Buenas tardes, Presidente!
Well, Paco was baptized and confirmed this past week! Yay! More than anything, I'm just so happy for his family. His wife has been a member since she was young, and she said that it was hard marrying a nonmember, but she always had faith that he would be baptized. At the service, his friend of many years (who is now serving as stake president) spoke about how happy he was to finally see Paco baptized. He didn't know himself when he was baptized how his life would change for the better, and he's glad that Paco can now experience that too. Paco's wife spoke at the baptism, as did Hermana Franco. You know, Hermana Franco is really interesting. She so often puts on this face of not caring and not having feelings, but really, deep down, she loves people for who they really are. She doesn't like showing it, but she does love people, and I'm grateful that in this transfer, I've had the opportunity not only to be her companion, but her friend as well. I hope that maybe she trusts me a little bit too.Alicia Mosquera finally came to church. She hasn't been able to do so since we started asking her, but this past week, we stopped by her house, and she came out, all ready, and she really enjoyed it. She especially loved the hymns. I'm so grateful to see people accepting invitations to change their lives for the better.
We have two investigators with a baptismal date. We are planning on making one with Alicia this week, but currently we have Lilliana Rosado and her son, Christian. We contacted them, and they love having us come over. Lilliana has been church-hopping for a while, and she's really interested in the church, especially in the Plan of Salvation. After we taught that lesson, we went back, and it turns out that her eight-month-old niece passed away the day before. It was beautiful to be able to testify of the plan of salvation, and tell her that yes, we do miss the people we love when they die, and it's okay to be sad, but we can always have hope. We were able to share how little children live in Christ, and that her niece was going to be okay.
I love seeing the beauty of each sector. Though I've only had two sectors to this point, I love seeing how though each place is different, the yearning that people have for the truth is the same. This is the true church of Jesus Christ, restored on the earth today for our benefit. The Book of Mormon truly can bring us closer to God if we abide by its precepts, and I know that Joseph Smith was called by God to help restore the church as a prophet in this last dispensation. I love being a missionary, and though sometimes it's still hard being back, I know that it was the right decision. I love these people, and I love this Gospel, and what a wonderful privilege it is to preach about it every day. Thank you for all of your hard work. I love you and Hermana Murphy, and I'm so grateful for your examples.
Have a fantastic week!
Hermana Kennedy
Yep, Paco was baptized! Woohoo!!
So for all of you peeps up there in North America (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Utah), fall has begun, and you're preparing for Halloween and enjoying the changing leaves, apple cider, and cool brisk breeze. Well, here in Ecuador, there really are only two seasons. Dry and wet. And winter is wet. It has rained every day this past week, but it's so deceptive, because when we leave in the morning, it looks super hot and sunny, but by three or four in the afternoon, it is pouring rain. Like, streets are flooded everyday raining. Now, I love the rain, so I don't mind. In fact, last Tuesday, it started pouring for the first time at the end of district meeting, so everyone else starts complaining about how they didn't bring their jacket, while I just run out in mine and stand in the gorgeous rain. I mean, it was really so beautiful. They all thought it was crazy, but hey, why live life if you don't enjoy it? Rain makes me so happy. And Hermana Smith decided to join me, so we went out and stood there without our jackets.
Also, I discovered the secret to tea this week. I've never liked tea very much, because it's just water with a good smell, but tastes like watered-down water when I drink it. But man, if I add a ton of sugar, it enhances the flavor a TON, and it's so good! Now, this is all herbal tea, of course :-)
So, our investigator, Lilliana, has a son and a daughter. The son is 10, and the daughter is 6. They also happen to have chickens--like ten of them--and one giant rooster named Marc Antony. Yes, I know. Ecuadorians are strange sometimes. When it rains, they bring the chickens inside. So, over time we have gone over, it has started raining, so they bring the chickens in. Well Christian has discovered that I like his rooster. Marc Antony is seriously like a dog. He'll just sit there in your arms and let you pet him. So they love bringing their chickens to us and letting us hold them, and they love to put them on Hermana Franco's head :-)
It's the last week as a trio, so today we made the most of our free day in the tourist central. We went up the mountain to the read middle of the earth, called Catequilla. It was super cool, and I'll send pics. Too, we went to one of three inhabited craters on earth called Pululahua. It's actually pretty famous, and it started raining while we were there. We also ate good food and stopped by the offices in Quito to drop off Paco's baptismal record.
I love you all and thanks for your emails!
Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
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| I saved these snails from being stepped on. They reminded me of the ones in Germany! |
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