Dear Family and Friends,
To start off, I love you all. I am so grateful that my family is so big and filled with people that I love and who support me and my family. You guys are awesome and through this email, I'm sending you hugs galore! Okay, secondly, this week was amazing. Hermana Lewis and I had goals to have 4 progressing investigators (4), 3 people at church (4), 6 members at lessons with us (6), 3 other lessons (4), and 4 lessons with less actives and recent converts (5). The numbers in the parenthesis are the actuals! We accomplished or exceeded our goals this week :) last week we had decided that we were too casual with each other and so we set goals to help each other stay focused on missionary work and this is what happens when we put our plans into action! It was amazing.
Reyna is still on date for this Saturday and she wants to still follow through with that but Francisco fell off date because he didn't come to church. But we are working with them to get married still on Saturday so Reyna can still take that step and come unto Christ. We invited Gabriel to be baptized on the 14th of February but he said he needed to come to church and experience it before he made the decision and he came! I think he loved it but he ran off with his ride right after church so we didn't get a chance to ask him. Two newer investigators came to church! Claudia and her son Sebastian. We were really stressed out about her coming to church because she had already come once and no one, NO ONE, introduced themselves to her and she felt super unwelcome. (Side note: if you see someone you don't know at church, please just welcome them!) and she left after the second hour and so we aren't sure how she liked that either. But she has desires to be baptized, she just needs to get married first.
This week I grew my testimony of the priesthood. My shoulder had been doing fine for the last week or two but Saturday the pain came back with a vengeance. Sunday wasn't any better. I had it set in my mind that I was going to get a blessing from elder Jacob because I know him but he had to leave and so I just kind of forgot about it. We had some drama with getting our investigators to church so that took precedence. We got home and Hermana Lewis asked how my shoulder was feeling and I said it hurt and so she called the district leader to give me a blessing. What was really beautiful about it was what was said. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers my prayers and I know sometimes he prompts us to receive blessings so we can hear directly what he wants us to do. I know that the priesthood is the power of God here on earth and really is a blessing in our life. I know that we can all be healed through faith, physically or spiritually. That's a promise from the lord himself. Countless prophets in the Book of Mormon have given witness of that and we know through the restored gospel that prophets guide the people and testify to them what the lord says.
We had a once in a lifetime experience this week, and no it's not what you're thinking, I promise. We were sitting waiting for a train to pass, and it was the longest, slowest train ever in the history of the world! I am not even kidding when I say we were sitting there for at least 10 minutes. Well, the train was chugging slowly but surely and it finally passed. But the little road blockers weren't going up. I was getting FRUSTRATED! And then. Another train passed by. Going the other direction. It was something that I had never before in my life experienced and never want to experience it ever again! But that's what I get for praying for patience.
Also, Betty White is in my ward. There is a little lady from Colombia in our ward who seems so innocent and wonderful but inside is a jokester waiting to ruin someone's day. But in a good way. We had a ward activity and we came to give her a kiss and she was like oh these are some investigators! Obviously Hermana Lewis and I got super excited and started to talk to them and get all of their information but...they were members. And I obviously didn't know because it was still like my second week there and we were embarrassed and now I don't know who I can trust anymore.
This week was amazing and I'm excited to see more miracles as I get ready to kill of Hermana Lewis in February :) I love you all and hope you have a great week! Please remember that you are loved by your Heavenly Father and he will guide you as you seek his guidance! He is a man of his word! I promise.
P.S. I'll be home a year from tomorrow. Where is time going?!
Hermana Rebekka Kunz
Illinois Chicago West Mission
July 2014 - January 2016
To start off, I love you all. I am so grateful that my family is so big and filled with people that I love and who support me and my family. You guys are awesome and through this email, I'm sending you hugs galore! Okay, secondly, this week was amazing. Hermana Lewis and I had goals to have 4 progressing investigators (4), 3 people at church (4), 6 members at lessons with us (6), 3 other lessons (4), and 4 lessons with less actives and recent converts (5). The numbers in the parenthesis are the actuals! We accomplished or exceeded our goals this week :) last week we had decided that we were too casual with each other and so we set goals to help each other stay focused on missionary work and this is what happens when we put our plans into action! It was amazing.
Reyna is still on date for this Saturday and she wants to still follow through with that but Francisco fell off date because he didn't come to church. But we are working with them to get married still on Saturday so Reyna can still take that step and come unto Christ. We invited Gabriel to be baptized on the 14th of February but he said he needed to come to church and experience it before he made the decision and he came! I think he loved it but he ran off with his ride right after church so we didn't get a chance to ask him. Two newer investigators came to church! Claudia and her son Sebastian. We were really stressed out about her coming to church because she had already come once and no one, NO ONE, introduced themselves to her and she felt super unwelcome. (Side note: if you see someone you don't know at church, please just welcome them!) and she left after the second hour and so we aren't sure how she liked that either. But she has desires to be baptized, she just needs to get married first.
This week I grew my testimony of the priesthood. My shoulder had been doing fine for the last week or two but Saturday the pain came back with a vengeance. Sunday wasn't any better. I had it set in my mind that I was going to get a blessing from elder Jacob because I know him but he had to leave and so I just kind of forgot about it. We had some drama with getting our investigators to church so that took precedence. We got home and Hermana Lewis asked how my shoulder was feeling and I said it hurt and so she called the district leader to give me a blessing. What was really beautiful about it was what was said. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers my prayers and I know sometimes he prompts us to receive blessings so we can hear directly what he wants us to do. I know that the priesthood is the power of God here on earth and really is a blessing in our life. I know that we can all be healed through faith, physically or spiritually. That's a promise from the lord himself. Countless prophets in the Book of Mormon have given witness of that and we know through the restored gospel that prophets guide the people and testify to them what the lord says.
We had a once in a lifetime experience this week, and no it's not what you're thinking, I promise. We were sitting waiting for a train to pass, and it was the longest, slowest train ever in the history of the world! I am not even kidding when I say we were sitting there for at least 10 minutes. Well, the train was chugging slowly but surely and it finally passed. But the little road blockers weren't going up. I was getting FRUSTRATED! And then. Another train passed by. Going the other direction. It was something that I had never before in my life experienced and never want to experience it ever again! But that's what I get for praying for patience.
Also, Betty White is in my ward. There is a little lady from Colombia in our ward who seems so innocent and wonderful but inside is a jokester waiting to ruin someone's day. But in a good way. We had a ward activity and we came to give her a kiss and she was like oh these are some investigators! Obviously Hermana Lewis and I got super excited and started to talk to them and get all of their information but...they were members. And I obviously didn't know because it was still like my second week there and we were embarrassed and now I don't know who I can trust anymore.
This week was amazing and I'm excited to see more miracles as I get ready to kill of Hermana Lewis in February :) I love you all and hope you have a great week! Please remember that you are loved by your Heavenly Father and he will guide you as you seek his guidance! He is a man of his word! I promise.
P.S. I'll be home a year from tomorrow. Where is time going?!
Hermana Rebekka Kunz
Illinois Chicago West Mission
July 2014 - January 2016