Another Wonderful Week

Why Hello there!!

 

It's been another wonderful week!! I've got 10 minutes to write...so lets see what I can do :)

 

I got a new companion. Her name is Sister Hannah Harmer. She also went to BYUi. How about that. She was in the Symphony Band and she plays the trombone. It's crazy switching, especially since we'll be in the same house as our old companions :) But it'll be good. :) 

 

This week we had a mascot. It was a white and black leopard spotted moth. It road around the town with us. It couldn't fly. We named him Tony. Tony Pongo. It's pretty sweet. We put him in a flower pot and haven't been able to find him since. I hope he took swimming lessons a lot when he was young because it's been raining a bit. 

 

Vocal Point came and are performing right now. We got to listen to them on Friday. They are AMAZING. We are going to a fireside with them performing tonight. Afterwards I bet you can't guess what we'll do. :) Another icecream social. haha yep. It'll be great. 

 

The Nauvoo Pageant core cast is here. We had an icecream social with them on Thursday night. So I met Joseph and Emma, Hyrum, Wilford Woodruff and a few others. Exciting , eh?

 

Sister Higginbothom got her 18 month mission call this week to San Jose California - Spanish speaking. It was very exciting. She opened it in the 70's hall which is where the missionaries used to learn. Like a MTC.

 

Wednesday I'm working in the Family living Center.

 

I love you all, I love the church!!! Sorry this is so short. Have a wonderful week

 

love,

sister israelsen. 

The Book of Mormon

This week my testimony has been greatly strengthened of the Book of Mormon. I've always known it is true. I've never doubted it, but I've typically read just to say, ok, I read my scriptures tonight. I would learn from random verses, but I've never exactly understood who is who and where they're from and who's related and who the random people are who pop out of no where. It turns out they don't really pop out of no where and the info is explained I just never focused closly enough. I'd always hear stories of people who would read the scriptures and not want to stop. They would be so into it. I never understood this, I had to try to stay awake. (Don't get me wrong, I loved the scriptures and I knew the information was written for me, but I've never felt this way). I'm beginning to understand more and to love the valiant people from the Book of Mormon. It's coming to life for me. I can imagine them, I can see their story and I can hear them speaking. I've recently read of Abinadi, Alma, Mosiah and I know that they knew. Their testimonies are all centered around Christ and His atonemnt. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father has given me this knowledge. He's opened my mind and my heart so that I would be able to understand the scriptures more fully.

What's New

This morning for Fathers day the stage elders sang their version of "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" to elder camp, murset and brague. It was hilarious and really sweet. They threw kisses at them in the end :)

We're playing Buglar's Holiday, we got the music about two days ago and they want it memorized as soon as possible. Good thing I've already played it a few times :)

The BYU Folk Dancers have been here the past two weeks. We got to see them perform on Wednesday.it was fun :) Vocal Point is coming for the next two weeks.

I was talking to one of the Nauvoo visitors the other day. He was telling me about the Ogden temple and how the outside is being remodled. Well, right before he started telling me about it he had been talking about Logan so I thought he was saying that the outside of the Logan temple was being remodled. He was explaining all the changes and I was just dying. I seriously start to tear up a little, I kept telling him that he was a good lier (jokingly of course). When I finally found out we was talking about a different temple it made me very happy :)

I Love Walking down these Streets

Susan Easton Black has been in Nauvoo for about 2 weeks I believe. We had an icecream social with her and she spoke to us a few times. Look her up, she's got church history down. She gave us the history of the 20 days leading to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It was very interesting.

This Wednesday I will work in the Lyon Drug Store. I have no clue what that's about, but I will know :) Working in the Wilford Woodruff home was an amazing experience this past Wednesday. Did you know that people have lived in his home ever since he built it? He has 8 fireplaces in his home so that his family would always be comfortable. His wife, Phoebe, is an amazing example of faith. She left her home in Maine, in her 20's by herself to go 1000 miles to Kirtland. Her family did not want her to go, in fact she had such a hard to saying goodbye that she didn't. She wrote notes, and left her family. Later Wilford Woodruff baptized her family. I know so much more about the saints then I ever knew before. It's too hard to write down, but they're examples will forever be ingrained in me!

I know I am meant to be out here. I am learning so much and I wish it wasn't going so fast. Having the chance to walk past the Nauvoo temple daily, and see in my mind the saints working to build this temple and the town. They sacrificed and they served. I hope I will be able to become a harder worker. I want to become someone who serves the Lord and does His will always. I want to always be a representative of Him. I love walking these streets, and being in the homes. I love love love it!!!

Miscellaneous Thoughts from Sister Israelsen

Later today I'm giving tours in the 70's hall, and this Wednesday in the Wilford Woodruff home. That'll be exciting.

Yesterday while we were playing on the band wagon, there was this ADORABLE little kid. He grabbed a stick and pretended to play the trombone with it. He was probably two years old. He would tug on His mom's pant leg and then say look mommy I'm playing trombone. When we started to leave he blew a kiss to us. Later some of the trombones let him hold t he trombone while they got a picture. It was so cute. I love seeing the little kids here.

 I've also made new friends from our daily rides. I love the teamsters (that's the senior elders who drive the band wagon.) They are so fun. they make funny comments. One of them has an inside joke with me. He's from Canada so I said to him, "I haven't heard you say "Eh" yet." He then told me that he doesn't get it Canadians say Eh (A), and Mexicans say si (C), so why don't americans say B. :) now whenever I talk with him, I end my sentences with a B. I also found out his first name is Dee (D), so that makes it even more fun :) It's great!!!

 Every Sunday besides two we have had Ice Cream socials with the president and his wife. If I come back like 200 lbs. that's why :) It's fun though.

At Sunset by the Mississippi there are two ladies who do a piano battle, or basically just play the piano crazy while they bounce up and down and such. EMILY, that's so you and me in 40 - 50 years :) With our epic piano duels. AHHH! It's great. It made me think of you :)

 We helped with a community bible camp for kids of all faiths from ages 4 -12. Every morning we would do a song and skit for them teaching them about Jesus. It was beach themed. So the camp was called "son surf" beach. We sang Surfin in the USA but changed the words to things such as....surfin on the miss-is-sip-pi-i-a. The skits were short 15 minute skits and they were really funny. We had to wake up earlier though which made the week kind of intense. It was interesting because they gave us the script and then we had to follow it. There were some lines like, "yeah dudes, Because of God's mondo love for us sent His awesome son so that we could live epic lifes through Him, forever..." and such... that was interesting but at least their teaching them that God loves us, right? :)

I know that Heavenly Father is ALWAYS there. He loves everyone more than we can possible imagine. He hears our every prayer and though we may feel alone at times he understands every feeling we've ever had. He will strengthen and lift us each moment we come unto Him. All you have to do is get on your knees and speak with Him.

I love you all sooo very much! Be good and happy!! have a fun summer.

Love,

Sister Israelsen

Blessings

I have another story. about two days ago I got two canker sores right where I play trumpet. It is SO painful. Really, I tried to smile about it but smiling hurts. But never fear,I've been blessed by the Lord to still be able to play. We were riding around in the band wagon yesterday when Elder Brague called out the song, Praise to the Man. It is a beautiful song. It pbrings the spirit so strongly, but it also happpens to be high on the trumpet, not majorly high, but yesterday I knew that I could not physically hit that note. I just knew it wasn't going to happen. I turned to the Lord in prayer. I told him that I knew by myself i would not physically be able to hit that note. I knew it wouldn't happen. I asked Him to help me be able to play it in a way that help others to feel the spirit when they heard it. When I played it, it went perfectly. I'm not saying that I played it perfectly, but it came out that way. I know that Heavenly Father answered my prayer. Just as he will answer yours!!! I probably got the canker sores to humble myself and make me realize that i'm really not playing for me, It is for Heavenly Father.

BUGS

This past week we had a big bug problem in our house. It started a little bit last week and got worse this week. Wednesday (on our P-day), we moved almost EVERYTHING out of our house in bags so that they could come and get rid of all the bugs. (I'm sure you're all just laughing because you know how much I love bugs.). Anyway, we left our suitcases there so they could make sure they had nothing in them. So we took ALL of our clothes and anything in our rooms. I learned to appreciate suitcases sooo much. It's hard carrying everything that belongs to you in a bunch of bags.

We split all the girls into two groups. 6 of us took the van. It was still just as packed since we had everything with us. We went straight to the laundromat and proceeded to wash ALL of our clothes. Even the ones that weren't dirty! It was a lot of laundry. I think we figured about 50 for all the girls. CRAZY. We went shopping after that. Everything was still piled in the car :) We went to Walmart and got everything we needed for the week. It went so much faster because we had 6 girls instead of 12. Afterwards we went and got blizzards at Dairy Queen and I met a cicada for the first time. (it's a giant bug that flies around and makes really loud clicking noises and it looks like a giant bumblebee) There were sooooo many. They were flying all around and they were so loud.

After battling with them we got back in the car and drove back to Nauvoo. We went straight to the Nauvoo Inn and Suite where we carried all of our bags up to the Suite that we had. There were two really big bedrooms and one tiny one that look like a little spaceship room. :) I bet you can guess which one I got :) the little spaceship one. I got the top bunk. It was a tiny room but it was fun. Sister and Elder Murset tried to make the whole thing a fun experience by bringing popcorn and pop. haha. We still went to bed on time for the record... The next day we moved back in our house and I must say it is very clean. Not only is it clean but it's organized much better now. So it was a good thing. And I feel that the Lord blessed me to not be as scared as I usually am about bugs.

Historic Sites

Sister Carroll and I walk a lot. A few of the girls tend to always take their time getting into the car, so we just leave a little earlier and walk almost anywhere that's not too far. I really enjoy this time because we can just relax and focus on the beauty that is all around. We also have so much time to talk about anything and we've gotten a lot closer through this.

We worked in the historic sites for the first time on Wednesday. I worked in the Post Office. But we'll be switching every single time actually, so I'll end up learning a lot of the different sites. Today we're doing an MTC-ish thing with the President. He'll be teaching us for a few hours. I have to learn the Brigham Young house info within the next two hours...the sites I will work this week are the Heber C. Kimball and I can't remember the other one.

 

Gross but True

The weather makes it tough. It's hard to play trumpet in this weather! It slides around because of the sweatiness (i know...gross, but it's true). It's also really hard to get a big enough breath. I feel really stuffy when I'm trying to play my trumpet. Sometimes it makes me tired faster. It's also hard staying focused when it's hot and muggy. But I think I've done pretty good at it (not trying to brag), I usually notice when I start to loose focus or something and make an extra effort. It's crazy how playing trumpet is really more of a mind thing. If you're focused you play better.

It's also hard when you feel like those listening don't really care. It makes it tough to make yourself play well and give all your energy to it, when they just really don't seem to care. But then I remember that 1) I could be touching just one person, even if the others aren't catching anything. 2) It's not about me, I need to remember and recognize that the real important thing is that i am playing for the Lord.

The Senior Missionaries

      I love love love the senior missionaries!

     Two of the senior missionaries got us to teach them the frog kissin' dance. They were so cute about it. laughing, and trying to move their feet and hands at the same time!

     The seniors who drive the band wagon have been different each day, but they each have a fun sense of humor. Some of them suprisingly funny. One of the Elders who drove yesterday got into trouble a while ago for climbing up on top of two horses...he was standing with one leg on each. Yep, he's 85.

     It's amazing the way the seniors touch our lives and how we touch theirs. One of the senior elders came into our devotional the other morning. He gave us each pens that he had made from many different trees. My pen has wood from the women's garden (at the visitor's center), the temple grounds, carthage, and other places around Nauvoo. Some of the pens had wood from hill Cumorah I believe. Each pen was beautiful and were handmade with different patterns. We didn't know how to thank him. So we sang to him. We sang invocation. The spirit filled the room. We all were crying as we sang to him. at the end, through tears, the elder said he had been repayed 100 times.

Tornados

We have received directions on what to do about tornados. They went through it all and we should be safe. There are a two girls from Missouri and Kentucky who also know what to do and will be able to help if they need to. We actually had a tornado warning in Nauvoo on Wednesday. Wednesday morning (3:15 AM), there was a CRAZY storm. There was lightning all over. I now know the meaning of the "rolling thunder" as well. It sounded like a stampede in the sky. One of the girls said the angels were bowling :) It was raining very hard too. The rain would come down in bucket loads. Seriously we would get that much at once in one area. It was later in the day...around 4 pm ish that they issued the tornado warning. We checked out our basement area. (It's really just a hole in the floor and I think unless there is a real threat, I am not stepping a foot down there because there are so many bugs and spiders and its dark.) But no worries, the weather actually calmed pretty quickly after the warning and we've been good. It's interesting not hearing any news and then hearing about the crazy tornados though. I haven't heard much, but I've heard it's been pretty devestating.

Grandparents!

Katie's Grandparents, Ralph and Lola were able to visit last week briefly.  They drove all the way to Illinois from Utah and despite some health problems had a nice time. On the way they completed their goal of having been in each of the fifty states! They report Katie is loving the pioneer musician life. She loves her companion and leaders. Lola said the band sounds "really, really good!"

From Katie- I loved being able to eat with them and talk to them. They are so wonderful!! It was fun having them following me aroung :) By the end everyone knew that it was Sister Israelsen's grandparents. Sometimes we would be riding around and we'd stop somewhere for about 2 minutes. They would finally sit down and we'd be off again...I felt kind of bad but it was really fun seeing them.