August 26th - I Love My Mission!!

Hola Familia,

This week has been so good. We have had a couple of miracles this week.  First, we went to go see a lady who we talked to awhile ago. She let us into her house which usually isn't normal.   Usually, we will teach outside the door.  We read a scripture with her.  She told us about how she has had a hard life and hasn't ever experienced real happiness. We could feel the Spirit so strong that she was almost in tears.   I couldn't really tell if she was crying or not. 

The other miracle we had, is that we went to go visit a less-active member and we found her sister instead who is also less-active that we didn't know about.   She has been looking for a sign to give her some direction in her life.  She viewed us as her sign. It was such a really cool week!  Filled with miracles!!

We went to the temple this week. The Los Angeles Temple is HUGE!!!!!!   I loved it!!  It was so great!!  We definitely will have to go back there.   We then went to the Visitor's Center.

My companion is the best companion ever!! Her name is Hermana Walker and she is from Farmington, UT. She lives down on Main Street just a little bit away from Aunt Danae.  She is definitely one of the coolest people and has taught me a lot. She talks in Spanish all the time.   She sounds native, which gives me hope because when she came out she knew no Spanish at all. I will definitely be visiting Hermana Walker when I get off the mission.
Transfers are on September 10th which we are not looking forward to because Hermana Walker goes home...

The funniest thing that happened this week, ok maybe you won't think that it is funny, happened on the day we went to the temple and returned back home to normal missionary teaching. We were coming back to our apartment and there were a bunch of police cars. We wanted to go see if the other sisters that live in our apartment complex were ok. We starting walking and we overheard that a gang member had barricaded himself in an apartment with a pistol. It was really interesting to see the police and the SWAT team with machine-looking rifles. When you're a missionary, nothing normal ever happens were you live!!

I know that Sydnie will do great wherever she goes to college.

That's so cool that Kellie wants to hang out with me and she is already asking when I come home. HAHA!!  Not for a while but time surely has flown by!

I don't know if you read in my last letter about that translator thing but it would be great to get that to help with me words in Spanish. It is coming but it definitely isn't easy.I thought about pulling a John Groberg move where all I do is stay up and read the scriptures in Spanish all night. But that would just be dumb.

We were so tired when we went to the temple because we had to wake up 3 in the morning because the lady that took us left her house by 4:30 a.m.   HAHA, Such is life!!  Sometimes I wake up  and wonder when can I go and rest from my labors.   The answer is never!!   I definitely love being a missionary and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!!  

I got a lovely package this week from Sister Rawe.  Very unexpected.  It tells me that we are never forgotten. We may move away and move on with our lives but we always have friends around the world. So thank you, Sister Rawe for the Birthday package.

I will snail mail ya again this week.

Love y'all/ TE AMO

Hermana Fitzpatrick

Kenzer Lou 

August 19th - Loving Ventura!

Hola Familia,

 

Como estan? This week has been really good. I'm getting use to Ventura area and I love it. We have been doing a lot of tracting because we don't have a lot of investigators so we are knocking on the doors. We had a miracle this week!  We went to see some potential investigators and we didn't find any of them at home.  We were going back to our car and we ran into this man who we really didn't want to talk to but since we talk to everyone, we did. He knew who we were a little bit because he talked to some missionaries in Mexico. We set up a return appointment with him.  When we followed up at our appointment, we taught about the restoration.   Hermana Walker was committing him to be baptized and before she could finish he said "Yes".  Rudolfo is his name and he will be getting baptized on September 21st!!!   Can you imagine if we just listened to our carnal man and didn't talk to him?  

We met another man who we weren't trying to find.  He was wondering why there are so many churches today.  We gave him a Book of Mormon.  We wanted to come by on Saturday to invite him to church.  We ran into his wife who is firm in her own beliefs.   She just wanted us to go see our own members of our church and not others. We explained our purpose which is simply to "invite others to come unto Christ." We asked her if she knows her Savior.   She really didn't care if she knew her Savior or what we were doing as missionaries. C'est la vie!!

Also we have run into more Jehovah's Witnesses here than ever before. But it's a chance that we have to share the gospel with them. 

I definitely need to work on my Spanish.  I feel like I should know so much more since I am almost five months out.  I still feel like I know the amount that I can out with from the MTC. But I am getting better and eventually I will get it. 

I will send pictures.  I need a cord thing that will go from my camera to the computer. I will send the chip home soon anyways. 

The weather here is cold in the morning and at night but nice during the day. Just a little cold like you need a little jacket or something. 

I love my new area.  I think Heavenly Father knew I needed to be somewhere else, too. I wasn't happy in Newbury Park after leaving such a great area.  It was tough not having any Spanish people to teach, just English.   I think I would have lost some of my Spanish if I would have stayed.  I had a feeling that I shouldn't have unpacked my bags, but I couldn't just  live out of my suitcase for six weeks, so I unpacked. 

I'm so glad to be in this new area.  I love Ventura!  Hermana Walker and I should be going to the temple sometime this week, which we are really excited for!!  We could only find a couple people to go with and they both leave around four thirty in the morning. So, it will be an early day but we will be able to do a great amount of temple work. So fun!!! 

I will have to snail mail today and let you know what I could use. I could use some Subway gift cards as we're always out and about during lunch, but that's all I can really think of. Some of the restaurants out here I have never heard of like Marie Calendar's and other things. 

I haven't really thought of getting my hair cut and colored yet just because I have been so busy. But I will tell you my hair is changing from blonde to brown so crazy. I hope it's not stress! :)

 

I'll snail mail soon.

 

Love y'all,

 

Hermana Fitzpatrick

Kenzer 

August 12 - Whoot Whoot...I'm In Ventura!!

Hola Familia,

Well this week is a crazy one!!  The hymn, "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" takes a whole new meaning this week. 

I have been in Newbury Park up until Friday. While Hermana Prestgard and I were doing our weekly planning, we got a call from President Castro. When President calls you know something is up because President usually doesn't just call you.  When he called he wanted to talk to all four of us in the apartment. The other Hermanas weren't there so he told us to call him back when we were all there.  We called the Hermanas and they didn't answer so I texted them.   They called back right away.  When they got back to the apartment we called President Castro back.  We couldn't hear him very well because he was in his car, so he told us he would call us back in ten minutes. While we were waiting we made lunch and then he called back. He told us that one Hermana had to go home because of a medical issue and so there was one Hermana without a companion.  He talked to the other Hermanas and they ageed to be in a Tri-panionship because they know the Newbury Park area better.  And then he talked to me and told me that I was going to Ventura!!!   He told me that the English traveling sisters were doing an exchange in our area and that they would pick me up at 8 that night.  President Castro called at about 1ish.  The crazy thing is that at the beginning of this transfer, I felt like I shouldn't unpack my bags.  I did anyways because I don't want to be living out of a suitcase. So I am writing to you from Ventura, it has been a crazy week!!!  

My new Companion is Hermana Walker and we did exchanges with each other last transfer when I was in Thousand Oaks.   She is awesome and great!!!  But she is going home at the end of this transfer.  I can tell you it was a huge miracle from the Lord, that I fit all my stuff especially from my birthday in my suitcases and especially in the car of missionaries because we only have a Toyota Corolla or Chevy Cruze.  

All is well!!   I am really looking forward to working here. I haven't been in this area long but I already love it and know that I will find people here to teach.  My Spanish is going well because we are actually speaking Spanish.  It's great, even if I still feel like I'm learning. 

GUESS WHAT!!!!! Hermana Rubow is in my zone. Yay!!!  I love that!   I have missed her!! She is doing great! I also got to see one of the Sisters that came two weeks ago who Elder Larsen wrote about because she went to school at USU-Eastern.  She knows him because he served in her area and tried to teach her roommate.  

I haven't really had time to think about myself and my hair but it's crazy. I don't know if the mission is doing it to me because my hair near my roots is turning like brown. Ewww!  I'll find a P Day where I can go get it cut and colored.  

I will start to read the books and Liahonas in Spanish that you sent.  I will make my cake this P Day most likely because I have to go to the store to buy oil and eggs. 

I finished the Book of Mormon this week not in Spanish but in English.  It is always so good. I started Doctrine and Covenants.   I have never read it before, but I really love it. 

One of the scriptures that I love is D&C 24:15.  It talks about how if you go into someone's house and they don't accept you because of the name we bear which is Christ name, if you wipe your feet and leave dust like Pilate did with Christ, you cleanse your hands of them. 

I can't believe how fast the time goes and how fun the mission really is. Some people are sticklers about their mission.   But you know what,  it doesn't need to be all strict.  Yes, we need to follow the rules, but its okay to have fun too!!

How are Sydnie, Blake, and Kellie?  How's dad? I really miss y'all but it will be a great year!! How are you mom?  How was your birthday?  I love all that you do for me and all the notes that you send! 

Love y'all so much

Hermana Fitzpatrick

kenzer Lou

August 5th - Thanks for All the Birthday Wishes

Hi Mom and Family,

I got all my packages and everything. Thank you so so much!  I couldn't have asked for a better family than y'all!  

My new area is Newbury Park.  It's really different from Thousand Oaks.   I miss all the friends and the people in the branch in Thousand Oaks and all the people that I was teaching.   I have gotten so close to all of them. 

In my new area, the missionaries decided to split the area. There is hardly any Spanish or they are really wealthy Spanish.  This is just a little frustrating because I am used to making numbers and now we aren't.  I'm trying my very hardest to remain positive.   But coming from a great area to a not so great one is a bit of a change.   I just need to find the reason I am here.   We are not even in a ward.  We are in a Spanish unit which is in a ward.  There are only 15 people that show up every Sunday and some of them really don't want to be there. It's a little bit different, a little bit difficult, but we will try our hardest to be successful and do what the Lord would want us to do.

I love my companion.   I am dealing with some difficult people that we live with.  Sometimes I just have to bite my tongue when this person speaks, but other times I just want to blow my top off and say that you can't change everyone that lives under the same roof.  This person was the only one out of the whole entire missionaries that didn't want to watch me open my birthday presents. Which by the way were awesome. I love all the mustache stuff and I love all the new clothes. I now have a mall of a closet. 

I don't have a real bed but I have a better mattress than what I did have. It wasn't too difficult to make the transfer, but I do need an SUV to get all my stuff to Ventura. It does take about all day.  I did remember all of my food and the blender of course. 

It was really hard to say goodbye to Manuel.  I got really close to him and could relate a lot to him.  I could see the changes he was making as a person. When I told him that I was leaving he wanted to give me a hug but the darn mission rules held me back.   I made him promise that after the mission, he would be able to give me a hug.  I asked President Castro if I could write him while I am on the mission because he really made a difference.  I really know that he needs this. 

Right now we are not really teaching anyone.   But this man named Manuel seems very promising. I think I have luck with the name Manuel. 

Since they split the area the other companionship has most of the Spanish. We only have one other investigator than Manuel and one for baptism and that is it.  But we will be able to find people. 

The funniest thing that happened last week was getting lost because we don't have a GPS. If you could send it ASAP that would be great. 

Nothing too spiritual this week. 

Most challenging thing is trying to find people when we really have nothing to work with.

I'll write you some more snail mail this week. 

Love lots,

Kenzer Lou