Heat, transfers and I'm a District Leader. Happy New Year!

Hey!

Well, My time in San Antonio has come to an end. I have left the beautiful coast. It was hard saying good-bye to my son Elder Peel, and also Elder Lopez, and Elder Lythgoe with whom I lived with for 6 months. Super hard that farewell with the ward members too. I got my new assignment, and I am now in none other than dadadadadaadd (drumroll) dadadadada. Santiago :) I’m in the zone Los Cerrillos, sector Los Libertadores. I’m stoked to be working here in Santiago again. 1. My new companion/stepson (cause I’m finishing his training) is Elder Larson from Alaska. He’s got 6 weeks here in the field. I live with all gringos here in my pension, Elder Taylor and his son, Elder Despain, who are both from Utah. I’m glad to be working here in this sector. It seems like a good area. We are gonna be working it hard. Apparently our fountain of investigators is very low, meaning we have one. We are gonna work to find more though. It’s apparently been a while since this ward has had a baptism, so we are gonna change that right around. It’s pretty hot here. Today it’s 38 C which is like high 88F But after 7 months in the coast I cant complain haha. Oh yeah, I got bumped up to district leader too. I take this to mean the Lord needs me to develop leadership qualities, because I don’t feel qualified for the task. But I'll just try as best as I can, I know the Lord will help me. 

I’m stoked to pass New Years here, but we have to be back inside at 8 p.m. tonight cause it gets dangerous out in the streets on new years here. Kinda a bummer. Time is flying super fast. I almost have a year.... NOOO. I still feel like a little greeny, but I’m about half way done.

Anyway, it was good being able to talk to you guys on Christmas. I hope you have a great 2014. Thanks for everything. Love you

Elder Ian J Kennedy

Goodbye to my zone in San Antonio

Christmas

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD! 

Everything is going well here In San Antonio. I;m still livin it up here on the coast. It’s definitely summer here, but we have a nice ocean breeze that keeps everything at a perfect temperature. That’s so awesome the Pat and his fam are passing navidad in Michigan

Hey, I’ll be getting on skype at 4pm my time. I think that’s 11 your time (PST). So I’ll skype then. I hope that works for everyone. Sorry for the way short notice, we just had to find a cyber that was gonna be open for Christmas.

I cant believe its already Christmas. The time is going way too fast. Crazy, everyone is in the MTC. The mission is the best. And it’s cool that they are in the MTC during the winter. I remember it was also winter and snowing when I went to the mtc.

I’m still on the coast, although it looks like I’m gonna have changes on the 30th cause I’m done training and I’ve been here seven and a half months. Kinda bummed to leave the coast, especially in summer. Cause its hot here but the nice sea breeze keeps it under control (like San Diego) but the rest of the mission is just HOT. But I’ll go where He wants me to go.

See you soon!

Love,

Elder Ian Kennedy

Last week of the change

Changes scare me. Presidente is sending mixed sgnals about changes. He has said there will be very few changes. So that is good. He also told me in an interveiw that it would be very unlikely that I have changes right now, and that I will probably stay until February and then have changes. But in my weekly letter he said "help your companion to get to know the sector." I hope I don't have changes yet. This is the best sector. We still have a ton of work to do here. But we'll see what happens tomorrow. 

We had a good week. Elder Peel is still a champ. We are working hard, we found some new people with potential. One is named Victor, we founded him contacting. He is Evangelico but seemed interested in the Restoration and said it actually makes sense. Another is Edwardo, he visited with missionaries a long time ago and said he liked it when they passed by. He told us his wife had just died a few months ago, we explained the plan of salvation and he was very interested. We also found a guy named Esteban, he is from El Sur de Chile, but is up here for work. We offered him a tour of the church and he accepted. He was blown away by it, and we explained the restoration, and that he can know that it is true by praying. We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to pray about it. He came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. 

Crazy story, I was on divisions with Elder Van Duren in his sector a while ago, and we were really late for a cita (appointment) so we were walking super fast, when we passed by a man sitting on a low wall by the side walk crying. We had taken two strides or so passed him when something told me (no doubt the spirit) to stop and talk to him. I stopped, And we began to talk with him. And after a few minutes he looked me right in the eye and said, "listen, if you guys hadn't arrived at my side, I was going to kill myself." He told us about some bad things he had done and that he couldn't forget them. We talked for a while longer and shared scriptures about repetence and baptism, and how through the Atonement he can start over from scratch. We stayed with him until his family came. I just heard yesterday that Elder Van Duren and Elder Robles set a fecha baptismal with him. I am so happy for him. Ramon is now going to be able to start his life over and forget all his sins, and have peace, joy, and happiness in his life because of the gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is experiences like these that I like most about the mission. Seeing changes for the better that only this gospel can bring to the lives of the people. With that I give my testimony that God loves us and he has restored His gospel on the earth so we can be happy. I love the mission!

P.S. Granny, I just wanted to tell you thank you so much for the package you sent. I am waiting patiently until christmass to open the presents haha. Very clever idea with the scriptures. That will make the experience even more enjoyable this Christmas. Thank you so much for all your love for me. 

Love all of you!

Elder Ian Kennedy

Stoked off everything!

Hey hey! I’m still stoked, and still here on the coast. Everything is going awesomely well. Yesterday, my old investigator Fernando got baptized. He was my investigator before they changed the ward boundaries here and cut my sector in half. He is super cool. I got to pass by his house this last week to do his final preparations for baptism, because the two elders that were there got taken out and President hasn’t put any new Elders in that sector yet. So we get to take it back until the 19th. Awesome! I already know the area perfectly and the families there. Also a family I was teaching in that sector has a baptismal fecha. They were waiting for divorce papers to get through so they could get married. Well, the papers finally went through and they are gonna get married at the end of this month and get baptized the day after. Miracles. I’m so glad to see that. Even if they technically aren’t in my sector, it is really cool to see people I know, love, and have taught, get baptized. 

I love my sector. I already explained about the weird change we have; how its ending almost 2 weeks early. And the next change will be 8 weeks long. Well, we had interviews with President, and he pretty much told me I’ll be staying here till February. NINE MONTHS IN LA COSTA!!!! ¡Que Bendición! I love it here in San Antonio. Haha I’ve been here so long. There is no one in this zone that was here when I arrived. Just me. haha stoked on the mission, stoked that Fernando got baptized, stoked to be here and San Antonio and live with the best Elders of the West mission. 

Thanks for everything! 

Love,

Elder Ian Kennedy

fotos of the baptism of Fernando. Elder Rosales had permission to come back and baptize him. These are some Elders and Sisters here from the zone.

The Book of Mormon is true!

Hey! 

Another successful week here in San Antonio. Thanksgiving was o.k. haha, we didn't really do much. Here in Chile they don't celebrate it obviously, so we just worked like any other day. I probably would have forgotten about it completely if Elder Lythgoe didn't bust into our room and yell ¡¡¡¡¡¡FELIZ DIA DE GRACIAS!!!!!! haha. We have a ton of fun here in the mission. We work really hard, but we enjoy every moment of it. We are always laughing and having a good time in the pension. Elder Peel and I work extremely well together, I'm pretty sure we rival Alma and Amulek in our companion unity haha. He teaches super well and his spanish is way good. I love training. I feel like I have grown the most training than at any other time so far in the mission. 

We are teaching this family, they are from la iglesia adventista. (7 day advents I think is English, right?) They are a great family. Super kind to us and have no problem listening. But they always try to justify in their minds the reasons why we are wrong, and how the Book of Mormon can't be true. But we got them to promise to pray, and they actually will, so we are going to pass by later in the week. If you can pray for them that they receive their answer, that'd be really helpful. 

I'm loving the mission. This is the best time of my life, and I am growing stronger and drawing nearer to Christ everyday. I know this is the true church and that it has been restored by a Prophet of God. I know that The Book of Mormon is true, and is the evidence that this Church is the only true Church that can bring us to our Heavenly Father again. Anyone that reads it and prays sincerely will receive an answer and know it's true. I invite all to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and I give the promise that if you do so, it will change your life for the better. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love you all!

P.S. Mom- I'll send some mate home for you to try. It's really bitter, but super good. You're probably gonna want to drink it with sugar.