Hi family, friends, enemies, animals, and aliens,
Well, here's my letter to President Murphy:
Buenas tardes, President Murphy,
Another good week here in Otavalo. I'm not actually sure that it's possible to have a bad week here, because I just love this place so much. For a lot of my mission, I have felt like I just didn't get to finish my Otavalo time because of my ankle, and I always wanted to come back, so I am SO grateful to be back here. I just love the people, and even though the work is still hard and sad sometimes, I just love it here, so it's okay.
That being said, the baptismal date we set with Jonathan and Christian fell through because they didn't come to church yesterday. We don't really know why, because we explained directly to them that in order to be baptized, they had to come yesterday. We aren't going to set another date with them until they start coming to church. We want them to realize that going to church isn't just until their baptism either, but that it's something they need to do every single week. We think that maybe their mom isn't as supportive of them as we thought. Yes, she says she wants them to be baptized, but she refuses to come to church despite everything that we explained last week, and we think that maybe on Sunday morning she makes her sons feel guilty for not going to Ibarra to help her, and so they choose their mom. I appreciate their loyalty, but it's just a little frustrating, because we feel like if she were really supportive of their decision, she would be encouraging them to go to church and come to Ibarra after church. This week, we are really going to focus on why we go to church: not so that we can be baptized, or so that we can come closer to God, but that it's really all about the sacrament. We want to focus in on the importance of the Atonement in their lives, and why they need to come to church. Maybe that'll help.
Melany Saransig is set to have her interview this Saturday. It's really wonderful to see the difference in her family now than when we first went to visit them. I felt a little uncomfortable because they seemed uncomfortable, and now we start out every lesson with a hymn, a prayer, and the lesson, and they are coming to church each week, and there is a happiness and a light in their home that wasn't there before. We are so excited to see how the Gospel is helping their life again. Melany will be baptized the 12th of May.
Christopher's date also fell through because it freaked him out a bit. We scheduled an appointment after the one where we set the date, we called him to confirm the appointment, but he told us that the church wasn't for him. We freaked out a bit, but we asked if we could meet with him and talk to him about it, and so we are going to focus in first on his role as a child of God. He told us that he supposes that God exists, but he hasn't ever had a spiritual experience or felt that he is important to God, and we think that that's maybe why the baptismal date scared him. He doesn't have a testimony of God or see why he would matter to God, so being baptized seemed like a lot. However, he's okay meeting with us, and we just need to help him feel the Spirit in his life.
We are working a lot with referrals right now. We have a couple of people with whom we are planning on setting dates this week, and all are referrals from members. Many of them are kids, but they have good support systems seeing as the majority of their parents are active members of the church and have attended church their whole life. But for some weird reason, they aren't baptized ;-)
We had two exchanges this week, and they were good. We have good hermanas here in Campo, and I'm proud of the work they are doing. Each one has something different to offer, and we are grateful to be working with them. We are working on calling them more throughout the week and sending them messages and everything so that they know that we are thinking about them. We aren't perfect hermana leaders, but we are working on being better and asking new plans each week to help the hermanas here. We have two Moronitas planned for this week with the central hermanas, as well as the Imbaya hermanas.
Thank you for all of the opportunities you have given me on my mission. Thank you for your counsel and your hard work. We appreciate all that you and Hermana Murphy do.
Have a wonderful week,
Hermana Kennedy
Okie dokie lokie. We are coming up on Hermana Carré's last two weeks! Super crazy, right? We are in Quito right now, because she has her final English certification exam tonight, and we have mission council tomorrow, so we headed to a shopping center and bought good food to celebrate. I like this companionship because it's just very chill. She goes out running with me in the morning, and we laugh a lot which is always good. I'll miss her when she leaves. I don't really like that I've had a different companion for the last three transfers. If they were bad companions, then yeah, that's fine ;-), but they're good companions, so it's kind of sad.
So Mother's Day. We still haven't heard anything from President Murphy about times or anything, and since Hermana Carré has to go to Quito on Mother's Day, we aren't sure if we are going to be calling Saturday or Sunday, but hopefully we will know soon.
So I went and had the traditional clothing made for me this week, because it costs the same as just buying it, and it actually fits me. However, the skirt part (the anaco) is a bit of a puzzle, and most women have been doing it since they were seven, so I have some catching up to do on putting it on, because it is a bit elaborate. But I had an hermana show me while I was doing it myself, and I've been practicing every morning, and I've almost got it! The front turns out really good now--it's just getting the back that I mess up. By the time I get home, Imma be a master!
We were heading back from church yesterday when we saw all of these people dressed all fancy, and a few younger looking people had those triangle things on that normally go over graduation robes (hoods?), so we thought, Oh, it must be a high school graduation or something. Made sense, right? But then I looked a little closer at the hood and saw written, Escuela de Conduccion. Yep, they had graduated from driving school! They had a whole graduation ceremony and everything. I wanted to walk in and be like, So, I already know how to drive, so can I get one of those fancy hoods too? Driving isn't super big here in South American unless you're actually planning on making a career as a taxi or truck driver, so very few people can drive. It's just funny sometimes seeing the difference between countries.
Also, yesterday as we were getting ready for church, we heard a giant BOOM outside, like a firework. You need to understand that we seriously live right on the Plaza de Ponchos which is the main thing here in Otavalo. We also live among the indigenous people. They speak Quichua, and when when men speak in Quichua to each other, they say "Waiki" which means "brother". However, it's a different word from man to woman, and woman to woman. Anyways, among the mission, any indigenous man with a braid is known as Waiki even though as women, we could never say that to them. Anyways, we look out the window, and see two older Waiki doing something that looks very dangerous. In other words, it's something Daddy would do. I'm definitely starting to understand why Daddy belongs to the tribe of Manasseh ;-). They have homemade fireworks, and they stick them in a beer bottle, light them up, and the rocket goes shooting sideways. Not up, but sideways. There isn't any fire or anything, but I'm thinking, what is going to happen if that hits anyone? After a little while, they took a rest and went down another street. Who knows what happened next?
I had what was probably the sweetest moment yet of my mission this week. So again, Quichua is big here, and I really want to learn it. Honestly, when people speak, it sounds like Chinese. It's crazy and very complicated, but I'm working on learning it. Anyways, we had lunch on Thursday with a very indigenous family, and I hate when we go in, and they start speaking Quichua, so I try to keep asking questions so that they can't start talking about us. But I asked them if they knew any songs in Quichua. I didn't know if maybe they had folk songs, or lullabies, or something, but after we finished eating, the Hermana Valentina heads into another room, and I thought, "Okay, well we will leave then," (because everyone else had already left the table), when she comes back holding a book. Otavalo ward used to be conducted strictly in Quichua, because that's all that anybody understood, but the Church has been transitioning the Quichua wards here into Spanish, because that's what the majority of people here speak. However, it meant that a few Quichua hymnals were printed for the members. They are few and far between, and I've only ever seen two, but Hermana Valentina came back holding one. She sat down close to me, opened the book and said, "Let's sing, Hermana." I sat there and sang hymns in Quichua with her for about twenty minutes. I thought that she just wanted to sing one, but she just kept turning the page. I would look at the notes and figure out the melody, and then we would restart together, singing in Quichua. It was so beautiful. I understood like one word out of it all, and I messed up the pronunciation in a few places, but music really is a universal language. It doesn't matter if you speak or understand the language or not, because you can still feel the Spirit. Sitting there, singing with a little old lady in her native language singing about the Savior? How could you NOT feel the Spirit? And other family members felt it too. One was cleaning up the table, and she would pick things up really quietly or push the chairs in really softly, because it was just a sweet moment. And of all things, Hermana Valentina has a beautiful voice. Sometimes, as missionaries, we focus so much on investigators and converts, but members need those spiritual moments too. They need to feel their Savior's love and that's why I love having lunch with members. Yes, sometimes they give us interesting food, or it's hard to make conversation, but I love being able to share moments with them. And Hermana Valentina said that she would let us borrow her hymnal sometime and make copies, but only if we promise to return it. I feel a little scared even having it leave her house because to me, it's so precious, but I'll have to ask her this week.
I love music. I love being able to contribute something in that way, because music isn't really a big thing here, but people love it.
I really love being a missionary. Yes, I'm not constantly exhausted, and it's sad when people decide that they don't want the Gospel in their lives, but there are those moments that just make it all worth while. It's a beautiful work, and I wouldn't be here if the church weren't true. Always pray to know if the church is true, if nothing else then to strengthen our testimony of it. Read The Book of Mormon. It teaches us more about the Atonement and the divine gift of God in sending his beloved son here to earth.
I love you all. Give Hootie a big huge for me. I miss that fat cat. I have a picture of him in my agenda, and I show it to anyone who says that they love cats too :-). Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Hermana Kennedy
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