Drumroll Please

Sorry to all, but I've been really slow at updating Kathleen's blog.  Here are her two latest letters.  BTW, doesn't she look great?

July 8, 2015

Drumroll please...

I got transferred to Leganés! I was hoping to go up north or finish training Hermana Cheret, but I'm actually pretty excited for this. Leganés shares a border with my last area, so I'll probably see a lot of my friends from Barrio 3 again.

My new companion is Hermana Gálvez. Don't be fooled by the name. She's from Canada. And so are the other two girls that we live with. In case you didn't catch it, I'm the only American living with a bunch of Canadians. The accents... Also I'm living with my MTC companion. Small world.
I really like President Pack and Hermana Pack. President pack sounds like he's from California, but Hermana Pack has the most wonderful southern accent. They're both super nice. Even though they've only been out a little while, I'm really impressed with them!

Okay, now to the good stuff... S got baptized! By the skin of his teeth, but he got baptized. We had to have a few more heart to hearts with him, but he finally followed through. This stubborn and indecisive boy got baptized.

We were pretty nervous about him not getting through to the 4th because he had been so difficult about the day he got baptized (doing it on a specific day even though he had no reason for it etc). Also, I will add that two other people got baptized too. Happy birthday, America.
When we were waiting for him we called (we were calling every two hours to make sure he was actually getting out the door on time... Punctuality is an issue...) and he responded:

"Hermana... I have bad news for you..."
"S, what happened?" At this point my heart sunk into my stomach.
"Haha! Just kidding! I just got out of the metro!"
I wanted to kill him...

He got there and it went off without a hitch. It was actually a beautiful powerful ceremony. S bore his testimony at the end even though he didn't want to at first and said he really appreciated the work the three of us did with him and he loved this church because he was amazed about how correct it was. His wording.

His confirmation was another story... We made plans with him and a member to get him to church 20 minutes early. When we got there that morning he wasn't there... But the member was. We called him and the call went something like this:

"Hey, Hermana!"
"S... Where are you?"
"Don't worry! I'm coming right now! I'm almost there"
"S... Where are you really?"
"At my house..."
"Get here now!"

He finally got there 15 minutes after the service started. The two other people were confirmed and S ran in as soon as the second guy was confirmed. His shirt was half open because he was trying to change on the way to the church. I took off his hat, which has his name on it by the way, pulled him in the door and pointed to the front of the chapel where he was to be confirmed. A few of the members were giggling. Our district leader said "well... That was good timing!"

The last day that I had in Barrio 3 was really great. First off, I need to applaud Hermana Cheret. I felt so good leaving the area in her hands. She'll be area training her new trainer, but she has a really good handle on everything.

We were in church that morning and several members came up to me to wish me good bye. A lot of them told me they didn't want me to go and a few even cried. Not that I'm happy about their sorrow, but it made me feel really special that they loved me so much. Actually... About 7 people cried. One is going on a trip to London and said she'd write me and send me cookies that I like from there. She also says she plans on visiting me in May when she comes to Salt Lake. I made some lifelong friends here. ALSO L told me he thinks I was one of the best missionaries to ever come through that ward. He's been there a long time.

We later went and visited some people who were really special to me. We visited Sa and Jr in order to explain the change. They were both really sad, but Hermana Cheret said some really inspired things with her limited Spanish that make be believe that they will stay. I also have a firm belief that many of the people I taught there will get baptized. I know that to be true.

At the end of the night, we visited Aa. She is one of my favorite people in the whole ward/world! We chatted for about an hour and then I wanted to leave her with a spiritual thought. When Hermana Sánchez was training me she put a scripture on the front of my planner. I put the same one on the front of Hermana Cheret's when I started training her. Doctrine and Covenants 84:88: 
"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." 

I told her how I had a difficult few transfers in Barrio 3, and sometimes I wondered when I was going to feel the Angels bearing me up, but Aa always took care of me, my companions and investigators. I thanked her for that. She cried when I told her that. She really loved me and told me that she loved when I came to visit her. She said that she and Jr (they're relatives) talked about me often and that they really loved me and my desire to work hard. I want to be in contact with her forever.
I sometimes felt like I was really doing nothing in the ward, however, I really felt that the spirit was testifying to me that I had really made a difference for a lot of people in this ward.

Also this week was great for other reasons as well. We had a lesson with Jx, one of our most complex investigators. We were going to talk to him about the law of chastity, but I felt prompted to change the lesson, so we had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It was really powerful. He had been somewhat depressed lately, but he really opened up to us. We have asked him to be baptized 3 times before, but he refused every single time. This time he accepted at date in September. I told my Zone Leader about that and he was thrilled! He told me that he already looks Mormon.
We ended the week really well. It was good.
I love you all,
Kathleen

July 13, 2015

Sorry, yet again, this one will have to be short. My companion and I ate some weird fish the other day and she got really sick. We spent most of the day going to and from the Doctor in the center of Madrid today.

Other notable events this week: My companion lost her iPad. A bird pooped squarely on my nose while I was walking (astronomical odds on this one). We taught A TON of people this week. Most of the people we contacted were somehow related to an investigator or member. A Russian future investigator called me the enemy, I told him he won’t feel that way when we baptize him (He found that amusing).

This week was mostly me getting a handle on the area. We have only a few investigators, but I really like the ones we do. We have a bunch who are really prepared.

My companion was really pleased with this companionship and we´re getting along really well. She said that in the short week we´ve been together, she saw that a lot of these investigators perked up as soon as we started working together. They even appeared to be excited to meet with us.

We´re working with a family, Ax and her children, and they want to get baptized next month. They´re doing really well. They´ve been investigating the church for a little over a year now, and it appears that they are finally making progress. The theme with her and a lot of the other people we´re teaching is learning to teach them where they´re at, not where we want them to be.

A lot of people take the missionary discussions and sometimes they just go through one by one, even though they don´t really understand the content. We learned that with a lot of these people we had to rewind back to lesson one. It proved to meet their needs much better. It´s an important lesson to learn that we´re their to guide people to the Gospel, not drag them.

I´m really sorry with how short this. Crazy day and week!

I love you guys! I have in fact read your emails.
Love,
Kathleen

Make-Up Blog Posts & Photos of Eyebrows.

This picture has Kathleen in it.  If you look at Sister Jackson, in the red jacket, and look behind her and behind the Sister in blue, you can see Kathleen's eyebrows.  She is a little too short to be in the 3rd Row.

We have been quite remiss in posting Kathleen's emails, so we are going to catch up with excerpts from the last three.  Sorry for the delay.  We know everyone wants to know what she's up to.  So here they are:

Generic Weekly Email-5/17/15

This week was slow, but we still had some good experiences! Monday really started out strong when we taught a new investigator (M) who was really open to listening to us. She has cousins who are in the church and one that´s even serving a mission in the United States. She has a really cute family and seems like a really special person.

We are also teaching a boy named J. He is somehow related to Aa. We keep asking both of their families, but everyone gives us a different story, so we might never know. Nonetheless, he´s proven to have a lot of promise. He´s really liked meeting with us. We went to visit Aa this week and she asked us if we were teaching him. We told her that we were, and she said that apparently he was so excited about it that he was telling his non-member brother all about it. He´s a really sincere, sweet kid.

We taught Jx again, and he´s been progressing really well. He´s a really inquisitive person and he wants to know everything. He´s asked a few questions about the Word of Wisdom this week (mainly because the members kept telling him about the Word of Wisdom despite our efforts to control the amount of information he receives), so we decided to teach him about it. Since he´s been so curious about prophets and modern day revelation, we decided to give him a copy of Doctrine and Covenants and gave him a few things to study. He appears to be taking it all very well.

Also, this was a copy of Doctrine in Covenants that we found in our apartment. We didn't realize that two other missionaries wrote in it to a different investigator a few years ago, and we suspect that they never had the chance to give it to him. But we had the chance to give it to Jx. Our member at this lesson, C, saw Jx coming and told us "Quick! Cross out the other missionaries names and put your own in!" And so we did. Jx thought it was hilarious.

We've been really lucky this transfer to have a lot of people really invested in the welfare of our investigators. Ca, an older Spanish gentleman, took a real interest in Jx. He asks about him all the time and has even given us things like movies to let him borrow. We were worried that they wouldn't get along at first, but they really hit it off.

We invited him to meet Aa this week, and he loved being over there. Aa is always willing to just let us pass by with our investigators. She loved meeting him and we think he appreciated it as well.

Also, our district leader, Elder Gao, has really pitched in on helping S. He said he will invite him to go to appointments with him. He asks about him a lot. It´s really inspiring to see how much the people in our ward are working to help someone come unto Christ.

I've really put a lot of thought into what it means to depend on the Savior this week. I've felt discouraged at times and I've felt a little sick this whole transfer. Sometimes it felt like I didn't have any physical or spiritual strength to do anything. I've prayed a lot to know what to do and say that would carry me through a lesson, and we've had many good lessons that were really guided by the Spirit this week.

Sopresas!!

In response to the last email, here is what happened with transfers: The unexpected.

First unexpected thing, some of our investigators almost cried when they heard one of us was going to leave. It was good to know that we had a good relationship with them.

We received our phone call on Saturday night and I was just expecting to get something that went something like "Hermana Sykes goes to Barrio 6 with Hermana So and So and Hermana Griffin gets So and So."

What we really got was a lot more shocking. Hermana Griffin was told she was going to Barrio 8 and I was staying... To train another missionary.

Actually at first we were told that our area was closing, which was much more surprising considering that we had a lot of progression this last transfer. Luckily, one of us was staying. Nonetheless, I´m still really nervous for tomorrow when I pick up my new companion. Please pray for me. I really want to be a good trainer and help her be a good missionary.

I´m pretty sad about losing Hermana Griffin.I loved her and she was a really good missionary, friend and companion. I know she´ll do great in her next area.

Right now I´m having an adventure with Hermana Barkle. We´re companions until tomorrow. She only has been on her mission for 5 months and she´s whitewashing an area (Translation: The sisters before her both left and left the area for her and she doesn't know anyone or the area) AND she´s training.

She´s really worried, but I saw her spring into action immediately when we hit Móstoles and get to work. We planned for an investigator who has a baptism this Saturday and started sorting through the apartment for resources. We´re going to be doing a lot of preparation for her new companion tomorrow. She´s going to do a really good job. (Also on an unrelated note, she´s from Australia and is really cool!)

We saw some incredible miracles this week. We realized this week we really needed to find people, so we had dedicated about 4 hours this week looking for old investigators and street contacting. We found some very wonderful people including a Spaniard who told us he really needed the message we shared with him.

We also found a woman who was really excited to talk with us. I felt a pretty strong nudge to go and talk to her and I´m happy we did. She has family that are members and at least one cousin who is serving a mission in the United States. We stopped her when she was with her 4 year old daughter and she told her "Honey, shush. We´re going to listen to the nice elders." We thought it was pretty funny she thought we we´re elders but even happier that she wanted to listen to us. 

S is plugging along really well. We invited a member to come help us go over the baptismal interview questions with him. He told us that he was at "85%" on Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He says he believes it and wants to believe it, but he´s not quite sure yet. Aj, the member we invited for this lesson who is a convert himself, was able to relate his personal experiences. Smith´s attitude started to shift a little. You can see more and more that he´s starting to develop a testimony.

J, Aa´s relative, is progressing at full force. He´s reading, praying and made it a point to come to church for all three hours this week. He even mentioned that he want´s to serve a mission. One of the Elder´s lent him his name tag to see how it fits. :)

Ja, our less-active member who´s coming back to church for the first time in 26 years, came to a baptism with us this week. She loved it. She said it brought back so many warm memories to her. We explained baptism to her later this week and the covenants we make. I bore my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the sacrament. I remember the room was filled with the most wonderful feeling of the Spirit. She stared at us in silence for a few seconds and then told us she didn´t want either of us to go. It was really satisfying to me.

Also, as a side note, she´s a make-up artist. She did my make up this week as a nice, natural, day-time look. It was really pretty, but I felt like I was dressed up to go to the opera. :)

We met with a new investigator this week, Zx. She´s from Brazil and had met with the missionaries for some time in another part of Madrid until she lost contact. The elders brought her to English class one time and she sought us out afterwards to tell us that she wanted us to come by and teach her. The elders were a little confused, but were happy to pass the referral. She was so prepared to hear the Gospel. She loved the whole message and even wrote down scriptures we gave her. She had been sick for the last few months and we offered her a blessing. The elders came and gave her one and she said she had felt so much better when we were around her.

This is only a tenth of the awesome things that happened this week! I wish I could write more. I´ll talk with you next week. I love you guys!

Sincerely,

Hermana Sykes 

The Voyage

This is Kathleen's most recent letter.  I am posting the entire letter.

Familia y Amigos!

Let me explain the title of this email. A few weeks ago an Elder once told me that his brother told him that all missionaries get to a point in their mission where they look back and all they see is mission. Then they look forward and all they see is mission. A little like being in the middle of the ocean.

I hit that point this week. It´s a little surreal.

Also, I had to strain my eyes at the word "voyage" to remember if it was actually a word in English.

I´ll start with the funny stuff this week.

We had a ward activity this week that was a lot of fun. We met a few people and have some good leads of new people to teach. This was also one of the funniest culture shocks of my mission.

We had a barbecue, and I´m kicking myself for thinking we would eat hot dogs and hamburgers. We are in a ward that is about 95% South American, and the food we eat with the members is usually stuff I don´t recognize. We went into the kitchen to see what they were preparing and they had a GINORMOUS tub filled with some sort of organ meat. I´ve eaten various organs before, but I didn´t recognize these. This is what ensued:

"Hey, Paa. What are these?"

"Oh! They´re whatchamacallits!"

"What?"

"They´re whatchamacallits."

"I don´t know what that is.

"Oh... Um... It´s the part of the chicken that holds the eggs. They´re great! I promise!"

What she was describing were chicken ovaries. We both tried one, and we politely left the room to find a place to spit them out. I also ate what I´m pretty sure was chicken tongues this week. I was at a lunch where one of the elders was served cow tongue. He hid most of it in his napkin and later described it as "It was like kissing a cow!"

We had two investigators -- Jx and S -- show up to this ward activity and they had a great time! They stayed all five hours and played games, played with the children and made a lot of friends. We both felt pretty strongly that this was going to help them progress a lot. 

I´ve noticed a strange quirk about the people in Spain. The last few days have been REALLY hot. Normally people tell us to put on a coat even when it´s warm, but they usually believe that it´s cold out (it´s not). It´s been 70 and above, and I´ve still been seeing people with winter coats and sweaters. We saw several women in wool coats fanning themselves with flamenco fans on a hot bus yesterday. In case there was any doubt before, we´re in Spain.

Now on to the more spiritual stuff.

The fifth person contacted us on the street this week. He had met with missionaries before and had wanted to know if we knew one. He invited us to come talk to him next week. We´ve been having a lot of luck with people contacting us!

We met with a less active woman this week named Ja. She was baptized with her cousins in Peru when she was 8, but when she was 13, she inexplicably stopped coming to church. She lived her life as normal: Went to school, moved to Spain, got married, had a baby. Everything was going normally until her life started to unravel. She started to realize how much she needed God in her life and she had spoken to just about everyone: Jehovah´s Witnesses, Pentecostals, Hari Krishnas, but nothing seemed to work. She ran into the Elders in the neighboring area and she told us that it just seemed right that she ran into them.

She was so excited to have us come over to meet her (even though we woke up her baby, Ls). We discovered that she didn´t know much about the church, and we started teaching her about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had asked her if she had ever asked herself why there were so many churches in the world, and she told us that was one of the most prominent questions in her mind. She also wanted to know why -- if there is a God -- so many bad things happen in the world, especially to children.

We promised her that if she prayed and asked God, that he would reveal an answer to her. She was very confident that she could receive an answer. She might be one of the most amazing people we teach. We could tell during the whole lesson that she has the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She is very in tune with the Spirit.

We´re really excited about Smith. He´s super enthusiastic about church and loves coming. He´s working really hard on keeping the commandments and is doing a good job! He´s been progressing really well and, assuming he keeps pushing along, will get baptized next week. We´ve been praying for him that he can receive and nurture a testimony. Your prayers are appreciated too.

Ji left for Barcelona this week and won´t be back until the 15th. She might even move there. We´re going to be in contact with her. Nonetheless, she´s progressing really well. Please keep praying for her and her family.

I learned a lot about seed planting this week (in the spiritual sense). I´ve finally started to see that no matter how small my actions are, if I´m trying to be like the Savior and teaching people (even though they reject us sometimes), I am actually making a difference.

I read something in Preach My Gospel this week about what it means to be an effective missionary. It doesn´t matter what the external factors (number of baptisms, lessons taught, etc.) but what you are trying to do and if you are trying to follow Jesus Christ. I found this list and I loved it so much I made a poster for my desk:

You´re an effective missionary (or member or person) when you:

• Feel the Spirit testify to people through you.
• Love people and desire their salvation.
• Obey with exactness.
• Live so that you can receive and know how to follow the Spirit, who will show you where to go, what to do, and what to say.
• Develop Christlike attributes.
• Work effectively every day, do your very best to bring souls to Christ, and seek earnestly to learn and improve.
• Help build up the Church (the ward) wherever you are assigned to work.
• Warn people of the consequences of sin. Invite them to make and keep commitments.
• Teach and serve other missionaries.
• Go about doing good and serving people at every opportunity, whether or not they accept your message.

I love you guys all very much. Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Sykes

A Whole Bunch of Letters

We've received a whole bunch of letters from Kathleen that I have just neglected to post for the last few weeks.  So I am going to make up for it by posting this cute picture and excerpts below from a few of her letters.  -- Rebecca Sykes

April 20, 2015

We finally met with Mle this week. This was the woman who ushered us into her house to talk to her children a week ago. We finally caught her when she was home and we had a wonderful lesson with her. 

This was another one of those times where you have something planned for someone, but you realize that they need something else. We wanted to teach her about the restoration this week, but the Spirit guided us away from that as we started talking to her. She first started talking to us and peppering us with questions: Why are we on a mission, do we have two last names or just one, who was our family etc.

As we started teaching I was going to ask why she was interested in meeting with us, but I got an impression to instead ask who Jesus Christ was in her life. She opened up to us about how she is really struggling. She is out of work because she broke her hand and still can´t move it. She has a daughter that is in jail in her country. Another in France who´s about to have a baby and she can´t visit. Her son ran off to go live with a much older girlfriend. And last of all, her other daughter got mixed up with gypsies and a dangerous lifestyle. Like any parent, she is very pained, but she believes the Lord is still with her. And he is.

We talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that he understands what she feels. We also explained that because of the Gospel, families can be united now and in eternity. She has many things to hope for. We taught her how to pray and invited her to pray at the end of the lesson. She really appeared to feel that the Lord was listening to her. You could tell that she knew she was talking to her Father in Heaven. Hermana Griffin asked her if we could do anything for her at the end of the lesson, and she really appreciated that we took such an interest in her and her needs.

4/27/15  Grandes Noticias!!

I have some awesome news... Followed by more awesome news. Actually I´m pretty sure this is going to be a great email.

First off, we were in companionship study today when we recieved an ominous phonecall from our district leader. He said that all the missionaries are to read the ENTIRE bulletin. Hermana Griffin and I were both a little nervous about what this meant. Maybe it meant there was going to be a split in the mission. Perhaps we were going to be collectively called to repentance (although I´m not sure why I thought this as we appear to be a pretty good mission).

We had to go to 4 different computer cafés in order to find two computers side by side (mission rule) in the small space of 45 minutes. We quickly signed on to see what happened only to find out... Drumroll please... 

We´re getting iPads!!!

We have a seminar on the 7th to train us how to use them. I´m crazy excited for this!

In the way of spiritual things this week I wanted to talk about something really important to missionary work: Invitations.

It´s basically what all good missionary work is based on. It´s part of the plan of God for us to learn how to put off our natural inclinations to be selfish and serve ourselves. As missionaries, we can not make people do the right thing no matter how much it will make them happy. The only thing we can do is invite. This is the way that the Lord works with his children in order to help them do good.

I read this in Moroni 7:13,16

"But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God... For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God."

Bon Jour!! and Pictures

Interesting detail from this week: I ended up having to teach part of a lesson in French. Oh boy am I rusty. I´ve ordered French study materials from the office and hopefully I can get good enough again to teach.
Mom: I loved the photos you sent me! They are so cute! In my last zone meeting we talked a lot about talking about families. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was designed to bless us and our families. We were asked to reach out and talk about the importance of families more, and this just about made my day. I think I´ll use them in lessons sometimes! :)
We had a pretty cool week this week. I was a little nervous about transfers, but we got the pleasant news on Saturday that we were going to have yet one more transfer together! Honestly, I wouldn’t mind three transfers with Hermana Griffin. She´s a great missionary, companion and friend! We´re seeing a lot of success.
Unfortunately, Elders Vasquez and Ballard left our district, but we´re getting some great missionaries in their places. They´re also going to some great places, so it´s been pretty bittersweet seeing them go.
I´m not sure if I ever wrote to you about Or before, but he´s a bit of an eternal investigator from C. We had been getting a little frustrated with him because he wasn´t keeping his commitments, but we finally got him to a lesson and he seemed like he felt a little cornered and maybe a little judged. He explained that he doesn’t have minutes on his phone most of the month and can´t call us to cancel, nor can he get a lot of time off of work to meet with us. Nonetheless, he really want´s to meet with us to learn more. We were pretty humbled by this experience and we definitely needed to repent. We actually had a pretty good lesson with him, and he even agreed to get baptized. He´s feeling pretty good about it and I think he feels a little more loved.
We have one investigator, Fy, who, albeit has a lot of potential, also will also ask us some strange questions. He seems to appreciate what we´re trying to share with him, but also has a serious case of cold feet. After agreeing to set up another appointment this week he asked: "If I don´t want to meet with you guys in the future, do I have to give your book back?" ... Baby steps...
Ji had a spectacular week this week! We were able to get her to come to a baptism with us, and she appeared to love it. Everyone loved her, and possibly they loved baby Ms a little more. We actually met her husband this week and we´ve been encouraging her to invite him to hear the message. She´s a little nervous, but she´s been sharing what we´ve taught her to him. He appears to be opening up. She even came to church and appeared to make a lot of friends.
Also, it´s like magic sharing the Gospel with her. Every week we pray and plan on what we´re going to share, and when we go to her house, she opens up and asks questions about exactly what we were planning on talking about. She´s always pretty thrilled when that happens. :)
We´ve done a lot of work with the members in this last transfer and we´ve found that we have a ton of allies in this ward. Last week, one of our friends, Ma, was walking down the street and saw a woman that looked a little sad. Ma, with the big heart that she has, started talking to her and trying to comfort her. The woman asked "There´s something different about you... What is it? Is it the church you go to?" Apparently, Adela was looking for a church and to have a better relationship with God. Ma got her number and told her that she would send "two angels" to her house.
When we got the referral we started running to this woman´s house. All of our plans fell through for that day. It was an incredible miracle. It was also kind of a strange lesson.
We met with her and her roomate and they both seemed interested. They were also polar opposites. Coa (the roommate) wanted to know if we prayed to the Virgin Mary. Aa in objection insisted that we came in order to study the Bible with her (typically a term used by people who have investigated the Jehovah´s Witnesses). She also had a question about the name of our church. It went something like this:
"What are you again? The Church of Saints?"
"No, we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sometimes people know us as Mormons because of the Book of Mormon."
"But you´re not Mormons... Right?"
We actually had a really good lesson with her and brought her to church the next day. She made a lot of friends and really liked the church. She also made a lot of friends who wanted to teach her about the temple and the Word of Wisdom... We´re still trying to smooth out the details about the Book of Mormon. The point is that she made friends and does want to come back.
This week we tried to visit one of our members in the hospital. Aa is a wonderful older woman from Bolivia. She´s super sweet and she loves the missionaries. She can´t leave her home, but she always has it open if we want to bring an investigator over. She loves us a lot and she´s one of my favorite people in the world. She´s been waiting for a kidney transfer for 15 years, and therefore is in the hospital a lot.

We tried to visit her twice, but we couldn´t the first time because we would have to separate to visit her in her room. (This hospital has a lot of hoops to jump through. Only two people can come in at a time). The second time she didn’t want us to visit because she was worried about getting us sick. It really speaks volumes about how much she loves us and how important the work is to her. I was a little sad to leave her in the hospital like that because the hospital is dirty and kind of scary. I would love it if you guys would pray for her.
To top off the week, there was a baptism for another ward that meets in the same building. Two weeks ago I went on a companion exchange with the Sister Training Leader and it was a pretty inspired exchange. We were able to commit an eternal investigator to get baptized this weekend and she was baptized. It was a real victory. The other sisters were really happy to have us there and the woman who got baptized was really happy to see us too. It was pretty spectacular.
That´s all for this week! I love you guys!
Love,
Hermana Kathleen Sykes

Le Fe

Familia! y Amigos!

Wow... We have seen a lot of miracles this week. I´m not sure if I can get to all of them in the time I have. We´re going to hang out with Hermana Sánchez today and we are taking a little time out of P-Day to teach someone who seems really great!

First, an update on J! In fast and testimony meeting yesterday, she got up to give her testimony for what I think is the first time. She told the ward how thankful she is for us and because of the work we did with her, she wants to go on a mission. I think I can go home from my mission feeling like I had success. I don´t ever feel like I have had a more gratifying moment in my life.
She´s really learning so much right now and she is embracing the Gospel. It´s beginning to settle into her soul and she´s becoming such a confident, strong, wonderful young woman.

We´ve been working a lot more with Ns lately. I haven´t written about him for a while, but he has made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. We had a lesson planned for him a few days ago, but he was sick and so we decided to do more of a fun lesson to make him feel better. We read Moroni 7 with him, and he loved the part about charity and how it is the pure love of Christ. We talked to him about getting a priesthood blessing (one of three we offered people this week). He had never received one before, but he accepted. He told us he felt a lot better (and I suspect comforted) the next day. We felt an impression to talk to him about getting a patriarchal blessing, and he´s really excited!
One note about Spain: Due to the economic situation, it´s really hard to get people to come to church because few people are willing or able to change their schedules for fear of losing a job. With Nicolás, he hasn’t been able to come to church for the last few months because of work, but told us that he was trying to change his schedule so he could start coming to church. I don´t even remember asking him. He really wants to make changes in his life and do the right things.

I forgot to talk to you about Ls last week. He´s a member in the ward here, and he is INCREDIBLE. He is always super excited to help us and he loves helping our investigators. He´s even willing to help when it´s hard for him to come. He´s gone contacting with us, he´s given us good referrals, he makes the effort to be friends with our investigators. He´s the member that every missionary wants on their team! His brother, J is slightly busier, but is just as willing to help us. He was our mission leader for a while and really gave us a lot of support.  I made J thank you card this week to thank him for his help as our ward mission leader and it took five missionaries to sign it before anyone noticed that I spelled J's name wrong in the illustration I made. His name was J. Luckily, he found it amusing.

I love my companion so much. She´s like a carbon copy of Sarah (my sister for those who didn´t make the connection). Her sense of humor is the same; she´s super organized; she gives people funny nick-names. We get along super well!

Ml, a less active member who no one actually knew existed (he met with missionaries about 5 transfers ago and no one has met him), called us up out of the blue to talk with us. He was stressed because he hadn’t had contact with church for a long time because of work and he had to work on immigration papers in order to try and get a new job. He really wanted to meet with us, and he told us he felt so much stronger and happier afterwards. We met with him again and he brought us a bag of fruit and other snacks to thank us!

Ji appears to be progressing A LOT. The baby has still been a little sick, but she still really wants to come to church still. She is reading and praying and doing everything she can to learn more. She had mentioned this week that she felt really grateful that we had found her because she really wanted to change her life. She really feels like she has found the truth. We taught her about faith and the Plan of Salvation this week and felt like it answered the questions she had in her heart.

We visited a member Aa, because she had been very sick. We showed up at the right time because she was just returning home from the hospital and felt very lonely because no one was visiting her. We spoke with her for a few minutes and it became fairly clear she needed a priesthood blessing. The Elders dropped what they were doing to come and help. She had felt much better. We shared a scripture about faith with her, and she told us that every time we came to her house and shared something with her that she felt like it was exactly what she needed to hear.
Our zone leaders are teaching a man named Domingo. Domingo is easily one of the sweetest men I have ever met. You can tell that he´s had a really tough life and has come off of a rough road. Every time we see him on the street he wants to come and tell us about what the Elders are teaching him. He is so excited about the Gospel and wants to tell everyone about it. He tells us that he loves the changes it has helped him make in his life. I love being around him because he is always asking questions about the Gospel and how he can apply it to his life.

I've learned a lot about faith this week. I read in Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon a while back and I thought on this verse a lot. It is essentially just a list of miracles that occured in the Book of Mormon, but I love verse 18 the most. In reality, miracles are based on our faith, and faith is an action. When we show that we believe and trust in Jesus Christ, we pray, read the scriptures, serve others, attend church, forgive, repent, and become better people. This is what yields miracles.

"For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance lest they should be destroyed, saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled—

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world.

But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.

Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith.

Behold it was by faith that they of old were called after the holy order of God.

Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled.

For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.

Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth.

Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

Behold, it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites.

Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.

And it was by faith that the three disciples obtained a promise that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith.

And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God." 

I love you all. Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Kathleen Sykes

más milagros

Please note:  This is Kathleen' mom posting her letters.  She doesn't have access to Facebook.


It´s Spring in Spain! It´s been a little rainy, but I do like this weather. It´s not too hot, but I only need a raincoat! I wish you could all experience it too!
First off we visited one of the women in the ward this week. She´s very nice and very worried about our safety. We talked for about 30 minutes about how we need to stand next to the wall in the metro because the world is full of bad people who will probably push us in front of the train. Also, we need to not talk to men... Also gypsies might steal our bags if we´re not careful... Also, she says "Hi" to the whole family!
If it makes you guys feel better, we feel really safe in this city -- along with 90 percent of it´s population. We recounted this story to a member we went contacting with about all the people who might knife us while we´re proselyting and his response was "Wait... In this city?" (Really, Madrid is pretty safe).
At the beginning of this week, we saw an incredible miracle. A few weeks ago, we contacted a woman in the street a few weeks ago that appeared a little surprised when we started talking to her. We got her number (which we thought was fake until she picked up the phone), and we visited her last Monday. She cancelled on us a few times, but we finally went to her house to teach her.
We usually start a lesson off by asking why someone is interested in meeting with us, but before we could ask, Jeni burst out in tears and told us that she had met with the missionaries four years ago because a friend invited her to church. She said she had never been to a church that made so much sense to her, she had felt good and wanted to keep talking to the missionaries, but she eventually lost touch with her friend and the missionaries. When we found her in the street she was really surprised to see us and really excited to meet with us again. In the meantime while she was looking for the church, she had a baby, Ms (who is too cute).
For a while and had visited priests and other churches to try and find someone who could help her. She said she just never felt the same as she did when she was at our church. We invited her to be baptized and she agreed. :)
More about Jn and how awesome she is. When I met her she was a recent convert who wasn’t coming to church very much. She just didn’t seem very comfortable. For a while our approach was simply asking her why she wasn’t coming to church and sharing scriptures with her. For obvious reasons, this wasn’t very effective. We decided instead to start teaching her to teach the missionary lessons. All of the sudden, she changed dramatically! She´s going to church and mutual and going with us to lessons. Every time we visit her, she asks us if she can teach us.
Often when you need to teach something, you learn the most. In Jn´s case, not only has she learned, she has really embraced the Gospel. Her testimony is very strong, and she is an incredible example for her family (at the age of 17, she´s the only active member in a part-member family). She taught us the Plan of Salvation the other day and it was practically perfect, and I´m so proud of her.
This is probably the most satisfying moment of my mission. When she was teaching us, I felt the impression that the Lord was really pleased with the work we were doing with her. I know that these experiences will help strengthen her testimony and help her remain active the rest of her life. If this is the only thing I really accomplish in my mission, I can be happy with the time I spent here. We prayed with her at the end, and she became a little emotional. She had really felt the Spirit and had said that she really appreciated that we were working with her to -- in her words -- "prepare her for her future."
We also taught a man named M this week. He´s from Mali and seemed less-than-excited to meet with us the first time. His friend, Ad, is an investigator who asked him to come listen to us too. We got his number and called him again, this time he seemed much more excited. We asked him why he wanted to meet with us and the first words out of his mouth were "Because when I met you in the park that day, I know that what you were saying was true." He kept asking us how he could know and receive answers from God. He is very excited to meet again.
We also met with a man named Billy last night. He is Muslim and from Africa. He really wants to follow the commandments and even has a strong faith in Christ. We were SUPER late to his lesson, it was raining, and people from another church were proselyting in the area. But we could tell he was golden from the beginning because he STILL waited to meet with us. He had incredible questions and kept telling us how he needs to read and pray in order to know what was truth. He LOVED the first lesson as well because it satisfied a lot of his questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he kissed it. He wants to invite a friend to meet with us next time.
I´m running out of time to write, but remind me to tell you about one of our members, Ls, next time. We have some great stories about him and he is easily one of my favorite members. He´s an angel!
I love you guys so much! Have a great week!
Love,
Kathleen