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! :)