Short but good

Hey,

Another week flew by. Elder Aguilera and I are killing out here in San Antonio. Today for our P-day activity as a zone we went to the beach in El Quisco. Bakan! Vaccaciones of school are finally over tomorrow!!!! Im glad cause the families will actually be in their house and not out traveling somewhere. Im glad to hear everything is going well with all of you. Dana congrats on the new baby! Im happy for you. Renée Joe and Mom grats on the move. Oh and I am pretty sure I missed your b-day Joe. Sorry bro happy late birthday. Tell Nick how stoked I am for him and his call to serve. Anyway Im glad all is well with all of you, I love you.

Elder Ian Kennedy

First time I've killed off a companion. In a good way

Crazy week this week. Remember how I said I was going to Santiago? Yea, the office called us and said that I would be coming back to my sector and not staying in the city with my comp for a few days, so I didn’t pack anything. Then when we were on the bus almost in Santiago they called us again and said I would be staying in STGO for a few days after-all. So I was there from Tuesday until Friday morning in the same clothes. Talk about bad communication. Also, today we had changes. I killed Elder Lopez, (A term for when you are the last companion of a missionary who is finished with his mission) he is on a plane home now to Guatemala. My new companion is Elder Aguilera from Ecuador and yes Spanish is his first language. He has about 14 months on the mission and seems like a good Elder and I am excited to work with him here in SA. I love having native speaking companions because it forces you to speak the mission language. Although, we do practice English Because he needs to learn it. Pres. and Sis Barreiros are awesome, although it is pretty hard to understand President sometimes because of his Brazilian accent, and sometimes while speaking he switches to English without realizing. It’s pretty funny. But he wants all the Latino’s to learn to speak English and says that in a few months we are going to have a conference in English. 

Our investigators are awesome. For example la familia Fuentes is super awesome. They are progressing nicely and want to get baptized. If you remember, just 2 weeks ago Elder Lopez and I baptized a man named Sergio. When we met him he didn’t know how to read and so we taught him to read with the Book of Mormon while teaching him all the lessons too. Super awesome guy and super funny. I cannot describe to you how much of a blessing it is to be here in the service of my Heavenly Father. Not only is it extremely satisfying to bring people unto Christ, but also, I have grown my testimony exponentially here. The secret to happiness here in the mission i've learned, is to give everything to the Lord and don’t look back. Enjoy every second of the service. Sometimes I wish I could go back to my time in the MTC and pay better attention to the lessons, because the teachers there really are inspired. One more thing I know is that the gift of tongues is real, but you need to qualify for it by showing the Lord your diligence and faith.

Anyway I’m excited to be here and I’m learning so much.

Con amor,
Élder Ian J. Kennedy

This week flew by!

Dearest Family,

Another week flew by super rápido. We are working hard, (trying to work extra hard as this is the last week Elder Lopez has cause he is going home. (Más trunky que ocho!) Friday was one of the most fun days on the misión so far. We organized a Ward talent show, which ended up being a huge success. Elder Lopez and I sang a song together and then we sang one with the other missionaries. With Elder Lopez we sang porque se fue, and con los otros cantamos una canción original. Salió Super Bien. Today for P-day we played baby (soccer) and had an asado (Chilean BBQ). I finished the book of Mormon again. It is so cool how you can learn new stuff every time you read it. It helps so much with the language too; in fact if any of you want to learn Spanish I think that is the best way. Read the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I have to go to Santiago with my companion because he has a capacitación allá. Which means I´ll be on divisions over there until Wednesday.

I love Chile and I love the misión. I have learned so much and grown spiritually. Chile is gorgeous, as you know, I spent my first 2 changes in the city of Santiago in a pretty flaite (ghetto) area so all the people talk really fast and use weird slang. Needless to say, when I arrived I didn’t understand a Word, My trainer literally translated when they asked me questions. But after a couple of weeks I could understand better, and could contribute in lessons (important haha). I am extremely grateful for those first few weeks of not understanding though, because I grew so much and had to rely on the Lord to help me. I have since been transferred to the coast. FREAKING BEAUTIFUL HERE. My companion is from Guatemala, and doesn’t speak English. Another awesome opportunity the Lord gave me; to progress my language.  I love it here. I love every second of it. Whenever something is hard or challenging I just remember that the Lord consecrates my afflictions for my benefit (2^nd Nephi 2:2). There is nowhere I would rather be than here in Chile.  I love my savior and this gospel and I am grateful to Him everyday for this calling and how much I have progressed. My Testimony of this gospel has grown so much and I love sharing it with the great people of Chile. 

Anyway, estoy feliz que ustedes tuvieron un buen 4 de julio. Y gracias por todo su amor y apoyo. Les amo.

Elder Kennedy

Crazy news in the US

Hey Guys,

Everything is going well here in Chile. Elder Lopez and I just had a baptism yesterday, Sergio Urquieta. We are extremely happy for him. He has progressed so much, he can now read pretty well, but the small lettering in the Book of Mormon is hard for him to see. So Elder Lopez and I are going to buy him one of those huge books so he can see the letters better. Renée and Joe you guys are awesome. You guys are a perfect example of member missionaries. It's really refreshing to hear your stories about talking with Armando and Lisa, and helping the missionaries in their lessons. I just wish the members down here could do that too. The work would progress so much faster if we had more help from the members.

Chileans actually know a fair amount about the U.S. The news here is like half Chilean and half what’s happening in the states. For the most part the Chileans are about the same as the U.S on the stand for gay marriage, basically all the Christians and some others that are more family oriented don’t like it and other people are ok with it. For example yesterday was the primary elections for the Presidency here and the bishop was telling me that one of the candidates is for gay marriage and the other isn´t. But the one that is for gay marriage destroyed everyone else in her party with votes. It´s a crazy world we live in, we truly are moving in the last days.

An interesting thing was announced this week. We learned that in the year 2014 we are going to get iPads and use them here. How crazy is that! I´m not sure on the details of exactly when we will get them or how restricted they will be (I imagine quite a bit) But I´ll let you know. Yes, our new Mission President -Pres. Barrieros arrived. Tomorrow I get to go meet him because we have interviews with him. Thanks for all your love and support. 

Love you!

Elder Kennedy