I haven't even been in Huntsville, Alabama for one week yet, but it seems like I've always lived here. It's all good.
I arrived on Tuesday (January 31st) and met the Mission President Richard Holzapfel and his wife, Sister Jeni Holzapfel and the senior missionaries working in the mission office. We went to the mission home to eat dinner with the President and then the sisters stayed the night with Sister Dunbar, a senior sister who works in the office. We had 6 new missionaries in our group-3 sisters and 3 elders.
The next morning was the transfer meeting where we found out who our companions would be and where we were serving. I'm serving with Hermana Simpson in Huntsville.
We also have two other Spanish speaking sisters living with us. Sister Nieves-Mercado from Puerto Rico and Sister Schroeppel from Highland, Utah. Sister Schroeppel and I traveled here together.
Having Spanish sisters is a very new thing here. The first Spanish speaking sister is still serving here. I am the 6th and Sister Schroeppel is the 7th to be serving here.
After the transfer meeting we drove back to Huntsville to get settled in. We had an appointment that night at 7, but it fell through and we called an investigator on the phone instead.
It was a great experience, because this investigator was all of a sudden so excited about the gospel. He said that he is trying hard to change his life and is working with his boss to try and get Sundays off and wants to be fully involved in the church. That was so cool because my companion was so excited. I didn't know who he was and I had never met him before, but I was so happy that he was so happy about this gospel and that he was coming closer to Christ.
On Thursday, I went out to teach my first 2 lessons. We share a car with the other 2 sisters so we biked to the appointment which was about 6 miles away-I'm probably going to be biking a lot, so I'll get used to it. It's not as bad as I thought it would be in a skirt.
Anyway, the first one was to a part-member family and we taught a little of the plan of salvation and how reading the scriptures and praying are commandments. I was scared to be teaching and speaking in Spanish, but I was really surprised at how much I understood and could say. I studied Spanish for so long in school, but I literally could not speak a word of it until I went to the MTC. I hadn't studied Spanish for a year before I entered the MTC and it was amazing how it all came back so fast. It is without a doubt because Heavenly Father is helping me with the gift of tongues.
The second lesson we taught also went so well. We taught a woman about the 10 Commandments and she accepted all of it so well. At the end I invited her to be baptized and she accepted! She is so ready to be baptized, but we still haven't set up a date, so we're still working on that, but I think they will definitely be baptized soon.
Friday is our Athens day (Athens, Alabama is a city north of us.
It's the furthest away from where we live so we have one day a week when we visit everyone up there).
We taught 4 lessons and they all went so well. We taught one man about prayer and how it is so important to pray directly to God in the name of Christ (he is Catholic and was comfortable praying to saints).
He didn't accept it right away, but at the end, we had him pray in this manner and it was so powerful and I'm sure he felt it too. When we were talking he said that he loved the Book of Mormon and knew that it was the word of God, so he is progressing so well.
We also taught 4 families together. They are all related so we had a big family night with them. Two of the households are members and two are not. We taught and committed one family to read and pray. And yesterday, they came to church! It was a miracle because they haven't been to church in over a year and missionaries have been working with all of them for 5 years. It was a great experience.
On Saturday, we went tracting and visited many other families. While tracting for my first time, we found someone! We told him a little about prophets and the restoration. We're going back to teach him and his family on Tuesday. We have been praying as a district to find a family to teach, so this is an answer to our prayers.
The Spanish Branch here is very small. We all fit in 4 or 5 pews, but the members are so great. They are so willing to help us out all the time - coming with us to appointments and giving us rides. I think I have taught more lessons with a member present than without.
The Branch President is President Lopez and he is so nice. We're going over to his house tonight to see how we can strengthen the Branch together. While sitting in testimony meeting the thought came to my mind that one day, we would fill the chapel with the Spanish Branch. The Branch President came up to me afterwards and said that if we all work together with the many missionaries we have (there are 3 companionships in the branch) we can become a ward.
Everything about this work is very exciting. I can't wait to teach; I can't wait to tract; I can't wait to speak to people in Spanish and I've definitely never felt that way before.
Hermana Kemp
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