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.

March 9 2014

Hello friends! I hope all of you are doing well. I'm sorry if some of you email me and I'm not able to respond. I have about what feels like 1 minute to get 20 emails sent off. BUT thank you all for your emails, I do read them all, and I thoroughly enjoy them. 

Okay so this week was the hottest week in the world. It is so dry here that they are turning our water off every two days for the next month. So it will be off for two days and then on for two days. It's a bit obnoxious, but you do what you gotta do. 

This past week FLEW by. The best part of the week was visiting my favorite Pakistani family, and getting them on date for baptism for April 13th!! Also it is the best thing in the world when you teach the word of wisdom and you get to the part where they can't drink tea. Their eyes pop out of their head, and then after a minute of consideration they say, "okay, can lah." Being a missionary is the greatest thing in the world. I am humbled everyday to be here working along side our Master. It is the best feeling in the world when you are able to share with someone what you know to be true. I need to go, but I hope all of you are happy and healthy. Have a good week! The Lord loves you and so do I. 

Love,

Sister Krivanec

Missionaries totally know how to have fun

March 2 2014 letter

Hello everyone!

My email will be a short one today. Things in KL are just peachy. I am teaching the cutest family in the world. They are from Pakistan, and they are refugees here, because their Christian village that they lived in was burned down by Muslims. So, they are now here, and they love this gospel so much. They won't let us do any service. I tried helping their baby put his shoes on once and they freaked out because I'm "too good" to be doing stuff like that. They can be a bit frustrating, because I'm like, I'm just a human!!! I am so humbled by them, they lost everything they had, and are still so happy and willing to serve God. They are the definition of converted

Life is so cool. We get to decide what we want to be every day when we wake up. We are not cast in stone, every situation we are in gives us a chance to apply the teachings of the Savior. Do we want to be happy or miserable? It is really as simple as that, if you want to be happy, then do everything you can to be happy. You are your own master. 

Well I must go, I love you all and hope you are happy and healthy. Have a good week :) 

February 23 2014 letter

Mkay. So I everyone should cheer because I made it through my first transfer!!! whooo. I'm still here with Sister Schriever and the work is picking up for us quite a bit. We got three new investigators last week, and we should have 5 more this week. We were told last week in Zone Meeting that President Mains has set a goal for the Singapore mission to reach 542 baptisms by the end of this year; and 100 of them need to come from my district in Kuala Lumpur, because we are trying to get the very first stake in Malaysia. We only have 14 companionships in KL, so that number is pretty large, but it is very attainable. We are all working harder than ever to reach this goal. Since I have been here I have had a total of 25 new investigators, and we started out with only 2. It has been such a humbling experience for me to rely so much on Heavenly Father. He will show unto the children of men that he is able to do his work, and it is by our faith in Him that miracles happen. This is the most true statement in my life right now. All of my success comes from Heavenly Father and my trust in Him. This is His work and He is down here laboring by our sides. 

Anyway, yes the work is going so so well. I am blessed beyond measure.

But in case you wonder if anything funny happens with me the answer is yes, every. single. day. As you all know  I hate chicken. Hate is an understatement actually, and guess what I get to eat it. every. single. day. It has been an adventure for me trying to eat 3 plates full of rice and chicken every time I go to a members house. But I will tell you. I would take chicken over Durian any day. It is the smelliest most disgusting fruit in the world. It is actually the number one cause of death in Malaysia because it falls from the trees and kills people. 

Also I have about 100 marriage proposals a day. It is sometimes amusing and other times, I am just like TIDAK BOLEH LAH!! which means CANNOT! Yesterday this investigator picked up my personal book of mormon and kissed it. WHAT THE?! 

Okay so I have to go I love you all. Byeee

Love sister Krivanec 

oh and this is a dress a member made for me for a wedding it's beautiful. (also I know I look like I'm 12 years old)

February 16 2014 letter

Hey everyone! Everything here is going super well. We have two new investigators from Pakistan named, John and G-John. We call them the Johns. But they are great and so full of questions and we committed them both to be baptized. We have no idea how they got our number, but they called and said they wanted us to teach them and so we met and had an amazing lesson about the restoration, and they also came to church yesterday and loved it. Miracles are happening like this constantly for us. When we pray for specific things, specific blessings happen.

I had the opportunity to speak in church, and I wrote my talk on faith, because that is the most basic principle of the gospel. Without it, not even the earth could have been made. The church here is like in the early 1900's. The members are unsure of how to run a church. So all the american's that are living here and the missionaries run the branch. My goal is to help these people become self-sufficient. Faith is the key to this. When these people have sufficient faith, they will desire to magnify callings, they will pay their tithing, they won't miss church because they want to watch tv. We learn things line upon line and precept upon precept. Faith is the bottom line. Without it, we cannot go up. Faith in Jesus Christ means that you accept Him as your savior and when you accept Him you will keep His commandments regardless of if you understand them or not. 

Okay my computer is about to turn off, (it has a timer) so I need to wrap this up. But I love you all and hope that things are going good for you. Remember that having courage, and faith in the person who made salvation possible will give allow you to change lives. You are all great. Have a fantastic week. 

Love,

Sister Krivanec

February 9 2014 Letter

Hey everyone, thank you all for your enduring love and support to me. It means a lot to me to hear from my family and friends. I love being in Kuala Lumpur so much! It is hotter than Hades, but I don't mind, because the work I do is worth it! I am not going to lie, missionary work is the hardest thing in the world. I knew it would be, but anyone who has served a mission knows what I'm talking about. People tear your testimony to shreds everyday, you exert all your energy on praying and preparing for your investigators and then they don't even show up! What? I hate that. I go to bed thinking about how to help those that I'm teaching, and I dream about those I'm teaching, and then I wake up thinking about those I'm teaching. It's so stressful feeling like their salvation depends on you, and then they don't accept what you have to say. oh my!! BUT, being a missionary is unlike anything else in the world. All the hard things don't even matter, because when I am testifying of what I know, my soul feels like it is on fire and I can't even think about anything else that is hard. When you can love someone you don't even know, that's when the mission is worth it. And when someone can understand the importance of what you are saying the Spirit brings the most peaceful feeling that, yes, this this right here, is why you came across the world. 

 The language barrier here drives me nuts, because the message I want to share would be so much more powerful if they could understand English, but I am learning how to talk like a cave-man and as long as the spirit is present they are able to feel of the truthfulness of what I'm saying. Without the Spirit I would be useless. 

I am having the time of my life here though. My companion and my housemates think I'm nuts, but I don't care, if I was serious 100 percent of the time I would literally go insane. But I make sure to have a time and place for everything. When it's time to get my personal study going I hit the scriptures hard. They are my favorite thing in the whole world, one hour is not enough time. PEOPLE the scriptures are AMAZING!! READ THEM!! okay okay, I already know you do. But seriously I can't say enough how important the scriptures are. We say that they are the word of God right? Okay then why don't we study them more frequently. It's like people wonder why God has abandoned them, but they neglect to read the words of God which will tell them what they need to do. 

Well today I want to leave with you something that I have been learning. I was asked in the MTC if when you are done with your mission and you had a plaque describing what you did what would it say? Mine would say, 2 Timothy 4:7. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my cousrse, I have kept the faith." I want to finish my mission knowing I worked my hardest, and that there is no more I could possibly do. 

But I also want to leave with you all some encouraging words. We all obviously go through hard things, but President Monson reminds us: "The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure....we must each answer this question, shall I falter, or shall I finish?"

I am grateful for you all, I know none of you will falter, keep going the Lord loves you and so do I.

I hope you all have a superb week. Keep being a missionary, keep moving forward with faith. 

Love, 

Sister Krivanec

ps Since grandma doesn't get my emails, please share this with her :) k thanks byeeeeee

pps since it's Chinese New Year here, a tradition is to give mandarin oranges, so this is me giving you all an orange. enjoy :)