...and she's back!

I am back, only to return to Houston, Texas later today to witness the sealing of an amazing family I had the blessing and privilege of teaching the restored gospel to and helping them enter the waters of baptism. That, fellow bloggers, is pure happiness. Elation? Euphoria? All of the above!

Know that there is more coming...for as soon as I get back from my cruise to...not sure where, with my family; be expecting the update of the century!

It is good to be back, at least that is what I keep telling myself to keep myself from crying when people call me Kendra. ;)

Love y'all. Until next time, (Sister) Kendra Haynie! :)

Sister Haynie

So first off, what kind of guy takes a girl out on a blind date when in less than 24 hours she will be set apart as a missionary? Yeah, I don't know either. But that is happening to me, in t minus 30 minutes. Plant a seed? I guess. It should be quite enjoyable! :)

Anyway, I wish that I could blog about all the festivities of this weekend, but they were just much too joyful to even put into words. 37 people sleeping in the Haynie hotel, 70 plus people at my house on Sunday for the luncheon and so many more in sacrament meeting supporting this new adventure I am about to embark on! I have the BEST family and friends in the whole entire world and I would not be where I am today without them. My mom is a rockstar and we cooked all week to feed the masses yesterday. I love that lady.

Tomorrow at 9 pm I will be set apart by my stake president as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Whoa. How am I feeling? I don't really know. :) Ecstatic, mostly. Hormonally emotional about leaving people and crying way too frequently. I get really nervous sometimes, and then remember, It is true. I have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what I need. Heavenly Father qualifies those he calls, and he will help me to be the best missionary I can be if I put my trust in him.

Also, for those of you wanting to be forwarded my emails, comment with your email on this blog or on my FB and my adorable and extremely delightful sister, Brianna, will forward them to you. For now, here is my MTC address if you want to write. Hopefully my FB will be updated with my current address depending on what area I am in. :) Love you all and see you in 18 months!!! Over and out.

Good bye Utah and Hello Texas/Louisiana! 

Sister Kendra Haynie

MTC Mailbox #136

TX-HOUE 0521

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604

Weakness

Every return missionary I have spoken to has told me, well, a lot of different things. But one thing that has been pretty similar across the board has been about weaknesses. It went something like this, "God, in trying to make you stronger, takes your number one weakness and really makes you aware of it on your mission. It seems to work its way into every facet of your life and you are forced, with his help, to deal with and overcome it."

So, in knowing this, I have been trying to get a jump start on my weakness. Can I do that? I am not really sure, but I have tried. We all know Heavenly Father has A LOT of different weaknesses he could maximize in my life, but what would that number one be.

I have thought about it a lot since January 19th and I think I finally came up with it...
 Vanity. 
I am an extremely vain person. Probably most of you will not actually believe this, as you know that I rarely get ready. I would go out anywhere in my work out clothes without make-up and my not hair done, and I did not even wear make-up until I came to college.

But the reason that I feel this most applies is in my skin tone. Because I am out to prove I am not white, having nice tan skin has always dictated my life. I LOVE being in the sun, I love getting tan and I DESPISE tan lines.

Can you think of another occupation I could have for the next 18 months that would give me worse tan lines? I don't think so. :)

Now that I feel I have decided upon that weakness that will be thrown in my face, I am preparing to embrace my farmer's tan line and awkward skirt length tan line, and just love them all!

No, this is not my leg. Or even close to it. But be expecting my nice tones legs to come back with skirts lines, just like this! ;)

Pray for me, that my vanity will quickly be diminished when I get set apart as a missionary! :) 

Divvying up of Assignments

In lieu of me having two weeks before I enter the MTC, I feel it is necessary to clue my nearest and dearest in on a few responsibilities they have while I am gone. ;)

Starla- Keep me updated on anything and everything BYU Athletics. Specifically; football, men's basketball and volleyball. You know what we like!

Bri- She is responsible for managing all forms of my social networking and media. She can choose to forward my emails to people, if her heart desires, and making sure that my email inbox stays under control. She can also choose to confirm or deny friend requests as well as, hack into my Facebook whenever she chooses.

Saryn- Sar is responsible for keeping me updated on all the people in our life that regrettably will probably not write me. Just like a Facebook news feed...but of the really important stuff. Marriages, babies etc. :) This is obviously her job because she is the most caring person and knows people so well. She just automatically loves.

Taryn- T is responsible for keeping a list of the good country and non country songs that come out. She knows what I will love because we have the same great taste, so it should be pretty easy. Because when I get back, we will be needing to have a dance party and I am going to need to know all the new music and such.

C-Puppy- C is responsible for keeping note of the movies that she knows I will love when I come back. Sandy ones, the highly quotable ones, and the super cheesy ones that our lives are just like! ...you're supposed to be with me! (Include Disney Channel as well...)

Shandi- Letting me know what actually happens to Henry when Psych comes back on in the fall! :)

Between this, loving me and the constant update of their lives, I think they should all stay pretty busy while I am gone. haha Everyone else reading this, it is your responsibility to write me. Not anything long, maybe even just a few post it notes, but I already know how much I will love getting mail and I hate not knowing what is going on in people's lives!

Also, I hope no one is judging me or thinking I am worldly after reading this blog post....we just all have our quirks and I felt it was important to notify them of their jobs before I leave, so they can be attending to them while I am gone! :)

Let's go back in time shall we...

It is 2008. I was almost done with my 2nd semester of college, I had almost worked at the Key Office for a year and I was 18.

A part of my job at the Key Office went as follows: People would come in with key cards, or send them in through the mail, to get a key for somewhere on campus. Obviously we can not just let anyone and everyone get keys, so we require certain signatures. Depending on what Dept you are from or what access you need in that moment. Etc For each dept and college there are specific people that are allowed to sign for keys. We have signature cards that show who are approved signers and such.

The presidents office sent some key cards through the mail for two of their employees and I picked them up and began to issue them. Until I saw that President Cecil O. Samuelson had been the one to sign them. I  looked in my system, he was definitely not an authorized signer. But he is president of the University. Does it matter? Oh well. I will just issue them anyway and send a little note.

Those were all the thoughts that rushed through my head in that moment. So, I decided I would issue the keys anyway, and write President Samuelson's secretary a note asking him to sign the authorization form. Not a big deal right?

Well, I was 18, young and still wrote notes exactly how I talk. In this note I said, a midst other things, the following: "...even though we all know President Samuelson is a pretty big deal around here, we still need to have his signature on file. I went ahead and issued the keys and they can be picked up. But if you could send this card back after he signs it, that would be great." And I sent it to the President's office. Not thinking anything of it.

Two days later I get called into my big boss man's office... he brought me to tears and I felt sick for weeks about being "disrespectful" and "treating such matters lightly" and "how dare I take matters like that into my own hands" with the whole situation. It was awful and I thought I was going to get fired.

I have had countless opportunities to meet President Samuelson throughout my years of college. Through BYUSA and Cougar United, we have sat in on meetings together, eaten at the same table etc. Have I ever met him? No. I have avoided it like the plague. Thinking that if he ever met me and knew my name he would kick me out of the University for being so disrespectful. Needless to say, I have been scared to ever meet him in any situation.

FAST FORWARD THREE YEARS ---  My dearest supervisor at the Key Office, Shawna, is called into the Relief Society Presidency in her ward. They have a stake training. Who is the one training Shawna? None other than Chadra Kling, President Samuelson's personal secretary. She asks Shawna where she works at BYU and she tells her, "at the Key Office." Chadra replies, "Ohhh really. Oh man, have I got a story for you!!" Instantly Shawna knows what she is referring to and is getting ready for the worst, when Chadra says, "Your employee Kendra, who sent that note to me years ago...Oh my goodness! You would not believe about what a joke that has become in our office. Anytime anyone asks the President to do something he feels is menial he often responds with, 'Can't. Sorry, I am a big deal.' The note has been framed on his wall in his office since we received it. We have absolutely loved it! We frequently tell people that come in about what a 'big deal' our President is. We never thought it was disrespectful at all."

As Shawna is telling me this story I have a lot of emotions going through me. Humiliation, embarrassment, euphoria, anger (about being so sick about it for months/years!), and last of all, relief. We laughed about it, for a LONG time that day. Everyone in the office was just dying.

That was about 4 months ago and I decided that I needed to tie up my final loose ends at BYU before I leave this place for good. So I went, on a whim, and decided I was going to meet President Samuelson in his office. I walked in and Chadra asked me, "Hi, what can I do for you?"
"Uh...I would like to meet with President Samuelson please."
"In regards to what exactly?"
Well, how do I put this... "Well, my name is Kendra Haynie and years ago I wrote a note from the Key Office"
"OH! MY! GOSH! You are Kendra from the Key Office?!"
(In the mean time, two other people rush in from the other office and come and shake my hand with, "Your Kendra?!"'s going off everywhere.)

Yep, I am. Hi. This is awkward. It was then that Chadra pulled out the ORIGINAL note that I wrote so many years ago and showed it to me. I read through it, I was embarrassed. But glad to have it make such a story. She also showed me a campus memo that was sent to the President just a few months ago, referring to him as a campus entity. He was requested to respond. Across the top, just in pen, he wrote, "I used to be a big deal around here...now I am just a campus entity." and sent it back. That was all. Isn't that hilarious?

 President Samuelson then walked out of his office and shook my hand. Saying how good it was to finally meet me, the big deal joke starter, after all these years. We talked for a good twenty minutes about my life, my involvement at BYU, my graduation and my future. When I told him I was going on a mission he hugged me. And to think that I have avoided meeting him all these years! :) I asked him if we could take a picture, he said of course, and then I was on my way. Laughing and whistling to myself, as the story has finally come full circle.

I think I am officially good to go on graduating now. No more loose ends here.

107 comments...258 likes

Well...you all have probably already heard, but I got my mission call!!!!
(Yes, this blog title is the stats from status about my mission call...I was overwhelmed)

Texas Houston East Mission

T.H.E.M. or THE mission. :) Perfect for me and my humble self, to be serving in the THE mission. Pretty stoked about it.

It has now been like 2.3 weeks since I got my call and I am sorry I have not blogged about it. I never was good at this sort of thing. 

The call came to my house in Cedar, and I was in Provo subbing a second grade class. It was a looong day! :) My dear friend Jena and I drove from Provo to Cedar that evening. Everyone asks if I was going crazy or just DYING that I had to wait that long, and the answer is no. I was strangely calm and did not even really think it was real. Getting a mission call is such a surreal feeling! 

Anyway, when we finally made it to Cedar, turns out my parents were at foster care training and would not be home until 9...two more hours to wait. Helaman called me and he was coaching a basketball game for his young men...one more hour to wait. At this point, we would be opening it around 10. At least that would have been ideal. But then there was the serious issue of technology. I have nine siblings, who are all very important to me, in different places, and needed to be 'present' at the opening. As well as a lot of amazing friends that I was just sure grateful could also be there to support. So, between FaceTime, Skype, FaceTiming over Skype...and two change of locations and a lot more computer issues, we finally had everyone connected! Not to mention, Cali and Taryn and C-Puppy connected by various cell phones. 

It was rough, but ended up being a success. :) We started out with an opening song, "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" yes...that is a completely normal thing to do everyone. And then...I opened it! Whipped it out and covered up all the words. I just knew if I did not cover it, I was going to cheat and read ahead. I read it line by line and got a little bit choked up be kept my composure. 

There is just something about reading those words... "You are hereby called to serve as a missionary..." "You are assigned to labor in the..." "You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister..." that is enough to send anyone's stomach to their toes and make their hands and voice shaky. 

I did not cry...much to my great pleasure. Also, I read the whole letter...to everyone. haha Oft times, when people open their mission calls, they just read that first paragraph. Where they are going, what language they are speaking and when they are leaving. I really felt that everyone needed to hear what the rest of the letter has to say, after all, it is signed FOR REAL by President Thomas S. Monson. I thought if he had the time to sign it, everyone had the time to hear it. :) 

I am grateful for the call. I am excited to serve in Texas. Heavenly Father knew about my issue with Texans and sent me there to humble them... ;) and maybe myself. To not hate Texas pride as much, because we all know -- with how attached I get to people I am going to come back with some. But I promise, I will NOT be hanging a Texas flag in my house OR have any Texas stickers on my car. :)

Preparing to serve a mission is a humbling experience. Every day I wake up and find a flaw in myself that I know needs remedying for me to better serve the people of Texas (and Louisiana, which my mission also covers) and my Savior. Satan is real..and he has been trying his very hardest to make me feel inadequate and ask myself what good I could possibly do as a missionary. Good thing I could never believe that right? ;) 

"Things to do Immediately: Read this packet in its entirety" I was not wasting any time. 

But really, I can not wait to go! It is less than three months away and I am so darn excited to get letters from all of you for 18 months..right?

Moving...

I started this blog post over a month ago. I hate when I get behind. It has probably taken me so long to write because I hate writing posts like this. The ones that leave me feeling a little bit melancholy. Yeah, this is one of those for me.

As of January 1, I no longer lived in Wellington 4. For those of you who don't know, I had lived there for 4.5 years. I moved into it in July of 2007, right after I graduated from high school. Before you go and judge me, remember that my dad owns the apartment and it was nice being the manager. :) When I first was going to move in, I was scared out of my mind. It smelled funny, was ugly and nothing like my home in Cedar. My mom took care of her girls and let me know she would not let me live there looking the way it did. So we went to work; we re did it. We painted the walls, did some major repairs, took out some ugly shelves and it became my home. Think about when you live one place even for one semester..four months... and how many memories and inside jokes are made. Well, I lived in dubya four for 9 semesters, 37 months...and a whole lot more weeks than that. It was awesome. Seriously, the best time of my life. While there, I got to live with some of my best friends (slash family that doubles as best friends) in the whole world!

(All the W4's in order of roommates in and out)

The most recent group of us. Slash, they all still live there with our dear friend Danielle.

As for now, I feel like I am in an awkward limbo. I go from living in the hub of socialness in W4, to Pleasant Grove (with my aunt and uncle and C-Puppy, who I love all dearly) with a lot less socialness. I am subbing pretty much every day which is really good and oh, the stories that I could tell about that. I love being in the classroom every day and GETTING PAID FOR IT. Not a lot, actually it is really a minimal pay, but it sure beats sitting at a desk every day!

That brings me to my next matter of business...my blog name. Do I need to change it?
Life of a College Girl is all I have ever known..but I am moving on to new adventures! It could eventually be... Life of a Sister Missionary eventually... But not right now. Life of a substitute? No. Life of a College Grad? No. I guess I will just keep it for now. After all, we know that I can only handle so much change all at the same time. :)

Love you all and maybe my call will be here TOMORROW! I am trying not to get my hopes up...but how can I not!

Titles

Throughout the last few years of my life, I have had quite a few different titles to certain people {children} in my life. 

From Kendra to Miss Kendra to Miss Haynie and Mrs. Haynie to 'hey teach' and, my latest favorite from my kindergartners, Mrs. Teach. I have loved all of these titles and love the memories that I associate with each of them.

Although I will miss those titles for the next little while, I am even more excited to take on the new title. 

That of, "Sister Haynie."

That's right all, I will be serving as a full time missionary (18 months) for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

I have been working on my papers and by the end of this next week, they should be in! Should I have waited until they were in to make this announcement and actually post it on my blog? Well, probably. But I am just so stinkin' excited!!

When I think about it long and hard, I get really nervous that I am not capable enough to be an actual missionary. What if I don't know enough? Or what if I am not able to feel and interpret the spirit? What if I am just not good at talking to people? (This one should not really be an issue..) What if I am not able to study for two hours+ a day? What if people don't listen to what I say and no one wants to get baptized? What if I get really home sick? What if... What if... What if...

Then I realized, that I had a good answer/come back to all of my ridiculous questions. I have a testimony of this Gospel and because of that, everything else will fall into place, that will be enough. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and I know that he wants me to serve a mission. Because I know that, and because I know he qualifies those he calls, I know that I do not need to be afraid. Will a lot of learning have to take place? Most definitely. But with God's help, I know that I can succeed. I have been so blessed throughout my life to have the knowledge of the Gospel. To be raised in a family where it has been ingrained into every facet of my life. I get to be the one spreading that good news to the rest of the world...at least a small portion of it. I can not wait to get out there and spread the word about the greatest thing in my life. I am so extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity!

Elder Andersen said it best -- "Our spiritual journey is the process of a lifetime. We do not know everything in the beginning or even along the way. Our conversion comes step-by-step, line upon line. We first build a foundation of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We treasure the principles and ordinances of repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We include a continuing commitment to prayer, a willingness to be obedient, and an ongoing witness of the Book of Mormon. (The Book of Mormon is powerful spiritual nourishment.)

We then remain steady and patient as we progress through mortality. At times, the Lord’s answer will be, “You don’t know everything, but you know enough”—enough to keep the commandments and to do what is right."   -Elder Neil L. Andersen

From Kendra to Sister Haynie...and I could not be more excited!

P.S. Stay tuned for the actual call... it will be announced here first! :)

Yay for Kindergarten!

"The Christmas spirit's startin', down in the Kindergarten." 

So, I realized today that I never even told the blogging world that after I got done teaching sixth grade, planning myself to death and turned in my TEACHER WORK SAMPLE... I got put in a new placement. Teaching Kindergarten at Deerfield Elementary in Cedar Hills. It is now a 40-70 minute commute...instead of a 5 minute walk, which is a little sad. But I am loving it regardless. Teaching 5 and 6 year olds has been quite the switch for me and it took some adjusting. Mostly just taking sarcasm out of my daily life (hard!) and making my jokes consist of bunny ears and things that smell. It is truly a different world down there. But they are adorable and make you feel like you are the best thing ever, pretty much every day.

But, this post is not to tell you about kindergarten in general. I just wanted to let you know that today we had a gingerbread hunt. I made this gingerbread man talked him WAY up. I have been reading gingerbread books to them during read a loud all week. I told the kiddos I would share him with them after recess. Recess came and went and the gingerbread man disappeared!! We made PREDICTIONS about what happened to the gingerbread. Many of which consisted of, "he ran away!" "You and Mrs. E ate him when we were at recess!" "Someone stole him!" Etc. I was entertained. I asked the class if they saw anything that maybe my gingerbread man could have left to help us know where he was. Insert picture 3 below... Clue #1 on the white board. 

Cute right? OK, he could have been A LOT better, but we were low on supplies. 

 

We went on our hunt around the school and the kids were on their best behavior and SO cute. We visited the library, the office and the custodian's office. They were so excited. It is times like that where I really do love those younger grades. I know I could not have gotten my 6th graders to be that excited about a gingerbread man hunt... or all my talk and jokes about Santa. Kindergartners are really good for the enthusiasm factor. 

Mostly? I just wanted to show off my cute gingerbread men. I had two, but the morning class ate theirs before I thought to take a picture of it. And that is just one of my many adventures in kindergarten! 

To come? Thanksgiving...College Graduate... AND moving out of Wellington 4. This is huge, you will want to stay tuned. 

Halloween!

Halloween. I am absolutely obsessed with it. I have heard from a lot of people my age (and maybe it is more normal...) that Halloween has kind of lost its excitement since becoming 'grown up'. Well friends, I am exactly the opposite. Since 'growing up' and being a college student, not to mention currently a teacher to 50 kindergartners, Halloween has only become more and more exciting to me. I LOVE decorating my apartment for Halloween, and even more than that, I love dressing up. Let me just give you a little recap... a little trip down memory lane shall we?

It starts at my freshman year of college, 2007: 

Hard Core biker chick...who wouldn't want to date that right? My thoughts exactly. 

and as if I was not intimidating enough already, well let's add a tattoo, fish nets and 5 inch heels. Yeah... :)

Then my sophomore year, 2008. Year of the most epic Halloween party (until 2011 that is) and our costumes...well basically I have never seen anything cooler or more creative since. I give you; the Troll Dolls.

Complete with belly jewel and all. I loved this year, SO much. 

A few friends and family members at various parties. We all slept in our living room this night. As to not mess up our hair for actual Halloween the next day...with a large sheet under all of us as to not tint our pillows.

Junior year of college, 2009. This year was a hard year. It was going to be hard to beat our amazing ensemble from the year before...so we did not really even do anything for Halloween until the day of. Let me present to you, the 'Spice' Girls. 

Paprika, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cinnamon Spice.
Clever right? Pretty sure it was Kris' idea...she was the brains behind our whole operation.
We thought it was brilliant.

"SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!"

Which brings me to my 'senior' year of college up next, 2010. We felt lame. My best friends had gotten married, one of my sisters moved across the country and well, I did not feel brilliant. Not to mention, I was teaching second grade and felt like I was too busy...oh, if I only knew what the future would bring. Needless to say, I went with my default, 50's girl.

I mean, we are still pretty cute. But I feel like a cop out when I do not go big or go home. Meaning when I do not hand craft my costume. But, it was still pretty fun!

Getting on to the point of this post, I love Halloween and this past Halloween was no different. We decided to throw a Halloween dance party of epic proportions (I am apologizing now for my extreme use of the word epic...you try using any other word to describe what we do!). In 2008 we threw one with the girls in the across the hall apt. Our place was used for dancing, and theirs was food and sitting. It was pretty sweet. There was no room to stand, or sit or anything there were so many people. Our music was hoppin' and the cops came and shut us down. Oops... it was the married people across the way who called and complained, pretty sure.

Well this year, we decided we had had two years off from throwing parties and it was time for another one. After the last one, our apt was disgusting. Caramel popcorn in the carpet, nasty food and water everywhere and I was not up for cleaning that again. So I decided we would have it in our parking garage. Get all the cars to move, (I have the best girls ever in my ward and they all moved their cars for the event...thanks!!) black plastic the walls and spray paint with neon, black lights in all the sockets, food for everyone without running out, epic music playlist (black music!) with bomb sound system, us in our out of this world costume, and attendees. Perfect recipe for a party you won't quickly forget.

Downstairs, during decorating time.

Our food table.

We were decorating all day, and it was more than worth it! We were even left with enough time to go and get us all ready in our costumes.... 

Taco Bell sauce packets, lady and gents! 

ya know, the ones with the sayings. Let's just say we made A LOT of trips to Taco Bell in the month of October..and we had a lot of extra sauce in our apartment to help us pick our the perfect sayings.! :)  

"Think Outside the Bun!"

How adorable are my parents?! Yeah, they brought the fam up for our party.

Pretty much my whole family was here for the event, and it rocked. 

(Fam, where did Parker go and why is he not in this picture?)

Let me tell you, it was beyond crazy weeks before that, and cost us a small fortune, but we gave Provo a party of a lifetime! Throughout the night, there were anywhere from 400 to 500 people. The garage was packed, food got eaten, people came from everywhere and I went to bed ridiculously exhausted and proud to know W4 still knows how to throw an out of this world party.

Jealous you weren't there? 

It's ok...maybe we will throw another one.

I am a little bit sad to take down all of my Halloween decorations, but lucky for myself, and my roommates...Christmas is just around the corner! :)