Katelyn in Kentucky: Finally in Kentucky (Illinois)

Hey family and friends!!!

My first area is Olney, Illinois! It is a small po-dunk town in the south eastern corner of Illinois! It was kind of a bummer to leave Kentucky because it is so beautiful there! It was exactly like the pictures! However here in Olney ( which is pronounced 'All-knee') it is filled with a lot of cat people, chain smokers, five billion different churches, evil spiders that bite you(but you never run into them), only taco bell and McDonalds, we are lucky enough to have a Wal-Mart, and White Squirrels! and they are like prized possessions and are under protection here!

Anyway we flew into Kentucky and stayed the night at the mission home and had a great chance to interview with the mission president and he decided from that interview who I would be companions with and where I will go! President Brough (Bruff) said I would be with Sister Clark from New Hampshire and I would be here in Illinois! After transfer meeting we all drove to our first area and we drove for three hours to get to where we could be at! Right when we got into a small town that is in our branch named Grayville we visited a man and a woman named Phillip and Carol. He is letting her stay with him (he is super kind) and she has some sort of mental disability (we are not sure which one and we are thinking its schizophrenia!) and we asked them to read to Book Of Mormon! Sister Clark sure knows how to just plop me right into missionary work right off that bat!

Then when we got to our home (not apartment! :D) we put my stuff down and went back outside to go visit more people. Just as we were about to head home around 8 pm we prayed to know which direction we should go in and we were confirmed to go talk to people but then Sister Clark felt that we needed to knock on a certain door and so we did they immediately let us in! And it was one of the coolest experiences ever because they have been prepared so much to hear from us and now (MOM that is who you received the picture from ) and agreed after the first lesson to be baptized on December 20th! WE still have a long ways to go but we were able to get the daughter, Kyla, to come to church and another girl, Sam, to come and a man named Charlie that came too. But there is only one young woman in the entire branch (Only about 45 people in this branch -not a ward) and for them to see two 13 year old girls was such a blessing for this branch and Kyla ended up seeing one of her cousins that go to this branch so she had connections! Plus Kyla and Sam know each other! YAY! :)

I haven't eaten anything weird yet but I am wondering when squirrel will be on the menu because there are some deep-rooted hillbillies in this town!

Anyway the most important thing is that I know I am meant to be here. I can easily visualize the people that can spark a chain reaction for this branch. I love this branch and practically everyone one in it is a convert of about 50 years or less. There two men ages 19 & 22 who as Sister Clark would say " are on their convert honeymoon" because they are so on fire and are so excited about being converted and believe with all of their hearts that they know this Gospel is so true! I want to bring so many people into the gospel and proclaim the truth but Sister Clark is so good at holding the reins and helping me step back and looking at the whole picture. Unfortunately people have their agency so we have a lot of people say to us that they already have a religion. We know that we just want them to listen to what we have to say and we will be on our merry way. Its SO HARD. BUT SO REWARDING! I can't explain it without getting too excited about it! We met a guy while contacting yesterday and he is apart of this weird named church and is a well groomed and straight forward father and is preparing to be a preacher while their main preacher becomes a missionary for their church and the spirit told me all day to bear my testimony-I just didn't know who for and at that moment I knew. I bore my testimony that the Book Of Mormon was true and we explained the purpose and meaning behind it and as we talked you could tell he felt the spirit and he accepted the BOM and we walked away. just like that! I knew right then and there that it would be a changing experience for him and his family and I knew at that moment that someday they would be apart of the Church! :')

Last story I promise!!: Sister Clark and the Sister before me taught this guy named Jeff who is an attorney here in Olney. They made a promise before to trick me into thinking he was Scottish! :/ It worked. He showed up trick-or-treating to our house with a clown-nose on (super awkward-yet really funny) and portraying the best Scottish accent I have ever hear and I knew he was Scottish. Well... we went to a lesson with Brother and Sister Vastbinder and he said to Sister Clark in his Scottish accent "I think we better tell her" She nodded and he talked in a regular voice, to me his story and I turned bright-red and started laughing! He is probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met! and he is studying the B.O.M so hard that he almost is like that scripture in Alma that talks about taking in too much knowledge of the world that it makes you look like a fool-or that your foolish. I am paraphrasing super badly but he is normally a Methodist preacher and so he really fights us to know why the Book Of Mormon says something.

Anyway that's all for now! I love you all and hope that you all are doing well!

Here are some pictures: Of our mission presidents, my new home, a sign from another church across from our house that I totally agree with!, us on the plane, the first KFC restaurant in Kentucky that we saw and a picture of the freeway! and also Sister Clark and I with some cat head bands that her friend sent us for Halloween! :)