Happy Father's Day!

Hey Fam,

Another week flew by and I'm writing you again. Happy Father´s Day dad, I hope it was a good one. Renee and Joe your car is gorgeous. haha you now have 2 cars and 2 motorcycles between the both of you ha. That’s awesome! Joe you’re a boss for working so hard that another man from another company noticed and wants to hire you.

San Antonio is awesome. Elder Lopez and I are working hard and taking out the trash. Anyway the time is flying by here on the mish and I am learning so much. I can feel the love of my Savior everyday. It is an awesome experience to be able to share the gospel with people. I am so blessed to be in the service of my Heavenly Father as I help to bring His children back to Him. There really is nothing like it.

It seriously is the best thing you could ever do in your life. 

I love being a missionary, especially because of all the time I get to study the scriptures. That’s something I almost never did before the mission which now when I look back I regret. Cause I know I could have avoided so many of the stupid things I have done in my life just by trying to bring myself a little closer to the Lord. But oh well, that is why we have the Atonement. Try as much as you can everyday to love the Savior and to love this gospel, because it is true. You can avoid so much stupid stuff and be so happy just by doing what our Father wants. That is something I never really understood before the mission. I love you all and I am grateful for your love and support.

Before I forget, I want to know all of your favorite scriptures. So next week if it’s possible can you send me those. Also any easy recipes for good food, that don’t require tons of ingredients, like brownies and cookies or anything. 

Gracias,

Elder Ian Kennedy

Loving the Coast

Hey!

The city here is not as Urban as Santiago but still fairly developed, picture Encinitas on the 101 but a little more janky and hilly, also with more houses and shacks. To get here (from Santiago) we took the metro for a while and then took a bus for about an hour and a half. The Coast is awesome! It is way calmer than the busy city of Santiago. I love it. Every time I see the water in my head I sing Let the lower lights be burning... or whatever that hymn is called. Its called Brillan Rayos De Clemencia in Spanish. It’s one of my favorite himnos now. The people here in San Antonio are so awesome and the ward functions way better than my last ward. We have so many lessons with a member present. We have some awesome investigators like Sergio who has a fecha for the 29th of this month! I am super exited for him. He doesn’t know how to read so we are also teaching him that. Renée you had a question about how changes work here. What happens is every time there are changes (every 6 weeks) there is a meeting in Maipú where the office is and they announce who is going where and with whom. Then you find your new companion and go to the sector and do work. You only go if you or your companion is being transferred. Today we went to the beach as a Zone. AWESOME! We took some pictures and stuff. So I´m making this email short so I can send pictures to you guys. Love you,

Chao!

ELDER KENNEDY

A few minutes later….

Well I was gonna send pictures, but is appears the USB ports on this computer are broken ... next week entonces. Anyway, since I can´t send pictures I´ll tell you a funny story. In my last sector Elder Burk and I were leaving an investigators house and we decided to take our jackets off cause it was hot. As we were walking there was a dog that really wanted to play and kept jumping up on our legs. (It was a pretty small dog). Getting annoyed we tried pushing it away but it thought we were playing with it. Anyway, I had the brilliant idea to hit it with my jacket. That was a stupid idea cause the dog caught the jacket in its mouth and tried to play tug-of-war and ripped a hole in the sleeve. The good news is the was the one with a two year guarantee ... I don’t know if the warranty covers dog bites but that would be cool if it did. Anyway there’s the story for the week. 

Love,

Elder Kennedy

Oh Mom- For reals can you check up on the warranty for my missionary mall suit?

Transfered to La Costa

Hey Everyone!

I just learned that I am being transferred. I don't know where yet or with whom, but I will find out in about an hour because that’s when the 'changes' meeting is. I'll try to let you know as soon as I can. But this means I will probably not be going to Misión Santiago Sur, unless I get transferred from La Cisterna to San Miguel (the neighboring Zone). Those are the only two zones that are being taken from the west and going to the new south mission. I am going to miss the Elders here; Elder Burk, Elder Salines, and Elder Gonzalez. Elder Gonzalez is going back home to Honduras tomorrow and Elder Salines and Burk (my trainer) go home at the end of next change. They are all such awesome Elders and they helped me learn and grow so much. I loved all the elders in my pention and basically all the elders in my zone (I didn’t get to know a couple that well so that’s why I said “basically”). But seriously, I love being on a mission. It is just awesome in every aspect.

The mission is going awesome now that I’ve got my 3 months here in Chile. The language is coming… I can understand what everyone is saying even with their flaite slang. kinda haha. I can understand basically everything and I can say what I need to say in any situation. Basically, I know enough Spanish to learn more Spanish. This is good.

It is so awesome to hear all of the news from you guys. Renée, JF, and Mom, I cant believe you guys are moving to Xana.¡BACÁN! And so soon too! What a blessing, and a good chance to start with a fresh plate. Craziness about Nate trying to leave earlier for his mission. That would be cool if he can. But yes please, I would like the address, and emails of all my friends on missions if possible. Joe, I'm sorry you’re so busy man, but you’re a boss for being such a gnarly breadwinner! Dianna, that’s awesome about trying out Spanish prayers. Spanish is an awesome language and I recommend that all of you learn it. Anyway, I´m loving life and looking forward to this change. It´s a very high possibility my next companion is a Latino. Which means my Spanish will increase even faster. Thank you all for your love and support.

Chao,

Elder Kennedy

A few hours later….

Hey Again,

I have been transferred to La Costa. This means I have been saved from Santiago South. My sector is called San Antonio and my new companion's name is Elder Lopez. He is from Guatemala, and doesn´t speak English. This will help my Spanish progress even more. It is so gorgeous here on the coast! It’s so nice and way calmer than the city. I don’t have druggies cussing me out anymore haha. LIfe is good and I LOVE my mission! And I'm excited to be serving in this area. What an awesome blessing I have, to be able to see the coast of Chile. I am extremely grateful to the Lord for this. And I’m grateful to be able to continue serving in the Chile Santiago BEST Mission. Love you guys.

Elder Kennedy

Service of my Savior

Another week another dollar... minus the dollar, but many blessings from being in the service of the Lord. This week was good for teaching, we had a lot of lessons and we´ve got some more progressing investigators. It started to rain today and it isn´t supposed to stop until Thursday. ha Time to test out how well my missionary mall jacket works. 

Mom that was an awesome story about Nathan Osmond, thanks! And also, you asked about the proselyting bags. I like it, it works well and they definitely distribute weight well. It basically is a backpack but it is smaller (holds my scriptures, mini PMG hymn book, and folletos. It has a waist belt too. I think you heard of the old ones, which are just shoulder bags. Dad, what a cool job to have for the summer. Joe, sounds like you need to take a break man! You’re working so late and starting so early. 

Anyway, the mission is going awesome for me. I'm glad to be here in the service of my savior and los demás personas también. En verdad yo he visto muchos milagros y bendicionés por medío este opurtunidad tengo ser misionero en este tiempo. Yo he visto el amor de mi Padre Celestial muchas veces y yo sé que Él siempre está allí para nosotros y la unica cosa tenemos que hacer es vivir su Evangelio y esforsarnos en la fe y edificarnos en la roca de nuestra salvador Jesucristo. 

Muchas gracias a todos por su apollo.

Les amo con todo mi corazón, 

Élder Kennedy

Importance of working together!

¡UF! What a long week! A lot of our investigators stopped answering the doors when we visit. And our barrio isn´t functioning bien porque no hay communicación entre nosotros y el obispo, porque no tenemos un lider missional porque él es menos activo, y nuestro obispo está tan ocupado porque el tiene dos trabajos y el está estudiando también. Lo siento, I just realized I wrote that in Spanish. Anyway we are working really hard still trying to make up for the ward not helping us. The thing about Chile is the church is a lot younger here, so the miembros here don’t realize how much stronger the church would be if we all worked together. We have been trying to set up a noche de hogar every week for the members. We started this when I got here, with the hope that they would be self-sufficient by now. But they aren’t yet and the members here just don’t understand the importancia of giving references because the church is so young here none of the members have seen how much that helps the missionaries and strengthens the ward. They don’t know this, because the few members we have that served a mission served here in Chile so they didn’t receive referencias tampoco. 

Anyway enough ranting haha. I am enjoying my mission it is awesome. The people here are really awesome but its a little sad because the members here just don’t have the vision of how much greater they can be by helping us. But it’s ok, my companion and I are praying very hard and I know the Lord will help us. Anyway, Thanks Renée for sending the package! I’m excited for it :). I’m sorry you’re not feeling good Joe! You’re working really hard man! Wow! That's crazy about the youth getting family history callings. What an awesome expierence for them.

It’s been raining off and on here. I swear it’s just like San Diego. It will be hot one day the next cold and raining. Hot days cold nights, everything is the same. Anyway I’m having a blast here, enserio. This has already been the coolest experience of my life and ive only been out here in the field for 2 months. HA sorry for all the Spanglish, I have a little headache. haha Love you guys 

Chao,

Elder Kennedy the younger

Renee- Congrats on the calling to be the sunbeams teacher! Sounds awesome! Ha

Post Mother's day

Here is a picture we managed to snap of Elder Kennedy talking to us on Skype: 

Happy Mother's Day again Mom! I'm glad you enjoyed it. So glad I got to talk to some of you yesterday! Dad, Dianna and Granny, sorry I ran out of time. I spent the first 15 minutes of my time looking for a computer that had Skype that worked.  I don’t think I’m gonna send a full email out this week because I just talked to most of you yesterday haha. 

I love being a missionary. We are working hard and staying happy the whole time. I’m glad Eric is enjoying his mission too. There is a brasilano Elder in my zone. He arrived in the same group as me but he says the Spanish and Portuguese languages are super similar and that when a Spanish speaker talks you’re able to understand what they are saying. It works both ways. Haha so after the mish Eric and I can have secret conversations using two different languages. Awesome! Anyway it was really nice to talk to Eric, Mom and Renee yesterday. I heard Joe likes Maté? I love it man! I finally just bought my first bombilla (straw) haha im actually drinking Maté right now while typing this haha. I love you and miss you guys.

Abrazos,

Elder Kennedy

P.S. Renee- Not to be trunky or anything haha but after the mish we gotta take a trip back down here and cruise around S. America. Eric and I can be guides haha.

P.S.S Mom- the shoes fit perfectly and they aren’t too big. It’s nice having 3 pairs of shoes. I don't think I will have to buy new shoes my whole mish especially between the ones you guys sent and my Eccos.