A Little Rough to Find New People, But Lechona!

Hey everybody over there! 

 

This week was a little bit harder to find people, but the good thing is that the people we did find are pretty awesome! 

 

News on the Rodriguez family, we were able to teach the mom this week, and we were also to invite her to be baptized the 19th of August with her 2 daughters! It was a pretty awesome lesson, they are just a great family. Leidy has been reading the Book of Mormon pretty much every day, and She with her little sister Caterine came to church this week like they said they would! They are really progressing a bunch, unfortunately the mom didn't go to church, so now we just have to focus on getting the whole family together in order get them all ready. 

 

They also gave us Lechona to eat, which is one of the most classic dishes here of Ibague, and it was pretty darn tasty! They take a full out pig, and they take out all of the insides and fill it back up with the meat and rice and some other little stuff, and then they give you a little peice of it. Like I said, it is pretty tasty.

We are working on getting some new people to teach, as always, and I'm trying to give some more responsibility to my son Elder Cuba so that he can lead the area real good when I'm gone! 

 

It was a little harder week this week, but we are still going strong in the work!

 

And like Nephi, I am going to say that I cannot write 1/100th of what has happened in this week. 

 

Love,

 

Elder Kendall

Well, It Is The Beginning of the End....

Transfers happened this week, and it is official... I am going to die here in Campiña, Ibague with my son Elder Cuba! Here goes my last 6 weeks in the mission.... I can't believe that I have gotten to this point! It is so strange...　

But hey, this week was pretty awesome, we had some people come to church!! So that was really exciting, we are teaching a family named the Rodriguez family, and so far we have mostly taught the oldest daughter Leidy with her little sister Caterine, and it has been going really well. Their Dad passed away in January of this year, and Leidy told us that she has been reading and praying and that she had a dream where she saw her father and he was very happy and at peace! So that is awesome.　

And we haven't really gotten to teach the Mom, Marina, but she showed up to church Sunday with her daughter Caterine, which was a big suprise. They are making big progress.　

We also found a family this week where we knocked on the door, and the Dad opened it up asking who was at the door, and when he saw us he instantly told us "Hey! come on in! Come in!" Super cool! They are the Flores Garcia family, we are going to teach them again today.　

So yeah, that is what happened this week, and I am out of time.　

I am super pumped for these last 6 weeks, and hope we can get some people baptized this transfer!　

Love,
　

Elder Kendall




Birthday photos!  It is tradition, they weren't going to let us leave until they shoved our face in that cake!!

My District!  Elder Hess got transferred though

We played ping pong for P-day and ate KFC!!!!

Also, mom's tag challenge.  I kinda forgot XD (sorry... don't hurt me)  But I did something quick

Interviews with President Baquerizo

Hi everybody! 

So I don't have all that much time left to write a lot, but this week was a good one, we were able to find some good people to teach. 

Also, this week we had our interviews with President Baquerizo, and a multi-zone conference with Girardot, my old zone! I was there over a year ago now, which is kind of mind blowing, but I have heard that some of the people still remember me there! So that is cool.

My interview with President was very interesting. He asked if I was going home the 7th of September and I said yes. And then we talked about my companion, and I asked what could be the most important thing I could teach him before I end the mission. And he told me "I think what you need to help him do is create a culture of him being obedient to the mission rules. When you still get up at 6:30 every morning and keep working till the very last day in your mission, that will help him remember when he has a companion that doesn't want to work, Hey, my trainer worked until his last day in the mission... I have to do that. I believe that is how you will help your companion." 

And so I realized that it wasn't even a doubt for President Baquerizo that I would keep working until my very last day. And if it wasn't a doubt to President, than those are the very expectations that God has for me and my mission. "Endure to the End Elder Kendall." That is what I felt like God was telling me. 

And so that Is what I’m going to do. 

Love,

Elder Kendall

So an Elder found root beer extract here in Bogota
And so we made home made root beer floats!!!
IT WAS AMAZING!! Haven't had root beer for about 22 months

Doing Push-Ups to Find New Investigators

Happy 4th of July America! I hope that it was a good time over there! So I guess I'm turning 20 this week, that's pretty weird. Time goes really fast.

This week was pretty fun, with good times and hard times as well. But we were able to do some good things that I enjoyed, like doing push-ups to find new people!

This week on Wednesday I had an exchange with Elder Jones who is our district leader, and I went over to his area, while Elder Hess came to my area with Elder Cuba. Me and Elder Jones wanted to try some new crazy ways to contact people, and so we decided to try out something that Elder Hugo Montoya of the 70 told us when he came to our mission. 

He told us about how when he was on his mission, they tried out a different way to contact that had a lot of good results. He told us that when they went to contact, his companion would get on the ground in front of the door of the persons house and just start doing some pushups, while Elder Montoya would knock on the door and talk to the person. When the person answered and opened the door, they just saw this guy doing push-ups on the their front porch and Elder Montoya would ask, "Hello, Do you know why my companion can stay there and do push-ups all day?" The person being all confused and a little weirded out would say "Um.... No..." And so Elder Montoya said" It's because he lives a commandment that is called the Word of Wisdom, have you ever heard of that?" And they would reply "No, I haven't" Elder Montoya "Well we would like to share with you how God has shown us how to have better physical and spiritual health. Would you allow us to teach you about this commandment?" and he said that a lot of the people would let him right in and teach them!

And so that is exactly what we tried to do! It was pretty hilarious, sometimes it worked relatively well, and sometimes the people totally rejected the idea, but we had a really good time with it. And me and Elder Jones ended up doing a ton of push-ups, so it was good exercise as well. We couldn't get into anyone’s house to share with them like Elder Montoya could, but we still had a real fun time seeing people’s reactions. And some people looked pretty interested in our message. 

We have been contacting a bunch of people, but are kind of struggling to find good new investigators, many of the people we have taught are not actually interested in our message. We are really hoping that this week we will find the people that are really ready to find the gospel. That is what I'm praying for, because time is short, and it goes very fast.

I have been thinking a lot lately about God, and the promises He has made to me. And these are some scriptures that have really jumped out to me as I've been reading.

Alma 37:17

For he will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises
which he has made unto our fathers.

D&C 58:31

Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled?

I have felt that I need to trust more in the Lord, and that He will fulfill His promises, because He has said pretty clearly that He WILL do so. And that has been a pretty interesting thing to me. 

We simply need to trust in God more. And I am really learning how to be able to trust Him, even if it's with my life. 

So yeah, that was this week. Lots of good stuff happening, and just trying to keep the area moving. 

Love, 

Elder Kendall

 

 

Colombia Parties Hard, and with Machetes

So this week was the holiday of San Pedro, and there has been a lot of people out of town and going on vacation. Yesterday there were some Elders In the zone that saw some people going crazy with some machetes. Colombians party really hard sometimes....  But it was a good week! 

Monday and Tuesday Elder Hess, Elder Cuba and I were in a trio because the companion of Elder Hess (Elder Jones) was in Bogota. It was pretty interesting being in a trio, but we ended up finding a couple of families to teach and we contacted some as well! We talked with a bunch of people this week but it was a little hard to teach them with all of the parties going on. 

Wednesday, I was in an exchange with Elder Palma! It was so much fun, I love that guy a whole bunch. We went to a families house to see if we could teach them, and they were cutting off branches with machetes, and so we decided to help! We swept all of the leaves into a giant pile and moved a bunch of branches, and then Elder Palma helped them cut one of the tree's down. When the tree fell over it kind of bounced and hit Elder Palma really good in his thigh, and the tree tore his pants! So he had this huge hole in the front of his pants, but it didnt hurt his leg. The family of investigators felt really bad and so they offered to sew his pants right then and there, and so we went in and they gave him a pair of shorts that were way too small. And since we were in the house waiting while the grandma fixed his pants, we took advantage and taught the family! They are pretty cool, and they liked the message we shared, one of the ladies was actually a less active member! 

Then they gave Elder Palma his pants, and they also gave us Sancocho, a really good soup here from Colombia. So yeah, it was a really good time being with Elder Palma again, that guy is like my brother now. 

The rest of the week was kind of hard to teach people with all of the parades and parties going on and everyone drinking, but we were still able to find a quite of bit of new investigators! The Lord blessed and protected us this week, and I have a feeling this week is going to go good as well. 

It was a fun week, We just gotta find more people to teach and help them attend church! A couple that we are teaching, Dayana and Sebastian, are going pretty well. Only Dayana could attend this week, but it was still really cool to see them her there! 

The weeks are going by fast. I'm learning a lot with my son, I hope things are going well. That was pretty much this week.

Love,

Elder Kendall