MTC email 12/30/2010

Family and Friends!
Well it has been an amazing week here in the MTC! I can not believe how fast the time has gone! I leave for Washington on Monday!!! Is that not crazy! I'm sorry it is going kind of slow for you mom. But it will soon start to go really fast! It already is for me! So today is P day and my usual time for laundry/email is ten thirty but we got up way early cuz it gets so crazy! I hope you are all doing well and had a great Christmas! My Christmas was great!!! Elder Rusell Nelson was here and it was so great. I also shook his wife's hand and hugged Sheri Dew! What amazing women! Okay so I feel like I have so much to say but now I don't remember it haha Thank you so much for the package and my drivers license! And everyone for their letters! I love mail!!!! Please keep writing! We get mail after lunch and dinner so its like a boost that I need during the day! Mom, don't apologize for using dear elder! I love getting the letters the same day. Just write them all before noon! And i get them at dinner! Please keep writing! Oma sent me pics of the girls and they look huge haha Its only been two weeks! Stop growing Brenna and ter! Mer i absolutely love that pic of christ and the child that you sent! Okay so Colton is getting transfered? That is good! I have been praying for him all week! I feel such a close connection to him it is awesome! And this week I ran into Elder Mock! He is so awesome, and he saw my name tag and got all excited!!! And he is (cough) very very good looking :) haha Anyway... I am still doing so good. I have been studying a lot, and I have amazing teachers. I write so much that i don't remember what you know so if this is a repeat sorry.... But sister boulter and sister ward are awesome! they are amazing teachers!!! I always feel the spirit and my testimony is growing!!!! So how is the ward and church on Sundays!? I miss everyone a lot, but everyone here is so great. I am getting better at being more patient with my comps! And i know that they are my comps for a reason! I think one of those reasons is to help me with my OCD problem haha no but really lol. I hate being late!!!! And touched haha!!!! Brooke, thank you for your tape! And Courteney I hope you are still doing great and enjoying the break from school and dance. Kels I am so happy about the new job! Mom and Dad you both sound super busy with work! That is great! Dad, that is so sweet about the trip!!!! Kels lucked out haha Mom have you talked to Hope? Or given her an apple? Hope if you read this thanks for your letter! One should be getting to you soon! Family I have four in a half minutes left haha. Don't worry I already emailed Colton! Mom and Dad he sounds really good when he talks to me! He is very relieved that i am doing so good. And i know that i am because of the power of prayer! I talk to my father in heaven every night and ask him to be with me and colton and our family! Well he IS listening! I love this Gospel with all my heart! I am so happy that I can be a servent to heavenly father for 18 SHORT months! And I know that the atonement is real! It is the most amazing thing ever! Oh and Grandma Harward thank you for all the gifts and letters! I love you and will write you soon. Mom you can post this to my blog! Thanks. Oh and did you get my pics i sent? If you want to respond to this email in a dear elder today that would be great! Thanks! I love you all more than you will ever know! And i will hopefully talk to you on MONDAY! Love you.
Love, Katee

Sister Balmforth

Ps... Tell Pat austin is doing great, and tell Tanya Tyson is amazing!

Email from Katee 12/23/2010

Family!
Oh my goodness today is a great day because it is P day! In a way I love P day because I get to email you but in another way there is a lot of spare time and I just like to stay busy! It makes things so much easier! I am doing so good! I love the MTC but I can't wait to get to Washington! Only a week and a half left. So I will be leaving on the third! I was so happy. My flight leaves at 8:26 in the morning so if I get to call you it will probably be anytime between six and eight in the morning. But if I don't call don't worry! I am just fine. I just want to keep all of the rules and they haven't told us yet if we get to. So that is exciting! Also, there are twelve people in my district. Me and my two comps and then the rest elders. They are all so great. The elders love talking to me about the Jazz and they tease me because I always get so much mail! Ha i love mail!!!!! Thank you for your letters... Mom, Dad, Kels, Brenna, Brooke, Courteney, Oma, Carol, Laura, and Mer! I am so thankful for them, please keep writing!
Courteney, I pinky promise :) and I will write you soon. Kels thanks for takin care of my Brenna for me. I love her and miss you and all of you so much. Okay mom I think I forgot the pencil Grandma gave me and I really need it! If possible can you send that and some neosporn? Sorry to be a hasle! Also can you call Mike's office and tell me the date of when I had my MMR 2 shot? Oh and I never called the lady about sub teaching so maybe you could as Marilyn to do that? ha sorry. Sorry I can't send a tape yet. I just don't have enought time! Its crazy how busy we are but I love it!!!! Brooke, Courteney, and Brenna I love the SMURF pics! Please keep them coming!!
So my companions are good. Sister Howard will serve in the Marshal Islands, I'm so grateful for English haha they don't teach the language that she needs to learn here so she will just be thrown into it. Sister Soelberg will serve in Tacoma with me. Oh also there will be 20 missionaries traveling with me... and guess who they made the travel leader??!!!! Thats right me! Ah ha. I don't know what it is, they must think I'm responsible or something haha. The lemon heads you sent me have saved my life. Its hard to stay awake in class sometimes. I dosed off in personal study this morning ha i had to get some water and candy. Thank you so much for the package! I am so spoiled. And i can't wait til saturday to open the gifts. And i think i may need a copy of my driving record for washington... how do i go about doing that? Hope michelle coon woolley i love the socks you sent thank you so much! Well family i am sorry this is short. I have 16 minutes left and i want to talk to my bro. I am so thankful for him. Please tell him on saturday how much i love him and that i am doing soooooooo good. You all are amazing and i am so thankful for all of you. Please make sure to forward this to all my "people!"
Family and friends i know that this church is true, and that colton and i are doing the right thing! I pray for you everyday and i worry about you but i know that we will all make it and through our savior anything is possible. My comps have some quarks that i am trying to get used too. I am not touchy feely and sis. howard is! Ah. haha they run late as well and it drives me nuts but i know that i need to humble myself and be better. Also sorry if this is sent to just mom. I don't know what email i am sending it too. but it is for everybody! I love you all so much and I hope that this Saturday especially with our situation that we can remember the true meaning of Christmas and think about our savior and the atonement! I love you more than you will ever know.
Love, Katee

P.s. Please don't send my ipod til i get to washington, and post this too my blog ASAP!

P.s.s. I see austin and jeff and matt and tyson occasionally tell all there moms that they are doing great!
Love you. Love, Katee

First letter home 12-20-2010

Family and Friends,

Oh my goodness! So much to say. Today ends day two for me. Honestly I am doing so good. Amazing things keep happening. I have not only one, but two companions! How lucky am I!! I love them both, they are amazing! I will tell you more about them when I get to email on Thursday, because I don't have lots of time right now. So tonight at our brach meeting I was made senior companion! CRAZY!!! And out of all 3 of us I am the youngest! I feel good about it and I am excited! Oh my companions names are sister Howard, and sister Soelberg! So I have been able to read a lot of the letters and it has helped so much. Thank you everyone! I got a dear elder from Calee today and a letter from Brooke. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone!! I will write back as soon as possible but we are so busy!!! All the Elders were impressed with my basketball skills. It was pretty fun. I was sure trying to be humble....I'm terrible. lol So today I met the sweetest lady. She was working at the immunization check off place! I walked up to her to hand her my stuff, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said ," I have been waiting for you all morning!" So of course I assumed something was wrong but come to find out she was a convert to the church and the elder that converted her was named Elder Balmforth!!!! He is from Idaho and his name is Joel. How are we related? So anyways that made my day and she was so cute!! I got my picture taken with her. Its so amazing that all these things happen. I am truely loving it here. I love being able to share my testimony all day long. Sorry this is so short but I am out of time. I love you all Please post this on my blog and email it out to everyone! I love you all so much! Stay Strong!!!

p.s. Please call Tanya Albertson and tell her that I talked to Tyson and he looks and sounds so good! It was hard not to call him Tyson. I also saw Mike Rupp and from a distance Tindall. I saw austin and Jeff the first day. They looked good and a little lost.....but, I probably did to. Well I love you and I promise to write as best as I can. WE ARE BUSY!!! Love you. Oh I haven't seen matt yet.

Love Katee
Sister balmforth

MTC 12-15-2010

Well Hello everyone. It's me Kelsee. I will be running katee's blog until she gets back.
We took her to the MTC today. When she got out of the car she put a smile on her face and was one Strong lady. ( a lot stronger than I was.) She did great! She is going to be a great missionary. Here is her address. She wants everyone to write write write! Thanks for your love and support. the next 18 months are going to fly!!!

MTC Mailbox #209
WA-TC 0103
2005 N 900 E
Provo UT 84604-1793

Gettin Close!

Wow, this week has been crazy! Heck this month has been crazy! I don't even know where to start! It is coming so fast! Tomorrow will be 14 days until I head to the Provo MTC. I can't even believe it. Where has the time gone? And I know that it is going to be like this in the mission field too. Pretty soon I'll be on here writing about how fast the whole thing went!
So these past couple of weeks have been really amazing! I have had a lot of time to spend with my amazing family and friends! I couldn't ask for better people to be a part of my life. I look forward to Jazz games during the week. Recently Brooke, and Courteney(recently joined our great group of people that are always at our house haha), and usually Kelsee, Riley and my mom and dad watch the Jazz games together! It is so fun, and me and Brooke always wear our amazing D Will Jazz Jersy's! I love every minute of this precious time that I get to spend with them. My parents and family are so amazing, and I don't know where I would be without them! I love my friends as well. I am so grateful for my old friends and my new one! Courteney is amazing and I am so glad that we have gotten to know her better.... When Colton was home he would never bring her over haha he was embarresed I guess! But now that he is gone we hang out all the time, and I love it! She is so amazing! I love when I get to sub at Taylorsville because then we just hang out all day haha and I get paid for it! I am thankful for good friends and family in my life. And I am going to miss them all so much!
On another note.... Colton seems to be doing really well in South Africa! He is really worried about me... I love him for that. He said that he wishes that he could just do this first part (leaving) for me, so I wouldn't have to hurt, because he knows how it feels. Isn't he such an amazing brother?! I miss him so much and I think about him every day.... But I know that he is where he is supposed to be, and that he is doing an amazing thing. I am so thankful for his example in my life and for the joy he brings me.
Well... I am getting excited and nervous but I know that everything will work out and be just great. Things will be hard at first but I know it is where I am supposed to be! And I know that the Lord will bless me and Colton and our family. Well thanks to those who read this. I'm getting a little long winded so I'll go to bed now haha. Goodnight! :)

Finally I posted a blog!

Ah!!!! The joys of computers sometimes! So I just wrote this big old blog and then lost it all! Darn. So I guess that I will start over. These past few weeks have been crazy! Three weeks ago we put Colton on a plane, and off he went for two years! That was probably one of the hardest days of my life! It is so crazy, but I know that he is where he needs to be and I wouldn't want him to be anywhere else! A couple weeks before he left we were able to take one last family vacation to California! It was so fun! We went to the beach and to Universal Studios! We all had a blast!

The last week I have been trying to get ready as much as I can because I leave in a month! It is so crazy how time flys! I can't believe it! I am so nervous and scared but sooooo excited! I am so thankful for my family and friends for all of their love and support! I know that going on a mission is what I am supposed to be doing at this time in my life, and I am so glad that I have made this choice. I know it will be hard but I also know that it will be sooooo worth it! And I know that the Lord is going to bless my family so much, and I am so grateful for that!

So I finally added some pictures! They are mostly from California. One of them is me opening my mission call and then a new family pic. I will post more pics later! I have a ton from a cabin trip and a fishing trip!

AH!

I have so much to tell about. First our Nauvoo trip and also Colton getting his mission call!!! I am going to try and figure out how to post pictures because I can't tell you about Nauvoo without pictures! So I will try to do that sometime soon!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Well I can't believe that another week has already gone by and that in just two short days we will already been heading into June! It's crazy how the time flys. This week has been pretty busy. Mostly with trying to get things ready for girls camp. My goal this week was to get the t shirts all finished. And I finally found someone to screen print for fairly cheep, and I dropped the shirts off to him yesterday. I am so glad that I don't have to worry about getting those done now. The next thing on my list is to go to the church and get all of the tents we will be taking to camp, and bring them home and set them all up so I can make sure that they all have everything they need. I think I am going to try and get this done today as soon as I get off work. I am hoping that they all have all of the parts. We haven't used these tents in over four years because we have been very blessed to go to Heber Valley and use cabins! It is much easier that way. I never really realized how much work goes into a girls camp. Actually I take that back, until my mom was put in as president I never knew. It is so crazy. As a young woman I would have never thought that it was so much work. And now that I am a leader I realize how hard it is. But it is so worth it and I am so glad that I serve in this amazing calling. My mom is an amazing person. She has done this for years and I don't know how she keeps on doing it. But she loves it. Anyway hopefully I will get the tent situation taken care of today. Then I will probably get another job to accomplish before the big day. (June 14th) I am excited for girls camp but it will definitely be a lot of work. It is hard too when you only have ten girls going. I remember there being more like thirty or so when I went. Crazy how time fly's. This week is also a busy one because my little bro is graduating. I am so proud of him. He is amazing! He also just got a new job at primary childrens hospital. He is freakin amazing. And he is only 18! Well anyway... I hope you all have a great week!

Not much to report

I know I am terrible at writing. I'm sorry. I will really try to do better. This past couple weeks has been pretty crazy! I had my wisdom teeth out, and that actually went better than I had expected. I think I ended up having more pain in my arm than my mouth. Okay that is probably not totally true. But when I went in the lady started putting in the IV. I felt the pinch and it was fine. The next thing I know she is starting to pump the medicine in. It wasn't to bad for a few minutes, and then I started to feel it pinching! I tolerate pain really well so I wasn't worried about it and I didn't think there was anything wrong because it has been years since I had an IV. So I just said, "its kind of pinching a little." Then she said, "oh it is?" then i said, " yeah but don't worry its fine no big deal." So she just went on her way. A few minutes later she says, "are you not getting sleepy yet?" and i said, "no, not really (wide awake lol), but my arm is asleep, and numb." So then the doctor came in and said, "oh thats not in the vein!" Lovely! lol So they proceeded to poke me three more times until they finally found a vein that would work. It was actually pretty funny and I really didn't mind. But the next thing that I remember was sitting on my couch. That didn't turn out to well either. I got home and my Mom gave me the pain pill and i proceeded to lose whatever was in my stomach. It was kind of a rough experience, but after that it really wasn't to bad. I am pretty much back to eating normally now, thank goodness. And I am really thankful that my Mom took such good care of me. So that was last week. A lot of nothing has gone on since school got out. I am glad that I am done with school for two years. It takes a lot off my plate. I now just need to work on finding another job, so I can earn money for a mission. I am still really excited, scared, and nervous about my decision to go on a mission. But I know that it is what I am supposed to do, and I am very excited. It is weird that my little brother has already finished his papers, and will be turning them in at the end of June! I never thought that we would grow up. It has been very strange, but good at the same time.
I also got a new cousin this past week! She is the cutest little thing ever. Her name is Clara, and Brenna and Emery adore her. Brand and Mer are doing good now that they are settled with everything. Brenna and Emery have been spending a lot of time with my family, which I love. Brenna is my little buddy. Its funny because I was always brands little buddy and hung out with him all the time, so it is fun to do the same with Brenna. Well anyway I think I have blabbed on enough lol. Thanks for reading. Oh and Bonnie I am not sure but I think I might have fixed my blog so you can comment now. Try it and see if it works and you can let me know. Thanks!
-Katee

Reading blogs is better than writing them

Wow okay so.... I am really not very good at this whole blog thing. Everytime I think about writing I talk myself out of it just because I don't want to sit and write what I think. For some people they probably love it, but I think it is kind of boring. But I have been thinking a lot about how I take so much for granted in this world. Everything... I have an amazing family and parents that support me in everything. I have good health. I have dreams, and passions that I have been able to accomplish because I have so much support. But then I think of how many thousands of people there are in this world that don't have any of that. And I feel so bad. Like I said earlier I am not really a big fan of writing on my blog.... however i absolutely love to read other blogs. Friends and families blogs are great. But the other day I came across this amazing blog that has really touched me. It is www.mysuperspence.blogspot.com it is so amazing. It is about a seven year old boy that is fighting cancer. And his mom is an amazing lady. I was working on saturday, and I read the entire blog. As I read it I just bawled. It was so amazing to me how this little boy has such an amazing attitude. And he is so strong. I cannot even believe it. It has really made me think how grateful I am that I don't have that big of trials. I know that we all have trials, and seeing what this little boy is dealing with, I would gladly take some more trials. I know that we are given trials for a reason. And this little boy has helped me realize this. Heavenly Father gives us trials because he knows that we can handle them. He would never give us anything that we couldn't do. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of this. It is so amazing.
Anyway... now that I have gone on way to long.... But I just thought that was pretty awesome! Check out his blog... you will get hooked. Oh and I will really try hard to put some pictures up. I love looking at pictures. So be patient lol. Thanks.

Suprise!!

Okay so..... it has been a very long kind of hard couple of weeks. I have been thinking a lot lately about my life and what I should be doing. For some reason school, has just not been my thing lately. I don't know why. I just don't have that much of an interest. So after a lot of pondering and thinking, I think I have come to a conclusion. A MISSION. Thats right. I am now about 99% sure that I am going to serve a mission. This is crazy.... typing this I am terrified. But I feel that it is the right thing for me to do. I keep re thinking everything, and saying oh I can't go because of this and this, but my Mom just keeps saying have faith and it will work out. Plus the lesson in Young Womens today was about being STRONG AND OF GOOD COURAGE. I think it was at that moment that i decided for sure. I am still scared out of my mind. But hopefully it will work out. I know it will. I am such a home body, and so it is really going to be a challenge for me, but I know that this is what is planned for me. I know that it is what I need to be doing. Preparing for a mission. I can't wait. Yes, I know I am not 21 until December but it is going to come faster than ya think. So there it is. I am just glad that I can have one more girls camp with my mom, and a family vacation planned as well. Colton and I will both be gone at the same time, so double blessings for my parents I guess. It will be good. Well only a few people know, so if you read this congrats that you are one of the few. Thanks for reading. I promise I will try and be better at updating this. And I really need to get some pictures up. I will work on that.

Glad to know I may have 1 or 2 readers.

Okay so two weeks ago I was at work, and I wrote a big blog, then it got busy and I couldn't finish it. So that is why it has been awhile. That and school started again, so i've been somewhat busy. But I was at a relief society thing last Thursday, and I kept hearing, "why haven't you updated your blog?" So here ya go. Really I'm just not a big blogger. It kind of seems like a newly wed couple thing to me. But I was bored one week at work and decided to do it so I guess I better keep up with it. I love to read other blogs! My blog is probably not that great.... well I know its not, but just in case someone likes it I will try and make it as commical as possible. Lol. Today has been a pretty great day! Church was great, then I came home and ate lunch, and watched the "Gilmore Girls." I absolutely love the Gilmore Girls, it is my favorite show, and I'm so glad that I have all seven seasons on Dvd, because they don't make new ones anymore. I then proceeded to take about a three and a half hour nap, just in time to wake up and eat dinner. It was great. Thank you mom and dad. I love living at home! hehe. The rest of the night I spent watching the Golden Globes with my Mom, and Dad, and Colton. Go Sandra Bullock..... love her, and I am so glad she won for the Blind Side. Such a great movie. Now I'm just watchin my mom play Rock Band. It has been a pretty good day. Thanks for readin Bonnie! Sorry you can't leave a comment. :)