What a week

Hey family!

What another great week to be a missionary. I love it. This week we did really well. We have been focusing a lot on the standards of excellence in the mission, and we achieved a lot of them this week. We even passed the amount of lessons, and the amount of 'news'!! We have been working hard! And we have been blessed for it. 

Elder Harries is a boss. He is a super hard worker, and we are taking out the trash together. We are super stoked for our fechas, Omar and Coni who attended church this week ¡EJALÉ! They will be baptized on the 1st of November. They have to wait until after the get married which will happen on the 24th of October. They are super prepared! They are such good people. I love them. We are also trying to work with the rest of their family because they live in a house with 11 other people, but the majority don't want much do do with us. However we have been able to share with the mom and sister of Coni. Also, for the other families we are working with, we have Danny e Ingrid. They are awesome as well, but they were out of town so they didn't attend church. And as for the family Morales Gonzalez, (Claudio, Clara, Emilio...) They are doing well too. This week Emilio came to church, and said he enjoyed it, especially being with the youth. Keep praying for these families please. They are all so awesome. 

Anyway, All is well here in Villa Sur II , ¨LO VALLEDOR¨  

Love,

Elder Kennedy

What Ian's companion, Elder Harries wrote about him: "Elder Kenedy is great! He is the District Leader for our district. He speaks the language very well and is friendly! We get along very well. Our personalities are both relatively mild so we haven´t had the least bit of contention this week. As a trainer, it is his responsiblity to take the lead in everything we do, however he is extremely good at including me and asking for my opinions. There hasn´t been a time in which I have sugested something that he completely shut me down. Usually we end up doing what I suggest--he´s just chill about everything haha. He is from San Diego, California and is the youngest of five siblings. He has about 6 months remaining in the mission, which means that we will most likely be together for 6 months here in Villa Sur II. At least that is what he thinks.

The pension we have is pretty average. It is just the two of us together. We have warm showers which is a nice addition. The shower floor doubles as the bathroom floor, and the drain smells and doesn´t drain quickly, but besides that we are several levels above camping:) The electricity goes out whenever you use more than two appliances, but it hasnt really been too bad of a problem. I can´t complain at all though, it is much nicer than most of the homes in which I have been.

Elder Kenedy and I are both new to our sector (white-wash), so our first few days were slow. We also weren´t able to leave the pension at all on Thursday, because aparently the 11 of Sept is a dangerous holiday here. Last year they burnt micros(buses) and crazy stuff like that. We had a lot of fun just the two of us in a 20 by 20 foot space haha. But besides that we have seen some great progess. We have been doing a lot of contacting in our mile by mile (if that) area. I pretty much know my way around. 

We found 5 new investigators this week, and taught 18 lessons. This is an ok week according to mission standards, but we were white washed and in the middle of transfers so we should see some more progress next week. We are one of four missions in the world that is on Pilot Plan. Basically it is a simplified mission work system that helps with reactivation. It seems to have had a lot of success here."

 Elder Stout, myself, Pres Barreiros, Sis Barreiros, Elder Perugorria, Brother Lizardo (ward mision leader) and Elder Goates. This was when President came to speak in our ward.

 Waiting for my Greeny. 

Just met my new "son"

 Sis Barreiros, me, Elder Harries, Pres Barreiros.  

My kitchen 

Mine and my companion's bedroom 

 My bathroom

 The street I live on. (It's actually one of the nicer streets).

 This is our Zone and we are here in Villa Sur II

September 18th

My Family!

The mission is going great. I love being here in Villa Sur. Elder Harries is so awesome. He is super Obedient, and loves to work. A dream come true!  We have been working so hard, I love it. He took no time at all to adjust to the life, he speaks spanish really well, and has no fear at all to talk to everyone. It's so awesome. 

Well this past week was the 18 de Septiembre. So there were lots of parties, lots of drunks, and lots of asados. There was a pretty cool ward activity in the church too. Some of the ward members danced "La Cueca" (the chilean nacional dance) and lots of other classic chilean folkloric dances. Also what made it cool was that a couple of street musicians (the kind that play on street corners and on the busses and metros and stuff) came in and the bishop gave them permission to play music in the party. It was awesome. They played a bunch of classic chilean songs.

As far as the work, it is progressing very well, thanks to the awesomeness of my powerful companion Elder Harries. There was a challenge in the zone to find 10 'news' this week and we were one of only three companionships to reach that goal. We found lots of new investigators to teach, and lots of really good ones. Lots of good potencial baptisms there. 

I'm so happy to be here in Chile as a missionary. It really is the most awesome thing to be doing. I love my mission, and I love this work. 

I realized I was getting old at the beginning of this change when I started training and realized that I have the same amount of time left that my first trainer had when he started training me. Haha I used to think how old he was haha. It's so crazy how fast it goes. But i'm still here living every second to the fullest and am always grateful. 

Love you all!

Elder Ian James Kennedy

Villa Sur 2

Wow! 

Villa Sur has never seen the likes of such power! I've got my boy, Elder Harries, here with me in Villa Sur 2. And we are white-washing. He is 18 and from Atlanta Georgia. He is a total boss! He is awesome, and works really hard. It's super awesome because he doesn't have that usual "greeny fear" of talking to the people, he just goes for it. 

So yeah, it doesn't look like i'm going to ever get the chance to be a Zone Leader haha because I'm a trainer again. But I'm so stoked. Training is my favorite. Honestly, I'm pretty sure this is my last companion. I'll probably be with him until I die. Only 3 changes left.

Can you believe all the new missionaries in this group are from the USA? So yeah, because I stayed in the same ward (i'm just in Villa Sur 2 now, instead of Villa Sur 1) i'm now in my 5th sector, but my 4th ward! Gah, the mission is so awesome! 

We have already seen so many miracles in our one week together. We have found a ton of "news" in this sector already. Yesterday we found a golden family. and we have high hopes for them: Claudio, Clara, Emilio, Claudio jr. and Fernanda. They are super awesome and we found them contacting. We took a corner and we saw a big yellow house, and my companion said, "That house looks inviting" so we went and contacted it. They let us in immediately. PRAY FOR THEM! They are awesome!!

It's pretty weird doing a white wash in the same ward, because I know the members on this side, I just don't know my way to their houses. But the sector is pretty small. It's a little more than half the size of Villa Sur 1, so I'm already pretty familiar with it. This part of the sector is known as Lo Valledor. It's the poorer/more Flaite side of the ward... it's pretty crazy haha. But we are definitely having a lot of success, especially for a white wash. The Lord really is blessing us down here in OCHAGAVÍA!!!!! President Barreiros said a while back, "El Milagro Empieza en Ochagavía." (The miracle starts in Ochagavía.) I can definitely testify of that. This Zone has seen so many miracles, and it really has inspired miracles all over the mission. I'm so glad to be here. It's such a blessing to be here training in the best zone of the best mission. 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Ian Kennedy

VILLA SUR! The front two are the ones that Elder Harries and I replaced in the other sector.(Elder Goates y Elder Perugorria)

 Elder Harries (my son) and I with President and Sister Barreiros.