Dear Family and Friends,
Well to start off, I have a favor to ask of everyone. I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday with a shoulder specialist to see what's going on with my shoulder and I would love all of the prayers in the world so that everything will be okay. I've been having some really bad pains in my shoulder that has stopped me from working this week and so I have decided to go in and see what's going on, yes, I probably should have gone in sooner, but I'm a Kunz and when it comes to injuries we like to think we are tougher than we are. Anyway, I am really nervous for this doctors appointment so all of your prayers would help.
So we had a pretty eventful week this week. We found three new investigators and all three were just from following up with people in the past. It was pretty cool. Carmen came to our thanksgiving party and loved it then came to church a while back but this week was the first time we had a real lesson with her. She loves the gospel and even is going to give us the address of her son so, that we can go and teach him and his family. The only thing with her is that she likes Hermana Santos better than my companion and I. Apparently our gringo accent is too much for her to handle. When she told us that we kind of laughed and then we had the opportunity to teach her about the role and power of the Holy Ghost and how we as missionaries were called by a prophet of God to be here and if she had real desire to learn, the Holy Ghost would help her understand and testify to her that what we were saying was true. But then after that I was a little self conscious so I asked a few of the members in our Ward if my accent was bad. The Avila family nicknamed me gringa so I guess you could imagine their answer but everyone else was very surprised to find out that I hadn't even been out in the field for five months! (My mission birthday (click day) is the 23rd)
Juan is a new investigator as well, and the only thing I don't like about that is the fact that he always answers the door without a shirt. But he has desire to learn about the gospel and said whenever he had work off he would be at church so we are excited to meet with them. And as well, we have Rosa de Los Santos, who was a former investigator but is now a new investigator again. Apparently she wasn't keeping commitments so as we work with her now we hope that we can help her progress.
We also invited three people to baptism this week! Alfred and Neela, brother and sister, accepted the invitation to be baptized and they are excited to build their foundation on the rock of Jesus Christ. That's what we have been focusing all of our teaching with them on. They are two youth who are so awesome and are such examples to me! I'm so excited to see what their lives have in store. We also invited Carmen to. Be baptized and she accepted. We hope that we can keep her progressing! We have lots of plans to put people on date for January like Erelio, the Lugos, Maria and Leo, Alfina, and Carmen! Hopefully we can see miracles with them! :)
Thursday we passed by a Menos Activo and taught her about preparing for the temple. We are hoping that she can use the temple to focus on and get over all of the drama that is going on in the ward...speaking of that. Hermano Avila in our area has the whole ward stirred up about feeding the missionaries. He said he didn't think it was right that we didn't have somewhere to eat everyday. So, he spoke to the branch president and he got this whole thing rolling. Now we have members booked up the wazoo! I hope we can start getting some member referrals and some solid new investigators. I love the Avila family. They are probably the reason I was sent to this area first. They are like my family away from home. I love them so much! I was having a really really rough time on Monday with my shoulder and getting frustrated with not being able to work how I would like to so I got a blessing from Hermano. It was definitely short, my dad likes to give long blessings and make sure every problem that I could ever have in my life was addressed, just kidding dad, I love your blessings and there's something special about a fathers blessing. But anyway, I received some good insight through that and another Hermana serving in my ward and from, of course, the lord.
Thursday we also had the fireside with our mission president. Which was so amazing! Oh my, I love President Fenn and everything he teaches us. Of course he taught us about Joseph smith as always, but that night was special because we talked about the birth of Jesus Christ. It was a very special and spiritual experience. I'll send home my notes so you can get a gist of what went down.
Saturday we had our Christmas party and there was a ton of people and the cops got called. We know how to party. There was a ton of people there and we got to meet a ton of people. Hopefully they turn into investigators! Sunday was an awesome experience. I was able to experience the power of the sacrament! I felt kind of burdened before but it was a liberating experience for me. I was able to feel the cleansing power of the atonement in a short few minutes.
I also learned a ton from the Book of Mormon this week. I've been studying with a specific purpose and it is awesome to see how much I got out of it. I have been studying a lot of what I can do to be a better teacher and I have found that it is really quite simple. All we need to do is be obedient and follow the Promptings of the spirit. So that's something that I'm focusing on.
I love you all, thank you for the many prayers, letters, and thoughts. I hope you all have a chance to feed the missionaries sometime soon, or even better, go out with them! I want to hear about the miracles that happen while you're out with them. I love you all! Be a missionary's familia Avila! We all need one! Besos!
Hermana Rebekka Kunz
Illinois Chicago West Mission
July 2014 - January 2016
Well to start off, I have a favor to ask of everyone. I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday with a shoulder specialist to see what's going on with my shoulder and I would love all of the prayers in the world so that everything will be okay. I've been having some really bad pains in my shoulder that has stopped me from working this week and so I have decided to go in and see what's going on, yes, I probably should have gone in sooner, but I'm a Kunz and when it comes to injuries we like to think we are tougher than we are. Anyway, I am really nervous for this doctors appointment so all of your prayers would help.
So we had a pretty eventful week this week. We found three new investigators and all three were just from following up with people in the past. It was pretty cool. Carmen came to our thanksgiving party and loved it then came to church a while back but this week was the first time we had a real lesson with her. She loves the gospel and even is going to give us the address of her son so, that we can go and teach him and his family. The only thing with her is that she likes Hermana Santos better than my companion and I. Apparently our gringo accent is too much for her to handle. When she told us that we kind of laughed and then we had the opportunity to teach her about the role and power of the Holy Ghost and how we as missionaries were called by a prophet of God to be here and if she had real desire to learn, the Holy Ghost would help her understand and testify to her that what we were saying was true. But then after that I was a little self conscious so I asked a few of the members in our Ward if my accent was bad. The Avila family nicknamed me gringa so I guess you could imagine their answer but everyone else was very surprised to find out that I hadn't even been out in the field for five months! (My mission birthday (click day) is the 23rd)
Juan is a new investigator as well, and the only thing I don't like about that is the fact that he always answers the door without a shirt. But he has desire to learn about the gospel and said whenever he had work off he would be at church so we are excited to meet with them. And as well, we have Rosa de Los Santos, who was a former investigator but is now a new investigator again. Apparently she wasn't keeping commitments so as we work with her now we hope that we can help her progress.
We also invited three people to baptism this week! Alfred and Neela, brother and sister, accepted the invitation to be baptized and they are excited to build their foundation on the rock of Jesus Christ. That's what we have been focusing all of our teaching with them on. They are two youth who are so awesome and are such examples to me! I'm so excited to see what their lives have in store. We also invited Carmen to. Be baptized and she accepted. We hope that we can keep her progressing! We have lots of plans to put people on date for January like Erelio, the Lugos, Maria and Leo, Alfina, and Carmen! Hopefully we can see miracles with them! :)
Thursday we passed by a Menos Activo and taught her about preparing for the temple. We are hoping that she can use the temple to focus on and get over all of the drama that is going on in the ward...speaking of that. Hermano Avila in our area has the whole ward stirred up about feeding the missionaries. He said he didn't think it was right that we didn't have somewhere to eat everyday. So, he spoke to the branch president and he got this whole thing rolling. Now we have members booked up the wazoo! I hope we can start getting some member referrals and some solid new investigators. I love the Avila family. They are probably the reason I was sent to this area first. They are like my family away from home. I love them so much! I was having a really really rough time on Monday with my shoulder and getting frustrated with not being able to work how I would like to so I got a blessing from Hermano. It was definitely short, my dad likes to give long blessings and make sure every problem that I could ever have in my life was addressed, just kidding dad, I love your blessings and there's something special about a fathers blessing. But anyway, I received some good insight through that and another Hermana serving in my ward and from, of course, the lord.
Thursday we also had the fireside with our mission president. Which was so amazing! Oh my, I love President Fenn and everything he teaches us. Of course he taught us about Joseph smith as always, but that night was special because we talked about the birth of Jesus Christ. It was a very special and spiritual experience. I'll send home my notes so you can get a gist of what went down.
Saturday we had our Christmas party and there was a ton of people and the cops got called. We know how to party. There was a ton of people there and we got to meet a ton of people. Hopefully they turn into investigators! Sunday was an awesome experience. I was able to experience the power of the sacrament! I felt kind of burdened before but it was a liberating experience for me. I was able to feel the cleansing power of the atonement in a short few minutes.
I also learned a ton from the Book of Mormon this week. I've been studying with a specific purpose and it is awesome to see how much I got out of it. I have been studying a lot of what I can do to be a better teacher and I have found that it is really quite simple. All we need to do is be obedient and follow the Promptings of the spirit. So that's something that I'm focusing on.
I love you all, thank you for the many prayers, letters, and thoughts. I hope you all have a chance to feed the missionaries sometime soon, or even better, go out with them! I want to hear about the miracles that happen while you're out with them. I love you all! Be a missionary's familia Avila! We all need one! Besos!
Hermana Rebekka Kunz
Illinois Chicago West Mission
July 2014 - January 2016