12/16/13 (sorry this post is out of order)

12/16/13

Well, today I have to send
several messages because I have a lot of pictures but I have
just had the craziest week. So as you know, I turned 20 this week. So weird! Growing up I sure thought that as a 20 year old I would know a whole lot more and be a whole lot more mature than I am. I haven’t received my package yet darn it but it should be coming very soon. Like I said, I signed for it and all so it just needs to show up now :). Wow, I had such a good day on my birthday. I got spoiled like crazy. I woke up and all of the Hermanas in 2 areas called and sang happy birthday to me. Then my companion set out a plate with an alfajor (glorified ho-ho) and note-- she is always very thoughtful. We happened to have a zone meeting that morning too. Elder Smedley from the zone surprised me by making brownies and we had a little party. At lunch, we ate a big old dessert with the members and then later in the day we visited a lady in my ward who had made me cake and even bought me a necklace and hair accessory and wrapped them and everything. Wow! It was crazy! So many people were so thoughtful and I just had the best birthday thanks to others. It would have been good no matter what but I got spoiled!

Speaking of birthdays, happy birthday to Dannah Knight who turns 20 today!! Happy birthday my friend!! May you have many, many more birthdays and may you enjoy every one of them. I wish we could do something to celebrate like we usually do but we will just have to do something really big for our 22nd birthdays! Happy Birthday!!

Ok, now here you will be seeing our beautiful Christmas tree. We bought it last week on P-day. It has evolved a whole lot over the week as we have collected decorations from members and missionaries and decorated it. Isn’t it beautiful? Ha ha, so we had an interesting experience with this tree. We went to an ice cream shop last week for p-day. While we were there my companion and I needed to use the bathroom. The place was empty except for a small family just entering to buy their ice cream so we thought we would just leave our Christmas tree at our table. We took our purses and everything of course, but we thought the Christmas tree would be ok to leave. Ha ha we got back and our Christmas tree was gone and so was the little family. I turned to the employees and said, where is our Christmas tree? We left it here at our table. They said, we don’t know sorry. But I wanted my Christmas tree. I remembered the little family we saw before and we went outside to see if we could see them. Like a block from us we could see the family crossing the street with our Christmas tree! Would you believe it, I totally pursued them. I chased them down (with my poor companion dragged behind) and said, excuse me, that is our Christmas tree that we left at our table .and the lady said something like, oh I didn’t realize how good that you said something (I have a feeling she realized) but we got our Christmas tree back! And now we have a Christmas tree that is to envy by all.

Ok more email to come in a second....

Well, this week numbers wise was terrible! Everyone has left for vacations and the siesta is ever-restrictive. We had 2 lessons throughout the whole week-- luckily two good lessons-- but it was very frustrating. But still, we can say that we have seen some miracles this week and they have meant a whole lot. So, we got ahold of our one progressing investigator this week. We taught her the word of wisdom before we lost contact and she was really excited to get to work. She called us drunk and told us that she is partying with her friends every day and drinking like crazy. We would like to go to her house to visit her and help her out but she just moved last week and technically doesn’t live in our area anymore and now lives very far away, and we need permission to visit her too. Since then we haven’t been able to get ahold of her ever. We call her or send a text every day and nothing. I know she still wants to change but she is having the hardest time and where we are right now we can’t do anything to help her. She is slipping and we can’t do anything to help her and it is so frustrating! But this week both my companion and I decided to have a special fast for her. We hadn’t had contact for several days. We kept visiting her old house (her mom’s house) too to see if she had visited her mom and nothing. Her mom wasn’t even home. We began our fast and later in the day decided to try just one more time at her mom’s house. Her mom was there! She hadn’t been for days! She told us all about Ayelen’s drinking situation in more detail and said she would help us out as she could and let us know as soon as she heard something. She still hasn’t told us anything but I know that the fact that her mom was home on this day was no coincidence. We had passed every day for like 2 weeks but as we fasted, there she was! I love seeing the Lords hand in this work.

We also have another young man (15 year old) who has listened to us a few times but has made absolutely no
progress. He didn’t want to pray for anything, but this week he got robbed at knife point. Afterward, he prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for watching over him. It really helped his testimony grow a lot and for the first time he committed to do something-- pray and read his scriptures. He even said he would ask his parents about baptism! I know the combination of having us visit him and his experience getting robbed were put in place by our Heavenly Father and I am so grateful to see how the Lord is helping Axel find the gospel through his experiences. So neat!

Anyway, we have had some frustrations this week, but I am sure that this next week will be better (we can’t really have many fewer lessons) and I know that the Lords hand is in this work-- I have seen it this week. I have faith that as I keep working the Lord will make up the rest and I love that! Have a great week everybody. Love you all!

Hermana Kuhn