April 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! :(

     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.