Because of him! What a great week!

Work Work Work. This week went well for us. We found a lot of news, and we are working hard to see them progress. We are happy to finally have people to plan for! One man we found this week was a direct revalation we received through prayer. While planning we knelt down and asked where we should go to find new investigators to teach. We got up and agreed to go to the street Ecuatorial. After contacting for a short while we found ourselves talking with Alfredo. He let us is in and is very interested in our message. I know that the Lord hears and answers prayers. 

As far as things in the District, we are doing well and we are working on ways to help our ward become more involved with the work. We are working on ways to serve them and help them so they will help us find people to teach. That's a huge struggle here; the members don't help a whole lot in the mission work. But we are fixing that.

Easter went well. President put together a choir of missionaries and organized a chain of concerts for the public throughout the mission. It was very successful because the Capilla here in Maipú was way overfilled. Not to mention that this morning as we were leaving our apartment, the doorkeeper stopped us to tell us how lovely the concert was. Then he started talking about it to the guy next him, so we invited them both to learn more about our church and they accepted. Truly an inspired idea by President to have these concerts. 

Well, I'm working hard and know that this is where I need to be.

Love always,

Elder Kennedy

P.S. This video is awesome! Even if you have seen it, watch it again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

 Tolbert? Not quite, this is a 700. Close though :-)

 Elder Larson and me drinking Maté in our old house. We had to change with the Sisters.

 The Zone minus Elder Larson (my companion). This was last transfer.

 The District minus Elder Larson again. This was last transfer.

 Ahaha Wedding dress store. Mall Plaza Oeste

Larson, me, Lythgoe and Peel at an Easter Concert from the mission.

Las Tierras Del Oeste

Here we go, another week of missionary work. I love being here. I have never had to work so hard for seeing such little results. But I know I am doing what the Lord needs me to de here. 

This week I was inspired by the story of Joseph who was sold into Egypt. It is truly an amazing story. He is a faithful servant of God who is put through a lot of trials. He probably didn't know exactly why the Lord had put him in those situations, but he always stayed true to God. Because of his faith, patience, and endurance in his trials, he not only received individual blessings, but his entire family, and all of the house of Israel were saved from the famine. That is super powerful to me. I hope to be as faithful as him when faced with so many trials. 

This week, we found a couple of news: Claudio, his father died about a month ago and he lives with his mom. We also found Mauricio, who lives with his wife. He is a bit of a drinker, but we will help him with that.

I'm still with my same companion and he is doing well. His spanish still not quite there, but the people can understand what he says. The biggest trial is getting him to speak. He almost never speaks in lessons. I literally have to hit his knee or kick his foot or something haha. But it's OK, we are working on it.  

I can't express how much I love it here, and how much I love the mission. I can feel the blessings of the Lord and I am so grateful for all of your prayers. They make a big difference in my life down here. I love you all.

Elder Kennedy

P.S. I'll try to bring my camera next week to send some pictures. Time is flying by so fast. 

I'm glad Renee and Joe are enjoying their new callings. 

Chile, Conference and all that Jazz...

Conference was so awesome. I loved the talk by President Uchtdorf about Gratitude. I thought that what he said was key. We must always be grateful to the Lord. We shouldn´t just be grateful to Him when our trials are over, but also while we are fighting to overcome them. I also loved how Elder Bednar talked about us needing the weight of hardships to give us traction to progress. I love Conference! You can feel the power of the testimonies they share. It's like a spiritual buffet. I learned a lot of principles which I am trying to apply to my mission.

We didn't feel the earthquake down here, we are pretty far away, but we have been seeing a lot of temblores. The one up in Iquique was huge. It did a ton of damage. Has it been on the news up there? 

Pretty cool story. There was this English guy that Elder Larson and I contacted once. We offered him a tour of our church building to which he explained that he was Atheist. Any way, we ran into him a bunch of times after that and found out he´s from liverpool. He married a Chilena and they go back and forth between countries. We ran into this guy like 6 times, and I said to Elder Larson "If we run in to this guy one more time we need to get his address and pass by." Surely enough we did, we saw him in a Panadería buying bread. We talked to him, he gave us his address and told us to pass by for "some tea" (super british this guy). The address was just out side our sector, so we passed it to the other Elders in Americo Vespucio. This man and his wife have a baptismal fecha for the 26 of this month. Renee's birthday! We were so stoked. I learned that God really does prepare the people even the "atheists." And His promise of putting the prepared people in our path is totally true. 

I am so glad to be a part of this work. I love serving here in Chile. I love the Savior, and I give my testimony that He lives and truly does lead this church. I testify that He speaks today through a modern, living prophet of God. I invite all to get to know the Savior as I have come to know Him.  I know of the blessings that come from being in His true and restored church, and invite all to seek these blessings.

Con amor,

Elder Kennedy

The mission experience:

Another successful week. We are working really hard, and that’s how we know it’s successful. We are still really struggling to find people to teach, but we are being obedient and we trust in the Lords promises that he will give us success. It’s funny to me that even on days where you don’t have many lessons, or everyone rejects you, you can still feel happy and successful. I think that’s one of the main reasons I love being a missionary. The Lord knows I am here in His vineyard, and He knows that I am working as hard as I can. And He blesses me for my efforts to do His will. I can feel those blessings everyday. He blesses me with strength, energy, happiness, Ánimo and joy. And with those blessings I receive, I am able to keep going. I love this work; I literally would not change this for anything. We have faith that the Lord is preparing more people to receive us and we are looking everywhere for them. But for now the people we have to teach are doing all right. We are working with them, and helping them, but none seem to keep commitments. That always makes us sad, but we never give up hope.

Just a couple of days ago as we were working with the SIMI (the ward list) we were looking at the list of future Elders, and we saw a name, José S., so we went, yelled at the door and someone answered. My comp said, “Hi how are you?” and he said, “Good, we were actually waiting for you. Even if you don’t believe us, we were waiting for you.” He then let us in his house, and told us how literally two minutes before we came, they had been talking about the church and they kind of want to go back, but it has been so long since they had been. That was quite a miracle, because this is a whole family of members, with three people in the house that are potential Priesthood holders. That was our miracle of the week. We know that the Lord sent us here to edify His kingdom, and that doesn’t always mean baptize. It can also be helping people who have already made covenants with Him, return to His fold. The Lord knows everything and he knows exactly what we need to do but, we all must be worthy and ready to hear Him and humble enough to follow the directions He gives. That is how we become instruments in His hands. I love the Lord. I want to do His will. And I will always strive to live my life so I can be directed by Him.

Love you all,

Elder Ian James Kennedy

Chile Santiago BEST