Hermana Kennedy and Nothing Says Love Like a Dead Guinea Pig

Hi family!  Here's my email to President:

Buenas tardes, Presidente,

Well, the work continues here in Otavalo!  José passed his baptismal interview on Sunday, so he will be getting baptized on Saturday at 7 p.m.  He and Diana have their marriage appointment with registro civil on Friday at 1:30 p.m.  We are so excited for them.  José really wants to know everything, and even though he has doubts, he still knows that this is the truth.  We were a little worried about tithing, because he was making a little bit of a fuss about it, but he is learning a lot about trusting in God and His commandments, and he says that he knows that he will continue learning little by little and doesn't need to perfectly understand everything right now.  We so appreciate the fellowship that the ward has given him, and they are all asking to go to their wedding on Friday.

We also have Milton Yaselga for the 7th of July.  We are just a little worried because all of last week he was in Quito with his older brother, and so we are going to need to teach him the big commandments and lesson 5 this week.  His mom is all good with his date and everything.  We thought she might freak out because she still thought his date was far away last week, but she knows that he will have his interview this Saturday and be baptized next week, and she is really happy.  I love seeing how baptizing these kids also helps their families become active in the church again. It happened with Melanie, and now with Milton.  Even though he couldn't come because he was in Quito, his mom and three older sisters all came to church yesterday.

Adrian is also progressing really well for the 14th of July.  If we just teach really simply, and do a lot of follow-up right there in the lessons after we teach a principle, he's fine.  He retains the information well when we use examples that he can understand, so it really is about the teaching style.  He is at church every week with his family.

We were able to set a baptismal date with Joselyn Bautista this week.  She's an antiguo whom we found in the Latino carpeta, and she's great.  She comes to church every week, and even though she's a little nervous, she accepted a date for the 4th of August.  She was actually going to San Pablo for a while (even though she lives in Centenario) because her friends all go there.  We are working on finding fellowshippers for her in Latino, and actually we have another investigator about her age, so we are trying to help them get to know one another, because we are planning setting a date with Daniella this week too.  So, we hope that they can go through the conversion process together.

I love this sector.  We see so many miracles here, and I'm so grateful to be finishing my mission here. I'm excited to finish training and to help someone else start here.  I'll do my best to help her as well as the other companionships of hermanas.  Thank you for the opportunities you have given me on my mission.  I won't let you down.

Thank you for your example too.  I know that this is the truth, and that there is no other way whereby we can come to know our Savior than His church.  I love being a missionary.

Have a great week,
Hermana Kennedy

Also, from my letter last week, President sent me this:

Gracias, Hermana Kennedy.  I can't wait for you to get back to a nice keyboard!

You'll do great as you finish your mission, sprinting, helping a new Hermana and also other Hermanas en el campo.  Keep up the great work.

So sassy.  Thankfully, I have a nice keyboard today.  I guess I just can't type anymore ;-)

Okay, well this week was full of ups and downs.  Let's start with the downs, shall we?

So, on Wednesday I got a call from Hermana Willis, an hermana from my group who's a really good friend.  She told me that due to some crazy weird stuff, she has to go home for health problems.  It was like my situation.  Within three days, she found out that she has to leave.  And since Hermana Knapp is also going home for her health, that means that yesterday we had to say goodbye to them.  We had a self-sufficiency training with our whole group, so Hermana Moss and I had to say goodbye to them, and it was awful.  Hermana Knapp and Hermana Willis were both laughing and having so much fun, and Hermana Moss and I were just crying and miserable.  Like, it just doesn't feel right.  We love them so much, and we always imagined being there the last night together, and seeing each other off at the airport, and now they're gone.  We know that their health is way more important, but it's also super sad.

Also, could you guys please pray for Mariana and her family?  I don't know if you guys remember but she's my convert from San Pablo, the one who got baptized after I got sent home.  Her son, Richard, had health problems with his heart and lungs, and on Saturday night we found out that he died.  It was really sudden.  I went to go see them and it was awful.  Her husband is Catholic, so there were all these strangers in their house with the coffin on lifts with a huge cross and everything, and Mariana and her daughter, Abby, were just in another room, crying.  Abby was asking why it's like this.  She just lost her brother, and all these people are there, and the woman talking doesn't even know Richard's name.  It was really awful, and I cried all night.  He was my friend, and I feel so awful that I didn't get to say goodbye.  Please just pray for their family.

So, I will be finishing my mission here in Otavalo as an hermana leader, and I'm training a new missionary for just six weeks.  President is trying something out.  There are 12 hermanas who are coming to the mission, so all the hermana leaders are going to be training...and still function as hermana leaders. And....Hermana Bustos and Hermana Caceres are also training!!!!  I'm so dang proud of them!  Like, seriously so excited for them!  Say lots of prayers for all of us!

Inty Raimi (San Juan) has begun here.  That's the festival where everyone dances in the streets, and as it turns out, my experience last year in San Pablo was tame.  Saturday night was when it really started, and seeing that we live on the street with Plaza de Ponchos, it meant that everyone in Otavalo had come out and was singing and dancing until 5 a.m. on Sunday.  Everyone was burning stuff and crazy stuff like that.

However, earlier on in the week, we heard singing outside of our window, and we saw what at first we thought was San Juan, but you should know that the indigenous people here have a tradition for a marriage proposal:  they have to bring fifty pounds of food to the girl's house along with dead and live animals, and fruits, and bread, and potatoes.  So when we looked out the window, we saw a line of people carrying racks of dead chickens and guinea pigs, swinging back and forth, with a live sheep on a leash, and trucks full of fruits and drinks and potatoes behind the people.  The other day, an hermana was talking to us and said that her son doesn't want to get married, but he came up and argued that he does want to get married, but he wants a girl who doesn't want all of that ceremony because it's silly.  The hermana was so exasperated with him, but we had a good laugh.

I've gotten to be companions for the last two days with Hermana Moss, and it is so fun.  She's the other girl from my MTC group, and we have always wanted to be companions, but it never happened (which is okay). On Sunday night, I stayed with her and her companion, and we made tacos at night, and sang together, and just talked.  Yesterday, we had to go to training, and then we came back to Otavalo to go to appointments, and one of her investigators said that we should just stay companions because she can see how happy we are.  And we are together today until we pick up our trainees tomorrow.  I just love that the mission has helped me make such good friends.

I ugly-cried.

I am so freaking tall.

Doesn't Hermana Giles have the cutest family ever?

And speaking of good friends, I got to see Hermana Giles this week!  She came back with her family, and they are so cute, and she brought me a three pound jar of PEANUT BUTTER!!! I just about died!

And Mama, I'm so glad that Michigan is turning out to be so good with friends and everything.  And tasty food.  There will still be some for me, right? Because chicken and rice are starting to uninterest me.  Chicken here is really good, but I miss the variety.  And I'm really hoping that the lungs I've gotten here stay with me.  Running isn't too bad here anymore, but I think Ethan and Mark's overly long wingspans will give them a win in a pool over any lung capacity I have, but who knows?


Okay, I love you guys!  I can't believe that the mission is coming to an end, but I'm really grateful that I'm training, because I really think it'll help me keep going until the very last moment.  Look for pics with my new trainee from President Murphy--I guess we'll find out who she is together!  I love you guys.  Pray for me.  I'm just really, really tired.

Love,
Hermana Kennedy

Hermana Kennedy (top row, right) and the trainers with their new trainees.

Here's Hermana Bustos with her new companion, and look at what she's wearing?
It's the dress you sent her for Christmas, Mama!