Awesome meeting with Seventy/Area presidency

Alma 37:6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.... Love this one. We tend to forget who is in charge.

I loved the meeting with Elder Halstrom and Elder Bennett from the Seventy/Area presidency!! I had written down several questions that I had and planned to ask about them -- BUT others beat me to the draw. The cool thing is that the questions that were asked and the discussions that we had answered the questions I wrote down. I know that we were guided by the Spirit and blessed with revelation.

One of my favorite quotes was -- The Savior is pleased, don't choose discouragement. The world makes us expect immediate feedback but that is NOT the Lords way. Evaluate always but keep an Eternal perspective -- Hope.

I loved Elder Halstrom's advice too -- The mission is the time to establish our relationship with Heavenly Father, our foundation and figure out who we are -- to the CORE. This should not however be the spiritual peak of our lives. We should continue in the habits we create here as much as possible so that it continues to effect us forever.

-- The Lord truly blessed us this week -- Our finding pool is overflowing we picked up 4 new investigators and we are getting more support from our members (LA's too)!! Because we changed our hearts and made a conscious decisions to choose faith. It's the Key!! We trusted in His promises and He guided us to where we needed to be.


I realized that what Sister Halstrom said is true...."My heart was there first and that made it easier for the rest of me ..." This week I was filled with extra love for my mission. I got to spend time with all the people I love (members & missionaries) and learn by the spirit. Stake Conference was Great!!


Sorry this is kind of all over the place ... Have a great week!
Love, SIster Kuyk

Cascades

Huge Moth

zone conference

So good news first … H was baptized!! It was super stressful but in the end everything worked out. She is probably one of my favorite investigators up to this point … such a pure heart and spirit full of faith and desire to learn and to do what is right.

Zone conference on Tues was way good!! So much I wish I could share....
In (Mos 3:19) the Savior wants us to be Child-like. To me, when I think about being childlike, I think of simplicity, joy in the small things, accepting, honest, trusting and hopeful. No one of us is perfect at being child-like but there are things we can be perfect in if we choose. One of the things we talked a lot about is that Ingratitude is closely connected with Discouragement. If you are not happy in life, you aren't doing it right.

My wonderful companion and I have been trying to be more grateful and recognize the hand of the Lord in our work … in other words … recognize the daily miracles. It has been neat to see how they add up and how much the Lord really is in the little things in life - in the details. I encourage you all to start a Miracle List of your own -- I have found more faith and trust in him as I “seek him” at the end of every day.

I listened to a talk from Elder Holland this morning as we were cleaning the apartment. One of my favorite quotes was …

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27)…. That may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed...

As concerned as I would be if somewhere in their lives one of my children were seriously troubled or unhappy or disobedient, nevertheless I would be infinitely more devastated if I felt that at such a time that child could not trust me to help, or should feel his or her interest were unimportant to me or unsafe in my care.

In that same spirit, I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.

Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do anything other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can’t help but bless us. They have to. It is their nature. … There is not a single loophole or curveball or open trench to fall into for the man or woman who walks the path that Christ walks. When he says, “Come, follow me” (Luke 18:22), he means that he knows where the quicksand is and where the thorns are and the best way to handle the slippery slope near the summit of our personal mountains. He knows it all, and he knows the way. He is the way."

I love that. We all need to trust Him better and Have Faith in His promised blessings.

Now some not so fun news … My companion and I had some uninvited/unwanted guests this weekend. Don’t worry … they left us shortly after they came but we were just "itching" to have them gone. haha

Also, as a missionary you can only read the conference ensign so many times so I picked up the March's New Era from the office and I was really pleased by it. I strongly recommend you all (not just the New Era aged ones) read it if you haven't already.

I love you all so much.

Love, Sister Kuykendall

Papik's garden

Hello!

So I don't know if I told you this, but a couple of transfers ago I went on splits to Hrazdan and we were cleaning one of our members windows. And because they lived on a busy street tons of people saw us. After that we were on the news for it. "2 Mormon missionaries cleaning windows."

Papik: So we have a perfect view out our window of a little papik's garden. For the longest time we would just talk about how cute it was that he was out there every day working. He would give us flowers from his garden and tell us to come over and play games. So we finally did. We went over there with the elders and did some garden work, played nardi and had a little gospel discussion. It ended up being so much fun. We've been going over there frequently to check up on his smoking. He's absolutely adorable and just wants to feed us all day long. We had to practically beg him to let us to work. I'll try and get a good picture of his garden soon and send it to you.

Happy day: We've been doing tons of less active work lately. As we've been going around visiting them we've picked up a few investigators. We've been so blessed lately with the Lord pointing us in the direction that we need to go in order to find those who are ready. I've never felt so blessed. An answer to prayers.

Love you all!
Sister K

Papik's garden

Khorovats (Armenian barbecue)

Mother's Day Skype with the fam!

Bus blessings

Momma and everyone,

Lately we've been doing service every Saturday. We've been going to one of our members house a lot to do his garden work. It's actually been a lot of fun!
The other night we were on our way back from service and we were riding on bus 33 (a funny story for another time) and there were a couple ladies on the bus with us who were just asking us all sorts of questions and just gushing over how cute we were (it was dark). They both had a bag full of lilacs and before they got off the bus we exchanged some of their flowers for a pass a long card with our number on it. It was so great. They were so excited and told us they couldn't wait to call us. Then another lady came and sat down next to us and did the exact same thing. She gushed over us and asked for our number. She talked at us for most of the ride. As she got off the bus she gave us some candy and a few finished sketches of flowers that she had been working on. Then 2 ladies from the back of the bus came up and sat next to us and asked us where we were from. I told them that my last name was from Holland because if you tell them you're from America they get frustrated and want to know where your last name is from. It's rather confusing. Anyway, the Bus driver heard that my ancestors were from Holland and got super excited because his daughter lived in Holland. As we got off the bus and tried to hand him the bus money he refused it and told us to have a great night....We walked home with smiles on our face and arms full of lilacs.

The Lord's hand in everything: As we were again on our way to Kharbert we were waiting for the bus 33. We had waited for a while and were excited as we saw it coming but then it just blew past us! We sprinted after it to see if we could catch it at the next stop. To our disappointment we weren't able to catch it. We were a little peeved that we were going to be late for service. We waited for a while longer and caught the next 33. On the bus we met a mom and her 2 boys. She said she was amazed by our courage to come to another country and learn a different language just to serve. She looked at our family pictures and asked for our number. She was absolutely amazing. She hasn't called yet, but we're patiently waiting as it was only 2 days ago. After she got off the bus Sister B and I looked at each other and smiled. We knew we'd missed that first bus for a reason.

Our investigators V and H are doing great and are on their way to meet their baptism date. They're both so excited and so are we!

I've really noticed the Lord's hand in my life so much lately. Since I've been new to this area it's been easy to get discouraged and feel like I don't have a purpose here. But as the weeks have gone on and I've gotten to know the area/people the Lord has really been obvious in my life.
I hit my year mark in country yesterday and it absolutely blows my mind. I can't wait to make the most of the next 4 months.

I love you!!!!
-Mads

PS - Can't wait to Skype this weekend for Mother's Day!!

A really pretty Gyugh outside of Kentron called Kharbert