April 28, 2014 - Jaén, Espana

Hello there everyone!

Wow, what a week. Well first off, I got to go to Dos Hermanas on splits this week!!!! My word, it was so awesome. Being able to go back to my area and see and talk to some people.  It was like going home after a vacation. I sure do miss that place. So many awesome memories. Plus, I got to be with Hermana Folsom, so it was just like old times! We went over to this family Gloria and Angel´s house. They were a family I got close with so they picked me up from the train station and we ate with them. We showed this video on Easter called ¨Because of Him.¨ If you haven´t seen it, look it up right now. It is so good. It talks about what the Savior did for us and how we can always start again. It was a great lesson and Gloria felt the Spirit really strongly. She has been less active for over 20 years and her son isn´t a member. When she saw the video she bore a strong testimony that we hadn´t ever heard explaining to her son that that was why she got baptized in the church. It was so cool to hear her testimony to her son. A really cool moment. Going back to Dos Hermanas was such a big blessing and a miracle. I sure do miss that place.

Hermana Demayola has gotten a rash and has caused us to slow down a little. We have gone to the doctor, but unfortunately they don´t really know quite what it is. We are trying to figure it out. But we are still trying our best.

Thursday was a funny experience. We had to get to a lesson in 20 minutes and were far away. So we tried a short cut that we had never taken before and it ended up being a dead end. We surely didn´t have time to go all the way back and then up again so we found a wall and decided to climb up and jump over it. So there goes Hermana Demayola and she is over. Then it´s my turn. Here we go, climb up, get ready to jump off, and SMACK! Right back into the wall. My skirt got stuck on the back and I was just hanging there, stuck. I couldn´t move at all. Haha, poor Hermana Demayola had to climb up and try to get me off, but it took a while because we were both laughing so hard. So there we go...another good Laura story. Got plenty of those.

My lesson in Sunday School yesterday was about how to recognize good from evil. It was a really good lesson, especially because we could all relate with one another going through the same trials and such with our age. We had a great discussion about the many times the adversary tricks us by making something look like it is good, but in reality it leads us down a slow path of misery. We talked about ways we can avoid it, and actually the example of Joseph Smith came up. When he wanted to know if something was good or bad, he looked, studied the scriptures, meditated about what he read, acted, prayed, listened, and acted again. I´m really enjoying being the teacher in their class. It´s cool to learn together with them.

Well, that´s all for this week folks. Thanks for everything and hope you have a fantastic week. Love you all!

Hermana Kunz

Fun to be with these people again

Love my companion  :)

Maria Isabel and I reunited once again!

April 21, 2014 - Jaén, Espana

Hello there everyone!!!

First off, I am an Aunt!!!!! I have been waiting all week to see pictures of my little niece...do you have any idea how hard it is knowing that there are pictures on your email but you have to wait?! I will admit, it was a little hard to focus. Whew!

Well. Holy Week is over and whew are we ever glad! It was hard to get people to meet with us because no matter what religion you are, you are out watching huge parades. I know I explained some of it last week with the outfits and all so I won´t go into detail about that, but let me just say it was a crazy week. Everywhere we went all day long we would run into the huge parades. They have to stop every couple minutes because people are driving the huge floats that have statues of Christ or Mary and they get tired. One interesting tradition they have is that on the Thursday of every Holy Week, in every city where there is a jail in Spain, they have a lottery and one person gets to dress up in the clothes they wear, carry a cross on their back, are in chains for the time in the parade and at the end, they are set free. It´s pretty crazy. It was cool to see another culture during the week. As far as the actual Easter goes, well it wasn´t as awesome as it is there in the States. We didn´t sing one Easter song yesterday! I was so mad. So although I love Spain, I will be spending every Easter in the States where there are Easter baskets, egg hunts, and bunnies, haha. Although one thing that was really nice was I learned a lot more about the Savior and His sacrifice for us. So it was good for me without the bunnies.

Let´s see, what all is new. A recent convert here Manolo told us he can´t come to church anymore. Long story short, not too long ago, a daughter he never even knew existed showed up to his door trying to find him. She lives in Madrid and she is now the only family he has. Well, she doesn´t like that he got baptized and told him that she wouldn´t talk to him anymore if he continues to go to church. It is a really tough situation that we are trying to figure out. He needs a lot of support right now so the members and us are working with him.

Oh, I am the new young adults gospel doctrine teacher. Yikes! I taught my first lesson yesterday and it went pretty well. But to have to do it every week...well, yikes! Hopefully it will get rid of my fear of teaching in front of people.

Well, I think that´s all for now. We had zone meeting this week and I got to teach about personal study and how it helps us in other ways besides preparing for our investigators. I learned a ton from my studies with it...most of it having to do with the Atonement and knowing Christ more. It was great.

Haha, Hermana Demayola got her ears pierced last Monday. Funniest thing I have ever seen. He gets out the machine to pierce her ears and she starts hyperventilating. But in the end she did it and it´s all good.

Thanks everyone for everything! Love you all and hope all is well!

Hermana Kunz

I finally was able to send pics!

Leaving Dos Hermanas...

Members from Dos Hermanas

At a members house after a water/flour fight

Elder Woodford who went home and I on our last day in Dos

Coolest shirt in the whole world

In Jaen...

Ha, kinda cool shot walking up to the castle in Jaén

Up on top of the castle overlooking Jaén!

Members here in Jaén

Old shoes, and so...

...I got the new shoes!

April 14, 2014 - Jaén, Espana

Week two here in Jaén! It´s going well here. The ward is really great. Some awesome people. It´s funny because many of the people here were baptized about a year ago. This June is when all will hit the one-year mark and so it will be a HUGE temple trip for everyone to receive their endowments. It´s really cool to see everyone get so excited. Plus, since it is such a small ward, people are put into positions right off the bat. A man who was baptized in September of last year is the second councilor and our mission leader  was baptized last year. It´s pretty cool to see. 

Last week, we hiked up to the famous castle here. Wow, was it ever amazing! Such a cool view. This place is incredible. We are right in the middle of so many mountains. I can´t stop taking pictures. But unfortunately, none of the computers here have a place where I can send pics, so for now, no pictures. Sorry!

We are still trying to find new people to teach. It´s a bit tough here, but we keep going. President showed us a cool way to try to get the members more involved in the work so we can teach people. We are trying it out on everyone. Tomorrow is zone meeting and lucky me, I get to teach part of it. Yikes, no matter how many times I get up in front of people to teach, I always get nervous. Just can´t get use to it. Wish me luck.

This week in Spain is what is called Semana Santa...Holy Week. It is the biggest holiday here in Spain. It´s for Easter. We asked the members and they explained it as the 7 days that Christ was in Jerusalem. So everyday they have they HUGE parades all over the city ALL DAY LONG. They have tons of food and there are tons of people. Haha, President told us to get as many lessons planned as possible because it is difficult to find people in their houses...they are all out on the street. It´s interesting. We ran into part of it yesterday and I wish I could send pictures. People have these gowns on and have a super long pointy hat and you can only see their eyes. They walk around with crosses and burn things and carry big statues of Christ or of Saints. It´s a crazy week here. Should be fun and should have some good stories!

Well, that´s it for now. Hope all of you are well and hope you all have a fantastic Easter. Love this time of the year! Love you all and thanks for everything!

Hermana Kunz

Ajpril 7, 2014 - Jaén, Espana

Hola everyone!

Well, here in Jaén now! Wow, where to even start. First off, leaving Dos Hermanas was one of the hardest things I have had to do. It was like leaving Italy all over again. I love so many people there and will miss them all. I can´t wait to go back. But Jaén is good too. It´s different from Dos Hermanas so it will take some getting use to, but it will be good. The Ward here is really nice so I feel lucky. The area itself is incredible. So beautiful. Since we are on a mountain, when you look out you see all these green fields and surrounding mountains. It is quite the sight. My comp is from Idaho so we are potato girls once again. Yahoo!

Let´s see, conference was great, wasn´t it? So many awesome talks! President Uchtdorf really hit home with being grateful for what we have. I really loved that. Most times people talk about how we can get through trials, but he went at it like we need to be grateful for what we do have. I loved that. All of the talks were way good. Hope everyone had a chance to watch it.

We don´t have very many investigators for me to talk about here. There is one, Pepe, that should have been baptized a long time ago so we are really going to focus on him. Other than that, we are hitting the streets finding more. Out doing what missionaries do best, haha.

Well all, I think that´s it. So much happened this week, but I can´t quite remember it all. Just trying to get use to a new area and new members. Thanks everyone for everything and hope you all had a great week. Talk to you next time!

Hermana Kunz

 

PS - I wanted to send some pics of my last days in Dos Hermanas. But they don´t have a place to put pics on this computer so I will have to try to find a way. There are some good ones. We had a huge flour fight at this members house that then turned into a water fight. My hair was nasty. So much fun.