Daniel's Baptism 2/23/2015

Dear Family and Friends, 

I think my letters are a bit strange. I am glad somehow you people are finding joy in them. 

First thing, Thursday was the mission tour, so much fun! Elder Dykes from the seventy came to speak to us. He doesn't speak spanish. Tender mercy right there. So pretty much the whole thing was in english, so I got a lot from it. He was very.... how do I say this. He didn't beat around the bush. I think He scared a lot of missionaries, but I liked him a lot. He just talked about missionary work. Okay so that's kind of a given. All his points were just so good and answered a lot of my prayers with investigators and other things. This was on thursday and really was so amazing. 

Now for the highlight of the week, Daniel our Golden Contact got baptized! You know in the card game Mission Impossible, every time I see Daniel I think of that Golden Contact card. For Aaron, Claire and Olivia and other fellows who have not served a mission but have played that game, he is as great as that card. You know in the game when you draw the card and you just have this peaceful feeling over you because you know no matter what you will still be in the game? Yep thats how it feels to have Daniel.

Okay so I don't understand why Daniel is pulling this face. He is a really smiley guy...

Anyways when we asked him if Sunny (a member we bring to lessons) could baptize him, this is what he said. "I don't care who baptizes me. It shouldn't matter! I just want to get baptized with the right authority!" I just laughed when he said that. He is amazing. The baptism was so good. At the end Daniel had the chance to bear his testimony. He got up, told everyone about his dream of being baptized into this church, and how he met us. He shared this story in the Bible where I guess Zacharis had salvation come to his door, and how us three sisters were his salvation. It was so nice. He then started quoting Thomas S. Monson, which shocked the ward members that came. But he did such a good job. He was so happy.

We made chocolate chip cookies and bought juice (yes the juice was my idea) just as a fun refreshment after. They went crazy over the cookies... they were good, but man what I would give to see them eat a real american chocolate chip cookie. I mean we did the best we could and they were good, but not like you can make in america. Anyways Daniel loved the cookies. 

We stayed and cleaned up, but the Elders in our district said they rode home with Daniel on the Bus and they said he was so happy and just smiled all the way home. :) Just the thought of that breaks my heart.

On Sunday he then got the Holy Ghost. He came and sat down by me and told me he just felt different. I told him that was a good sign. He told me he felt free and different. I was so happy for him. When we taught him about baptism and told him all his sins would be washed away his jaw dropped and he questioned, "really!?" I am so glad he felt that. 

I wish I could give this little man justice in my letters, but I can't. He is the investigator missionaries dream about. Last night we went by his house and asked how his day had been. This is what he said, "After I got home from church I just went to my room kneeled down and gave thanks to God for a long time. I then had a little snack and read the Book of Mormon." Who else does that? We then read a conference talk with him the one called "Joseph Smith". As we read he would pause and say things like, "Wonderful,"  "Perfect,"  "This sure is a man of God." We then, just to blow is mind showed him the gospel app and showed him where to watch mormon messages. 

Anytime he has a question about anything. For example when we were teaching the Word of Wisdom, he asked if he could drink a little bit of tea here and there. When we said no and tried to explain why he stopped us and said, "Girls it's okay I will give it up, I can't battle with God." Thats his saying for everything. I love it. Like I said he is perfect.

As we were leaving he stopped us and said. I have a friend who invited me over for lunch for the next week. I told them that is great but I am going to bring some missionaries over so they can share you a message. He then asked if that was okay. I then jumped up and down, flared my long arms around with joy and sang, "OKAY? Little man why are you even asking! Yes! that is why were are here! You are PERFECT! You are so perfect you don't even know you are perfect!" Okay, so you don't have to be praying for my sanity, because no I actually did not really do that... but that is what was going on in my mind. 

That night I just cried. I am so overwhelmed with gratitude. I know with all of these amazing experiences I might sound like a cool missionary, but truths coming out, I am not! I really am not. I don't understand why I am being so blessed, but I am. Daniel was ready for the gospel and the spirit did the rest I am just glad I could see it all come about. I blame my friends and huge family's prayers for the experiences I am having. Casidy shared me a story in the Bible that explains what I feel. You know when Christ tells them to bring their 12 fishes and loaves and then all of a sudden they feed five thousand? Thats the best way to explain it. I am bringing all I have to offer... which actually is pretty close to the cost of 12 fish you could by at Walmart. But then God just gives you so much more in return. Then math doesn't add up and really I can't explain it. But I am just glad. I want to complain about my spanish... because I am still struggling with that guy, but really I can´t Because I have the two best trainers in all of Spain and golden investigators. 

You know how I told you how my companions are like the three Nephites? Yes, well I told that to President Jackson my first week and I think he got carried away with that little thought of mine. Because the other day he called and said, "My trio!" "My three Nephites." And laughed to himself. I think he missed the message I was trying to send him. It's two mister, two. I don't know where the other one, because it's not me. 

Tell Aunt Katherine thank you for the letter. What she said was honestly what I needed to hear. I even shared in with my companions I liked it so much. It was also so fun to hear what her and her family was up to. She is the best, let her know that. Tell her I will try to write her back soon! 

And CASIDY, a little girl... pray for her who knows her brother might eat her.

I love you guys. I think about you a lot.

Send me more pictures. Of Eve, Aaron's dates, and Poe's selfies on your laptop. Because I know our mother doesn't really take pictures often, but send me the ones you can manage. 

  
I love you so much!

Love, Hermana Kelemen 

Being Served 2/18/2015

Dear, Fam Bam and Fri, Fri Ends.

Sorry last week my letter was short. I have much to catch you all up on.

First thing, Daniel our English speaking investigator from Ghanna is getting baptized this Saturday! Hoot hoot! We have been teaching him like every other day to get him ready. But honestly he is so ready. I feel so blessed to get to teach him. He is the funniest little man in the world. I can't wait to send you a picture of him. Words can't discribe this guy.

The lesson we invited to have him be babtized was so amazing. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and at the end explained that to get into the Celetail Kingdom he needed to be babtized. When we asked him, he said yes. It really was such a powerful lesson and the spirit was so strong. One thing I have been trying to work on this week is saying what Christ would say. After all I am his representive. So at the end of the lesson, I told him, "Heavenly Father is so proud and so excited for you. Because he wants you to return to him." 

It really wasn't me saying it, It was simple, but it's what God wanted to tell his son. I felt so happy that I was listening to the spirit and that I could be a tool in the Lords hands. It also got me thinking. The message is so simple. Sometimes we get caught up in all the facts. It's simple, God loves us and has prepared a way to bless us. 

After the whole lesson, he left the room to grab something and my compaion stood up did a victory dance and sat down. Respect. I love her ten times more for that. 

His prayers are also so amazing. He loves to quote scriptures. For example one time he said, "God, you said in Matthew verse so and so, and in James 1:5, and John so and so, that you would answer the questions of the soul. So if you are a man of your word please answer mine." I love it. I want to pray like him. Also the last lesson he prayed that missionary work would open up to all the face of the earth so the 'good word can be known by everyone'  Wow. His prayers are really wow. He is not even a memeber and he is praying for missions to open up. 

Yesterday we were reading Mosiah 2:17 with Daniel, "when your in the servce of your fellow being your in the service of you God." After he read it, I asked him what he got out of the scripture. This is what he said, "I've been thanking the wrong person! Im going to stop thanking you and only thank God. Because really you guys are serving God." I  couldn't help it and I just laughed. He is right. 

Daniel is golden. The Lord has really prepared him. He just finnished first Nephi and is reading confance talks... yeah mom you need to send me a new one, because I gave him my English copy. But he is doing great. 

Our deaf investigator Fransico… that's a whole different ball game. It's really intresting trying to teach him. He knows nothing about religion. We asked who came to the world first and he said Jesus. But I think he wants to learn more. Its hard becasue he cant express himslef 100%, so hard to know what he is thinking. He read the intro to the Book of Mormon and said he told all his friends about it, but none of them are familar with the LDS church. I love teaching him though. He is honestly so nice. We just have to get really creative with teaching. 

Funny story. So we always meet and teach Fransico at the Church. When we got there a huge party was going on and the music was so loud. We were worried... but then my compaion looked at me and said, "it's okay… he's deaf." So during our lesson we had Katy Perry in the background. Little did he know. But hey! The lesson turned out great. 

I know I say this all the time, but I really feel blessed. We went and visted this Lady in the ward she saw I wasn't wearing a scarf so she ran to her room and put this huge big blue one around my neck. It smelled like she dumped a bottle of perfume on it. I have left in on our porch for a week and it still smells like her. But what I am getting at, are these people are so nice. Always willing to help. 

We went over to a recent converts house to read with her daughter, Vivan. Vivan is an angel. No words can discribe this perfect girl. She is eight and she is reading the Book of Mormon. I was so excided to help her read and understand the stories. But like always I got helped instead. We took turns reading outloud and when it came to me, Vivan helped me sound out the words correct. I felt like a big oaf. I am 19 and I had an eight year old showing me how to read. But I felt so touched. You could tell she loved helping me... she kept saying the word before I would get to it :) 

And people constantly invite us over and feed us all the food in their house. I really just keep being blown away with how much they give. I just want it to be my turn. I want to beable to express my gratitude and tell them everthing I feel, but its frustrating because I can't. But so you know, of couse the Lord is taking care of me. He is blessing me like crazy and having people serve me right and left. Maybe one of these time I will write about me helping someone :) 

I love you so much! Have great week! 

Love, Hermana Kelemen 

Can't Complain 2/9/2015

Hi fam bam. I have zero time. Okay thats a lie, I have 6 min. Its been a full Pday. But its been so much fun. Today we went to segovia. SO COOL. this week as been so fun!

Question: What happens when you feel like you don't understand anything and you feel like you can't talk? God puts a deaf guy in your path to teach. Yeah our Heavenly Father is making it really hard for me to complain.... :) I really am so glad he did. It´s exactly what I needed. Our new investigadores name is Fransico, and honestly is amazing. I feel so blessed to teach him, I am learning way more than I feel like I am actually teaching. This week has been full of blessings. Daniel our other investigadore is also doing amazing, and our last lesson we set a fecha with him! 

There is so much I want to tell you, but really I don´t have time! I love you all, thanks for being you! 

I will have to tell you more about Daniel and Fransico latter! Its a cool story! 

Love, Hermana Kelemen

Two Lessons 2/2/2015

Dear Fam Bam, 

Congratulations JESS! I wanted to scream and shout. 

I have learned it's impossible to be frustrated on the mission. I've tried. I know it sounds bad, but sometimes I just want to be frustrated, but like I said it's impossible. That Heavenly Father of ours loves to spoil his Kate. My trainers are amazing. Anyone who can put up with me is something else. They constantly serve me and are so patient.They really are AMAZING. I can't stress it enough. 

I want to tell you about two of our investigators we taught this week. I learned so much from both. The first is named David. We found him when we were contacting. We just walked up introduced ourselves, and then this is what he said. "I had a dream last night I was being baptized in your church." It gets better. I understood it. Not because I am understanding Spanish, but he speaks English. Like I said before God loves to spoil me. He is from Ghana and is beyond golden. He is so prepared. We taught him the first lesson, in English :) and he came to church with us. He is eating up the gospel as fast as Aaron eats all the breakfast in the morning. It really was the Hand of God. All my life I feel like God has given me so much. Thats one reason I wanted to serve. I want to give, but in all honestly Heavenly Father is giving me so, so much more. 

Other investigator, Renata. She reminds me of Edlira Koopman. I don´t know why they just look like each other. Anyways she speaks spanish.. and only spanish. But we went to teach her Saturday night. Before we went in my companions were really worried. We said a prayer for power and lots of help. They explained to me that they had taught her once before and it was awful. Of course I asked why. (Grandpa Smedley... I am asking "why", he can be proud.) They said she loves to talk about her problems and won't give them a chance to speak. But she loves when the visit. 

OH BOY. This lady was a hoot. My companions down talked her. Really she talked for two hours about her loud neighbors. Really thats all. For two hours she ranted about her neighbors. Anytime any of us opened our mouths she cut us off. It was really funny. Finally, Hermana Toone got a chance and tried to explain she needed to look at her blessings. She didn't like that. She then told us her lightbulb went out the other day. First world problems to the extreme. The whole time I thought is she for real? Then she started crying and gave us all a hug and told us how much she appreciated us. All of a sudden I thought of the atonement. Christ suffered for her. As lame as it is, Christ really feels for her. He suffered knowing what it feels like to have your lightbulb go out. I will never understand how that is a trial... ever. But Christ he does. I felt prompted to share a scripture, so I did. I told her I that I didn't fully understand but Christ does, and we are his representatives and I told her we have that power to help. She really liked that. And then continued on with her loud neighbors. Unreal. My companions couldn't sit there any longer, and repeated, LISTEN, we are trying to help, but you have to give us a chance to talk!" they tried to say that 10 times as she just talked over them. My companions were so mad. Then... i'm so bad...I started to laugh. Everyone looked at me weird, but it was so funny. I prayed for help to stop laughing, at at last I did. Finally we got a change to get out of there. She thanked us a lot and gave us chocolate. As soon as we left, my companions screamed. I laughed the whole way home. I feel bad for the Lady. We can´t teach her anymore... well mainly because she won´t listen. But it really was funny. My companions couldn't believe I could "laugh" about that awful lesson. But really it was so funny. Im grateful for it. I really saw the atonement in a new light. She might have not learned anything but I sure did. I also got a kick out of her... maybe thats bad to say. I love her I do... she is just so dramatic its mistral. 

Well I'm doing rad. I really am. I love this. It's adventure everyday! I love you family. Again I can't thank you enough for your prayers. I feel them. I am so blessed to have such a massive family prayer for me. I feel like superman with your prayers. I love you!

Love, Hermana Kelemen 

Paparazzi Photos