April 11th, 2016

Hello hello,

So this week was filled with some crazy stuff happening and also some
miracles. It was great!

Tuesday morning we went out with Sister T, she's a lady in our
Ward who is an amazing missionary! She will literally pull over when
she sees someone one the side of the road and she will be like, hey do
you go to church? Haha it's awesome, we get a lot of referrals that
way. Anyway so she met a man named M at a gas station and he told
her that he has been looking for a church so she says she has some
missionaries she will bring over. So he tells her to come to his
mechanic shop where he works. So Tuesday morning we go into his shop
and he's a really sweet guy and so he has us sit in his lounge of his
car shop and we teach him about the Book of Mormon and we give him the
book and he was all excited to read it. Yay:)

Then we had exchanges with the STLs again, and it was fine. We did
some service for a lady in our Ward. She helped her clean her house
and then we helped her with some of her garage. Then we had dinner and
these people had artichoke and I'm pretty sure I've never eaten one
and they were freaking out saying I had to try it and so I did and it
was fine, idk what the big deal is haha, its a weird food.  Anyway,
after that we had a bunch of lessons and we had a lady in our Ward
take us out so that was nice.

Wednesday we had district meeting and sister Richards and I had to
give the restoration. We nailed it if you ask me;) lol then after our
meeting we went to do some more service which consisted of taking out
blackberry bushes. Which means lots of pokies in our legs and arms and
it's just not very fun. Lol it also was like 88 outside, which was
nice because I've missed the sun, but also not so nice because it was
so so so hot and we were just drained by the time we were done. Oh and
we did that for about 4 hours! I'm getting pretty good at doing yard
work, specifically taking out blackberry bushes. Haha

Thursday, oh yeah, Thursday was such a good good day!!!:) we had 8
lessons just on Thursday! Which is great because that is almost half
of our lessons for the week! We had 22 lessons total at the end of the
week! Anyway so we have 3 lessons in the morning before lunch then we
went to go clean the windows at the soccer place. THEN we went to a
lesson with our investigator T and had a really good lesson with
her. THEN we hurried up and went to another lesson with M, remember
him? So we went back to his shop and we sat in his lounge and taught
him the restoration which was awesome because he had some questions
and he really wants to find the truth. And it's so funny because
during our lesson his customers kept walking in and out. Well anyway,
during the middle a lady comes and sits down(we are in the lounge hah)
and we are talking about Joseph Smith and this lady asks us who he was
so then we give her he restoration!!!! It was so exciting! Lol THEN we
stopped at the gas station and THEN we talked to this man there and we
talked about the Book of Mormon and we set up another lesson with him!
AND THEN we went to a lesson with a man who speaks another language
but for the most part we can understand each other haha. For dinner it
was really awesome because we got to go eat with Elder and Sister
Burgoyne, they are in the mission office staff. It was SO FUN!!!! I
just love them, they are like family out here in the mission field.
They've been out on their mission for 17 months and they are going to
be out here for 23 months. Anyway I love them:) but yeah we had so
many lessons that day and it was amazing!!!!:)

Friday was a good day too because in the morning we went to the church
to have a zone comp study with President Taylor. It was cool
because he just let us ask him any question we had and he would answer
it. It became a really good discussion and I learned so much. Haha
it's funny what you come to enjoy on your mission but I just really
love learning from other people. Anyway it was great! Then we went to
do some more service which was helping these newly found less active
couple move out of there apartment into a new one. It was so so crazy.
After helping so many people move I've come to the conclusion that I
just don't need to keep anything haha. So yeah, I'm definitely going to be throwing
out everything when I get home hahah. After that we went and helped
some lady weed her garden. Then we went to Izzys AGAIN!!!! Hahaha lets
just say I filled up on salad.

Saturday, omg, guess what we did, MORE SERVICE! Hahaha don't get me
wrong, I love love love doing all his service, but at the same time I
don't know how much more my poor body can take! Lol;) kidding....kind
of ;) anyway so we went to take down these 15-20ft shrubs. Oh man it
was crazy! We had to push them down/shovel them/ax them/ pull them
out. Anything we could do, we did to try and get them out. Oh man we
should have gotten a picture because we were just covered in all the
stuff from these shrubs because we were shaking them so much! Hahaha
and it was so so so funny because an egg fell out of the tree and fell
onto sister Finns arm! Omg we were all dying laughing! Lol

Sunday night after we did some much needed weekly planning we went
over to the D Family and had a little campfire outside with them and
roasted some mallows. Mmmmm it was so great and yummy and I loved
being by he fire. Reminded me a lot of when we use to do it at our old
house. I loved it. So then we had to share a spiritual thought and we
related the fire to our faith because you can't just ignore he fire or
it will go out, just like our faith. We have to keep adding wood into
it and the fire will continue to burn. Just like out faith, we need to
do things to add to our faith like going to church, praying, reading.
Anyway it was really cool to see the kids understand it.

SO TODAY, hahaha the reason it's taken me so long to write y'all is
because we just got back from going on a HIKE to some WATERFALLS!!!!:)
oh my gosh you guys, it was just so beautiful!!!!! I loved it even
though I thought I was going to die a few times hahaha. It was really
fun because a bunch of us missionaries went and it was just so awesome
once you got to the top, which is like life a lot of the times, the
journey can be hard but the reward when you make it to the top is so
worth all the pain. I just love that. it made me think that WE CAN DO
HARD THINGS!!!! Hahaha, does that sound familiar mom?? Anyway it was
just so beautiful and I was so excited to do it. I'll send lots of
pictures, don't you worry dad;) oh and Sister D came with us
so that was great:) I just love her and I just love Sister Richards.
We are so similar and we get along so well! She is so funny and we
just literally laugh at everything because it's always so funny! And
we can just give one another a look and know that we are both thinking
the same thing. It's great! Lol

So yeah, that was my crazy busy week:)
I miss you guys so much and I love hearing about your weeks
I la la love you guys to the moon and back

Xoxo
Sister Batey

Kenzee and Sister Richards at the start of the hike.

 

All the sisters in the area. 

Sister Richards and McKenzee.

The 4 Sisters.

All the missionaries from the area.

 

Kenzee and a gecko.

McKenzee and a dog that is almost as big as her.

 

April 4th, 2016

Hey what up helloooooo,

Okay so first off, an announcement, next Thursday will be my 6
FREAKING MONTH MARK!!!! I will literally only have a year left!!!!!
Like woah, is that not just so crazy, weird, sad, and exciting???? I'm
just flabbergasted hahaha. Never did I think I would make it this
long, but boy am I so glad that I did!

Oh another announcement, I thought I would share some fun facts about
me since I've come on my mission,  I love spinach and broccoli. Oh and
salad too. I no longer want to die when I eat it! I actually can eat
just about everything and be okay with trying it and usually finishing
it. Although I'm still not much of a fan of potato salad or deviled
eggs... Haha but hey, it's a work in progress. Just thought you'd like
to know mom and dad. I'm growing up ;) hahah not literally though,
still 5 feet tall;)

Okay so now moving on, this week was a crazy one, which I guess in
missionary work is normal. Lol So Monday night we went to a lesson
with a potential investigator and we gave her the first lesson which
is the restoration and after we finished we thought it went well and
we asked her to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then she went
crazy! She starting going on and on about how she was offended with
some of the things we said about how we have prophets today and she
thought that our feelings were evil and how we can't trust our
feelings to tell us the truth. She believes we are born evil and she
told us this while her 18 month old daughter is running around and
she's pregnant... Lol she also thinks a lot of other crazy things and
I just don't even know how to write it all. She thinks we are young
and naïve and honestly she doesn't look much older than we are. Oh man
it was just a weird experience!! She was literally crazy because she
spoke monotone and said feelings are of the devil. Oh brother, let's
just say we don't ever plan on going back hahaha.

Wednesday we had another service project with our district which
consisted of digging up big rocks and moving the rocks and the cement
we found to the back of a truck and also ripping up blackberry bushes
again. We were trying to clear out this land so they could remodel a
house. But oh my gosh it was just hard labor work. It may not sound
hard but it was very much so. And it was the hottest it has been in
the last 6 months, my guess is like 76 plus. It was crazy! I was
loving it because the sun was out and I've missed it but it just made
us melting hot!! Oh we were tired. And then the blackberry bushes are
just as tiring because they had so many thorns and they just hurt so
bad when you get pricked! It took us like 4 hours to do all of this.
By the time we went to dinner we thought we were going to pass out
from exhaustion. Hahaha the poor family we ate with, we were just out
of it and had no energy, it was a pretty quiet dinner haha. But it was
a really delicious one! They had cheesy garlic toast and Chinese salad
and it was the bomb.com. (Another fun fact, I like Chinese salad) lol

Friday was fun because Elder and Sister Funk and Elder Lambert took
Sister Richards and my self out to lunch, actually it was more like
brunch because we had breakfast. But it was so fun. I just love them
and love spending time with the mission senior couples. we went to
dinner with this cute little old man at a place called Izzy's which is
a buffet and it was fine, except for the fact that it had to have been
like 104 degrees in there. It was like walking into a furnace. It was
so hot! But he was a cute little lonely old man. So it was nice to be
able to be there for him and talk to him, actually he talked to us...
Hahah

Saturday morning was the beginning to a wonderful general
conference!!! Wasn't it just amazing? Also isn't it weird to think
that last general conference I was home watching it with yall?? Crazy
what a few months can do!!! Anyway, so we stayed here and watched the
first session with the H Family (the people we live with). And it was
so good! Then the afternoon session we went to a family in our Ward.
Then Sunday morning we stayed with the H Family again and the
afternoon session went to another family in the Ward. That was the one
that sent you the picture. But man, I don't know if I can pick a
favorite! They were all so so so good!!! I really loved Elder
Hollands, he is always so good. I also really loved Elder Gongs talk.
He did an excellent job! And just a few more off the top of my head
that I loved were Elder Rasband, Sister Oscarson, and President
Uchtdorf. Oh wow conference was just so good. I felt like temples were
talked about a lot a lot. Which is good. The temple is a wonderful
place we should be going to. We are so blessed we live so close to the
temple. We should be going weekly!!! That will be my goal when I get
home, to go once a week at least. It's an amazing place! So here's
just a little something that I really loved from conference from Elder
Gong. He was talking about the resurrection and how we can have
perfect bodies because of Christ and His atonement and then he talked
about how Christ's body is not perfect because He still has the nail
prints and then Elder Gong goes on to say something along the lines of
"He carries with Him the marks of His love." And I just loved that!!!
How beautiful and comforting. Our Savior loves us so much and we will
always know that because He will have the scars to prove it and remind
us of His atonement. I am just in awe at the amount of love our Savior
has for us, each of us. I also loved how in Sister Oscarson's talk she
asked if we believe this gospel or not. It's more than just words but
it is truth. Awww I love that! This gospel is the truth restored to
the earth again today!!! Do we really believe the things that we are
being taught? If so are we acting like we do? If you aren't sure have
you asked the source of all truth, our Heavenly Father? Moroni 10
talks about how we will and can know if we ask Him and that through
the Holy Ghost, He will make it manifest unto us. Please ask God if
you aren't sure. He wants you to know, when you do know you can be
blessed and so happy. I know. I know and that's why I'm out here,
trying to help other people. This gospel can and does change lives.
It's amazing. I'm so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm so
grateful for this restored gospel. It makes me so happy and it brings
me so much joy to know that my family can be together forever. I love
you guys. And am so grateful for y'all.

I hope you guys are all doing good. I miss y'all more than anything.
And love you each to the moon and back. Don't forget to remember me.
LOVE YOU

Xoxo
Sister Batey

McKenzee trying to eat healthy...

McKenzee and Sister Richards enjoying the sun.