SNOW in Dundee

TERESA - Hello!

So OK, it is totally snowing!!! I have zero time to write because most of the computers have shut down because of the weather! So they only gave me a 20 min time slot! ahhh! But I can't even explain to you how incredible this week has been! So many little and big miracles have occurred!! I wish I could write it now but I can't. I think I will write a letter and then mom you can post it later :)

I want you to know that I LOVE you all! Since I've been out here I have learned so many things. But one thing that I've really come to understand is charity. I love these people here and the thought of leaving them just kills me!

Aileen is getting baptized on the 5th and I am so happy about that that I can't even put it into words. I love her with all of my heart and it has been a complete honor to teach her and learn from her! I love my new companion! She is so inspiring to me and encourages me to be better! I LOVE it here! It hit me last Sunday that I go home in a year and let me tell you, that was a nasty shock! I truly realized how precious time is and that I can't waste any of it!! And so far, things have just gotten even better!! :) I am so happy.

Thank you all for your love and support! It means the world to Rach and I!

Love always, Sister Teresa Kullick
Sorry its backwards too! The computers are being weird!

And thanks mom for the camera! It is THE BEST! LOVE YOU!

SNOW in Chorley

RACHEL - Dear Familia!

How are you all?? I hope very well!! I am doing great by the way if you were wondering!

It snowed this morning for the First time in Chorley!! haha what an experience! This will be the first time in my life where I have lived where it actually snows! These past couple nights have been below freezing soo that has been tough to adjust to and to be honest I don't really want to adjust to it! But thank goodness I get two summers instead of two Winters because it is really really chilly here during the winter time and I don't want to have to keep putting on layers! haha 9 Layers one night! My normal outfit underneath:3 layers, 2 sweatshirts, 3 Coats, 2 Scarves and I even broke out the ear muffs... haha yeah I could barely move.

We had our Festival of Nativities here and it was lovely. They have only done it for the past couple of years so they are building it up and continuing to add more to it. It didn't come close to the amount of Nativities I have seen at our Creche Exhibit back home (So appreciate it!).

We sang for the Tri-ward Christmas Devotional Sacrament meeting and that went pretty well. It was just practically just the two Elders and me because Sister Suaybaguio literally stopped singing almost at the very beginning and for the rest of the song just smiled at the congregation! haha man, I couldn't believe it haha it was funny to laugh about though. But we had some compliments afterwards so I guess it went OK.

Sports Day was a Blast!! Oh my goodness, it was like Christmas came early for me! For the first hour it was just the Sisters playing and that was a great time! We played Ultimate Frisbee, a cool new game I learned called Ninja (that was a pretty fun game and hilarious too!) and a little bit of basketball. I then played Football (Soccer) with the Elders for a couple hours straight all the way till the end of the day! Man I had a huge smile on my face the Whole day! Needless to say I woke up not being able to move throughout the entire day without my body aching! haha it was so worth it though!

I saw Patricia yesterday and it was good to talk to her, she feels like giving up and I honestly feel powerless; all I can do is pray and fast for her, she still loves the Gospel though. Our other investigators are progressing well towards baptism on the 18th of December. We are excited for them to eventually enter into the house of the Lord one day soon!

Well, I gotta get going, but thank you Sister Hulme for the letter, I appreciate it! I will talk to you all sooon! Love and miss you all!

Sister Rachel Kullick

8 new investigators!

RACHEL - Hello Family!

How is everyone?? I hope very well!! Mom, I have been receiving your packages and I LOVE them every time!! What are your plans for Thanksgiving? In our mission, we are having a Sports Day for all the Sisters from the mission, which I have been looking forward to since September!! haha This Friday 3 Zones will get together and from 10am to 4pm we will be playing sports!! Sounds like my kind of day! On Thursday the rest of the mission (4 other zones) will get together to play. But I am excited and it should be a blast!

This past week has been filled with miracles!! When all of them were happening, I couldn't seem to process all of them at once! I was mostly walking around in shock this past week. This past week alone we have found 8 new investigators and 7 of them have accepted Baptismal dates!

We have found a family from tracting! They are the Smiths and it is a family of five. The mother and her 3 children who are accountable want to be baptized and are being wonderfully fellowshipped! They are progressing beautifully! We also have a single mother, Sarah, who we also found tracting! We set an appointment with her that night and when we taught her she said that she loves the Book of Mormon and that it fills in holes that the Bible are unable to fill. We are excited to see her progress as well! We have an YSA, Tanya, who was introduced to us by a member and she is taking the discussions and embracing the teachings of the restored Gospel! There is a man, Robert who is 33 years old who we found street contacting and he has that desire to learn more and know for himself. He also greatly desires to come to church and experience the Sacrament. We also found another man named Lister who while street contacting, he was taught a little while ago but now has made the decision to change his life and to be a member of the Church.

Throughout this entire week Sister Suaybaguio and I could hardly contain our excitement! We fasted this Thursday in gratitude of Heavenly Father for simply placing those who are prepared in our paths. We recognize that we must do all we can to remain exactly obedient and to be pure in heart. I am privileged to be teaching these special individuals and having Heavenly Father trust me enough to be able to teach them more about the Gospel. I know miracles happen and that when times seem rough, that means something amazing is going to happen around the corner, we must not loose faith! We must always rely on the Spirit when given responsibilities!

I am so grateful to be here in Chorley for Christmas, right next to the Temple, I am blessed and truly honored to have it so close to me! They are having this big Festival of Nativities (exactly like our Crèche Exhibit at home) and that should be amazing! Also this Sunday will be a tri-ward Christmas Devotional and they asked me and my comp and the two other Zone leaders in the Chorley Ward to sing for it! Ahhh!! This will be in front of hundreds of people!! Exciting! We are singing O Come All Ye Faithful and I'm singing tenor! haha this should be fun!

Love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick

I LOVE meetings!

TERESA - Hello familia!

How are you all? I hope your Thanksgiving is going to be excellent! I know ours will be! A member of our ward, Sister Julie Williams, is wanting to have us over for thanksgiving! She's from England but she wants to make things feel more homey for us :) She's excited to have her first Thanksgiving. This will be great! Isn't that nice of her?

I've recently been getting over a horrible cold that has literally wiped me out. I was down for the count there but now I'm back in the game! haha So I am feeling much better and I am totally amped for this upcoming week! A lot of really good stuff is going to come our way and after some hard work we will see it all pan out :)

So as you all know already, Aileen Baird is getting baptized! YAY! I am sooo ecstatic that I get to be here for it! We went over her baptismal program with her and tried to get everything all organized. And she wanted me to give a talk at it! How amazing is that?! I feel so touched that she wants me to speak and I'm really excited to do so. So I'm going to be speaking on faith and repentance (probably the best topics ever) so wish me luck! haha

We had a Zone Conference this past week. And it was a Tri-Zone one so Edinburgh Zone, Aberdeen Zone, and Dundee Zone were all present. It was sooo brilliant! I LOVE meetings, I really do. I never realized until I got out here, how much I love meetings! They help you so much in learning to be better and more effective and happy in what you’re doing. They are just so great! This one focused on Weekly Planning Session, which I previously hated doing and now I've grown to love them! Crazy huh? And then our Mission President, President Griffiths presented a new thing in our mission. I think I was the only one who knew what this was because of Rachel! Our Mission President is a pal with Rachel's Mission President and he borrowed the Quality Gospel Conversations from the Manchester Mission! How fun, and plus, now Rach and mine's mission experiences will be even more similar! The QGC's are just another way of contacting people on the street. I'm excited to do them too!

Sister Daines and I are getting along splendidly! I am so glad I have her as a companion :) She is just so lovely! She is way in tune with the Spirit and she is helping me so much in becoming a better missionary! I'm glad I have the opportunity to serve with her. And funny thing too, is that even though she's from Utah, she has a Scottish/English accent! haha Everyone keeps saying, "Wait, where are you from again? You're not from Utah." hahaha It is so funny! I think she picked it up while serving in East Kilbride with a companion from Essex, England. So she was lucky enough to let it rub off on her. Pretty sure that is definitely not happening to me, haha, just my same old American accent. But that's OK, a lot of people like that accent! haha

November 14th was Remembrance Day. Where we remember all the soldiers who died in world wars. It was nice; everyone wore red poppies (us too!) to remember them by.

So pretty sure I have succeeded! Let me give you the reason why: The Relief Society President and the Sisters have never seemed to get along so well. Sad, I know. But I'll tell you something; it is very hard to get on with her at times because she just didn't like us. She even yelled at us once in a meeting! (Long story but it was all a big miscommunication, as they all are). But here's the deal; over the past 6 months I decided that this wasn't working and I wanted to the missionaries to have a better relationship with her. So I've been going out of my way to say hi and show love and kindness to her. And what do ya know?! It worked! We are now all pallies! She's having us over for dinner tonight and I'm way excited. She never has missionaries over. Honestly, if you told me 6 months ago that I would be having dinner at the Relief Society President's house and that I was looking forward to it, I would've thought you were crazy! Seriously. It's that big of a change. I am so happy about it! Now I have a firm testimony that even if you can't change the situation you are in, you can do all you can to make it better and maybe even fix it! Life gets better when you try to make it better :)

As of right now, that is all the news I can think of! Sorry if it's not the most interesting. But hopefully next week I'll have some amazing stories to share!! THANK YOU all for the love and support you give Rachie and I! I love you all!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick

AMAZING Twin Sister!

TERESA - Hi family!

I wrote you already so there isn't too much to fill you in on. But I'm getting along really well with my new companion, Sister Daines. She is sooo sweet and loving! She reminds me a lot of Shannon Sleagle (a friend from High School) haha, which is neat! She only has 4 months left. Honestly, I always seem to luck out with companions! I love how I always get them when they are almost done with their missions, so that way they are experts and I learn sooo much!! Plus they have all been super amazing girls!

But the work is moving along as well. I'm getting more and more excited when I think about the potential in this area. I know we are going to find people who have been waiting! There is a lot to look forward to!

Mike White has a girlie ehh? haha That is sooo great! I really hope it is what it looked like! (I had written…BTW we saw Mike White there with some girl leaning on him. Girlfriend? I didn't ask.)

I am sooo happy that your stake conference went well!! I must say that I am majorly envious that you had Elder Neil L Anderson there!! How brilliant! I am sure the talks given were superb and really inspirational! I am also so glad that you sang in the Choir! I am positive that you guys did an amazing job!

The weather here is definitely getting colder. A little colder then what I’m used to, lets be honest haha. But people are saying that this is nothing and to get ready for the really awful weather! Gee, I can't wait! Haha

I've been reading Rachel's letters and can I just say, that I have the most AMAZING twin sister ever! I always feel totally amped when I read them and I can feel that she is truly putting all of herself into the work and being the missionary she was called to be! Gosh I love her! But really, who couldn't?

I love you all and I hope to hear from you soon. I am trying to be better at writing everyone letters so hopefully I'll get those going soon! Again, I am so sorry about that! Sorry to who has ever written me and didn't get one in return! I am on it! haha

Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick

New investigators & new companion

RACHEL - Hello!

I am sooo happy that the Stake Conference with Elder Neil L. Anderson was great! I cannot believe right when I leave we get a General Authority to speak but either way I am glad you were able to experience that! HAHAHA Saw Mike there, eh, with some girlie? ...haha figured he hasn't written me at all except once and that was when I was in the MTC. And he gave me a hard time for saying I wouldn't write him at all and I did! Well good for him, I am glad he's happy :)

I thought I gave a fair amount of details about this last transfer and with my new companion. But I guess I can re say it. I am going Senior and Follow-up training at the same time. My new Companion's name is Sister Mara Suaybaguio (Sw-i-bag-e-o). She is from the Philippines and is 22 years old and has only been out for 1 transfer (6 weeks). She has the purest heart I have ever seen and is completely diligent in finding and teaching investigators! She helps me re-commit myself to expanding our teaching pool! Sister Suaybaguio and I have been teaching with great unity even though we have only been together for 5 days! She really teaches by the Spirit.

My companion and I have been seeing miracles just right after this last transfer! As you know, my previous companion, Sister Holbrook and I had been seeing very little results from our efforts for the past couple of weeks, but I am so blessed to see all of the blessings that came from diligently finding even though we couldn't see the blessings that laid ahead.

We have two new YSA investigators in the Chorley 2nd Ward now! Their names are Lucie and Katy. When Sister Suaybaguio and I taught them on Wednesday evening, the Spirit was so strong it was amazing and they felt it too! They are going to pray about the baptismal date we gave them but they want to come to church and institute! We are excited to see their progress!

Patricia is still struggling with her family and is quite frightened of them, but I know that if she keeps praying, fasting and reading her scriptures, she can find that strength beyond her own. The ward is still doing all they can. I will keep you updated.

This last Sunday our choir sang Come thou Font of Every Blessing and it was the same arrangement that Lauren, Teresa and I did! But they changed the words completely (which I thought ruined it) but that made me focus on the piano part the whole time. And a flood of memories came back of when we have sang that song and thinking about Lauren and really missing her. But I got a letter from her so I am happy!

I also got letters from Sheila, Max Tanti, Jefferson, Grandpa and Grandma Kullick and Coombs, Aunt Renee and Marsha Owen! I felt so loved! Thank you for writing me!

Oh I also wanted to know how David Alvarez has been lately? Has dad and him still been having their movie nights? I hope so!

Anyway things are going great here in Chorley and I am excited to see more miracles!! I will talk to you all soon!!! Love you all!!!

More of Rachel's Pictures

A hole in the ground... haha! What I thought was cool about this one was the cobble stone that was there from a couple of hundred years ago!

a pic of Teresie and I on the back of my badge

Rachel's old district

Sister Holbrook and her new companion and Rachel and her companion (Sister Suaybaguio is right next to me)