16th!!!! Yay for birthdays. I hope you both have fantastic birthdays
and eat some delicious cake :) I may or may not have wrote you some
letters and sent them in the mail....but I am not sure when they might
show up there. But know that a birthday letter is on its way :) I love
you both so much!! Thanks for everything you do for me and for your
examples. Thank you Kenadee for teaching me how to show my love to
others better and thank you dad for teaching me the bounds of
patience. You two are so great!!
Well, I hit my 6 month mark today. My mission card says I go home
March 10, 2015. Wow! I cant believe it. I have got to live up every
day of this last year that I have left. Ha, I had a dream last night
actually that mom and the girls showed up to take me to the temple in
Buenos Aires with them and that that would mean the end of my mission.
I wanted to go to the temple with them so bad! Nobody was going to
know that I had not served the full year and a half mission somehow.
And I almost went but I said in the end, no I have a year still to
serve. I cant leave until I have finished my work and I stayed to
serve. Ha, but I do want to go to the temple! This week the members in
Puerto Madryn loaded up in a big old bus ( as many people who could
fit and could afford it) to take an 18 hour trip to spend 2 full days
in the temple at Buenos Aires. For many of the members its the first
or second time they have gone and they are so excited! For those who
have gone, they talk about the temple and their trip there as if it
were a dream. Cherishing it with all of their hearts. And to think,
there is a temple 5 minutes from my house! I have so much to be
grateful for! I cant wait til our mission meets our goal to qualify
for another temple, here in the Patagonia. Oh, the people would be so
happy! I cant wait for that conference session--and to think to that I
will have helped with that effort. Incredible!
This week my companion ate lunch with the bishop one day and I just
felt so happy. It felt like Christmas. It was cold-ish outside (its
getting colder and I have a feeling it is going to be cold!) and we
were eating warm food and just talking and having fun. The bishop was
throwing his daughter up in the air and joking around and we just had
a good time. Oh man, I LOVE our Bishop!
My companion and I have just been fortunate enough to visit a lot of
great people lately who havent quite made it to church yet but who are
praying and reading and searching. I am so exicted for them! We know
so many great people who are so close to receiving so many blessings
that I just hope and pray they keep listening and doing. We met one
young woman named Octavia this week who is just so great! We left her
a folleto and then met with her later. She had read the whole folleto
and answered all the questions at the end of the folleto. That was the
best thing ever! I am excited to meet with her again!
This week I realized that by not doing contacts like I should have I
was just holding back the willing heart that the Lord needs me to have
to be willing to listen to the Spirit and to help Him in the work. So
I decided to soften my heart and be more willing to obey and openly
share with everyone. I still didnt quite reach the 70 contacts that I
should have done this week but I did end up doing about 35. And the
really cool thing was that sometimes I felt the Spirit really impress
me to talk to a certain person. It was awesome! I can testify that
when we have a willing heart the Lord really does work through us. We
made the coolest contact ever this week with a man named Carlos who
after a few minutes of talking to us told us about the recent death of
his young teenage son about a year ago. We testified to him about the
Plan of Salvation and that he can be with his son again forever. I
felt the Spirit so strong and at the end of our conversation he said
the most sincere "gracias" and I was so happy to be able to share the
Lords plan with one of His children. We got the mans information and
although he lives in a different area so we wont be able to teach him,
I have faith that he will find so much joy in the message of the
Restoration and will want to make covenants with the Lord.
This week I also learned that when I start to feel like things are
hard, I just need to work harder and do more to be a better tool in
the hands of the Lord-- if thats really listening and caring about the
people, or practicing Spanish or the lessons as I walk around during
the day-- there is always something more I can do that will help the
Lord. And when I do those things I know the Lord is proud of my
service and I feel so much better! Ha, odd how doing more work makes
me feel good. I feel the Spirit within me in a way that might even be
described as "inner peace". It is a little odd. The mission is still
full of little stressful moments but even so I have felt at peace
through those moments as I have relied on the Lord and just tried to
serve Him more and better.
I also learned this week, perhaps because I only have a year left in
the mission now, that I want to use every moment in the best manner
possible. I want to be able to hear the song "called to serve" when I
get back from my mission and be able to exclaim that I had served an
honorable year and a half as a missionary for the Lord instead of hear
"called to serve" and be ashamed that I was a missionary for a year
and a half and yet didnt feel the power of that song every day in the
work. I know that through the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ
it is possible for me to feel so proud of my mission as imperfect a
missionary as I am. If I try my best to obey and serve the Lord, His
grace will make up for all the rest and I will look back happy with my
service. I am learning that more and more. Even with all of the
mistakes I have made as a missionary, the Lord accepts and is even
proud of my service. When I repent and try to be better He forgets
about all of my mistakes. I love the Savior and the many, many
opportunities He has given me.
Love you all! Have a great week :)!!!
Hermana Kuhn
Included is a photo of my companion and I with the Casanova family
who we said goodbye to this morning (well, half the family). Half of
their family lives here-- the dad and one of his sons (he is our ward
misison leader)-- and the other half lives in a different city where
there dad hasnt been able to find work. They come down and live here
for the summer months but then have to return to the other city where
they live 7 hours away. It is a really complicated situation but we
are so blessed to even be able to live all together in our family. I
dont know....so many simple things I never realized before. Love you
all! Ha, and one of the pics wasa selfy/ family pic that one of the
members--Sandro-- took for us. Hes such a goob.
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