He has been converted!!

So week six is here and I can't even believe I have been here for a transfer all ready. For those who don't know a transfer is six weeks. So you can be in one area from either 6 weeks or even up to 6 months. I won't be getting transfered this thursday because I am on a 12 week training program with my trainer. So I will be in my area for a least 3 months, which is really weird to think about but it goes by so fast!

This week has been just so crazy! So much to tell so lets get started!

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders. I worked with Elder Salisbury who is from Cache Valley Utah. He goes home pretty soon, which is crazy to think about. The coolest part was the fact that he is exactly like me! Just the good ol goofy me is how he is. So we instantly got along! So I was working in his area for that day and their house is so big! Their house was their bishops house and he left to go work in Saudi for a couple years so he rented it out to the missionaries and left it completely furnished! the best part! it is three stories! What!? it was so nice i couldn't believe it! and they had hot water which was the best part! That hot water felt so good! Everything there was just so nice. So the exchanges helped me a lot. Elder Salisbury helped me alot to be confident in myself and just to have fun doing the work. He told me all these funny ways to start to talk to people and open up a conversation so its not to hard to open my mouth and talk to them about our church and what we do. It was a really fun day and I really enjoy working with somebody else in a different area. The funniest thing that he told me that actually helped me a lot was. " Elder Kikel you just have to think. You're white. People want to talk to you. They are to just to scared to cause you are so beautiful to them. You know how you go somewhere and you see a really hot girl and you want to talk to her but you are just to scared what she is going to say to you, so you just don't talk to her. but, if she was to come up to you and start talking you would be all over that. right!? So just talk to them and they will talk to you I promise, they are friendly people." It is so true. hahaha since he told me that I have just been talking with everyone hahaha girls get so giggly when you talk to them its funny. 

So I have been converted everyone. I now wipe my bum with my left hand after using the bathroom. ( To much information?) haha oh well deal with it. I finally reallized that it is so much cleaner and better then using toilet paper. And not to mention cheaper! Put some chocolate on your arm and wipe it off with toilet paper. It smears. Put some water and soap on it and it is completely clean! It makes sense. So when I get back to my people, don't shake my left hand. ha!

So I just want to give a shout out to the letters that I received from a family back home. I want to say thank you! I didn't think I would get letters so soon! It was awesome and it made my day! I will write back to you as soon as I can. That reminds me. Mom I need you to send me Forever stamps. and a lot of them too. Cause I need them to be able to send letters home and packages if I dare. Thank you! 

Since its all ready christmas here people are setting up christmas decorations and playing christmas music yay!! haha it is so weird! How is Halloween coming along!? They don't have that here. Just christmas for 4 months! Guess what!? I'm working and glad to be working!

Mom this one is for you. Today I was in the grocery store getting some groceries, and they started to play Bon Jovie songs over the speakers it was so awesome! It just immediatly reminded me of you! Man I just realized my spelling is terrible!

So the work... wow... there is a lot to tell, but it is good!

So this week we have been getting a lot more progress. We found 7 new investigators and our ward missionaries are starting to work with us a little bit more. We through down the iron fist and are getting serious so we started to chew some people out for their laziness and its kicking things into gear. The lessons are going so well. Which leads me to what I really wanted to say in this E-mail home. Last week I talked about how I wasn't really able to feel the spirit that well and just not really knowing what to do. Well that has changed. I found that my problem wasn't that I wasn't feeling it I just didn't really know how to recognize it when It isn't one of those huge powerful moments. It is also a very calm and faint feeling. The answers to my prayers hit me straight in the face this last week haha. almost to the point like " Jeez I get it know!" haha! First off we had a Zone Conference this last week where 3 zones got together and we had talks from missionaries and from our AP's, from our senior missionaries and also from our President. One of the Missionaries talks was on Teaching with the Spirit. I paid close attention. He talked about what we can do to have the spirit with use before we even teach, and what we can do when we are teaching and how to recognize the spirit when we are teaching. When I was listen I noticed that all the things that you need to do and how you know that the spirit is with you, I was doing and I suddenly realized I did have to the spirit with me. Then the Mission President talked about the same thing. He talked about sometimes we dont even realized that the Holy Ghost is working through us and we are feeling the spirit. When we are spiritually intune with the Holy Ghost every though and impression that we get is from the spirit. If its some we think we should do. DO IT. if you feel like its something you shouldn't do. DON"T DO IT! It was so simple and so clear it just hit me and the face. Now that I think about the things that have been said on that topic, It is so true. These things have been happening for me. This last week I have been just having a new found faith and confidence in myself to do this work. Even though I don't know the language I just teach in Taglish and Simple English. I have things I want to say. I have impressions and feelings that I should say something. So I am going to say it in Tagalog or English. I know the Spirit will testify to them that even though they don't know what I am saying, they will know that I know the things that I am saying to them are true. A couple of experiences for you. First. I was asked to give a talk 30 minutes before Sacrament started, because someone didn't show up. I was so scared put I took on the challenge. So for 30 minutes I just thought of a topic and a few scriptures. Of course my topic was Missionary work, and Member missionary work. When I was looking up scriptures about missionary work I came across a scripture that is in D&C 100: 5-8 These scriptures talked about even you have the Holy Ghost with you. your mouth will be filled with words in the very moment you speak. Also after my recent realization of the power of the Holy Ghost from Zone Conference, I put my faith to action. Right before I went up to talk having no idea what I am going to say. I said a prayer to myself. Asking for the Holy Ghost to fill my mouth with the words that which the Lord would want to me to say and to say something that the congregation would need in their lives. Lo and behold the spirit was so strong! I turned a 5 minute talk that they wanted me to give into a 20 minute talk. When I got up I just said good morning and stood there for I feel like an hour, but probably just for a minute, in silence. Then just words, thoughts, impressions, were coming to mind, I was thinking of scriptures to use left and right. It was a very powerful moment for me and I big testimony builder. So I talked about the Importance of Missionary work, shared the story of Alma and Amulek. Then I talked about member missionary work and how important that is also. I pretty much chastised them in a nice way that they need to start doing what they are suppose to do hahaha it was funny. People were coming up to me and just telling me how great of a talk it was and it helped them so much. I didn't tell anyone that I only had 30mins to prepare it, and the person who asked me came up to me and was just blown away haha it made me feel really good, and it makes me feel that I am serving my purpose as a missionary. Also I said the whole thing in English. It just proves that the Spirit is the Universal language. That's not all! the very same day, we went to go teach to the Mata family who have been less active for a long time. They said they do every thing that we do expect go to church because of a few concerns. Elder Mack and I were able to dig deep and to find the real and biggest concern and the whole time I can barely figure out what we are talking about. We just want them to get to church again, cause they are doing everything else right. So we talked about obedience and I didn't really participate in the lesson cause I didn't have a part and I had no Idea what was being said, so I was just kind of waiting for the lesson to be over, cause in our Ward correlation Meeting we talked about dropping this family cause they just keep giving us excuses to why they won't go to church. But, I am glad we didn't. So at one point in the lesson which was about an hour and half by the way. I just started to pay attention and I started to know what they were saying. Immediately thoughts and impressions came to mind on what I needed to share. I talked a lot about how the lord takes cares of us in our afflictions and how if we are obedient we will receive blessings in our lives. They were telling me about there obedience and how they are praying for a miracle to help them with their concern. A quote came to me that I heard of somewhere. and I said to them. " Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings Miracles" and I just waited, and waited, and waited. The spirit was so strong and it just hit them so hard. I asked them " How can we can be Exactly Obedient?" During their answer they started to get terry eyed. Then after all was said and they were just thanking us for all that we have done for them and helping them to realize what they need to do. I thought came to me that they needed a certain scripture. It was Mosiah 24: 13-14. It talks about how the Lord visits his people in their afflictions. I waited for them all to turn to it in their scriptures and I read it. I was very clear when I read it and stressed very important points in the verses. As I was reading it I just felt the Spirit so strong Chills were going down my back over, and over, and over again. I knew as I was reading that It was impossible that they were not feeling the spirit. When I finished reading and I looked up the Mother was in tears. It made me wrench inside and made me so happy to see the Light of Christ just hit her. We just sat they for a while for the spirit to truly testify of the things that I have just read. The goes on to tell me that she just knows this church is true and that this scripture just helps her in so many ways and that the book of Mormon is true, and is thanking us for not giving up on them and just digging and digging to help them. The father thanks us for our preparations to give them this lesson. Which we didn't Elder Mack just thought that we should talk about obedience right before we knocked on the door. I told the father that and I also told them that the things we have said was from the Holy Ghost. The things we have said are what the lord wants you to hear. and it is him that is speaking not us, we are just the instrument. You know, It has been a struggle for me since I have been here i have had my challenges and struggles, but that moment right there made it all worth it. 

So that is my novel for this week. I hope that you will all seek to talk about the gospel to everyone around you and help them come closer to Christ ( Mosiah 28:3) help them to know the joy that you know to be true. If you have the Holy Ghost with you, you will not have to worry about what you are going to say. It will be the right thing to say. Thanks to everyone and their support. I love you all.

 

 

This picture is when we were tracting in a new neighborhood and all these kids just kept following us. we couldn't find a member that was in the area so we asked them if they would run out and find where they live. and they found them in less then 10 mins! haha they were awesome! we sat for a while and taught them some English! 

-Elder Kikel