Kuna, Idaho and Others

Yes, this is the first time we have figured out how to post for Tiana on her special mission blog. Although, I'm not sure how many of her friends know it exist. We shall see. We haven't included the written letter we got from the MTC - that's ours :) - but here are the emails we have gotten from hosts and the mission president so far. 

Dear Cole Family,My name is Angeles Ericson. I live in Kuna, Idaho. Kuna is a little town about 10 miles from Boise. Your sweet daughter just left our house a few minutes ago. She came over so we could meet her. We know she just got here yesterday from the MTC and she told us that she has not been able to write to you yet to let you know where she is at. So I decided to take some pictures and write you a note so you could see her and know that she looks good and happy (and a little bit tired too). As you see in the pictures she is in a trio and  her companions' names are sister Dickson and sister Zabala and they are great missionaries. They live in a nice home with an elderly couple.  We also have 2 missionaries serving so we know how much it means to know that people are taking care of our children.If we can do anything for your daughter or for you while she is in Kuna, don't hesitate to let us know.Have a nice day. 

This is what everyone on the street sees; a trio of smiling women. 

Waiting for cups? Or perhaps taking a break from eating cookies. 

The Chocolatey Excitement! A whole rack!

Sis. Ericson was also kind enough to give us the Nampa, Idaho mission address. They move around a lot, so your mail will just be forwarded to her! 

1008 W Sanetta
Nampa ID  83651-5047
United States 

        

          In other news, we're going to go out of order. Ish. The next pictures are when she just 

  arrived at the mission office. 

                                               

                                                               Mug Shot!

                                       

                                                      Hermana Cole and the Big Wigs. 

                                                            

                                                        The Whole Gang!

                 The next segment is actually a letter from Tiana when she was at the Provo MTC on her

       P-Day. The Subject Line: "I'm wearing Pants! And lovin' it!" 

          

          Querida familia, 

I'm alive! And doing well. I've seen a lot of people I know here: Elder Burby, Ruby/Elder Zendejas, Elder Sampson, Justin Liu, Nic Blosil, Jason Carr, Mauricio Laguan, random people from BYU....there are probably more I just can't remember them all right now. I feel so dumb because I wrote down everything in my journal that I wanted to share and even though we've been running around all day because we were stoked to get email time, I left my journal in our residence hall. Go me. 

Anyway, yeah. Life is good here. I probably eat too much, but considering I was hardly eating at all before I came, I think I'm just being conditioned for eating in Idaho. Hermana Devey is probably being conditioned for eating in Nicaragua because she hardly eats at all (well okay, she does, it's just not very much). I'm in a trio, which people said would be hard, but I didn't understand why. Now I get it. It's not the emotional/social part of it, it's the teaching. We just have so many brains! Not to mention we have to go to the bathroom 50% more often than anyone else. The brains we're starting to figure out in terms of finding our rhythm and listening to the Spirit. The only way you can get a bunch of people on the same page about something like teaching the Gospel is through being in tune with the Spirit. Also, I'm the youngest and shortest hermana in my trio! Crazy, right? Hermana Trone and Hermana Devey both graduated, Trone from Stanford and Devey from BYU. Hermana Trone is going to Madrid, and she actually leaves for the Spain MTC TOMORROW AT 3AM because her visa came (and I thought we were gonna have it bad leaving the Mexico MTC at 4 or 5, Elder Cole). Hermana Devey is going to Nicaragua Managua Norte, which is so funny because that's the exact mission I used as an example when I was telling Mom about how mission codes work: NIC-MANN. Pretty great.

There is no such thing as language study here. I am definitely not the most fluent person in my program, but that's okay. I feel like I can mostly teach, and with one investigator we've gone from pretty much a crash-and-burn to getting him to PRAY and talk to his wife about coming to church. We were feeling pretty awesome until we remembered we'd forgotten to invite him to be baptized. Oops. We are learning. Also, if this weren't the MTC, I'd probably be pretty surprised that these people actually invite us back. It's an adventure: hard, but good.

Oh hey, can someone get into my email and add some people to the email list? I know Andrew wants to be on it for sure, and probably my roommates. I don't know which addresses I gave you and which I didn't.

I loved the pictures you sent! The only problem is that this lab doesn't have a printer/I don't know how to get them printed, so if you could print them off and send them to me that'd be great. I was okay during the storm the other day because A) I wasn't wearing contacts and B) we only had to run from our classroom to the cafeteria, which was fine. Hermana Trone LOVES storms (she's from Portland), so she was having the best day ever during dinner. I'm glad you guys were safe though!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the packages and mail! I'm probably the most loved missionary here in Provo, and if I'm not THE most loved, I think I'm pretty high up there. Thanks so much. My district makes fun of me, but it's okay because I share my food with them. :) I love my district, even though we are the only hermanas and the elders are mostly 18. It's amazing how dumb they can be yet how much I learn from them all the time.

I wish I could share more experiences with you, but I am seriously running out of time and if I don't write you all back personally I'm sorry. I'm still trying to manage my time. I love you all so much!!!! Thank you for all your love and support.

Hasta luego!

Hermana Cole

PS. I'll try to send pictures but apparently this email is too fat and we're all sharing one card reader at the moment. I knew it'd be a good thing to have. :P Oh well.

   

        

        Now to find those pictures from the MTC... 

  

                                 

                                                      Her companions at the Provo MTC.   

                                            

                                        Pointing where they're going. (Idaho, Nicaragua, Madrid) 

                                                    

District at the Temple.

  

She met her friend Ruben from Living Legends.

  

Her trio at the MTC in the classroom.

            That's what we have right now. Enjoy the pictures. 
Ooh! Kuna! We stalked it on GoogleMaps/Earth. It has a population of around 16,000- a lot different from Orem - and is known for one of the largest conservations in the country for nesting raptors (birds, not dinosaurs). They have a festival and everything in May. It used to be a railway town. The name is supposed to be from a Native word meaning "end of the trail." But it's not. The population has boomed within the past few years. Woohoo! 

  (For a reference, Orem is around 90,000 and Elder Cole's town, Alpine, Texas is around 6,000.) 

      We'll see if she emails on Monday.