August 3... No Devin isn't her boyfriend... Awkward

I have a valid question... will the church block my emails to Daryl for name calling?? After getting angry with her for not sharing the mass email she made sure I got this week's.  As mad as I am at her for going on her mission and leaving me all alone, I am proud of her because I know she's working hard... I'm mostly proud because someone brought her and her companion In-N-Out and they decided to sneak and ate it! Everybody loves a rebel... Today 3 of our cousins entered the MTC so at least she will be surrounded by family for a little.

 

Here's Daryl's email for this week:

 

HEYOOOO Everybody!!

Okay this week has been unreal. We're first going to start off with the funniest thing that has happened so far here at the MTC. Sister Shockey and I run every morning on the inside track because it gets so hot outside now! But one day while we're running, on the sides of the track there are workout machines and some of them are slightly on the track so you have to be aware of them while you're running because you could easily hit one. Sister Shockey and I were running and BAM, she nailed her arm on one of the machines and it left a pretty gnarly bruise. So her companion Sister Haddock made fun of her the rest of the day because she ran into the machine while running... but little did you know.... the next morning Sister Haddock NAILED HER FACE SO HARD ON THE SAME MACHINE. She was bending over with some other Sisters trying to block the track so we couldn't run past them and somehow she hit her face right on the handle bar of this workout machine and is now concussed and has a bruised nose. So both of them ran into the machine and I got to witness both. hahaha I love them so much but so happy they're both alive. So FYI to everyone coming to the MTC if you are going to run, be AWARE of the Machines while running inside:)

Also shout out to my Cousin Isaiah for getting married last week! So happy for you and Bre!

This past week of course there was lots of Korean to learn. Everyday Korean Korean Korean but everyday we really focus on the Gospel and how we can better be servants in the Lord's Hands to help bring others unto Christ. I love that so much and our Teachers here really stress that we didn't just go on a Mission to learn the language, that's not the purpose. We are here on a Mission to help and Invite others to come closer to Christ. The language will come but we must focus on our purpose and the people. Everything we do here should have a purpose, if we don't have a purpose for doing something, then why are we doing it in the first place??

I've learned a lot in the short time i've been here at the MTC and I have a lot more to learn out here in the field. It's crazy that I've already been here a month!! During my personal study, I came across a talk that is called the "Principle of Work" By F-David Stanley that was given in a while back in 1993. But boy does it have a powerful message in it. Missions are hard. They're not an easy thing to do, sometimes you gotta suck it up, try with all your effort and be willing to do the Lord's will. Sometimes you just gotta grind it out till the end! WORK HARD. In the talk he talks about how Hard work is a blessing of God. "It involves going after it "With all your heart, might, mind, and strength." That alone, is the difference between the average and the excellent."  

This really made me think and success comes from personal diligence, commitment and hard work. Sometimes we gotta ask ourselves if we are spending too much time day dreaming about who we want to be instead of acting on it and establishing a course of discipline and working hard on what we are going to be. Say less, do more, and get it done.This applies to Sports, School, anything. I really want to make that a priority as being a Missionary and I know if I rely on the Lord and work hard he will strengthen me and bless me. And for everyone who is serving. Don't just go on a Mission, go out and Serve a Mission. Don't just go through the motions of things. Go out and Serve, be active and have purpose in everything you are doing. Don't just go on a Mission, go out and Serve a Mission. There is a big difference in those two statements.  

Anyways I love you all so much! Have a great week and work hard in everything that you do:) Thank you all for  supporting me and the Kindness you have all shown me. It means a lot! Also Loa, Jackson and Chloe all come into the MTC today!! ON THE HUNT TO FIND ALL MY COUSINS. (To the Parentals of my cousins... no worries I'll take care of them!) Have a great week! 

-Sister Kaufusi 

Side Note: I printed out a picture of My Twin Devin and taped it up on my closet and all the Sisters kept thing it was a "Special Guy Friend" and so I hate to write on it to inform everyone when they come into our room that this is MY TWIN. 

Sorry no email for the 20th! But... here's July 27's email!

Love my sister... even though she's kind of a ding dong. So she asked me to update her blog for her. Then forgot to include me in the mass email! Bless her soul... hope her Korean is doing better than her common sense. Sorry there's no email to share from the week of July 20 but that's HER fault not mine. Here's her email from the 27th if you didn't get it. I was out of town and didn't get to update the blog but here it is!

Hello Everybody!!!

All the days are blending together and it's so hard to keep track! The days go by long but the weeks go by so fast! Let me tell you about this week. This week was very humbling for me! The Korean Language is a very humbling language but I learn more every day and love it even more every day! No worrie's I'm learning it slowly but surely! 

SO. The devotional on the 24th of July was Amazing this WEEK. Oh my goodness. Like I said before my Companion and I are in the Choir and the Nashville Tribute Band came and played at our devotional and as a Choir we got to sing with them. It's amazing to see so many Missionaries singing at the devotionals. ANYWAYS. So one of the songs they sang was called "The Hardest thing I've Ever Loved to Do." By: Nashville Tribute Band Everyone please go look it up and read the lyrics it truly is an amazing song! The Band Member wrote it about his Mission and the lyrics sunk deep into every single Missionary there. It really hit home with a lot of the Missionaries. The Spirit was so strong while singing that song I couldn't help but cry and cry and cry. Haha but no worries I wasn't the only one! Everyone was crying! Even all the Elders. You could here the sniffling throughout the whole building.  

Also, my Companion and I memorized Joseph Smith's First Vision all in Korean!! Crazy!! We used it in some of our lessons to teach some Members and that was really cool. The Spirit was strong. A group of our Korean District got sent off to Korea this past week! So sad because Sister Clegg went with them and now it's just Sister Shockey and I when we run in the mornings! All the Native Koreans left this week as well. But we will all see each other again! We sang "Till We Meet Again" to all of them that were leaving and yes, the tears were flowing! I don't like to cry that much but oh man when the Spirit fills the room the tears sometime come. Happy Tears of course!  They're such great Missionaries and I'm so excited for all of them who have left! But TODAY. WE GET 46 NEW MISSIONARIES IN OUR KOREAN BRANCH! 46!! Which is Crazy! That doubles the size of our zone. We're getting more Korean Sisters from Korea so that'll be exciting.

FUNNY THINGS:

1. Story time!! One night I'm in cleaning my room and Sister Kava (My Poly Sista) busts open the door and tells me to lay down...Me being so confused does what she says because she's poly and she could curl my whole body weight just with her pinky finger. So I hop in my bed and then she TUCKS ME IN MY BED. She tucked  me in so tight I felt like a burrito or something. It was so funny. Then she ran over to my companion's bed and tucked her in too. We were all laughing so hard. Every night now she comes in and tucks us in and then we say OFA ATU! 

2. I got to do a session today at the Temple with some of my Amazing friends Katie and Kenzie and I loved every minute of it. I was bearing my testimony to them in Korean outside the Temple and a man heard me and came over to talk to us. Apparently he served in Daejeon too when he Served his mission and told us a little bit about it!

3. I forgot to send my group email to my Mom and no worries I got about 4 Emails from her and Alexis making it very clear to send these to them so do not worry Mother and Alexis!! I love you!

4. We have a pantry full of food in our room. Literally two closets full of food so all the Sisters in our building come up whenever they're hungry and get some food from the two closets we have. We basically have our own food business here. 

5. Played some major Basketball this week... Corbin, Alexis and Bronson taught me so well...I air-balled it about 10 times...said a prayer in my heart then after, one of my shots went in. Obviously The Church is true. SooOooo after that I decided I should stick to running:)

Anyways! I love it here and everyone I have met! I absolutely love being a Missionary. Have a great week everyone! I would love to hear from you all so shoot me an email if you want. Send pictures too because I love seeing how everyone is doing! Also there's a blog my Sister is running that has my addresses, pictures, and my weekly emails on there if you would want it. I forgot what the address was.... hahaha but once I get it I'll send it out in my next email! Love you all! 

Week 1 in the MTC

Day 7 Without Daryl...

So Daryl has had her first week in the MTC. I know you all have been dying to know but, yes Michelle and I have survived our first week without her... But in all honesty it was hard but we are surviving without our bacon eating, hammocking, messy little Daryl. Daryl seems to have had a great first week, there have. Been several sightings of her and she looks spectacular! In our own special sister email that I cannot publicize because I'm sure Michelle would kill me she told me: 

"The MTC is literally like a spirit prison locked in a room 14 hour a day but I love it. The spirit is amazing and it makes it all worth it." 

All I know is the following:

1. she has a much better attitude about this mission thing than I do

2. sitting still for 14 hours really isn't hard for her so its no wonder she doesn't mind it

3. if I had to be locked in a room for 14 hours a day there better be free tacos, waffle love, and a lot of puppies or I couldn't do it.

Here's Daryl's email after her FIRST week in the MTC: 

Hello Friends and Family!!

Okay everyone no worries I made it through the first week! Seems more like a family reunion and High School reunion here haha I see everyone!! It was funny my Companion and I on the first day were walking around and people would ask us where we are going and we'd tell them Korea and with out a doubt every single person says "I will pray for you" or "Good luck with that language!" Hahaha we would just laugh, and say ya you are right and keep walking. OH MAN THE MTC is something different!! BUT AMAZING. I love it here so much. It's crazy because the day I came in over 200 new Missionaries came in and today we are getting 700 new missionaries and then in a couple of weeks we will be getting even more! Racing to get a good spot in the lunch line is real thing and my Momma definitely taught me to love food so my companion and I race down to beat everyone. 

MY COMPANION! So the funny thing with this is that I pretty much followed all of my district on instagram before I came into the MTC. Haha so I was already following my Companion and I knew her already! Her name is Sister Christensen from Mission Viejo, California. She is adorable. We clicked instantly. We actually walked right past each other and didn't say anything when we were passing each other on the first day but now all we do is laugh so hard and cry from laughing so hard! She likes to surf and play water polo but she is the best and I am so happy we are companions. We get lost all the time but we just laugh. 

The Korean Language IS A BEAST. The Elders in our district go crazy with all the studying and learning! Oh man the very first day we went to class our teachers could only speak Korean to us. But when I walked into class and saw who my teacher was it was Brother Hone!!!!(Sorry if I spelled it wrong) But Taylor Hone is one of my Brother's good friends and served with Corbin in Korea. It was so funny to see him as my Teacher and basically all the teachers who teach us Korean I know from before! Which is truly a blessing and amazing. Korean is tough. It is a whole new language but it such a beautiful language! I'm trying my hardest to learn it and understand it but I fall in love with it every day and I am so determined to learn it. My District is awesome. Sister Christensen and I are the only Sisters in our District but they are all amazing! One of the Elders, Elder Allen came late because he is in the Airorce but he wasn't set apart yet. So we got to be there with him when he got set apart and it was truly such an amazing experience.The Spirit was so strong.

A lot of emotions this week but if it's one thing I would want to share with you is a quick story our Branch President told us. President Parriton, is from New Zealand but he came in one day to talk to our District. He told us how his son served in Korea. When he got back from his mission he felt like he wasn't effective in his Mission at all. His son was discouraged because he only baptized two people. Six years later President Parriton and His wife were called as Mission Presidents in the Daejeon Korea Misson where his son served. He received a phone call one day from an Elder saying a Korean man insisted that Presidet Parriton baptize him. President Parriton showed up for the baptism and the Korean Man he was baptizing took out his flip phone and the screensaver was of President Parriton's Son and Him. He told the President that he has had this as his screensaver for 6 years and that his son was the one who first told him about the Church. Now
​6 years later he is getting baptized. The spirit was so strong and it really testified to me because all of us really can make a difference even if it's just through one person. It may seem like we tried our hardest and nothing happened, but the blessings may not come right away, but they will come no matter what.  I LOVE YOU ALL. Sorry if this is ages long haha but also!! I got one Poly Sistaaaa in my Zone from Tonga named Sister Kava and she's AWESOME. And we have a Korean district straight from Korea here with us and I am obsessed with all of them. They're the CUTEST! LOVE YOU

-Sister Kaufusi

WE EVEN GOT PICTURES TO PROVE SHE'S ALIVE!!

 

SHE'S ALIVE!!!

Yesterday was a hard day as we said our goodbyes to Sister Kaufusi and dropped her off at the Mission Training Center (MTC). She was in good cheer and didn't even shed a single tear as she walked off leaving one sad Mom and big Sister. As we were driving away I couldn't help but yell "If you change your mind don't worry I'll come get you!!" If you haven't figured out this is Alexis by the way and I have been given the lovely task of keeping everyone updated on my Sister's doings. 

Day 1 without Daryl... lots of tears... lots of forgetting she's gone and unchecking her name on my snapchat... even Bella is noticing her absence. 

But don't worry, we got: 

1. a picture and 

2. an email!! 

She's alive and well. Here's her very FIRST-- and not last, unfortunately-- email as Sister Kaufusi:

Hi Momma! and Hello to the family!

Okay so first off, yes I am alive. And yes Taylor is my teacher! So funny when I walked in because all he could do was speak Korean to me and it was crazy! But he's an amazing teacher and I'm so grateful he is my teacher, on the real so grateful. It's funny to not see him playing Zombies or him and I laughing all the time at our house hahaha. Anyways I just wanted to let you all know I am doing well and I have the cutest companion! We are the only Sisters in our district but all the Elders are seriously so awesome. I get overwhelmed but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it here! It's definitely going to be a challenge to learn this language but I am all ears and ready for the challenge. Everyday I crave to learn it more and more regardless if I make mistakes. Tomorrow we're supposed to teach a full 20 minute lesson in Korean so we'll see how that goes! HA!  The Spirit is so strong here and I've seen so many Elders and Sisters from the Provo area!

It's funny because lots of the people in my district I followed on social media before hand, even my companion and we were all laughing because we already know each other but we finally met in person! I get lost about 100x a day with Sister Christensen but we just laugh and run so we aren't late to anything. I love you all and I hope you guys are doing amazing. I'm taking one day at a time and taking a DEEP BREATH. This is such a good experience and all the Sisters are amazing in my room and building. We have some Koreans from Korea and they are the cutest little sisters. They giggle all the time and are just so smiley and fun I love it! Literally obsessed with them! Love you.

-Also Corbin, give me the most tips you can that helped you learn the language, and everyone knows you here and I'm known as Kaufusi's little Sister. And I found the desk you scribbled your name underneath this desk that I found in my room. HA! Tell Taylor he's an awesome teacher and same with Sister Gardiner!  LOOOVE YOOU!

Brons-Hope you birthday and Anniversary was fun.

Lex-Don't be a weenie and get lots of gainzzz

Mom-Stop Crying I love you!

Dad- Make sure the cats and dogs have water and water my grass will ya?! ;) haha love you!

I'll try and send pictures next week!

-Sister Kaufusi 

How lucky are we to have had Corbin serve in South Korea as well?! A lot of his former companions and sisters who served with Corbin in Seoul teach Daryl and see her everyday. I'll do my best to keep this updated with her emails and pictures!! Yes Michelle has stopped crying... and NO I will not stop being a weenie! 

Farewell Pictures and Farewell to Friends

Sister Kaufusi with some of her friends after being set apart.

 Pictures from Her Farewell