Kendall's Talk in Sacrament Meeting

Keni's dad gave a talk in church today. There are five missionaries in their ward and the parents took five minutes or so each to update on their missionary. This is what he reported:



Keni has been out just over 2 months, and has been in the field about 3 weeks.

Her companion is Hermana Condie, and they are getting along great.

She is currently in the Ttio district of Cusco, Peru. She has already had to speak in church. She, of course is critical of her Spanish, but Hna Condie says that she is doing great

One story she shared with us when we were able to talk to her on Christmas was of a family that they recently started teaching. They found them after being rejected by dozens of people. In their first lesson, they told her and Hna Condie that they were also seeing the Jehovah Witnesses. They said that they liked Keni and Hna Condie much better, they liked how they felt when they were there, and they liked their message.

Some other stories from her emails:

"We had a Christmas "party" with this married couple that are investigators, but recently they told us that they don´t believe in the Book of Mormon. Sooo we´re subtely reteaching them the lessons and hoping their hearts are softened, because they´re absolutely amazing people, and I know they´d love  the gospel, if they could just get around the whole not believing in the Book of Mormon thing :)"

"We´re teaching this less active lady, Carol, and she´s one of the most amazing people I´ve ever met. I don´t know how she ended  up being less active, because she believes everything, she understands pretty much everything, and she has more faith than a lot of people. She´s so perfect. Also she´s one of the nicest people I've ever met."

"We also found this new family, and they´re amazing. We´ve only taught them once, but they came to our ward christmas party and we´re teaching them again tonight. I have such high hopes for them. They´re family is so so cute and they´re just some of the sweetest people I´ve ever met. And they were waiting for us in the POURING RAIN to come pick them up for the Christmas party. The streets were rivers, and they were still willing to come to our ward party. These people. I love them :)"

The scriptures say "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God... And if you should labor all your days... And bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy" I think the most important soul we can bring is our own. In talking with Keni, I see that in her. She has always been strong in her faith, and in the gospel, but she has thrown herself completely into the work. From her emails, and the short hour that we got to talk to her, It is apparent that she is truly happy. That she completely loves the work she is doing, and completely loves the people of Cusco. She knows that this is where the Lord wants her, and where she needs to be.

Christmas is Coming!

This week was fantastic :) although not much of anything happened. This email will probably be realy short. We just worked, and I loved it. I´m to the point that I understand MOST everything, although I generally have no idea how to respond. Spanish :) ha. It´ll come eventually, I just have to keep working at it.

We had a Christmas "party" with this married couple that are investigators, but recebntly they told us that they don´t believe in the Book of Mormon. Sooo we´re subtely reteaching them the lessons and hoping their hearts are softened, because they´re absolutely amazing people, and I know they´d love  the gospel, if they  could just get around the whole not believing in the Book of Mormon thing :) 

We´re teaching this less active lady, Carol, and she´s one of the most amazing people I´ve ever met. I don´t know how she ended  up being less active, because she believes everything, she understands pretty much everything, and she has more faith than a lot of people. She´s so perfect. Also she´s one of the nicest people I've ever met. 

We also found this new family, and they´re amazing. We´ve only taught them once, but they came to our ward christmas party and we´re teaching them again tonight. I have such high hopes for them. They´re family is so so cute and they´re just some of the sweetest peole I´ve ever met. And they were waiti ng for us in the POURING RAIN to come pick them up for the Christmas party. The streets were rivers, and they were still willing to come to our ward party. These people. I love them :)

This week we had a ward talent show for Christmas, and the four of us Hermanas that are in our ward danced-ish to Feliz Navidad and it was hilarious. Then on Saturdaynight we had a stake Christmas music night thing and it was pretty amazing. I love our ward and Stake so much!

I also talked in church yesterday.... My second Sunday (because the first there were political elections and you can´t hold public meetings on those days.) and they had me speak in church. Everyone told me I did a good job, and they were surprised I have only been here for 3 weeks, but I´m not sure if they were lying or not :) It was nice of them either way. Seriously, Ttio is the best ward in Cusco. I adore these people.

Well, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Since I won´t be able to skype most of you on Christmas, just remember how much I love you and how amazing I think you all are :) And remember how much our Heavenly Father loves you! That's why he sent Christ to us, who is the best gift we could ever be given. If you haven´t seen the Él es la Dádiva, or He is the Gift video, I encourage you to watch it. I cry every single time we get the chance to see it. It´s so beautiful.

Love you all! Have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!! :D

Hermana Hill

(Kelly here. I found the video that she's been talking about and decided to put it here on the blog. It's beautiful. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!)

He is the Gift 

(I'm guessing this was their Stake Christmas party)

(Carol)

(Hnas Valverde and Hill, with their staches)

(Not sure?)

(Erick and Carol)

(Christmas panatone. My friends at work said it's like a fruit cake)

(Christmas pup)

(Hna Hill and the Christmas wall decals I sent in her package)

(Stolen from Hna Condie's blog: Misleny and Hna Hill)

(Stolen goods: Hna Condie, Misleny, and Hna Hill)

(Stolen pt 3: Dance party while stuck inside)

(Stolen yet again: Dance pose!)

Hermana Condie's Week with Keni

(Kelly here)

I'm a stalker. Still. Keni's companion wrote some pretty awesome things about Keni and their week, so I thought I'd copy that here. Keni will enjoy it later.

"Here we go again. The weeks are starting to get better and better. Hna Hill is doing SO GOOD! I'm so proud of her. She´s started taking the lead on contacting people and really talking during our lessons. She´s super hard on herself and her Spanish, but I think she's doing awesome! I´m so happy I got her as my hija. I´m convinced she´s the best one of this group that just came in. I'm so excited for the next 10 weeks (at least) with her! It´s gonna be good . . . even though she makes fun of me because I like to dance and sing around the room when she´s trying to wake up and I can´t speak English anymore... esta bien :)

The biggest news for this week, we found two new families that we´re teaching!!!! One of them is a reference from a less active member- her daughter and her family. Super cute. The husband is a little reluctant but once we become friends I have good hopes for them.

The other family is already INCREDIBLE. We contacted them in the street on Saturday and taught our first lesson with them yesterday. He kept telling us stories about investigating other churches but just feeling like SOMETHING was missing. Since we talked to them in the street he´s just felt so good and ready to listen. Their names are Jorge and Gloria. They have four kids TOGETHER, they are already married, they´re super cute and just completely ready to hear the gospel in every way. We left the lesson last night and Hna Hill and I both just wanted to cry we were so happy! Needless to say, we´re pretty stoked about them."

We're Gonna Egg That So Hard!

My companion, Hermana Condie, is from America, but she´s been out here so long that she´s not very good at English anymore :) So one morning instead of saying we´re gonna milk that, she said egg that. Our days are FILLED with funny things like that :) and I love it.

So, I don´t have a ton to say this week because I want to send a lot of pictures and also respond better to you peeps :) I feel bad with my one sentence responses.

Last Monday after emailing we went to the Templo de la Luna ruins up past the Cristo Blanco, and they were incredible :) Most of the pictures are from that. At night, the moon lights up the whole cave thing and I think that would be the coolest thing in the world to see, but you know, that´ll have to wait til after the mission :) Man, the Incas were awesome. My companion was still sick, so she stayed at home with one of the other Hermanas and I was companions with Hermana Valverde for a day. I love Hermana Valverde. She´s one of the funniest people I've ever met and I just adore her broken English because most of the time she´s saying ridiculous things, because she knows they´re funny.

Templo de La Luna

 

(Hermanas Hill and Valverde)

This week I also was sick for a couple of days, because that sickness was passed around our whole apartment. So fun :) haha. It wasn´t bad, it just sucked that we couldn´t work for a day and a half. 

So, the pictures. Most are from Templo de la Luna, a couple are signs, one is Saqsaywaman, which is the area that Templo de la Luna and the walls with all of the rocks that you can´t put a knife blade between are. Another is a sign that says Cusco is the Ombligo del Mundo or something like that - the belly button of the world :) Jacker Cracker thought that was hilarious before I left, so I took that picture for him :) Others are me and my companion by some grafiti, and then with our pensionista´s son, Benji. He´s probably my favorite person in all of Cusco. He told me yesterday that I´m the Queen, he´s the King, and Hermana Condie is the jester. Hahaha. He also told us to make zombie faces in the last picture. So we did :) I adore that kid. He´s a crack up.

(the belly button of the world)

Hermana Condie

(Hermanas Condie and Hill with Benji)

(Jester, King, and Queen)

(Zombies)

We´ve been sharing messages about Christmas in the street, and we´ve had people look up this video, called Él es la Dádiva. It´s called, He is the Gift in English, I think. Anyway, the video is gorgeous and I cry every time we get the chance to watch it with our investigators. Christ is the very best gift we could ever have been given. And God loves us so much that He was willing to give him to us and Christ loves us so much that He was willing to give Himself. I´m so amazed by the love and power that this message shows to our investigators. I love this gospel so much. And I LOVE preaching His gospel. Even though I´m still working on the Spanish thing :) 

Ciao! (Wait. How do you spell ciao??) 

Love you all so much!

Hermana Hill

Hermana Condie's Blog

Kelly here.

Keni's first companion and "mom" is Hermana Condie from Idaho. I stumbled across her blog and this is what her first week with Keni was like:

"Being a Mom is Hard:

Oh man, what a week. First and formost, I met my HIJA! Her name is Hna Hill. She's super cute! The first week is always rough on new missionaries, but I can see a lot of potential in her. Training is a lot harder than I ever expected it to be, especially with someone who doesn't already speak Spanish ... but I'm hoping I can help her through her training and avoid the expiriences that I had to go through with my "mom" so that she can feel happy and helpful. I remember feeling completely useless my first couple months, so I really want to help her avoid that. She really is great so I'm not too worried about anything at this point. I've probably learned more from teaching her this week than she's learned from me. Funny how that works."

She had some great pictures of both of them as well (thanks, Hermana Condie!!):

 Hermanas Condie and Hill at the Plaza

Hermanas Condie and Hill

Hermanas Hill and Condie - Christmas Party

Hermanas Hill and Condie looking beautiful

Kuzcotopia! Complete With a Water Slide!

My first area is CUSCO!! Aaaahh. I love it so much. It´s beautiful and it definitely doesn't look like anything I´ve seen in America. And unfortunately, we don´t have a water slide. But there is this huge slide outside of our sector of Cusco that I desperately want to go to... Probably won´t happen, but still :)

Keni in Cusco - What a Beauty!!

So. What a week. Thanksgiving was fun. The food the CCM tried to make for us wasn´t my favorite, and didn´t taste anything like an American Thanksgiving, but it was still good! We had a great devotional that day too.

Something no one will tell you about going on a mission - or at least no one told me. After you leave your family and then proceed to spend 16ish hours a day in a room with 9 other people learning Spanish and the gospel for 6 weeks, you´ll cry just as hard leaving them as you did leaving your family. Once you´re ripped from your family at home, you build a new family in the CCM. I already miss those Elders and Hermanas like crazy. I´m just so lucky that 8 of the 9 are in the same mission as me! I´m sure I´ll run into them occassionally during the next 16 months.

(I'm assuming a group of Hermanas from the CCM?? I stole it from Hermana Russell's blog)

Hermana Russell and Hermana Hill (stolen from Hermana Russell's blog)

(Group from the CCM?? I'm such a thief! Thanks, Hermana Russell!)

(Kelly here: I've decided to not edit Keni's emails from now on. Before it was that she made a mistake or two, but now I believe it's the language struggle... so we're going to go with it). :)

My new compañera is Hermana Condie! She´s pretty much the coolest person ever. And she´s a gringa which is absolutely awesome because then I can actually ask questions and understand some of what is going on. I also read her blog before the mish and emailed her for advice, and she gave some of the sweetest advice and comfort for pre-mission me :) I don´t know if she remembers that, but it meant a lot. And now she´s my mom! So cool.

(I'm guessing this is Hermana Condie since she didn't label the photos)

I don´t even know how to sum up this week. It´s been such an adventure. Altitude sickness is a thing, people. I don´t love it. But, I only had it for a day or two and now it´s just difficult to breathe when I´m exherting myself or walking up stairs to investigators houses for the 6th time that day. I´m told that the breathing thing will get better in a week or two :)

(Kelly here: another MM (Missionary Mom) of a kid in Peru said that her son has been staying at the mission home because he is terribly sick because of the altitude. I have been worried about Keni but it sounds like she's had a much easier time of it. Thank goodness)

On our first day here, before we found out who our trainers are, they took us all to see the Cristo Blanco, and it was AWESOME. Once we found out who are trainers are, we took my stuff to our house, since it´s so close to the Mission Home, and then we all went contacting in this really gorgeous Plaza. It was so awesome. Then they took us to dinner and we had to say goodbye to all of our elders and Hermanas. That was hard, but I know that we´re all where we need to be in the mission!

Cristo Blanco

The food has been delicious, the other Hermanas in our apartment are just hilarious and so loving, and I´m slowly getting the hang of Spanish.

Oh, and yesterday Hermana Condie was stuck in bed all day with a bad fever, and at one point when we were both napping we woke up to a GIANT German Shepherd roaming around our room. His head was above mine when I was laying in my bed. I probably could have ridden him like a horse, he was so big. We´re not entirely sure how he got in, probably we forgot to lock the door and he pushed it open with his nose. But sometimes the dogs are sketchy here, so we weren´t sure if we should panic or not, but I calmly kinda led him out the door and locked it behind him. Definitely woke me up quickly from that nap!

I love the people here. We´ve met with a lot of less actives and members in the past few days and they´re all the sweetest people I´ve ever met. One member, Victor, is this cute little old man who can barely walk, and I can´t really understand yet, because Spanish. But we sat and talked with him for over an hour the other day and Hermana Condie told me afterward the parts I missed and he is just the cutest old man. He´s working on getting to the temple, and he´s lonely sometimes so he was just over the moon thrilled that we visited him. In our closing prayer that he offered, he said how grateful he was that we sat and listened to all of his stories and that we´re patient with him not being able to walk very fast, etc. I love him. He´s the best.

Photo: Compliments of Hna Condie's blog (she unknowingly "shared" it with me) (Kelly's a thief)

Read more about Victor on Hna Condie's blog:

www.amiecondie.blogspot.com/2014/11/meet-victor.html

We also met a less active named Carol the other day and she´s basically golden. She told us she had been praying for some help and guidance and then we showed up! She said that she already felt happier and more calm just from us walking into her house. She´s so cool, too. She´s a nurse here in Cusco, and she has two sons that aren´t members and she said she wants to come back to church and bring her sons with her! She´s so awesome and she was so kind to us. I am seriously in love with the people here. They´re all so perfect.

It´s been a really long week, but I´m so happy and so excited to keep working! Also, we´re doing some sight-seeing later today and I. Can´t. Wait. Cusco es mejor.

I love you all. I miss you all. Talk to you next week :)

Hermana Hill

(Not sure if this is her home or if she was excited about the Slug Bug)

(Probably the Slug Bug)

Arrival in Cusco

(Kelly here)

I heard rumor last week that Keni would most likely be able to call me from the airport as she was leaving the CCM and heading to Cusco. I waited and waited and the call never came. Although I was disappointed, I trusted that everything must be okay. No news is good news in this sort of situation, right? Sigh. But imagine my excitement when I received this email a few minutes ago, from Keni's Mission president and his wife:

Dear Parents,

As you can see in the attached photo, your daughter has arrived safely to the Peru Cusco Mission! We are thrilled to have her here! She looks great, a bit tired from the travel, but ready to go! Thank you for allowing us to watch over her for the next year and a half. She has promised that she will be a missionary we can trust, and we have now given her that trust. As well, you can trust that we will do everything that we can to care for her and to help her to become a successful missionary.

Con Gran Amor,

Presidente y Hermana Harbertson

 Presidente y Hermana Harbertson and Hermana Hill

All the peeps, some beautiful Peruvians, and the llamas. Keni had to have been in heaven!!

Update: Some Missionary Mums are letting me know who their kids are. Back row, 3rd from the left: Elder Ludlow. Back row, 4th from the left: Elder Augat. Front row, far left: Elder Wright.