Baptism by Sauna and P-Day on the Beach

We were blessed to be a part of the baptism of Antonio Saucedo this weekend, it was Hermana Castro´s first cumplemes on Saturday and even though I was so busy and stressed out putting the baptism altogether, I didn’t have time to make her anything but I ended up telling her that her gift from me to her was a baptism for her first month :)

Everything worked out well too thank goodness because we had some difficulty printing out the programs about an hour before the baptism too! I told Pitola to run the errand for me, since I had to stay to finish setting up, I was trying to work on my pronunciation for my talk that I was giving at Antonio´s baptism, when Pitola freaked out and told us that the water in the font was way too hot. We told him that we filled it up that way because we didnt want it to be cold by the time he got in, the water really wasn’t hot, it was more like warm, but while it was filling up we had closed the doors and when we opened it up to check up on it there was so much moisture in the air that it did feel like a sauna. I told Hermana Castro that we literally are going to baptize him by fire! We quickly ran the cold water for a couple of minutes and the water felt better. After we gave our talks and headed for the font, we were waiting in the sala to watch when Hermana Castro laughed and told me she heard someone say, "I think the waters a little hot." But when the doors opened Antonio was there with his collegue Hermano Marco about to be baptized, it really was remarkable to see this man who I had only known for two weeks and now he was making the real change that he had been working on for years before.

Antonio really was prepared for the gospel, sometimes I don’t really think I did anything except give him an invitation to church. He had been an example to me really, after he was confirmed on Sunday he went to priesthood with the Elders and the President asked if there would be any volunteers to go out on splits with the Missionaries this week and he quickly shot up his hand and asked, "Can I go?" When I heard this I leaned over to Castro and said, “That’s our convert.” ;) Really, he’s such a rad guy. I am just so happy to believe that he will be one of those golden members as well, just after we leave and years go by...that is what conversion should be.

On this loving Pday, our zone celebrated by making a Columbian breakfast and playing out on the beach because we completed our goal of baptizing 12 people this month of May, which is historic because Esther is new and so is Elder Romero. My zone leader is telling us we have to keep this going for as long as we can. It was pretty awesome to find that we were one of the top zones in the mission for this week and month. Speaking of which, the past week, Castro and I made it first in the top ten companionships but I do owe a lot of that to the help of our zone that took a Monday night to help us find news and help teach lessons.

This week looks a little crazy too because we are planning two more baptisms for this Saturday, a man named Gustavo and his daughter Selma will be getting baptized together. Gustavo has been investigating the church for 32 years ever since he married his wife who is a member and then suddenly he finally got his answer. While going over information for his program, we met the daughter who ended up telling us yesterday that she too had received an answer and would like to baptized with her dad. Shocked and amazed, Castro and I got started taking down info, it does feel a little weird only because I feel like their not my converts because I honestly only taught them a lesson during the second hour of church, the principles of the gospel with my kid Fidel, but for some reason after that the wife wanted us to continue teaching and preparing her husband´s baptism.

Hope you enjoy the pictures from these past two weeks, I will have more next week too! Love you all, besitos!

Love your daughter, Hermana Kennedy

Much Needed Update!

Family and Friends,

A very long time and no write, I know...but I find myself with more time to spare and definitely worth the minutes to write about my new sector Renacimiento, for me this sector is definitely means exactly that, Rebirth. I came into this sector, apprehensive, as I realized I would be opening again and ontop of that training. I met my "kid", Hermana Castro after a 24 hour travel/moving around craziness. After meeting up with her at the bus terminal, I was relieved to find out that she was white, well she has white skin but is from Honduras but she still speaks english so we are still good! I next found out that I would be sharing this sector with a companionship of Elders, Elder Pinto and Elder Contreras. Pinto is my district leader and a great one at that, he works very hard and delivers powerful lessons and challenges. He has taught me a ton, despite his Argentinian accent, we get a long with conversations in spanish and in english, he calls me a lady dude just like the other elders in my old district; apparently I am more of their amigo than their amiga, hahahaha.

Last week, Castro and I were looking through some old investigators from renacimiento´s folder. I came across a group of people that all lived in the same house, it was super close to our pension, so we went by, a man in his 30s answered the door. His name was Alex and at the moment he didnt have time to let us in, and so before leaving I invited him to church. Surprisingly, he said yes sure, baffled at that I didnt even have to convince him, I told him we would come around the next morning to walk with him to church. The next morning, even before getting to the door, he walks out in a suit! A suit! and then he asks if it would be okay, OKay?!  I said, okay, you look awesome! The following week, we had our first lesson with the Elders, mainly because Pinto wanted us to challenge him to baptism, I told him are you serious? this is his first lesson with us, Pinto told me that I needed to trust him and that we were going to do it anyways. He cried telling us, that this timing of when we came into his life has been unbelievable. He remembered when the elderes came into his life 6 months ago but during this time, he wasnt ready for the change since he was living with someone. He told us about how he had moved on this his life and what tired of having someone else influence him over the things he really knew deep down to be true. He shared with us this dream he had, of men wearing white, that told he he was special...needless to say, Alex will be getting baptized this Saturday. My first baptism, a long time waiting, but it has been worth it, because we found a man who truly is a pure gold investigator. I cant tell you how crazy yet spiritually challenging and growing this sector has made me so far. I have learned and felt so much from the missionaries and people I have been working with here so far and I am just so glad I have so much work on my hands because I can definitely tell I am growing so much and I love it, I dont want it to stop. I love you all and I do think about you guys, but I just want to let you know, that Im never homesick because I feel like this is how I have always been, but at the same time its a newly discovered me.

Sunset pic from the window of a less active we were visiting

My fav dog who i named Chief! He follows us almost on a daily basis but sadly I never have food to give to him and he needs some, hes looking real skinny :/

Hermana Delgado and Hermana LeFevre, during a p day activity we had a week ago

Yeah I took some pretty sweet pics huh? They remind of Indiana Jones or something like that :)

March Madness and First Transfer

¡Primer Cambio!

Well everybody, I survived my first transfer and I am staying in Antofa with my mamita Hermana Cram, which is awesome, Im so glad! In fact, everyone in our district is staying the same except for Elder Marroquin, so looks like there will still be six missionaries in the Angamos ward! Classes start down here in a week so more work is being done and progressing as people are returning from their vacations. Also, President Bruce started a March Madness bracket for us missionaries, each companionship is placed randomly against another and in each week who ever has the most points moves up the bracket...pretty self explanatory. The points follow as this the same for each week striving to be in the what our mission calls the Celestial 7, they are the key indicators at the end of each week, Dad Im sure you remember what these are...anyway, they are Investigators in sacrament meeting equals 30 points, baptisms and confirmation equals 40 points, new investigators equal 10 points, Lessons in general equals 2 points for each one, lesson to a less active or recent convert equals 6 points and a lesson with a member equals 2 points, the other key indicator is contacts but for the bracket we arent using that one. So I am very excited and apparently winning companionship gets to watch the real final NCAA championship game! 

President has some pretty brillant ideas...as far a our companionship work goes, we have killed a lot of our investigators, I hope you will realize this is a term that we use a lot in the mish, we dropped them mostly for not keeping commitments or never be able to get a hold of them after one lesson and so we are always on the search for news! But we did have two investigators in church yesterday so that is good and unfortunately one of my favorite investigators didnt make it to church but we are planning on making our way to her house very soon this week. Her name is Fernanda and she just turned 14, she loves learning about the gospel and has a lot of questions, her face lights up everytime we can answer her questions too. Shes just really spirit hungry which is what I like to call it, the only problem is she lives on the very outskirts of Antofa, Cramberry aka Hermana Cram and I always have to take a micro out there and its about a 20 min drive and so usually investigators who live that far out there are the hardest to get to church because the capilla or chapel is in the completely opposite direction. 

The Spanish well I feel like a hit a plateau which is exactly what I dont want and so I told Crammy that I want to start an English fast this whole week to see and to push my spanish to the limit and to force myself to learn more verbs! So we shall see how it goes...the other good news is because of the influx of newbies coming new, President has opened several new sectors for Hermanas, even in cities where there hasnt been Hermanas before, one of them is Calama which is exciting because I call that plave the Promised Land, because everytime numbers come in, that zone is always ontop. Until then, I will be finishing my training in Antofa and beating Chañaral A at March Madness :) 

A celebration ice cream for hermana cram because on the 25th of january she completed one year in the mish

Bad picture of us after a long hard day in the field lol

Me eating my first completo which is a chilean version of a hot dog, they only use guacemole and tomatoes

First Zone Conference

First Post from Chile!

Families and Friends...

It has been a long time coming but I am finally in Chile and I am proud to tell you that I have been assigned to OPEN yes I said open a brand new sector in the city Antofagasta which is called Angamos, I will be serving with Hermana Cram who is from Utah and has been serving for nearly a year now. She is a great trainer so far and has a very loud laugh, teaching with her is so smooth and easy, we really know how to switch off teaching . Of course the first day was overwhelming but things like this, like well moving to a new country always is but by honestly I havent freaked out yet so I suppose I will be anticipated that and let you know when it happens ;) So since Wednesday starting with nothing we tracted and tracted...and yes we walked a lot....my feet sweel throughout the day because we walk so much but honestly it doesnt really hurt. 

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

Letter from the Mission President

Dear Parents and friends.

Our new January missionary group arrived today from the United States!  They were tired and hungry but after we fed them and they perked right up.  We are so excited to have them here with us and serving in this wonderful land of Chile.  Your son, or daughter, will be writing to you tomorrow once they are up and running.  We have asked their trainers to take them to a Cyber shop so that they can write to you and let you know of their new assignments.  Unfortunately, several of them are traveling overnight (right now) to their new area which for most is a 7 to 12 hour bus ride……..  A lucky few were assigned to serve here in Antofagasta so they will not have to endure the lengthy bus ride.  Here is a summary of the assignments made today for your missionary:

Elder Skinner (assigned to Elder Ceballos in Arica)

Elder Sepe (assigned to Elder Marroquin in Antofagasta)

Elder Stokes (assigned to Elder McCusker in Tocopilla)

Elder Osorio (assigned to Elder Garrido in Arica)

Elder Stratford (assigned to Elder Newman in Arica)

Elder Church (assigned to Elder Richards in Tocopilla)

Elder Silvester (assigned to Elder Congelton in Antofagasta)

Sister Catron (assigned to Sister Van Meter in Iquique)

Sister Gorge (assigned to Sister Nuñez in Iquique)

Sister Kennedy (assigned to Sister Cram in Antofagasta)

I have attached the photos of our first day together below (just click on “view photos”).  We feel so blessed to have such a great group of missionaries join us!  Thank you for your great sacrifice and dedication to the gospel in allowing your missionary to serve the Lord at this special time.

Presidente Leland E. Bruce

Misión Chile Antofagasta

Ready to leave the MTC!

Chile!

Mission President and his wife (both very attractive people)

Missionary Mug Shot

Missionarios! 

Notches in the New Year

Mi Familia y Mis Amigos!

 

Another year marks yet another accumilation of time and we press forward into 2013. This new year also marks another disposition for change, growth and the classic new year's resolutions and although my first hours of the new year were spent in a fetal position fighting off a violent flu virus; I had a lot of time to meditate about this while in quarantine. 

 

I think as humans we are so hilarious sometimes to say the least...we like to exaggerate how long the 365 days can take but at the same time it happens fast enougth that we can nearly remember exactly what we were doing this time last year. The truth about it is another year passes and another one comes, adding yet another notch onto what I'd like to call our "life belt," please bear with me and the corniness...Imagine that attached to each person is this life belt and each one has these loopholes meant for holding personal tools. Throughout the year we have attained certain tools that go in these loopholes on our belt, ones that we can choose to use whenever we want. Some of these tools can be used to help fix other people's tools so that both can use theirs to help construct what I'd also like to call the "Kingdom of Heaven." (I know how original)

 

Some of us obtain tools disfigured, broken or we let them get rusty, all of which are not very useful-so what is a tool without a purpose? What is a person without tools to create?! We are always creating something that is the beautiful thing that God gave us, the ability to make, shape and form! Whether its from a peanut butter sandwhich to a canvas painting to creating human life; He blessed us and intended for us to create that we may act and not be acted upon. I know that the greatest blessing he has given us is the ability to create a new us everyday, month and every year. He has all given us a tool that we can access so that we may be able to start that change. A tool that never wares, nor breaks nor rusts but if we dont use it often we can forget how to use it or wait too long to think that we dont need to use it. This tool I'd like to call the "fix-all" tool or better known as the Atonement.

 

While here at the MTC, I have realizd some of the tools that I already posses on my belt and definitely some that I need or that need fixing. But most importantly I am learning how to use the Atonement and how to access the several utilities of which it posses in order to make new tools that I need or to mend the ones that are broken. Though this process as most of us know takes a life long effort, I have felt the strength and confidence from my Heavenly Father that I am ready for the field, this has probably taken longer for me to say this than I would have liked but I have just given so much time to thinking about what it is that I can actually do to make a difference to my brothers and sisters out there. It's like you go on a mission knowing what you are getting yourself into but at the same time you dont know...because each person is different and we touch or interact wih so many different people on a daily basis, I just cant imagine the extent of that over a year!

 

But there are some questions that have stood out to me during my stay here at the Training Center and I hope that they continue to stay in the back of my mind and if not the fore front of my mind throughout the mission. The first one is for some of us who already look down and see the long chain of notches each holding plentiful amounts of experiences, thoughts and expressions of a year's time; for us the question is, "You have come so far, how? Why?" The second one might actually help answer the first, it states, "Who do you stand for? Why?" I hope in some way or another we can all answer these questions for ourselves and live true to it because I fear that as I see notches added to my belt and others as I look around, the more I have seen us constantly exchaning and interchaning tool for others whose shaped dont fit nor fix. What do we change for? Do we change just for the sake of chaning? Among a very fast paced world that is always changing and indeed trying to improve technology for mankind-I often wonder that when we choose to change it is because we seek improvement as well?

 

I know that some maybe most are just following suit to the place we inhabit, letting our enviroment dictate how or how often we should change. Perhaps it is of our best interest that we take the time to look down at that perfect, beautiful and indestructable tool we have...becaus before you know it or try to exaggerate it, another year will come and another notch will collect on our string of life. Though I will be thousands of miles away from all of you in a very short amount of time (namely 3 days), I can promise you that I will be comtemplating and striving to change by trying to fix my broken tools and trying to use my own more frequently and I say this in hopes that I will be doing this with all of you too. To those who believe in the unbelief, that think that this year has nothing to offer much like a disappointing last year, I promise you that this is not true. If all your hope is gone or small even starting off in this early beginning, I hope that these words or some sort of inspiration can lift you up enough to keep moving and keeping doing all that you can to build, to create, to fix, to change. 

 

Here's to another notch creating to happen and to a Very Happy New Year!

With Much Much even Mucho Amor, Hermana Kennedy

Almost time for Chile!

Thank you for your several Dear Elders! They were entertaining as usual and detailed which is how I like them...so awesome news today! I got my flight plan!!!!!!! I leave next Monday at 4 in the morning and my flight is at 7 I believe and we have a four hour lay over in LAX so that means I get to call you guys at home, we will have to figure a time when everyone can be home at the same time so I can talk to all of you! Also, because I am leaving next week, that means if you are intending on shipping any packages to me they MUST be sent no later than Monday just to make sure I get them in time. Also, I might be mailing back some stuff that either cant fit in my suitcases or that I see fit to return because I dont want them to either be ruined or stolen on my mission namely those beautiful earrings you gave me, I have worn them here at the MTC but I dont want them to be taken by any Chilean...

 

ALso, im sorry you waited for my email yesterday and it didnt come I was welllll lying in bed sick with yet another virus...shhh Im technically not supposed to tell you this because MTC didnt want a million phone calls from worry wart parents but I will not hold back if you promise not to freak out because everything is all well and good now. So I recovered from my para-influenza virus last week but then two days later I contracted another gastro whatever virus pretty violently and so did at least 10 percent of the MTC. In fact, by the second day of this week, after the virus had been caught within the first 48 hours, every district in the whole MTC had at least one person in their district who got it except for 4 districts in the entire MTC. It was probably the most voilent stomach flu I have ever had which consisted of vomiting and dry heaving a totally of 11 times within 5 hours, diaherrea, chills, abdominal cramps and nausea. It took me a little bit longer to recover because my body was still trying to recover from the previous virus but rest assured that I am well and eating my weight back on, I mainly just wanted to share it because it was probably the most ''exciting'' thing that happened to me and took up more than half of my week thus far.

 

It has been hard to focus more than ever though with our departure so near but I really am going to miss the other districts here and my teachers so much mainly because most of them will have already graduated BYU by the time I return from the mish but with that being said I am so very excited to finallly leave! Mom, I do know Elder Watmough he came in a week before Christmas and is part of the newest district in our zone, he along with Hermanas Cluff and Lefevre are going to Antofa. I do not know the other Elders nor have I met them in the MTC but I do know at least half of the people I am traveling with to Chile, they are my original companion Hermana Catron and two elders from her district Elder Church and Elder Silvester who I have actually come to know pretty well.