Johannah's email this week was insane to transcribe. I did the best I could, deciphering what she had typed, but I might not have gotten it right. This is what it looked like: Im also now o my fout tie of reading the Book of Momon, ad its geat, but Ive now head the story three times i a yea, annd soemtimes I feel a little less etused to ead it. Im prayig for a enewed entusiam fo sciptues :) But dont tell Pesident Murphy. I think he would sed me home for eer sayig that aboutthe Bookof Omomron.
Hi family! Here's my letter to President:
Buenas tardes, President Murphy,
Well, we are making plans for how we can improve this area. We actually had a lot more time to work this week in the sector, and ... no new investigators. However, we have two investigators progressing.
First Rene. We have a plan. We want him to pray about a baptismal date. We know that might seem silly, because he can't be baptized until he has gone a whole month without drinking, but we feel that if he has his own personal goal and we know about it, he will feel more inclined to stay away from alcohol. President, he wants to be baptized so badly. He is accompanying us to lessons and reading several chapters of the Book of Mormon each day and has picked 2 Nephi 22: 2 as his favorite scripture (Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.). He feels that he can find strength through God, and since we are starting the lessons over again, we are focusing each and every one on the Atonement and forgiveness and finding strength through Christ. Unfortunately, the ward sees him as a long-time thing which is sad. They feel like he's just repeating the same process all over again, and we talked to them about thinking of him again as a new investigator. They set up a plan this week for each member of ward council to call him so that he feels more love and support from the ward. The bishop really doesn't trust him with any responsibility, but we are hoping that if he can prove himself to the bishop, everything will be okay. We also have a plan to visit him twice a week so as to support him, but also give him time to be alone and overcome his addiction himself. I really, really believe that he can do it. He knows that this church is true, but the longer he has to wait to be baptized, the more time that Satan has to work on him, so we are focusing a lot on him so he can finally meet his goals.
Too, we are working with Franklin. He's a referral from a woman in Guayaquil and has now come to church twice. We want to set a baptismal date with him this week. However, we are still figuring out his testimony. Right now, he's coming to church and all because of his friend, but we are hoping that he can receive a testimony really soon, but he is still working on figuring out whether this is really something he wants or not. However, he likes church and he downloaded the Gospel Library app so as to have all the books and everything in church.
Also, thank you for allowing me to attend Carolina Pinos' baptism. It was so good to see her and her kids, but more than that, it was nice to finally share a baptism with my two trainees. They both have progressed so much, and I'm so grateful that I've been able to train twice and that we could work together to help Carolina reach her goal of being baptized.
Thank you for your encouragement and your hard work. Have a wonderful week,
Hermana Kennedy
So, I'm getting a little nervous about coming home and worrying about where I'm going to live and a job and registering for classes and everything. Ugh. So complicated. But it'll be fine--Heavenly Father will help me out.
Anyway, onto different stuff...
Okay, so it's official. I am, in fact, a vampire. I've never really liked the sun and I've always preferred nighttime to daytime and as missionaries, we avoid the cross like the plague :-), but I've always lacked the whole sucking blood thing. Now, I'm still not doing that, but it's because I'm apparently a vegetarian vampire. See, Ecuadorians know their fruits, and they have very interesting ways of eating fruits like mangoes and oranges: they bite a piece off the top of a mango and squeeze the sides so all the juice comes out the top and suck it out. With an orange, they peel only the outer layer of the peel, leaving the white thick stuff underneath, cut off a piece of the top and begin squeezing the sides and sucking all the juice out that way. It's awesome! I cannot even tell you how many mangoes and oranges I have eaten this way. So much Vitamin C. Is that bad for you?
Too, we had a really funny experience with a mamita this week. Since we are the nurses and aren't in our sector a ton, we actually only have mamitas on the weekends. It's such a blessing because the majority of the time we get to eat what and when we want. However, we had lunch with our mamita who, by the way, is amazing. She loves the missionaries and takes such good care of them, and sees herself as kind of a health nut. So when we got to her house this past weekend, she had recently gotten home and was still cooking. After a few minutes, her daughter brings us this cup of what looks like chocolate milk, and it has flakes of what looks like chocolate. I take a sip and swallow and begin making weird faces with my tongue because the texture is so grainy. Turns out, it's this chocolate potei stuff. I don't know if it's chocolate or some kind of bean or what, but the taste wasn't so bad, but the texture was awful. Hermana Pincay tells me not to drink it all, or I'll get another cup, but as time went on, I ended up finishing mine and then went to the table. As we were eating our lentil and noodle soup, the daughter plops another cup of the stuff on the table and says, "Drink, Hermana. It has a lot of protein." Well I start laughing with soup in my mouth and Hermana Pincay starts laughing too, and our mamita lovingly says, "Hermana if you don't like it, you don't have to drink it," but I'm thinking, "No, I'm drinking it if for nothing else than because I love her." However, as we are finishing our soup, she puts down our plates of chicken, rice and salad. Good, right? No joke, the plate is bigger than I am! This just caused us to laugh some more. Anyway, as it turns out, we actually have that protein stuff in our house in solid form, and it just tastes like bittersweet chocolate, but man, in liquid form with water, it's just not good.
And, the Harry Potter life is finding me here. We have this woman as the Gospel Principles teacher who I swear is Umbridge in real life. She is so dang boring and wears pink and slight heels, and if anyone talks while she is speaking, she calls them out, and is OCD about keeping the door closed, and whenever this one dude talks, she's all about it, but when the little Otavalia man speaks, she cuts him off, even though he has good stuff to say, and the other dude is preaching apostasy. Phew. Seriously, she scares me a little bit.
And I love being the nurse. Just in three weeks time, I've racked up almost 50 patient contact hours, and I love it! It's so fun!
Okay, I love you all a whole lot, and thanks for writing me. The reading material (letters, synopses, little notes) is greatly appreciated. It's gotten to the point where reading in the Liahona, I'm very bored of all the spiritual stuff, and I just look for the stories. I'm also now on my fourth time of reading the Book of Mormon, and it's great, but I've now read the story three times in a year and sometimes I feel a little less enthused to read it. I'm praying for a renewed enthusiasm for scriptures :-). But don't tell President Murphy. I think he would send me home for ever saying that about the Book of Mormon.
I love you a lot. Have a fabulous week!
Love,
Hermana kennedy
Sorry again for the typos. The r and n on this keyboard are very mas o menos.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Hermana Kennedy and the Night Singer
Hi family (now consisting of one more member)! Here's my letter to President Murphy:
Buenas tardes, President Murphy,
Well, it was a very busy week for us in the hospital. We had a lot of appointments, and I loved getting to accompany the missionaries. I love that being the nurse is so different and interesting, and I get to know the missionaries a little better. Plus, I love seeing how Heavenly Father gives us a little bit of extra help in our sector.
We were able to find Rene again, and he came to church on Sunday. It's interesting to get to know him a little better. I think he drinks because his life is a mess and he's sad, and it helps him feel happy and forget his problems. However, it's also interesting to see that he does look happier at church. And he loves telling us about the scriptures he reads. But I think it's hard during the week for him to avoid drinking because he doesn't have that happiness around him. We are going to start the lessons over with him and focus on how the Gospel can bring happiness and peace amidst his trails.
Too, two men attended church on Sunday who just happen to live in our sector, so that same night we went to visit them. They are roommates, and one wasn't there, but we spoke with the other one, Franklin, to find out why he came to church that day. He wants to make a change in his life. He actually has a friend who is a member, and she told us that she will be coming in two weeks to see how we are fellow shipping and teaching him (which is a little scary), but she wants him to be baptized, so it's incentive to assure that everything goes well with him.
Too, we were able to find a really nice couple, Edison and Wendy. They aren't married unfortunately, but they are very happy to let us in, and they told us that they had never heard of Joseph Smith of The Book of Mormon, but they are excited to find out if it's all true. We are really hoping that they can progress and come to church this week.
I know that Heavenly Father leads and guides this work. He helps us so much, and I'm so grateful that I get to be a missionary and a nurse at the same time!
Hermana Pincay and I are getting to know each other a little better. I found out a lot about her this week that has helped me understand her better, and I'm hoping that she can finish her mission feeling like she has helped someone. She often feels like she hasn't done anything and that she hasn't helped anyone along the way, but I'm hoping to help her see that her mission is important and that this time was important.
Thank you for your help and your example. Have a wonderful week.
Hermana Kennedy
Well, first order of business. My camera has been stolen. Well actually, my camera and my hymnbook. Yep, I'm guessing the thief just reached into my bag and pulled out the first thing he felt (which happened to be the hymnbook), and then noticed a very hidden pocket in my bag to pull out my camera. Honestly, it's the biggest mystery in the world as to how he (or she) did it, because I never leave my bag anywhere, and when I'm on the bus or metro, I have it on my lap in front of me, but so it is. Of course, all of the pictures I had which I hadn't sent home are now lost. I'm just grateful that my previous companions have some pics from our time together. I'm also super sad about my hymnbook because lots of my friends up to this point have written next to their favorite hymn or written notes in the back, and some of them have already gone home. I think if they had stolen my planner or my umbrella, it wouldn't be such a big deal but of course they would happen to take the two most personal things. Maybe the thief needed to sell the camera to feed his kids, or something. He can have the camera (because no kiddo should go hungry), but I wish there was some way to get my memory card back. Oh well. I don't suppose you can send me a new camera, can you? Please?
Also, this has been a week of fruit. Right now, it's mango season here, but not the big mangoes we all know and love, but these small mangoes that we don't actually eat, but we squeeze out the juice and just suck on it like a vampire. It's super fun. Also, I bought three pineapples for a dollar, three pounds of tiny pears for a dollar, and Hermana Pincay showed me this crazy way to eat an orange.
Also, just a funny thing. So, in this past General Women's Conference, President Uchtdorf gave a talk on the three sisters, and near the end, he quoted something along the lines of "It's not your abilities, but your choices that make the difference in your life." I then looked at that quote citation, and it's from a book called, "The Most Inspirational Book Quotes of All Time" at which point I realized that that book was quoting Dumbledore (from Harry Potter), meaning that Elder Uchtdorf was quoting Harry Potter! #HarryPotterIsLife
Also, I sing in my sleep. Hermana Pincay has woken up a few times this week and found that I am singing in my sleep. Now if that isn't a consecrated musician, I don't know what is :-)
And we haven't had water in our apartment since Wednesday. Turns out, we share a water bill with our neighbor, and she hasn't paid her half, so we are suffering. We have gone to the hermana lideres' house a couple times to shower, but it makes going to the bathroom and cooking a little difficult. So, we are really hoping she's going to pay it--like REAL soon. On Wednesday, she told us she would pay it that day, but that obviously didn't happen. So, we had to fill a bucket from a very ghetto tap upstairs on the roof so as to have water to flush the toilet. Hermana Pincay laughed a lot at my suffering :-)
It sure was fun to hear all about the wedding. Sorry I couldn't be there, but I'm really hoping to have ALL my siblings at my wedding. (Here's looking at YOU, Glo...). But who knows? Maybe Glo really will be the only one with all of us in a picture. And Baby? Seriously SO DANG CUTE! All day Saturday, I was thinking, "Oh man, I hope they're getting married," and "Oh man, they're probably taking pics right now," and "Dang it, they're probably all dancing right now and I'M NOT THERE!!!!" Oh well.
Okay, that's about it. We did a lot of nurse stuff this week, and I LOVE it. I already have 16 patient contact hours, and that's only in the hospital. I don't know whether the filling out of forms counts too, but I'm really praying that President Murphy will keep me on as the nurse in the upcoming transfer as well. Today, a retired Physician's Assistant and his wife arrived to cover our mission (as well as the Quito mission), and I'm hoping that they will need assistants for a while so that I can do that.
Anyway, I love you all a lot, and I hope you're all happy and healthy and bathed, because I am not.
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
Buenas tardes, President Murphy,
Well, it was a very busy week for us in the hospital. We had a lot of appointments, and I loved getting to accompany the missionaries. I love that being the nurse is so different and interesting, and I get to know the missionaries a little better. Plus, I love seeing how Heavenly Father gives us a little bit of extra help in our sector.
We were able to find Rene again, and he came to church on Sunday. It's interesting to get to know him a little better. I think he drinks because his life is a mess and he's sad, and it helps him feel happy and forget his problems. However, it's also interesting to see that he does look happier at church. And he loves telling us about the scriptures he reads. But I think it's hard during the week for him to avoid drinking because he doesn't have that happiness around him. We are going to start the lessons over with him and focus on how the Gospel can bring happiness and peace amidst his trails.
Too, two men attended church on Sunday who just happen to live in our sector, so that same night we went to visit them. They are roommates, and one wasn't there, but we spoke with the other one, Franklin, to find out why he came to church that day. He wants to make a change in his life. He actually has a friend who is a member, and she told us that she will be coming in two weeks to see how we are fellow shipping and teaching him (which is a little scary), but she wants him to be baptized, so it's incentive to assure that everything goes well with him.
Too, we were able to find a really nice couple, Edison and Wendy. They aren't married unfortunately, but they are very happy to let us in, and they told us that they had never heard of Joseph Smith of The Book of Mormon, but they are excited to find out if it's all true. We are really hoping that they can progress and come to church this week.
I know that Heavenly Father leads and guides this work. He helps us so much, and I'm so grateful that I get to be a missionary and a nurse at the same time!
Hermana Pincay and I are getting to know each other a little better. I found out a lot about her this week that has helped me understand her better, and I'm hoping that she can finish her mission feeling like she has helped someone. She often feels like she hasn't done anything and that she hasn't helped anyone along the way, but I'm hoping to help her see that her mission is important and that this time was important.
Thank you for your help and your example. Have a wonderful week.
Hermana Kennedy
Well, first order of business. My camera has been stolen. Well actually, my camera and my hymnbook. Yep, I'm guessing the thief just reached into my bag and pulled out the first thing he felt (which happened to be the hymnbook), and then noticed a very hidden pocket in my bag to pull out my camera. Honestly, it's the biggest mystery in the world as to how he (or she) did it, because I never leave my bag anywhere, and when I'm on the bus or metro, I have it on my lap in front of me, but so it is. Of course, all of the pictures I had which I hadn't sent home are now lost. I'm just grateful that my previous companions have some pics from our time together. I'm also super sad about my hymnbook because lots of my friends up to this point have written next to their favorite hymn or written notes in the back, and some of them have already gone home. I think if they had stolen my planner or my umbrella, it wouldn't be such a big deal but of course they would happen to take the two most personal things. Maybe the thief needed to sell the camera to feed his kids, or something. He can have the camera (because no kiddo should go hungry), but I wish there was some way to get my memory card back. Oh well. I don't suppose you can send me a new camera, can you? Please?
Also, this has been a week of fruit. Right now, it's mango season here, but not the big mangoes we all know and love, but these small mangoes that we don't actually eat, but we squeeze out the juice and just suck on it like a vampire. It's super fun. Also, I bought three pineapples for a dollar, three pounds of tiny pears for a dollar, and Hermana Pincay showed me this crazy way to eat an orange.
Also, just a funny thing. So, in this past General Women's Conference, President Uchtdorf gave a talk on the three sisters, and near the end, he quoted something along the lines of "It's not your abilities, but your choices that make the difference in your life." I then looked at that quote citation, and it's from a book called, "The Most Inspirational Book Quotes of All Time" at which point I realized that that book was quoting Dumbledore (from Harry Potter), meaning that Elder Uchtdorf was quoting Harry Potter! #HarryPotterIsLife
Also, I sing in my sleep. Hermana Pincay has woken up a few times this week and found that I am singing in my sleep. Now if that isn't a consecrated musician, I don't know what is :-)
And we haven't had water in our apartment since Wednesday. Turns out, we share a water bill with our neighbor, and she hasn't paid her half, so we are suffering. We have gone to the hermana lideres' house a couple times to shower, but it makes going to the bathroom and cooking a little difficult. So, we are really hoping she's going to pay it--like REAL soon. On Wednesday, she told us she would pay it that day, but that obviously didn't happen. So, we had to fill a bucket from a very ghetto tap upstairs on the roof so as to have water to flush the toilet. Hermana Pincay laughed a lot at my suffering :-)
 |
It sure was fun to hear all about the wedding. Sorry I couldn't be there, but I'm really hoping to have ALL my siblings at my wedding. (Here's looking at YOU, Glo...). But who knows? Maybe Glo really will be the only one with all of us in a picture. And Baby? Seriously SO DANG CUTE! All day Saturday, I was thinking, "Oh man, I hope they're getting married," and "Oh man, they're probably taking pics right now," and "Dang it, they're probably all dancing right now and I'M NOT THERE!!!!" Oh well.
Okay, that's about it. We did a lot of nurse stuff this week, and I LOVE it. I already have 16 patient contact hours, and that's only in the hospital. I don't know whether the filling out of forms counts too, but I'm really praying that President Murphy will keep me on as the nurse in the upcoming transfer as well. Today, a retired Physician's Assistant and his wife arrived to cover our mission (as well as the Quito mission), and I'm hoping that they will need assistants for a while so that I can do that.
Anyway, I love you all a lot, and I hope you're all happy and healthy and bathed, because I am not.
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
Monday, January 15, 2018
Hermana Kennedy and the Power Nap Surge
Hi family!
WOOO! What a whirlwind week! Here's my letter to President Murphy:
Buenas tardes, President Murphy,
It really is amazing to see the miracles that God works in the mission. We didn't have much time this week to work in our sector, but we were still able to find some new investigators. Honestly, I love helping Hermana Pincay be the mission nurse. I love helping the other missionaries, and I really like learning new things. It's fun and different, and it just makes me want to work harder in the time that we are in our sector, because we don't have much time there. But when we are there, I want to work, and I'm hoping that this week, we can have even better success.
Yesterday, I met Rene. He's kind of an eternal investigator in this area, and unfortunately he was a little drunk when we found him while out walking. But I felt that he has real desires and wants to be baptized, but he's having a hard time overcoming this one problem. I'm hoping that we can find a way to help him stay sober and find happiness in his life.
It's interesting as a missionary to see into people's lives. It's an opportunity to look outside of ourselves and help others, and I love feeling God's love for these people. Every person is a child of God, and what a privilege it is to serve a mission and help them, and feel a little of what God feels for them. I'm really hoping to continue working hard with Hermana Pincay and that we can find a balance in everything. We are learning good time management skills!
Thank you for all of your hard work and your example. The best really is yet to come!
Have a wonderful week,
Hermana Kennedy
Man, I LOVE being the second mission nurse. It is seriously so fun. I love taking calls and filling
out the forms and talking to everyone about what's going on. It's definitely securing my desire to go into the medical field.
Also, super cool thing from today. So, Hermana Pincay is finishing her mission after this transfer, and she just wants to visit her converts and members before she leaves, so today we headed to this guy whose name is Roberto. She told me that he kind of has the gift of prophecy, and I was like, "Well, that's cool." She is convinced he does because about a year ago, she met him, and he mentioned to her some stuff from her patriarchal blessing. So, that's cool. Anyway, she wanted to hear what he had to say about her now (after a year), and he spent the entire time talking about me and my future. No joke, at first I was like, "Okay maybe," but then he asked me some stuff and started telling me who I was after only two minutes of knowing me. But then he asked what field I wanted to go into, and I said medicine, so he told me to hold out my hand, and right away he said, "You should be a gynecologist." What? No way. I was like, "Hermano, are you sure? That's what my dad does!" And he was like, "Yep, that's what your dad loves, and you're like him, and it would be the same with you, and if you do it, every one of your patients would have 100% trust and confidence in you because that's who you are." Anyway, he said a bunch of other cool stuff, and I would love to tell him one day that he was right, but we will see :-)
Also, Santa Anita is a cool sector. We haven't gotten to spend much time there, but one very consistent thing is the HILLS! Oh my gosh, it is literally on a mountain so the entire thing is a hill. Imma get some serious calf and thigh muscles here, and my lungs are gonna be built from solid steel! Thankfully, it's already a little easier to breathe and climb the hills, but goodness, they are brutal!
Also, I get to be in the offices a bit which is fun. There's paperwork that has to be done for every missionary who has an appointment and stuff, so that's my job. I'm getting to know the people in the building and how to get around, and it's fun. I just really love that it's completely different from anything I've done before in the mission.
And outside of the offices is this bakery, and goodness I could die and got to heaven after eating this bread. There's one called Chocobanana which as implied is chocolate with banana (duh!), and the chocolate is just amazing. However, we are trying not to buy bread EVERY time we go by :-)
And lastly, we had a funny experience this week. So, we had to go to this natural pharmacy to pick up some laxatives for a hermana, but the pharmacy didn't have them, but the woman offered to run to the south of Quito to pick them up and bring them back, so we had to wait. We waited and waited. And while we waited, Hermana Pincay noticed that there was makeup being sold, so she looks at me and says, "Hermana, don't you want to buy me some eyeshadow? It's so cheap. Only a dollar." So we had a little debate, but I bought it for her at which point she opens it and says, "Okay, close your eyes. Wait, what? NO! I don't wear makeup!" But she insisted, but she couldn't see very well, so she drags me over to the open door which leads onto the main streets of Quito and puts eyeshadow on me as people pass by. I'm sure that didn't look strange at all! An Ecuadorian putting eyeshadow on a white girl in the streets of Quito. But we had a good laugh about it.
Anyway, we are both completely exhausted, and we take naps at every opportunity. In fact, yesterday during the sacrament prayer, I fell asleep and heard a voice in my head yell, "HERMANA!" and I kind of whipped my eyes open, because I totally didn't realize that I'd fallen asleep. Unfortunately, the busses here aren't very nap friendly with their hard seats, but at least they don't have lice!
And guess what? Hermana Caceres FINALLY got her Christmas package. And the other day I saw Hermana Bustos, and she was wearing the dress you sent her for Christmas. She sure has changed. She's more confident and she knows what she's doing, and I love it!
Finally, congratulations Mark and Allison! I hope you have a lot of fun on Saturday and that everything goes well. I love you a lot and I'm sorry that I can't be there.
Okay, that's about it. Pray for me to not be too tired. Pray for Hermana Pincay--I think she's already tuning out of the mission a little bit, so I'm trying to make sure we work super hard so she can finish her mission on a good note.
Okay, I love you all so much!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
P.S. Give Hootie a hug for me, and for goodness sakes, someone give Jake a BATH!
WOOO! What a whirlwind week! Here's my letter to President Murphy:
Buenas tardes, President Murphy,
It really is amazing to see the miracles that God works in the mission. We didn't have much time this week to work in our sector, but we were still able to find some new investigators. Honestly, I love helping Hermana Pincay be the mission nurse. I love helping the other missionaries, and I really like learning new things. It's fun and different, and it just makes me want to work harder in the time that we are in our sector, because we don't have much time there. But when we are there, I want to work, and I'm hoping that this week, we can have even better success.
Yesterday, I met Rene. He's kind of an eternal investigator in this area, and unfortunately he was a little drunk when we found him while out walking. But I felt that he has real desires and wants to be baptized, but he's having a hard time overcoming this one problem. I'm hoping that we can find a way to help him stay sober and find happiness in his life.
It's interesting as a missionary to see into people's lives. It's an opportunity to look outside of ourselves and help others, and I love feeling God's love for these people. Every person is a child of God, and what a privilege it is to serve a mission and help them, and feel a little of what God feels for them. I'm really hoping to continue working hard with Hermana Pincay and that we can find a balance in everything. We are learning good time management skills!
Thank you for all of your hard work and your example. The best really is yet to come!
Have a wonderful week,
Hermana Kennedy
Man, I LOVE being the second mission nurse. It is seriously so fun. I love taking calls and filling
 |
| This is our official "mission nurses" picture. It's included in a video that new missionaries watch :-) |
Also, super cool thing from today. So, Hermana Pincay is finishing her mission after this transfer, and she just wants to visit her converts and members before she leaves, so today we headed to this guy whose name is Roberto. She told me that he kind of has the gift of prophecy, and I was like, "Well, that's cool." She is convinced he does because about a year ago, she met him, and he mentioned to her some stuff from her patriarchal blessing. So, that's cool. Anyway, she wanted to hear what he had to say about her now (after a year), and he spent the entire time talking about me and my future. No joke, at first I was like, "Okay maybe," but then he asked me some stuff and started telling me who I was after only two minutes of knowing me. But then he asked what field I wanted to go into, and I said medicine, so he told me to hold out my hand, and right away he said, "You should be a gynecologist." What? No way. I was like, "Hermano, are you sure? That's what my dad does!" And he was like, "Yep, that's what your dad loves, and you're like him, and it would be the same with you, and if you do it, every one of your patients would have 100% trust and confidence in you because that's who you are." Anyway, he said a bunch of other cool stuff, and I would love to tell him one day that he was right, but we will see :-)
Also, Santa Anita is a cool sector. We haven't gotten to spend much time there, but one very consistent thing is the HILLS! Oh my gosh, it is literally on a mountain so the entire thing is a hill. Imma get some serious calf and thigh muscles here, and my lungs are gonna be built from solid steel! Thankfully, it's already a little easier to breathe and climb the hills, but goodness, they are brutal!
Also, I get to be in the offices a bit which is fun. There's paperwork that has to be done for every missionary who has an appointment and stuff, so that's my job. I'm getting to know the people in the building and how to get around, and it's fun. I just really love that it's completely different from anything I've done before in the mission.
And outside of the offices is this bakery, and goodness I could die and got to heaven after eating this bread. There's one called Chocobanana which as implied is chocolate with banana (duh!), and the chocolate is just amazing. However, we are trying not to buy bread EVERY time we go by :-)
And lastly, we had a funny experience this week. So, we had to go to this natural pharmacy to pick up some laxatives for a hermana, but the pharmacy didn't have them, but the woman offered to run to the south of Quito to pick them up and bring them back, so we had to wait. We waited and waited. And while we waited, Hermana Pincay noticed that there was makeup being sold, so she looks at me and says, "Hermana, don't you want to buy me some eyeshadow? It's so cheap. Only a dollar." So we had a little debate, but I bought it for her at which point she opens it and says, "Okay, close your eyes. Wait, what? NO! I don't wear makeup!" But she insisted, but she couldn't see very well, so she drags me over to the open door which leads onto the main streets of Quito and puts eyeshadow on me as people pass by. I'm sure that didn't look strange at all! An Ecuadorian putting eyeshadow on a white girl in the streets of Quito. But we had a good laugh about it.
Anyway, we are both completely exhausted, and we take naps at every opportunity. In fact, yesterday during the sacrament prayer, I fell asleep and heard a voice in my head yell, "HERMANA!" and I kind of whipped my eyes open, because I totally didn't realize that I'd fallen asleep. Unfortunately, the busses here aren't very nap friendly with their hard seats, but at least they don't have lice!
And guess what? Hermana Caceres FINALLY got her Christmas package. And the other day I saw Hermana Bustos, and she was wearing the dress you sent her for Christmas. She sure has changed. She's more confident and she knows what she's doing, and I love it!
 |
| And here are the sisters from my zone. Goodness, I am freakishly tall. |
Okay, that's about it. Pray for me to not be too tired. Pray for Hermana Pincay--I think she's already tuning out of the mission a little bit, so I'm trying to make sure we work super hard so she can finish her mission on a good note.
Okay, I love you all so much!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
P.S. Give Hootie a hug for me, and for goodness sakes, someone give Jake a BATH!
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Hermana Kennedy and the Pink Eye Cure
Hi family,
Man has this been a CUHRAZY day! I got transferred, and I am so dang excited. I'm in Santa Anita, a place outside of Quito, and even though it's super close to the city, it still feels kind of rural to me. I'm with Hermana Pincay (pronounced Pink Eye :-)). This is the last transfer of her mission, so we will only have six weeks together which is sad, but funny, because when I first met her, she had eleven months on her mission, and I remember thinking (at only four months myself), I'm never gonna get to where she is. But here I am today, 11 months on the mark, and she's finishing her mission! Crazy how time flies.
Anyway, Hermana Pincay will be the mission nurse which means that I'm like the secondary nurse! How about them apples?!?! Hello PA school mandatory patient contact hours!
Also, Hermana Caceres stayed in Mitad del Mundo and received....*drum roll please*...Hermana Bustos! What the heck?! Hermana Bustos, my trainee, is leaving Hermana Giles, my trainer, to head to my other trainee, Hermana Caceres! I'm so glad that Hermana Bustos is a little closer--maybe I'll get to see her more! So, last night I was packing, and we get a call from Hermana Pincay. She had to be at the offices at 7 a.m. and since her companion was going home, it meant that I had to be there before that. So, we woke up at 4:45 this morning, got dressed, finished packing, and took a taxi to Santa Anita. We arrived a little early, then headed with the hermanas to San Carlos to drop off the suitcases of Hermana Evert, Hermana Pincay's former companion. We also dropped off Hermana Caceres there, so we had a quick goodbye. She then headed to the terminal with the hermanas lideres, and I headed with Hermana Pincay and Evert to the offices. We dropped off Hermana Evert, and then went up to the offices to work out some financial stuff with medical receipts and everything which was fun especially once the office elders started shooting us with Nerf guns. We responded in kind :-). Then, we headed down a couple floors to put our fingerprints into the system so as to have 24 hour access to the offices. How special are we? :-) We then headed back to the house, I unpacked, and we took a quick nap to try and regain some sleep that was lost with the 4 a.m. wake up call. We headed out to eat super fast (like ordered and ate in fifteen minutes), did fifteen minutes of grocery shopping, and at 5:30, we arrived at the internet to write you. So, that's why this email is so short (and no letter to President Murphy). I'm so excited for this transfer and to run in the mornings and be doing medical stuff. It's gonna be awesome!
I was so sad to leave Hermana Caceres and my investigators in Mitad del Mundo, but I was so ready for a change. I got to my sector today, and I just loved not knowing anything. I've always felt like I'm comfortable doing the same thing over and over again, a good routine, but the mission has taught me that I do like change. I can't wait for my job in the medical field someday where every day will be a little different.
Also, happy Harry Potter World anniversary! I loved that vacation so much, and it made me happy this week to think about it, and can you believe a year has already gone by since we were there?
Also, our bishop this week took us to a restaurant called Fiambres to eat cuy. That's guinea pig for anyone who wants to know. As it turns out, on the Discovery channel, there's a show called Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, and he went to that exact restaurant just to try cuy. It was good, but I didn't really like the skin, fried or not. Anyway, packing and moving wasn't too bad, especially with my new luggage. Perhaps that was the main reason I had to go home--Heavenly Father knew that I had overpacked the first time and that my suitcases were junk, and that going for another year would not have worked :-)
Okay, I love you all soooooooo much. Pray for me. My sector is a little dangerous, although we are now the tallest hermana companionship in the mission. So maybe that'll help.
Okay, I love you all a lot.
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
Man has this been a CUHRAZY day! I got transferred, and I am so dang excited. I'm in Santa Anita, a place outside of Quito, and even though it's super close to the city, it still feels kind of rural to me. I'm with Hermana Pincay (pronounced Pink Eye :-)). This is the last transfer of her mission, so we will only have six weeks together which is sad, but funny, because when I first met her, she had eleven months on her mission, and I remember thinking (at only four months myself), I'm never gonna get to where she is. But here I am today, 11 months on the mark, and she's finishing her mission! Crazy how time flies.
Anyway, Hermana Pincay will be the mission nurse which means that I'm like the secondary nurse! How about them apples?!?! Hello PA school mandatory patient contact hours!
Also, Hermana Caceres stayed in Mitad del Mundo and received....*drum roll please*...Hermana Bustos! What the heck?! Hermana Bustos, my trainee, is leaving Hermana Giles, my trainer, to head to my other trainee, Hermana Caceres! I'm so glad that Hermana Bustos is a little closer--maybe I'll get to see her more! So, last night I was packing, and we get a call from Hermana Pincay. She had to be at the offices at 7 a.m. and since her companion was going home, it meant that I had to be there before that. So, we woke up at 4:45 this morning, got dressed, finished packing, and took a taxi to Santa Anita. We arrived a little early, then headed with the hermanas to San Carlos to drop off the suitcases of Hermana Evert, Hermana Pincay's former companion. We also dropped off Hermana Caceres there, so we had a quick goodbye. She then headed to the terminal with the hermanas lideres, and I headed with Hermana Pincay and Evert to the offices. We dropped off Hermana Evert, and then went up to the offices to work out some financial stuff with medical receipts and everything which was fun especially once the office elders started shooting us with Nerf guns. We responded in kind :-). Then, we headed down a couple floors to put our fingerprints into the system so as to have 24 hour access to the offices. How special are we? :-) We then headed back to the house, I unpacked, and we took a quick nap to try and regain some sleep that was lost with the 4 a.m. wake up call. We headed out to eat super fast (like ordered and ate in fifteen minutes), did fifteen minutes of grocery shopping, and at 5:30, we arrived at the internet to write you. So, that's why this email is so short (and no letter to President Murphy). I'm so excited for this transfer and to run in the mornings and be doing medical stuff. It's gonna be awesome!
I was so sad to leave Hermana Caceres and my investigators in Mitad del Mundo, but I was so ready for a change. I got to my sector today, and I just loved not knowing anything. I've always felt like I'm comfortable doing the same thing over and over again, a good routine, but the mission has taught me that I do like change. I can't wait for my job in the medical field someday where every day will be a little different.
Also, happy Harry Potter World anniversary! I loved that vacation so much, and it made me happy this week to think about it, and can you believe a year has already gone by since we were there?Also, our bishop this week took us to a restaurant called Fiambres to eat cuy. That's guinea pig for anyone who wants to know. As it turns out, on the Discovery channel, there's a show called Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, and he went to that exact restaurant just to try cuy. It was good, but I didn't really like the skin, fried or not. Anyway, packing and moving wasn't too bad, especially with my new luggage. Perhaps that was the main reason I had to go home--Heavenly Father knew that I had overpacked the first time and that my suitcases were junk, and that going for another year would not have worked :-)
 |
| Cuy before they're cooked. Next week I'll send the pic of them cooked. |
 |
| The hermanas from my zone <3 |
Okay, I love you all soooooooo much. Pray for me. My sector is a little dangerous, although we are now the tallest hermana companionship in the mission. So maybe that'll help.
Okay, I love you all a lot.
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
Monday, January 1, 2018
Hermana Kennedy and Revenge of the Double Headed Dragon
Hi family! Here's my letter to President:
Buenas tardes, Presidente Murphy,
Well, this week was rather odd. We have three investigators with a baptismal date. However, we will once again need to change the date of Carolina and her family, because her son needed to come to church this past week, and none of them did, so he can't be baptized on the 13th. However, we were able to have an excellent lesson with Delia, Carolina's mom. it really is funny that Carolina was so surprised that Delia let us in initially, because she is great. Everything makes sense to her, and she doesn't really have a loyalty to another church, and so we are really excited to see how she will progress. It would be ideal if she and Carolina and her two kids could all be baptized together, but we will have to talk to Carolina about it.
We also have Carmen Vera with a date for the 27th, but we are worried because we haven't been able to find her for two weeks. We have to find her this week, although we are hoping that with her member granddaughter, she was attending church in Milagro, but that's another thing we need to verify.
No one came to church this week. Five people told us they would come and not a single one did. I'm guessing that everyone forgot that it was New Years, and so they forgot about the parties and everything. We are really hoping that we don't have a repeat this week. Hermana Caceres is ready to leave her training. She's getting better at controlling teaching situations and teaching everything, and she knows the sector now. She still doesn't feel very confident in herself, but she will get there.
That's about it for this week. Thank you for your hard work and counsel. Happy New Year!
Hermana Kennedy
Seriously, this week was rough for missionary work because NO ONE was here. Everyone was traveling to the coast, probably because that's where the majority of people are from. Hmmm, I wonder why. Could it possibly be because the hottest place outside of the coast is here? Tal vez. Anyway, we contacted and contacted, and nada. But it's okay. It's a new week, and everything will be fine. Next week are transfers, and maybe I'll be here, maybe not, but Hermana Caceres and I are separating :-(
Okay, anyway, remember last New Years when we all made the foods from the different countries, and then during the night we were all sick with diarrhea and vomiting? Well, lucky me, I had a repeat. Yep, at 3 a.m. on December 31st, my eyes flew open after having a dream about my stomach hurting, and I ran to the bathroom. However, I didn't make it in time, and yep, you guessed it...
I pooped my pants.
Like a three year old.
Then, as I'm sitting on the toilet, pooping my guts out, I get the sudden feeling of losing my breakfast. Or dinner.
Yep, you guessed it.
Our shower is right next to our toilet, so as I'm suffering with horrible diarrhea, I'm also vomiting my guts out into the shower.
All without my glasses on.
Probably better that way though.
I can't believe Hermana Caceres didn't wake up.
As always after vomiting, I ended up just laying on the floor, because I never know when I'm going to start vomiting again. However, our bathroom is tiny, and so there wasn't actually room in the bathroom to lay down, so I just laid outside the door for a while.
That was fun. Anything I guess to remind me of all the fun times at home!
However, when I woke up in the morning, I couldn't even stand up, because I was so nauseous. It was the first time I've ever taken a sick day on my mission, but it was Sunday, so at first I was like, "I'm fine. I can make it to church." Unfortunately though, I still needed to go diarrhea every ten minutes, and getting to church involves a 25-minute bus ride, so that wasn't happening. But I got out of bed and sat down and curled my hair, and that's as far as I got before I just had to lay down on the floor. So I called the nurse, and I just straight up told her, "Hermana, I'm vomiting and have diarrhea every ten minutes. I just need your permission to stay home." However, she had the speaker phone on, so the three hermanas she's currently living with heard it too. Thankfully one of them is a friend from the MTC, and I love her, so she told me that she CAN'T poop at all, and she wanted to know my secret :-) It made me feel a little better, considering how awful I felt. And as it turns out, it was actually okay, because not a single one of our investigators showed up to church....
Another problem? Our mission leader planned on making us missionaries lunch that day, but he didn't want to do it at his house, so we ended up going to a member's house down the road. That was also rather miserable, because bless their hearts, they can be kind of clueless sometimes. I told them that I wouldn't be eating anything because I was horribly ill, and I thought it was all fine, but after an hour, the daughter brings me a huge bowl of chicken and potato soup. I looked at her and just said, "Hermana, I can't eat this." She took that as, "I can't eat that much," so she comes back with a slightly less full bowl. One of the elders then says, "Hermana, she shouldn't eat that. It'll make her sicker," and she half yells at him that her mom's soups are medicinal and will help me.
Needless to say, I had diarrhea again several minutes later. So much for "medicinal".
Also, fun little thing from this week that doesn't involve bodily explosions...but does involve food (wicked thing that it can be). Here, they don't have Hostess cupcakes, but they have the Ecuadorian equivalent called Biri Biri. Well, as I was passing a stand a couple of days ago (before the apocalyptic diarrhea), I saw that each package of Biri Biri has a unique JUSTICE LEAGUE STICKER!!! AHHHH!!!! There are twenty designs total, so guess what this week was all about? The great Justice League sticker hunt. Turns out, they are also on packages of Twinkies! So by the end of the week, I found them all. And as you can imagine, I gifted a whole heck of a lotta cupcakes and Twinkies to elders in my zone. They were very grateful :-)
And finally, funny things about Ecuadorian New Years celebrations. It's a bigger holiday than Christmas. Super weird, I know, but everything is closed and no one works, and they burn the old year.
Wait, what??
Yes, people make these viejos which represent the old year, and they can be in the form of characters from movies or shows or real people (think of life-size voodoo dolls), and at midnight of the New Year, they burn them. So, when I woke up at 11:56 p.m. on December 31 because of the dog next door barking and the bomb-like fireworks, I saw the light of big fires around our complex. Also, it was fun to see fireworks.
Here's an Ironman viejo. Yep, they burn that giant thing.
And here's a viejo from a ward activity. I felt like Danny Kaye in Singing in the rain with the song, Make 'Em Laugh.
Anyway, I think that's about it for this week. And that is quite enough.
Have a wonderful new year, and only 45 more days until Valentine's Day!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
Buenas tardes, Presidente Murphy,
Well, this week was rather odd. We have three investigators with a baptismal date. However, we will once again need to change the date of Carolina and her family, because her son needed to come to church this past week, and none of them did, so he can't be baptized on the 13th. However, we were able to have an excellent lesson with Delia, Carolina's mom. it really is funny that Carolina was so surprised that Delia let us in initially, because she is great. Everything makes sense to her, and she doesn't really have a loyalty to another church, and so we are really excited to see how she will progress. It would be ideal if she and Carolina and her two kids could all be baptized together, but we will have to talk to Carolina about it.
We also have Carmen Vera with a date for the 27th, but we are worried because we haven't been able to find her for two weeks. We have to find her this week, although we are hoping that with her member granddaughter, she was attending church in Milagro, but that's another thing we need to verify.
No one came to church this week. Five people told us they would come and not a single one did. I'm guessing that everyone forgot that it was New Years, and so they forgot about the parties and everything. We are really hoping that we don't have a repeat this week. Hermana Caceres is ready to leave her training. She's getting better at controlling teaching situations and teaching everything, and she knows the sector now. She still doesn't feel very confident in herself, but she will get there.
That's about it for this week. Thank you for your hard work and counsel. Happy New Year!
Hermana Kennedy
Seriously, this week was rough for missionary work because NO ONE was here. Everyone was traveling to the coast, probably because that's where the majority of people are from. Hmmm, I wonder why. Could it possibly be because the hottest place outside of the coast is here? Tal vez. Anyway, we contacted and contacted, and nada. But it's okay. It's a new week, and everything will be fine. Next week are transfers, and maybe I'll be here, maybe not, but Hermana Caceres and I are separating :-(
Okay, anyway, remember last New Years when we all made the foods from the different countries, and then during the night we were all sick with diarrhea and vomiting? Well, lucky me, I had a repeat. Yep, at 3 a.m. on December 31st, my eyes flew open after having a dream about my stomach hurting, and I ran to the bathroom. However, I didn't make it in time, and yep, you guessed it...
I pooped my pants.
Like a three year old.
Then, as I'm sitting on the toilet, pooping my guts out, I get the sudden feeling of losing my breakfast. Or dinner.
Yep, you guessed it.
Our shower is right next to our toilet, so as I'm suffering with horrible diarrhea, I'm also vomiting my guts out into the shower.
All without my glasses on.
Probably better that way though.
I can't believe Hermana Caceres didn't wake up.
As always after vomiting, I ended up just laying on the floor, because I never know when I'm going to start vomiting again. However, our bathroom is tiny, and so there wasn't actually room in the bathroom to lay down, so I just laid outside the door for a while.
That was fun. Anything I guess to remind me of all the fun times at home!
However, when I woke up in the morning, I couldn't even stand up, because I was so nauseous. It was the first time I've ever taken a sick day on my mission, but it was Sunday, so at first I was like, "I'm fine. I can make it to church." Unfortunately though, I still needed to go diarrhea every ten minutes, and getting to church involves a 25-minute bus ride, so that wasn't happening. But I got out of bed and sat down and curled my hair, and that's as far as I got before I just had to lay down on the floor. So I called the nurse, and I just straight up told her, "Hermana, I'm vomiting and have diarrhea every ten minutes. I just need your permission to stay home." However, she had the speaker phone on, so the three hermanas she's currently living with heard it too. Thankfully one of them is a friend from the MTC, and I love her, so she told me that she CAN'T poop at all, and she wanted to know my secret :-) It made me feel a little better, considering how awful I felt. And as it turns out, it was actually okay, because not a single one of our investigators showed up to church....
Another problem? Our mission leader planned on making us missionaries lunch that day, but he didn't want to do it at his house, so we ended up going to a member's house down the road. That was also rather miserable, because bless their hearts, they can be kind of clueless sometimes. I told them that I wouldn't be eating anything because I was horribly ill, and I thought it was all fine, but after an hour, the daughter brings me a huge bowl of chicken and potato soup. I looked at her and just said, "Hermana, I can't eat this." She took that as, "I can't eat that much," so she comes back with a slightly less full bowl. One of the elders then says, "Hermana, she shouldn't eat that. It'll make her sicker," and she half yells at him that her mom's soups are medicinal and will help me.
Needless to say, I had diarrhea again several minutes later. So much for "medicinal".
Also, fun little thing from this week that doesn't involve bodily explosions...but does involve food (wicked thing that it can be). Here, they don't have Hostess cupcakes, but they have the Ecuadorian equivalent called Biri Biri. Well, as I was passing a stand a couple of days ago (before the apocalyptic diarrhea), I saw that each package of Biri Biri has a unique JUSTICE LEAGUE STICKER!!! AHHHH!!!! There are twenty designs total, so guess what this week was all about? The great Justice League sticker hunt. Turns out, they are also on packages of Twinkies! So by the end of the week, I found them all. And as you can imagine, I gifted a whole heck of a lotta cupcakes and Twinkies to elders in my zone. They were very grateful :-)
And finally, funny things about Ecuadorian New Years celebrations. It's a bigger holiday than Christmas. Super weird, I know, but everything is closed and no one works, and they burn the old year.
Wait, what??
Yes, people make these viejos which represent the old year, and they can be in the form of characters from movies or shows or real people (think of life-size voodoo dolls), and at midnight of the New Year, they burn them. So, when I woke up at 11:56 p.m. on December 31 because of the dog next door barking and the bomb-like fireworks, I saw the light of big fires around our complex. Also, it was fun to see fireworks.
Here's an Ironman viejo. Yep, they burn that giant thing.
Anyway, I think that's about it for this week. And that is quite enough.
Have a wonderful new year, and only 45 more days until Valentine's Day!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
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