CockRoaches Ewww!

Hola!

Okay first off I LOVED the picture of Grant and the boys on his birthday hahahah! I was literally laughing out loud. You guys are the cutest ever! No wonder I miss all your stinking guts! I am excited the boys get to go to High Cascade this week! YAY! That will be so much fun for them. I ALWAYS brag about how cool my bros are to all the Elders and Sisters here. I talk about your snowboarding and filming talents. Hehe I am a proud sister. I love being here but I love knowing everyday I finish here is one day closer to seeing you all again. Thank you for sharing your experience about your blessing in Spanish. It is awesome to know even YEARS after this my Spanish could still help people.

Well this week has gone by super fast and sadly I don’t have much to report so I will send pictures. As I said last week we have been working with two young girls Yamili and Yudami a lot. I think I also mentioned we reactivated their mom and she is now the Relief Society teacher. The change the Gospel has made in their lives is SO apparent to me! The spirit consumes me every time we have a lesson with them. The two girls are seriously so prepared! They KNOW this Gospel is true and love EVERYTHING about the church they are just so nervous to be baptized. They want to know EVERYTHING before they commit to baptism. I try to explain I still don’t even know everything but they are just giving us a hard time right now. Well we really tried to get them baptized this week but it just didn’t happen. They were interviewed and everything but just want more time. We will shoot for next week. Along with Yamil and Yudami we started teaching the MOST AMAZING family this week. The mom’s name is Cati (23) and the husband is Edwin (20). They have the two most ADORABLE girls EVER- Catia (3) and Eduada (6). Seriously those two girls melt my heart. They are constantly smiling, giving us kisses and drawing pictures for us. It is too cute.

Well we found this family at the start of the week and knew they were special. They are super positive and receptive. EVERY TIME we teach them a lesson the Spirit is bursting through the walls I swear. I always feel on the edge of tears because I am consumed with so much love for them. I can understand most of what they are saying but am still having a hard time communicating back. Anyways, they both grew up Catholic but don’t and haven’t attended church for a while. They love everything they are learning about our Gospel and are so good about their commitments. They read every day, pray and always invite us over to share a message with them. We were so positive about having them in church this week. It is a rule that the investigators go to church two times before being baptized. Well we really want them to be baptized this month to accomplish our goal of having 2 families baptized every month but more importantly because we want them to feel the joy of being clean from all sin. We want them to take that first step to being an eternal family! Well we woke up early Sunday and went to go get them for church. They had committed the night before to come with us so we weren’t too worried. We had prayed, fasted and done all we could to invite the spirit into their home. Well we got their Sunday morning and they just would NOT COME! They told us their parents (who are strict Catholics) just did NOT like the idea of them changing religion. They didn’t want them to talk to us anymore and definitely not attend church. We sat there and talked with them for almost an hour but they just would not budge. AHH I felt like my heart was being ripped out! We left their house and I just broke down in tears. It felt like all my prayers, fasts and pleading with the Lord didn’t work. I felt like my faith wasn’t big enough to get them to church. In that moment my comp had to remind me ppl still have their agency. We will do everything in our power to invite them to Christ but in the end they have their agency. We are still going to visit them this week but man that was hard. I have so much to learn here in the mission.

Okay little extra things about this week. Yesterday I gave my first REAL talk in Spanish is sacrament meeting. Man that was a challenge. I was assigned the topic of Inspiration. I talked about how as a dance teacher I was constantly looking for Inspiration for dances and how every day we need to personal revelation as well. I felt like I was speaking gibberish up there but everyone told me that I did good and they understood EVERYTHING!! Haha I have a feeling the people here are just really sweet Hehe. Everyone LOVES the fact that I am a dancer though and always start doing this weird like tiptoe circle thing when they see me hehehe. It is super cute. They also asked me to start teaching a singing and piano class. So once a week we are going to start a class to learn the hymns at the church. It is really going to help me more than them though. I really need to learn these hymns in SPANISH. I think it will help me a lot!

This week we had a HUGE activity in the Elders area. We spent all day Thursday making decorations, making treats and inviting people to hear a Gospel message. It actually turned out to be a HUGE success and the Elders now have 5 new families to teach. We are going to do the same activity in our area next week! I just hope my comp is still here after changes. This is her first change in this area as well but she has a feeling she is leaving. I REALLY HOPE NOT! She is so stinking patient and sweet with me! She is the BEST "MOM" I could ask for in the mission. We were crying last night thinking she might leave. We are both praying she doesn’t. Everything happens for a reason though...right? Last night we got in early because of a huge rainstorm so we asked the Senorita we live with if we could use her stove! She said YES! So we made pancakes and Hermana Justavino taught me how to make Atall. I am not sure if that is how it is spelled. I love it here in the mission though. It is a sweet, warm almost cream of wheat type thing. MMMM so delicious! It was my real first good meal here! We had so much fun last night. It was like our own little sleepover. I just love her!! I wish you guys could meet her. She promised to come to my wedding some day though so You WILL meet her then.

Okay Hermano Hector.... Oh how I love him haha. He is our dad here in the mission. EVERY morning this week he has showed up at our door or called us at 6 in the morning inviting us over for Breakfast. He is so stinking cute. He gives us a HUGE bag of mangos EVERY DAY! We give them to the senorita we live with and she makes us Mango fresco Ahh RICO (delicious)! Anyways for breakfast he always makes us Guacamole and a bean burrito. It always makes me think of you guys and our love for Mexican food :) Especially guacamole. He is feeling a little lonely and sad right now because his wife works ALL DAY and he hasn’t had a job for 13 years. He is the friendliest and most loving guy ever. I think he is about 65. He just doesn’t know why the Lord has given him this trial. It is so hard to see him struggle with this but we try to visit him often, share our love and remind him of the Lords love for him. I want you guys to come back with me some day and I want to introduce you to him. I know you would all love him.

Last funny story. We have been finding a lot of Cockroaches lately. EWWWWW!!!! Those things are freaking disgusting and HUGE! I am too chicken to kill them so my comp always does for me. I don’t know what I would do with out her! She is actually really great at English and is so funny because ever time we see one she runs over, starts stomping on it and yelling DIE JUST DIE!!! Hahahah while I run around in awkward circles on my tiptoes screaming. She thinking it is HILARIOUS!!! Every once and a while there are little baby cockroaches that we find as well. So last night after I used the bathroom I came out to wash my hands when I saw a baby cockroach CRAWLING UP MY ARM!!! Oh my gosh I was screaming bloody murder and running all over the place. I think my comp thought I had been shot or something haha. It took me a solid 5 mins to calm down and tell her what happened hahahah! She was dying laughing after. Oh the joys of Nicaragua.

Also this week we shared the movie about John tanner. And I remembered he is our ancestor! It was so cool to watch that movie in the mission. Also I LOVED reading your grandmas history and would love to read more about our ancestors. If you have any cool stories I would love to have them in a dear elder some time. thanks mommy!

Tell the fam I love them alll!!!!! Also to all my friends, students and other family members as ALWAYS I love them and miss them. I think of you all often and keep you in my prayers. Thank you for all your love and support!

Luvs,
Hermana Kendall