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)

general conference

Momma,

You asked about general conference: we will get to watch General Conference a week after you. We get together with our zones and watch it from the internet. I'm SO excited momma. I can't even tell you. I've been waiting six months for this! So don't spoil anything for me ;)

Spiritual Moment: A lot of my spiritual experiences have just been while I've been studying in the morning. Lately my favorite thing to do is just dive into the scriptures. About a month after I arrived in Armenia I decided to read the BOM cover to cover. I am genuinely embarrassed to say that I have never before done it. But last week I finished the BOM, cover to cover. It felt AWESOME. Every morning as I read I felt the spirit so strongly. Really, reading the scriptures is the fastest way to bring the spirit close to you. I'm sure you all have read the BOM cover to cover many times but I would like to challenge all of you to do it again (or for the first time if you haven't before). If you're LDS or not LDS. If you're active or not active. It is the word of God just as the Bible is. I can testify of that. I have read and prayed about this book and I can tell you that doubtless, this book is true. What does that mean? It means that God still speaks to His children. Why? Because He loves His children today just as much as He did in the olden days. This also means that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore Christ's church again to the earth. If I did not know of these things with a surety I can promise that I would NOT be here in Armenia teaching these people about it.

Funny: This week we were just walking home in the dark. Sister B is TERRIFIED of the dark which makes me feel like I should be too. So we were both just walking trying not to think of all the creatures lurking in the shadows. We sort of wearily eyed a dog digging through the dumpster wondering whether he would think we looked tastier than the garbage he was eating when all of a sudden we hear what sounded like gun fire! Some people when they are frightened run, some's first instinct is to fight. Mine: freeze right where I am. So my companion and the dog took off running and I'm just standing there not able to move. Eventually after the 3rd gun shot I started to will my body to move, so I start trying to catch up to my companion and just end up tripping all over myself because the gun fire is still going and I'm beyond flustered. I eventually am able to get ahold of my footing and catch up to my companion. We stop and sort of just look at eachother and then bust up laughing! We still have NO clue what the loud gun fire sounding noise was. But we can only imagine how silly we looked for anyone that happened to be watching. We're just happy we could make someone's night.

Cannibal: So we went on another split from Sunday till today (Tuesday), which is why the emailing schedule was off.... I went to Hrazdan again. All was well until we were walking to an appointment and saw a weird little dog chasing away a baby cow. After the dog was satisfied with the distance he had put between himself and the cow he trotted back to where he had been before. The dog appeared to be eating something which we assumed was just garbage. As we got up to where the dog was we saw it eating not garbage but another dog. A dead one. That's all I have to say about it.

Investigators: We have been blessed with INCREDIBLE investigators. I'm starting to lose track of what I have already written about them so I appologize if I retell you anything.
L is our new investigator. She is perfect. Two Sundays ago I watched her walk into sacrament meeting and sit in front of me. I didn't recognize her as a member so after the meeting ended I asked her if she was a member. She told me that she wasn't but knew someone who was. We went and met with her that night and saw a BOM on her night stand. We asked where she had gotten it. She told us that she had just seen it at the church and wanted to read it. She also had grabbed a few pamphlets and had started to read them too! She will be baptized on the 15 of October. I love her.
A and Y got their marriage liscence! I'm not quite sure how to explain the miracle of that. But just take my word for it. Also Y quit smoking. Cold turkey. They will be baptized together this Saturday!
Our other investigators are doing great as well. I am the happiest missionary out there. Man, I love this!

Well this Email is super long so I better end it here. But I love you and I hope you have a great week! xoxoxox
Sister Madie Kuykendall

I love my investigators

Momma,

Splits: So we had 24 hour splits this weekend and I went to...... VANADZOR!!!!! It was the best 24 hours of my life. It was so nice to see all of my family there. I walked in the church and I guess someone told the ward that I was coming and so they were all there to see me! They just drowned me in kisses and hugs. I was so overwhelmed but it was a good kind because I was just so overwhelmed with love. Not that Charentsavan people aren't lovely but it was just nice to be reminded that I still have some fans in this part of the world. Best split EVA!

Vernasage: So before missionaries go home here they have the opportunity to go to a place called Vernasage with their companion. My companion is leaving so we got to go on Saturday. It was so fun! It is just a huge Armenian market with all sorts of awesome souveniers and homemade Armenian things and Soviet stuff! It is sooooo cool! She got some really cool stuff. It kind of made me sad because I realized that I didn't actually bring any spending money on my mission...What was I thinking?? But I've got a while before I have to worry about that. It ended up raining but I was super fun anyway.

Investigators: We had to drop G this week as an investigator. She was the one, if you remember, that was just so embarrassed to be seen with us. We went to go pick her up for church and she saw us on the street and literally shooed us away because she didn’t want anyone to see her associating with us. I felt like a dog. But we’re not giving up on her quite yet. We'll see if she feels the absence of light in her life for a little bit and see if she gives us a call when she recognizes that it’s missing.

We may have to spend less time with J. She’s my favorite investigator so I really don’t want to but she just won’t come to church. She is almost through with the Book of Alma! She knows that this church is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. She’s told us that she believes it but she is having a hard time leaving her Word of Life church.A is great. She has a great knowledge of the Bible and is so friendly. We’re just not sure if she loves to have us over just as guests or as missionaries. She keeps begging me to marry her brother and live with her. We have made our purpose clear and I really want to believe that she is sincere but part of me says that she just likes us as guests. I’ve been praying for the gift of discernment so I hope that we will be able to move in the right direction with her.

A#2 is golden. She is sooo ready for baptism. I don't even have words. She and her husband just need to get a marriage liscense and then they're both ready for the font.
H is so cute. He's the little 8 year old that I was telling you about. He has been loving our lessons with him. We're not too creative but I don't doubt that the Spirit has led us in every lesson that we have had with him. He should be baptized really soon as well. We are doing a "3rd" with him tonight.

Earwig: There was an earwig just chilling on our bathroom wall the other day. If anyone doesn't know me, I hate them. So much. And Sister B made me kill it! All by myself. Gross.

R Papik: R Papik is one of our new convert's husband. He is just so old (I have a soft spot in my heart for sweet, old men, don't take that the wrong way, I just love them with all my heart) and his job is to go up to the 'center' to turn the fountain on and off everyday. We saw him a few days ago and went over to talk to him. As soon as he saw us he wrapped us both in a hug and gave us a kiss on the cheek. It's not allowed, but you can't just refuse a papik hug! After we talked to him for a bit he bent down, picked a few roses for us and sent us on our way.

I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world right now. I love Armenia and I love this people.
Love, Sister Madison Kuykendall

Caught in a rain storm…again

M is for Madie! (Armenian M)

Something artsy that I thought I should photograph

You know you're a missionary when…..

Unity

This week went really well. Sister and I have been getting along really well and I feel like I'm happier than I have been all transfer.

Nothing in particular happened this week. But it was still a great week. We taught lots of lessons and found new investigators. I feel like I'm a little bit on cloud nine lately. Of course everyday there will be things that let us down, but lately I feel like everything good that has been happening just kind of makes those small misfortunes not so rough.
I can really say that I have a HUGE testimony of companionship unity. For many different reasons. We have had better lessons filled with the Spirit. We have been having fun together which people can see in our countenances. We're more in tune with eachother and people can see that. I wake up happy and go to sleep happy. Companionship unity is everything.
I'm doing absolutely everything that I can to be the best most pleasant companion that I can and I can tell that Sister is really striving to as well.

We were going to have a baptism this week but we will probably have it next week instead because she is really busy moving into another house and we are hoping that we can baptize her at the same time as her husband. He is the elders' investigator and has a smoking problem. They will actually be going to get a zox (marriage liscence) today. So they should both be ready, if not by next week, then the week after. We are also teaching the husband's mother. She is so elect but just won't come to church. She feels like this church is true but she also doesn't want to give up going to her Life's Word church. We are really trying to encourage her to come to church, plus she is almost all the way throught the whole BOM!
We are also teaching 2 young girls (24ish) and they just absolutely love us. I was worried at first that they just liked the company(which I think is also true) but we made sure to establish our purpose and they still want us to come over. I have high hopes for them.

Stinkers: So we live in an area with lots and lots of children. And they just play outside all day long. They just do all sorts of kid things like play in the mud, chase the poor neighborhood dog with only 3 legs, throw a ball around, throw spit balls at the 2 innocent sister missionaries every time they walk out of their apartment and on occasion will come up and spank their bums and run off giggling because it's so funny. We love every child of God and we're not afraid of little kid bullies.

Wasps: So we always have a bedroom window open because it's just so dang hot and stuffy all the time. But as I went to open it this morning I saw something that made me change my mind. I guess the Lord really does love us because somehow this whole time we have had a huge wasps' nest right outside our window and not once have they flown in our window 3 inches from their beautiful little nest. Church is true.

Testimony: I think it's been a while since I've born my testimony to you. The things that I know for myself and that I know with a surety are these: God loves each and everyone of us. He is aware of each and every one of us. He wants to bless us and will undoubtably bless us as long as we keep his commandments. I know that we can all live together as a family in God and Christ's presence one day. I know that we are responsible for our own attitudes. I know that Joseph Smith restored this Church; the same church that Christ established during His time on the earth. I know that my Redeemer lives. And I love my family more than life itself.

I love you. Love, Mads