July 20 2014 letter

Dear Family,

I love all of you so much, and I want to thank you all for your prayers and love. As I am a missionary I have an idea that I think could really bless us as a family. This morning during personal study I read a talk given by Elder Ballard this past conference, and in it he suggested that all families who are supporting a missionary should read Preach my Gospel, and then in their letters and emails back and forth share with each other what they learned. I know that preach my gospel is a tool for missionaries, but after all we are all missionaries right? But really, there is great power in that book and I feel like any person who reads it will grow closer to Heavenly Father. 

So I'm going to ask you all if you will please start studying Preach my Gospel and then sharing with me what you learn.You don't have to study it every day, but if you do I promise that you will feel closer to the spirit and you will have a greater desire to share the gospel and to follow Jesus Christ. I know you're all busy but you can do it!! The reward is greater than the sacrifice. I love you all!! 

Love,

Sister Jessica Krivanec 

ps I would suggest chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 those are THE BEST! also chapter one is pretty good! 

July 13 2014 letter

HI FRIENDS! 

Wow okay so I feel like I just had the busiest week of my whole life. I don't even know how it's Monday already. First of all I just want to say that Singapore rocks. This week we had a zone meeting "journey" and we went on a hike to the tallest point in Singapore and saw an incredible view. We also had a good time with giant lizards and monkeys. I offered a monkey a book of mormon, but she wasn't too keen on taking it. Also I found mac and cheese. I never thought I would be so happy to see it. I bought it and cooked it and it was delicious. 

Sister Crabb and I met a new friend named Monir from Bangladesh and he loves us. He left us 13 voice-mails in two days. It reminded me of the good old days in Malaysia where every man you meet wants to marry you. But don't worry I told him that I'm married to my work and that we cannot ever meet. He took it a bit harshly and told me he would die without us. I think he'll be okay though. 

Even though you meet crazy men here, I have such a deep love for the people that I teach and serve. This past week a couple of ward members told me that Sister Crabb and I are one of the best companionship's that the ward has ever had. I felt so touched by that. I think the number one thing I will cherish about my mission is the way that I have learned to see people as God sees them. The times I am most successful are when I let love be my greatest motivator. 

The reason I know that God's work will never fail is because it is based on Charity and charity never fails. If you look in Moroni 7, charity encompasses every single Christ-like attribute. It amazes me that the more I focus on others the more I am capable of helping myself. 

Sorry for the long email! I hope you all are happy and well. Thank you for your emails, they all make laugh and smile. LOVE YOU ALL!!

Love,

Sister Krivanec

ps I started this thing on my mission where whenever I meet someone from a different country I have them teach me how to count in their language. I think I am currently on 13 languages. My goal is to reach 20.

pps happy late fourth of July. God Bless America :)

July 6 2014 Letter

Hey everyone!! I made it six months, I cannot believe how fast time is going. Sorry I am bad at being regular with my group emails...time is never on my side. But things are going super well for Sister Crabb and I. I am halfway done training her, and our area is picking up for us. We have an investigator on date for August 30th and she is GOLDEN! Every time she reads the Book of Mormon she makes an outline of it. I'm so impressed. And in case you were wondering what her name is, it's Rashmi. She's Indian, and I adore her. 

So thus far on my mission I have learned an important lesson. And that lesson is that you can do anything in a skirt. For real though. You would not believe the things I have accomplished while wearing a skirt. I have gone sprinting after buses that we need to catch, I have played soccer, I have climbed up a pole that a child wanted me to climb, I can even ride a bike. We always say, that God's best soldiers come in skirts. 

But on a more serious note, something I want to share with you all is that I take great comfort in knowing that all missionaries everywhere are being prayed for. Some days that's all I need to know is that Heaven is on my side. I feel that every time I bear my testimony there are thousands of testimonies behind it that are echoing mine. I don't feel like I am only representing Jesus Christ. I feel like I represent my family, and my friends and the Prophet and Apostles, and every person that has ever made a lasting impression upon me. I want you to know that the power of Satan is real, and that we cannot begin to pray enough for God's servants. We need help, every second of every day. We are all out here trying to accomplish the hardest work that we can ever do, and that means that Satan works extra hard. Thank you all for your prayers. I feel them, and they provide me the strength I need when all odds seem to be against me. 

I feel as though in life we are all figuratively captains of our team, and we get the first pick on who we want to play with us. I hope that all of us would pick Jesus Christ to be our first teammate. With Him  we WILL win. There is no chance of losing. So choose Him. I love all of you, and trust that all of you are standing firm in the faith. Have a good week!!

Love,

Sister Krivanec

June 8 2014 Letter

Sister Crabb and I had a really good week. Whitewashing is still proving to be tough, but I'm really enjoying the challenge. Singapore is a whole new adventure compared to the jungle in Malaysia. I'm starting to learn Singlish. So just like in Malaysia they say "lah" after just about everything. "okay lah, no lah, it's just down the street lah, let me tell you lah." Also my new favorite singlish word is seua (sway) or steady. 

This week I read two amazing talks on missionary work and I need to share a little bit of them with you. One of them is called the Miracle of Missionary Work given by Elder Holland. But it talks about how this is the most important thing we could be doing with our lives. The things we learn will impact us and our future families, and our future generations. We are figuratively in a relay race, we have the baton in our hands for 18 months or for 2 years. We don't have time to stop and take a rest, we have to run full speed ahead and never look back. We don't have time to waste. We hold onto the baton with our lives until it's time to pass it on to the next person. So of course missionary work will never end for us, but right now our time is so precious. President Hinckley said in a talk that he wonders if we truly understand the importance of being alive in these last days. He said that all the prophets that have ever lived are watching us and cheering for us to get the work done. I think that's kinda a cool thought, and also very humbling. Okay let me just quote him.

"It places upon us an unforgiving responsibility to reach out with concern for all others in the Spirit of the Master, who taught, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" We of this generation are the end harvest of all that has gone before. It is not enough to simply be known as a member of this Church. A solemn obligation rests upon us. Let us face it and work at it."

Okay lah, it's time for me to go. The Lord loves you and so do I. Have a good week. Cherish the Land of the Free instead of the Land of the Fines :) (get it....Singapore fines you for anything and everything) hahah okay byeeeee!!!

Love,

Sister Krivanec

May 18 2014 Letter

HI EVERYONE! So today will be a very short email. But I have news! I'm getting transferred to Singapore; and I am going to open an area for Sisters and train a new little missionary. I was so surprised I almost threw up. The Lord sure knows how to test me. I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. But hey do I ever feel like I know what I'm doing? I heard a quote from Elder Bednar I think?? That said, that "as soon as you think you have figured out missionary work, you need to repent." We will never know what we're doing, because this is the Lord's work, not the work of man. So pray for me :) The Lord loves you and so do I. 

Love,

Sister Krivanec

May 5 2014 Letter

My weeks in Malaysia never fail to be an adventure. Really quickly I will tell you about my new "best friend" Muhammad. Well one night my companion and I didn't have dinner so we decided to run to the mall below us and grab some waffles from a nice chinese woman that cooks them. So it was about 10 pm and so we ran down there as quick as possible (which isn't actually quick since we live on floor 23) (and also I would like to point out that our schedule is half our different than most missions so we weren't actually breaking curfew) but anyway, we get down there and she is cooking for someone else so we gave her our order and decided to go to a little dinky dollar store while we were waiting. While we were goofing around at this story called Mr. D.I.Y. I accidentally ran into a young man, I said sorry and turned around onto a different isle because I was embarrassed. But he followed us and stared at us for like 5 mintues. Then he finally approached us and started asking loads of questions about what room we stayed in and of course my favorite question...can I have your number. Well lucky for us, we don't actually know our number, and we didn't have our phone on us so we didn't have to lie and say we don't have a number or phone. But this guy was really persistent. He was like...well what are you doing right now, and I said well we're getting waffles for dinner, and he said "I know I was watching you get them" At this point in my head I was like okay you little stalker you can stop following us around the mall now. But he asked us if he could follow us up to our room, and I said no, but you can write down your number for us and we'll call you later. He had nothing to write on and we didn't either so he went looking around the store for a pen so as he was looking we booked it out of there. We were running through the mall like crazy people. We figured we could just go and get our waffles and go back upstairs, but they were still cooking so we ran into a store, and we're hiding and he comes down the escalator searching for us. I have never been more panicked before, we hid for about 10 minutes until he left the area so we grabbed our waffles and ran back to our room. It was quite the night. We reallyyyyy love our apartment so we are hoping that he never finds out where we live or else we have to move.

We also went on a crazy truck ride through the jungle, and to get to the jungle we took a crazy bus...sorry mom and dad I know I have super good luck with cars hitting me, but my only choice was to hang out the door because the bus was so packed. No worries I didn't fall out and get run over. And when we arrived at our destination, we had such a good lesson so it was worth the ride!

Well that's it for me this week, I have to go. Things are amazing with us.  I am learning everyday, especially how to love. Love conquers all. And I know that I could never do this work without our Heavenly Father.  Have a good week everyone I love you all.

Love,

Sister Krivanec

1) this was the bus that we were on

2) Pakistani food is...so...just so good. Eat some.

April 6 2014 letter

Hello hello! Long time, no write. Sorry I know I'm the worst. How is everyone???!!! I sincerely hope that you all are doing well, and that you enjoyed conference weekend. I have received many emails telling me that conference was amazing, and for all of you that asked, I was totally down for staying up all night and watching conference online. But President knows better than me and vetoed that idea. We'll watch it next weekend at our chapel in KL and I cannot wait! I teach people all the time about a living prophet and apostles and how important it is that we have them to lead and guide us, and I'm so excited to bring some investigators to see how inspired they are. I have been praying about some specific questions that I have, and I know that conference will answer them. 

Everything with me and my companion is still great. This is our last week together and then she's moving to Singapore and I get a new companion. My area is the size of TEXAS so we'll see how good I am at showing her around, I hope the poor girl is patient. 

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Singapore for Zone Conference. Okay Singapore is like a whole other world. People walk fast, public transportation is timely and efficient, and also not falling apart. haha and the food isn't scary or HALAL!! (halal is for Muslims) and it's nasty. 

We had one Sister a couple of weeks ago get deported back to her home country in Tonga so we were all nervous to go through immigration at the airport, so we fasted and prayed and Heavenly Father answered our prayers and allowed all 28 of us make it through without any problems. 

Something that I want to share with you all today is a missionary quote from Brigham Young, he says:

There is neither man nor woman not on a mission. That mission will last as long as they live, and it is to do good, to promote righteousness, to teach the principles of truth, and to prevail upon themselves and everybody around them to live those principles that they may obtain eternal life. 

As missionaries we are not doing our job unless we leave a commitment with anybody that we meet with. So today I want to ask you all to commit to NEVER apologize for your standards. I think we sometimes feel embarrassed for what we believe in. To be a missionary you don't have to do anything extraordinary. You just have to live what you know to be true no matter where you or who you are with. The price we pay for sticking up for what we believe in is far less than the reward that lies in store for us. 

Have a good week everyone! You all inspire me! I love you :)

Love,

Sister Krivanec

I want to share with you all something that my oh so wise father sent me.

The photo at the beach is my district in singapore.