A New Adventure Awaits!

Well hello again!!!  

I’m just not sure how the weeks go by so fast!!!  I don’t know how we found out so fast but we found out about changes last night as we were all going to bed…  I have a new adventure coming my way.  I am leaving Caseros.  There are lots of emotions.  It is weird to think I am changing areas.  I am excited and nervous for this new adventure.  I don’t know where I will be going yet but I am anxious for our transfer meeting on Wednesday.  Hermana Munoz is being transferred to, so Hermana Zamora is staying. 

This week was actually a pretty rough week.  We had to stop teaching Andrea and Josefina and Angel.  They aren't keeping commitments and so we have to stop teaching them.  I am devastated.  I really learned to love them.  But hey, with a new area comes new investigators so I am have to be positive and remember that at some point I would have had to leave them anyway. 

Also yesterday in church I had a feeling that I was leaving Caseros and so I talked to some members who I have grown to love and are important to me. This week was filled with many emotions.  But as devastated as I am to leave Caseros I am excited to see what else Heavenly Father has in store for me and how many other people I will learn to love. 

I know that this church is true and that our Savior and Heavenly Father live.  I know that families are forever.  I know that Joseph Smith was our prophet called to open this last dispensation that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I know that this has been restored to its fullest.  I know that the atonement is real and that we can do anything in life through the atonement.  I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and that it is the word of God and contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I love and miss everyone a lot!!!!!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Kent

Trio Again!

Hola!!!!! 

This week was a little crazy!!  It started off that Angel and Josefina were going to be baptized this Saturday.  But unfortunately they didn't come to church yesterday and so they aren’t able to be baptized yet.  They haven’t been to church in almost a month, always for a different reason and so we can’t baptize them yet.  I am praying so hard for them!!  I want to see them be baptized, they are so great!!!  When we introduced them to our district leader and our new companion Hna Muñoz, Josefina told them that I was her daughter and also this week in a lesson Josefina and Hna Llerena were discussing whose daughter I was first.  Jajajajajaja, all I did was laugh.  I thought it was so funny.  But I really just love both of them so much and they both have become my moms here in Argentina!!  We have transfers next Wed and I will be so sad if I leave!!  I won’t know whether I am leaving or not until next Monday night. 

The other things that happened this week was that I am now in a trio.  Hna Muñoz and her companion left their area in a flash.  But it is only for the rest of this transfer.  She is really nice!!  She is from Chile.  It is different being in a trio.  This trio is definitely better than the MTC trio.  It is actually really fun!!  Both my companions speak a little English.  They are helping me with my Spanish and I am helping them with their English. 

Oh, I have mosquito bites all of the time, but I am using OFF.  The bites are ok, I just keep putting Birch essential oil on them and they heal.  I don’t know what I am going to do when I don’t have any more Birch though.

This week also I was able to go to the city Buenos Aires.  It was a really neat and fun unexpected experience.  Hna Zamora had to do some things to be able to leave at the end of the next transfer and the place we had to go here in Caseros was closed and so off to Buenos Aires we went!!  This week was really great!!  Love and miss everyone lots and lots and lots!!!!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hna Kent

Temple trip with Hermana Zamora

Church Open House

Temple Trip!

Celebrating the New Year with Angel and Josefina!

Church Open-House

Hola Everyone!!!! 

Well this week was another week filled with contacting and lessons!!!  But, some good things happened too!!!!  Thursday I had the opportunity to have an interview with President Robertson!  It was such a great experience to be able to talk with him and ask him lots of questions.  I just asked him lots of questions that I wanted clarified about the mission, like little detail things about our investigators, the schedule and things like that.

Saturday night we had a really exciting and fun experience.  We had a church open-house in Santos Lugares that my district went and helped with.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  People from the Santos Lugares ward, the investigators of the missionaries in the Santos Lugares ward, and people who we brought in from off of the street came and walked through the ward house.  It was such a neat experience.  Hermana Zamora and I started the tour in the chapel with the words of Jesus Christ that are played in the visitor’s center at Temple Square.  We displayed a big picture of the Christus statue.  It was so neat to bear testimony after listening to Christ speak.  We then took them into the cultural hall and talked about the atonement and the resurrection, prophets, the Book of Mormon and how the gospel blesses families.  We walked them to the baptismal font and there the elders took over and talked about baptism, and then the members talked about the different organizations like the Bishop, Relief Society, YW/YM and other things.  It was such a neat experience to be able to participate in this event.

Yesterday in church we had Andrea for the second time which was so exciting and also a new investigator, Ester in church for the first time and she came for all three hours.  It was so exciting.   Also some sad things happened.  The baptisms for Angel and Josefina and Mariela aren’t going to happen this week or next week.  However, we are still praying for them. 

I am glad that tech week went well for the Musical Review and that the show is going well.  It is definitely crazy how fast time flies.  Also that is so exciting that Chelsie had her baby!!! 

Love and miss everyone lots and lots and lots and lots!!!!

Con Mucho Amor

Hermana Kent

I Love to See the Temple!

Hola!!!!!  Wow this week was crazy exciting!!!!  We have 3 baptismal dates for not this upcoming Saturday, but the next two Saturdays!!!!  We have Angel and Josefina for the 17!!   We are praying that they will be able to this time!!  And Mariela for the 24th!! 

We started teaching Mariela last week!!  She is the mom of Jonathan who is a recent convert.  He was baptized in August!!  She is so great!!  It was a miracle!!  Every time Hna Redford and I would pass by for Jonathan and he wasn’t there she would say that he wasn’t home and that she was sorry but another day!!  But one day last week he wasn’t there and she said but that’s ok come in and you can talk with me!!  Wow!!!  Hna Zamora and I are praying for all of them!! 

Also yesterday we received a new investigator!!  Another family!!  However, the parents are not married so we have to work on that!!  But the moms name is Daniea and they have 3 kids who are 15, 13, and 5.  It was so fun yesterday with them!!  They are so great!!   So we are excited to see what happens with them. 

New Year’s Eve and New Years were just another day of working!!  Other than that we had to be in our apartment at like 8:30!!  However, we did have dinner again with the Familia Llerena!!  We LOVE them!!!  They are just so great and such a blessing for us!! 

The TEMPLE!!!!!  The temple was AMAZING!!!  And BEAUTIFUL!!!!!  I did use translation because I wanted to understand everything that was going on!!  It was the greatest experience!!  I felt the Spirit SO incredibly strong!!!  I can’t wait until the next time we get to go!!

I hope everyone is doing ok!!  Miss and love everyone lots and lots and lots and lots!!!!!!!!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kent

Service!

Hola Familia!!!

It was SO great to see everyone on Thursday and I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!! The rest of the week was great!! I am feeling great now and am SO excited to go to the temple tomorrow!!!!!!!

Not much has happened since Thursday for us either, but I am really good again!! I am glad that Tyler thinks that my Spanish is coming because I think it is coming too slow!!!! But that is very encouraging to me!! I am super sad I didnt get to talk to Eva but hey, in like 15 months every time I see her it will be in Spanish so it will make up for it!!! jajajajajajajajajaj

I did sing with the choir on the 15th.  We sang Silent Night and Hermana Redford played the piano (we asked if she was using her talents to serve and if she has had any other opportunities to serve in her ward).  We helped paint the decorations for the Christmas Activity we had.  The other day Hermana Zamora and I did a members dishes and swept for her. The only time I have spoken was when I bore my testimonly my first week here but I am sure I will have lots of other opportunities!!

Ok so I forgot to tell you guys!!! My zone leader, Elder Hazlett, in my last transfer (he got transfered to a new area) is from Moab and lives really close to Stewart and Ashley and knows Stewart really well (Cameron's cousin)!! Well anyway he goes home in January so guess what that means!!! Stewart and Ashley are gonna get baptized!!!! Ok well hopefully, probably!! He said he was going to try and work with them!!! His family owns a river raft and it is the only place that takes girls camps so he think you guys went there for girls camp!! Crazy huh!!!! 

That is so neat that Dad got to speak at Heritage Place!!! I am so glad that everyone had a good experiences speaking with their missionaries!! It was a very special experience for me!!!  Anyway hope everyone is doing well and has a happy New Year this week!!!!!

Con mucho Amor,

Hermana Kent

Christmas Phone Call!

I will admit, as a missionary mom, I worried about my cute little missionary on Christmas Eve.  "Is someone taking care of her," "Does she have somewhere to go for dinner?" "Is she thinking about traditions from home? and missing us terribly?"

The Llerena family has been so kind and generous to the missionaries.  We were so excited when Sister Llerena posted pictures of our missionary on her Facebook page Christmas Eve.  All fears were put to rest.  We knew Karina was being loved and well taken care of. 

We finally joined the missionary family club...waiting for the phone to ring, or in our case, waiting for the Skype to connect.  Anticipation was high as we waited and waited.  Finally...the best Christmas present any of us received was to see her beautiful tan face and know that she was doing better than ok! 

As is expected from our family, tears flowed freely, but surprisingly for only a few moments.  Then we just enjoyed hearing everything she had to say about the people and the beautiful country she is calling home.  Argentina has become part of her and she loves it!  She is feeling very comfortable with the Spanish language and finally feels like she is making progress in learning the language.  It is becoming less and less difficult to communicate.

Even though we thought she looked beautiful, she was terribly sick with a stomach virus.  She had been sick through the early hours of Christmas morning and her stomach hurt terribly.  Karina called us from her stake president's home and was going to receive a blessing from him after our phone call.  Oh, how grateful we are for the priesthood.

It seemed crazy to her that we woke up to a very beautiful WHITE Christmas, and she had the air conditioner blowing.  I'm sure that she will find it crazier come August when she celebrates her birthday and can't get warm, while we are dying from heat:)

Since we could not send Karina any packages for Christmas, we decided to surprise her with a visit from her best friend Kaz.  The moment was priceless as the two greeted each other.  Kaz has been so supportive of Karina and hardly missed a week writing Karina.  We love Kaz and were so grateful she could arrange her work schedule to come talk with Karina for a few minutes.

Omi and Opa (my mom and dad) joined us along with Uncle Tyler (my brother) and his children, Bryon, Emily and Jayden for the last 20 minutes of our phone call.  Karina expressed her gratitude to them for loving and supporting her.  I know it meant a lot to both Omi and Opa and to Karina to see each other for a few minutes.

Our 45 minutes seemed to go all too quickly.  Before we disconnected we asked Karina to bear her testimony of the love she has for her Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ in Spanish.  The words flowed, and I didn't understand much of it (I'm pretty sure that is a good thing).  Her uncle Tyler was very impressed and said that she really has accomplished so much in a short 90 days in learning the language (Tyler served a spanish speaking mission in Texas, and is married to Eva who is from Mexico).  Good-byes are always hard and none of us wanted to say good-bye or be the one to click the disconnect button.  Herrmana Zamora said adios and disconnected us so that we didn't have too. 

We are so grateful that Karina is happy and full of joy as she serves her mission.  The Lord blesses all His children from the large and important things to the tiniest and what may seem insignificant.  We could kiss the person that invented Skype making it possible for us to see and talk to our missionary on Christmas.

~Robyn Kent (Karina's mom)