Another week gone by ?!?

Well, hey everybody!! This week passed by quickly, which always happens. But we did so many things this week. We did three different exchanges, and let me tell you that doing that can drain you pretty good! We have done five now in the past two weeks. It has been fun.

So I gotta tell you guys about the Vargus family. They are amazing. Last week my companion received them as a reference from a family of members that we have been working with, and Sunday on the 16th we went to teach them for the first time.

And they are just pure awesomeness. The next time my companion went to visit them with another missionary, and we had left the Plan of Salvation pamphlet for them to read as homework. Afterwards we felt like we should have left the Restoration instead.  When my companion got there, they said "We didn’t read the pamphlet because God told us told us not to do it." My companion said "Yes, that is because He wanted us to share this message, The Restoration, instead." And they all felt the spirit confirming that it was true. They listened to the message and understood it all. They said that it filled them up. Like there was a hole that was being filled. And they accepted a baptismal date. 

The next time I went to visit with another Elder, and we talked about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and attending church. They just said that it was all amazing that we taught and they just wanted to do all three. And they attended church! They loved it, and they also told us that they were married in 2001. Which is really just amazing. 

They should be getting baptized the 27th of May for sure. It was pretty awesome.

That’s all I have time for, but we got lots of good things to do now. And it feels good. 

Love,

 

Elder Kendall

Yeah, we played paintball... Sort of...
It wasn't actually paint, it was just rubber balls. Pain. Hahahahaha!

It was pretty intense, couldn't see a thing, and it was pretty close quarters.
But still a good time...

The Lord's Hand In All Things

Hey everyone how is it all goin? Good?

This week we had a lot of really good things happen, and I saw some really big miracles and the hand of the Lord in our area. Since it was Semana Santa (Holy Week) we shared with every person the initiative of the church about the Prince of Peace. I love that video, and the whole idea of peace. So many people in Colombia need that peace, there are a lot of hard things that people have to deal with here. 

We also did lots of exchanges this week, and it was pretty fun. We were able to find 17 new people to teach this week! There is a family of members, the Rodriguez family, that we have been working with for a while now trying to find and teach some of their friends or neighbors but it never happened. Until this week! I don't know exactly what changed this week from those in the past, but the Lord truly blessed and helped us finally teach these people. We found 11 references from the Rodriguez family this week, and there are a lot of families. It was a really wonderful thing, and now we have a whole lot of work to do. I hope that we will continue to be able to find new people to teach as well. 

The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. But I am so very grateful that He helped us out with these people. I know that God lives, because I have seen His wonderful hand change people’s lives. And I'm learning how it is possible that He can change mine.

Love,

Elder Kendall

Semana Santa and Vacations (but not for the missionaries)

Hey everyone! This transfer is just going by wicked fast like everyone has since I started the mission. There are only three weeks left until my companion finishes his mission. We have plans to do six exchanges in these next two weeks (if you don't know, that is a lot), and the time is going to FLY. This week is Semana Santa (holy week), and so there will be lots of partying and lots of vacationing. It should be fun.

Our zone did some great stuff this week, and were able to baptize three people, which is what we were able to baptize in the past two months combined. And, this week there are also four more people who should be baptized this week! So we are getting things going here in the zone, and I hope that we can keep going with this excitement for the work, we have needed it.

We in our area are still working on new people, our only hope for baptism before Elder Amato leaves told us on Sunday that they don’t want to get married anymore for the problems they have been having. So we are working on that as well. We did get to meet with the Bermudes family, and it was super good. Hopefully we can visit them again this week. 

That’s pretty much all I got time for, this week will be good and I’m excited to keep going!

Love,

Elder Kendall

I found one of my favorite kids ever! Santiago! He is from Casablanca, seriously super cool guy

Me with a sweet puppy

Us at conference :)

We went to Monserrate!! It was super fun, the second time I've gone on the mission



The back part of Monserrate

Super Poopy (means something entirely different in Colombia than what you are thinking... hahaha!) Chinese buffet place we went to afterwards!!

LLAMA!!! What more can I say?

General Conference and Finding People

Hey ya’ll! How's it going? These weeks just keep passing by as fast as Buzz Lightyear when he says "Infinity and Beyond!" which I can imagine has to be pretty fast. 

We had another leadership meeting this week, and it was pretty fun because Elder Palma stayed with us the night before we went to the meeting, he is a zone leader in Florencia. It was awesome. We also had our zone conference this week, and it went pretty well. We were able to practice and whip our zone a little bit into shape. We have been getting better little by little.

And of course Conference was just amazing. I loved all of it. We had fun with us four missionaries from the states watching it in English. I also got to see a ton of people from CasaBlanca!! I saw Brother Baquero, who used to be our ward mission leader, and also the Viasus family, who the two sons used to accompany us all the time and are like my best buds. So darny darn cool. I loved it. Amazing talk by one of the 70's, telling every investigator to please get baptized... UM YES!!! And of course our dear prophet, Pure power.

Later that night after conference, we finally found a new person to teach!! It was wonderful, his name is Jaime. He has lots of stuff to work on, but that is what we are here for! So, we are already getting better. Just gotta keep going and keep finding. 

Love,

Elder Kendall