Kindra as a Sister Missionary!

November 11, 2013 Yeah so today is Veterans day, which means that number one our libraries should be closed, but arent, and that we shouldnt have Pday today, but we do :) So heres my email! This week was BIRTHDAY WEEK :) And we all know how much I LOVE birthday week :) Its one of my favoritest weeks of the year. I got to finish opening all my presents, thank you for all of the cardigans! I love them! The black one is my favorite, it fits really well and its very warm :) And the mustardy one matches that scarf very well paired with my grey leopard print pencil skirt (my favorite one I inherited from my trainer) this might be my new favorite outfit, so thank you mommy! You did very well! We had a nice Pday last week, more relaxed and more time once we figured out the washer deal and the fact that we arent driving to the church any more. We went and got soup for lunch, because its turned into soup and salad weather, which I like. No snow yet which is preferable! Its definitely getting colder though, which is not very nice. Also the colors came out this week! Ill try and remember to send some pictures, Stuart asked me to take tons of pictures to share, and I think this week was our window. Its getting windier and stormier every day, so the leaves are falling pretty quickly now. And its ridiculous the amount of leaves everywhere! They dont bother to rake the leaves because its pretty pointless. They have leave sucker machines that come along (kinda like the street cleaners do, but they have this huge vacuum hose that one guy has to direct) and they go along the curbs downtown and in some of the suburbs to suck up the leaves. And so people will dump all the leaves in their yard along the curb to be sucked up. So we have piles of leaves like Idaho has piles of snow in the winter. Its kinda cool. I like to jump in them and kick them and all of that. AND there is this great pile in the church yard of leaves that I have wanted to jump in for several weeks now. But seeing as how I am a missionary and have a name tag and all that jazz I thought it would be better if I did not. So I havent, but Ive still wanted to! And I thought to myself, if I could get a kid to play with me I would do it, because children play in leaves all the time and that's acceptable! So after Ashley's Baptism as we were walking out her daughter Kylie ran over and jumped in the leaves.... so I did too! It was great fun, I love little kids! And oh my goodness! We have met the most stubborn little girl of my life! Maybe I am just noticing now more, because I'm sure Ive met others, but her name is Brinlee, which I think is cute, and she was having a fit in church because she wanted to run up and be with daddy, well she couldnt because daddy was up at the front and was going to be the one to confirm Ashley and member and bless her with the gift of the Holy Ghost. So she was screaming and her mom took her out, but she tried to sneak back in. So I looked over at her and got her to come and stand by me. I scooped her up, set her on the bench next to me and then wrapped my arms around her so she couldnt run in the middle of the prayer. She sat just fine, but after when I asked her if she would be good for mommy, she looked up at me and shook her head and said uhh uuhhh (no)! And she has done several things like that, you know the nice kicking her sister because she wants the book etc.We teach Ashley in their home and so we get to interact with them a lot. But she is the cutest little girl! We had a lesson with the Ortegas this week. We meet with them every monday and have Family Home Evening with them. We have started reading the Book of Mormon with them and we have been trying to get them to church since we got here. Its hard because the dad isnt a member so he doesnt really want to come, and he was on a football team that always played on sunday mornings, but they won the championship last week so that should be done! They were at sacrament meeting this week and then there was a missionary farewell yesterday night which they came to. And there were a lot of miracles at that farewell! But with the Ortegas, they have a daughter who is in Young Womens who we have been trying to get to come and has needed some fellowship. Well at the open house she walked with the YW president and some of the young women and she agreed to attend early morning seminary this morning! YAHOO! I was just walking on clouds all night after I heard that. Because guess what? Its working! We are able to be in the Ortegas home and help them learn about the gospel. Sister Ortega is now teaching her children more and catching the fire. She told us that she read the assigned reading from the Book of Mormon with her family, but then she kept going because she wanted to know what happened! The dad is there when we are teaching now, he is interacting with us more and he is reading the Book of Mormon with his family. Their daughter is going to Seminary! Which means she will hopefully make better friends in YW and want to stay on Sundays, and maybe want to come to mutual. Which means then her and her two younger sisters who are activity day aged, would get to their activities! Its been a long haul, and we are just starting to see the changes in their family, mostly because they are seeing it and telling us! Its great :) Man. This is the Lords work, and it changes lives!!!! Day by day, with a lot of time and effort, everyone can change! We were also able to meet with our less active sister Wendy this week. she was the one that I was surprised remembered our last appointment. But she was there and she was eager to hear from us! We met more of her family, her house is still crazy, but we were able to see their hearts soften from the moment they walked in (they were very not happy to see us in their home and were not afraid to make it known) to the moment we left, where she was receptive to us. We even asked Wendy to say a closing prayer and she was clearly uncomfortable with everything that was going on, but her family stopped and said you say beautiful prayers! Just say it. And helped her want to, and she did! She said it in spanish so I have no idea what she said, but it was pretty! We then organized a ride for her to get to church this week, and she came! We found out once she got there that the Spanish elders had gone to her house as well, on saturday night! At like 8:45, clearly the last person of the night. I guess Wendy had requested a spanish book of mormon online and they went to deliver it. They had no idea she was a member! They made a comment about our new investigator coming to church and we were like Wendy? No shes a member! but she speaks spanish, so we are now trying to figure out where she needs to be. Because she clearly wants sisters. She said to us in our lesson that she felt like she knew us. she felt very comfortable with us and trusted us and confided in us some of her life situation which, is kind of a big deal and needs more attention than a lot of other issues. So we dont feel like we should just pass her off to the Spanish elders, but she understands better in spanish. So we are trying to figure out what to do for Wendy and her family. Sister Carrigan said on the way home 'sounds like its going to be a turf rumble' to see if she goes to the spanish ward or stays here. And I dont really care what ward shes in, as long as she is where she needs to be. The only issue is who is teaching her, so we are praying over that and trying to figure out what the best situation should be. Sorry, apparently I dont use paragraphs any more... oh well. We also had dinner at a members house this week (we had more than one, but I want to tell you about one) the Bittners. They are such a cute little family! Three boys, one is 12 or 13, ones 7 and one is 3 or 4. And they are cute as buttons! But Sister Bittner is the best, she is just hilarious! She is an author and she is just publishing her first book, I cant remember what it is called. But she was so excited she was telling us all about it! And its a scifi book, which I dont usually do. But she was telling us about it and it actually sounds really interesting, I want to read it when I get home. And it was cute how excited she was. Oh and when I walked in, their 7 year old loves us. He gives us monkey hugs, which entails him wrapping his arms around us and then picking up his feet and wrapping them around us as well. While we were there they said okay no more monkey hugs to the sister missionaries! Which I was grateful for. But we saw sister Bittner at the open house last night and she said she was having a rough month, because she broke the sabbath a month ago. I said you know you can repent from that! And she said, I know, but I broke the Sabbath because we went to Comicon in NY.... HAHAHA I love her! Sister Carrigan and I (and sister bittner!) all laughed and we told her how much we loved her. She awesome! Wicked creative and such a great mom. I love being around her! Well yesterday was a good sunday, funny. We had Ward Council and in ward council were a few good quotes. So Elders Quorum was talking about some of the callings they extended. One of them was a calling with Family History work... and I quote... "We call him, for lack of a better title, the 'redeeming the dead guy' " Thats literally what the Elders Quorum calls it. the 'redeeming the dead guy'. Love it. They were also talking about the Danish and some comments were made: "All you have to do is stick a potato in your mouth to sound like a Dane" "And depending on what country your in is the type of potato to use" I love our ward councils, they are quite inspiring! haha. We were also talking about a recent convert how has gone inactive that cuts hair for a living. And the young mens president said "well we can take the young men to go get hair cuts"... and the bishop responded with "can we look into the budget for that?" and then we all laughed, because he was only half serious. But man, its been a good week. And I got a birthday lunch, dinner, facebook time, and then we got to teach Cindy! Cindy, how I love my dear Cindy! We talked about the Priesthood and authority and the fact that we can trace our Authority back to Christ himself and all that that entails. It was a really good lesson filled with great questions, she knows so much more than she thinks she does! At one point she was asking about when Joseph Smith received the Priesthood and asked "Yeah Joseph Smith, and who was with him?... thats right Oliver Cowdry"... and I just started laughing! She stopped and said "What?" and then sister Carrigan and Brother LaMartin both started laughing. Her concern is that she does not know enough, because Brother LaMartin (who she is dating) is a scriptorian, much like unto my companion Sister Carrigan, he can remember where he read everything. And thats intimidating to Cindy because she is like me, and we cannot find that one scripture to save our lives (thank goodness for the search function on LDS.org!) And I just looked at her and said, "you know more than you think you know! There are members who couldnt tell you that!" And she said so many other things and asked such great questions that I was comical to think her fear is that she doesnt know enough. But I get that, I have the same concern, as I think we all do at some point. But she is so ready! She told us that she knows its true, she just hasnt gotten that spiritual confirmation that she is looking for yet. Cindy is awesome! I cannot wait for her to find that answer that she is looking for. its truly amazing to see how the Lord is preparing the people as He is hastening His work. What a great time to be a missionary! I am so glad that I am here now and I am able to get to know and love these people. I am truly a blessed daughter of God to have such experiences in my life! I wish I could thank Him fully for everything my Heavenly Father has given me. What a blessing it is to be out here serving a mission. Know that I love you all! I pray for all of our family by name every night! I pray for you constantly and hope that God strengthens you in whatever you may need at this time. I love you, and miss you dearly! Keep the faith and stay strong everyone, because believe it or not, the Gospel has been restored to the Earth once again! With all my love, Sister Kindra Wilson :) © 2013 MicrosoftTermsPrivacyDevelopersEnglish (United States)