September 25th

Hello all my family type peoples!

This week has been a bit crazy, but I think that’s normal now! There’s always change in everything in this mission, and the Assistants and president call it, “Always improving.” One change wasn’t really announced, but apparently they’re not doing South Gate tours any more, just west gate, which has kind of confused some guests who haven’t been here for a while and are getting their information from dated books. Thankfully we’re usually able to help them out, whether it’s us giving them an unscheduled tour, or helping them find the West Gate w here they can get a tour all their own.

I’m currently in the Library instead of the Family search center because sister Tew and I are planning on doing family research after this which will be quite fun I’m sure. She’s going to try and find some of her Native American Ancestors. It’ll be quite fun. While she’s doing that, I’ll either help her or try to play around with New FamilySearch more. Has anyone tried to use it before? It’s pretty neat. I was able to get all the way back to Adam on Mom’s line one time in my third transfer. I just followed the lines that looked like they had kings.

This morning in the temple, as sister Tew and I were on our way out, we ran into the Lindseys that were in our ward in Hollister. I think their first names are Tim and Ara, or something like that. I think I remember babysitting their daughter whose name was a combination of their names, Timara. We walked past them and we recognized each other. Brother Lindsey looked at my name tag and said, “Hey! Durtschi! We were in your ward back in Hollister!” and I knew I recognized them too, so we talked for just a second before we went our separate ways.

One fun thing about Temple square is that we get to see some of the international missionaries before they go to their respective missions. Today I met a sister who’s going to Germany on her mission who is best friends with sister Rogers, who was my roommate my second transfer.
Last P-day was exciting. We went to Ensign Peak as a zone activity and nearly got blown off the top. A storm was coming in and so it was very windy. On the way up we sometimes had to stop because the wind was so bad and dust was making it hard to see, besides most of us were wearing shorts or kapris / short sleeved shirts, and the dust hurt the exposed skin. When we got to the top, some sisters had to hold onto the rail to keep up, and it was quite fun. A little scary in some ways, but I was excited the whole time and tried to make sure no one fell off. It was a time I didn’t mind weighing what I weigh. After we all made it back down safely, we decided to eat the sack lunches we had brought to exchange at our Zone Leader’s apartment instead of at the top of Ensign peak. It was fun. We did a White Elephant gift and had a spiritual thought about pioneers as we ate.

During our district/zone meeting on Wednesday we talked a lot about preparing for Conference, and part of that is being able to talk to Members. After the meeting, sister Tew and I ran into a young man who was preparing to go on a mission. We talked a bit and he gave us someone to call. Later he was trying to track us down so he could give us another of his friends to call. And this morning when we called to let him know how one friend went and to get the number of his other friend again, he said he wanted to have us call more people, but he had to think of their names. It really helped me see that many of Heavenly Father’s children are ready so long as we’re ready to listen, ask questions, etc.I also ran into Aunt Janet while she was on a layover on Wednesday. More like other sisters met her and chased after me as I was on the way to lunch to let me know she was there. We chatted for a bit then she went to her hotel and we went and ate.Yesterday, Thursday, we went on exchanges, I went with sister Lara, and sister Tew went with our district leader, sister Warner (in my class) Sister Lara and I were basically in the RC all day. I came out relatively unscathed, but I’m still working on liking the Referral Center. Calling total strangers is not my idea of fun… but someone has to do it.

It was good to hear from both mom and dad! I’m glad you both got to Georgia safely! It’s also pretty neat that you were able to go and visit so many people! Did you have fun along the way?
So tomorrow we get to go to the General Relief society meeting, and I’m excited for it! Normally we need to be outside and contacting people, etc, but the Senior elders are making it so we can all go to the meeting. Directly after sister Tew and I are putting something on for a stake along with our Zone leaders… we just found out about it as we were leaving to email. Sister Tew does not like speaking in front of big groups, so she was not very happy. Oh well. It’ll be good :D

Any ways, lots of love to you all!!!

Be happy and all that jazz!

Visiting Sister Sarah!!!

with many of our family members already in UT and several others coming to town to pack up the Orem, help Becky move and go to Jared's baptism we decided to take advantage of the Temple Square mission's policy that family members can make arrangements to visit the sisters.

I called the mission service line and told them I wanted to set up a tour with Sister Sarah...the poor sisters were obviously new and a little unsure of what they were doing...I got disconnected. But don't worry :) After working with sometimes difficult people I've learned how to be persistent as well as polite...so I called them back. We made arrangements for tour for Sunday, Sept 6th and 4:30pm.

Later that week we found out that Grandpa passed away. We called the same number to try to talk to someone who could let Sister Sarah know the news. Blessings happen in unexpected ways. Mom talked to one of the counselors in the mission presidency and he said that he would let Sister Sarah know and then mom told him that we had request to have a tour with Sarah on Sunday so if needed we could tell her then. He commented that he remembered that request and had approved it. Mom asked him if he remembers the exact time that had been approved (we had said anytime after 4:30 pm according to Sister Sarah's schedule). He couldn't remember and transferred us to his wife to find out. The sister couldn't find the approval in the system, but because of our call we were able to get that resolved and see Sister Sarah...a definite blessing in an unexpected way!

Here a few pictures. Sarah looks great! I loved being able to see her :)


A great take-it-yourself picture while we were waiting for David and Melissa :)

The Family :)

Pictures from Last weeks letter :)

Unfortunately the other pictures from the dinner and such didn't make it...but here are the 'blackmail' pictures of Sarah's companion, Sister Tew and a few of Sister Sarah last p-day in front of an old building (her explanation not mine :P)

Reasons I love my Companion

So, here I was, minding my own business chatting with our roommates at the table, when all the sudden I look to one side and see my companion... flopped on the couch in what may or may not be a comfortable position... I did my best not to laugh as I took a picture of her. You can probably tell I wasn't very successful. Especially in one of the pictures. She's trying not to smile because just as I was taking the pictures, I said that she'd probably try and kill me for this. Thankfully she hasn't yet. Just asked for a copy of the pictures so she could send them to her family.


The other picture is sister Tew and sister Jakobson (from Denmark) just a random picture taken when we were eating dinner after all ya lovely family type people came to take a tour n stuffs. When sister Tew was outbound and I knew she would be my companion, people who didn’t know her would ask me about her. I would say that she kind of looks like sister Jakobson… but not. You can see for yourself what she looks like now.


Any way, this week has been good. Sister Tew and I are getting used to each other and all that other fun stuff. For the first while we were both basket cases. She was having a hard time adjusting from outbound back to Temple Square, and I was having an interesting time with things like Grandpa Durtschi passing away and Dad loosing his job. Needless to say it was an interesting first week or so. Now we’re able to work things a bit better n stuffs.


Something that I’ve been learning from sister Tew is to write down the names of everyone we teach if at all possible. It’s really helped. Though there are still a lot of people, and sometimes we miss a few, I feel like we really helped someone instead of just talking at a wall. And I’m very thankful for companions. There have been so many times where the situation could have turned out bad (or at least me not being able to make any sense to the guests, etc) if I hadn’t had a companion to pass things off to. YAY companions!


Umm… I’m not sure what else to write about. Any questions? Things you’re dieing to know about things that go on here?


Any ways, loves ya all lots! I’m going to jet for now, but know that I love you all!



***Editor's note: For some reason the pictures didn't come through, but hopefully sister Sarah will be able to send them to me later.

Celebrating Life

Our Grandpa Durtschi passed away earlier this month, on Sept 5th. We were able to get most of us together for the funeral. Sister Sarah asked me to let you all know so that her following letters would make sense.



We love and will miss Grandpa Durtschi. We are very blessed to have a knowledge of the gospel and the Plan of Salvation. It gives meaning to life and understanding to death.