Apostles, Popcorn and Thanksgiving
This letter is a compilation of several journal entries since last Thursday, and hopefully make up in detail since I was ridiculously pressed for time on Thanksgiving! Speaking of Thanksgiving, it was AWESOME!
We were blessed to hear from.....drummm roll please....Elder Jeffery R. Holland! What made it even better was the fact that my companion and I got great seats, we were like 30 feet away from him! His message was bold and powerful as usual, but more importantly he wanted the devotional to feel like a family and "homey" since we are away from our families. Something that pressed in my mind after the devotional that he shared with us were these: "The prophets of old must have known that they were going to loose the restoration of the gospel in their dispensation but pursued in preaching because they had also seen our day the dispensation of fullness of times in which it is the last because the gospel is here to stay on the earth forever." I'd like to echo his closing remarks as well in which he stated, "There is nothing more important that you could be doing with your time...you will never be close to God than you will be on your mission. Everyday and for every hour for 18 to 24 months, from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep you are thinking..you are consumed with how to save the soul's of God's children." And yes, I did feel like I got hit by a truck...no pressure right? Ha Ha But in all honestly, I could think of no other words of better encouragement :) Following the devotional we made hygiene and educational kits for a village in Malia...we were educating on several humanitarian projects that the Church is currently taking under its wing and I got to admit those charities are the first thing I think of doing when I get off my mission. The presidency of the MTC couldnt have ended our Thanksgiving any better, we were surprised to have musical performances of fiddlers and skits, everyone was clapping and stopping, it was seriously a missionary hoe down, but the president actually encouraged the irreverence! I think it was because he knew that many of us were thinking about home that day and he just wanted it to be fun! So he continued to direct people to throw out kettle corn and then we ended up watching 17 miracles in the giant gym/Lorenzo Snow building!
Distrito de Gatos, Superheroes and lots of PMG
Last email, I did not do my companion justice nor the description of my district! My companion Hermana Catron has been a great person to teach with. Hands Down. She is tall, skinny with short blonde hair, she hails from Seattle, Washington and because of that she is very apprehensive to serve in the driest place on earth. She has an incredibly friendly personality that comes with quirkiness and spunk...she has a different sense of humor but it makes me laugh! She pushes herself a lot during the lessons and companionship inventory, when we do do our inventory Im merely there to help her relax and reassure her that she is doing GREAT! We have been teaching our "progressive investigator," his name is Carlos Quintero he is from Uruguay and has come to have faith in Christ but is looking for the truth...Golden investigator right?? Yeah that's what we thought too. This investigator is really a member and also one of our teachers, Brother Ferguson who really did serve in Uruguay but plays a real person, one of his favorite investigators from his mission. Along with Maestra Cutler who served in Honduras, they are both amazing teachers and exceptional spanish speakers, they are spiritual power houses. Our district found out the other day what their real names are, it is Ashton Cutler and Steel Ferguson, we decided that their names that belong on a law firm or in comic books, like superhero characters, Ashton and Steel! :)
As for Spanish, well its coming thats for sure...I got the baptismal question memorized in spanish last week so hey what can I say, maybe Mom is right, Im more of a Rivera than a Kennedy ;) Besides Hermana Catron, their are two other sister missionaries in our district and in our residence room, they are Hermana Leavitt (who I knew previously, having been in the same BYU ward for 2 years) and Hermana Whipple (she is a petite ballerina from Utah Salt Lake Valley) We get along great and Hermana Whipple and I like to train each other during gym time, I help her with weights and she helps me with stretching and flexibility...which I found out yesterday my hamstrings had no such thing has flexibilty but we are determined to fix that. The Elderssss, oh the Elders hahahahaha in our district are hilarious. Companionship Elder Carty and Elder Hill are truly the comic relief in our district, Elder Carty (from St. George and convert at age 11) he is a big guy, rugby type and Elder Hill(farmer boy from Idaho) are always making inside joke in Spanish, like when they point at each other and say, "Este Gato..." "This Cat..." Its mostly how they say it not obviously the words being said. Companionship Elder Raine (from Springville) and Elder McAllister (Iowa) are different but still a great addition to our group, they bring the subtle jokes are the meal table. Elder Raine, you can tell is a gifted learner, he has an incredible way of memorization and very much so the engineer type like his declared major at Utah State. Elder McAllister is well exactly like your stereotypical farmin' huntin' boy (who does have a strong mid west accent and told me that before he entered the MTC he stalked up on ammo ever since Obama got re-elected.)
Through out this week, as I read PMG during personal study, I became consumed with studying how to rely on the Spirit..especially during teaching..".[You] as the Lord's servant, are to do His work in His way and by His power."
Sometimes one might think that having more rules to abide by while on a mission are constraining because now there are more things that we can not do that we use to before the mission, but in actuality I am more liberated because I have been given more power by being set apart to receive revelation for the people within my mission field. With worthiness, I have the right to know the things that every single person needs in the Antofagasta Chile Mission and this amazing blessing can only be strengthened and accessed through prayer, I thought I had a testimony of prayer but now I can definitely feel it increase as I apply what Preach My Gospel teaches me and pray by the act of sacrifice because prayer in itself is one. It is or shoul dbe an "act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other."
Some more spiritual insights, hasta luego to District 38 A and the TRIO
Hermana Catron shared an awesome insight about Atonement and the sacrament the other day. We know that the bread and the water is to remind us of baptismal covenants and of Jesus Christ. But because the sacrament does remind us of our baptismal convenants, it also symbolizes our baptism as well. By reading along the symbolism found in Romans 6:4-6 it describes how each week when we partake of the sacrament we renew covenants and renew by "burying our old self," and resurrecting a "new man," with a new heart. So in a sense, every sunday we are killing the old body and resurrecting a new. I never really thought of it in that particular way but love how it just seems to connect so well with our baptismal convenants and true conversion. Maestra Cutler gave me some words of advice the other day when she was interviewing me aka getting to know me personally interview. After confiding in her my small frustration with the language in teaching the lessons, I told her that sometimes I feel like I could always do more. She said that we are always going to think that we could do more especially when we get out in the field, we are never going to have the perfect lesson in the perfect language and we are never going to be the perfect missionary. You should not measure you success as a missionary based on the number of converts, but rather that I should be assured that God is pleased with my work if the Spirit is working through me. At the end of the day, you ask Heavenly Father if He accepts the effort you put it then you did do enough.
On Sunday, was the cafeteria's famous Chicken Cordon Bleu, and with that the Chicken Cordon Bleu Challenge, Elder Hill downed 8 and half (after throwing up a little twice) but lost to Elder Pinegear (elder in another district but same zone) who downed 9...the night before our beloved district 38 A left for their mission fields we sang them, "God be with you til we meet again," en espanol of course, and by the last verse one of the elders was crowd surfing, yes, you heard me correctly he was crowd surfing.
Hermana Catron moved into intermediate spanish yesterday, it was actually kind of unexpected since she had inquired about transitioning about a week and half ago but nothing happened until yesterday but by that time she had gotten attached to all of us and us to her. So now I am in a trio with Hermana Leavitt and Hermana Whipple and so far its been great too. I do miss Hermana Catron already, she really helped push me in Spanish, goal setting and lesson planning. I think we could all agree that she was the heart of the district, she naturally reaches out to people in every need and every way even the slightest thing, I admire her for that and hope that I can become more empathetic like her.
This concludes the events of just One week! Maybe I should start getting better at condensing my emails, but at the same time it wouldnt be the same without all the details! I just wanted to let you all know that your letters and emails are great and at the end of the day one of the highlights to another busy day, I truly look forward to them. Love you all and wish you the best with your busy schedules especially as the holidays are coming around the corner. Take care Love your fellow missionary, Hermana Kennedy :)
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