Flight to Bogota and Back

Hey everybody! This year is already flying by, we are soon going to be in February... weird sauce, I was in Girardot this time last year and it was also super-hot!

Oh yeah, this is also the last week of the transfer already, Elder Guerrero will finish his mission this week and we'll see who comes to join us in our crazy corner of the Amazons!

So, this week we flew once again to the nice and cold air of Bogota for the training for missionaries all over the world. On Tuesday it was the first time in these almost three months that I have been in Leticia where we have been in an actually zone type meeting and it was weird. But it was great to talk to the other missionaries in the zone and just other people in general. One gets somewhat lonely in the Amazons. After the meeting we wrote the family, and had to wait in the lobby of the Zone leaders Apartment Complex where we were staying at to get our stuff. While we waited I talked to a cool older guy who was super nice. He even invited us for a cup of coffee sometime, which we said sure sometime if it could be hot chocolate instead. 

Wednesday we had the training, and it was really good. We got to hear insights from some Apostles and other leaders of the church on the training we received last year. They also changed some big things like some of the goals we will be making and also the schedule. President Baquerizo is going to let us know exactly how it is going to work for us here in Colombia Bogota South, and it will be interesting. 

Thursday we flew back, and our plane almost didn't get connection to the tower here in Leticia and so we almost took a little detour to Cali Colombia. But it was all good because they got contact and we landed without problem.

We talked to President Baquerizo about Antonio Casado, and he told us that if he can stay clean for 1 month more or less, he can be confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost. So we put a goal with Antonio to be confirmed on the 26th of February. Him and his family seem to be doing a little better. 

On Saturday we contacted a family that lives in our area and invited them to come to church the next day, they said they would come and we were pretty excited, but unfortunately they didn’t show up. But on Sunday we got to teach them and they seem pretty interested and so we are hoping to see some progress there with this new family. 

Our focus is new people and extending baptismal dates, we should have some good stuff this week!

I have been reading the New Testament since I have never read it before completely in my life and a lot of people here don’t listen to you if you don’t use it and so it has been really great. I love the boldness of Paul, he is never ever afraid of his testimony and shares about Jesus Christ to every person he sees. I hope I can follow that example. 

That’s pretty much it for the week, I'm still loving being here in Leticia

 Love,

 

Elder Kendall

Me in Bogota with Elder Espinola and his son!

Our adventures in the Amazons today

Finding some new people and Moving Forward

Hey everyone!

 
This week went by like lightning, but I guess that's not new because that’s how every week goes! But we had a good week with ups and also some downs but with the desires to keep moving forward.

Monday we had a super sweet family home evening with a few families. The Tamani family(who are great active members) invited us to bring as many investigators and less-actives as we could to the FHE, and so we invited a few families. The Rodriguez family, who are investigators went, along with a less-active family called the Mestanza family. We shared a short message and we watched Meet The Mormons which went super well, everyone likes that movie! It turned out great and there were lots of friendships being made. 

We have been focusing a lot on getting to meet some new people, and although a lot of the appointments we had set to talk to the new people we contacted fell, we were still able to find a couple of really good people! 

The Casado family are still in that battle with the brother Antonio, we have got some great member support this week and so it went really well, although it has not been perfect. The daughter Loreilly still only lacks that one attendance at church for her to be baptized!!! She will most likely make it to the 4th of February if she only attends!

The Rodriguez family are doing super well, they are a family of 6, and are amazing. On Saturday we had a great lesson with them where we set the marriage and baptismal date, and they accepted to be married the 3rd of March in order to be baptized the 4th! We are super pumped with them, they are a super cool family. 

That is pretty much what I have time for this week, time goes by way fast. Transfers are soon, the 5th of February is when we will get transfer call. I just love Leticia, it has been so good. 

This week we will be in Bogota until Thursday to see the World Wide Broadcast for the missionaries, I'm super pumped!

So much Love,

Elder Kendall

 

 

This is called Mojojoi... Yes you do eat it.... But I didn't....
MY companions ate it....

Always Preparing the Way

Hey everybody! 

This week went really fast! Something cool as well, next week on the 23rd of January we are going to fly to Bogota again. We have some sort of big training that will be going on. Then we get back on Thursday the 26th. 

But this week was kinda rough for teaching, we didn’t get to have a whole lot of the appointments we were hoping for. But, the great thing was that we could already fill up pretty much every day this week with work to do, so I’m sure it will go much better this week. 

Update on the Casado family: We have been working with Antonio, and he seemed pretty good. We taught the family on Wednesday about Temples and Eternal families. We went to go visit them again on Friday, but Antonio didn’t get home until late. Unfortunately he didn’t get home because his friends had invited him to drink and he went with them an drank. So we have a lot more work to do. We are really focusing on helping him not feel judged by us, the members, or his family and showing him more support and more love. We are going to do all we can to show our love for Antonio so that he is able to quit drinking. 

We have really been struggling with finding lately in these past couple weeks, but we have some great families that we have found or are working with now. We have one family called the Rodrigues Calderon Family, and they are awesome. They are a family of 6, and they are all excited about the gospel. We are just waiting and working on getting the parents married and they are pretty much ready for baptism. They showed up to church this Sunday even though it was a little late. 

Well although this week was a little rough, we have lots of good things to look forward too. Loreilly the daughter of the Casado family also is getting ready for baptism, she just needs to attend church one more time!

That was pretty much it for this week, I have seen and felt and learned a lot this week about the Love of the Savior that he has for each one of us. I have really gotten to know that He lives and He knows who I am. And I’m loving the time here in Leticia. 

Love,

Elder Kendall

It Has Been Raining Blessings, and also Rain Rain!!

Hey everybody! How`s the cold? 

Here is has been raining a whole lot, but it is still pretty hot. But this week it was also doing some Tropical blessing storms, with lots of blessings coming in. 

So I think I will start with the Casado family, who are doing really well! Sunday the daughter Yoli who got baptized as well got confirmed a member! Church started at 9:00 Sunday and they didn’t show up, and so I was getting super worried since the whole family said that they would be going. The sacrament was passed and I thought that they weren’t going to make, but right as the passing of the sacrament was ending, all four of the family came into the chapel! I felt so relieved, and then right when Yoli got there she was confirmed a member of the church. It was such a blessing to have them four there. Later that day, we had an appointment but only the father Antonio and their other daughter who wasn’t baptized, Loreilly.

 We had talked to Antonio in the week and he has shown true repentance through his actions and has a huge desire to leave all of the things that cause harm to him and to his family. He told us how he really wants to leave alcohol behind. We feel that he has really taken steps to be confirmed this Sunday, and that is the plan. We also talked with Loreilly, who almost got baptized with her family but she had some doubts that she wanted to work out first. Then on Sunday when we talked to her, we asked how she now felt about baptism. And she told us that she was able to resolve her doubts by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about them, and that she was now ready and willing to follow Jesus Christ and to be baptized!!! She testified of the Book of Mormon and how it is an amazing thing, how it just brings peace, and that just felt so much happiness and peace from it. It was one of the most happy and powerful things that I have had happen in my mission. She only needs one attendance more, and we invited her to be baptized the 21st of January and she accepted. By the 22nd of January all 4 of the Casado family will finally be baptized and confirmed into the Lord’s Church. It has been amazing!!!

We have some other great people we are working with as well, and we really just need more attendance to church in order for these people to be prepared for baptism. 

I love the Book of Mormon. If we humbly read and pray, God will give us our answers that we need. 

That was the most exciting thing this week. I guess I also complete 16 months in the mission today, which I don’t really understand how that came to be. Time. It’s a fast thing. 

Love,

Elder Kendall

2017 Is Here, Time Is Not So Much Here

Hey family!!! I hope everyone had an awesome time for New Years, we got woken up by all the music and crazy fireworks so it was fun! We ate a ton of food, so much food. And we cooked it too, we made a cake and everything with a really cool member named Mercedes. 

Anyways, this week was an interesting one for sure, my first week leading the area, once again. Elder Johnson is a good guy, I'm excited to see what will happen in the future. Not too many people were home this week for New Years but we got to do some great things. 

Update on the Casado family, so we went on Wednesday to go visit the family because we thought they got back from their community. When we got there we only found the father Antonio, and we got to talk to him a little bit which was great. He told us that his family would be home on Friday, so that's when we went back.

Friday, we found Amanda and their daughter Yoli home, but not Antonio. That is when Amanda told us the bad news. Antonio, before had had a drinking problem, but the whole month of December he hadn't drunk a single drop, and was doing super well. We thought he would be fine and get confirmed this Sunday. But, Amanda told us that on the 25th when they were in their community, he drank. And that same Friday night they had received a call from a man telling them to pick up Antonio because he was drunk and had fallen and gotten hurt. I was completely shocked. I wasn't sure what to say. Amanda was super hurt, but she told us that she for sure would go to church on Sunday in order to be confirmed. We set an appointment to talk to Antonio for Monday, which is today. We are going to try to help him as much as we possibly can. This family needs a lot of help! 

Today we have an appointment with the Casado family and are going to work hard with Antonio to get him to quite drinking for good. 

That was a crazy part of the week, but a super good thing happened too!! Amanda showed up to church at 7:00am and was there earlier than anyone else. And then she was confirmed a member of the church. I felt so happy in that moment!! What a joy it was to be able to help this family, and little by little we`ll get all of them to join with their mom. 

We have a whole lot of work to do in this month, so many things. The night of New Years I made a promise in my prayer to Heavenly Father that I would use all of my heart and all of my strength in these last 8 months that I have to give in the mission field. It is my desire to give all to God, for all of the things which He has given me. I love my mission, and I'm feeling the time starting to go by way too fast! Like it always has. I hope to give my all. 

Love,

Elder Kendall

We went fishing... IN THE AMAZONS!!!

Who needs a fishing pole when you got a stick and some string??