Light the MTC

Hey fam!
So my Auntie Wea, my cousin Maija, and I created this super cool booklet to help you #lighttheworld this holiday season. I am SUPER EXCITED about it and wanted to share it with all of you.
As y'all know, I will soon be leaving on my mission to Argentina. Before I leave the country, however, I will spend six weeks training at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. There, I will *hopefully* learn to speak Spanish and teach others about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm super pumped! Since I'll be there for Christmas, I wanted to find a way that I could Light the World despite being in the MTC. I won't be able to participate in any of my family's service Christmas traditions, like baking cookies for friends and family, participating in local food drives, or inviting the missionaries over for Christmas dinner. In fact, I pretty much won't be able to leave the MTC much at all: I'll be hardcore training from dawn to dusk. So traditional community service just isn't going to work for me this year.
So, my aunt and cousin and I got thinking. How could I, as a missionary, light the world this Christmas?
After a super awesome brainstorming session involving lots of Didi Reese cookies (Side note: THEY ARE SO GOOD!) and paper, we came up with a booklet to help missionaries and everyone reflect on their own inner lights. After all, how can any of us light the world if we don't have light to offer to others in the first place?
The journal has prompts for each of the 25 days of service (learn more here). The prompts are designed to get you thinking about what light you have to offer the world. What specific set of life experiences, talents, and wisdoms do you have to offer the world?
College and missionary moms, this would be a GREAT thing to send to your missionaries and college kids. It's small, so it can fit easily into a package or big envelope, and it's the perfect thing to help make a child's Christmas meaningful when they are away from home. You can even send them a Christmas service package full of things that they may need to serve others, like thank you notes, candies, stamps, stationary, or basic toiletry items for the homeless. I know for me, I LOVE getting little journals or stationary items, as they are easy to pack and super useful.

You can download the journal here

Have fun lighting the world, and stay tuned for my Christmas at the MTC!

Adios, mis amigos

Well... this is happening. This is real. 

I AM GOING ON A MISSION! 

I don't know if I've ever been this excited (and nervous!) my whole life. It's finally starting to hit me. I'm going to a place I've never been to, to be with people I've never met, to speak a language I've never spoken, with an accent I've never heard. Swell.

Yet, despite all this, I. AM. SO. PUMPED! I know it will be the adventure of a lifetime. 

I've gotten all kinds of great advice from people as I've prepared to serve.I think the best advice I've gotten, however, is to just be myself. It took me actually becoming a missionary to realize that missionaries aren't some sort of genetically modified superhumans that are practically perfect in every way. In reality, we are literally just normal people. Nineteen and Twenty year old kids. We don't really know what we're doing, we still haven't quite figured out adulting yet, and we're pretty clueless when it comes to most things. But we're determined, and that's what matters. Our individual quirks, personalities, talents, and strengths, are what help make us successful. 

I don't know what my mission will be like. I can guess that it will be scary, hard, fun, joyful, wonderful, depressing, lonely, yummy, busy, terrifying, and brilliant all at once. But then, so is life. Hopefully, I will be able to see my mission through the same eyes I see my life: with childlike wonder, gratitude, and joy. 

I'm pretty sure I can be Sunshine Scatterer in Argentina too.  

Now on to business...

My MTC address (until like the middle of January, ish) is:

Sister Kaila Keolalani Douglass

JAN09 ARG-POS

2005 N 900 E Unit 145

Provo, UT 84602

My mission home address (you can always send stuff here, or I *think* I'll get an actual address)

Sister Kaila Keolalani Douglass

Argentina Posadas Mission 

1243 Córdoba esq Roque Saenz Peña 

3300 Posadas 

Misiones

Argentina

Pouch Mail Address (this basically means someone hand delivers the mail. You can send postcards or one page letters. It doesn't require foreign stamps, just first class postage. Google Pouch Mail Instructions to see more details). 

Sister Kaila Keolalani Douglass

Argentina Posadas Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

My mom will be posting up my emails every so often on this blog, so feel free to visit this site to catch up on what I'm up to. Until then, may God Bless you all!

<3, the Sunshine Scatterer

aka Hermana Douglass 

A Story About Soles

I'm serving a mission because the gospel of Jesus Christ makes me so, so happy, I can't help but want to share it! I want everyone to have a chance to experience the joy that comes from knowing that families are forever, that our Heavenly Father loves us, and that Jesus Christ has made a way for us to repent. 

So, enjoy my little poem I wrote about why I want to serve a mission. :) 

A Story About Soles 

I'm made of shiny black leather,

Not quite cute, but functional

Flat with no heel

(For any sister missionary shoe worth her tag

Knows heels aren't for hiking)

I am straight-out-of-the-box, new, SO ready 

To tread on foreign soil 

through foreign territory.

Each day at 6:30, my day begins, I

Seek out fellow soles with a vigor 

That hides my clunkiness, that disguises

My shoe's awkward fit.

I follow a well-marked path, a path

Trailblazer by the Master Shoemaker

I know the destination, but only He

Can show me the way

So I follow in His footsteps, each of my steps

Not quite fitting into His, but that's '

Okay, because the Master Shoemaker 

Can always fix the size difference. 

Every day on the path

I pass soles and shoes of every shape and size. 

I see shoes in a hurry, shoes

Running, racing for an unmarked finish line. 

A nonexistent finished line 

I point out a better running trail, but they 

Aren't interested. So I move on

I see sharp soles, pointed soles

That have purposeful, no-nonsense steps

That don't have time for little old me

And my well-worn path

I see worn soles, smooth soles

That have seen places the world over

I stop to talk to them 

Before going on my way 

I see humble soles, ragged soles,

Riddled with holes, wanting some new feet

To follow

They join me on the path

And together, we talk to every sole we meet 

Day by day, we tread, 

Treading wear and tear into 

Our flimsy soles. 

At the end of our path, we stop

Examine ourselves

We realize that we're torn and broken 

And kind of smelly

Maybe not worth keeping...

But then

We come to the Master Shoemaker 

He smiles and says,

"I can fix you, for every shoe is worth keeping

And every soul is worth saving."