Delayed miracles

Momma,
Charentsavan is so great. I have been here for 4 months and I never want to leave. Transfers are weird this time around because they're sending missionaries home before Christmas but we're not bringing in the new group of missionaries until the middle of January. So we're not really sure what's going to happen. A lot of moving around. I am praying that I stay. I'm not ready to leave Char.

Another stressful/blessed Sunday: Yesterday was great. We had R come to church again. She didn't want to stay for the last 2 hours but she promised that she would stay for all of church next week. V promised he would come to church but didn't show up. I was heart broken to say the least. We did have a lot of less active members come. It was amazing. It was adorable because a few of our inactives who came yesterday came up to me and asked me if I was proud of them. I love them so much and I'm glad that they know that I'm aware and miss them when they don't come. They all had huge smiles on their faces.

Delayed miracles: A few sundays ago Sister and I fasted that we would be able to find the people who don't know God. We worded it that way but unintentionaly. As you know, Armenia is very Christian. So we have never come across an athiest. Ever. But we found V. V is a rough old man. He argues with everything and likes to tell us that we have silly ideas while he smokes his cigars that he roles himself. But he LOVES us. He is rough on the outside but has the softest heart. I asked him if he would come to church with us and he said he couldn't because he wouldn't be able to go 3 hours with out a smoke. I then asked him if he was happy. He said yes but he wishes he had teeth (he only has one tooth on the top right in the middle). I told him that I couldn't buy him teeth but that I would buy him applesause..... (i promise I'm a good missionary but desperate times call for desperate measures). We then promised him that we had the one thing that would make him happy. It took some convincing but he eventually considered that two little 20 year old girls may be able to help him find happiess. I can't wait to show him.
God answered our fast as we found the one Armenian who doesn't believe in God.

Jam time: Sister and I have this ringtone on our phone that is so great to dance to. So we started putting random, meaningless alarms on so that we can have jam sessions everyonce in a while. It's great for relieving stress.

Sorry about no pictures. Both of our cameras aren't working now. We'll figure something out.

Some counsel: I recently started a study journal. I should have done that at the beginning of my mission but I didn't. But since i've started, I love it. I write about why certain scriptures mean certain things to me at specific times. It's really cool to read back over.

My favorite lesson in PMG: I LOVE teaching a first(The restoration). I sound so missionary right now but I get so excited when I know we'll be teaching a first. It's so great.

I love you!!!!!
Love, Mads

Hastening

Momma,

We have been blessed lately with people just popping into our lives. Member referals, former investigators, old tatiks randomly coming up to us on the street asking us when we're going to come to her house to teach her. The Lord is hastening His work and He isn't letting anything get in His way. The work here is incredible. I love every second of my mission. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

R came to church yesterday! Which is a big deal because we have been trying to get her to come to church for a few months now. She is an investigator of ours who belongs to a chuch called shabataba. Their sabbath is on Saturday. She loves the doctrines that we teach her but she has a really hard time with the fact that our sabbath is on Sunday. But she is progressing really well and I know she'll figure things out. She seemed to enjoy her experience at church yesterday. I was REALLY nervous to say the least. I was praying the whole time that at least one member would be nice and talk to her after church. Our members have a hard time with that. My prayers were answered as our Relief Society President and a few others came and introduced themselves. It was more than I could have asked for.

I love you momma!

Mads

First snow

Momma,

Sister and I are just doing finding right now.

Listen to the spirit: A few days ago we were just walking from member to member's houses giving spiritual thoughts and asking for referrals. We were about to go to the church to take a break when I had a former contact pop into my head. We had knocked on her door a few times a she was never home so we kind of just forgot about her until that moment. We went over and a girl my age opened the door and invited us right in. We walked in to see a few other people none of which were the original contact. We sat down and asked them about themselves. We found out that they were our contact's daughters. They were very friendly and just loved us. As we were talking to them about our purpose slowly more and more people filtered in. By the end all 4 of her daughters and their kids were in the room listening intently to us. They were really excited about why we were there and agreed to meet with us and receive the lessons. They didn't come to church yesterday... :( but they're golden.

This week was great and I love my mission!
I love you!!!!
Love, Mads
P.S. Our first snow was last night!

First snow!

Bright red lipstick was all we could get away with for a Halloween costume

Sevan

Momma!
I am the worst daughter ever. I forgot my notes from general conference agian!! I'm just going to take a picture of the notes I took from my favorite talks and I'll send that to you. It's super lame, I know, but I know that it's the only way to make sure it happens.

I realized that I haven't been telling you when our investigators get baptized! So I'll tell you right now. So O, I, M, A, Y, and L all got baptized. They're all still active except one and they are so incredible. I isn't coming to church because she lives in a far away village.

Investigators: We have 6 investigators right now. None of them came to church yesterday which was really disheartening. But we're not getting down on ourselves. We both know this transfer has a lot in store for us and Charentsavan.

Weather: It is getting so NIPPY here! I've already broken out my heaving winter coat and mittens and gloves!

I'm really sorry that this letter is really short this week but I really needed to write Em. That was really important to me. I think about her often and really miss her.

I love you momma!

Trip to Sevan

Happy Fall

Momma!

Favor: Will you send me some recipes. Just simple ones. Breakfast ones, dinner ones, a few pastry ones. Ones that are easy to make. Just if you have time. Thanks!

So Halloween is not celebrated here. I'm really sad about it because I love Halloween.

Transfers: Transfers went really smoothly. A lot of my best friends in the mission were in the group going home so it was hard saying goodbye. I'm staying in Charentsavan again. I'm really happy. I've grown to love it here. My new companion is Sister M from my MTC group! Do you remember her? She's the one that we watched her opening her call before I got into the MTC. The one that was really loud, and excited? Haha I hope you remember. I LOVE HER. She is the most pure, sweet person ever. We have already had such a blast together. We have huge goals and lots of expectations for this transfer! We are both really excited to work hard and be successful!

Most spiritual moment: The elders and us went after church to our investigators house. Her little daughter is super sick and we offered her a priesthood blessing. We are all pretty new in the mission (Sister M and I are in the same group and The elders are both new) and so it was a little rusty. I listened nervously as the new elders tried to explain about the priesthood power and the blessing they were about to perform. I looked up at her to see how she was taking it all in since we had only ever met with her twice before. She was listening intently. One of the elders asked her if she had faith that her child would get better. She sincerely replied that she did. From the moment we walked into her house the child was hysterical because of how sick she was. But as soon as the elders laid their hands on her head she stopped. She hiccuped a little bit like children do after they have be crying. The blessing was in broken Armenian with stuttering and mispronounced words but the spirit was beyond powerful. After the blessing the child tried reaching out to me. My heart melted. We all left on cloud 9 I think.

I love you all!

Love, Mads

Fall in Charentsavan

Fall carving

Gatas

Momma,

You asked about how I've been studying the Atonement. I have just been reading about it in Jesus The Christ, True To The Faith, The Bible dictionary, the different accounts of it written in the end of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I've been looking at modern day talks as well. At the beginning of my studies I have been praying for the spirit to be with me so that I may better apply it to my life, so that I may better feel of his love, and that I may feel of the enabling and cleasing power of it.

​We're about to have transfers!!!! It is a huge deal here just because our transfers are 3 months long where in other missions transfers are only 6 weeks. So it's going to be a huge change! We have 17 missionaries leaving and 16 coming in. For the small size of the Armenian mission, that is a lot of missionaries. Transfers are this Friday.

L is still getting baptized this Wednesday! She is just as amazing as ever. She is SO ready for baptism.
One of our members though has been stalking her and wants to marry her so our Branch President is trying to get him to stay away from her. It's really sad because she is just a single older lady living all alone and she is afraid because this guy keeps trying to like climb in her window and stuff. I'm just glad he hasn't scared her away from the church. Honestly that says a lot about her testimony already because if it were me I would stay far away from any place that had my stalker.

Conference: I totally forgot to bring my notes today! I had so many thoughts that I wanted to share! So I'll do my best to remember all the things I wanted to rave about. Well now that I'm trying to think of what to say, I really do just need my notes. But I do love how much everyone talked about loving and sustaining the prophets. We all get so caught up in the world worrying about not offending other people. Which we should do our best to keep peace. But we should fear God, not man.
Man, I am so sorry. This is all this week that I have to say about conference. I promise next week I will bring my notes because I have a lot to say about this October's amazing conference. Also, I loved seeing Christian in the choir for the Priesthood session. What a stud.

To my family members: Will you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon? Again?

There really is not a lot to write about this week. But with transfers this week I can promise that there will be a lot to write about next week.
I have a testimony of this Church. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to listen to the words of our prophets this week. What a blessing that is. I love my Saviour. I love my family. I love Armenians.

Longer letter later,
Sister Kuykendall

So for the whole transfer Sister B and I have been in charge of our branch FHE every week because the elders kept forgetting and other things...(We still love them). This last week they finally promised that they would do it but then flaked again. So we got stuck with it again. Hence the following two pictures. Gata is an Armenian pastry.

Char life

Hello momma!

This week has been great! Our only investigator right now is L. I mentioned her in last weeks e-mail. I'm not really sure what to say about her except for if there ever was a perfect investigator, she'd be it. She has really dived into the BOM and reads from the Ensigns everyday. She reads all of the pamphlets we give her from cover to cover and the teaches US what she learned. So pretty much we're not even teaching her because she is just doing everything herself. She's just perfect. She is so excited to be baptized and has a sincere desire to follow Christ. She will be baptize on the 15th of October. She'll be gone in Yerevan all of this week which is a bit stressful because we still have a few lessons and her interview to do all before her baptism.

I've been studying the Atonement... again. I've been reading in Luke in the New Testament. For me nothing brings the spirit quicker than reading about my Savior's everlasting Atonement. It's one of my favorite things to study.

Our investigator couple A and Y got baptized on Friday and received the Holy Ghost yesterday. Their baptismal service was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. They are absolutely the cutest couple. They both bore beautiful testimonies in church yesterday and I just cried like a baby. They are so incredible. Y (the husband) is incredible for this reason: A few minutes after he received the Holy Ghost one of the elders' new investigators (just a super adorable, old man) walked in and was just standing nervously in the back. Y got up, walked over to him, took his arm in his and sat him down next to him and his family. It was beautiful.

Well, really we are just doing a lot of finding lately because L is our only investigator. But I'm absolutely loving the Char life ;)

I love you so much!!!!
love, Sister K (the 2nd)