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

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