B-Day Photos... I HAVE A CAKE!!!

Hello everybody!

The importance of going to church.... It´s really important!!!! People don't really seem to get that around here, but that is what we are working on. (With a lot of Patience and a lot of Love) We are going to be working on getting people to church.

This week we had some good stuff happen, me and my companion are getting to know each other more and learning how to teach together. The Lord has helped me a lot this week, trying to figure out where to go and who to visit. 

Monday we had an awesome lesson with an investigator called Laura Junka, and for the first time her husband was there too!! They are an awesome family!! And they are married!! It's so perfect!!! We had been teaching the sister Laura for a while and finally her husband was there for the lesson. They both accepted a baptismal date for the 13th of August. But they just need to attend church!! They didn't attend this last Sunday, and that is going to be our focus with all of our investigators.

Thursday was my birthday!!! And, in the morning we had our meeting with President Baquerizo! It was really powerful, we learned a ton about how we can work with the members, which is something we need a whole lot here. We ate pizza and stuff and it was cool that I got to talk to President. 

Friday we met a new investigator who was a reference from the Perez Family, his name is Ender. He came all the way here to Colombia from Venezuela, and is trying to get work and new life here in Bogota. He was super prepared and in the first lesson also accepted a baptismal date for the 13th of August! He told us how he knows the Book of Mormon is true because two young guys like us wouldn't leave our families and our lives in our countries to come here and preach something that isn't true. Finally somebody gets it!!! He also said how he felt that God had sent us there to talk to him at this time, he had the goal to be baptized before about seven times. I know that he came here so that he could finally find the truth which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Sunday, nobody showed up to church!! It was a little bit of a struggle bus for me to realize that no-one had come and was feeling pretty down about it. But I remembered a verse in D&C 121:7-9 that helped me out a lot. "My son peace be unto thy soul..." Was pretty much what I needed to hear.

I give my testimony that this work is true. I know it with all my heart, and soul. I love being a servant of the Lord, and I see the blessings of that service each and every day.

Love you all,

Elder Kendall

Me, my companion Elder Salazar, Elder Amaya and Elder Valeriano

Transfers, Package, and a New Companion

Hello!!

So, I don't have all that much time this week (Sorry Mom) But this week was tranfers!! Also, so my mom can be in peace...

I Got my Package!!!! Thank you so much mom you are the best ever!! And family also!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

So, this past 6 weeks went by like lighting and I have already been here for a transfer! I got the call Sunday night and the only one that was leaving was.... 

MY companion Elder Karra! I was pretty bummed to see him go, we had a ton of fun and work this transfer, I love that guy! Some great memories. And now I have a new companion! His name is Elder Salazar, he is from Peru! He is awesome, he is new in the mission with 4 months starting, we are going to learn a lot together I think.

Me and Elder Karra celebrated my birthday with the best stuff, fried chicken!!! It was really good by the way, it is going to be different having a birthday in the mission but, I feel like it will be good still. 

 Getting Investigators to attend church!!!! That is what needs to happen!!! 

These ten months as a missionary have been the best, I love every moment even when its hard. We had some big miracles this last week and I am really hoping to see the fruits of it! 

Love you all,

Elder Kendall

ohhh yeah... just realized confession time,,,  I didn't wait until my birthday to open my presents........ XD XD hahhahahah!

My birthday celebration

I got a cool new backpack

Me and Elder Karra

Happy Birthday America!!!!

WOOO! 4th of July!!! I hope everything goes all good with the fireworks!!

So this week we are somewhat starting from scratch, a lot of the people we have been visiting lost interest this week. But that just means we need to keep finding and do some more work! 

So first off today, we got to go to the temple!!!!!!!! It was a pretty powerful opportunity to go today, It made it an awesome holiday! And also, We played Football!!!!!! It was pretty fun, it was kinda hard to play with some of the Latin Elders that hadn't ever played before but we figured it out. I figured out that I'm kinda outta shape.... XD I think we might start running in the mornings.....

We were able to have a good amount of lessons with investigators this week. We have a brother in the ward that accompanies us everyday after 5:00! His name is Luis Alfonzo, and is amazing. He always has some jokes to tell, and he has memorized like 50 Psalms from the Bible. He is pretty cool. 

Tuesday night and Wednesday I did an exchange with Elder Schvanavelt in Patio Bonito. It was pretty fun, especially because I had been to Patio a few times before. It was a good day, we focused on setting baptismal dates on the investigators that didn't have one, and we were able to with one sister that has attended church once! It was a good time, Elder Schvanavelt is from Idaho, and is a really good missionary, they have been killing it this transfer in their area. 

Oh yeah speaking of transfers, they come THIS SUNDAY! This transfer has gone so fast, we are already going to see if my companion Elder Karra is going to stay or go. 

Friday we were able to find a new family! It was a sister that Elder Karra had contacted a long time ago and we went back to them and we were able to talk to her and her son! They are a good family, they are very active in another church and the sister is afraid of anything that is outside of the Bible, like a lot of the people here. We have been working with a lot of the less active families this week, and it has been a good experience.

Sunday was awesome. None of our investigators were able to go, and it was kinda sad, but three of the less actives that came to church this week were able to have an interview with the bishop and we rescued three less actives this week! Two are a couple, the Grijalba family, and they are working so that they can get the rights to get sealed together in the Temple with their daughter! One is the sister Claudia Sanchez who served a mission and is really sick, she has a lot of health problems with her legs and almost always can't walk. But they are so good people. 

This week went really fast, and I have been learning a lot here in Casa Blanca, and we got some good work to do this week.

Love, 

Elder Kendall

Exchanges in My Mission Birth Place

Hello everyone!! 

This week was pretty aight, sometimes its hard when you find awesome families that seem to be really interested at first, and then for some reason drop you like nothing, but we are doing good things here in CasaBlanca. 

Tuesday we had district meetings! We talked about how working with members will help us to be a lot more effective in each area of the work, and it went pretty well. My district is amazing, We are always pumped up when we get together. After that it was a pretty normal day, with some contacting and some families not wanting stuff. 

A huge focus that our ward mission leader is putting us on and also what we have been thinking about is how we can help the members share and be active in the gospel. The ward here hasn't had the easiest time with past missionaries, so we are focusing on how we can repair that trust with the members and work together. It takes a lot of work, some of the members sometimes don't even want us to visit them, but that's what we`re working on! 

Thursday night we started an exchange with Tintal!!! I went over to my old area with Elder Parraga, and it was one of the coolest things ever to be back in my birthplace(Mission wise). I LOVE Tintal!! I was there from Thursday night to Friday night, and it was a lot of fun. Sometimes it's really hard in Tintal to have appointments set, which is what happened to us, but it was pretty cool still to just be there. I got to meet with Nelson the first investigator I ever visited! Unfortunately not a whole lot has changed for him, but he is still trying to get married to his stubborn wife!! It was a good time.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty cool, we where able to teach a new investigator that was from Missionary Contact, her name is Laura Cristancho, and she is awesome! She is married to her husband!! We haven't been able to teach them both together because of the husband's work schedule, but the sister is amazing! We taught Laura the Restoration, and she was the first investigator I've had that has really understood the importance of this message! When we told her how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith to restore the gospel, she said "Woo, that's like a really big deal..." And we where just there like "Yeah, that is a really big deal!!" 

I'm lovin this work, and we are working with the members and with a few families that just need little stuff to be baptized. The time passes so fast, we are almost going to finish this transfer again. It's the best!!!!!

Love 

Elder Kendall

This week was another adventure...

Hey everyone! How's it goin?

This week was another adventure, with more exhanges, President Baquerizo, weird lunches, and all that good stuff that happens here in Colombia!

So I`ll start with Tuesday. We had a district meeting on Tuesday, my second one being district leader, and we had a guest in my district meeting! President Baquerizo!! So yeah, an Elder in our zone is going home this week, so he came that day to do his interview and in the meantime decided to join me and my district in our meeting. I was a little nervous to be honest, but I think it went pretty well and President gave us some awesome insights on our investigators. The rest of the day was pretty awesome too, we found two new investigators and they were able to accept a baptism date! 

Wednesday was pretty normal, until that night, when the Zone Leaders called and told me that our exchange with them and the assistants was going to start that same night. So I planned with Elder Amaya, my zone leader, while Elder Price the assistant was there observing us both on how we were doing the exchange and see how it was going. So that started Wednesday night and ended Thursday night. 

Thursday a lot of our appointments fell and I got to learn a lot more of the area, but I learned a whole lot of how to work with the members here in Casa Blanca and how to get more references from them and get them excited about the work. We were able to have some visits and at the end of the day I was a little stressed because not a lot happened in the exchange but I talked with Elder Amaya and learned a lot and felt much better afterwards. 

Friday and Saturday we were able to teach a lot and find some more people. The thing we are really working on here is getting investigators to church. 

At the end of the week we had a great time and we have been getting a lot better here each week. I'm lovin the work here, back in the cold of Bogota and am hoping to see more good things in the future!

 

Well, we had a dinner that really wasn't weird with the things individually, but when they were all put together it was just kinda weird.  Sunday night we had dinner with an amazing family that works in the Temple. One plate was stacked with the following things: Popcorn, Spaggetti, Rice, and Platano.... I just never thought that I would eat those four things together on the same plate. But hey, that's Colombia!

I LOVE IT!!!!

Guess what else I've eaten!!! Pig foot, cow foot, liver, and who knows what else!!! XD XD
 

Love ya`ll

Elder Kendall

Questions of the Soul and the Book of Mormon

Hello Everybody!! What`s happening?? 

This week was pretty crazy, lots of cool stuff happened! So I guess I`ll just get into it.

Tuesday we had a big leadership meeting with all of the district and zone leaders together with the assistants and with President Baquerizo. We did a lot of talking about what it was that Elder Rasband taught us and then we put all of his promises and his commitments into a big list to be sent throughout the mission. And we talked a whole lot about how we should do exchanges as leaders, which was awesome, I learned a ton. Then President talked to us about how just because we are leaders doesn't mean that we are any better than our fellow missionaries, and testified about humility and leadership. It was awesome.

Wednesday we had to go to Tintal to do a baptismal interview with a couple that wanted to get baptized that same night!! And as always with missionary work, something has to go wrong, like us spending 45 minutes on a bus that we didn't need to be on and being an hour and a half late to the baptismal interview..... but once we finally got there it went really well. The brother and sister's names are Carol and John, and they were good and ready for baptism. John always has to travel for one or two days for his work, so that's why they wanted to have the baptism Wednesday. Since we were already there and they were going to be baptized that night a little bit later, me and my companion decided to stay and help set the baptism all up. So we stayed int the Tintal chapel for a little bit while the baptismal font was filling up. The baptism was planned to start at 7:00, so we had a little bit of time to find something to eat. We got back at about 6:30 and we checked the font, and we found it with about an inch of water. This thing fills up super slow!!!! We started to realize that that was going to be a problem, and as the Branch President showed up with the other members to help out, we started to realize that we were going to have to take the initiative to fill it up.

So, we started filling up the buckets..... and then the water shot off completely! So it ended up that we had to go around the back of the church to the water tank in the ground and manually fill up the buckets, run them around to the font and pour the water in.... it was the funnest thing ever!!! All the members were working to get the buckets filled as we ran around filling it up the font. It was definitely an unforgettable night. And I got to see all my good friends from Tintal! It was a huge deal for this little branch, this was the first baptism that they`ve had in a year. So the opportunity to go back there and be apart of that was amazing!! 

One thing that we have been using a ton to teach people and to contact is through the Book of Mormon and how it answers Questions of the Soul. We have little cards with the questions from preach my gospel that have all the little answers from the Book of Mormon next to it. It has been a miracle. I've seen people that we contact not want anything and then we show them how the Book of Mormon can answer their questions and they let us in to teach them about it. We were able to find a ton of new investigators with using the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that we are so blessed to have been given the opportunity to have our questions answered through the Book of Mormon. One lady we contacted in Girardot that went pretty well but when we asked when she was free for us to come and teach her, told us that she was always busy studying and working. But then we took out the questions of the soul and had her pick a question, and this time when we asked her she told us, oh yeah, can you guys come this Friday? The Book of Mormon is a miracle in our hands, and I testify that if we read and pray about the message it contains the Holy Ghost will testify to our heart that it is true.

So those were the highlights of this week, it was pretty good!! I love being a missionary and wouldn't want to be anywhere else!!!

Love you all!

Elder Kendall

 

Elder Ichuro

My grandpa, Elder Gilespie

My old district leader, Elder Calderon.  I love that guy!

Elder Justiano

Elder Espinola, my dad :)

 

Elder Rasband in the TEMPLE!!!!

So, there was a ton of stuff that went on this week, so I'm only going to be able to talk about the highlights. 

Elder Rasband!!!!!! What can I say? I testify that he is truly an apostle of Jesus Christ and that he has been chosen as such with the proper authority by the Prophet of God! It really was amazing, so very many things I learned from him. So much fun, and I got to shake his hand as well! It's pretty nerve-racking to shake the hand of an apostle, but him, and also his wife, are super nice and you can feel the love of the Lord through them. Also, today when we were leaving the temple today, Elder Rasband showed up for a session!!!! So I got to shake his hand again as he was entering the temple and that was just the perfect way to end an amazing trip to the Temple!!! So good!!!! Just wonderful time. Then we ended by going to McDonalds! After nine months I finally went, and also ate the first Big-Mac I've ever had in my whole life. It was pretty good but I like the nuggets better.

Lots of cool stuff as district leader, I had my first district meeting on Tuesday and I talked about the Atonement and how we can use the Book Of Mormon to answer questions of the soul. I think it went pretty well, we did some sweet practices that got some people excited to use the Book of Mormon more. 

My first week here in Casa Blanca was pretty good. We weren't able to have anybody attend church which was rough, and we need to find lots of new investigators. I think the Lord wants me to get really good at finding... like REALLY good, because I'm always having to do it!!! XD There's lots of work to do here and we will see how it goes.

One of the things that I loved about what Elder Rasband taught us is that we can never see the future as missionaries and we will never know what kind of impact will our actions have on the people here. So maybe I'm here to plant the seeds into the peoples lives so that later on they can be harvested, and if that's my part in this great work, I'm happy to do it. I know that even if we don't have immediate success if we don't give up we will see the fruits of our labors someday.

Lots of good stuff, and I loved this week!! I love this great work!!!  Just know that this is seriously the best life to be livin'!

All my love,

Elder Kendall

For P-day we went to a military museum

This helicopter rules!

Guess what??  I found a Stallion!

This is my first day here in Casa Blanca.  My new companion in the middle and on the left is an Elder from my district who is training and was with us the first day until he could pick up his "son"

Recent convert from Tintal that I found when we went to the temple today!! Douglas!!!!

My companion Elder Karra and me at the temple

More of the museum, they had some pretty legit stuff!!

These are from last Monday when my bus broke down on the way to Bogota so I took some photos of some cows...