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