Families and Friends...
So I must tell you about Antofa, it is well ugly to be perfectly honest. Mainly because there are a lot of rolling brown hills just filled with dirt and sand. But I spend so much time in the city that the outside scenary doesnt even matter. The city looks like your typical latin american neighborhood, with so many bright colors, loud music, fast bus and cars, so many smells coming out of tiny tiendas and little venders selling anything and everything you can think of. It is definitely a beach city though no doubt, which I can easily relate to. Hermana Cram and I are the only sisters in our district, the rest are Elders, Elder Congleton is our District Leader, he is a recent convert and from Laguna beach, he is a great leader, he is always giving us so many references and referrals which truly shows that its not about which missionary can baptize the most, but rather how we can work together more efficiency for God´s children. His companion is Elder Silvester, who was with me in the newb group and my flight companion, Elder Marroquin is from Guatemala, oh and by the way our entire zone and mission is about 60 percent latin...he is companions with Elder Sepe who is from Idaho I believe he is a newb as well.
So let me begin with telling you that on Thursday we found these Colombianos there names are Michael, Luis Miguel and Daniela, apparently Michael had been taught before. They are cousins and we have taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and they came to church with us this sunday and stayed for the whole 3 hours! They are awesome really, I can connect with Michael the most even through my broken spanish mainly because while we were on a bus ride oh speaking of which, there is no such thing as speed limits here, the buses or micros are crazy...Michael and I figured out that we like the same kind of music and tv shows, he really tries to speak slow for me and I help him out with some English because he really wants to learn it. Most of the time when we tract we contact people who 70 percent of the time have either shared with the missionaries before or have a friend of relative in the church, the people here are kind of funny though and apparently harder to gain interested at least that is what Hermana Cram told me, but I wouldnt know the difference. When you approach them, they are a little weirded out for about a min and then once they realize you are from the US they engage in conversation and I also get brownie points when I tell them I am from California, they all say, "ohhh que linda, que bacan!" Then you come to find out that it is hard to shut them up! hahahaha...Chileno Spanish is well difficult to understand mainly because they do speak so fast and they do cut off a lot. I am not impressed neither am I wooed when they speak HAHAHA. But I try to manage the best I can, some people are harder than others for example men are harder for me to understand and old women. But I just try to say a couple things in every lessons...Hermana Cram has been so excited because she said most trainees dont say anything for a couple of weeks but I try my best to help her out.
The other day we fasted for our investigators Michael, Miguel and Daniela to come to church and to progress but then on sunday after church we look up an investigator from last years records whose name is Manuel, I can tell you know now that I love Manny and I believe that sometimes when you think you are fasting for something it can prepare you to receive something else and I believe that is what happened with Manuel. First of all he immediately let us into his house by unlocking the gate...oh little tangent, so here in Chile, everyone has a gate around their house and usually there´s a doorbell and speaker but if there isnt then you have to stand outside and yell, Hallo! Usually they either come to the gate to see who is it or they talk to you from their door. So with Manuel´s house we pushed the buzzer and we said, "hola, estamos buscando para Manuel porque somos misioneras de la iglesia de jesucristo del los saintos de los ultimos dias." And then we heard the buzzer unlock he comes out to greet us, brings us inside and we just start talking, we shared the first lesson, the restoration. He said that he had received a message from the missionaries before the gospel of Jesus Christ but hadnt gone to church because he says that he is lazy, but when we asked him to read a passage he needed glasses and I will tell you right now that this man is either not lazy or changed because he spent like 15 minutes searching for his glasses, going outside and inside of the house because he so desparately wanted to read this scripture...once he found them I was impressed to talk about Joseph Smith and recite the first vision along with my testimony about this man called of God, the spirit touched heart and testimonies were strengthened, in what I managed to say in Spanish, I know I dont much in Spanish but I know that this Gospel is true, that is why I am here. We gave him the baptismal challenge and he said that he knows that he does want to get baptize one day and that he will when he gains the strength to go against his family´s wishes because they are catholic and dont want anything to do with the church. I know he will get baptized, his heart is sincere but real intent can get in the way...I hope and pray that he will have the faith to accept the answer he will receive from God.
I have so much more to tell you about Chile but I am pressed for time, we only get an hour to type and I still have to email President but I will fill in the blanks next week and hopefully I can send some photos already but I forgot my cord so that will probably be next week too, I love you guys so much and I just want you to know that things are going great, they really are, there are but moments when I feel lull but they really do pass and I move on, I hope to hear from you soon because that just adds to my day :)
Con Amor, Hermana Kennedy
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