Email, YAY!

Hermana Zimmerman now has permission to email anyone! She still only has 30 min to email while in the MTC, but will have 2 hours once she is in Chile. If you would like to email her, her address is katrina.zimmerman@myldsmail.net 

She would still like real letters too! 

Here is an excerpt or two from her latest letter:

Dear Family,

 

I have news!! First, I cut my hair!! I now have a pixie cut!! My hair is so short. I look like Julie Andrews. I cut it mostly because I want a hair cut that I can just get up and go with and also because I have always wanted one but certain people at home/everyone hated the idea. Now, none of you can stop me!! Muahahaha!! just kidding, but now really. I really like it and don't worry, it will all be grown out by the time I come home. Secondly, it was announced this week that missionaries are now allowed to e-mail anyone they want!!! So please pass around this email address after April 8th. Technically you can all e-mail me now but I still only have a half hour of e-mail time while in the MTC. As soon as I get to the field I will have two whole hours just to email so it would be better if we still stuck to letters until April 8th. Also that doesnt mean that I dont want letters because getting mail is like the best thing of all time! 

Spiritually this week has been incredible. I can feel the spirit so strongly and with me every day. This place is amazing! You can just look at someone here and be so overcome by their spirit that you can't help but cry. there is truely no other feeling like being a missionary and I am honored and humbled that I have the opportunity to be a part of this great work. I have been studying the Holy Ghost a lot lately and his role as the third member of the Godhead. I have never truely understood the extent of his power and influence and as I study more and more, I don't think I ever will because he is power is so extensive and great. I never realized the role he played in the actual act of the atonement and I would invite you all to give that more study and thought. We have also been studying a lot about Doctrine/Principle/Application format and I love it! It is such a good way both to learn and to teach and can be applied to any aspect of life. It is explained in David A. Bendar's bookIncrease In Learning.I haven't read it because it is not part of the Missionary Library but the is the book we were taught from and I would also encourage you all to read it. It literally changed my out look on life and my mission and how to teach. I know that seems dramatic but let me give you an example. I was very very bored during the devotional on tuesday night and had totally tuned out of the talk when I decided to do a DPA on life. this is what I came up with...

 

The Doctrine of Life

Doctrine(WHY): Progression-the doctrine of life is progression. This is the reason WHY we are here. We are not here to return to our heavenly father again. If that was the reason of life then there would be no reason for life because we were already living with him. Why would we want to go through all of this just to get right back to where we started? That doesn't make much sense. For this reason, I discovered that the doctrine of life is to progress to a point that is better that the one we were at before. Isn't that the goal of everything we do in life anyway; to be better than we were before and to keep growing and progressing?

 

Principle(WHAT): The Plan of Salvation- this part if simple the WHAT of the subject you are studying. The WHAT of life is the Plan of Salvation. This is literally the map of life and how life is to be accomplished.

 

Application(HOW): The Atonement-This is the application because this is HOW we use the What of the Plan of Salvation to obtain the WHY of progression. This is the center and key stone of it all. The Atonement is what makes it all possible. And how to de use the Atonement? Through baptism and the reception of the Holy Ghost who is our access to the Atonement of Christ. That is the role of the Holy Ghost. He is our communicator with Christ. It is only through him that we can be forgiven of our sins by the use of repentence.

 

I hope that all makes sense and that you can all see how this connects to each other. I am kind of on a DPA craze right now and have been DPAing everything is sight. It is a lot of fun and a fantastic way to learn.

 

I can feel the strength of the Lord behind me as I am out here. I know that this is what I am supposed to be doing in my life and that this is the Lord's will. I hope you can all feel and see the blessings that I hope are coming to you as I work out here. I love you all. Remember the it is not enough to know, feel, or even do, but we must also be. Be whatever it is you are going to be the very best you can. Write me!!!!! and I love you all!!!

 

Hermama Zimmerman

 

Please Write!

Please write to Hermana Zimmerman!

Hermana Katrina Zimmerman 
Chile Vina del Mar Mission 
Provo MTC 
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

My Chilean address

Hermana Katrina Zimmerman
4 Norte 1112
Vina del Mar, Chile 

Katie's first letter from the CCM!

Here is a portion of Hermana Zimmerman's first letter from the CCM (Centre de Cultivicasion Missional or something like that.) PS, I took the liberty of correcting her spelling, haha!

"This week has been amazing but it seems so much longer than a week. My leave date for the mission field is April 8th and because I don't need a visa, that date is for sure. There atmosphere here is just incredible. I feel like I have special powers or something for remembering things. I am learning so much about the gospel and language. The first few days were really hard because I was focusing so much on speaking Spanish, adjusting to having a companion (who turned 19 last week), and realizing that I would be under the direction of both a district leader and a zone leader who are both 18. I feel so old here!! It's a good thing though. I have a lot of opportunities to teach and guide. The Spanish was very difficult at first. I could understand everything I was hearing but I couldn't talk back well enough for me to have the confidence to open my mouth. most of the people here just speak in infinitives and with horrible grammar but I can't let myself do that. Eventually, I realized that I am not here to learn Spanish. I am here to learn how to teach the gospel. I am also not here for me. This is not my mission. I am here for the Lord and to do his work. Este es mi proposito. Mom, you were totally right about my mouth being sore for the first few days! Spanish is such a different way of talking! I am used to it now though. My dreams have even started being in Spanish! I lay have awake all night trying to translate them!

 

I am tired all the time. 8 hours is a lot of sleep a night and more than I have ever gotten before in my life but getting up at 6:30 am and being in class all day until 9:30 at night doesn't help the situation. They push you hard here. That is the best way to learn though. On day 3, we taught our first discussion in Spanish. My companion and I were scared out of minds! It went well though and we got a baptismal commitment! My district consists on four elders and six hermanas. We are the only intermediate district in the whole CCM because did away with intermediate districts the week we got here but then realized that we all speak too well to be intermediates so they bumped us up anyway. All the other beginning districts are afraid to talk with us because they know we already know the language. We are also the first district in our zone and I think the CCM where the Hermanas out number the Elders! It is a pretty cool title to have. Things are way crowed here now that the age has changed. There are six of us living in a dorm built for four. We all share closets and it is a little hard to move around in but we manage. It is pretty fun in the morning when six different alarm clocks all got off at 6:30 but you all know me and that I probably wouldn't get up if not for all those alarms. It's pretty funny. We all lay in bed until the sixth one goes off and then we get up. My P-days are on Thursdays which is why I have be able to write until now. I am glad it is today though because we are all running out of clothes!

 

The lessons and devotionals here are incredible. It feels like this place is just saturated with the spirit. It is present all the time. Because of this, when you can recognize the spirit's presence, you know you are really experiencing something special.  I have never felt the spirit as strongly and as frequently as I do here. it is truly a treat to be here. My companion's name is Hermana Mckay (a distant relative of David O.) and as I mentioned earlier, she turned 19 on Feb. 18. She has only attended one semester of college and is still getting her legs under her. She is a joy though. She has so much passion and excitement for the gospel that she wants to tell everyone all about it right away!! She has such a strong testimony. Here at the CCM, there is a leadership position that is called the "coordinating sister" (essentially the female version of a Zone leader) and on day 2, Hermana Mckay was asked to fill this position for our zone!! She was so worried and scared and I couldn't blame her but she is excited now and grows a little more confident every day. It is fun to watch her change and mature. She has come a long way even in just a week. This last Sunday, the MTC Branches 66 and 67 were formed. Can you believe that! 67 branches in one square block! 800 missionaries reported on my day alone. By June, they are expecting to house 8,000 missionaries here. It is just insane. Everyone used to complain about how strict the schedule is but now we are all realizing how important it is. If we don't follow it, everything gets backed up because the cafeteria, gym, mail room, and other facilities can only handle so many people for so long. Everything has to be done on a very strict clock here or it would all implode!"

Sus missionaria favorita,

Hermana Zimmerman