HerMama Thomas' note: Kenna asked me to mention how much she appreciates and LOVES hearing from you. She is behind on email responses but thanks ALL of her friends and family members who take the time to write her!!! SO thank you from her!!!!
So let's get started.
First
of all, and I feel like I can't stress this enough, I'M NOT GOING TO
SPEAK ENGLISH WHEN I GET HOME. DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND THIS. Okay, good. I
just don't want anyone to be surprised. Every night, Hermana Casteñeda
and I say our prayers for our planning session in English. MY ENGLISH IS
NOT MUCH BETTER THAN HERS. And I'm doing that weird thing that Taylor
did with his voice. (Sorry, Taylor. It wasn't too bad.)
(Actually, the first sign of my absolutely failing
English was the other day, when I spent a good five minutes kicking
myself because I LITERALLY could NOT remember what those weird little
plant things are called in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It
wasn't until I was reading the Bible the next day that I read the word
MANDRAKE and remembered.) (So if anyone was wondering, the scriptures
literally have the answers to everything.)
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| Sister Kenney made a Thanksgiving dinner! |
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| In Santiago to finalize visa...with her MTC pals!!! |
Chile continues to be the greatest country in the
world ever. Let's talk about some of the many reasons why: the bread.
Stop thinking your bread tastes good because Chilean bread is AWESOME.
(Okay, yeah, they've got their wonder-bread brands...but I'm talking
about the rolls. They eat this with every single meal, and it's TO DIE
FOR it's so good. And that's store-bought.) Also, (pay attention, Mom)
the mustard. What's up with the mustard? I don't have a way to describe
it adequately enough. So that's all I'm going to say. ALSO THE ICE
CREAM. Every kind of ice cream. Mom, Dad, Erin, Ireland....I've had my
fair share of pineapple-flavored ice cream. And it's super good. And I
still hold my ground that pineapple is revolting, but this is the magic
of Chilean ice cream.
So basically I just listed a bunch of food.
One
thing about Rancagua that gets me every time...we live in el centro, so
we've got a huge public plaza right outside our apartment building. I
kid you not, every single day we have some kind of protest. It usually
involves everyone in the protest having whistles and drums and
noise-makers and just banging things around for six hours with a big
sign that says, "FEED AFRICA." We've had every protest you can think of,
many of which have involved children's rights. (This was a little ironic,
because these adults always dress their kids up in wacky costumes and
they parade them around in circles in this plaza, and most of the kids
are complaining and whining because they don't want to do this anymore,
they're bored, they're hungry, but the parents keep making them be in
this parade.)
The other day, all the girls in my apartment were
sharing pictures. I brought that one of Jordan and I at prom, the one
that looks like a flipping magazine cover, ya know? Anyway, Hermana
Neida was shocked to find out that it was me in the picture. When
Hermana Castañeda said that it really was me, she goes, "but this person
is like...PRETTY!" Thanks, why don't you high-five my face with
that sledge-hammer again? Okay, it was actually really funny, I was
laughing pretty hard. I love her.
My companion and I have been working really hard on
unity in our lessons. We're getting along pretty well and all! I've really loved asking
her questions to get to know her better so that I can develop a deeper love for her. While our personalities don't always fit
perfectly, I can say that I've enjoyed working with her this week. She's
great. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to learn so
much. This is the opportunity to change that I've been praying for.
We had a lot of lessons and a lot of new
investigators. Yesterday, a lady let us into her house to sing a hymn
and leave her with a prayer. It was her birthday, so we wanted to be
fairly quick. We sang one verse of "Families Can Be Together Forever,"
and afterwards, we were shocked to find that her eyes were filled with
tears. We asked her how she felt about the hymn, and she told us that
she lost a 25 year old son a few years ago. We were so excited to
testify to her that her son is not lost--that there's a plan for all of
us here in the earth, and while part of this plan involves a physical
death, we can all have hope of one day living with our families for
eternity. She said that she felt something in her heart telling her that
what we were saying was true. We have a return visit planned for tomorrow, where we're going to explain in more detail the Plan of Salvation! The spirit was really beautiful in that lesson.
YOU GUYS. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE. DID YOU KNOW THAT? For
my nonmember friends, take me up on this. Get your hands on a Book of
Mormon and JUST READ A LITTLE BIT OF IT. Then pray to know if it's true.
It's the promise of the Book of Mormon--it's the guarantee--that if
anyone wants to know if it's true, all they have to do is read, ponder,
and pray about it. Ask sincerely if it's true to God. I promise you will
feel the power of the Spirit testifying to you that this is the gospel
of Jesus Christ. I can feel it every day.
I am so grateful for your prayers on my behalf, and
on behalf of all the missionaries out there! We're all working towards
one goal! If you're thinking about serving a mission, or you're on the
fence about it, DO IT. You'll never regret it. You're changing lives,
including your own.
I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH HOLY COW MY LOVE IS GOING TO EXPLODE THAT'S HOW MUCH LOVE I HAVE.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE, Hermana Thomas!!!!!!!!!!!
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