End of mine Epistle in Zion

1  And it came to pass that the mission of Sister Hollander in the West land of the Americas came nigh to an end. 

2  And as she looked upon her labours in the time that she had dwelt in this foreign land, she rejoiced for the many people she was able to touch and the many lives that touched her. 

3  For Behold the field WAS white and ready to harvest and lo, she thrust in her sickle with her might, and behold her harvest. 

4  But behold, as she bid farewell to those in the town of La Verkin she was sorrowed, for it would be a time before she would see them again. Yea, She was sorrowful unto tears.

5  And then She was comforted by her companion, Sister Massengale Which saith unto her, Sister, do not be sorrowful for you will speak to them again. Do ye not remember that it is promised in the land of eternal P-days that ye will be able to contact them frequently in the world of technology.

6  And thus her spirits were lifted and she was able to finish her labours, yea even unto the end.

7  And thus ended the mission of Sister Hollander in the Land of Southern Utah.

8  And it came to pass that I Sister Hollander was joyous in my labours. And I was desirous that I would dwell with them for another season. 

9  But the Voice of my Mission president came and told me it was the end, and admonished me that I would go home to the land of my forefathers and strengthen the church there. And thus it is. Amen.

Well as my epistle stated I is the end. Its has been a normal week only this time the end of each apt has been saying good bye to some of my favourite people! We aslo attended 2 baptisms this week. 

Jodi (8yrs old) 

And Emily (12 Yrs old) 

It was fantastic! I love them so much! It was the perfect way to end my mission! I have loved to be here. The mission has truly changed my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. I have also seen others change.

Even though I have been packing m "trunks" for the past 3 weeks I don't think I was too trunky... I have been working hard. I have also decided that I am no very good at saying good bye, but it hit me last night a bit. I still need to get rid of some junk to hit my weight limit. But goodness I struggled to sleep. 

I had my exit interview this morning. Can I just say that I love Pres and Sister Center! I am going to miss them so much! It was great to council with my mission president on life ahead.

I have truly loved my mission but I am also excited to get home - I think if I follow everyones advice I can make it home on thursday evening - all depends on making my connection in Atlanta.

Sorry if I did not email you today. I have a dumb PC that makes it hard to type the letter "t" grrrrr I will be on facebook on saturday again... and here are my Home details:

FB: Karen Hollander (Muldersdrift, South Africa)

Karen.monkeyface@gmail.com

All My Best,

Sister Karen Hollander

Utah, St George Mission

La Verkin Specail

So I didn't leave enough time to email today... sorry.. think that's what happens when you get near the end of your mission... haha

Highlights:

• Picked up a new investigator and as we were leaving he said "you both have good hand shakes have you ever considered arm wrestling?" HAHAHAHAHA i couldn't get over it for the rest of that day - made my day! And 
• Picked up another new investigator within the same hour! Tender mercies!!!
• We Have been able to take a misisonary that has been on medical release for a transfer out to lessons with us and she is fantastic!
• Spoke in 2 wards yesterday they were both really good!
• Had a Zone training last week and I got to pray and bare my testimony in afrikaans (Our one Zone Leader loves hearing to different languages and we are pretty Diverse so I got a call from him saying "do you by chance speak another language?" - Why yes I do! He then asked if I would pray in afrikaans and said it should be the opening prayer so it could catch people off gaurd haha and it did our senior couple said they thought they were loosing their hearing cause they couldn't quite catch the words I was using lol. But The training was fantastic - we have the best Zone!!! I love them! We had fun! we even played Missionary Tag!!!! Best game ever! (first time I have played it... lame.) And since it was my last Zone training I bore my testimony and surprising not too many tears but doesn't really seem like I am coming home soon.
• We have decided we are allergic to walking days. I had another allergic reactiona and a big Migraine on friday after the training. I still don't know what I am allergic to though.
• We are working SUPER Hard on the "Come and See" Open House - it is happening in two weeks. we are really excited! and a bit stressed and so got a blessing from the zone leaders and that was EXACTLY what we both needed - just a bit extra help and strength. I love the priesthood! Oh and we are thinking of getting an article in the news paper about it!
• Tobi - from my first area - my first real baptism that I taught, is getting endowed and sealed on saturday!!! I am sooo excited! and My trainer is going to be there!!!! I miss her! SUPER excited for saturday!
• Had a great lesson with an investigator yesterday - he really wants to be baptised but we got to get his parents active again. I am excited though cause it sounds like they want it too.
• We found Grafton - the ghost town.

Our biggest problem we are having is getting our investigators to church.

This week we will be speaking in 3 wards thats going to be interesting. :D One of which is in Springdale and the other 2 are in La Verkin (30 min apart) fun times.

Something new we are memorizing as a mission:

"No member of this Church must ever forget the terrible price paid by our Redeemer, who gave His life that all men might live - the agony of Gethsemane, the bitter mockery of His trial,the vicious crown of thorns tearing at His flesh, the blood cry of the mob before Pilate, the lonely burden of His heavy walk along the way to Calvary, the terrifying pain as great nails pierced His hands and feet, the fevered torture of His body as He hung that tragic day, the Son of God crying out, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke23:34).

This was the cross, the instrument of His torture, the terrible device designed to destroy the Man of Peace, the evil recompense for His miraculous work of healing the sick, of causing the blind to see, of raising the dead. This was the cross on which He hung and died on Golgotha's lonely summit. We cannot forget that. We must never forget it, for here our Savior, our Redeemer, the Son of God, gave Himself, a vicarious sacrifice for each of us." 

-President Gordon B Hinkley-

All My Best,

Sister Karen Hollander

Utah, St George Mission

881 South River Road

St. George Utah, 84790

United States

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Good Morning all!

This week was a bit of good and a bit of not so good....

First - not so good:

We had a bit of a rough time last night, I guess partly we had a bit of the spirit of contention in our lesson cause this man was telling us his point of view on life and God and it happened to sound like Satans plan for life... (you know how life is good God is good and we will all get back to God again doesn't matter what we do on earth) But he also had some other strange ideas that I won't repeat. Anyway we really hope he will not be in the house when we go back. I don't think he wanted to hurt us or offend us, cause he left after we showed VERY little interest or approval what he was saying. But we just did not feel good. Upside to that story we were able to pick up a new investigator in that home.  And straight after that we found out that one of our investigators moved out of the town to go back to a very abusive manipulative boyfriend. That made us so angry cause we were just starting to make some headway with her! :(

Now the Good:

We have some exciting things happening. I don't know if you remember, sister Eyers and I started planning an Open House/Church Tour. It was mainly her idea but we are now going to execute it =D It is proving to be a bit stressful I won't lie - especially when you are still trying to teach people get new investigators etc etc etc. Well the plan is to Open the Stake Center and display what we are all about - we hope not to take away from the Visitors Center but we have assigned each ward an auxiliary or organization to display and inform others about us. we are inviting them to "Come and see". We have a new High Council man over Misisonary work and he is sooo excited for it! So am I but somewhat stressed I won't lie.

Well New years eve was fun we got to watch "How to train your dragon 2" as a Zone - It was SOOOO GOOOD!!!! ahhhhh LOVED IT! We also got to have another Nerf gun War!!! It was soomuch fun! But we were in bed by 10 30.... Had another sleep over with the sisters from Kanab was fun But this year we were back to work on New Years day... which was interesting but we were on exchanges with the STLs. Sister Liu (FRom Tonga/California) came to La Verkin with me. My last exchange I feel it was very insipred how it all happend, Its kinda fun, we came out together and are going home together. She is a RUGBY PLAYER too!!! I bet everyone back home would get a kick out of that! She is great though she is an All blacks supporter. But I really loved being on Exchanges with her but it was also great to gte my companion back.

Ok so here are some of my New Years goals (Remember that I will be coming home in a month so some pertain to that part of my life)

• Study the scriptures DAILY (scared I will go back into my old rutine of not reading)
• Loose all the weight I gained on the mission..
• Master 2 Hymns on the Piano (no I don't really play the piano)
• Read Jesus the Christ cover to cover
• Learn to Juggle 3 balls
• Visit 1 Neighbouring Country
• Read the Harry Potter Series (No I have not read them and I have committed to like 3 compaions that I will read it when I get home)
• 100% Visiting Teaching for the Year 
• Always take a No thank you bite. (strated with eating a pickled fig and well it was ok... and had a trout taco yesterday wasn't too bad, was fresh.)
• Introduce at least 1 friend to the missionaries
• Attend the Temple Monthly.

Well All of these are subject to change but some are on my 30 before 30 list too haha

If you want to learn how to set goals check out Chapter 8 of Preach my Gospel. I have learn on my mission that it IS somewhat about the numbers, it IS about Goals. If we don't set goals we won't improve. "Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action. Goal setting and planning are acts of Faith."

Good Luck with setting goals this year!

Hope you have a great week and a great New year!

All My Best,

Sister Karen Hollander

Utah, St George Mission

881 South River Road

St. George Utah, 84790

United States