Hi fam! Here's my letter to President:
Hi President Murphy,
Thank you for coming to our ward yesterday. I'm sorry that Rene wasn't there. We called later, and his mom told us that early in the morning he received a call and had to go to Guayllabamba, so tonight we are going to go by and hope that he's home so that we can make sure everything is okay.
However, we are very excited for Adela. When we showed up at her house, it seemed like she was getting ready to tell us that she couldn't come because her husband wasn't there, and her babies weren't dressed, and we were worried, but turns out she was just telling us why she was running late. So, our member, Patricia Puatate, went in and helped her get them ready and dressed so that they could come to church! We are really thankful that the members were really good with her and with helping, and I love being able to teach an Otavalan again! They are so good and humble, and we are excited to see how she can progress. We haven't been able to meet her husband yet because he works every day, all day, so we hope we can get to know him. It's sad because Adela has to be inside all day with her babies. Because there are two, it's too hard to leave the house, and so she's alone all day, but we hope that the church can become her second home where she has friends and people will visit her. We are hoping to set a baptismal date with her this week.
Too, we plan this week on training the Joneses in everything so that next week we can officially pass everything to them, and if they have questions I can help, but we will be able to focus on our sector. I know that Santa Anita has so much potential and this is the time for this sector. I know that Heavenly Father leads this work, and He will help everyone here, including Rene.
I'm excited to work with Hermana Knapp. She's so excited and happy, and that's what this sector needs.
Thank you for your example and hard work. Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Kennedy
Okay, first off, transfers. I'm staying in Santa Anita!!! And, I received Hermana Knapp! She's from my group at the MTC so we've been in this together from the beginning! She's from Malibu, California, she also loves cats and elephants, she's not as tall as Hermana Pincay, and she's super friendly! She's also very much the opposite of me. Like, she loves makeup and clothes, and shopping, and fashion, and as you all know, I do not. But she accepts that she might have a few too many things in her suitcase, so we are going through some of her stuff this week to help her weed out what she does and doesn't need ;-). She's really is a doll, and I'm so excited!
So, funny things from this week. First off, last Tuesday, we received a call from an elder who had jumped while exercising that morning and when he landed, he heard a pop, his foot swelled and was bruised, and he couldn't put weight on it. Sound familiar? Anyways, he broke the bone in his pinkie toe. But the funny part? While I was in the emergency room, Hermana Pincay was outside with his companion and she I have a running joke about all the Latino elders being scared of me, so she asked him, "Elder, are you scared of my companion?" He said, "Yes, but only because she's so buff! I told my companion this morning that Hermana Kennedy would be the one to carry him into the hospital today!"
I busted out laughing when I heard that! I'm glad to know that my arm fat is actually seen as muscle among Latinos ;-)
And then in our lesson with Rene this week, he just randomly asked us if we knew our nickname. We were like, "What nickname? We have a nickname?"
"Your nickname around Santa Anita."
I jokingly guessed "Las Altas" (the tall ones).
Hermana Pincay guessed "Las Torres Gemelas" (the Twin Towers)
Rene tells us "Las Tres Pisos" (the Three Floors, as in we're three stories tall)
Yep, that's what the people of the small town of Santa Anita call us hermanas as we walk around town. We now have plans to make shirts with "Las Tres Pisos" on it because we love it so much. He also told us that people talk about us all the time, and one time he was talking to someone, and they said "Man, one time they came and stood next to me, and I looked at the white one and just thought, "Que miedo!" (which translated means "How scary!")
We laughed at that one too!
And then the slightly scary moment of my week. The one side of Ecuadorian culture that I still find hard to love is how much alcohol people consume at all hours of the day. On Saturday, we got on a bus, and we saw that up front there was a very drunk man. Of course, once I sat down, he started looking at me, and I just thought, "Oh boy...." After a few minutes, he comes back and sits in the seats across from us and starts trying to get my attention, saying "Gringa", but of course all slurred. Then, he stands up and lunges across Hermana Pincay trying to touch either my name tag, or something else (please let it be my name tag and NOT the something else), because he was asking to what organization I belong, and Hermana Pincay says that what happened next was pretty intense. I smacked his hand away and said, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" in English. She said I had an incredibly intimidating face. I admit, I was rather freaked out that he lunged at me, and he tried to continue asking about me, and I just told him, "It doesn't matter. Leave me alone." Thankfully, a whole bunch of other passengers stood up for me, telling the money collector to get him off the bus because he was harassing me. The rest of the day, Hermana Pincay told me that she was going to practice looking intimidating, because she thought it was awesome. She would occasionally turn to me and say, "Don't touch me!" in Spanish, and then in English which of course made us both laugh.
I have to say, I miss Hermana Pincay. She was so good for a laugh, and we had such fun times together, and she was just so openly herself. It was sad to say goodbye to her this morning when we dropped her off at the offices, but I'm excited for a new transfer too.
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY!! I'm glad that Glo will be there to celebrate with you since, uh, I obviously can't be :-). Thanks for being born, because if you hadn't been born, maybe I wouldn't be born. Or maybe I would be born but to a really evil family. Or to Lex Luthor and I would be evil. I love you!
And I heard that BB2 could be anything now, girl or boy! That's fun! It'll be a surprise for all of us now, I guess ;-)
Okay, I love you all so much. I hope you have a great week, and that you're kind to each other. Thanks for your emails and words of encouragement!
With so much love,
Hermana Kennedy
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