December 30, 2013 - Dos Hermanas, Espana

Hola todos!!!

Wow, was Christmas awesome! Holy cow! Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a blast. For Christmas Eve we were at a member´s house and we ate well, sang karaoke, and did a lot of talking/shouting. It was my kind of Christmas Eve. Then for Christmas day we went to an American couple´s house and spent the day there. Holy buckets, are they the best! We got there and they right away gave us Elmo and Cookie Monster PJ´s and told us we had to spend the day in them. It was just like Christmas at home. I couldn´t have asked for a more special Christmas.

Now we come into New Years! Crazy that it is already 2014. Time sure does fly.

So this week after Christmas, we went on splits with the sister missionaries in Huelva. I went there to be with Hermana Johnson. It was awesome. She is from my same group that came out together and she is a crazy good missionary. It was cool to learn some new things from her. We had the most insane experience ever. She was told that there were people in the forest that would listen to us. So we go, and it was literally into the depths of the forest. There were all these big boxes with tarps over them. Then we saw that people lived in them! Literally boxes. It was insane. There were hundreds of these boxes everywhere. A few people came out and we sat in chairs talking to them and then it just started to pour rain. We were getting soaked. Well, we found out that the people were Muslim, and we had a great conversation, especially the fact that we were women. It was quite the missionary experience. I felt like I was in Africa...actually the city calls it Africa of Spain. It was awesome.

But, it was a great split. I always love splits because you can learn so much from each other. 

One of our less active members finally came to church yesterday! We went to pick her up and she had just gotten out of bed, but she told us to wait and then she got her kids and came! It was awesome. She had a good experience.

We also found a cute mother and two girls that we are going to start teaching English and the gospel to. She is pregnant and due in January 9th so it might start out slow but they are the most perfect family in the world. We are really hoping they go somewhere.

Alright, well that´s all for now. Hope everyone has a great New Year! Watch the video, New Years: Look Not Behind Thee. It´s awesome. Love you all and thanks for everything! All of your support helps me in this great work!

Hermana Kunz

Caroling  :)

Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning with Hermana Wilcox and Laura (and Scott) Beu, the American family who we celebrated with. They gave us Christmas pj's and stockings with lots of Christmas goodies and fun.

December 23, 2013 - Dos Hermanas, Espana

Feliz Navidad todos!

Holy cracker jacks, Christmas is the best thing in the world!!!

Well, we made our goal as a mission this week for finding 800 new investigators. Complete miracle! Hermana Wilcox and I worked really hard and found some new people. We are excited.

Yesterday, we ended it in an awesome way. We took a VERY long time to cut out a ton of snowflakes and make signs for members, investigators, and less actives and we went around putting them on their doors and running. The best part was that we wore Santa hats and I put my speakers in my jacket and and played Christmas music the whole way. It was so fun. And tonight we got a group together and are going to go caroling! See...Christmas is the best.

Yesterday we played soccer and based on what one of the members said who is a doctor, I am very lucky to not have any broken bones right now. Haha, I took a bad fall. Everyone is calling me superman cause I was flying. I have some pretty bad scrapes and bruises but no broken bones and that´s what matters!

We went over to a guy Newton´s house this week..the Hermanas and the Elders. He is a really cool guy from Africa. Well, he wanted to say the prayer at the end and wow. It was quite interesting. He started shouting and speaking in a language that nobody had heard of. It was crazy. After, we were all so grateful for prayer and to know how to correctly pray. We felt the Spirit immediately when we knelt down that night.

Let´s see what else....we had a Christmas party for a group of 8 year old girls. That was fun.

Well, that´s it for now. The Christmas Spirit is strong here. I love being here for Christmas. It really causes me to focus on what Christmas is all about and to find the real spirit of it. Serving everyone here at this time has been so awesome. Well everyone, I hope you all have a great Christmas and remember the reason for the season. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!! Love you all!

Hermana Kunz

December 16, 2013 - Dos Hermanas, Espana

Hola todos!!!!

Well, another week down and let me just say, I stinking love Christmas!!!! The Spirit of Christmas is the absolute best. Everyone is in a better mood.

Well let me just say that the Hobbit came out. Whew, I wanted to die that morning. It was tough. So I decided that if I couldn´t see the Hobbit, I was going to be one instead. So I put on the most Hobbit colors I had and then I cut out a leaf and pinned it on my shirt and then took my Lord of the Rings one ring keychain and made it into a necklace. To finish it off, I drew hair all over my feet. Then we made a Hobbit hole and slept in it that night. Well, we went out and we had a straight up miracle day. Holy smokes, it was so awesome. We found a new inactive guy who hadn´t been to church in forever and he told us it was time for him to come back. Then we found a new person to teach whose mother died not too long ago and when we bore testimony of the Plan of Salvacion...whew, was that Spirit strong! So we are excited about him. We also got in with 2 people who we have been trying to contact for 3 weeks now. It was such a miracle day! Then we came home and the Elders put up one of those huge wall posters of...yes, the Hobbit. It was awesome. So what I thought was going to be the worst day of my mission turned into an AWESOME day. Haha, it´s cause Heavenly Father knew it was going to be hard so he sent me some blessings to remind me why I love being out here as a missionary instead of watching the Hobbit. My whole Ward is not being very nice about it though. They all love letting me know that I can´t see it for another 9 months.

What else...oh we saw two robberies in one day! We were walking down the street and this guy came shooting past us with a box in his hand and was followed by 3 people from the store running. Crazy! The other wasn´t as exciting.

This week is a week of finding. As a mission we have a goal to find 800 new investigators. Well, I don´t know how other missions are but that is a VERY high goal for this one. So everyone be praying for us. We will need it!

Today we made gingerbread houses!!!! It was so awesome. Well, I think that is it for now. Love you all and hope all is well! Thanks for everything.

Hermana Kunz

 

Ice skating!

Carriage ride!

Hobbit hole, hehe

What the Elders put up in the house

The making of gingerbread houses

Final products!

 

December 10, 2013 - Dos Hermanas, Espana

Hola todos!!!

Wow, Christmastime is just the best! There are lights everywhere here and it is incredible. The Christmas spirit is like nothing else. Everyone is so much happier here. I love it!

This week we had a great week. We had our Christmas ward party and that was a blast. I went on intercambios with a new missionary from Chile. It made me miss training so much! I wish I could just train the rest of my mission. It is so cool to see how they grow within the first 12 weeks.

Yesterday we had the best pday in the world. We switched our time of pday so that we could have the night off and work in the morning because the cute American couple from Thanksgiving wanted to take us all out to eat in Sevilla. We met up there and walked through the Cathedral there (wow that church is incredible) and then they took us out to dinner. After that, we seriously were living in a dream. We went ice skating on an outside rink with lights everywhere and then we went on a carriage ride around Sevilla. Holy buckets it was amazing! The only thing missing was snow! We all thought we were literally in a dream. Great day.

Hermana Wilcox is an awesome missionary. I feel so lucky to be with her here. There is so much that I can learn from her and so little time to do it! She is truly amazing. And Hermana Hodson leaves to go back home tomorrow. We are soooooo sad!!!! We don´t want to see her go. I have so enjoyed serving with her. She is a wonderful missionary and will do great things at home. The only thing I ask of her is not to get married until I get back :)

Alright, well I would love to write more but we couldn´t write yesterday so we have just a short amount of time to get an email out and then we are off. Thanks for everything everyone! Hope the holidays are going great! Love you all!

Hermana Kunz

December 2, 2013 - Dos Hermanas, Espana

Hola todos!!!!

Well, my comps and I decided that the Lord really does love us. Thanksgiving was THE BEST!!!! Out of all of Spain, we just so happen to be in one of the two wards where there is a military base which means there are American families. Which also means that we got invited over to a real Thanksgiving feast! We went to a couple, Laura and Scotts´ house. They have a cute little girl Alana and we had all the wonderful Thanksgiving food. Plus Laura even got stuff for gingerbread houses and we made those!!! I couldn´t believe it. It was the best thing ever. That was the biggest tender mercy ever. So it was a fantastic Thanksgiving.

We have two less actives that are miracles. They have been inactive for a very long time but are starting to come back! One is Gloria and the other is Manuel. Manuel is starting to get into genealogy and it has really sparked his testimony. He is doing whatever he can to get to the temple now. It is the most amazing change to see in him after being so far away for so long. He has a way to go, but like I said, he is doing whatever he can to get to the temple for his family. He is a real inspiration. Then there is Gloria who everyone says is impossible. She is definitely pretty hard to get through but just recently, she told us that she wants to come back and that she wants us to teach her 13 year old son! We are seeing big time miracles with her too. Gosh, it is so cool to see these people change. They begin to remember what the gospel did for them in their lives and once they get a little taste of it again, they will do whatever it takes to get it all back. So cool to be a part of.

The family is doing well. We are moving into talking about the temple with them. They think that baptism is this huge step to take and while it is a big step, it is not the final one. We want them to focus on the temple and make that the goal so that they see that baptism is just a step they have to take to get to the big goal. We are excited.

It is now officially Christmas!!!! I´m so excited! All the lights are up here and we are singing Christmas everyday. The trio is going great. We all have a lot of fun together and are working hard. Everything is awesome! Alright, well we have to jet to Málaga for a meeting so thanks everyone for everything and hope you all ate a lot of pie! Love you all and thanks for everything!

Hermana Kunz

Gingerbread fortress! We decided to make one big one...way better!

Mom...just for you.  ADVENTURES!

Trio, hehehe!