Chapter 1 of Real Summer

Funny 
This week, I accompanied our missionaries to go visit a local family. They have some of the cutest little kids I have ever seen, including a very young daughter. The other day, we were talking about the importance of baptism. The little girl jumped into the lesson and shouted, "I don't want my brother to be baptized!"
"Why?' we said confusingly.
"Because he's going to die!"
Whaaaaaaa?
After a couple of clarifying questions, we realized that she thought that when you get baptized you die. I don't know if she was afraid her brother was going to drown in the water or just straight up keel over dead at immersion, but that's why she was so scared for her brother's baptism. We all got a good laugh out of it and assured her that baptism is not a death wish.

Cultural 
After several years living out of state in Utah and then out of country in Argentina and Paraguay, I have learned that people have a... very interesting concept about what California culture is like. They think we all surf. And meet famous people. And eat vegan gluten free free range hamburgers with sides of sautéed vegetables or something like that. I promise we don't all fit that California cookie cutter.
But, in one aspect, I am as stereotypical as it gets. I. Love. The. Beach. So. Much.
This week my brother managed to convince me to go to the beach at FIVE THRITY IN THE MORNING and stay all day. We woke up at 4:15 to get there on time. The water was freezing, but I went in anyway. So worth it.
And now I have an epic wet suit tan. I feel like I can finally start my summer!

Spiritual 
This Sunday, a group of men sang I know that My Redeemer Lives for sacrament meeting. It was a beautiful experience. The tone and pitch was great, but what really sold the show was the emotion I saw on the choir member's faces. Some sang with gusto and conviction, proud witnesses of Christ's resurrection. Others sang in quiet reflection, as if they were still striving to understand the significance of the redemption. And still others could not sing, only cry and feel.
I was touched by the outpouring of testimony that I felt from those humble men. They are men that I have known since birth, many of whom have supported and blessed our family for years. It was an honor to hear their heartfelt testimonies sung in fervent conviction.

Love you all and sending prayers!

A New Chapter

You know, it's a lot more difficult making my life seem exotic and exciting when I'm no longer living in a foreign country as a missionary. The most exotic I can get is a trip to Utah, which granted does have some pretty exotic Jellos but doesn't hold the same weird-infections-strange-new-foods flair that my mish had. But still, life never ceases to entertain me.

Funny
So far. I've only caught up on three movies: the Greatest Showman, the original animated Cat in the Hat (hey, I was watching with my little cousin) and the live action Aladdin. Yeah, I know, I'm trying to catch up.
I think my family enjoyed watching ME watch the Greatest Showman more than they liked watching the actual movie. They got a serious kick out of it. I was SO invested in the outcome of the story, and it showed in my exclamations,  my comments, and finally, almost leaving the movie early before my mother yelled me back into my chair. I guess I've been hard-pressed for "intense" PG entertainment in the past year and a half. The most entertaining the thing I watched on my mission was a series of Safety Videos on how to avoid getting sick, injured, or robbed. Good stuff.

Cultural
The other day, I went with my family to go check out a local Argentine restaurant. When I walked in, I could immediately tell that it was authentic because I recognized several Argentine name brands and my favorite Argentine treat. So I started nostalgically talking to myself in castellano. The funny part was everyone in the shop got whiplash turning around to look at this white girl speaking with an Argentine accent. It's pretty fun being able to surprise people with my Spanish!

Spiritual
I've been going through old boxes of stuff, trying to decide what to throw out and what to keep. It kind of disgusted me how many clothes I have. I mean, I must've bought a Mayfair Monsoon t-shirt every time I sneezed in high school, I have so many. So much useless stuff.
My mom came to see how the organizing was going. In classic fresh RM mode, I started crying.
There's something so grotesquely unjust at living with such excess after knowing people who live with so little. I walk into Costco and am met by an unfathomably large quantity of food, the vast majority of it  the organic-veggified-healthy kind. I walk to the public library and drop my siblings off at a free lunch open to all kids and teens.
And then, to come home to a house that provides for my every need... it's pretty rough.
I guess my only option is to be grateful and to give. I have always thought that if God has trusted me with His gospel, He expects me to share it, and the same principle applies to worldly things. He blesses us so that we might bless others. God's gifts are like the plague: designed to be easily shared, highly contagious unless we actively seek to quarantine ourselves from all humanity.
Moral of the story? Be like the plague.
Just kidding.
Share the gifts God has given you

Love you all and sending prayers!

Kai

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 

The Lunch Lady

I'm pretty sure I have the best job in the whole wide world. Here's why:)

The Lunch Lady 

The pungent smell of the blacktop

Pairs with the earthy smell of woodchips

As I pass out the school lunches

And wish I worked somewhere with good tips.

I stand and watch a heated game

Of kid soccer play out

I watch the goalie block a corner kick

Before I hear a shout.

I turn, the Kindergarteners are racing 

To be the first to tattle

On the little boy who's insisting

On holding a dance battle  

I'm saved from solving that problem

By the ringing of the bell

Yet I know more problems will be coming

For the older ones must eat as well 

 

They like to act much cooler

When they tattle on their friends

Yet their tears still flow when their skinned knees

Prove beyond a Band-Aid's mend. 

The older ones like to play 

Group games on the field

Sharks and minnows is their favorite

As their daily play's revealed 

Sure, I gotta yell at them 

For climbing up the slides

And I have to have a whistle for 

When I find where trouble hides 

Yet, overall, these kids are great

They bring sunlight to my life

Their random hugs, smiles, and laughs 

Are the only tips I need for my strife. 

I hear one of them yell, "Hey teacher!" 

And I smile and think, well, someday soon 

I'll be filling my kids up with words 

Instead of forks and spoons 

For now, though, I turn with compassion 

To try and address their malady

I look at their big, open eyes and say  

You can call me the lunch lady

The When of Missionary Work

Everyone's been asking, when are you leaving?
Wow, guys, I know y'all have been itching to kick me out of California, but..
Just kidding:) I leave November 29th!

When you go on a mission, you have to choose an availability date. You can be called to report anytime on or after this date. When I first started my paperwork, I felt that November 1st was the day I should choose, so I put it down on my paperwork and forget all about it.
Finishing up my paperwork, however, ended up taking much longer than I expected. By the time I got around to submitting the final work, September was quickly bleeding into October. I was feeling a little anxious about having a report date in nearby November, and I wondered if I should change it. My stake president (a church leader helping me submit my paperwork) offered to change it for me, but asked why I would need the extra time. I looked at him and said, only half joking, "I need to shop for SHOES!" Whether or not my stake president had to hold back an eye roll at that comment, I'll never know, but he did say I could change the date later if I wanted to.
Soon afterwards, I stumbled across a scripture that should be familiar to any student of the Bible:

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things

-Matthew 6:28-29, 32

Well. Talk about a nice, comfortable, slap in the face.
After reading that scripture, I decided to just go forward in faith and figure that everything would work out with my November 1st availability. And it has. I have plenty of shoes, believe me.
Anyways, I'm just glad I didn't verbally mention the fact that I wanted to be around on November 2nd to watch a certain very important movie starring a very important Hemsworth. That comment would've won me some serious eye rolls. Luckily, even things like Thor have a way of working themselves out. 😉😉😉

The Where of Missionary Work

422 missions worldwide. 15 Missionary Training Centers. 0.24% chance of guessing right. 

354 days from decision to packet. 19 days between submitted and received. 5 hours from mailbox to open. 

Add anticipation, subtract fear, and the result? 

One very, very excited missionary! 

Before opening my mission call, I had family, friends, and random strangers guess where I was going to serve. Interestingly, most of the guesses were within the United States and Europe. 

Eight people guessed Salt Lake Temple Square alone, while another 3 or 4 guessed Utah in general. Hawaii had 6 guesses, and New York ASL speaking had quite a few guesses as well. The U.K.'s guessers lined up all the way into the Atlantic ocean, and the rest of Europe was equally crowded.

In contrast, other parts of the world were pretty empty. The Pacific islands had a few notes, Asia had some sparse sprinkles, and Africa had four. For the entire CONTINENT of South America, there were only 13 guesses, with 5 guesses tagged in Brazil. 

And yet, I've been called to serve in the Argentina Posadas Mission, of all places! Who would have ever thought?

On paper, it may seem that the mission doesn't fit. I speak only "California Spanish", a term my family uses to describe the minimal amount of Spanish comprehension one gains from growing up in SoCal. I've never lived outside of the country and only traveled outside the country for like 45 minutes on a cruise (If I had sneezed I'd have missed Ensenada). I'm slightly germophobic and don't like bugs, and I have almost no experience with humid head (I'll say it again: SoCal). I'm your classic millennial hippie eater who shops at Sprouts and loves two-ingredient peanut butter, veggie burgers, and kale quinoa salad (Stonefire grill has the best version!!!!). And despite all this, they've decided to send this naive, tall blonde white girl to the heart of South America.

...and I couldn't be happier!!! I know this is where my Father in Heaven would have me be. He'll help me do what I need to do and make up for what I lack. And as for the lack of peanut butter in Argentina, I'll just have to suck it up and eat more alfajores instead. 

I honestly really didn't care where I was called to serve. After all, I knew I'd be assigned to labor in a specific area but called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The assignment may be intriguing, but the calling is divine. 

So, dear readers, I set forth to prepare to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I am armed with the scriptures, Google translate, and spoonfuls of peanut butter. With God on my side, how can I fail?