Sept. 23 - "I Only Have One Year Left..."

Hola Mi familia,

 

Where to start? I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It's so crazy that I only have a year left on the mission. 

This week went by so fast. We taught a little bit this week. We taught our investigator, Rodolfo who is doing really well but he can't come to church until November because he needs his schedule changed with work. So we have to reset his date for baptism. We taught Claudia this week too and she is progressing slowly but we are taking it step by step.

We had interviews with President Castro this week.  My interview went very well I might add. He asked me a couple questions and then he talked about how I am doing as a missionary. He loves my attitude. He asked me if I have always been like this.   I told him no.  I told him that I have found my purpose in this life.  It was really good. 

We had a miracle this week. I have been praying for one and it definitely was a testimony of Heavenly Father answering prayers. We got a call from Elders in our district.   They asked us if would we like to have a baptism this upcoming month.  We called them right back!!  The story is, this man was in a coma and while he was in coma he dreamed that two elders came to him.  He pictured their white shirts and name tags.  The two elders told him that if he wanted to live he would have to follow the true gospel of Christ.  He woke up out of his coma and he is living with members.   He came to a English ward but he is Portuguese.  Maybe I'll just learn Portuguese while I'm out here too!!   We have an appointment with him on Tuesday.  We are really excited! 

This week has been great. I have been studying on sacrifice a lot because President Castro said that we are living the covenant of sacrifice.  While I was studying a few things came to my mind: 1) President Castro said that if you can't give 100% to this work how can you give a 100% to your family in the future. 2) There are a couple of scriptures that express this too. One says take the cross upon you and deny yourself and the other talks about reflecting on what is to come and what you are missing out on.  It says those that do this are not fit for the kingdom of God. Also in Preach My Gospel it says to cast your line out fully each day.   I know that is what I am doing.  I don't think about things that don't matter or what I'm going to come home to. Right now my purpose is to bring Heavenly Father's children back to him. 

It is hard being in a tri-pan. I really love one companion like a Sister but the other is really pushing my buttons. But I know I am here with them for a reason. My Spanish has improved so much that it is hard for me to talk to English people or even write in English. I got permission from President to study my Spanish an extra hour every day.  Instead of getting up at 6:30, I get up at 5:30 to study. It's part of the sacrifice that I am willing to give to improve myself and to help my investigators. I really love Spanish!!  I know that I am working my bum off to get where I am at right now!! 

Thanks for all that you do for me and all that you are. Me exctrana ustedes muchisima pero estoy en la manos de Dios.  (I miss you a lot, but I am in the hands of God.)  I hope all is well with the family and that I get your letter soon because my time is almost up. Tell my brother and sisters to write me and I will snail mail ya more this week.  

Love ya'll more than you know. It's weird how people forget you or the things that you realize that are important. I realize that the TV, Cell phone, and other worldly things aren't important anymore and I really don't miss them.

 

Hope to hear from ya soon or next week on P-Day

 

Love

 

Hermanita Fitzptrick (Kenzer)   

***Although I had sent an email earlier in the day, it must have been lost in cyber-space.  She hadn't received it by the time she sent this email.

September 16 - Everything's Great!!!

Everything is great!  Transfers were difficult, but I got through them.  Hermana P was companions with Hermana Walker too.  It was a rough day for both of us when she left, but we got through it.  It's crazy to see how fast 18 months goes!!  Hermana Walker is home now.  I want you to become her friend on facebook.   I know she would love to be friends with you. I gave her your cell phone number and one of the mom business cards you sent.   She lives only 15 minutes away from Aunt Danae's house. 

This week has been good. Hermana Walker helped me so much with my Spanish and I can now talk and understand almost everything that is said in Spanish.  Hermana P is a native so we talk in Spanish all day.  It is starting to get hard to do things in English!!  I am forgetting how to write stuff in English too. But I love it!!!   It means the language is coming. 

I got the package this week. Thank you. I love my translator and GPS.  Gracias. 

This week we have been doing a lot of finding. I love knocking on doors. We found a couple of people this week.  One lady wants us to come back.  She didn't have time to talk because she had company. She told us her husband just died 15 days ago.  We are going to go back to teach the plan of Salvation. We found a couple of other people, too. 

I have been reading in the scriptures this week in John 6. If you haven't read it, it is good. I have been wondering why we take the bread during sacrament why can't it be crackers or something else. It is because Christ is the Bread of Life. I love reading from the scriptures and studying in the Preach My Gospel manual. 

It's so crazy how fast the time has gone. The next time I see you, I won't be able to speak English. HaHa!!  Blake will have to translate what I am saying. 

As I think about it, I really don't want to leave the mission. It will be a sad day but good day too!  I'll see y'all again.   I am so happy for all the eternal friendships that I have made on the mission. 

Thanks for all the updates. Just remember the scripture, I don't remember where it is, but tell Sydnie that there is opposition in all things. 

Three companions is ok.  Definitely not my preference,but the Lord knows what he is doing and I should leave it up to him.  I can definitely tell you that during this week the Lord has been carrying me because had I not had a companion like Hermana P, I think I would be crying every day because she and I felt the same way at transfer meeting.  We both were crying because of Hermana Walker.   She had such a great influence on both of us.  

That's creepy that we only have 14 more Saturdays till Christmas!!  It's weird how fast the time goes by.  Thanks for being a great missionary mom. 

Hermana Walker would love to meet you when you go out to Utah.  I'm sure she would love to hear from you. I definitely want to see her after I get home.   I saw Hermana Rubow.  She is doing great!!  Have you talked to her mom lately? 

I love y'all so much and can't wait to see you.

 

Love

 

Kenzer Lou

September 9 - Transfer Update...

Hola Familia,

Well for transfer updates here it is: I am staying in Ventura.  I am going to be in a companionship of three missionaries.  Hermana P and Hermana H are my new companions starting tomorrow.   I am the Designated Driver. Yay, TIWI!!!  I am so grateful for Hermana P because she is a native speaker.   I didn't know how I would make it through this next transfer not being able to speak the language and trying to help my companion.  Hermana H was with me in the MTC and we didn't get along too great.   Heavenly Father is trying to humble me.  I will make the best out of it. It's all about my attitude. 

Our week was great, we didn't reach our goal of 100 declarations but we got 53 which is really good considering the standard of excellence is 20 declarations per week. Knocking on  doors is hard here in California. I love knocking on the Spanish people's doors.   But you never know what to expect when an English person answers. This week we got an Athesist women who said no thank you to everything that we asked her.  We also ran into people who are still very hard-headed about Prop 8. 

I didn't get my package yet because they usually stop the mail before transfers. Some things that I will be sending home are letters from MTC up until now and some things that I can't have like the Spanish book that you sent me for my birthday.  It isn't approved so I have to send it home and wait until I get home to read it.

The funniest thing that happened this week is I had to play the piano for  a baptism that the elders had.   We parked our car in the front of the church.   After the baptism we had to go back to our apartment to plan.   We were trying to get our car to open,  then realized that we parked our car in front of the church, and here we were trying to get into a members car in the parking lot in the backside of the church!  Funny!!  

From studies this week, I learned that we need to sacrifice in order to have faith for our eternal salvation.  We also need to have love with charity.   It's what happens when you leave a companion. You grow and learn together and then you have to sacrifice in order to be humbled and to grow even more outside of the comfort zone. It's these days that I wish I could just call you and tell you what's going on and get your advice on how to move forward. But this is part of the mission; learning to grow and to become the person that Christ wants me to become.  Sometimes, I just wish that I didn't have such a big heart.   When I love people, I love them with all my heart and its hard to say goodbye even if it is for a short time or a long time.   I just want to bawl my eyes out.  You know me.   Change is difficult.  I wish I could deal with it easily.   But it never happens the way I expected it too.  Don't worry, I'll be fine. It will take a little bit but I know that Hermana Walker and I will be friends for life and even after. She lives up in Farmington and so I will visit her when we go visit Utah. But I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to work with her. She has become one of my best friends. 

I love you and all that you are doing for me. I will have to give Hermana Walker's info so you can meet up with her or have her call you.

Love you muchisima,

Kenzer Lou

September 2 Just a Little Bittersweet

Hola Familia,

 

How are you? Everything here is great. Ok maybe not totally great but is better than what it could be. 

Today is Labor Day.  No one is inviting us for a cookout but we are good for eating at home. My companion is great. Hermana Walker is one of the best missionaries and one of the best people that Heavenly Father could have put me with. But this is a bittersweet week, I know that we all have to move on and go forward with our lives but I don't want Hermana Walker to leave. She is one of the best companions I could have had and we get along so well. She is one of the people since I first met her that I feel like I met her before this life. When you meet someone you just connect with you love them with your whole heart and that is what happened with Hermana Walker. Our transfers are on September 10th, so we will see. Not looking forward to that day though. 

I get to see Hermana Rubow when we have a big zone meeting or stake conference. But other than that we really don't see each other. I got to see Hermana Corniea, my first companion, too, this past week.  It was so great!   It is crazy.  It's so true what you mentioned in your email, we were just talking about that this morning. That had we have not served missions, I would have never met an Hermana Rubow, Hermana Corniea, Hermana Walker, Hermana Romero, or an Hermana Taylor!   

I love the tidbits and bits of good gossip you share.   I'm so glad that you are ok after your accident and nothing serious happened!  

We don't have any zone conferences coming up. My Spanish this week has been hard. I feel like six months out I should be able to speak more and be able to say more but I am still doing basic Spanish. It's hard to not compare yourself to other missionaries. One of the things that we learned at a meeting we had was about adjusting to missionary life.   One of the things that was shared was that  most missionaries are not fluent by the end of the missions.  But, that's okay.  The Spirit is the true teacher!!

This week we are mostly finding people and teaching the investigators we do have. But since this is Hermana Walker's last week we want to go out with a bang!  This week we are setting the goal of trying to share the gospel with 100 people.  And we are going to knock on doors one whole day. We are so excited!!   

I can't wait to get my package and since the kids have the day off tell them to write their sister who is a missionary!!  Haha!! I will write more in a snail mail. 

Hermana Walker and I decided that we are going to have a mission reunion cruise.  It would be so fun!  We could go somewhere where they speak Spanish so all the Spanish speaking missionaries can use their Spanish. 

I will try and send you pictures this week. I am going to send a box home because I have a little bit too much stuff.

I hope y'all have a great week and share the gospel. I have been reading in the Doctrine and Covenants and started Matthew. It is interesting how the people who needed to be healed by Christ had to have faith first. And Christ asked  "Believe that I can do it?"  The people could have believed but the true test was how big was their faith was. The people were healed according to their faith but first they had to act to believe on the faith that they had. Interesting. 

I love you and feel your love and prayers.   I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I want my sisters and brothers to know that serving a mission is the best decision you could ever make. You make friends that you would have never met, bring people back to the true gospel, and receive gifts that are through the power of God. I know that one of the gifts that Heavenly Father has given me is His love for the people that we meet and are teaching. I feel a love for them but I also feel God's love for them working through me.

 

Keep going strong and love y'all every day and missed often,

 

Hermana Fitzpatrick

Kenzer LOU