continue in patience

Heyyyya!

Cabin looked super fun! Can't wait to join. :) this week was lots of meetings, transfers, mlc, district meeting, coordination, ward council, stl meeting, etc etc. and lots of service!! I love doing service. We helped sister hartrick out a lot, I love this woman. Defiantly have to visit her when we come back. We had THE MIRACLE lesson with (j)!! We have been waiting and waiting for this lesson for our whole lives. The spirit did it all! We were teaching about the atonement and a little bit into it I could tell something was wrong with (J), he just wasn't understanding. So we pause and he asks us to wait and really explain what the atonement is. After that he opened up completely! He expressed how he wants to be a good member and be one forever, not just get baptized and then fall away. So we committed him and asked if he was ready to make that decision to truly try and start becoming
converted. He said how he wants his son to be a missionary and raise their kids in the church. Ah! They were crying and just happiness. Such a good lesson! Sister Cienfuegos is a boss. She amazes me this woman, her testimony seriously just radiates. Then at church J are golden. I can see it now, she will be relief society president one day, even though it only matters how you serve not in what position she will just be amazing
wherever she goes. I love you all!

Hermana Kelsey Karen

el mes de julio

wow, once again! a little behind...sorry about that! just been a little busy over here in little neckers. :) buuut it has been an amazing transfer in a half! i get to have the great blessing of staying companions and dying with my sweet companion sister cienfuegos!! here is a re-cap...

So this week we had 4 exchanges!! It's been really cool to see the sisters grow. I love it! They are such good missionaries!! So we were only with each other on Thursday and had to do everything plus prepare for the
baptism in one day. Super fun. We had to change the time last minute but it all worked out perfectly!! I'm so grateful for the members who helped so much. She is in good hands :) she was so so happy!! She is such a good example of immediately giving thanks to Heavenly Father after she receives a blessing. She has taught me so much. Sister Cienfuegos is so fun, I just love her. Seriously we have some great comp unity!! We are on fire, just like her name!! Whoop whoop. So grateful for her. 

                    

well this week flew by. again. i can't believe its the last week of the transfer!!! it blows my mind, i try not to think about it though cause i don't even feel like i'm in real life sometimes. i don't know why it was so crazy looking back...haha but we only had like two days to do our studies. due to meetings, conference calls, service, car problems, etc. so i definitely noticed a difference not having them...it was a huge reminder to me of how important DAILY scripture study and prayer is and that i must never stop doing it. i learn so much every day and most of the time its not enough time! ...let me tell you about Friday. oh my this day. so first, we had to wake up at like 5 to go get sister cienfuegos social security number. so we wake up, say a prayer and leave to go run for a little bit. we close the door and she asks me if i have the keys. i just didn't respond. oops!! yep..we locked ourselves out of our house at 5 in the morning. luckily we had the phone...so we called the elders and asked if they had our spare key. they said they had a few so they came over and tried to get in but none of them worked. then our only option was to knock on the neighbors door at 5am to get in the backyard and see if we could break in our back door. so we get in the back and the door is like sealed shut. so the elders are like hanging off the deck to try and open the window! they miraculously get it open and he slides in our window! haha. so that happened. then we hurried and got ready in 15 minutes to go to jamaica. so we get there to the place get in and everything and then they tell her the paper she has doesn't work (this is like the 4th time we've gone). dah!! so we walk back to our car to go to the office to get the original paper. well we get to our car and look whats waiting for us! a nice big fat NYC parking ticket. not to mention...the second one of the week! we just start laughing! so we get to the office get all her stuff and elder bottomfield who works in the office heard about our morning and he says, "well you two sure are happy anyways!" :)  then we went to jenny's for a lesson and lunch! it was delish..peruvian food. :) they came to church and are progressing! they just need to get married dang it. then we go to our street sweep at a park and it ends up us randomly playing basketball with this 12 year old girl. i'm sure she thought we were insane. then we leave to go to our appointment and i was being delirious like usual and was switching lanes and didn't see a huge truck coming and the sides of our cars swipped eachother. we both just scream! haha. oh my gosh..i thought that man was going to rip my head off. but we pull over and i think he could tell we were both freaking out inside and just asked if we were ok. tender mercy!! he was so nice. his truck didn't have much damage but our poor little rosita had a good bruise. then we go to zohars we picked cherries! then we went to our lesson with (s) and (m) and it was SO GOOD. we didn't know (m) was going to be there so i just open my ipad, say a little prayer and just asked heavenly father to please help me know what we should share. testimony of applying what we learn--i turned to ether, which is what i studied like the one time we studied last week ha. and the spirit taught us all so well! we talked about hope and faith. we related our day with hope. even though probably everything went "wrong" we had hope. we stayed positive. we never once felt upset or wanted to quit. and i'm so glad we stayed positive because it just makes everything that much better. so--have HOPE! be positive in every situation, even when its hard! you will be so much happier and so will those around you. sorry this is a novel. our fireside went well on saturday!! anesia got confirmed on sunday--very cool spiritual moment. she is so special. my goals this week...put myself in others shoes before i think say or do anything. i invite you to do the same! everyone is different and has a story. i love you all dearly. 
  

update of the last month or so

Sorry for not posting in awhile! Here is a little re-cap of whats been going on...

5/26/14-- love, the FIRST and GREAT

Well, this week has been the highlight of my mission...I don't even know how to express it. It's like Heavenly Father saying, you've been working hard and are a good missionary even if you can't see the fruits of it. We met one of which i believe, was one of my best friends in heaven! She is such an amazing woman and so prepared to come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  But really, God is real. We are his children & he is our father. I've felt the love of Christ so strong this week. The scripture really hit me today, more than ever-- that the first and great COMMANDMENT is to LOVE god will ALL of my heart, might, mind & strength. Then, to love others. I've seen how true this really is. He is our strength, and we cannot gain that strength by ourselves or anyone else but Him. I am striving to remember this every day. For the side story-- I ate Balut this week. I almost puked. Balut is a duck, not yet hatched. Disgusting. I have a video of it on my camera so that will have to wait for another week. ;) oh and we are on our way to a mets game!! Have a lovely week!! #loveoneanother

6/2/14-- hearts were softened
It was a great week! Just got everything settled in and got Sister Cienfuegos in the loop! She is amazing, i love her! She is from Mexico and is just great! We have a lot in common and sometimes i feel like i'm living with myself. its weird haha. But she is amazing i'm really blessed to have her as a friend and companion! Sorry this email is just going to be a short little guy...but the theme of the week i would say is that many hearts are being softened. We visited a recent convert who told us in our last lesson that the scriptures aren't needed and the general conference talks don't mean anything. So we felt prompted this time to teach her the Restoration. And it was amazing! Night and day. All i could do was smile...she told us she believes in the Book of Mormon and will read it daily. She also told me i have to find her a mormon husband in utah cause she won't marry anyone else! haha. And she said she will start doing family history to prepare to go to the temple. Then later in the week we visited a former investigator. When we got there she was very sure to tell us that she was catholic and not going to change. After sharing our message and praying with them we gave her our number and invited them to church. She told us after that she would give us a call to come over again when her mom started feeling better. Then on saturday we were serving by doing the bishops store house, Manny came and i was talking to him about judism and what not...then i just said, manny...you know you are pretty much mormon right? and you can still be jewish as a mormon. and he was like, yeah thats true! So we now call him the " Jewmon ". It fits him perfect. :) We have a great transfer ahead of us! lots of cool meetings and 11 exchanges in 5 weeks! yikes! we are never going to stop. :) i can't wait! i love you all so much. thank you for your constant love, prayers, and support! Quote of the week..." If your always willing to do the hard things, you will be successful in life. " -President Calderwood 


6/7/14-- patience, a heavenly virtue

Familia!

Well this week i'm going to write this email a tad different, just to mix it up in case your getting bored of my emails. ;)

Monday-- We found out that one of our investigators, (J) is pregnant!!! So happy!! That cute family just needs to be eternal...we are working with them on getting married and having the faith to do so. We had an FHE with a family in our ward and after the lesson she thanked us for helping them feel love in their home. We had each of them write on hearts why they loved each other. I am so blessed and so grateful for how mom and dad raised us at home by telling each other we love each other. It is so important to feel loved and be told you are loved! So, if you haven't already today...tell someone you love them!

Tuesday--  So each week i'm trying to study a different christ like attribute, like i mentioned before. This week was patience. Oh how lovely the Lord teaches us. :) I needed it ALL week. I usually don't get impatient but man was it being tested! From the littlest things like hitting every. single. red. light. in one day, waiting for answers, people, etc, etc. I am grateful for these experiences i had though because i realized how important patience is! Then as i exercised it throughout the week i could see the blessings of being patient.

Wednesday-- We met a super cool less active family with a lot of potential!! So excited to get to know them better.
Thursday-- We had MLC all day. I love it! It is such a cool meeting to be a part of. There was a workshop about being a minister and what it means. One of the AP's had random missionaries tell each of us how we are a minister. One said about me..."she truly knows how to mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort."  During the meeting (A) texted us and told us about an experience she had and just felt like she needed to tell someone because she felt like it was Heavenly Father blessing her. The day before we had taught tithing..she accepted it well and everything. But in her text she told us on her way home she found 5$. she said she felt like it was gods way of telling her he is there watching out for her and she went home and prayed thanking him. I was almost in tears. She is so perfect. Later, we met up with her and took her to ice cream. Funny story...we show up to the ice cream shop, get out of the car and walk up to a vacant store. Nice one sister lewis. I know it existed, i don't know what happened.

Friday-- MEETINGS.

Saturaday-- I was on an exchange and we were at a reception for a couple who just got sealed. So we were helping carry in soda from the kitchen right? So Sister Dellrie and i both have 4 two liter bottles of soda in our arms and go to walk in the room. Everyone was looking at us funny and one table of people just started laughing. We were so confused?? Then as we get in the doorway the little "dun dun dun dun..." wedding song starts playing!! We just pause, sister dellrie keeps walking in, i turn around to leave and right behind me is the couple!!! i almost died. i felt so bad. and it was SO embarrassing! nothing new. haha. we went to the bathroom and just laughed for a good 5 minutes.

Sunday-- I taught the lesson in relief society about priesthood keys. I am so so thankful for the priesthood. i'm so grateful for all those in my life who hold it. It is an amazing power.

Okay so this ended up being way longer than normal. Sorry about that! But it was just a grand week. :) I love you all!! be safe on all your vacations!!