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.
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