Tuesday, May 27, 2014
May 27, 2014
Fearless Finder: OPERATION BAUTISMO
This week was full of meetings and tracting!! Tuesday we had Specialized Training down in Wichita and I learned so much!!! It was great!! The training was specifically given on finding people to teach and how to be a fearless finder. Now before this I thought that I was pretty good at being a fearless finder... and that's when Holy Ghost comes around to smack you in the face with some humility. I learned a ton about the things that I need to do more and how I can improve my attitude while tracting and how I need to help my companions who may have a harder time being comfortable with talking with and finding new people. During the Training Pres. Bell gave a talk about broadening our vision... I know kinda of a vague title but just wait it gets better. He talked about something that Kansas has a lot of, let's see if you can figure it out! It's not tornadoes... not churches.... not sunflowers... not squirrels... do you give up yet? Okay I'll tell you, it's Wheat!! Awesome right!?!? Haha, well it was to me. He talked about the gathering of Isreal and how we have to trash (so shake/beat really hard) the wheat that we gather to receive the kernels. So basically in not old bible/ or farmer lingo what that means is that to be able to find the people that the Lord has prepared to receive the gospel we have to talk with as many people as possible (filling our arms with wheat) and then from there once they hear our message (trashing) if they have been prepared (kernels) the won't turn away from it. So yeah I learned a lot!!
We also got to test this out a lot this week because we didn't have the car! :) So through the scorching hot and the tropical down pours we tracted and tracted and tracted. And we found a lot of potential kernels so this week we have a lot of trashing to do! It's gonna be awesome!!
So yesterday we went on a road trip to Pratt Kansas to execute OPERATION BAUTISMO. The Sister's in Pratt have an investigator who only speaks Spanish and unfortunately they only speak English. They have been teaching her using a member as a translator and everything was going great, she was scheduled to be baptizedthis Saturday, then last week she pulled the plug and said that she had some problems and didn't feel like she was ready. That's were we come in. The Zone Leaders sent Hna. Fernandez and I to go and figure out what was stopping her from being baptized and to give her the confidence that she could be baptized on May 31. So we drove the 1 hr and 45 mins to Pratt yesterday evening. The lesson went great and I would consider OPERATION BAUTISMO a success!!
That was pretty much my week, you know Standard Missionary Stuff. I hope you all have a great week! All is well here in Kansas and I am absolutely loving the mission life!
That was pretty much my week, you know Standard Missionary Stuff. I hope you all have a great week! All is well here in Kansas and I am absolutely loving the mission life!
Hermana Kammeyer
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Maddie with a Kitty!
The english family that we had dinner with for Easter has a farm and they had baby kittens!!! So cute!! I hope you like this pic! :)
May 19, 2014
I Believe in Miracles
Hola!
So this week was really good! We didn't do very much on Monday because I let Hermana Fernandez choose what we were going to do because I felt bad that she kept on going to the church with me to play sports with the Elders even though she probably just wants to stay in our apartment. So that's what we did, stayed inside and wrote letters... not very fun but that's what she needed. And I kind of regret doing that because it was Zone p-day and they played rugby :( But oh, well I'll just have to learn how to play it some other time.
On Tuesday we had some drama after District Meeting. While we were at Hermana Fernandez's lower stomach started to hurt really bad and we were worried so we went to the hospital to get it checked out. Well it wasn't anything too serious and she's doing much better now. But it was fun to do something different. Is it sad that I find it super exciting to go to the hospital for a stomach pain? Well, that's missionary life for ya, you have to find excitement in the little things. :)
Fast forward to Thursday because this were the actual cool part of this week comes in. We had exchanges with The Sister Training Leaders!! It was so awesome!! On Wednesday Night I learned that I would be staying here in Newton and Sister Dean would come and be with me. And let me tell you I almost freaked out, because Sister Dean doesn't speak Spanish so I would have to do all of the teaching by myself!! I had visions of all of our investigators becoming so offended by my awful Spanish that they would drop us and never speak with missionaries again! So you can just imagine how hard I prayed Wednesday night. But none of my fears came to pass and it was a really good experience that totally strengthened my confidence and testimony. I was able to find new investigators, talk with the members on the phone to coordinate dinners and team-ups with them, and teach lessons all in Spanish!!! All of these things I had never gotten the chance to do before because Hermana Fernandez does it. I know my Spanish was no where near perfect but it was a huge blessing to be able to see that I can be a good and effective missionary even when I'm speaking Spanish. This whole experience was a miracle for me and I can't wait to see what other miracles are in store for me and my investigators during Miracle May!! :)
Well that was pretty much the most important parts of this week. So onto the things that I learned during my personal study this week. One thing that kept jumping out to me this week was Courage. It came up three different days this week during my studies and I'm just starting to realize the importance of it. With my experience on Thursday I had to have courage and faith to speak in Spanish. The courage to open my mouth and the faith that Heavenly Father would help me testify of the truth. I'm still working on developing my courage and I want to challenge all of you to do it too. While having courage for a missionary may be a little different then for you to have courage I know that we all need to have the courage to always live what we believe. In President Monson's talk in the Priesthood session he quoted a Scottish poet named Robert Louis who said "Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name." Missionaries always get the praise for going out into the world to share the gospel but I know that you all have just as much courage to live your believes everyday!
Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!
Hermana Kammeyer
May 12, 2014
It's Miracle May baby!!! :)
Hola!
This week just absolutely flew by!! It feels like my birthday was yesterday! Bytheway (John ... get it... John Bytheway :D) thank you all for the Birthday wishes it really made my day!
In my email last week I talked about our Investigator named Kelly and how right after we gave her a baptismal date things just started to fall apart with her plan to attend rehab. And it looked like she wasn't going to go to rehab for a long long time and we were super sad and worried because we knew that that was the only way that she was going to be able to stop drinking. So Sister Fernandez and I had been praying and fasting like crazy for her. Then on Tuesday Kelly called us and said that she had been fired from her job for smelling like alcohol BUT that her boss felt so bad about not helping her sooner that she called some places and got Kelly into rehab on Thursday!!! Heavenly Father is the best!!! Sister Fernandez and I totally freaked out, we were jumping up and down and running around in circles and everything! We had to say goodbye to her on Wednesday and that was a little bittersweet because she was the first investigator that both Sister Fernandez and I met on our missions and we meet with her everyday. But we couldn't be more excited for her and we know that she is going to overcome this addiction!
This week we got to walk everywhere in the nice crazy hot Kansas sun, which wouldn't have been too bad if my shoes hadn't been cutting my feet and giving me blisters, but hey that's missionary life for you. :)
We had Zone training on Thursday and it was really good and I learned a ton. I had to give a short training thanks to the Zone Leaders, this is what happens when you are in their district. I think it went okay. I talked about how we can align our will with Heavenly Father's and what it means to have a "broken heart and a contrite spirit." I still find it funny that they asked me to do it because I'm still doing the 12 Week Missionary Training program and had me give the training at Zone Conference?
Dia de la Madre was great!! I loved being able to see my family and hear from them. Before hand I had been praying that once the call was over Heavenly Father would be able to help me to not think about them and help me remain lost in the work. And what do you know he blessed me again! I was able to jump right back into the work and I didn't even cry when we said goodbye! Woot Woot score for team missionary! :)
Dia de la Madre was great!! I loved being able to see my family and hear from them. Before hand I had been praying that once the call was over Heavenly Father would be able to help me to not think about them and help me remain lost in the work. And what do you know he blessed me again! I was able to jump right back into the work and I didn't even cry when we said goodbye! Woot Woot score for team missionary! :)
We had a crazy night last night! And it depends on if your asking me or Hermana Fernandez if it was crazy awesome or crazy scary. We had..... drum roll..... a TORNADO... warning. :) Haha, did I scare you mom! But two tornadoes did touch down outside the town where our district leader and half of the ward lives though. So here's what went down. We got home from Family Home Evening with the Hernandez Family and we finished our planning. Right after planning we received a text from the fire chief who's a member and lives in Hesston (the town right next to Newton) saying that we were going to have some extreme thunder storms that night and that McPherson was in Tornado warning mode. So I knelt down and said a prayer for the Elders and members in McPherson and when I finished I started to get ready for bed. No sooner had I put my PJ's on then we received a text from an emergency weather forecast number that said "Tornado Warning: seek shelter immediately." Phew, talk about adrenaline rush!! Hermana Fernandez was so scared but I calmed her down and told her what she needed to take with her to the shelter. Hermana Fernandez didn't feel safe in the shelter at our apartment complex so we called our district leader and he told us to go to a members house. On our way there we got a hold of the Zone leaders and they told us that Newton was safe and that we should go back to our apartment and just have our phone's volume all the way up so we could hear if something changed. I was like "Okay sweet, that was fun and now I get to go to bed!" Wrong, Hermana Fernandez was still really scared so I offered do scripture study with her until she felt calmer. So she snuggled with my teddy bear and I read the first three... yes three, chapters of "Our Heritage" to her. She finally calmed down and we got to go to sleep.
Everything is fine with the Elders and people in McPherson the tornadoes didn't enter the town and we just got a lot of rain and some really cool lookin' lightening. So Yep, that's an average week in the life of a missionary in the Kansas Wichita Mission! :)
My Spiritual thought for this week come from Pres. Uchtdorf's preisthood session talk titled Don't Sleep Through the Restoration my favorite line was "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort on once a week or once a day. It is an effort of once and for all." I know that this is so true! When we love our Savior and follow his teachings He will be in every action and decision we make. I challenge all of you to be a true disciple of Chirst! :)
My Spiritual thought for this week come from Pres. Uchtdorf's preisthood session talk titled Don't Sleep Through the Restoration my favorite line was "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort on once a week or once a day. It is an effort of once and for all." I know that this is so true! When we love our Savior and follow his teachings He will be in every action and decision we make. I challenge all of you to be a true disciple of Chirst! :)
Love you all,
Hermana KammeyerMay 5, 2014
Feliz Cinco de Mayo! :)
Hola, cada uno!! :)
I can't believe how fast time flies on a mission. The first night I was here I was talking to a Sister Missionary who had been out on her mission for 12 months and she said something like this, "On your mission time is weird. But one thing that I've learned about it is that there is Celestial Time. When you follow God's commandments with exactness and lose your self in the work time moves faster because you are closer to becoming a Celestial Being." Cool, right?!?! I've been out on a mission for three months now, I know that's not very long but hey, and it feels like I just left the CCM yesterday and home the day before that! So I'm going to take that a good sign that I'm losing myself in the Lord's work. :)
So this week we're finally off the improvement plan!!!!! We have a investigator named Kelly who has such a strong testimony and wants to get baptized so badly but she has a really strong alcohol addiction. But she was scheduled to go into rehab this week so on Monday we invited her to be baptized the week after she gets out, which is three days before Hermana Fernandez will leave Newton. She was so excited when we asked and she didn't even have to think about saying yes!! It was awesome!! So was so excited that she called to set up her entrance appointment into rehab right after she said yes. While she was on the phone she started to get upset. We she finished her call she said that they had told her that she because she had a job now, she's been to this rehab place before for drugs, they wouldn't help her pay for it. So she didn't end up going into rehab this week but she is still looking into different ways that she can get help with paying for it. So long story short they were not lying when they said that once you say yes to baptism Satan is going to come at you full force!!
Transfers were this week and thankfully the Newton district wasn't messed up to much. We got two new Elders and only one Elder left (we had a trio of Elders if you were confused). So that's been a little weird this week but the new Elders are great and it's still a party in the Newton District! :)
I've said this before but the weather here in Kansas is so weird!!! The beginning of this week was sooooooooo cold and then the end of the week was ridiculously hot!! (Yesterday was 102 degrees Fahrenheit) And since the trio split up we have to go back to sharing the car with the Spanish Elders so next week we get to walk around in this weather ALL DAY!! Oh, and we haven't had a tornado here yet! Every other state around Kansas has had a tornado but we are still tornado-less!!! What is this ?!?!?! Go home Kansas your drunk!!!
This week has been the attack of the old ladies week!! We taught so many old ladies with so many different problems it was ridiculous!! The funniest one was an old lady named Rosa. She speaks Spanish and English perfectly so she kept on changing between the two languages so that was fun but not the best part! Drum roll please .... she can't remember anything! Now I know exactly how Marlin from Finding Nemo felt when he was talking to Dory!! She asked like five times if we missed our family. The first time we were like "Not really," then it was "Every now and then," and then by the fifth time I wanted to say "I didn't before but I sure do NOW!!" But no worries all is well now and Hermana Fernandez and I had a good laugh about it afterwards.
This week has been the attack of the old ladies week!! We taught so many old ladies with so many different problems it was ridiculous!! The funniest one was an old lady named Rosa. She speaks Spanish and English perfectly so she kept on changing between the two languages so that was fun but not the best part! Drum roll please .... she can't remember anything! Now I know exactly how Marlin from Finding Nemo felt when he was talking to Dory!! She asked like five times if we missed our family. The first time we were like "Not really," then it was "Every now and then," and then by the fifth time I wanted to say "I didn't before but I sure do NOW!!" But no worries all is well now and Hermana Fernandez and I had a good laugh about it afterwards.
This month in the Kansas Wichita Mission is Miracle May!! So we did a mission wide fast on the first, for miracles this month and every night the Zone Leaders send out a voicemail from one companionship in the Zone that had had a miracle that day. It has been so cool!! The Lord has definitely prepared the people here in Kansas and I am so grateful to be here!!
During my personal study this week I've been reading in third Nephi when the savior comes and visits the people there and I have also been studying from PMG (Preach My Gospel) about the importance of the Book of Mormon and two quotes really stuck out to me. The first is from Pres. Packer and it says "In a world ever more dangerous... the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world." The second one is from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Please do not take the Book of Mormon for granted. Pray for a vision of how the Book of Mormon can be used more effectively in your mission. I promise that as you do so, your mind will be enlightened with the direction that you should take." I know that the Book of Mormon is so powerful because it is the only way that we can know for a surety that this church is true. My perspective on the importance of the Book of Mormon has changed so much since I've been here on my mission. I've seen how it can change the lives of the people who read it and it is truly a gift from God!
That's pretty much it for this week. Lots of lessons taught and lots of lessons learned! Pretty much your average week in the life of a missionary. Love you all and have a great week!!
Hermana Kammeyer
Hermana Kammeyer
P.S.- Happy Cinco de Mayo!! AKA my birthday!! :) The Big 20!!! Woohoo!!! :)
April 28, 2014
Baptism, Baptism, anybody for a Baptism?!?
Hola!!
This week has been so crazy busy and I have definitely grown a ton this week as a missionary!! I can't believe that I've been here six weeks already!! it's the end of my first transfer and I am still going to be in Newton with Hermana Fernandez, which I am super excited about!
So last P-day was great!! We had all the missionaries in our district come over to the church building and we played a ton of sports and games and it was a blast to run around and have fun with all of missionaries, well except Hermana Fernandez she's has a fear of playing sports because she thinks that she'll get hit which is pretty accurate because she did get hit in the face with a basketball just sitting on the side lines!
Tuesday we had district meeting which was great and a lot of fun. Afterwards I was able to pass off lesson two to my District Leader. So for each lesson in Preach My Gospel we have to write our own outline with three bullet points for each section and have a scripture memorized to go a long with each section. Oh, and did I mention I did mine in Spanish!! (apparently almost none of the Spanish speaking missionaries pass it off in Spanish)
Wednesday I there was a conference call for the new missionaries to see how their training is coming along. It was so cool!! First off I felt all cool and stuff 'cuz I got to be on a conference call like some professional big wig (Yes, I mean you Dad :D ). And Second I got to hear how Hermana Jennings and Elder Grow are doing! It was awesome it was like a little missionary family reunion! (In case you forgot Hermana Jennings was my old companion and Elder Grow was in my district in the CCM)
All I can really remember about Thursday and Friday is that they were very hot and that my feet and legs hurt so much when we got back to the apartment! The miles that we are allotted for each month were almost all gone so we were walking all day those two days, like 7-12 miles!!!
Saturday was a very exciting day for the Spanish Missionaries in Newton. An investigator named Rigo was baptized!!! He is not mine or Hermana Fernandez's investigator but we did teach him about the word of wisdom and get him to stop drinking coffee! Which was pretty cool. He is related to pretty much all of our investigators and his baptism really helped progress a lot of our investigators! Oh and hermana Fernandez and I taught about the Restoration of the Gospel in front of everyone at the baptism! It was so crazy and I can't believe that I made it through with out making some horrible mistake in Spanish! The Spanish members here were so nice and they all came up to me afterwards and said that I did really good and that my Spanish is improving really quickly. I'll have to take their word for it though because I thought that I would be much further along by now!
So here in the Kansas Wichita Mission, best mission in the world FYI, we have something that's called the Standard. It's the amount of baptisms, people with a baptismal date, people attending church, member present lessons, and new investigators that a companionship needs to reach each week. And if you don't hit standard you have to go on a improvement plan. So all you really need to know is that you don't want to be on the improvement plan. But guess who has been on it for the last two weeks.... Me and Hermana Fernandez! Now don't think that Hermana Fernandez and I aren't working hard because that would definitely be the wrong conclusion. It's just that none of our investigators feel like they're ready to make that step and they let little things hold them back. Talk about frustrating!! But never fear we were not going to let this get us down so we doubled our efforts, prayers, and exercised our faith more. Oh, and we also challenged someone to be baptized everyday this last week! The results of all of this is.... Drum roll please..... still nobody with a baptismal date :( BUT a ton of spiritual growth on my end and in our investigators! So even though we are on the improvement plan, AGAIN, I have a stronger testimony that God is so aware of us and he will answer the righteous desires of our hearts even if it's not in our time or in the way that we would like (and not to play my own horn but we tripled the standard in everything other than baptismal date, so yeah we're working really hard).
This week my studies focused a lot on how I could have the spirit with me on a much higher level so I could help my investigators progress faster. In Preach My Gospel it has a wonderful chapter on recognizing the spirit and I think it's my favorite chapter in Preach My Gospel!
"Every Morning... missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessings of those they will be teaching. if they will do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the Spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit." - President Gordon B Hinckley
So last P-day was great!! We had all the missionaries in our district come over to the church building and we played a ton of sports and games and it was a blast to run around and have fun with all of missionaries, well except Hermana Fernandez she's has a fear of playing sports because she thinks that she'll get hit which is pretty accurate because she did get hit in the face with a basketball just sitting on the side lines!
Tuesday we had district meeting which was great and a lot of fun. Afterwards I was able to pass off lesson two to my District Leader. So for each lesson in Preach My Gospel we have to write our own outline with three bullet points for each section and have a scripture memorized to go a long with each section. Oh, and did I mention I did mine in Spanish!! (apparently almost none of the Spanish speaking missionaries pass it off in Spanish)
Wednesday I there was a conference call for the new missionaries to see how their training is coming along. It was so cool!! First off I felt all cool and stuff 'cuz I got to be on a conference call like some professional big wig (Yes, I mean you Dad :D ). And Second I got to hear how Hermana Jennings and Elder Grow are doing! It was awesome it was like a little missionary family reunion! (In case you forgot Hermana Jennings was my old companion and Elder Grow was in my district in the CCM)
All I can really remember about Thursday and Friday is that they were very hot and that my feet and legs hurt so much when we got back to the apartment! The miles that we are allotted for each month were almost all gone so we were walking all day those two days, like 7-12 miles!!!
Saturday was a very exciting day for the Spanish Missionaries in Newton. An investigator named Rigo was baptized!!! He is not mine or Hermana Fernandez's investigator but we did teach him about the word of wisdom and get him to stop drinking coffee! Which was pretty cool. He is related to pretty much all of our investigators and his baptism really helped progress a lot of our investigators! Oh and hermana Fernandez and I taught about the Restoration of the Gospel in front of everyone at the baptism! It was so crazy and I can't believe that I made it through with out making some horrible mistake in Spanish! The Spanish members here were so nice and they all came up to me afterwards and said that I did really good and that my Spanish is improving really quickly. I'll have to take their word for it though because I thought that I would be much further along by now!
So here in the Kansas Wichita Mission, best mission in the world FYI, we have something that's called the Standard. It's the amount of baptisms, people with a baptismal date, people attending church, member present lessons, and new investigators that a companionship needs to reach each week. And if you don't hit standard you have to go on a improvement plan. So all you really need to know is that you don't want to be on the improvement plan. But guess who has been on it for the last two weeks.... Me and Hermana Fernandez! Now don't think that Hermana Fernandez and I aren't working hard because that would definitely be the wrong conclusion. It's just that none of our investigators feel like they're ready to make that step and they let little things hold them back. Talk about frustrating!! But never fear we were not going to let this get us down so we doubled our efforts, prayers, and exercised our faith more. Oh, and we also challenged someone to be baptized everyday this last week! The results of all of this is.... Drum roll please..... still nobody with a baptismal date :( BUT a ton of spiritual growth on my end and in our investigators! So even though we are on the improvement plan, AGAIN, I have a stronger testimony that God is so aware of us and he will answer the righteous desires of our hearts even if it's not in our time or in the way that we would like (and not to play my own horn but we tripled the standard in everything other than baptismal date, so yeah we're working really hard).
This week my studies focused a lot on how I could have the spirit with me on a much higher level so I could help my investigators progress faster. In Preach My Gospel it has a wonderful chapter on recognizing the spirit and I think it's my favorite chapter in Preach My Gospel!
"Every Morning... missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessings of those they will be teaching. if they will do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the Spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit." - President Gordon B Hinckley
This quote has helped me so this week it was incredible!! I know that when we pray with faith we will receive an answer and the blessings of heaven will be poured out upon us!!
I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!
Love,
Hermana Kammeyer
April 21, 2014
He Lives!
Wow I cannot believe how much has happened in this last week and how quickly time flies when your serving the Lord!
So in Tuesday I had my First Zone Conference and it was great!!! It was pretty much a whole day thing and I was super drained afterwards but it was so worth it. We had training from the Assistants to the President, the Training Sister Leaders, and President Bell. It was so great! I love learning how I can become a better missionary, even though I get a tad stressed afterwards because I want to be the best missionary ever rightnow and unfortunately it just doesn't work that way. Another cool thing was that we got to have a question and answer session with the Stake President. He helped us figure out how we can work out some of the kinks with our wards and how to support the members and get them super excited for missionary work. They also showed us a video called 'Because of Him' and I absolutely LOVE it!!! It was so great and they also told us that on Easter the Church bought the advertising spot on YouTube's home page and they were going to be showing it there. Isn't that so cool! So to make the most of this video they gave us all a huge stack of fliers to pass out about it and that's what we did this week during tracking. Who knows how many people actually watched it but we did our part in spreading the word.
So Thursday we had a really interesting experience while we were out giving away these fliers. We knocked on this one door and a lady let us in without even asking why we were there. And she had a friend and her kids over and they were doing bible study. They agreed to hear about our message and the friend even had family who are LDS so that was cool.
So Thursday we had a really interesting experience while we were out giving away these fliers. We knocked on this one door and a lady let us in without even asking why we were there. And she had a friend and her kids over and they were doing bible study. They agreed to hear about our message and the friend even had family who are LDS so that was cool.
The lesson started off great until we got to Joseph Smith. One AP's (assistant to the president) had trained us on the power of the 1st vision and how to always have the powerful spirit that accompanies it with you in your lessons. So having that in mind I recited the 1st vision and let me tell you the spirit was SO STRONG!!! It was awesome I was getting goose bumps and everything and I think the lady and her daughter could feel the spirit but then her friend had to but in and start criticizing Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon so the spirit automatically went cur-plop! :( But me and Hermana Fernandez did a really good job of answering their questions and dealing with the hardness of the friend's heart (No Bible bashing or anything). So in the end we didn't get a return visit which is too bad because there was a lot of potential there. Side-note: I almost burst out laughing during their prayer at the end because they were pretty much praying to God to help us know how wrong and delusional we are. Some people :)
This weekend me and Hermana Fernandez both caught a cold so it was a little rough having the desire to go out and work all day but pushed forwards and we ended up having a lot of visits with people we don't normally get to see and we had a lot of new investigators! So maybe I need to have a cold all the time! :) Just kidding that would not be fun!
Easter was great! We had two dinner appointments and both of them were so much fun!
Easter was great! We had two dinner appointments and both of them were so much fun!
The first was with the Spanish members and like all of our Spanish investigators were there too, Score!! The food was a lot different then what I am used to for Easter. We had a spicy three meat stir-fry that they cooked out on the porch, pasta (ok that is pretty normal but the next thing was pretty weird), and a cactus salad. That last was was really good before I knew what it was and then one of the kids had to point out that it was kinda of slimy and then it was really hard to enjoy it the same way. :) They also had the Spanish Elders there and they made all of us missionaries do an Easter Egg Hunt with the little kids. I thought that it was pretty fun and they seemed to think that it was funny. For our second appointment we we over to a members house in Hesston (a town that's like 20 mins away). They had another members family over and all of the college kids (members who go to the local college). It was a lot of fun even though I though my stomach was going to explode!! Way to much food!!! The English Elders where there too and we shared a message with them and then watched the 'Because of Him' video again. As we were leaving we had like an hour left before we needed to be back at our apartment and we had absolutely no idea who to visit, we had seen pretty much all of our investigators in the last two days. And as we were heading to back to Newton we saw one of our investigators who is never home out doing yard work! It was awesome! So we got to have a good talk with her which was a huge blessing!
So that's pretty much it for this week. The thing that I want to share with you is this video that I've been talking about this whole email. Because of Him It is a wonderful video and it really helps me to feel our saviors love for us and to recognize all that we have because of him. I want to challenge all of you to watch it and think about Jesus Christ and his influence on your life. And to share it with as many people as possible!
I know that He lives and that He is our loving savior. That through him we have all been saved from the bonds of death and that by following His teachings and His example we can live forever with our Father in Heaven. The Atonement is infinite and can help us overcome sin and draw nearer unto Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father. He lives!!
I know that He lives and that He is our loving savior. That through him we have all been saved from the bonds of death and that by following His teachings and His example we can live forever with our Father in Heaven. The Atonement is infinite and can help us overcome sin and draw nearer unto Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father. He lives!!
Love you all,
Hermana KammeyerApril 14, 2014
And I though Utah was bipolar!
Hola, cada uno!
Well another crazy busy week that has just flown by! When I was thinking about what I should write about in this email I couldn't remember anything, good thing we have planners to help jog my memory. :)
So Monday we had to cut P-day short by a few hours because of the temple trip on Tuesday (it was AMAZING! But I'll get to that later). We went to visit that investigator that I told you about, the one that almost dropped us, but she wasn't there. And she hasn't been there all week! :(
So Monday we had to cut P-day short by a few hours because of the temple trip on Tuesday (it was AMAZING! But I'll get to that later). We went to visit that investigator that I told you about, the one that almost dropped us, but she wasn't there. And she hasn't been there all week! :(
Now the highlight of the week.... drum roll please.... THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!! It was so much fun and a wonderful spiritual event! We had to leave our apartment early-ish to get to Wichita before the bus left at nine. There was about forty to forty-five missionaries who went, they were from the Wichita Zone and the Newton zone, and it was a lot of fun to meet more missionaries. The Bus ride was two and half hours to get to the Oklahoma City Temple. Since there's not much to look at here in Kansas I wrote in my journal (Cuz I am so far behind! There's never enough time to do everything they want us to do!) and talked to the other missionaries. And before you knew it we were there! The temple is one of the mini temples which was cool and kinda different for me since I've only ever seen the normal Utah sized ones. And because it is so small they had a Stake center located on the same property. So that's were we met up with President Bell and had lunch. Then we finally got to go inside!!!! :)
I'm so amazed by the temple and I wish I could go everyday because you learn so much and you always become a better person with every time you attend. My favorite part was when all the missionaries started to come into the celestial room and since President Bell was the first one in there he welcomed all of us (with a loving handshake if you were a Sister and a warm embrace if you were an Elder). It really put it into perspective of what it's going to be like on that great and glorious day that we are welcomed back into the presence of our loving Heavenly Father. After we finished the endowment session we got to meet with the Temple President and then he talked to us about the temple and then he opened it up to a small question and answer session with him. It was really cool to see how all of us missionaries are at different levels of understanding the gospel. For example a lot of missionaries asked questions about things that I had pondered about and had sought an answers to a long time ago but then others would ask questions that I would never have thought to ask. It really showed me that we are all progressing in this gospel together and that we can always improve and learn more. We didn't end up getting back to Wichita from the temple until 8:45-ish and just as me and Hermana Fernandez were pulling out of the parking lot our Zone Leaders flagged us down and asked us to take the Sister Missionaries from Hutcherson back to there house.
Well, if you know anything about Kansas geography then you would know that it's kinda out of the way... like an hour out of the way. :) But never fear Sister Kammeyer is here! I was happy to take them home and even though it stressed Sister Fernandez out I'm glad that we got to serve them. So we didn't end up getting back to our house until 10:30which, if you remember from my last email, the time that we are supposed to go to bed. After shoving a granola bar in my mouth I promptly went to bed.
The next day we got the opportunity to do some service for an old lady named Mrs. Gibbins. Warning she'll talk you ear off but that's okay. We did yard work for her with the Elders and it felt really good to be able to help her out, even though I was pretty tired the rest of the day. Then on Thursday what do you know we did service again! The Spanish Sisters and the Spanish Elders went and helped a Spanish member out with his yard work. And man I don't think I've seen so many leaves in my entire life! So the theme for this week should have been something like "And now the gloves come on" or "Warning Leaves ahead" but in all seriousness I loved being able to help especially since I can't help them with what I say (cuz my Spanish is still really bad which can be really frustrating at times) I can at least help the Spanish members by my actions.
The reason this week's letter is titled "And I thought Utah was bipolar" is because the weather has been ridiculous! Friday it was 85 degrees and then this morning there is snow on the ground! The weather here needs to go home because it's drunk!!
In conference someone said that I should share the things that I've been learning in my personal study. Well today I started to read a talk titled the "Fourth Missionary" by Lawrence E Corbridge. It talks about the different kinds of missionaries there are and how you can become the fourth missionary. I think that this is a great talk and it doesn't only apply to missionaries but to everyone. Because it talks about how a mission will change you (or life if your not a missionary) and you can decide how and who you want to become. My favorite lines so far are "Your greatest Work. Your most important creation is and will ever be you." and then this quote by C.S. Lewis "Turn them {your desires} all over to me {God}, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will."
Well that's about it for this week. There still no place like Kansas and I'm enjoying every day that I'm a missionary!
Love,
Hermana Kammeyer
P.S.- The pictures are of me and Hermana Fernandez and of us with the sisters in the Wichita Zone.
April 7, 2014
Conference is like a Missionaries Christmas!!
This week went by so fast!! I remember last Monday how I couldn't wait for Conference and now it's already over! So first things first Mom here is your run down of my schedule! :) If you don't care about this stuff just skip it, trust me it's kinda boring.
6:30- The days starts and we have a half an hour to "work out." Me and my companion are still half asleep during this time and it's a little hard to get pumped when the only music you have to listen to is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir :)
7:00- We use this time to get ready and to eat breakfast... super exciting I know!
8:00- We use this hour for personal study. Usually I study this Book of Mormon or I work on memorizing stuff I need to pass of to Hna. Fernandez. And since we teach in both Spanish and English I get to memorize everything in both Spanish and English! Woot, woot!
9:00- Companion study. We go over our memorizations, read from the White Bible (Missionary Book of Rules), and talk about what we studied. And if time permits I get to practice "teaching" one of our lessons for that day in Spanish.
10:00- Training. Hermana Fernandez helps me become a better missionary, Woo Hoo! Yeah, for becoming a better missionary!!! :)
11:00- Language Study! This only actually happens about twice a week (because meetings or weekly planning get in the way) so when it does happen I throw a fiesta!!
12:00- Lunch!! Pretty boring but it's a wonderful time because my brain gets to rest and if I didn't have language study I try to do it during lunch or I'll read the Ensign.
1:00-9:00- During this time we are out and about teaching people and spreading the gospel, or at least trying to. We have a lot of people to teach but most of the time their never home so we do still do the whole knocking on doors thing a lot. Most nights we have dinner with a member for about and hour and then were back to teaching & preaching.
9:00-10:30 We we get back to our apartment we plan for the next day, get ready for bed and then fall asleep!
6:30- The days starts and we have a half an hour to "work out." Me and my companion are still half asleep during this time and it's a little hard to get pumped when the only music you have to listen to is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir :)
7:00- We use this time to get ready and to eat breakfast... super exciting I know!
8:00- We use this hour for personal study. Usually I study this Book of Mormon or I work on memorizing stuff I need to pass of to Hna. Fernandez. And since we teach in both Spanish and English I get to memorize everything in both Spanish and English! Woot, woot!
9:00- Companion study. We go over our memorizations, read from the White Bible (Missionary Book of Rules), and talk about what we studied. And if time permits I get to practice "teaching" one of our lessons for that day in Spanish.
10:00- Training. Hermana Fernandez helps me become a better missionary, Woo Hoo! Yeah, for becoming a better missionary!!! :)
11:00- Language Study! This only actually happens about twice a week (because meetings or weekly planning get in the way) so when it does happen I throw a fiesta!!
12:00- Lunch!! Pretty boring but it's a wonderful time because my brain gets to rest and if I didn't have language study I try to do it during lunch or I'll read the Ensign.
1:00-9:00- During this time we are out and about teaching people and spreading the gospel, or at least trying to. We have a lot of people to teach but most of the time their never home so we do still do the whole knocking on doors thing a lot. Most nights we have dinner with a member for about and hour and then were back to teaching & preaching.
9:00-10:30 We we get back to our apartment we plan for the next day, get ready for bed and then fall asleep!
Phew, that was really long and I'm sorry if any of you fell asleep but you gotta give Mom what she wants! :)
So this week we had a really interesting time with one of our investigators. We had a lesson with her on Wednesday and it was amazing! The spirit was so strong and we got her to commit to a baptismal date! We felt so good coming out of that lesson and so blessed to be teaching her. We went back to days later and she almost dropped us because of some personal issues. But we were persistent and really were lead by the spirit and she agreed to meet with us again today. So we'll see how it goes today. But it was the weirdest thing, you would think that I would feel awful about this and super sad that she made this huge change in two days. Now don't get me wrong I am sad that she feels like she needs to stop hearing from us but I knew that I followed the directions of the spirit and I did everything I could to help her at that moment. So I can't feel bad because this is her choice.
So this week we had a really interesting time with one of our investigators. We had a lesson with her on Wednesday and it was amazing! The spirit was so strong and we got her to commit to a baptismal date! We felt so good coming out of that lesson and so blessed to be teaching her. We went back to days later and she almost dropped us because of some personal issues. But we were persistent and really were lead by the spirit and she agreed to meet with us again today. So we'll see how it goes today. But it was the weirdest thing, you would think that I would feel awful about this and super sad that she made this huge change in two days. Now don't get me wrong I am sad that she feels like she needs to stop hearing from us but I knew that I followed the directions of the spirit and I did everything I could to help her at that moment. So I can't feel bad because this is her choice.
Anyway on a funnier note we had a fun April Fools Day! Being Missionaries you tend to forget a lot about things like April Fools Day so when we went to have our daily lesson with our investigator named Kelly we where so not prepared for what she did to us. She pretended to be really upset and sad and she was all "Guess what I just found out.. I'm Pregnant." Oh my gosh, my heart dropped all the way down into my stomach. My mind was racing and I had no idea what to tell her and I was totally at a loss for words and then she started laughing. She was all "April Fool's!! Man you guys should've seen your faces!!" (Kelly has had all of the lesson and has a testimony about everything we are just waiting for her to go through rehab for her alcohol addiction) So with that having happened to us you would've thought that we would have remembered for the rest of the day that it was April Fool's Day but nope we didn't. My mission is a driving mission and to try and keep the missionaries from abusing the car privilege we have a set amount of miles that we can use for a month. And unfortunately we went over our mileage allotment for the month of march (But in my defense they were already over the limit when I got here). So our zone leaders sent out a message to the Missionaries in Newton and they told us that because we all went over that our cars had to be parked for the next few weeks. Me and Hna. Fernandez were so worried about how we were going to get to get to visit everyone! We both prayed so hard for help to find a way to make all of our appointments. Then the next morning we got another message saying "April Fools!" Man we were so mad/relieved that all we could do was laugh! :)
We also had some Weather Excitement this week. There was a Tornado warning on thursday and Kelly made it sound way worse than it was. So we found a Tornado shelter nearby our apartment and I was feeling pretty calm and not really worried about it at all, because Salt Lake City has had more Tornados than Newton in the last 25 years. Hna. Fernandez was so worried though and for nothing because we didn't even have like any wind!
Now on to conference! Man it was the best conference EVER!!!! For the Saturday Sessions the Newton Missionaries all gathered at the church to watch it. And since none of our investigators showed up, or members, we pulled the couches and soft chairs into the relief society room and we watched it there and we all shared candy and snacks with each other, it was way fun! Don't think that we weren't paying attention though. We all had our notebooks our and we were all listening, to the speakers and the Holy Ghost, very intensely! Sunday there was actually other people who came to watch it so we didn't get to chill in the relief society room but watching it in the chapel was a great experience. Having always watched General Conference in my PJ's at home on the couch I was really impressed by how much stronger all the messages are when you are fully paying attention and listening for inspiration to problems or questions. So my favorite talks were in order of appearance because I can't pick which one I liked the best ... Jeffery R Holland, Linda S Reeves, Neil L Anderson, W. Craig Zivic, Dieter F Uchtdorf, M Russell Ballard, Gary R Stevenson, Lawerence E Corbridge, and D Todd Christofferson. I know, I know it's a lot and I'm pretty much just saying that I loved all of the talks but Conference was just ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!
Wow, so this email is pretty long so I'm just going to say that I love all of you so much and that all is well here in Kansas!
Love,
Hermana Kammeyer
P.S.- And no I didn't cut my hair to short... I just took off seven inches... no big deal! Really it's shoulder length and it doesn't fly in my face all the time and people can acutally read my name tag!
March 31, 2014
This isn't the Language they taught me at the MTC! :)
Hola!
Wow, this week has been so busy and crazy! On Tuesday we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders so I went with one of them to Maze Kansas which is about thirty minutes away from Newton. It was really nice to go with her and I learned so much. I also realized that Newton is kinda of a dump compared to other towns like Maze... but that's okay I still love it here and the people are amazing!
So I really just wanted to quote "The Best Two Years," it is the same language but with a different accent! :) I'm not progressing as fast as I would like but I know that as long as I keep working hard and always practicing that the Lord will bless me with the gift of tongues. I had to remind myself that a few times this week because I can't really understand much of what is being said in the lessons so it makes it really hard for me to jump in and teach something. But like I said earlier I just need to keep on working! :)
The weather here in Kansas is sooooooo crazy!! One day it will be fairly nice weather and the next day it will be freezing cold and raining. And the wind is always blowing!! My hair is always flying all over the place so today I'm going to get it cut, I haven't decided how short though. We do get a car though which is super nice! It's a Chevy Cruz and I think it's last year's model, I love it so much! I was a little scared of driving though at first, since Hna. Fernadez is from Spain she can't drive here so that means I get to drive, especially since I hadn't driven in like two months. But all is well, we haven't died yet so that's a blessing! :) The only downside of being the driver is that I can't use that time to go over lessons or work on my Spanish all that much, because I can't focus on driving if I try to talk to Hermana Fernandez in Spanish. Oh, and we switch of sharing the car with the Spanish Elders (There are 6 missionaries serving in Newton and two more within the ward boundaries) so on Wednesday we had a fun adventure! After I got back from exchanges we had the Training Sisters drop us off at an Old lady's house at the edge of town. When we finished our appointment there we walked for forty-five minutes in the rain and wind to get to our appointment with a woman named Kelly. We both had umbrella's which was super nice and it wasn't that bad. Even through the bad weather I was able to stay happy and upbeat! :) The Spanish Elders felt so bad for us that they let us have the car for the rest of the day which was so nice! And on Thursday we all got a great present.... drum roll please.... a BRAND NEW CAR!!!!!! Well at least brand new to our area but that means we don't have to share anymore!!!
Our teaching pool is really big especially when you think that there is like six missionaries in the same town. We're only allowed to teach females but we can teach a man if there is another woman present. We have two people on date for baptism later this month but we'll see if that really happens, I hope so! Here's a little about some of my favorite Investigators. The first is Kelly. She's a mom of three cute kids and is probably in her early thirties. She's been meeting with the missionaries for over six months now. She has a really strong love for and desire to follow Christ and she has a solid testimony. She would have been baptized by now except that she is a functionally alcoholic. So you never know what's going to happen when we visit her (which is everyday). We read a chapter from the book of mormon every visit and we are so excited for her because she is going to rehab in three weeks! Two of our other investigators are named Maria and Carla. Maria is the mother of one of the Spanish Elders investigators named Rigo. We've talked with him a few time and he is amazing and his desire to be baptized is really helping us with Maria and Carla! And they both showed up to the Spanish Sacrament meeting yesterday!!!
The members are wonderful here and they are always so willing to cook dinner for us and to drop everything to help us out by coming to an appointment with us! The Spanish members are especially loving. Yesterday was Hermana Fernandez's birthday and after church the had a cake for her and we all sang to her and one family even got her a present! Then the Medina family asked us to come over to their house last night because they had something for her. I was thinking that it was going to be another cake but what they did even better! Hermana Fernadez's family contacted them and sent them a video/slide-show to show to her. It was so cute! It was a bunch of photo's of her growing up and then all of her family members recorded a message wishing her happy birthday! Now Mom, don't get any ideas!
We were able to go to the General Women's meeting on Saturday and I loved it so much! I'm pretty sure that we'll watch general conference in the chapel this weekend, which is so weird that I won't be able to watch it in my PJ's! I'm so excited for this weekend, it can't get here soon enough!!
Well I hope I've given you guys a good email! I love it here and I'm having a great time, challenging but totally worth it!!
Love,
Hermana Kammeyer
March 24, 2014
There' s no place like Kansas! :)
Hola!
So, I've finally made it to the field! What a crazy and long journey that was!! Tuesday was so long and jammed pack with some many things!! I woke up at one in the morning and got all ready to leave and then Hermana Jennings and I hauled our things over to the reception area. It was a little stressful making sure all of my bags weight were distributed correctly but I made it work in the end! :) Me and the four other missionaries heading to Kansas hopped in a van and headed to the airport. It was so exciting for us but it was a little sad because one member of our district was still there at the CCM all alone and he started crying when the three of us (Hermana Jennings, Elder Grow, and I) left. We arrived at the airport at 3 in the morning and it was packed!! It was so crazy!!!!! We waited in line for over an hour and a half to get our bags checked in and our boarding passes. Thankfully one of the Hermano's from the CCM was there with us to make sure that we got all of our stuff worked out. Man, airport security in Mexico is a walk in the park compared to the US! It took all of two minutes to get through. We arrived at our gate at 5:15 and I had just enough time to finally get my real Mexican Coke!!!! It tasted so good!!!! :) The flight out of Mexico was smooth and there was no problems. I was really proud of Hermana Jennings she talked to the man sitting next to her the whole time!! She was able to talk to him a about the gospel!! I wanted to talk to the lady sitting next to me but the second after she sat down she totally passed out. When we all got the the Houston airport we were all so used to talking in Spanish that we still responded to all of the questions people asked us in Spanish and the looked at us with the "Your weird" and the "Come on we all know that your white" faces. But esta bien!! :) You should be really proud of me mom because I lead our whole group through the airport and if I hadn't been there they all would've been super lost!
From the Houston Airport we took a flight on a tiny airplane to Wichita. When we were flying over all I could think was that everything looked super dead and that it was really flat. When we landed I almost had a mini panic attack because it was sooooooooooooooo flat!!!!!!!! But I recovered quickly and I know that I wasn't the only one who was struggling, Elder Grow was freaking out too. He was all "I guess the Lord does still send famines to the earth!!" Once again I lead everyone through the airport and when my eyes beheld President and sister Bell I immediately fell in love with them and I knew that my mission was going to be great!! They are wonderful people and I just love them so much. The rest of the day was spent in training and then we had a fabulous dinner (it was real american food!!! BBQ) and then we had interviews with President Bell. Then next day we met our companions and mine is amazing!!!!! Her name is Hermana Fernandez and she's from Barcelona Spain!! She is so wonderful and incredibly patient and encouraging! I was a little nervous when Pres. Bell told me that she was my companion because he said that she didn't know a lot of English. But her english is really good and I can already tell that I'm learning a ton of Spanish with her as my companion. My area is a place called Newton it's about 20 minutes outside Wichita and the people here are really great. The work is hard but good, and it's super cold here which can be really hard to deal with at times but it's all good. We teach in both Spanish and English here, but most spanish. I really wish I knew more spanish so I could help everyone out more but I know it will come. My goal is to be fluent by the end of my time with Hermana Fernandez, so it eleven weeks.
I love you all and I will try to get my emails a better length, especially since I now have two hours to email!!!!!! :)
Para siempre Dios este con voz!
Hermana Kammeyer
March 17, 2014
Last Few Days At the CCM
!Hola¡
So the last few days have been really weird. There´s not much left for us to do here now. On friday we had in field training which wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be. We spent all day in classes and in the afternoon they put on a "play" (an acted out demonstration of how to work with members) and it was so funny!! The people here at the CCM must have spiced it up a bit because there was no way that this was supposed to be funny. Their accents and mispronunciations and in general weird humor made it one of the best things that I´ve ever seen!
Saturday was really boring as well. We had finished all of our grammar lessons so we just reviewed subjuntive clauses (It´s something that we don´t have in english) and then we went and gave the brand new district in our zone advice on how to study and what helped us make the most progress. Then we helped the other district in our zone practice teaching and it made me really nervous for them because they are not getting the language at all. It made me realize that my district is really special and super blessed. We put in the hard work, remained positive, and we trusted that the lord would provide a way for us to succeed.
Sunday was really a really good day. We had our last sacrament meeting with our branch/zone and I am going to miss our little mexican branch presidency. Then later that night we watched two different movies the first one was on Joseph Tanner, a early saint who pretty much financed building the temple in Kirtland, and another movie about jesus talking to Pilate. I was so happy that they showed the first one because I love it so much. After the movies they put the pictures of all the missionaries/ districts that are leaving this week up on the big projector and then we all sang God be with you till we meet again, but in Spanish. All of the Hermana´s in my district were total wrecks, so was Elder Mamea!! I was the only Hermana that didn´t cry, which kinda of surprised me. I love my district so much and I´m going to miss them a ton but it was a really exciting and happy experience for me. I know that I´ll see them all again someday and we are all embarking in the service of God so there was no reason for me to be sad.
After the devotional we all took pictures and went back to our casas. I stayed up with Hermana Seumanu and kept her company while she finished packing. I went to sleep for a few hours and then I was up helping Hna. Seumanu and Jackson get their luggage over to the reception area so they could leave. It was so cute our whole district and the other district, not brand new bit the other one, in our zone woke up early to see everyone off. We couldn´t stay until the buses pulled away because there was a security breach this morning, someone got into the CCM somehow, and the police came and made all of the missionaries not leaving go back to there casa. It was kinda creepy and Hermana Jennings and I searched our casa before we went back to bed.
Today as been super chill. We´ve just hung out with our teacher Hermano Sanchez and then we sent Hermanas May and Steel. So that´s pretty much it. I leave tomorrow morning and I´m super excited to be going to Kansas!! Hope you all are doing alright!
Love,
Hermana Kammeyer
March 13, 2014
I wanna be where the people are... :)
!Hola¡
Semana seis en el CMM!! This week has just flown by and I can´t believe that in four days I´ll be in the field!! On Sunday I had to bite the bullet and finally talk in church. The topic was on El Libro de Mormon so it was pretty simple and I was really proud of my Spanish!! For other news this week we finished teaching both of our "investigators" yesterday. It was a great experience to practice with our teachers and I learned a ton but it will be nice when I can teach real people. I also started to read the book of mormon in spanish this week and it is really cool to think that just six weeks ago I didn´t know any Spanish at all. But don´t get too excited I´m really slow and I have to look up about every fourth word, but still it´s progress!! :)
I head out to Kansas super early Tuesday morning and as the days get closer the more excited I get and the more I realize that my life is going to drastically change again! But I know with God´s help all is possible and that all will be well in Zion!
Para siempre Dios este con voz!!
Hermana Kammeyer
And I hope you all got the Disney Reference in my email title!! :)
March 6, 2014
I Now Know What Heaven Tastes Like!!! :)
!Hola¡
This week has been so amazing!!! When I first got here I never thought that I would be able to speak this language and now I can kinda speak it!!!! Woot Woot!!! My afternoon teacher Hermana Olmos did an evaluation of me and my companion and she was so nice and complemented us and said that she was so impressed by how much we´ve improved, she also singled me out and said that my Spanish was getting really good. We also did a practice teaching on Saturday with our older district and they were our investigators, they were pretending to be the people from that mormon message about forgiveness where the family was hit by a drunk driver and the dad was able to forgive that kid. I felt so much love for these "investigators" that the spirit totally took over my mouth and I was able to really teach through and by what the spirit wanted me to say! It was awesome!!!!
So Heaven tastes like Mexican Tacos. On Monday night our branch presidency secretly brought my district real tacos because Hermano Sanchez has been tell us about them but he´s not allowed to bring us any and we all really wanted to know what they tasted like!! They were amazing everyone in my district had at least three and it was so incredible it just made my day!!
I hope everything is going well with all of you and I send you my love from el CCM!!!
Para siempre Dios este con vos!!
Hermana Kammeyer
February 27, 2014
To me es a blessing... :)
¡Hola mi familia!!
But the program that they´ve got going here at the CCM really works and I have been able to really see it this week. I started off the week, It was acutally around last friday, still feeling like I wasn´t making much progress with the language and then I said a prayer for our class and Hermana Olmos was really impressed with it so that made me feel a lot better!! We also got new missionaries in our zone this week. There are only two hermanas in that district and they are on the same level that I was when I first came here. It was so nice to see my growth and progression. Especially when Hermano Sanchez was talking to them really fast in Spanish and I was able to translate everything he was saying for them!! Woot, woot!!! :) And the total kicker was that I taught a lección completely in spanish without writing anything down on my notebook!!! That happened yesterday and it went so well!! I had been wanting to do that for about a week now and I was finally able to convince Hermana Jennings to do it! By no means was it perfect but it was so much better than any of our other leccións!!
P.S. One picture is from last p day and its with all of the sisters in my district after we played kickball with our zone. And the other one was taken right after I put my name tag on!
Other news for this week: I finally got Grandma´s valentines package!! Please tell her that I loved it and it was really special. A couple people in my district including me have been feeling under the weather, but don´t worry all is well in Zion, and we are all back to fighting missionary strength!
Way to be Sammie on your cheer competitions!!! That´s awesome that you´ve been grand champs three times in a row!!! Luke thanks for emailing me!!
Way to be Sammie on your cheer competitions!!! That´s awesome that you´ve been grand champs three times in a row!!! Luke thanks for emailing me!!
So your probably wondering about the subject line of my email. Elder Mamea is a poly from Hawaii and he talks like a FOB, fresh off the boat, or at least that´s what Hermana Seumanu says, also a poly. Anyways he talks funny and he says "To me es a blessing.." whenever something goes bad but he chooses to look at it in a positive light. We all say it a lot to tease him but it really is a good message that has really applied to me here at the CCM. Spanish was really hard at first, and still is, but it being hard makes it so much more worth it now!!!
Love you all so much!!!! Hasta luago!!!
Hermana Kammeyer
P.S. One picture is from last p day and its with all of the sisters in my district after we played kickball with our zone. And the other one was taken right after I put my name tag on!
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