December 29, 2014

... and a Happy New Year! :)

Hola Todos,

     Whoa, it's kinda hard to believe that Chirstmas is over! Hna Wilks and I didn't want it to be Christmas because then all of the Christmas Magic would be over and it was the last (for me only) Christmas as missionaries.

     We had a great time though! On Christmas Eve we went around passing out as many El es la Dadiva (He is the Gift) cards as physically possilbe. We definitely didn't get all of them passed out but I'm proud of the attempt that we made. Then we had dinner that night with some Members and the Spanish Elders and it was a blast. When we got home Hna WIlks and I decided to have our own Hispanic Christmas (aka staying up until midnight and opening our presents then). So we stayed up and read our Books of Mormon and we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and played a bible trivia game. It was lots of fun! We ended up just opening half of our presents so we could still have the traditional Christmas morning. Christmas morning we spent doing serve for the mother of one of our investigators and it was so much FUN!!! Sorry family but it was probably my favorite part of the day. But a close second favorite was talking to my family! :) We ended up finishing that late so we didn't get to go the the mission home which was a little bit of a bummer but it was still all good. We had dinner with a investigator and then to finish off the night we went Caroling as a Zone! All in all it was an awesome Christmas!!!

     The rest of the week went great. I got to give a another talk in Sacrament and that was interesting... Haha, I'm still not fluent! :) But I am so glad that I get to be a missionary here in Kansas at this time! It is definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful New Year! :)

Love,

Hermana Kammeyer

Pics:
Christmas Morning Pic next to the tree, remember it's early so excuse my awful hair! :)
Hna Wilks and I after we finished raking leaves on Christmas.
Zone picture after caroling, sorry it's so dark.

December 22, 2014

Feliz Navidad!

Hola Todos!

     It's so weird how time works. It feels like this week went by so fast but as I think about what happened this week it seems like everything was so long ago!

     The week started off awesomely with Spealized Training/Christmas Party with the Wichita, Derby, and Newton Zones! It was GREAT!!!! Almost every missionary that I've served with was there!! It was so good to see everyone, especially Hermana Fernandez who I haven't seen since she finished training me. There was an ugly sweater contest which was a blast, unfortunately I couldn't find an ugly sweater the day before.

     The rest of the week we spent running to and fro avoid snow... and then melted puddles of snow :) as we shared the wonderful message of Chirst's birth with as many people as we could. Christmas is an awesome time to be a missionary! I love spreading the good news of Christ with everyone!!!!

     We had a huge miracle happen yesterday at church. Jose and Ernestina came to Church!!!! Woot woot! Jose brought the kids by himself to sunday school and then Ernestina got off work in time to come to sacrament meeting!!! Yes!!! They are awesome and it's amazing to see how fast they are progressing and their desire to come closer to the Lord is incredible! I am so grateful that I get to be a part of their story. Us missionaries also got together and decided to do a musical number for Sacrament meeting since it's Christmas. It went great and it was super funny because Presidente Cereceres joined in at the last minute and he didn't realize that at one point it was just Hna Wilks singing so he sang to... really really high. :) You just gotta love Spanish Branches! :)

     I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Always remember the true meaning of Christmas and how much our Savior has done for us. Please use this time to have Christ mas (see what I did there :D) in your life! Feliz Navidad!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

Pictures:
Practicing for our Musical Number
Soccer, this was from this morning :)

December 15, 2014

Diez dias mas hasta Navidad!

Hola Todos

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

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

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

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

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

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

Pics:

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

December 8, 2014

Christmas craziness!

Hola mis queridos!

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

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

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

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

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

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

December 1, 2014

Me encanta español!

Hola Todos!

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

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

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

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

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

Con Amor,

Hermana Kammeyer

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

November 24, 2014

Adios Garden City :(

Hola Todos,

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

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

Con AmorHermana Kammeyer

November 17, 2014

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

Hola Todos!

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

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

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

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

Con Amor,

                                       Hermana Kammeyer

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