The Gift of Tongues and Spicy Food

Man what a crazy and fast week, filled with so many little miracles for me, my companionship, and our investigators!

Monday night was a crazy night because after P day and visiting some less active members me and Elder Corrasco went back to our trailer and got ready for bed! I was looking at my hair and decided I needed a haircut. Elder Corrasco has a mirror and some nice clippers that you can cut your hair by yourself....  so you know I faded myself up lol. I was actually way scared but it came out alright lol! After I was done, we got a call from our bishop from our English ward and I got assigned a talk for sacrament on following the prophets and aligning our lives with their teachings! I was actually really excited for some reason haha!

My talk was centered around 2 talks that I found, one by Gene R. Cook called " Seek out your spiritual leader" and another talk that I don't know the name of but its President Eyring and he talks about missionary work! Something that I also shared was the good examples that I have in my life of people aligning their lives with the prophets teaching and the Lord! I shared that both of my grandparents have served in many church callings and have done them without hesitation. I told the members that I wasn't telling them these things to brag about my grandparents but I was telling them because they are examples of people who have aligned their lives with the prophets teachings! When the Lord sees that we are capable and following the prophet that he has called, he is going to use us in every way. We are all instruments in the lords hands and we need to be ready and our lives need to be ready so that when he calls us to do something we have no hesitation to accept, and the best way to be ready and waiting for the call is to follow the prophets and apostles teaching to a tee!

During this week I have also been able to see the gifts of this gospel work in me and in the investigators that we are teaching! First of all in me! I have seen the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation work so strongly in me learning Spanish! During the beginning of this week I was struggling with understanding the language because everyone speaks so fast and started to gain a bad attitude because I was so frustrated! I was able to kneel down and a say prayer during my personal study and asked for comfort and asked that the gift of interpretation would work in my life so I could help during the lessons and while we are talking to people on the street! After I said amen I felt so much peace and comfort. During the 2nd half of the week I was able to understand so much more than I was able to before my prayer! I can't understand everything but it is definitely easier to understand whats going on! Little miracles like that strengthen my testimony so much and show me that the gift of tongues, and the gift of interpretation is all real!!!! Also that heavenly father hears our prayers and is always trying to help us, we just need to allow him!

2nd In our investigators!! We are teaching this family, The Garfias, and all of our lessons have been outside on the porch because she doesn't want us to come inside her house! One day me and Elder Corrasco felt that we needed to go see the mom. she is a single mom and when we went over there she told us that she is going through a tough time right now! We gave her a blessing and after that you could feel the holy ghost fill the house and everyone's face in the room lit up with joy! After that day she has invited us to come inside the house to teach lessons and now they set a date for October 20th for baptism! HOW CRAZY IS THAT! The Priesthood power is so REAL! From her never wanting us inside to her always wanting us to come inside! So many miracles!

On Thursday night I thought I was going to die! Haha all our lessons after dinner fell through except one, so we decided to go tracting in one of the trailer parks. Once the sun went down it felt like it was pitch black where we were walking. There were no street lights and the trailers had a scary look to them lol. We were walking around and a man came up to us in a car and said "watch out for a white lady running around with no shoes, she has a mental issue and we want to get her home safe." I was freaking out! haha and then we were walking down one of the streets and I swear in this trailer park nobody wanted to chain up their pitbulls and boxers cause that's what all the Latinos have.... I saw a dog in the dark up the road and I was like oh heck no this dog looks huge(it was a great dane) so i told Elder Carrasco lets just go to another street and he whispered to me I'm going to go pet it! I was like NOOOO if you pet it and it attacks you, you are on your own! I'm running for my life! haha but he still went up to it and I literally almost peed my pants! haha I'm such a girl with dogs and there are so many dogs over here! The means one too cause they have to scare the coyotes away at night.... 

On Saturday morning we were able to go to the Flea Market to eat lunch! It was so tight and it was the best quesadillas I have ever had! One of the members of the Spanish branch owns one of the stands so we got to eat there for free! It was literally so good! All the Latinos tell me that if I eat more spicy food, I will learn Spanish quicker haha so they just load up the spices on all my food! On Saturday night we went and ate at a members house and the mom Maria told me to put more chilies and spices on my tacos haha! I gave the spiritual thought after dinner in Spanish and she was like " you know why you did so good on your spiritual thought in Spanish... its because you put the chilies and spices on your tacos" haha Everyone is so nice here !

But yeah this week was filled with experiences that I will never forget because the Spirit was so strong and because I was scared out of my mind! 

Thank you for all your prayers and emails! I appreciate them so much and I love you all! Have a blessed week everyone!!!! 

Amor, 

Elder Ka'

Book of Mormon

Flea market

-All I need to be a happy missionary lol= Quesadilla, Jarritos, and El libro de Mormon

How my comp prays hahaha

Huraches(nike style and real Mexican style) lol

ili

First Week in the Field...

FIRST WEEK IN THE FIELD

This first week has been an experience I will never forget! I have been assigned to the area of Mattawah! A tiny area that is 95% Latino population. It's where all the workers work and is the most Latino populated part of my mission and of course I was the lucky one to be placed in it! Haha it has made me realize that my Spanish sucks and that the MTC hypes you up and tells you that your Spanish is good when its not! My area is literally a little mexico city, everyone speaks Spanish, even the music in the little store is Spanish. We proselyte a lot of the times in the trailer parks and the more ghetto neighborhoods. The other 5% of the population are the owners of the orchards and the farms (haha) and they all speak Spanish too. So basically I'm gonna be beast at speaking Spanish after these 12 weeks lol. Just messing around but I am so glad I was put in this area because my Spanish will definitely benefit from it!

My first impression of the area and the people was WOW. First of all my house. Haha I live in a trailer in the middle of a field! If I look 10 miles in each direction out of my window all I see is farm land and no houses haha but I have grown to love it! The first night I definitely felt homesick because my whole life I have grown up with multiple people in the house with me, hearing multiple voices when i'm going to bed. Just having me and my trainer and being in the middle of a field with no light and no sound kinda made me homesick but I have gotten use to it and I love it! Haha but on the bright side it's definitely is easier to go to sleep!

My trainer is Elder Corrasco! Hes from Venezuela and has a way strong accent!! He tries to speak English but is pretty fob lol he likes to speak Spanish more which is way good for me but most of the time I'm so lost haha! I love Elder Carrasco as my trainer. He is a spiritually filled elder and is always trying to help me!  he is very soft spoken and I always tell him to speak up because i cant hear him.. it took me a day or 2 to get use to it but he is such a good guy! He is also the district leader so he teaches me a lot about how to be a better leader in the mission! President Jackman put us together for a reason and I'm learning so much from Elder Corrasco! Me and Elder Corrasco are both really into goal setting so me and him have been setting a lot of goals and push ourselves to be better missionaries everyday! In the MTC I prayed that I would be in an area that would push me out of my comfort zone with the language and challenge me to study harder and work harder to get the language down and also to let me be trained by a Latino... well I got a total Spanish area and my trainer is the most Latino elder out here haha! The lord has done his part, now its time for me to work and act in my part!

President and Sister Jackman are way cool!!! When I first met them I knew I was going to love them and as the day went on it just got better and better! Also Sister Royal part of the mission office was my grandmas best friend when they were younger living in Washington! It was so nice to hear her talk so highly of my grandparents because I love and miss them so much! Also shout out to my grandma for sending me a package full of my favorite beef jerky and peanut m&m's!  Me and my comp have been killing that huge bag!!!

The ward and the branch here are filled with the nicest people ever! Even though I have just met them, I feel like I have known them for a long time! I love meeting new people and talking to them and getting to know them, now it's time to be able to do that in Spanish haha! 

We were able to do service in Othello as well with the zone leaders! Me and Elder Carrasco made so many bags of cotton candy for the fair! Best service ever lol! We made bags for 4 hrs straight and it was actually a nice little break from the normal proselyting! We were able to talk to a bunch of people about the gospel and hand out a couple cards! It was a really fun and good experience! 

The families that we are teaching are amazing and the spirit I can feel from them progressing in the lessons is so Nice! Most of the time I can't understand parts of the lessons but the spirit I feel during them testifies to me that they are changing and that the holy ghost is real! We are teaching this 13 year old boy named Yohan and his sister Ciani! They want to be baptized so bad but there parents are split and the mom doesn't want them too. When we teach them its so nice to see their faces light up! We'll see how things go we have them on date for Oct 20! We also are teaching this family The Garfias, another situation where they all want to be baptized and even the mom wants to be baptized but she doesn't believe in Joseph Smith! We are going to be working with her a lot this week and try and have the spirit testify to her that he is a true prophet and that he restored this gospel! It takes time and the lord knows when everything needs to happen, so me and my comp can only have faith and do the things we know we need to do and hope that everything works out! I love this family though and I have only met them 3 times! She has a boy named Lenin and he reminds me of my little cousin Vete! I hope that me and my comp can baptize them because I know they will feel the joy and happiness in this gospel if they just take the steps and keep the commitments that we give them! It's all on gods timing though!

I know this church is true and I love it! I know that the Holy Ghost is real and I know that if all of you read the Book of Mormon everyday and say your daily prayers with real intent and a sincere heart Heavenly Father will help you with anything you need!. Remember that the lord knows everything that we go through, we just need to ask him for the help that we need! We also need to remember that everything happens on gods timing be patient, HE LIVES and he will HELP you!

I love you all!

Amor,

ELDER KA'ILI

My trainer Elder Carrasco from Venezuela

My breakfast every morning..haha

Mattawah

My last day at the Mexico MTC

My home

My home

My package from mi abuela

My home

Mattawah

My home

Week 5! A Month OUT!

I can't believe it's already been a month! It feels like I just got here and now I'm leaving! It's crazy! I've learned so much from being in the CCM. I didn't know any Spanish before I came here and now I can understand Latinos and actually talk with them for a little. My Spanish is no where it needs to be for the rest of my mission though but the GIFT OF TONGUES is real! I can't wait to get out to the field and knock on some doors. I'm way excited but also way nervous because we are going to be teaching real investigators, we can't mess up and the fake investigators here help us out. Haha so I'm just a little nervous. But I know if I trust in the Lord and be obedient, he will help me be able to know what to say and the Holy Ghost will teach them instead of me! But this past week has been crazy with my companion being really sick, me getting a haircut at the crazy barber here, and getting a different schedule for the last week here!

Thursday: The craziness started and my companion was sick to his stomach! He was in and out of the bathroom all day long! Like I'm not joking. I think I read my Book of Mormon  more in the hall or the bathroom than the classroom because I was waiting for him... The life of being with a sick companion sucks. You're like their personal nurse...... We had to go to the doctors and lowkey I don't even think the "doctor" here is even a doctor. He's this big dude that just looks at the college football game scores and listens to what's wrong with you and then prints out a paper about your sickness and then tells you go buy some medicine from the tienda and go rest lol. He told my comp to go get some laxatives so my comp, Elder Hammer was on the toilet even more... it was actually way funny but he didn't like it too much! But other than that another day of work!  Me and Hammer started to tell El Libro De Mormon stories at night and it actually helps me understand way more! 

Friday: This was one month out!!!!! and we celebrated by staying inside our dorm all day... because Hammer was still way sick. It was all good because Elder Woodbrey and Elder Graff stayed in too because Graff was way sick too! So I threw my mattress in their room and we studied all day! I've been reading the Book of Mormon so much and my goal is to finish it by Sunday or Monday before I get to Washington, lol so it was kind of a blessing to stay in with Hammer so I could read a ton! I freaking love the Book of Mormon. The more I read the more I like it. Alma the younger man... what a strong servant of the lord he was and the sons of Mosiah - the faith they all had was crazy, I strive to have the faith that they all have! I LOVE reading about them and Mosiah’ssons! But we studied a ton of Spanish as well! Man Spanish is freaking hard.... but I always just tell myself that it can only go up from here! Positive attitude always makes the days fly by!

Sat and Tue: 2 days of Promix. my favorite days because we go on splits with the latino missionaries in the CCM and they just speak Spanish to us all day. I get like 75 percent of what they say to me but it helps me a ton lol! ohhh the lunch was bomb! The best meal I've had here in the CCM. I don't know if my taste buds are going crazy but we had ribs and the ribs tasted so good! I had like 4 plates no joke. My latino companion Elder Prieto was dying laughing because he said he's never seen someone eat more than me.. haha I was like bro you have to see me eat Wendys or Mcdonalds. After lunch I saw Elder Thorne from NPA. I seriously haven't seen him in like 10 years and we saw each other and freaked out. It was so nice to see a familiar face! We started our last fast in the CCM and it wasn't bad at all actually! Ive noticed if you just have a good attitude about everything you do, everything is better. Lol something my mom always told me when I was home but I never listened... Now I know why she always told me to have a good attitude lol sorry mom.... We taught the latinos some english and it was so funny to see them try and say some words. My companion Elder Perito said he knew only one song in English its "Happy Together" haha it was so funny. He was singing it and was so fob lol. Its the song thats on Freaky Friday the movie lol I was seriously dying of laughter. This other Latino said that he knew one song in English too and it was "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars... My fav song lol but me and him sang that song all day and then he wrote the lyrics on the board so the whole class was singing together. It was the best haha. On Tuesday me and Prieto went to my dorm so I could put my suit on. He saw all my flower ties and was shocked at how many I had! He was telling me how they were so expensive in Colombia and they were hard to get in his neighborhood. He comes from a poorer part of Colombia! He was telling me how he's always wanted one so I told him choose whatever one he wanted and it was his! His face lit up and he got so excited that his Spanish got 20 times faster and I didn't understand a thing hahah lol. He told me after he felt bad cause he had nothing to give me except that he loved me...it made me so happy! and I told him I didn't need anything! It made me realize how spoiled I am and blessed living in the states and blessed with the family I have!  Probably my favorite memory from the CCM! 

Sunday: Church was bomb as usual and fast and testimony meeting was also much needed! I love hearing the stories and testimonies of other missionaries it makes me so happy for some reason! But Elder Hammer went home after sacrament meeting and I went on splits with Elder Woodbrey because Graff went home with Hammer cause they were both sick! It was such a blessing because after district class, our branch president, President Suarez came and asked us if we could give him a blessing. That is something I will never forget, the spirit was so strong! But after that we went and checked on Hammer and Graff and Hammer was almost dying in the room... it was bad so me and Woodbrey gave another blessing to Hammer so he could get better. After that we got some good studying in! I was reading a couple chapters in Alma and something that always sticks out to me that is said multiple times but in Alma 50:20 it says "Blessed art thou and thy children; and they shall be blessed, inasmuch as they shall keep my commandments they shall prosper in the land. But remember, inasmuch as they will not keep my commandments they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord" I love seeing scripture similar to this scripture because it is so simple to have success and be happy. KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS and everything will work out! Sunday night we were in the room all talking about our Patriarchal Blessings and all my questions to my prayers were answered within that talk with all the boys. It's crazy to me how the Lord works and answers our prayers through other people surrounding us! My testimony on personal revelation and prayer was strengthened so much and ill be forever grateful for those boys for being strong enough to act on those small promptings they were getting during that talk! 

Monday: First off happy birthday to my brother AMIIIIII! Love you bro!  Another day inside because Elder Hammer was down again..... Gotta love having a companion haha anything that happens to them basically happens to you too. But I studied the crap out of my Spanish book and my Book of Mormon... Not really how I wanted to start my last week off with but it was ok. Everything happens for a reason and I felt terrible for Hammer. He was in a ton of pain! I gave him stomach medicine but it didn't really help and I got him food but it didn't really help. The only time he was feeling better was when we were reading the Book of Mormon together it was crazy... so me and him just read all day! It was actually really needed because the BOOK OF MORMON is literally the best thing ever! THE KEY TO HAPPINESS is the BOOK OF MORMON! I got assigned Flight Leader for next Monday when we leave to Yakima so I have to go to the reception at 3am on Monday...... to make sure everything is ready and then take care of everyone at the airport. I'm scared because at the Mexico airport I'm gonna have to talk to the people and found out where were going lol... but I'm just gonna trust in the lord and everything will work out. A lot of praying will be happening!

I LOVE YOU ALL AND THE NEXT TIME YOU HEAR FROM ME ILL BE IN THE FIELD!!!!!! Lets go!!!!!!! Keep reading the book of mormon, I promise you if you do that your life will get better no matter what situation you are in! PRAY DAILY and trust in the lord and everything will work out! Love you all!

AMOR, 

Elder Kaili