Hermana Kennedy and Yu-Gi-Oh My Goodness, That's a Toucan!

Hi family!  Here's my letter to President:

Buenas tardes, President Murphy,

Well, it was a great week here in Santa Anita.  First, Rene passed his baptismal interview!  And he has told us about possible situations which worry him this upcoming week.  Last Friday, he actually asked us to walk him home, because he knew his friends would be out drinking, and he knew that with us, they wouldn't come near him.  And at church on Sunday, he told us that that night, his family was attending a last goodbye to someone who died, and he knew that everyone would be drinking, and he asked us what to do.  He wanted to be with his family, but he is so scared of messing up, so we asked if anyone would be there that he knew would not be drinking.  He told us that his mom is part of another church and she doesn't drink, so we told him to stick close to her, and I gave him something called a worry stone.  It's basically just a rock with a mark in it that you rub when you're worried, because we wanted him to have something physical to touch to remember what was most important.  He is so excited, but with that he is so nervous.  We have appointments set up with him, or for him to accompany us each night so that he's busy when he comes home from work.

We are going to set a baptismal date with Franklin this week.  We have been a little hesitant to do so before, because his understanding is very slow, but we decided that he isn't going to progress just coming to church.  So that's the plan and we have a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) planned with him and Rene on Thursday.  We also met someone named Hugo this week.  He actually contacted us as he was coming out of his niece's home.  We were talking to her, and he just told us that he's looking for the true church. He then told us that he would come to church that Sunday.  However, Saturday we were out contacting, and we found his house!  He let us in and we taught him and his sister-in-law, and the next day, we stopped by someone else's house to pick them up and we hear, "Buenos dias!"  We turned around and there he was, dressed up and with his Book of Mormon in his hand.  He told us he would see us at the chapel.  He stayed for all three hours, and at the end, he told us that he knew without a doubt that this is the true church.  We are planning on setting a baptismal date with him for the end of March or the beginning of April. He also told the elders during Priesthood that he wanted home teachers :-)

I love Hermana Knapp.  I love that she just wants to work.  We have so much fun, and I'm finding so much joy in the work with her.  We share the responsibilities and she is helping me be more like Christ.  She loves everyone and really connects to them on a personal level, and people love her for that.  Her health has been improving a little which is awesome.  I just love her and I love working with her.

I love this sector.  I think some people have bad feelings about this sector, but I love it here.  It's beautiful, and we find people and God works miracles here.  We have good investigators, and I love having the chapel so close.  Even though people are busy, they are still willing to listen.

Thank you for your example and hard work.  We pray for you and Hermana Murphy.  We love you both, and we hope you have a wonderful week!

Hermana Kennedy

Okie dokie lokie.  Pray a lot for Rene please.  We want him to baptized, and he wants to be baptized, and we are so worried and excited for him because we just really, really want him to make it!  My goodness, we say about ten prayers a day just for him.

So this week, we met with an investigator.  Her name is Alexander, and she's cute.  She has an 11-year-old son named Axel.  So we go by their house this week, and they let us in and we teach them and I start to talk to Axel about superheroes and stuff.  I notice that he had some Yugioh cards on the table, so I ask if he plays, and he goes off, telling us all about them and stuff, but then asks if we can

translate some of the cards for him (because they're in English).  So I was like, sure.  But there wasn't time to do them all right there, so Hermana Knapp offers for us to do it at home.  And by us, she meant me.  So, we took his cards home, and I spent an hour and half translating these silly cards with words like "special summoner" and "fairy warrior".  Goodness me....

Also, we are in Zona Quito which means we have the office elders in our zone, and their P-Day is Saturday, so we got permission from President as a zone to change our P-Day to Saturday (but we still write home on Monday).  So on Saturday, we headed to Mindo.  It was actually part of my sector in Mitad del Mundo, but we never went there because it was two hours by bus.  But it's super hot there because it's lower in altitude, and boy is it humid!  It's like your typical tropical feel.  But we have always heard about the birds there, and I was like, I just want to see a wild toucan.  The elders knew about this zipline basket that takes you over the jungle, so we went up there, and it was so cool!  Seriously, like if this thing fell, we would definitely die.  It's kind of like a ski lift, but open and Ecuadorian, with no thought for personal safety.  It went super fast and we got to look all over the jungle.  After we went to the other side, we hiked down to a waterfall, and man was it nice to sweat.

I'm sweating now in the mornings when we go running, but I felt like I had seriously exercised after hiking that!  And it's nice knowing that my ankle is okay and I can do things again like run and hike.  The waterfall was fine, but the hike was beautiful because it was all tropical and stuff, and as we were walking back, it started raining for which I was grateful, because no one could tell if I was sweating or just wet.  My face was very red though #AlwaysAKennedy. So we hiked back up the mountain to the zipline basket, and I was a little scared.  I don't have a fear of heights, but I do have a fear of dying, so I said a little prayer before, and as we were flying out to the end of the world, Hermana Knapp yells, "THERE'S A TOUCAN!!"  I was like "WHERE???????"  She pointed it out to me and there was indeed a toucan.  A little present from God.  Isn't He cool?

I just love Hermana Knapp.  We laugh so much, and we talk, and we are there for each other, and I love just being a missionary with her.  We work and walk and talk and it's all fun.  It's been hard since coming back to the mission to feel truly happy, because I just feel like I lost so much confidence when I was sent home, but Hermana Knapp helps me feel relaxed and happy and like everything is going to be okay.  We talk about everything, and we just love being missionaries.

Okay, that's a lot.  I love you all so much, and I can't wait to hear from you all next week, especially if there's a new Kennedy <3

I love you!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy