Just Never Stop Calling...

Hey Hey!! Happy Halloween Everyone!! It is weird too me that I have now been in the field for over a year, and that last Halloween I was in the same zone La Libertad in Tintal! I’m excited to see the streets full of kids shouting "Quiero Paz, Quiero Amor, Quiero dulce Por Favor!"

So, this week was kinda full of some super cool and good stuff. So, I’ll just get started!!

On Tuesday, there was a special Leadership Meeting of the mission with all the Zone and District leaders, which was super cool and a spiritual powerhouse. I also got to see Elder Ichuro and Elder Espinola my two trainers! I also found out that they are dying in March already!!! Where does the time go!?! I personally learned a lot about my Savior Jesus Christ, and how much he truly loves us. I know that he will always fulfill his promises. D&C 58:16 I think.

Also, a miracle happened for us this week. We have had a reference from another area of a guy named Bairon Valencia that we have tried to contact for about 3 months. Way back when I was with Elder Karra, we called him and set up an appointment but he never showed up. Then over the next three months we called and called and called, but he never ever answered his phone. We kept trying because he had apparently been attending for a while and met Elder Rasband when he came here to Colombia to a Stake Conference, and wanted to be baptized. But we just NEVER could contact this guy!

So, this week, we were just walking around trying to find someone that we could teach, and Elder Ross just started calling somebody. I asked him who he was calling when that person answered and he was said "Bairon"! We finally got a hold of him and set an appointment for Saturday. On Saturday at 4:00pm. We waited on Saturday at the Church until about 4:30, but he never showed, so we went to another appointment. Then about 10 minutes later while walking we got a call from the Elders of Roma that were also at the church and they told us "Hey, there is this guy Bairon and his girlfriend who are looking for you guys." So we booked it back to the church and got to have a lesson with Bairon and his girlfriend who is a member of the church.

Turns out, he has been attending in another area called Marcella since March. He told us he already has a testimony about the Book of Mormon, already knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and has the desire to be baptized. We set a baptismal date for the 19th of November, and he only needs to attend here 2 more times and we just gotta finish teaching him and he is ready for baptism! A Huge blessing, and I have now learned that We just should never stop calling or trying to find these people until we find them! Awesomesauce!!

Also, big news with our investigator Fabian Gil, on Friday we had a super powerful lesson where we talked about what he felt he lacked for baptism. We got the feel for what he was thinking, and we all felt the spirit testifying that he was really ready. So my companion Elder Ross invited Fabian, to kneel right then and there, and ask God if when he should be baptized. He simply said "Yeah..." and got on his knees while we followed. Then he truly asked God. When he finished the prayer, the spirit had filled the room so strongly. His Sister Paola who is a member was the first one who spoke who said "I felt it, I know you guys felt it, I know Fabian Felt it. I know that this is the time." He said that he had felt it too.

At that moment, I invited him to be baptized this coming Saturday, the 5th of November. And he accepted! What power prayer can bring! We felt so much love in that moment for Fabian, it was something i cannot forget. I know that God answers our prayers. Always. Period. 

So, he is going to have his interview on Thursday, and he should be getting ready for this Saturday, what a blessing!

We have some really good things to look forward to here in CasaBlanca for November, I just can’t wait!!! 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

Love,

Elder Kendall

Me and Elder Marsh at Leadership Meeting!  (My first companion at MTC... he flew to Colombia with me!)

Also, how me and my companion feel about weekly planning sometimes...

the Zone La Libertad for P-Day!

An activity that we did as a zone today for Halloween!!!

"Becoming a Consecrated Missionary"

HEY MOM!  Here's a photo ("it's kinda dark... apologize for that" Zach says... hahahaha)

Hey hey everyone, what’s happening?

This week has gone by like a flash, but I’m kinda just used to it now since every week passes faster than a really fast thing. Luckily I’ve gotten better as well, with just the occasional cough. 

This was one of those weeks where you set up 4 appointments that are really confirmed each day, and then they fall like crazy. We didn’t end up being able to teach terribly much this week, but each of the lessons that we taught were spiritually powerful. Also, each week you get to go to the temple you automatically feel better, I love the feeling of the temple, it is wonderful. 

I also had an exchange in Roma this week, I was with Elder Galleguillo, he is from Argentina. We had a good day, although we couldn’t do all that we had planned. I also got to eat some Mexican food the night of the exchange, where I ate a plate of Nachos, a Taco, and some taquitos (I think that’s what their called). It was a good time. 

We got to teach Fabian Gil on Saturday, and get a feel for his readiness for this week for his baptism. He let us know that even though he knows that these things are true, there is something lacking for him to have the desire to be baptized. We aren’t sure what he needs in order to make the firm decision to be baptized, but he is very close. We have felt that he lacks more of a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and so focused on that with him. He is praying in order to know what he needs to do. He should be getting baptized soon.

Unfortunately, all of the people except one investigator that told us they were coming to church on Sunday either didn’t show, or when we passed by they were either having to work or weren’t home. It was a little disappointing that not many of the people we were hoping could come, but Oscar Garzon, an awesome investigator, came!

We have taught Oscar a few times, but he has been really busy and traveling the past few weeks and so we haven’t been able to teach him. But when I was in Roma, my companion met him in the street and asked if he was going to be able to go to church on Sunday, and he said yes. Then he came with his daughter who is 6, it was wonderful! They couldn’t stay the full 3 hours but the daughter loved the primary and Oscar also told us that he would be coming back. Awesome!!

All in all, this week we did our best to have the lessons that we could, and have a lot to work with this week! I’m excited to press forward with the work, and Elder Ross gave me a talk to read which was amazing, called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" By Tad R. Callister, which made me reflect a lot about the time I’m using here in the mission. He talks about laying EVERYTHING on the Sacrificial Altar, and not holding anything back. Not our fears, disobedience, pride or anything. So, I have some new goals I’m working on this week. One of which is talking to EVERYONE.

I love you guys,

Elder Kendall

Contacting while being sick brings miracles!

Hey everyone!! How´s life? Football season is almost over, and my brother is going to have senior night?!?! Time just goes way too fast. But it´s good!

So, My companion Elder Ross got me sick pretty much all week, which made it hard some days to keep going strong walkin around, but we got a lot of good work done this week and it felt good. I had a pretty good cough and stuffy yet runny nose to deal with and somewhat of an headache, but we kept trekking along and have found a lot of people to teach!

On Tuesday, I was sick, and so when we needed to contact some people I wasn’t feeling super up for it, but my companion Elder Ross saw a little family walking by. A mom, a dad and their daughter, and so he said "Hey, I feel like we should go talk to them." And so we did! Turns out they had just moved to Bogota from a little town outside in the hotlands. They told us we could pass by on Saturday and seemed pretty interested, which was cool.

So we had been struggling since I was feeling pooped from not sleeping very well from being sick, and we didn’t find any new people for the first few days of the week. On Thursday, we had gone around all day while it rained like crazy trying to find somewhere to go and someone to teach. At about 7:30 we were pretty wet from the rain and pretty much out of ideas. So we were waiting on the street under the little ledge of the houses when a couple walked up to their house which we were in front of. 

My companion then said to them, "A lot of rain, huh?" which got a conversation started and they asked us where we were from and what we do. So we told them and they said, aw cool, would you like to come in for some coffee? So we said we would be happy to come in but in exchange for some hot chocolate instead. We got talking, and it turns out that their family is huge. There are about 11 brothers and sisters, and all of them are grown up and have pretty much their own families. The best part is that they also all live around that same area. So there are A LOT of new people to find there. A pretty wonderful Miracle.

Also, one of our investigators named Fabian Gil, who is from Venezuela, is really progressing in the Gospel. He has attended about 5 times now, and he told us at our appointment on Sunday that he believes that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He also told us when we asked about the Word of Wisdom that he had never really taken any of those things ever in his life and so its not going to be a problem! All we need to do is finish teaching him the lessons and he is ready for his baptism on the 29th of October! 

We have some really good stuff going here in CasaBlanca and I’m pretty pumped! We went to the temple today, which just was the best thing in the whole world as always, I LOVE the Temple!!

I’m loving life as a missionary, and time is just going so fast! 

Love,

Elder Kendall

Elder Ross, Me, Kelly and Paula

We had some time to kill, and so my companion made a super cool drawing of the Salt Lake temple on the chalk board

Me cleaning the baptismal font the day of baptism, and the system we have to use

Okay so the plug is broken, we have to use the bag, then the cup, then the rock so that the water doesn't go out

Success!

   

Some past missionaries I found at the temple today... The session was awesome!!

Filling up the Baptismal Font at 4:30 a.m.........

Hey hey! how’s everyone? This week was a pure bottle of crazy-sauce, Saturday and Sunday were just full of good stuff. So, I’ll try to describe all that happened. 

Well, This week was the baptism of the Nupia family, Kelly, Paula, and Santiago were all going to get baptized. Thursday when we had the baptism interviews, Santiago didn’t come, because he feels a little scared because he doesn’t understand very much of what goes on in church and so he doesn’t like to go too much. He is a good kid, but he will get baptized in the coming weeks. Kelly and Paula both had their interviews and passed, so everything was perfect for Sunday. 

We had to do the baptism Sunday in the morning so that the mom could go, we had it at 8:00 am. 

Let’s start with Saturday now. We had planned to do the following: 8:30 am go to Bosa and get the baptism clothes for Sunday; 9:00 am get to the chapel and clean the baptismal font because it was super dirty; 11:00 am go to the other side of our area and teach an investigator whose name is Karen; 12:30 pm to go back to the other side of our area back to the house to change into service clothes to help the sister Sandra and her family move to a new house;  4:00 pm go to another appointment to teach an investigator named Deymir; 5:00 pm go to an activity that had been planned by the other Elders in the district in Roma; 7:00 until 9:00 try to find some new investigators. 

Let’s just say that it did not go according to plan. We ended up being late to Bosa and cleaning the baptismal font, and pretty much everything else. We got to teach Karen, and get to help move this family at about 2:00 to about 7:00, and they took us out to eat lunch afterwards. It was pretty fun and nice to do some service. 

So, I’ve got to leave out quite a bit of detail, since my computer is having problems.

Sunday, we got up bright and early at 4:30am to go to the church and start filling up the baptismal font to be ready by 8:00am. It was pretty cool, my companion drew in our spare time a pretty sweet drawing of the salt lake temple on the chalk board. We got everything ready and the baptism went really smoothly. Me and my Companion did the baptizing, Elder Ross baptized Kelly, and I baptized Paula. It was a really cool moment, I felt really happy to be a part of it.

So, that’s all I got for time, this week was super special! My computer today is having issues, so unfortunately I will have to send all the pictures next week. 

Missionary work is the best!

Love,

Elder Kendall