July 14, 2014

75!

Hola,

    This week went by super fast and a lot happen... but nothing terribly interesting so this email will probably be a little on the short side.

    So Monday we had a great P-day and we get to wash the car by hand now, which was actually not that big of a deal it just takes more time away from our p-day which is already jammed packed with things do to. Who would've thought that on our day off would have so many things to do.

    Tuesday we had Zone Training which was really good and I always learn so much from the leaders in our mission. Last month our goal for baptism was 50 and we got so close to accomplishing that with and total number of 41 baptism for the month of June! It was awesome even though we didn't get our goal of 50 we surpassed our old goal of 40, it was awesome! So for this months goal President Bell kicked it up a notch and set it at 75 baptisms for this month! When I first heard this I had a total mini heart attack! It's super big and I know that it's going to stretch us but it is also very possible if we have the faith necessary and we work hard!

     The rest of the week was pretty much the same ol' missionary thing. The only thing that was different from normals was that we had a lot of set appointments (so when we say "We're coming over at this time will you be there?" and they say "yeah") and just about all of them fell through.... and then all of our back plans would fall through.... and then all of the back ups to our back ups fell through..... :) So it was a little frustrating at times this week but it's all good! These things just build character! :)
We had Kelly back on baptismal date with her son Brooks and we were so excited but she went about and day and then started drinking again. It's getting really hard to keep going over there, it's hard to see herself throw her life away and everything else she has over a bottle of alochol! We're going to keep going over there because of her son and he has so much potential it's just hard to be in that kind of an environment, at times I feel like she's draining the life out of me! But my experiences with Kelly have definitely strengthened my testimony of the Word of Wisdom!

     Well, that's pretty much it for this week. Sorry this email is a little dry. But no worries I'll have a better letter for you next week! As the last week of this transfer I know that Sister Seigfried and I will be working hard and seeing miracles like crazy!! :)

Love,

Hermana Kammeyer

July 7, 2014

Who knew biking could be so tiring!

     Man, this week has been so tiring! Sister Seigfried and I got bikes last Monday and we have been biking everywhere this week! I would say that we've been biking about 10-12 miles everyday! I have to keep telling myself that I am gonna have legs of steal but it doesn't really help when i get off my bike and I can barely stand because my legs feel like jelly!

     On Tuesday we had Zone Conference! It was my second one and it's weird to think that I only have four more left! :( The AP's (Assistants to the Presidents) did a wonderful job and I learned so much and both of the AP's have served in Newton before so it was really cool to see them again. They talked a lot about growing our faith and then finding the elected and how to recognize the elect. And they used Rebekah and our experience with her as a perfect example of someone who had been prepared by the Lord for our message. The bad thing about Zone Conference was that it took ALL day!!! So we didn't get a chance to teach anyone! :(

     On Wednesday, I got to help and recent convert do some family history and it was a really cool opportunity. We got her parents information into Family Search and then we did some digging for her grandparents information and it was so cool! On her mother's side someone had already done all of the temple work and they had the family tree completed until 130BC!!!! Isn't that crazy!!!

     So the 4th of July was a really hard/weird day for me. The night before I was stressing out so much because all of the people we are teaching were going to be out of town so we had absolutely no one to talk to or visit! So the whole day was going to be spent in tracting and I was terrified because I didn't want to interrupt anyone's holiday. We started off the day over at the church building for a pancake breakfast & flag ceremony. It was a lot different from how we do our ward breakfast get together's at home. They only made pancakes, and they had the laurels/ priests make them (side note: Sister Seigfried is allergic to wheat so we had to make her some gluten free pancakes and eggs so she could actually eat something) none of the bishop brick was there, and it finished in less than an hour! It was so weird! I felt like no one liked each other because the second people were done eating their pancakes they packed up and left! After we had put away everything one of the High Priest's wife grabbed the uneaten pancakes and started throwing them around like Frisbees with the missionaries and it was actually a lot of fun! But there was no way anyone was going to eat that pancake when we were done with it. Then we had a district meeting and we went to lunch. At lunch we ran into some members and they bought us lunch and we were asking them what their plans were and they said that they were going to be painting their shed so we offered to go by and help. It was so much fun and I absolutely loved being with them and doing service. After that we went to a BBQ with another family in the ward. And it was really hard to leave there because it felt like I was back at home and I felt so comfortable and at peace there. But that's not what missions are about so we went out and started talking to people setting off there fireworks. We walked past a huge Mexican family and we felt like we needed to go and talk to them but for some reason I had sooooo much anxiety about it that I almost started to cry, weird I know! But we didn't it anyway and we talked to them and they gave us tacos and we found a less-active member that is brother of one the Spanish Members! It was really cool! So all in all it was a really good day, even though we didn't get to see any fireworks or set of any either. :(

     Even though we were working hard this week it didn't really show up in our numbers. So we have to be on an improvement plan again. :( But that's okay, I'm not too worried about it I know that will be able to do a lot better this week and that the improvement plans are only there to help us. Love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Hermana Kammeyer

P.S.- A few weeks ago I said that everything is bigger in Kansas... well apparently the mosquitoes are hungrier here too! I have like 25 mosquito bites!

Attachments area

June 30, 2014

Baptisms to come true! :)

Hola!

     So this week has been so busy! But it has also passed crazy fast! We've met with Rebekah everyday this last week to get her ready for Saturday! And man I could not sleep Friday night because I was so worried that something crazy would happen and she wouldn't get baptized! But no worries Rebekah is way to rock solid to let anything stop her! She was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! Can I get a woot woot for Jesus, please!

     Other than being at Rebekah's house this week we had two other kinda crazy experiences this week. The first happened on Tuesday. We went over to this lady named Beverly's house and she had two other friends there for a Bible Study. We went last week but instead of studying the bible they just asked us about our religion and that was a really good meeting. But this week was a totally different story! They had like a battle plan to try and destroy our beliefs and "save us". Man! Talk about annoying and frustrating. We were answering there questions with pure testimony but they were sooo stubborn that they couldn't wrap their heads around the possibility that what we were saying was true. It felt so good to get out of that appointment and go and see Rebekah because she doesn't have this crazy knowledge of the bible (These ladies were using a Hebrew and Greek dictionary to look up words like 'stick' or 'rod' it was crazy!) but she has the faith and the relationship with our Father in Heaven to recognize the truth when she hears and feels it!

     The second experience happened on Wednesday. The day before we followed up with this reference from the English Elders and she is super amazing and totally prepared too! She accepted a baptismal date and everything! So we invited her to go on a tour of the Church Wednesday. It was all set to be awesome, we had a stand up member who was the perfect match for Alexa (the name of the investigator). Then she called us to see if her cousin could come along and we were like "Sure thing!" Let me tell you that was a bad idea! Her cousin was just one of these people who wanted to argue about everything and she was contradicting everything that we were saying. She was just picking a fight with us the whole time! I'm happy to say that she didn't get what she wanted from me but she got pretty close to getting Sister Seigfried and our member to fight. So it really wasn't the type of environment that we wanted to have our brand new investigator in. But Alexa did come to church yesterday and she is determined to know for herself if this church is true, which it is by the way just in case you were wondering :)

     During both of these experiences we had to especially defend our belief in the prophet Joseph Smith and they were really good testimony building experiences. Actually Joseph Smith was the center of our studies this week. On Sunday we learned that Friday was the anniversary of his martyrdom. So it was really cool to realize that the Spirit it was leading us this week to focus on him and all that he has done for this church.

     That's pretty much it for this last week. Oh, Sister Seigfried and I got bike's so we will have fun riding around this week! :) I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hermana Kammeyer

June 23, 2014

Everything's bigger in.... Kansas?


Hola!

     So this week has been filled with walking and preparations for a ..... BAUTISMO!!!! Aka baptism if you don't speak Spanish. :) All but two days this week we have visited Rebekah. She is definitely one of the Lord's elect/ prepared individuals! It's awesome how much she understands already and she has been ready, knowledge wise, for weeks to be baptized. But she had a one cigarette relapse with smoking, which is understandable when you've been smoking for 40 years, about two weeks ago. And get this, she became so violently ill after she smoked that she never wants to do it again! Isn't that the coolest thing ever!!

     Also this week we have had a lot of excitement with one of the recently baptized members of the Newton ward. Her name is Katie and she was baptized in February. We've been having her come with us to teach Rebekah (side note: we've had a member in every lesson with Rebekah this week and it has been awesome! Members are the best!) and then on Tuesday night she texted us and started asking about if she could go on a mission and what she would need to do to get ready. Oh my gosh!! It's awesome seeing someone who wasn't even a member 5 months ago start preparing to serve a mission!!! :)
Hermana Siegfried is Awesome! We get along so well and we work together amazingly. It has been a little rough though this last week because I've had to do a lot of the planning of who we need to visit and when and what we should teach them (because she doesn't know any of the investigators here). Let me just say that I am SO glad that I'm not training anyone!! That is just way too much pressure!

     So funny story... Kansas grows some really BIG bugs! And they have been finding there way into our apartment! On Friday morning I took a shower and then when I was drying myself off I noticed that there was this huge spider on my towel! I just about died!!! This spiders was SOOOOO big! Like it's body was the size of a quarter!! Then throw some legs on it and it was about the sized of a baby's hand! So I've been a little worried these past few nights when I've gone to sleep that gigantic spiders are going to be crawling all over me! During my prayer that night I spent like 7 minutes praying that there wouldn't be spiders in my bed!

     That's pretty much it for this week! All is well here in Kansas and I'm having a blast serving the Lord (sore feet, sun burns, and mosquito bites in all :D ). Love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Hermana Kammeyer 

This picture is of Rebekah!

June 16, 2014

Greenie Fire is Real!!

Hola,

     Wow, this week has been full of changes but it's been a great week! Monday was pretty chill. Just helped Hermana Fernandez get everything ready for her transfer out to Guymon, OK. She was pretty nervous about going there but I have no worries I know that she is going to great things there!

     Tuesday was crazy we spent all day running around Newton trying to say good byes to as many people as possible! Our day was so jammed packed that we didn't even get back to our apartment until 9:45! I know, I know, exact obedience but it wasn't my fault that the last family we were with didn't understand that we needed to be home by 9:30! I totally felt like I was going to be struck by a lightening bolt on our car ride home or that we were going to have an accident just because we didn't get back to the apartment by 9:30! I can now totally testify about the importance of being exactly obedient in life because that felt awful!!

     Wednesday was actually really fun. We woke up and exercised and I taught Hermana Fernandez how to Kick-Box and some other things that I learned from by aerobics classes in College. It was so much fun I couldn't stop laughing! :) After that Hermana Fernandez finished packing and then we heading over to the Mission Office in Wichita. It was a really big transfer meeting and I got to see Hermana Jennings and Elder Grow!!!! It was so good to see them it was like a family reunion! :) Then we had lunch and a lot of missionaries performed songs that they had written for the Mission CD and it was a ton of fun to listen to all of the talented missionaries here in the KWM. After that we had a devotional/testimony meeting were we heard from President Bell, the new missionaries, and the departing missionaries. After that we said our goodbyes and then Hermana Seigfried and I came back to Newton.

     Hermana Seigfried is so awesome!! She is so passionate! We both pretty much had the exact same experience during our training so we have the same goals for this transfer and we both want to become a super lovingly bold Preach My Gospel Missionary. I was pretty worried about the language thing at the beginning of the week and when I found out that Hermana Seigfried has a hard time understanding what people say. But never fear we are being so blessed right now! Heavenly Father has been giving us the gift of Tongues like Crazy!! It is hard not having someone who is fluent in the lessons but it is really making us grow so much faster! It's like throwing a kid into a pool, either they figure out how to swim or they drown.... maybe that's not the best analogy.... well we are definitely swimming. We may not be Michael Phelps but we are definitely working towards that goal! Speaking of goals, it's been crazy going over to the Spanish Members house this last week! They have had the World Cup on 24/7!!! Ugh, it's so hard not to watch when you have a bunch of people gushing over a goal that was just scored!!!

     So everything is going well here in Newton. Hermana Seigfried and I have the Greenie Fire burning! So even though we are both right out of training we have so energy and desire to work hard and see miracles and baptize all of Newton!! :)

Love you all and I hope that you have a fantastic week!

Hermana Kammeyer 

P.S.- There are fire flies here in Kansas!!! They are soooooo cool!!! I wanna catch one and name it Ray! :)

June 10, 2014

Agency is Everything

Hola,

     So much has happened this week it's felt like an eternity since the last time I emailed. So on Monday we had a great afternoon. Both of us got our haircuts and we went shopping and then that evening we had a BBQ with the Ellsworth family (mom, Sister Ellsworth is the one who sent you the picture of me) and all the Missionaries here in Newton. After that we decided to go and see Kelly and go over all of the key parts in the lessons so she could be ready for her baptismal interview with President Bell the next day. So we get there and Stevie (Kelly's two year-old) comes running out to meet us. This should've set off warning bells in my mind because Kelly never lets her do that. We get in side and Kelly isn't in the living room. So we go to her bedroom and there she is sobbing into her bed. Automatically my heart dropped into my stomach. Hermana Fernandez and I knew right then and there that she had relasped.... So long story short she only lasted three days after she got out of rehab until she started drinking again. We tried to talk to her about what triggered it but she was back to her crazy drunk self and was running around the house, yelling at her mom, ignoring us to talk with some people on the phone, and she even started smoking.

     When we got back to our apartment Elder Walton (our District Leader) called to check up on us and to see how our day went. When we started to explain what had happened that's when we both started to break down into tears. I am so grateful to Elder Walton because he was so understanding and helpful. He told us of a similar experience that he had when he was in his first area. He read us some scriptures and told us how he overcame his experience. After that we had a companion prayer and I ended up saying it. It was definitely one of the harder prayers I have ever had to say in my life.

     The next morning we had to call the members in the ward and president Bell to let them know that the baptism was canceled and that was hard too because pretty much the whole ward has been a part of helping Kelly be baptized. We were still feeling kinda of low after that and what do you know there were the Zone Leaders at our door with Chocolate Chip cookies and McFlurries. They talked to us for awhile about the Agency Factor in Missionary Work and how they had been struggling with that this month too.

     That really helped and I was so determined to have a really good day and not let Kelly get me down. And it was a really really good day. We talked to everyone we saw and we got two new investigators and like 6 potential investigators. We also had a really great lesson with one of the less active families in the Ward and they helped us even though we were there to help them.

     So all in all this week has been really great, aside from the Kelly thing and that she hasn't tried to stop drinking since she relasped. We found five new investigators this week and we have two new people on baptismal date. Something that has really helped this week is realizing that we are not here to just baptize Kelly. There are so many other people here in Newton that are prepared and ready for the gospel we just simply have to find them. I also realized the importance of having a good attitude even when times are rough because I know that's how I was able to get through Tuesday was because I could stay positive and good to work.

     In other news this week is Transfers!!!!! Drum Roll Please.......... I'm staying here in Newton. Hermana Fernandez is going to Guymon Oklahoma and she is a little nervous about that but I know that she will do great there. My new companion is Hermana Seigfried and funny story, she was in the Mexico MTC with my and she is my mission "aunt" because her trainer trained Hermana Fernandez. It's a small little world here in Kansas.

     Spiritual Thought: When the Zone Leaders talked to us the day after Kelly relasped one of them said this "Agency is everything to our Heavenly Father. He lost one third of the hosts of Heaven and his most beloved Son died so that we could have it." I had never really thought of Agency this way before but it's incredible to think of what things Heavenly Father has done so that we could have the ability to choose. He lost one third of his children... it's so much more meaningful when you look at it that way. So even though it's tough at times, we need to always respect the agency of others. Because it is of great worth to our father in Heaven and to us.
Well, that's all for this week and I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Hermana Kammeyer

June 2, 2014

Heavenly Father is the BEST!!! :)

Hola!!!

     Wow, so this week totally flew by and I can't believe that it's Mondayalready! I'm just going to skip to the middle of the week because that's when things got interesting.
On Thursday Kelly came home from Rehab!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness we were so excited to see her again! And so were our Zone leaders and District Leader. Some baptisms that were played for Saturday fell through so they were super pumped that Kelly was coming back so that maybe she could get baptized a week early and they would be able to reach the district/ zone goal for baptisms in the month of May. It was kind of annoying because they kept calling us every hour or so to see if we has visited her yet (even though they knew that we were going to see her at7:30).

     Anyways when we finally did see her she was leaving her house to go pick up her medicine from the grocery store so we only talked to her really briefly and she looks so different!!!! Her face just radiates this inner light!!! I know that it has always been there but the alcohol was distinguishing it. We wait for her to come back from the store so we could talk to her about her baptism and rehab and all that fun stuff. And while we were waiting I was jumping around like a total weirdo and like fist bumping the air and being all "This is why we have the Word of Wisdom!!!" and "Heavenly Father is the best!!!"

     When she got back from the store we talked to her about her experiences at rehab and about what we've been up to since she left. Then we talked to her about her baptism and she was more comfortable with doing it on the 7th of June than on May 31st. Which was totally understandable, she would've had three days to get ready for it. I think that this the right time for her and it gives us enough time to get her prepared for in and to go over everything again, you know so the alcohol doesn't interfere with her understanding.
Now we're just working out the details, like her time for the baptismal interview, who is baptizing her and all those fun things! I am so glad that rehab worked and that I get to see her be baptized and be apart of this process!!

     Okay the other fun thing that happened this weekend was that we had a Mini Missionary with us! The Wichita Stake did an activity were the youth ages 16-19 that were thinking about going on missions went with the missionaries for the weekend and got to experience what mission life is like. It was a little last minute for the missionaries (of course) because we didn't know about it until Wednesday and we got them on Friday. But everything worked out great and we had a great time with our little Mini Missionary!

     Something that we've been focusing on this week is the Power and Authority of our Calling. One of the AP's told us this, "You have more authority than all the ministers and pastors of the world. Even if the Pope himself was here in this room you would have more power and authority than him. Because you have been called by God to do his work." This is something that I hadn't really thought about before this week. But I've come to realize that this is so true. We are God's instruments to bring to pass the salvation of man. This week during our lessons we have been reemphasizing that we are Representatives of Christ and that we are here doing God's work. And you would not believe how much power that sentence has!! So I know that as I continue to have exact obedience Heavenly Father is going to continue to bless me with his power and I will keep seeing miracles here!
Well, that's pretty much it for this week! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Kammeyer