December 15, 2014

Diez dias mas hasta Navidad!

Hola Todos

     This week has been frustrating and rewarding at the same time. I feel like there is a lot of progress happening with the members of the Branch and I feel like I have progressed so much with my Spanish and with how to serve the members and how to let them know that I love them. But it's frustrating because I feel like nothing is happening. It feels like were running around in circles like chickens with our heads cut off just hoping and praying that someone gets baptized. We haven't been able to see the family that we had on date for 

Christmas Eve so now they won't be able to be baptized that day, super sad.

     But on a brighter note, this week my testimony that the Lord picks the Leaders in the KWM was strengthened so much. Sister Fairbourn came on exchanges here and I loved it. I was a little nervous at first since she doesn't speak Spanish and would be all alone with out anyone to help me but the Gift of Tongues is REAL and everything went great! We also did everything that we were supposed to (talk to absolutely everyone, invite for baptism, work hard, and follow the Spirit). It was awesome! She helped me so much because I was able to see what can happen in this area as we continually strive to keep all of the commitments that have been given to us. Now I just have to do it without her here. We also had our District Leader Interviews this week, we talk with our District Leader about goals for area, problems, etc... it's pretty much just like a interview with President Bell but it happens every transfer). Elder Ibarra is awesome and I am so glad that I get to have him as a district leader before he goes home. I am learning so much from all of the other wonderful missionaries here and I feel so blessed to be here in Wichita West Spanish. I know that these trails are only going to strengthen my faith and are for my benefit. I just need to stay diligent and the blessings will come.

     And I love serving here in Wichita because it's awesome AND because I keep seeing members from Newton!! At the branch Chirstmas party the Medina family showed up and I just about died!! I love them so much and I know for sure that my jaw hit the ground when they walked in! Tender Mercies of the Lord!!! :)

     So Hna Wilks and I have been super excited for Christmas but we totally don't want it to be Christmas because then we won't get to do Christmas-y stuff anymore. And I can not believe that there's only ten more days until Christmas!!! Ah, so crazy!!!! Where has December gone?!? Ojala que todos de ustedes tengan una buena Navidad!!!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

Pics:

Zone Picture for #SharetheGift
Elder Snow, just one of our many decorations for Chirstmas! :)
Racoon that Sister Fairbourn and I ran into while tracting

December 8, 2014

Christmas craziness!

Hola mis queridos!

     This week went by sooo fast! Which is really good because it means that you are working hard and being obedient!

     We had a huge miracle on Thursday! We had been challenged by our Zone Leaders to invite two people to be baptized by the end of the day. We had one family in mind that we knew that they were ready to accept an invitation to be baptized and that it would help them progress. But we had the hardest time finding them at home. We finally caught them at home at 8:15 pm. We taught them the first half of the Restoration and asked them a lot of inspired questions. It was awesome! The spirit was so strong and they expected a baptismal date for Nochebuena! We are so excited for them!! Jose y Ernestina and their two kids also came to an activity that the Wichita Stake was having this weekend. It was an exhibition of different nativities from all over the world. It was actually a lot of fun, I was surprised to be honest with you. They loved it and we showed them around the church and they really had a great time. I also got to see the Ellsworth family and a few other families from Newton there at the activity!! The Lord's Tender Mercies are the BEST!!!!!!!!!!

     Our Saturday was crazy! The Stake activity lasted from Friday night until Saturday night and they had missionaries ushering and helping out the whole time! Hna Wilks and I went over to the activity that morning to help the branch with a Christmas musical thing that they were doing for the activity. Side note; I think I've played the piano more in the last 10 months on my mission than in the last two years before my mission! It went over pretty well considering how tone deaf our little branch is. :) You gotta love them though! After that we went and got lunch then it was back to the Nativity thing to help usher. Then right after that we went over to the City Building to help with and Christmas activity that they were having over there. Phew! It was a crazy day full of service!

     Sunday we went Caroling with one of the members and her boyfriend to a bunch of their non-member family and friends. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of different people that way. The night ended by watching the Christmas Devotional, in Spanish. Man did that first lady talk fast I understood like nothing! The other two were a little bit slower so I got what they were saying. Just goes to show me that I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to my Spanish.

     I love you all so much and I hope that you are having a wonderful Christmas time! Remember that He (Jesucristo) is the gift and the reason for the season!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

December 1, 2014

Me encanta español!

Hola Todos!

     This week was definitely one of the harder weeks on my mission! But also a very good week. It was so so hard to leave Garden City! I love that place so much! Ugh! It's crazy how hard it is to leave a place that you love so much. It was especially hard to say goodbye to Consuelo. Aw! Thinking about it makes me tear up!

     I was so surprised that I could get everything packed that I needed to in just one day! Man, do you accumulate a lot of stuff as a missionary! The transfer devotional was good as usual and I got to see Hna Seigfried and Hna Wheadon which totally brightened my day!
I'm not gonna lie the first few days in the Wichita West Spanish Branch were rough! We cover a HUGE area! All of Wichita Stake! So we have a long of ground to cover... except we didn't have any miles to do so. :( So we rode our bike over 30 miles Wednesday and Thursday! Ugh!! I was so tired!! Thanksgiving was a little rough, not gonna lie. It was hard not to think about Garden City and what I would've been doing there. But Heavenly Father helped me get over it and get to work and by the end of the day I was really grateful for the Thanksgiving that I did have.

     It's so different being in a Branch! I'm so used to serving around tons of members and missionaries so adjusting to how small the support network is here was actually a little lonely. But going to church on Sunday and meeting most of the members really helped.
I can not even begin to explain to you how much my Spanish has grown since I got here. It's like serving in a Spanish Branch just opens up the flood gates to the gift of tongues. There's also a lot of responsibility when you serve in a branch, super glad I'm not an Elder because they're the branch presidents counselors! But I played the piano in sacrament meeting and I gave a surprise talk, was orginally supposed to be a short testimony, in sacrament meeting. 

     All of these experiences reminded me of how much I've grown in the last few months and it's incredible to see! I am so grateful of all of the wonderful blessings and gifts that Heavenly Father has given me. So even though there's hard times Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there for me strengthening me and helping me become better person in Christ!

     I love you all so much and I am so grateful to be a missionary here in the sacred land of Kansas! Heavenly Father is aware of all of his children here. I love this work and I am so grateful for my Savior! Keep the faith and let your light shine!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

Pic:
We were so cold after biking Wednesday night that we filled the tub up with warm water and planned with our feet in the tub!

November 24, 2014

Adios Garden City :(

Hola Todos,

Sorry, this email is going to be sort. But like my title said I won't be staying in Garden City. :( I've loved all of my time here and I have learned so much from all of the wonderful people that are out here in Western Kansas I hope one day that I'll get to come back!

So this week we did a lot of tracking and I am so glad that it was better weather this week because we were out and about all week long! April and Cesar are doing so good! They are still progressing towards their baptismal date! The only problem is that April's divorce looks like it's going to take a few months but hopefully Hna Guillen can get permission from Pres Bell to baptize them earlier as long as they are living the Law of Chastity.
Well that's really all the time I've got for my email this week :( I love you all so much!

Con AmorHermana Kammeyer

November 17, 2014

I could just cry... of Happiness!!! :)

Hola Todos!

     This week was amazing!!!!! It started off a little rough because we were struggling with how to exactly be a full-purpose missionary. Which we learned last week in Zone Conference and that pretty much just means that we need to be Finding, Teaching, Activating, Retaining, and Baptizing (or working towards it) in every moment of the day. Which is a lot harder than it sounds. But it's all good we're a little bit better on it now but we are still working on that.

     On Thursday we had to drive to Great Bend Kansas which is like two hours away so we could have a meeting with President Schwitzer who is a member of the second qourum of the seventy. He was touring our mission and he gave some trainings on using the Book of Mormon and it was amazing and it helped me so much! Even since then Hna Guillen and I have been focusing so much on Jesus Christ and how the Book of Mormon helps us come unto him. President Bell gave us a challenge to read the Book of Mormon before Christmas eve and he gave us two marking pencils Red- to mark scriptures about Christ and His Atonement and Green- to mark scriptures about faith. It's called the "Noche Blanca" (White Night- for all of the baptisms that we'll have on Christmas eve) Book of Mormon challenge and it has been so much fun for me. It's awesome how the scriptures come alive when you are looking for things as you read them. It's also been cool for me to see Hna Guillen getting really into this, she's been reading the Book of Mormon every free second she has! And the Spirit has been sooo much stronger with us these last few days.

     Heavenly Father has given us so many miracles, especially yesterday! We had a girl named Celine come into church without knowing anyone or anything about the church! It was awesome! She even stayed for the full three hours!!! So now she's a new investigator. Then later that night we went and saw Consuelo's son Cesar and his girlfriend April and they are just so ready to have the gospel in their lives! I almost cried like 3 times during that lesson because I just love them so much and I could feel the Spirit so strongly. They are on date for the 20th of December because they have to get divorce papers signed by April's ex-husband. But I'm not even worried because I have seen Heavenly Father do so many miracles for his children as they work to get baptized on my mission that I have no doubt that everything will work out and that they can get baptized on that date if not sooner.

     I love my mission so much! Thank you all for your love and support! Keep the faith and let your light shine!!!

Con Amor,

                                       Hermana Kammeyer

Pics:
Sunrise on the way to Great Bend. The Sky is always the best part of Kansas

November 10, 2014

How did they do Missionary Work without Cellphones?

Hola, Todos!

    Well, this week didn't go as well as last week, unfortunately. :( We are improving everyday but it just didn't show in our numbers which was super disappointing and I am just trying to focus on the good rather than get wrapped up in the bad. :)

     On Friday we had Zone Conference which was really good and I learned a lot! They talked a lot about listening to the Spirit and teaching according to His voice and not by what you think is best. It was something that I definitely needed to hear and I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ because I can become a better missionary through Him. I'm also grateful for the Atonement because I had a head cold that day and I had been praying during the first half and hour or so that I would be well enough to listen and feel the Spirit so I could know what to improve on. He definitely answered my prayers and took away my cold for the Conference so I could learn those things that I needed to. 

     

     The bad part was that my cold came back right after it was done. :( And I lost the Cellphone.... yeah, missionary work is really hard when you don't have a phone. But no worries we should be getting a new one sometime this week... hopefully. :)
Other than that not too much happened this week. We are still working hard to find those people who we've been sent here to help receive the gospel. I love my mission so much and how it's making me into a better person and helping me come close to my Savior Jesus Christ. This is one of my most favorite scriptures and I just thought that I would share it with you because this is how I feel right now, and my email is pretty short. :)

     "Therefore, let us glory, yea we will glory in the Lord; year, we will rejoice, for our joy is full;yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."

-Alma 26:16

     I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your love and support! Keep the faith and let your light shine!!

Con Amor:

Hermana Kammeyer

November 3, 2014

 Total 180 from Last Week!

Hola, mis queridos!

     The week was AWESOME! It's amazing how much repentance changes things! As you know the last few week with Hna Guillen were a little rough. But we talked it out and repented and tried so much harder to do the Lord's will, be humble and work together. Not only could you see a drastic change in our numbers from last week but also in our attitude and level of happiness through out the week. It was a real testimony builder for me on how Heavenly Father only gives you challenges to help you be stronger!

     On Wednesday we had the annual Ward Trunk-o-Treat and it was great! Hna Guillen and I have been passing out invitations like crazy and getting members to invite their friends to it as well for like the past three weeks or so. There was a huge turn out and it was so fun to see all of the members in their Halloween Costumes. A ton of less actives showed up and even some of our investigators!We also had exchanges with the STL's and I stayed in Garden City and Sister Judy came here. It was a great exchange and she helped me out a lot and I am just so grateful for the wonderful leaders that we have in the mission.

     So Halloween was pretty boring actually.  :( We had dinner with a family of recent converts and the Elders. After dinner the Elders stayed to help them pass out candy and Hna Guillen and I felt a little like third wheelers so we left and went to the Mexican store and bought a bunch of Mexican Candy and then we went to back to our house (because if you didn't have an appointment you needed to be in your house). We actually had so treak-o-treaters and we passed out the candy that the members had been giving us through out the week for Halloween (those kids were not going to get the good stuff a.k.a. Mexican candy ).

     The highlight of the week definitely had to be when Consuelo was baptized on Sunday. Her baptism was originally planned to be on Saturday but the wife of the old Stake President passed away so there were having her funeral on Saturday. It was okay though because it gave us more time to get everything ready for Sunday. The whole service was in Spanish and it was AWESOME!!!! It was both mine and Hna Guillen's first Spanish baptism. There was a ton of none Spanish members there so it was cool to see them with the headphones on for the translation. Consuelo is so wonderful and I am so excited for her and I feel so privileged to have been apart of that whole process, from finding to teaching then to seeing her be baptized!

      Thank you all so much for your prayers and for your support! Keep the faith and let your light shine! Les amo muchisimo!!!
Con Amor:

Hermana Kammeyer

Pictures;
Consuelo on her baptismal day.
Hna Guillen and I with Consuelo the day before her baptism.
The Elders serving here in Garden City (and Emily) at the Trunk-o-Treat having fun with the fake mustaches that Mom sent me.

October 27, 2014

Be ye Humble...

Hola Todos!

     This week has been super humbling for me. So I'm not gonna lie, this last transfer with Hermana Guillen has been super rough but I've been trying to keep going and just tough it out instead of facing the problem and trying to fix it like I should have. But Hermana Guillen had enough courage to address the fact that we really need to change because our attitudes and the way we treat each other because it is really affecting the work here in Garden City. Over the last few days we've been trying to fix the problem and rely on the Lord and do His will not ours. Changing is rough but I know that we have a huge potential and if we can put our differences behind us and strive to do the Lord's work I know that these next four weeks could be the greatest ones of our missions.

     The miracle for this week is that our investigator named Consuelo, who's on date forthis Saturday, quit her job. I know that sounds like a strange miracle but it allowed her to come to Church yesterday and we now have enough time during this week to finish teaching her everything before her baptism on Saturday!! Even though we've been struggling lately Heavenly Father continues to bless us with so many wonderful miracles.

     So last week I was asked to play the Piano in primary and I guess they think I have some musical skills because I had to teach singing time yesterday, I definitely didn't think I would have to do that on my mission! The theme was missionary work so it worked out great that I taught it. I taught the junior primary how to sing "Army of Helaman" and the Senior Primary how to sing "Called to Serve." It was a lot of fun and it went really well especially since I only had like one hour to prepare for it. :)

     I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week and a happy Halloween! Keep up the good work and let your light shine!

Love,

Hermana Kammeyer

October 20, 2014

Consuelo! :)

Hola Todos!

     Another week down here in Garden City. It's crazy how fast time flies!! This week we spent a lot of time with our investigator named Consuelo! She's amazing! She came to the big Ward Mexican Fiesta that happened when I first got here and we met her at Church the next day but we haven't really been able to meet with her until this last week because she's been out of town training for her new job as assistant manager at Ulta Beauty! (It's like frosting on the cake that she works at my favorite store!!) Anyways we started meeting with her regularly this week and I just love her so much! She has such a strong desire to be baptized and have a stronger relationship with God it just blows me away! She's awesome and I can't wait until her baptism!

     In other news this week we got to have a lot of the other Sisters in the Zone here on Wednesday due to transfers. Two other sisters and I were visiting less actives that our Relief Society President wanted us to check up on. And one of them was in the Psych-ward of an retirement home. Let me tell you it was way weird! The lady we "talked" to had dementia and was trying to make a run for it the whole time! Talk about stressful!! :)

     All is well here in the heartland of America! I'm loving my mission and I feel so blessed to be able to serve the people here in Garden City! Love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Hermana Kammeyer 

P.S. I forgot to tell you last week but I met Sheri Dews mom at Sake Conference! She's so cute and hilarious!! :)


Pics:
Giant Spider we found outside of Walgreens! It was sooooooooo BIG!!!!
Hna Guillen likes to find ways to workout while we go tracking :)

October 13, 2014

Stake Conference

Hola, todos! :)

     This week we had interviews with President Bell and Stake Conference! So this weekend was super packed! Interviews went great! It was good to talk to President Bell and my interview was longer than 2 minutes this time! :) The AP's also gave a great training on Nourishing our faith and how to have better studies. They totally answered so many of my prayers during that training it was awesome! The next day we had the Adult Session of Stake Conference and there was so many people there from out of town. There was also a dinner before hand which was great! :) It felt really weird being in the adult session but I guess I'm a big kid now, right? Sunday Session felt really long but maybe that was because I was already there for two hours before the meeting even started. We had four investigators at Church and one of them was an RLDS. So that was exciting. It's a little weird because she already knows all of the stories from the Book of Mormon.

Then after Conference we had a huge miracle! It was eight o'clock and most of our investigators weren't available. So we prayed for direction on who we could go visit and invite to be baptized because we needed one more for standard. Hna Guillen had an impression that we should go visit Fernando and his mom Idalia. Before this lesson Idalia wasn't too keen on being baptized and Fernando wanted to wait until he was 40 (he's twelve right now) to be baptized. But the Spirit was so strong that they accepted a baptismal date for the 25 of October! This experience has really strengthen my testimony on how important it is to always work hard and have the Spirit in your lessons because it can work miracles in the hearts of your investigators!

This week is transfers but no worries, I get to stay in Garden City! :) I love this place and I'm excited to keep seeing miracles everyday! And Hna Guillen is still my Companion too! :) I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Hermana Kammeyer 

Pic: The Spanish Missionaries who were at Stake Conference

October 6, 2014

Conference!! :)

Hola!

     This week was definitely better than last week! Heavenly Father gave me so much help through out this week, especially through the Mission Leaders here in Garden City! 

     Tuesday we had a awesome District Meeting and I was reminded of how glorious and wonderful it is to be a missionary and I was given the motivation that I needed to carry on. 

     Then on Friday we had Zone Conference and through the training that the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders gave I was able to realize the things that I need to be doing better. It was so good! And then we watched.... can I get a drum roll.... Meet the Mormons! It was awesome!!! And it was so cool to see! And it also reminded me of the results of missionary work, because almost everyone was a convert in that movie.

     Conference was also the Bomb!! I took so many notes!!! We were able to have two of our investigators at both sessions of Conference on Sunday. It was awesome! And all of the talks that were given in Spanish I listened to in Spanish and I could understand all of it!! Woot Woot!!! It was amazing to think back on were I was six month ago at the last conference. I never would've been able to understand a Conference Talk in Spanish! So even though my Spanish isn't were I want it to be I just need to remember that Heavenly Father Has blessed me so much and he will continue to bless me I just need to remember to be patient and to do my part.

      Sorry for the short email this week but it's getting hard to write long emails as more time passes on my mission. But I hope you are all doing well! Keep up the good work and let your light shine! :)

Love,

Hermana Kammeyer

September 29, 2014

Tender Mercies :)

Hola Todos!

     So this week has been filled with it's ups and downs. Future note: Don't ever pray for challeneges no matter how much you want to grow!!! Because Heavenly Father does give you what you ask him for! This week I've had a lot of trouble with Spanish and staying positive and focused and ..... just lots of stuff. But Heavenly Father is always there with his Tender Mercies. So I'm going to tell you about those instead of just what happened everyday this week! :)

     This week we were carless! Now that doesn't sound like a Tender Mercy to most people but I love it when we don't have the car! The car always seems like it just sucks the energy right out of me and it doesn't feel like we're working as hard. But when were biking I get to be outside in the Sun and I get to work hard andI'm realizing all of those indorphines! I just love coming back to the apartment at the end of the day and feeling sore and drop dead tired!! It makes me feel like I've really been working hard, espeacially since we biked like 10+ miles a day! :)

     I've also had a lot of time to write in my journal this week! Which is a wonderful release! And it's also good for me to look back on how I was a few months ago and to realize
 that I have grown sooo much!

     We met a lot of more members from the Garden City Ward. They are so awesome and I just love how excited they are about missionary work! And how they love all of the missionaries who are serving here so much! We also had a great Sports night with the members and our investigators! They're crazy about soccer here! :)

     Heavenly Father gave me one of the most funny experiences of my whole mission this week too! Hna. Guillen had an appointment that canceled so we decided to go tracting in a near by "apartment" complex, they were more like huts than apartments. And there was this old black guy sitting out of his house and waved us over. We started talking to him and it was pretty clear that he has had trouble with the Word of Wisdom. He started talking to us about how he had been to our church before and then he started to say things like this, "Ya should tell your church that ya shouldn't invite people to be baptized. It scares people off, ya know that's peer pressure. Ya'd have more people attending too. Ya should tell your pator that." (So I already thought this was pretty funny but it gets even better!) As we are talking to him about this two of this friends come over and they start talking and it's like three different conversations. One of his friends was this really white girl and she had problems with the Word of Wisdom too. And she starts saying things like " Oh, your Mormons! I love Mormons! Your movies are great and your Bible too. I really like the resume! It's so good." And we were like "Resume...?" Then she was like "I just spoke in tongues and you know what they're telling me right now... You need to follow your religion and get married to a nice young man." Then the old black guy chimes in again and he's all, "Will you marry me?" To me!!! I said, "No thank you, I'm good" And he replied, "Is it because I'm black? Cuz that's racist. Is it because I'm old? Cuz that's racist too!" Then the white girl pipes in and says,"You wanna know what's racist?" Then she whips off her shirt and shows a tattoo of a Confederate Flag in a heart on her back!! During this whole encounter Hna Guillen was just laughing while I had to talk to them!! I wanted to laugh so hard during this whole thing too!
So I guess I can check getting proposed to off my life experiences list! :) Haha, so even though things were rough this week Heavenly Father has always been there to give me the pick me up that I needed. :)

 I Love you all and I hope you have a great week

Something to make you smile! :)

Something to make you smile! :)

The cutest little boy EVER! His name is Porter Tex Glade. He is the son of one of the members here and he is the best little talker ever!

September 22, 2014

This week in Garden City
 Hola!

     This week we mostly spent getting to know our area, since we both have only been here for a short time. We visited most of the past Sisters Investigators and a lot of the members. This Ward is huge though so we still feel like we don't know anyone! But that's okay it's better to have too many members than not enough members! :)
 

     On Tuesday we had Sisters Conference, so all of the Sisters from the Liberal, Garden City, Wichita, and Newton Zones came to Dodge City (which is an hour away from Garden). So I got to see Sister Wheadon again, yeah!, and a lot of the Sisters from my old Zone. Sister Siegfried wasn't there though so Sister Wheadon and I called her the Hutch Sisters phone (don't worry we had permission from the Zone Leaders) and she is doing great!!! So great that she couldn't drive out to Dodge because they had to many appointments! I also found out that two of the girls that I taught while I was there were baptized!!!! Whoo Hoo!!! :) And they had another baptism of another lady I taught yesterday! It was so cool to hear about the great things that are happening in Newton! Sisters Conference was good but it was hard because it took up pretty much the whole day! But we did get one of our investigators named Fernando on date! He's twelve and he just moved here with his mom from Honduras. We are so excited for him!
 
     Thursday we went on Exchanges with the STL's. So I got to go to Dodge City for the day. I wasn't super excited at first becaue I just wanted to stay in our area and get to know it better but I learned so much while I was there! :)
 
     The rest of the the week passed in a blur. I'm so happy to hear about the dedication of the Odgen Temple!! The Temple is the best, so make sure you take advantage of it! Something that I have been so impressed with is how much the members here love the temple and how much they are willing to sacrifice to go there!
 
     I love you all so much! Keep the faith and let your light shine!! :)

                                                                 Love,
                                      Hermana Kammeyer
Pic:
Two girls that got baptized in Newton! :)

September 15, 2014

ET: Emergency Transfer
 
Hola Todos!

     Well, there was some drastic changes this week. This week was running so smoothly and then we got a call from the AP's on Thursday (you never want to get a call from the AP's) I literally felt my heart drop because I knew what was coming. Hermana Wheadon was getting ET (Emergency Transfered) to Guymon, OK. It was so rough! I felt like I had just made a new best friend for life and she was getting taken away from me after only one week! :(
So luckily Hermana Wheadon and I had committed to be apart of the Ward Fiesta on Saturday so she got to stay here until Sunday instead of leaving on Friday. The other Sisters that were getting emergency transfered got to stay the weekend with us, which was a little weird because I had Hermana Wheadon and Hermana Guillen my new companion there, so I was pretty much torn in half as to who was my companion this weekend.
 
     The Fiesta was great and so much fun! It was to celebrate Mexican Indepence day which is the 16th. It was so much fun! I don't know how well I did on the Mexican dance thingy but the experiene is what counts, right? :)
 
     Sunday was a lot of goodbyes for Hermana Wheadon. It was really hard for her to leave, she has such a big heart and loved everyone in this ward so much, I definitely have big shoes to fill! After Church the four of us Sisters pilled into the ZL's Jeep and headed down to Guymon. It was an 1 hr and 45 min drive so I'm glad that I had all of the experience making long drives from college cuz Hermana Guillen and I spent like 4 hours driving yesterday. Which was hard because it took so much time out of our day.
 
     Hermana Guillen has spent some time here in Garden City before on exchanges so when you add all of that experience up we have about two weeks worth of knowledge and experience here between the two of us. :) So this next week is going to difinitely be an adventure! :)
 
     I love you all so much! And I hope that you have a great week! Keep the faith, let your light shine, and Go Give 'em HEAVE!!!! :)
 
                                                                           Love,
 Hermana Kammeyer  
 Pics:
Hermana Wheadon and I in our Mexican dance costumes
Me, Hermana Guillen, Hermana Wheadon, and Hermana Brusch on our way to Guymon
Hermana Wheadon and I at the fiesta while all of the members were having fun dancing.

Septmeber 8, 2014

Garden City!
 
Hola, todos!

     This week has been full of so many changes but it has been a wonderful week! So Monday and Tuesday were filled with saying goodbye to Members and investigators, which took a ton of time but it was worth it because the people there in Newton are just so wonderful! But Hermana Seigfried and I were able to have a great lesson with a new investigator named Teri on Tuesday and oh my gosh she is incredible! Totes gonna be another Baptism for the Sisters in Newton! :)
 
     So on Wednesday we got everything loaded into the car and drove down to Wichita for the Transfer Devotional, which are always so much fun! We all get together and have lunch and then have a jam session, cuz there's just so many talented missionaries here in Kansas. And Hermana Seigfried and I sang a song that we wrote! So much Fun! Then we had the Trainer meets Trainee announcement thingy. And then there was a testimony meeting, super great! After all of that I got into a van with the other missionaries heading out West (and Elder Grow was in the van with me too! Mini CCM Reunion!) And we took the three hour drive out to Dodge City Kansas. On the way we stopped in the center of the United States, and there really was just a sign not all that exciting, haha. :) When we got to Dodge City I got to see Hermana Jennings!!! It was awesome! So cool to have her in my Zone again! It was another CCM reunion so Elder Grow, Hermana Jennings, and I all took a picture! 

     Then I got to meet my new companion Hermana Wheadon!
Hermana Wheadon is absolutely wonderful! She is so nice and is a great missionary. The last two transfers were really rough for her because the girl she was training was to put it nicely "not very nice." And she actually had to go home. So I've been praying really hard that I can help Hermana Wheadon recognize the wonderful missionary that she is, because this other Sister totally ruined her self confidence.
 
     The rest of the week was spent tracking, teaching, and speaking in Spanish. Garden City's population is like half Hispanic! It's AWESOME!!! :) I love it here in Garden City! The ward is sooooo missionary minded it amazing! And they do everything in English and Spanish: sacrament prayers, Hymns, Relief Society Lessons... etc. I feel so blessed to be here!
 
     Love you all and I hope you have a great week!!  

Love,
Hermana Kammeyer

Septmeber 2, 2014

Last Two In Newton ... (Days and Baptisms)

Hola!
 
     So much happened this week it's hard to believe that it was just seven days! We definitely received some huge miracles from Heavenly Father this last week. He helped us out so much with preparing Shea and Dakota for baptism! Hermana Siegfried and I really had to rely on the Spirit for inspiration on how to teach those kids because they have to shortest attention span ever. But the Holy Ghost has really done a wonder with those kids. They have grown so much since we started preparing them for baptism and I am blown away every time we see them at how fast and how much they are learning. Their baptism was wonderful and I am so grateful that I got to be apart of this whole experience and that I got to see them baptized before I left Newton.
 

     That's right I'm leaving Newton but that's a story for later. Other than preparing the Kids for their baptism Hermana Seigfried and I worked really hard everyday. On Thursday we did exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and I got to go to Maize again. It is a really nice area of Wichita and I've decided that I would definitely rather serve in a "not so nice" area like Newton any day! So the weekend was pretty much straight service for all of the missionaries here in Newton, which was awesome! On Friday we helped move the Owens family move into their new house and we did that for five hours. Then on Saturday after the baptism we helped the Ellsworth Family butcher some of their older chickens, fun but a tad on the gross side. Then after that we went back over to the Owens and helped them finish moving for another two hours. So we were definitely sore by the time Sunday rolled around.
 
     These last three months here in the KWM we've been working really hard on increasing our faith that we will baptize. Every month we've had a mission baptismal goal and every missionary in every prayer has prayed for this goal. Let me tell you we have been seeing miracles month after month! In June our goal was 50 and we got 41 baptisms (the mission had never baptized 40 people before and it had been the monthly baptismal goal for the last year)! Then in July our goal was 75 and we got 50! And then this last month our goal for August was 65 and we got 61 BAPTISMS!!!!!!! When I first got here in March the mission wasn't even getting 20 baptisms a month! We have grown so much in these last few months! Faith can move mountains and I know that this is a baptizing mission and as we continue to work harder everyday we will meet our goal for the end of the year to be having a 100 baptisms a month!
 

     So as previously stated I'll be leaving Newton this week. My new area is... drum roll please.... Garden City Kansas. Garden City is about four hours west of Wichita Kansas. It's also considered part of the promised land of this mission (all of the Spanish missionaries consider the west the promised land because there are so many Hispanics out there! :D ). I've heard about Garden City my whole mission because Hermana Weadon, Hermana Fernandez's trainer) went out to Garden when I came to Newton. And then Hermana Seigfried just came from Garden City! Oh and get this Hermana Weadon is going to be my new companion. Yep that's right, I have yet to serve with a sister that is not part of my mission family. (Quick run down on my Mission genealogy: Hermana Weadon= My grandma, Hermana Fernandez= My mom, Hermana Segfried= My Aunt) I'm super exciting to be going to Garden City and I think it's super ironic and funny that I'll get to serve with the Sister that trained my other two companions! I have loved everyday here in Newton and I'm sad to leave the members and investigators behind but I know that great things are going to continue to happen here with Hermana Seigfried and Hermana Hunter (Hermana Segfried's new companion)!
 
     Love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep the faith and shine on!  

                                                          Hermana Kammeyer


Pictures:
Baptism of Shea and Dakota. Me, Shea, Elder Carlson, Dakota, Hermana Seigfried


Spanish Members and Missionaries

August 25, 3014

Hutch got a piece of the Berlin Wall too!

Hola,
 

     It's seems like the longer I'm on my mission the harder it is for me to be motivated to write my weekly emails. But I just need to endure to the end and just keep typing. :)
Well, since I ran out of time last week I'll just give a brief update on how that week went. We had Zone P-Day on Monday so we went out to Hutchinson and visited the Cosomphere which is a aerospace museum. It was a lot of fun and it was a really good museum, even though it's in Kansas, and they even had a part of the Berlin Wall as part of one of the exhibits. Super Cool!! :) We also had Specialized Training which was super good and I learned so much. One thing that Pres. Bell talked about was do not, not invite people to be baptized because when you do that your denying them spiritual growth. That hit me really hard and I thought about Rebekah Carter's grandchild Dakota and how we haven't been preparing him for baptism just because it's hard to keep his attention. So the rest of the week we spent teaching Dakota and his sister Shea (who just turned 8 yesterday) for their baptism this Saturday.
 

     So fast forward to this week. It has been kinda of a weird week for our district because one of our Zone Leaders died (Mission lingo for 'went home'). With more than half of us being newer missionaries, 6 out of 8 of us, with not even 8 months under our belts it was super weird to see someone go back to regular life. So that took a few days to get out of that funk. And speaking of another funk, everyone except our district leader is sick. But the work continues and we had a great week, albeit a little slow but still great. It's been a real challenge trying to figure out how to teach Dakota and Shea because they have like absolutely no attention-span. So we've been using a lot of Mormon messages and activities. Yesterday we taught my most favorite lesson so far on my mission. We were trying to think of a way to teach Dakota and Shea about the Plan of Salvation when Hermana Seigfried and I received some divine revelation. We were going to be having the lesson at the church so we decided to a obstacle course/ object lesson using the different rooms in the building. Long explanation short it was SUPER awesome and they really loved it!
Also yesterday I taught Spanish Sunday School! It was a little stressful especially since I only had personal study time that morning to prepare for it. But the Gift of Tongues is real and Heavenly Father helped me out so much, and so did my wonderful companion Hermana Seigfried.
 

     So that's pretty much it for this week and last week! I hope you are all doing well and les quiero muchismo! :)

Hermana Kammeyer

Pics:
Me touching the Berlin Wall ... in Kansas
McPherson District: Elder Heath's last day. We pulled his plug :)

August 11, 2014

Horses and Stuff

Hola!

     On Monday Hermana Seigfried and I went to a horse rescue with one family form the ward. It was so much fun to see Hermana Seigfried in her own element. :) She's crazy for horses and she had three of her own at home!

     There wasn't anything too terribly special this last week. We had a great district meeting on Tuesday and a awesome Zone training on Friday. So lots of inspiration in a short period of time which was great! And it totally pushed all of us missionaries! And you could see the results on Sunday because every companionship in our district had an investigator at church! Woot woot!

     We Hit Standard this week!!! We haven't hit standard since it was changed. It's been so frustrating! Every week we've been so close to hitting it but this week we really exercised our faith even more and we were able to hit standard! I now know what I need to do so I can hit standard (and surpass it) every week. We got two of our investigators on date. The first one is named Ken and he's the father-in-law of Haley and he is so prepared! He's only had the Book of Mormon for a week and he's already at 2 Nephi 25! The other investigator that we put on date was actually a referral from headquarters that we contacted almost a month and a half ago named Vanessa. We just haven't been able to get in contact with her again. We finally saw her yesterday and she is so prepared too! She's been searching for the truth for so long and she is so excited to be baptized.

     Whelp, that's pretty much it for this week! :) Sorry my email isn't very long or exciting but don't worry, I'm having a great time, learning lots, and growing like crazy (spiritually, that is)! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

                                                                           Love,

Hermana Kammeyer

August 4, 2014

Weekends... :)

Hola!

     This week definitely had it's ups and downs! We started off the week with getting one of the investigators that had fallen off date (Haley) back on date and it was a absolute testimony builder for me. We stopped by Haley's house after District meeting on Tuesday and we were expecting her to be a little off put and like she didn't want to see us. But when we got there she was all smiles and super happy to see us. She then told us a story about what had happened the night before. She had found out that one of her really good friends had had a heart attack so she was super worried. She started to pray and then she told us that "For some reason I decided to pray about Joseph Smith. I never had before but I remembered you both telling me to do that so I did." She said that the first thought that came into her mind after that was to 'hold your daughter'. So once she was holding her daughter she started to feel better and then she had one word pop into her head. 'Yes'. Because of this experience she has a really strong testimony of Joseph Smith, which was something she didn't have before that! Now the next thing we have to get her to do is come to church and I know that if she does that she'll get baptized!

     For some reason when the weekend hits, it hits us hard! Friday and Saturday were both super rough! All of our appointments canceled on us and our back-ups fell through too! I fell off my bike and got a few cuts and bruises then Hermana Seigfried's tire popped and we had to walk the rest of the day. Then after we got her tire fixed the next day my tire popped! We had a lot of other disheartening things happen but that's not really important because we were able to push through and have a good outlook and keep our faith and spirits high. And I know that we were rewarded for that because we had an awesome Sunday! :)

     Oh, and on Saturday night we also volunteered at the rodeo here in Newton, which was so much fun! We helped out at the concession stand and we were able to teach two really good lessons while we were there. We you do things like service you don't always get to see the immediate results of your work. But you do put a good face for Mormons out there in the community! :)

    Well, that was pretty much my week. I hope you all are doing great and that you have a wonderful week! :)

Hermana Kammeyer

July 28, 2014

That Dang Beguiler!!

Hola!

     So this week started off really great we did a really good job of having members come out with us, which is something that we've been struggling with recently. We our two investigators (Majestik and Haley) that had baptismal dates were progressing really well and we were having a pretty good week.... until the weekend hit.

     Friday was really hard because it felt like my brain took a vacation! I couldn't teach at all! It was sooooooo rough! Then on Saturday I had a major headache the whole day and I still couldn't teach very well. Ugh! And Sunday is the kicker. We woke up to like 8 texts messages from our two investigators with a date and they dropped us! :( Majestik is 11 and her dad doesn't want her to talk to Mormons period! And that includes her cousin, Katie Schroeder, that has been teaching her with us. Then Haley told us that she was just more comfortable being were she is and she doesn't want to be baptized anymore. It was like Satan was trying to punch us in the stomach and then while we were bent over in pain he wanted to slam a chair on too our back! But Jesus was definitely taking those blows for the both of us because surprisingly there wasn't as much pain as I thought there would be with 'losing' two people that I love so much.

     So this whole week we've been spreading the word about a Devotional that President Bell was going to give to less-actives and recent converts. But just as we were leaving after church the Zone Leaders grabbed us and told us that President Bell had a family emergency and had to leave the mission! Just wait it gets even better... the Zone Leaders decided not to cancel the Devotional. So we spent the next few hours making some calls and helping them plan a devotional! Talk about stressful!! Man oh man I do not envy the Zone Leaders. But everything turned out great! And the Spirit was so strong!
When we got home yesterday I was sooo tired and was super happy that tomorrow would be P-Day! But it just reminded me of a scripture that I had found that morning during my BOMB personal study!

     "My people must be tired in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my Kingdom" -D&C 136:31

      So I know that everything that we've been going through this week has only been for our good. That the tiredness that we are feeling is only going to strengthen and up lift us and prepare us for the celestial kingdom! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!! :)

Hermana Kammeyer 

Pictures:
Newton District, last p-day before transfers!
Newton Spanish Missionaries

July 21, 2014

Specific Prayers work!!

Hola!

    Well, this week was really good. I learned so much and it was a great way to end a transfer. And good news.... I'm staying in Newton with Hermana Seigfried!!!! Woot woot! :) I'm super excited to still be here in Newton! There is so many investigators that have great potential and I really want to help build up the ward and and the "Spanish Branch" before I leave for a new area.

     So Monday we went out to Hutchinson for a Zone p-day and it took super long for us to get out there because they were repaving the roads so we only got to stay for about an hour, which was super disappointing, but I did get to learn how to play the Ukulele :) so that was a plus!

     Tuesday we had our final district meeting for this transfer and it's weird to think that now I'll be the missionary that's been in this area for longest. It's sad to see Elder Gomez (one of the Spanish Elders) and Elder Walton (District Leader) go because they have been here for these last three transfers. But all is well, that's why we have facebook! :) Well, when you're off your mission.

     Wednesday was pretty normal until we got home for the night and as we were finishing up our daily planning we got a text from the Sister Training Leaders. SURPRISE: Last minute exchanges!

    Thursday I went with Sister Heger to Maize, which is a city right outside Wichita. It was lots of fun and I learned a ton from her and I also learned that I do not envy the STL's (Sister Training Leaders). They spend so much time in meetings or making phone calls it's ridiculous! I already feel like we don't have enough time in the day as a regular missionary!
So the weekend was pretty average and nothing to crazy happen. Except that it got hot again, the beginning of the week was pretty chilly actually, and the bugs came a biting :( I have so many bug bites all over my legs, arms, and stomach! It's crazy! It's almost like they are breeding SUPER BUGS out here!!

     One of our investigators that we are working with is named Haley and I just love her to pieces! She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met! But you might not think that when you first see her because she's covered in tattoos and piercings. She has had a really rough past and she feels "unworthy" for baptism but she wants it so badly! I just love her to pieces and I know that once we can finally get her to go to church she'll be able to see where this path will take her and her baptism will happen! But that dang Satan is trying so hard to stop her but he will not win!!!

      Oh, yeah. One last cool story that I forgot about. So when Sister Seigfried and I were in the CCM Pres. Tenorio had given a talk on the power of specific prayer and he used Genesis 24 to show how to do it (So if your looking for something to study this week I would highly recommend it! ) and he gave a bunch of examples from his life and the lives of other missionaries who have done specific prayers. The topic of Specific Prayers came up again last week in Zone Training so Sister Seigfried and I tried to do one this week. So the gist of a specific prayer is that you prayerfully consult the Lord about something (like finding a new family to teach) and you come up with a bunch of specifics about this family like who, what, when, where... and so for. Then you pray in faith that it you will find this family.

      So Sister Seigfried and I prayed that we would find a Hispanic family of 4, the parents ages would be from 20-30's and they would have two young kids. The dad would be wearing tan cargo shorts and flip-flops and the wife would be wearing a white shirt and jean capris. And they would be looking for a new church to join. Then we prayed that we would go to the mexican market at3:00 exactly, and be there for exactly 20 minutes and during that time we would find them. So through out the day we kept praying for this to happen and we get to the market right and 3:00 do a quick pray and walk in. There's no one else there, totally ghost town. So we start wandering the isles and after about 10 minutes this car pulls up and out steps a younger guy and we started to get super excited and then we saw his feet. He was wearing tennis shoes! :( So we kinda awkwardly tried to talk to him but then we gave up pretty much after saying hi because he didn't have flip flops! :( He buys some soda and then leaves, we had like 5 minutes left at this point, and as he's pulling away we look into his car and see his wife and two young kids sitting in the car! We totally missed the answer to our prayers just because he wasn't wearing flip-flops!!!! We were so devastated!! We had prayed this family there and we totally ignored them! Ugh!!!

      So we learned a ton that day and I know that Heavenly Father wants to give us the answers to our prayers we just need to be obedient and vigilant! Well, I hope you all are having a wonderful week! And I'll talk to you again next week! Love ya!

Hermana Kammeyer