Hermana Kennedy and the Wise Dog Ran Away Fast From the Rock

Hola my familia maravillosa!  Let's get down to it, shall we?  Here's my letter to Presidente Murphy:

Buenas tardes, Presidente Murphy!

First off, Hermana Bustos is doing really well.  She's so sweet, and her spirit is so strong, and she's been bearing her testimony in our lessons, and it has really touched our investigators' hearts.  She's such an example to me of perseverance and having a good attitude, especially since this week was a little rough.

I'm not sure why, but it feels like all of our investigators left with Hermana Giles.  We had a lot of appointments scheduled this week, and pretty much all of them fell through.  It was really frustrating, but Hermana Bustos kept a good attitude the whole time!  She really is so sweet, and I know that she's going to be an incredibly powerful missionary!

We currently have three investigators with a fecha bautismal:

Janice was a referral from Alder Arrieta, and when we first showed up at her house, her mom, Ibeth, and her daughter, Emma, decided to listen too, and now all three have a fecha for the 15th of July.  Their biggest challenge at this point is coming to church, because Janice should be having her baby today, but it's also meant that she's had a hard time going to church because she's pregnant.  However, we are going to make sure she comes this week (unless she's still in the hospital).  She's had some problems with her blood, and the doctors told her she would need to spend some extra time in the hospital this week after her baby is born, but we are hoping that she won't need to stay there the whole week!  They're all so smart, and they're all learning so fast, and the Spirit is always so strong in our lessons.

We also had a bit of a breakthrough with an investigator this week.  Her name is Mariana Antamba.  Two of her sons are recent converts, and Mariana has had a hard time getting up the courage to join the church because of doubts, but this past week, in a lesson, she told us outright that she knows the church is true.  We just need to have patience with her, because she doesn't want to be baptized and then become a less-active member.  She wants to get to the point of surety and having enough courage, but I'm hoping that maybe this week, we can set a fecha with her, maybe for sometime in August.

I love being a missionary. It's true that sometimes the work is hard, and it's horrible to watch as people you have grown to love begin to fall away because of doubts or tradition, but I know that what I'm doing here is one of the most important things I'll ever do in my life, and I can't imagine being anywhere else.  I love these people, I love this country, and I love being a missionary and a representative of my Savior.  Thank you for all you do for us missionaries, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Hermana Kennedy

It wasn't hard for either of us
to figure out that we would
be working together, seeing
as we were the only Hermanas
in the room :-)

Okay.  Reality check.  This week really was kind of tricky.  I lost a lot of confidence in myself, mostly because I feel like I'm a really bad trainer.  Maybe it's because I have a lot of expectations to live up to with how good a trainer Hermana Giles was.  Last week, President Murphy's daughter left on her mission.  When Hermana Bustos and I were introduced as a companionship, President Murphy told Hermana Bustos that whenever she will be transferred, he will be thinking of his own daughter, and he hopes that his daughter gets as good of a companion as Hermana Bustos has in me right now.

Whoa.  Super nice.

But I think he called it a little early.

I know that I'm still learning, but I feel like I'm just not doing a very good job as a trainer.  I'm not super patient, and I feel like Hermana Bustos isn't learning very fast, and I just don't feel like I'm giving her the best experience possible.  I had such good training with Hermana Giles, and I want Hermana Bustos to have as good of an experience as I did, but I just feel like I'm failing.  I've learned how to teach the lessons and how to speak Spanish, but I still haven't learned how to teach someone how to teach.  I'm trying to be happy and smiley and patient with our investigators, but patience has never been my strongest characteristic.  But Hermana Bustos really has a very good attitude, despite it being a little rough this week, and I'm so grateful for the patience that she has with me.


Anyway....

Hermana Giles' surprise!  So, as it turned out, she received her transfer assignment as she was getting off the bus in Quito.  So, when I showed up at the bus terminal (after being in a trio with two elders for two hours on the way to Quito to receive our trainees), I was waiting for the Hermanas de San Carlos to show up to pick me up (because I was going to be staying with them that night).  I was just sitting there when suddenly I heard "Oi, Hermana," and I knew at the moment what had happened!  I was so happy!  Sure enough, Hermana Giles is now an Hermana Lider (a sister leader) of San Carlos, so I got to see her again!  I love her so much!

So, some exciting stuff DID happen in San Pablo.  Presidente decided to take the companionship of elders out of Cayambe and put them in our sector, so our sector is now split in two, but since our sector is rather large and confusing, the elders have needed a little help finding things...like the houses of our mamitas.  So, on Saturday, they came with us to the house of our mamita, so that they would know where it is (and so they could get some FOOD).  But as we were walking down from the house, we encountered several dogs in front of a house, and per the usual, they were barking at us.  It's nothing new, and normally it isn't a problem, but they kind of started to come at us.  So, I just picked up a rather large rock (slightly smaller than a fist), and I threw it at them, because honestly, that's what you do here.  Anyway, the elders started laughing their heads off.  They thought I had picked up just a small stone or whatever, so when they saw this huge projectile hurtling through the air out of the corners of their eyes, they couldn't help but bust out laughing.  And in that moment, I probably received the best compliment ever:  They said, "The hermanas don't need our protection.  We need theirs!" #gogirlpower

I'm glad to hear that Daddy had a nice Father's Day.  It's kind of weird to think of Daddy sitting in the pew during sacrament meeting again :-)

Anyway, sorry that there isn't too much to say.  This week was pretty uneventful, but if you guys could just say a prayer for me, I would really appreciate it.  I really want to help Hermana Bustos have an awesome missionary experience, but I feel like I'm failing.  I really miss Hermana Giles, and I think it's because we had such a good rhythm going, but it's hard to acclimate to another companion.  I really can't tell you all how much I appreciate your encouragement and support.  Your emails each week are like the gold plates to me :-)  I love you so much!  

Love,
Hermana Kennedy

Which came first?  The Hermana, or the chicken?