The Gospel blesses families!

Ola my wonderful family I sure enjoyed having the opportunity to skype you all!! Ah you are all so wonderful and cute!

Thank you dad so much for your support and encouragement I sure appreciate it and it makes me feel really good. Mom I sure love you and your happiness and your funness I miss laughing with you but I am sure sure glad that sheridan made that apron for you, (Sheridan you are so wonderful!) 

Sheridan you are just so beautiful inside and out I am so proud of you and your diligence in doing things that you know to be right, you are a good example to me, and so always remember how incredible you are and stick to those standards and you will be such a wonderful missionary and later an incredible mom! Spencer!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH how cute are you!!!!!! Your voice is absolutely adorable I cant believe you are growing so much without me there! All the girls must be swooning ;) Laramie you are such a sweet angel I sure love you and your goodness, and I know that you will continue to be such a good older sister to Sage :) 

And Olive Tessa Sage Kapualahaole Kimball you are Adorable!! Thank you for being so sweet and loving and your hair was adorable and I always love your letters they are so sweet! and in 13 days I will have 8 months before I see you :) S0 3 months after you turn 7 :) Also I was feeling this week that I shouldve encouraged you to remember this childrens song "when mother calls me, quickly I obey" because I know you are such a wonderful sweet gift to mom and dad and that as you continue to do things that are good and do your best that Heavenly Father will be so happy. You are so wonderful Sage I LOVE love you and miss you, keep smiling because your smile is precious and adorable :)

So I used up a bit of time sending photos to you all but I thought that they were important to send because I think photos are awesome :) 

So its been pretty great here Ive been praying more to meet people who are really prepared for the Gospel and we found a beyond incredible family and (they are actually already planning on getting married) and so I really know that one day they will join the Gospel and I really hope that it will be while I am here but I do know that its important to just share my testimony and that the Lord will help with the rest. So its a bit warm here but Im sure sweating is good to clean out pores haha, and that way when we have rain its a blessing.

So during our 12 week study we are watching a video called the District that has real experiences video taped of missionaries and wow I have just really loved it, its been teaching me about alot of things about the importance of missionary work and how us as misisonaries really are here for specific people because like the people Ive taught in the Past Ive just loved so much and really I know that Im able to help more and im way a better missionary when I truly love the people that im teaching because then I am doing everything possible to help them. And really Love is such an important thing because it helps me to work harder focus more and do all I can to study hard and pray diligently and do things so that I can really make sure to help someone know about the truthfulness of the Gospel. Its really cool because its preparing me for the kind of person I want to be after my misison because I have some friends such as Brittany Guttierez that I just love with all my heart and I will continue to always pray for her and do more things to share the Gospel with her. And its really interesting because now I feel that way with people I have taught in the past (start of my mission in new mexico) and I will keep writing them and praying for them and I know they will be able to in the future join the gospel.

Well I love you all so much! Thank you so much for supporting me and loving me Im just so happy to be your daughter, sister and friend :)

I love you all!! Keep being wonderful examples to others of righteous servants of the Lord.

Com Ginormous Amor,

Sister Kelsey Cheyenne Kimball

I love you mom!

MOM I am so so so sooo happy I received this email from you :) It was so awesome to be able to read it :) And I did get it before I emailed which is really nice :) So Ive been thinking about the fact that you will all be moving back to hawaii and Im actually (now) glad about it because Im in love with the people here in Brazil and the culture and I think returning to hawaii will be a perfect transition because the culture is basically the same, lots of hugging and good food :) Haha, but I just love you so much and your email was really fun to hear. Also I heard I received a letter from you all so Im really excited about that I absolute LOVE hearing about whats going on. CONGRATS about your ring! And WOW a car!! That is intense! Im excited to hear how that goes, wow wowie wow. 

I sure love you mom and I sure enjoyed skying with you. Also you are beyond gorgeous did I ever tell you that? (My friend Sister Barroso said so as well)

She was the one that hugged me when we skyped. Honestly serving a mission just is so much fun with like a really REALLY good friend like her.

Also mom I was super excited inside that you were excited to research Skyler kimball Young!!! Did you find his facebook? OH! I will send a picture of the district I was in with him (he is the one to the FAR right, dark hair, and blue Blue eyes.)

But I LOVE love you mom :)

And I will let you know when I receive another letter from him ;)

He is quite something :)

Also disclaimer on the photos of the 3 girls being baptized- our sisters (other sister missionaries in our ward:sister barroso and sister steig) were the ones teaching them, 

but I LOVE them SO sooo much, and one of them Kattyln calls me her mom, and they are always hugging me and holding my hands and I feel like its a tender mercy that they love me so much because I cant really be with sage right now but Im able to have these 3 loving little girls to be with me so thats nice

but I sure love sage SOOOO much, 

and I love you and Everyone :) And now I will start writing my seperate letter to the family but I sure love LOVE you mom

Sincerely your daughter

sister Kelsey Kimball

I am training!!

Ola My wonderful family! I just about started talking in portuguese haha its interesting because I will look in my journal and a couple words are accidentally written with portuguese spelling Portug-lese

So thats a blessing that its really becoming more easy to talk in portuguese or think in portuguese, of course its simple words and everything but like it is amazing more and more often people understand me :)!

So thats amazing

Also!!!! MOM!! Wow! How is the house coming? Im so glad that the people moving in are your friends. And I know you are working so SO hard! Thank you mom for the time and effort you put into things, really you show me the importance of working with all my heart and soul for a project. And I hope your health is doing well!

So!

Here is the news of the week, so my trainer left (Im being re-trained here which is a HUGE blessing because then I was able to re-learn some things in portuguese) but really I just constantly see the blessings of having been state side first, because then coming here when I need to share something but dont quite have the words I remember a scripture that explains it ´perfectly! I sure am Loving the book of Mormon, and the Bible. I just constantly receive answers while reading. Really they have all the answers!!! And bring the spirit really powerfully!

Anyways back to my news-

 so my trainer left during transfers (normal transfers after 5/6 weeks) but I just naturally assumed she would be with me for all of my 12 week training. But she left to open a new area. So I figured Id get a new companion that had already lived and served in this area and therefore would kind of take over.

Well.

I ACTUALLY received a Brand new missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND im TRAINING!!!!!!

AHHHHH! 

Haha! :)!!!

wow. I thought- I cant possibly train I dont know where anything is!

Guess what?

Turns out- (with the spirits help of course) Im remembering how to get around and everything) It is SUCH a blessing. But Im drawing bigger maps, and trying my best to study them and praying constantly while walking that we will get to where we need to be, and we do!

So that is a major major major tender mercy and total proof that the Lord is guiding this work.

The other thing is that Im learning portuguese a LOT faster because my new companion is sweet and when Im explaining something she listens and then corrects specific words, and she talks slowers and more mildly which helps a TON

ALSO because Im training and I know these people I generally start lessons instead of kind of waiting and then sharing something at the end. 

Like we teach Together. 

It is so neat :)!

And I know Im experiencing the gift of tongues because when I cant understand people, she will say it again and I understand her, and she always knows what Im saying as well.

So thats really wonderful.

And because we are teaching Together and actually like Teaching, I feel the s´pirit really strong.

We has an Incredible lesson yesterday like I was teaching and the spirit I felt in my heart was undenyable.

I Know that the Spirit testified of the truth of my words and it reconfirmed my testimony.

I know that this Church is true and I will never deny it.

I know that this is the Truth that people are searching for, and I know there are people waiting and pleading for the opportunity to have the Gospel in their lives.

I am so grateful for how the Book Of Mormon blesses me every day ad for the truths revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

I love you all,

Ate Mais! (Directly translated- Until More, Basically see you later) ;)

LOVE

Sister Kelsey C. Kimball

Acts of faith

Ola!!!

Well, its interesting for a second I needed to remind myself to write in English so that is pretty cool.

I am absolutely learning this language!! And so that is a major blessing! In the beginning of my mission to read a page in the book of mormon in portuguese I think took about half an hour with all the translating, re-reading, comparing with the english version and all those things. And now I can read about a chapter in 20 minutes!!!!!!!! WOW! Im telling you this is such a blessing! Also its really neat because we talked to this man while walking down the streets and he talked about different churches and things like that and then we talked about the gift of tongues and really Im a living witness that our church has the gift of tongues (well Im gainning it day by day anyways)

but yeah so that is really miraculous and its really exciting having meetings that I previously just really caught maybe a word or two but now I understand large portions of it!

So we are teaching some really awesome people right now. Specifically the girlfriend of our ward mission leader and his friend. So the girlfriend Fernanda is in church every sunday and everything so we will do our best to help her be baptized this weekend :)!! That will be really wonderful and amazing because it will be a Large act of faith on her part. What is really nice. neat and cool is that after she read the law of chastity pamphlet she said she Really liked it, and so that is VERY good. Also while I was teaching part of it to her she seemed very sincere in her desire to follow this commandment. And really it made me think that deep down all women have that desire to have a strong good family and healthy marriage with a loyal spouce and happy children (not just living with someone) but actually being married and having that family life. At least I hope they do. Or I know they are meant to have that desire.

Anyways we meet with a couple other families that need to be married and it seems like the lady is usually wanting to be married but sometimes the guy isnt. THIS is why its SO important to have standards and stick to them, TEMPLE marriage is the goal!! Because I bet in some of these cases the women thought they would get married pretty soon after being together, and then 10 years later!!!! SO that is not the plan that God has for his children, and we will do our very best to share our testimonies on the importance of marriage (in the temple) for time and all eternity.

Its pretty amazing because when Gina learned about the law of chatisty she KNEW that this church was true because no other church had taught her that.

I know with ALL my heart that THis is the true church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth through a living prophet, and is the only way for us to be able to have the fulness of the gospel and prepare to live with Heavenly Father and our families again for eternity.

Someone that we are teaching that Im really excited about is Alexandre, he seems Very open to learning about the gospel and very sincere.

He was very excited to receive the book of mormon (and kissed the cover! And then asked if that was okay to do haha, I was like YES go right ahead, while thinking that I was simply glad that he recognizes what a blessing it trulty is!! )

-------this is all in a week~~~~

He came to church

Accepted a baptism date (in 2 weeks from now)

and we gave him a book of mormon

and he read part of it already

and is eager for us to visit again!

 

So I have a firm testimony that the BEST chance an investigator has with being strong in the church after baptism is if a member is helping them along the way. Because when Alexandre came to church he came With Erlan, went to class With Erlan, learned to pray From Erlan, was shown how the hymn book works From Erlan, sat in sacrament meeting With Erlan, had the sacrament explained to him From Erlan.

Really it was SO nice and honestly super relaxing like we didnt have to do anything other than teach him and invite him to keep commitments (church, pray, read) and really that is the way I believe it is meant to be. Because these people need one on one attention and assistance because these really are NEW things and experiences.

I truly believe in the motto Every Member a Missionary,Because that is the only way possible for this work to be effective

I love you all TONS

also my trainer got transfered this transfer and is leaving tomorrow.

But I prayed about it and then read the scripture about how through Small and simple means great things come to pass, and really This is the Lords work and all things are possible with him.

So I am excited to see the Lords hand guiding me this week because really I will need it :)

LOVE YOU ALL!! I love being a missionary! For life!

Ciao!

Trusting in the Gift Of Tongues

Well I believe that I am definitely learning the language pretty fast so that is a blessing I am able to more or less express the feelings I have, my companio understands me which is great but for the most part other people dont haha but that will come in time, plus sister goncalves translates for me sometimes. meaning i speak in portuguese but sometimes the people have a hard time understanding me so she wil repeat it in portuguese. I only use portuguese never english because my companon doesnt know english except she tells me she loves me and that im beautiful in english haha because she had previous americana companions so she learned those phrases. really its really good and im SUPER grateful that I have a Brazilian companion because its a lot better. Now when we have lessons I am able to pretty much know what is going on, unless my companion and the other person are just talking about other tings in which case I seriously have no idea whats going on haha but thats totally okay. I feel very blessed to be able to be learning the language and not feel overwhelmed, like I think im seriousy able to ask people basicaly all the time what something means without feeling embarresed or anything. and everyone is Super willing to try to explain it to me or repeat wat they are saying over and over. its funny because a lot of people when they are trying to get me to understand are using other words I simply dont know haha. seriuosly I can tell when a person has learned a second laguage such as english becaue they are MUCH better at being able to use simle words haha. But really I love it and I know the language wil come I dont feel overwhelmed about that or anything like that. I really love the friendliness of the people and the way they interact with each other, everyone is very happy friendly and when talking in large group you never wait to talk or anything like that in orer to talk you need to talk Over people and it all works out haha, except for me right now usually people will ask me a question and people stop to listen haha

Hm well I really like the people and they seem to really like me

A lot of times though they ask my companion How much can she understand haha

and a LOT of time especially during lessons people will compliment my portuguese, they still have a tough time understanding but they think I speak pretty well and keep telling me to never give up haha which is nice

some people especially this girl Helen we are teaching loves when I talk haha, she says how pretty or cute I am haha but she is my age

but ya its really cool because I know im not especially good at the language in general but I am able to understand and talk about the gospel pretty well

probably because that is what I am studying

also I know that Heaveny Father is helping me

seriously during one of the lessons with Helen I honestly felt what the gift of tongues feels like because I understood everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rest of the day not so much haha

but I seriously can notice a difference each and everyday!

Plus it gave me excitement and more determination to learn because I know its possible.

But yeah its been great, something that is interesting is that in church the kids are given TONS of candy like as if it was a birthday party, and then after our meeting with the bishop his counselar got this big basket of candy and everyone grabbed bunches. like it was a mountain of treats and each and every person (like ladies and men) all got bunches of candy. and when they offer things like candy I will take some and no matter ho much I grab they say "Take more you need more!" haha its the best. The people here are Super super good at sharing

the other day I already realized how much I will miss it here I sure love it

its funny like there are SO many Loud things happening at once but it doesnt feel overwheming or anything. I think that is definitely a blessing!

So we talk to EVERYONE on the street and there is a LOT of them haha that is pretty cool I like it alot, feels like real missionary work

Hm what else

well Im boiling my water to drink which is pretty great

we all share food

we have a Baptism this week!!!!!!!!!!! Super awesome- the boys name is Rodson (Hoe-gee-sun) Took forever for me to write it properly haha

I am so SOOOOOOOOOOOOO grateful I learned to count in portuguese to 100 THAT was a Good investment of time- definitely inspiration

also once again I am SO grateful to know the church hymns, seriously That is a blessing.

So I bore my testimony in relief society and then the bishop asked me, and sister Lopes (Lopsch) to bear our testimonies in sacrament meeting, that went really well, I like talking in front of people and things like that, and I really enjoy learning- and after wards one of the bishops counselars talked to me and said (in english) that he learned on his mission from various americano companions- that I seemed nervous but I did very well and that he could understand me. so that was nice. I love when people who are trying to learn english talk to me in english and I respond in portuguese I think its just the coolest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!

Because we both understand each other and are responding in a language we needed help from God to learn.

Plus they just Understand that Im learning and are the most willing to figure out what im saying haha

well I love it

something I Loved was one of MY Favorite sister missionaries I met (new missionaries) that I loved talking to most was from argentina and knew spanish and learning portuguese but no english, and I know english, not really spanish and learning portuguese it was super cool :)

Well things are great! I love it!

Yesterday was my 7 month mark!!!!!!!!!!! wow so fast!

I love you all!!!!!!!! Tchau!

Temple trip!

So today was a Wonderful experience!!

I just wrote most of my email and realized I should make a comment about my Visa status, well it says its on the 4th stage but nothing has happened so I will probably be here for a little while longer, which I'm glad about because there are a couple people recently that I really hope to be able to help teach a couple more times at least.

So Today!

So we woke up at 4:30 to go to the Snow Flake temple, and I really felt the spirit really strong I really am grateful for the opportunity that I had to go to the temple I really loved it. I don't know if you both have gone recently but I would highly advise it because its just so wonderful to be able to go :) So we have recently taught a wonderful lady who is a recent convert. We went over to her house because she has been gone for a couple weeks (and my companions and I love her, she is very strong in the church and very sweet) and so we came in and we sat down and she went and grabbed a bag for us (the size of a brown paper lunch bag) Full of snacks!! (which we ate on our temple trip the next day with the older missionaries in the car and our wonderful ward member who drived us) but anyways she gives us this Bag of treats- cookies, goldfish snack and reeces and then she is like "Oh wait you need to eat cookies" and grabbed 3 different trays of cookies and then she was like "and of course you need milk with that"!! and then because my companion said how much she loved the smell of her candles she went and grabbed 3 different candles that she had and gave them to us. So just so beyond sweet and giving, and really we all felt really loved and taking care of. And so after/during eating the wonderful cookies she made us. We had a lesson about missionary work, kind of mainly about how it was for her as an investigator, what helped her the most, what was hard for her, what she would have preferred the missionaries did differently and what things made joining the church harder/ easier. And really it was very beneficial to be able to hear from her perspective and basically learn how we can do differently and better to make sure we are helping people be able to understand the Gospel more and teach it better. And a reoccurring thing I hear from people is that their missionaries really Cared about them, were loving and VERY encouraging but not pushy. Like persistent in their encouraging but not pushy. And so I think that is something that will help me is to make sure that I am sharing my testimony and helping them receive answers without feeling like I am not being effective if they need to take a little extra time.

So that was really good.

Another wonderful experience was that we met this lady named Clare (like claire) and she is just Beyond positive and saying that she is grateful for her trials that they make her stronger and that she knows that there is a purpose that she is going through them. and that everything she has is thanks to Heavenly Father and Really she sounds like she is already a member it has been such an amazing experience (and we hope that sister bernatchi will become her fellow shipper because really they both are Very sweet) and something that was wonderful is that she said

"I think that you were all sent to me for a reason" (all* because there is 3 of us)
and that God places people in her path to help 

and then she said

"I really believe that God sent you three to me, because you are all glowing, you seem to have a light about you, and you are all so happy, and so different but all beautiful"

So that was really great- THEN she asked for a Book of Mormon and we were like OF course!!!

And we invited her to church (she didn't end up coming BUT she called us to tell us she appreciated the invited but wasn't able to come, and THEN called the next day and basically apologized for not being able to come but was really excited for us to come back)

So that was pretty amazing and so I am very hopeful and excited to see her. And after we email we are calling her back :)!

So the other day sister isaacson was gone because she was doing sister training with another sister training leader, and so sister Haueter and I were without a car.

So sister Haueter and I were able to have a real full on Tracting all day experience.

Overall I think it was really a good experience we were able to:

-Practice Portuguese while we walked all day :)

-Have more people see us as we walked and a couple people commented that they hadn't really seen sister missionaries before, so it was really good to be walking, I mean we do tract but we drive a lot to contact referrals or try new areas or try to see people we haven't in a while.

- We talked with about 20 people in the course of 6 hours of walking around, 16 of which we actually were able to say who we were and what we did and ask to be able to share a message.

7 people said that we could come back and teach them about the Gospel so that was awesome and they are mainly in the same area which is always a nice thing.

-And one lady let us right in and turns out not only has she been taught by missionaries before, she has gone to church before, and at one point had a baptismal date (a member later told us that) and she knows like EVERYone in our ward and so we have Quite a few options for fellowshipers.

So I am excited about that! Her name was Mary Booker.

So we shall see how that goes!!

Well I love you all and really things are going wonderfully here, and I am just absolutely loving my companionship, sometimes too much because its hard to go to sleep because we get to laughing over nothing basically haha :) Bed on time is definitely not a problem but the Asleep part we are working on. Its actually better then before haha.

Well I love you all very much!

Ciao :)!

I am SO grateful to be a missionary

Well hello my wonderful beautiful family :)

How are you all doing? I am going to start working on making sure your letters are with me when I am responding so that I can actually point out all the things I Loved hearing about in your letters!

Well this week has been really good, I have Loved the new people we have started teaching. I think I am going to focus on a family I am especially grateful to know, their name is the Cody family :)

So basically our ward mission leader (in 1st ward/ we are in charge of 1st and 2nd ward, but there are a set of elders in both ward) well so our ward mission leader told us saturday night that we would be teaching the Gospel Principles class, but luckily it would be all 3 of us instead of just one of us. Which honestly is probably an amazing easy thing because we are so used to teaching with each other and teach lessons every day together which honestly always feel SUPER short (shortest thing ever is trying to have a 20 minute lesson) it is tough! But anyways so we got our assignment and on the way home looked in the book at 9:00 at night to see what we would be teaching the next morning. It was on Eternal Families. :)!! Basically my favorite topic of all time! I was so happy! I was really grateful to be able to teach about it with my companions. So anyways we prepared for it the next morning and everything and taught the lesson. It was so great! We all were sitting around a long wooden table (high counselors room?) and so it really was very discussion based and I felt the spirit really strong and it went really well. Then after class, one of the ward members (LA) came up to us with his wife (who we assumed was a member, we assumed they were both fully active) and told us that they had been being taught by the Elders but were wondering if we could teach them because a lot of the time he wasn't home which made it difficult for the Elders to go in (and The Elders were there and they said that they had been thinking the same thing).

And so anyways we went to go teach them a lesson the following wednesday? Or some week day like that, and she was outside weeding (Keri Cody) and we asked if we could help and she was like No its okay I'm almost done.

So we begged her.

And she relented :)

Because honestly I Love weeding. Its my favorite form of service.

So we weeded and talked with her and it was really great (and went super fast, plus then her 2 sons- Fred (12) and Jeff (6) came and helped as well. She later said that she started thinking about all the weeds at the side of her house haha so we said we could help with that as well on another day.

Anyways so we go in and they talked about how important their family was to them and how they really want to strengthen their family because it is the most important thing. And she said she wants to be together forever and things like that. So it was SO amazing and she said every thing she learns about the church feels SO good to her and she just wants to learn more.

WOW. Really THIS family is wonderful. Exactly what every missionary dreams of I am sure. So we are going to do our best to get them fellowshippers and support :)

Also when she came to church she said that in relief society she was Floored because they were talking about things that she Had been struggling with and that she felt everyone was talking just to her.

Also I saw her reading the back of the program which was talking all about families. SO amazing.

Well I know that wasn't very much information but I wanted to send pictures because I made pancakes and corn bread and a potato mix thing on my own!! All box mixes but still!

Also I can't believe I will be 20 soon!! I feel SO blessed to be on a mission right now.

Also I met someone that I truly knew needed the Gospel and It just really touched my heart knowing what a blessing the Gospel is.

Well I love you all! Ciao :) 

Com Amor Sister Kimball

Desbie came to church!

So this week has been pretty great time is flying! My district leader asked me to teach part of district meeting on thursday so that should be interesting. I am pretty excited about it though. Except I still when talking in front of our district or a large group of people - I will talk really fast when I am excited and then I kind of forget to breath haha. Its kind of interesting. Almost makes me wonder why I forget to breath, and how I can be more aware of that. So I think I will be talking about what makes a successful missionary. Focusing more on the desire to do good then the outward results of your work such as baptism. I think its a really good thing to talk about with our district because really they all work SO hard but sometimes it means they are just knocking on doors all day. Really I have felt very blessed with the amount of people we have to teach and how many referals we receive, the support of the ward (the ward liking us) and really people seem pretty willing to talk to us when we talk to them on the street.

Sometimes we aren't sure if they will remember their talking to us the next day or not (because they tend to be drunk when they go out of their way to talk with us) haha.

Its interesting in the store today there was a lady preacher that came and talked with us and basically she told me that she could just tell from our hearts that we were really good people and she told me that she could tell that I was really close to God/ had a strong connection with her. She actually would tell us somethings and we would testify of what we knew to be true. And then she asked if she could pray with us, and so we had a little prayer circle in the middle of an aisle at walmart. Made me a little anxious but hey that is great that her devotion to God is so great. And really throughout her prayer she was just asking for us to be blessed. And that is a nice thing.

It made me think of the way other people may feel when we show up at their doors. Another reason why its so important for members to be the ones introducing us to their friends.

Well something that was really great was we invited our investigator friend Michael Barney (who is on date) to a baptism (of an investigator some of our elders are teaching) and we asked a member of the ward to give him a ride there. (we were going to go but weren't able to finish other priorities in time-dealing with sister egginton's calling) and so we missed it. So Michael called us and he basically said "I felt the spirit really strong, the Holy Ghost felt really good" so That was a Really good thing. So really we are just needing him to stop chewing tobacco and to move out from his girlfriends place. (She doesn't want to get married which is pretty sad, and so ultimately we really hope he chooses the Gospel). Something that was really great was that Desbie!!!! 4 of her kids, Melissa, Michael Barney, and a cute cute 11 yr old girl named Sheriden (with an e) and her 7 yr old brother and 9 yr old cousin came to church. It was SO great! It only counted as 4 "inestigators" at church" but I'm hoping that it shows the ward that the work is moving. Really they do good at stepping up and introducing themselves, or giving a ride, and helping the kids go to classes, So that is wonderful. We are Really hoping that Desbie liked church (Sheridan seemed to/I mean Sheriden) She is so sweet. But ya that worked out really nicely. Reading the book of mormon in Portuguese I am on 1 nephi 10! Also something pretty awesome is in walmart I talked to 2 spanish familes, with the little spanish I have basically Hola, Como Esta, and I understood that the 6 yr old boy asked me what my name was :)!!! Which is cool. Bummer that it wasn't portuguese. But really I might learn spanish after my mission so that I can have both. But really the little boy was so sweet! And Im Really pretty sure that the mom liked that I was trying spanish, and the other family I talked to was listening and smiling. So that is a good thing.

Really though I am EXCITED to use Portugese haha. I'm loving it here but I would really enjoy speaking portuguese. Seriously :) 

Hmmm

well guess what?! I decided instead of waking up at 6:30 I would wake up at 6:20 so that by 6:30 I would be dressed (basically I sleep in the same clothes I work out in haha, hopefully thats not bad) and ready to work out. And I wear glasses while working out to save time (of not putting in contacts. What else was I going to say... Oh I make my bed every morning ;)

Something Else Sister Egginton has done that I admire and have chosen to do as well- has been fasting every sunday. Basically its great. I'm not sure though which is more important, because fasting for people is super good, but then there is an hour or too from the time church gets out to dinner that we start feeling a little bit like we are running on empty haha. But I think its agood thing and so I will probably continue to do it. Its nice because then we as a companionship (all 3 of us) pray together.

I'm not sure but I think I am doing better at writing longer emails. Hopefully I am.

Oh wow guess what?! We met with an investigator today who we told that he could read the book of mormon online, and so we went back about a week later and checked up on his reading (assuming he probably forgot) and he was like

Ya I read the first two. And we are thinking Oh WOW that is great! Like the first 2 chapters?

and he is like- !st and 2nd nephi!!!!!! Wowwww. And he basically did that in a couple days.

So that was pretty great. So we let him know that it was wonderful and then encouraged him to pray when he reads so that he is able to know of its truth (and understand how it applies to him).

So those were good things. Ever since we started praying for the spanish elders we have been able to give them a couple more referals. Hopefully better ones then previously haha.

I basically gave them a spanish family orginially simply on the basis that they were spanish.

Oh I don't know if I mentioned but we were at this families house- The Eagers and their 6 yr old daughter (who I really feel Sage can't possibly be 6, so grown up!!!!!) but anyways the daughter when she hugged me said "You are my Favorite sister missionary ever!!!" Which was reallyy sweet of her (I hope that it didn't make my other companion not feel as good. BUt really little kids (girls Especially) seem to Really Reallyyyy like me. Its super cute.

Like we were teaching Carmen and JOhn and the Grand daughter was asking me questions, and showing me her stick on tatoos to which I let her know that its good they were fake and that tatoos arent good. (I actually cleaned the tatoos off desbie's kids arms and legs with a wet clothe when we were cleaning her house while letting them know that fake tatoos weren't good (literally they were Always covered in them, and now I haven't seen a single one on them) so hopefully that will help later in life. But anyways this little girl basically sat right in front of me to talk to me, haha, and she kept getting really excited and wanting my attention haha (she is 4) of course little girls make me think of how adorable Sage is and how I know she is probably growing up really well.

Also!! Spence is growing?! :) My cute little baby brother :) :) I'm happy for him, but he is such a hug-able height!

Something else I was going to share...

Hm- I'm not sure. But I'm really liking it here. I'm really loving the people we are teaching, and they seem to be progressing very well. I like testifying to people. I feel that testimonies guided by the Spirit are the most powerful things we can share.

Well I sure love you all!!

OHHHH I remember!

So we were in church. And desbie's 2 yr old son picked a scab off his face, anddd guess where he put it? In his mouth. Yeahhhhh I was doing my best not to gag. I thought I was super subtle. BUt then Jess Joseph (this lady I sometimes sit by in relief society that I live) later asked me why I looked ill in church hahaha ahhh. Ya my mission will probably get rid of that gag reflex for sure.

But anyways things are going pretty good. I notcied that I now really like things to be clean and put away. And support the whole no animals in the house. I'm thinking I will move by an older couple who has a dog and then my kids can take care of that dog while keeping our yard pet free haha. But I think it would be good to have a guard dog so I'm not sure.

Well I sure love you all!

Tchau!

Miracles because of sacrament meeting

SO!

This was an absolutely amazing week I really hope that I will be able to remember everything I wanted to share. Well first of all my companionship decided to do a group fast yesterday and really it was the best fast I have ever had, for a couple reasons. First of all I really felt like I was praying for things I sincerely needed help with (with our investigators) and ALSO because Carmen and JOhn Valdez came to church!!! They have been being taught for a LONG time and even the last 3 months of me being here we have been trying to get them to church. Then the other day in their lesson John said firmly and seriously "Carmen. Tell all the kids NOT to bring their kids on sunday. We are going to Church!" And they did! And so I was super excited, but then of course I was praying that the people bearing their testimonies would say good things. I mean I have Always loved fast and testimony meeting but sometimes people have allowed themselves to be offended by something that was said (Dianne's husband when he came to church was offended by something which was a real bummer because he hadn't come in a LONG time and really is the only thing holding Dianne back from being able to put her whole heart and soul into becoming a member)

But anyways I was praying that it would be really good,

and it could NOT have been Better. It was Amazing!! People were saying such wonderful things about how its important to try hard but sometimes we mess up but we can still be forgiven, and analogies about how God forgives and loves us, and about how they aren't perfect and wow JOhn Needed to hear those things. Because basically he felt he didn't belong in church because he wasn't perfect and had bad experiences with people judging him in other churches (like a pastor basically telling him that he was not going to make it to heaven, etc etc so Really Tough things to over come when we are encouraging him to go to church) but ya I totally took a lot of notes because I knew there were amazingly inspired things said and if he didn't notice it would be because he wasn't listening. So after sacrament meeting

and this is Amazing!!

Our Bishop went up...Introduced himself, said "I heard you served in Vietnam" (which is one of the reasons he feels he can never be forgiven" and then the Bishop said "So did I"

My heart leaped! I was SO happy!!! What a tender mercy!! Not only did he introduce himself as the Bishop but let him know that he was the same.

Anyways it is hard to describe but I simply can't deny the fact that the Lord really IS in charge
So- blessing the other day.

We have amazing spanish Elders and they work super hard, but basically every super prepared person they meet they have to give to us because they can Only work with Spanish speakers. Therefore we get a Lot of wonderful people to teach and have amazing lessons and they have to continue knocking doors basically all day.

And of course they are doing an amazing job, but it might be hard for them to recognize thta.

Anyways I made a goal to be able to find a spanish person a day for them

(pretty extreme)

so we were walking down the street and I remembered my goal, so I prayed in my heart to be able to find someone for the Elders.

The NEXT house we passed had 4 people sitting on the porch and so I said hi to them and basically shared a little of the Gospel with them (man basically said that only Catholics go to heaven, and I was like- oh thats really interesting to think, do you mind if I send the spanish Elders over) and he said Spanish was the pure language, and that the Spaniards were the first people to be in America, and so I let him know that spanish is wonderful and thats why we have spanish elders

etc etc

and so I gave them a spanish pass along card, and a family proclamation (because he talked about how only Catholics get married) and then I called the elders and sent them over

It was pretty crazy. I don't know if the man would soften his heart to listen, but his girlfriend seemed to be interested. So we shall see :)

Either way once again my prayers were answered, instantly

Something else which was a pretty amazing experience was that I was on splits with another Sister missionary I hadn't met before (who was going home in a week) and we went to teach a lesson, but the lady's husband texted us Right before and said she probably wouldn't be home.

And so I decided to walk with her to a certain Referal (from the Elders) apartment. On the way I waved at a lady and she waved back at me, and usually I just say "how are you?" and kind of move on a little bit unless they are really friendly then I attempt at sharing the gospel with them. But anyways I felt like I should talk with her, so I crossed the street to where her house was AND basically she asked for pamphlets and I said SURE turns out she has been taught by missionaries before, but she moved and No one came by (so lost in the move or something) and so when she saw us passing on the street she came out to talk with us.

So she wanted pamphlets, a Book of mormon AND basically accepted a soft baptismal date haha

because I was like "do you mind if we share a message with you?" And she basically said we couldnt come in her house because her dogs would try to get us. and so I asked if we could share one right there (on the sidewalk while she was in her yard) and she agreed, and so we said a prayer and then started talking (to see what she had been taught) and our investigator MIchael Barney came up and was talking and so I didnt know what to do and so I said "well Michael, how has reading the book of mormon helped you in your life" and WOW I was so shocked! He had recently seemed like he didn't understand what we had been teaching him but he said 

" The Book Of Mormon has helped me a lot, it is really good, I am feeling better when I read it, I know that if you listen to these girls it will bless your life, so you should read it" 

It was pretty incredible. I also had him say the closing prayer, and he Prayed that the lady would listen to our message and learn more about God.

So it was pretty fantastic. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Oh and my companion sister Egginton is very sweet, she is very good at being aware if I am going to say something or if I need something exp: we were at dinner and there was cookies for desert (our members feed us SO good, not even kidding its beyond delicious all the time) and anyways the cookies were way out of my reach and I didn't want to interrupt anyone and ask for one, but she just grabbed me one, and then later when I wanted another seriously all I did was look at them and she grabbed me one. She is super good at getting things for me first (like plates or cups or whatever we need) anyways its hard to explain but she is great.

Another blessing

There was a wonderful lady named Vee Yahzee, she has 3 of the cutest girls. Her boyfriend was in jail though. And so we were teaching her and it was going wonderful. And then one day she said she didn't want to be a "Mormon" and basically dropped us. But I sincerely felt that she wasn't someone we should let go of that easily.

And so I wanted to go back but one of our companions didn't

and so when we had this transfer I mentioned it to sister Egginton the other day and so we were able to go over. And we talked to her and she totally said we could come back the next day :)!!

So that was amazing. We haven't got to see her though (we dropped by yesterday) and she wasn't home but I'm trying to see her tonight (I will be going with Tasha Ogle a young women in the ward (who loves coming with us and asked if she could come with us tonight) So of course I said yes!! Because when people are willing to help I want to do basically everything neccesary to allow them to come.

By the way I love that our Last name is Kimball. Really people here LOVE President Kimball. 

Anyways I love you all!! Tchau!