding a bong, he works as a dubstep dancer on the strip, but apparently wants to change his life around and said he'd be interested in coming to church.. so we'll see! There are quite a few people around here that are in that same situation, and quite a few of them want to change so we've got lots of work to do! We also met a couple of Romanians while contacting and they were SUPER nice. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and talked with them about their crazy lives. The wife has 9 brothers and sisters and only a couple of them are still alive because of fights and other crazy things that happened when they were living in Florida. So many people around here are looking for something to explain why they're here and where they are going so it's pretty effective to just talk to people on the street. I'm really learning how to not judge people on their appearance and just picture them in white, because almost everyone has is decked out in chains, tats and smells like marijuana.. it definitely doesn't look like BYU around here..haha. Anyways, the Romanians invited us in and fed us some.. interesting food (Me and Sister Crane practiced our secretly spit out in napkin skills) and we are coming back on Tuesday to pull weeds and teach them more! We had 6 people come to church on Sunday so that was pretty exciting!! I never thought I would care so much about someone else was thinking during a meeting as I did sitting right next to our investigators. It was cool to answer their questions and see their reactions to certain things. For the most part they really enjoyed it so hopefully they'll be back next week! 

All in all, it's been a long but amazing first 5 days and I'm so glad i'm out here! Being a missionary really is super fun :) (except the waking up early part.. still getting used to that). Love you all and hope things are going great! Ohh and I got a violin to borrow and I'm playing at the Sisters lunchin on Friday where all the Sister missionaries from the mission get together so that should be cool!

-Sister Kraus 

Ps. Something I learned in the MTC: God doesn't stress, so we shouldn't either. whatever you're worrying about right now, take a deep breath and remember..life is so good and the church is true! :)

Pss. I saw a mormon message video at a members house with Jason Hinds in it..and a bunch of other friends from Provo.. Small world! Also, I listen to Nik Day's song "Good Friends" like every day. Someone should tell him that for me. Thanks :)

Thanks again for the bike Mom & Dad!!  I love it and we get to ride them quite a bit.. with our cute helmets of course. Life is so good though :)

MTC -1 week

Hey!!

So i've already been at the MTC for a week....mind blown. They really aren't kidding when they say the days are super long but weeks are fast. I feel like I just got here, and I sorta just did.. but I can't believe it's been a week! I'm loving everything so far. My companion is great! Sister Hirsch is her name and she's a sweetheart! We get along great (though I stole a banana from the cafeteria one time and she made sure to put me in my place..). I feel like all we do is study, eat, teach, sleep, repeat, but life is so good! We get 50 minutes of gym most days and, it's prob the best hour of my day..I try to get a little workout in, then go whoop everyone in basketball... but only in a nice respectful Sister Missionary kind of way...haha. So everyone around here is always way too happy. If feel like there might be something they put in the water, because kids this age shouldn't be so happy about being trapped in a few buildings studying and focusing on serving and teaching others ALL DAY LONG. But I'm realizing that it makes me happier then I've ever been. Yeah I miss the college life and just hanging out with my family and friends, but there is something that makes you truly satisfied and happy in life, and that's caring about other people. We focus a lot on how to be a good teacher here at the MTC. We go over the doctrine and the main teaching methods.. how to commit an investigator to come to church, or how to pray about and read the Book of Mormon, and all these are great.. but it all comes down to how much you can learn to love the people you are serving. They can tell if you're just trying to sell them something or if you sincerely care about their salvation and really want to help them improve their lives. Not going to lie, it's been a little scary preparing lessons and going in to teach random people, but after the first lesson, we are so pumped to learn more about them and find out how we can help them because everyone needs the gospel, whether they know it yet or not. Truth is, what we say doesn't really matter a whole lot... yeah we want to make sure that we are teaching correct principles simply and powerfully, but they only way they are going to actually feel that what we are saying is true is through the spirit. That's why it is so important to be 100 percent obedient and allow the spirit to be with us while we teach.

Anyways, life is so good. We got to go to the temple this morning and it was amazing as usual. The church is so true and I love everything about it. I know I made the right decision to serve a mission! I'll be out in Las Vegas in 1 week so hopefully we learn everything we need to before then.. can't believe how fast they make you grow up here... Heavenly Father really does work miracles here let me tell ya. Love you all!

Sis Kraus

 

Saying goodbye to family

And Best of Friends!

Entering the Mission Training Center (MTC)