Bible Bash- Running in the Rain- I'll see her in the Celestial Kingdom

Hello Hello Hello To Y'all!

Transfer calls came this morning and after three hundred and sixty nine days serving in HPN (Hermann Park North), the Lord needs me somewhere else!  :) It is a bitter sweet kind of a thing.  I am super excited to move on and try a new area and a new adventure but also sad to leave behind my Texas Family!  The great thing is that I have a Texas Family who are AMAZING and I will forever remember them and for sure be back to visit.  It's just a "see you soon" kind of thing.  Not a "goodbye".  :) Sister Tauasa is staying here and needless to say, a little scared to death.  But she will do AMAZING!  We all have to grow up and leave our "mom" eventually!  ;) She'll be great and the ward will continue to love her!  So on Wednesday morning, with my bags all packed, after being unpacked for an entire year, I will head to transfer meeting and find out who my new companion is and what my new area is!  I'm excited for the adventure!  I also get the opportunity to serve as a Senior Sister Training Leader with Sister. Carlson and Sister. Workinger!  Super excited to learn from the two of them!  Sister. Workinger and I were MTC companions and I LOVE her and I haven't got to work with Sister. Carlson yet, so I am SUPER stoked for that!  :)

Last Monday we had a farewell lunch for Elder and Sister Spencer!  An amazing senior couple that has served in our zone for the last year with me!  :) These two are just about as close to the Savior as it gets!  They would make our entire zone lunch after each conference and were of great help to the ward they served in!  They live in Colorado and so I will for sure see them again!  As always, just a "see you soon" kind of thing!  :)

Bible Bash.  Yes.  They happen.  And, yes, they are terrible.  Brother. Feke is a less active that is amazing!  Besides the fact that he can't come to church on Sunday due to work.  That makes it a little less amazing.  But HE is great.  He has solid faith.  From Africa!  Those African people are my favorite!  :) Anyways, he has a friend.  Jonas.  Not a fan of the Mormon faith.  Jonas has a lot of faith.  And is nice.  Not as nice as Brother. Feke.  But Jonas is still nice.  He's a son of God after all, right?  The point in, Jonas likes to Bible Bash.  Usually we can control the situation so that it doesn't happen.  It has happened once before, and I learned my lesson.  Well, we took some members with us... they didn't know the "lesson".  I had even warned them before about Jonas.  Didn't help much.  It was rough.  But hey, there has to be opposition in all things, I guess.  The fact is, we live and we learned. And I lived.  And I sure did learn! 

Sister Wilson lost her husband a couple months ago and her son a couple years ago.  So it is just her now.  We had the chance to have dinner with her this past week!  It is such a special opportunity to be able to minister to people in those circumstances and just 'be there" for them.  It was a blessing to be with her, talking about her husband and son.  Reflecting on their lives, the people they were and the work they are doing now.  In the spirit world.  Death has a way of making everything else in the world dissolve and not matter.  It sure is a perspective forcer.  (Is that even a word?  Probably not.  Hope it makes sense though.)  If not, don't mind me. 

The Ashton Family!  President Ashton is our mission president!  Love that man!  And Sister Ashton is his wife!  Love that woman even more.  And they have 7 kids.  Yep.  7 kids.  Their youngest is 1.5 yrs old ish and their oldest is about 14 ish.  They are pretty incredible! Sister Tauasa and I had the HONOR of going out to lunch with Sister. Ashton this past week!  Olive Garden and great company! Sister. Ashton served a mission and it was amazing to hear her stories and see how her mission has helped her so much in her life!  It was the best lunch date in the world!  Lucky us!

We have the most incredible Relief Society President in the world here in Hermann Park!  Sister Lynn Ingram!  As a missionary, I have had the unique perspective of seeing her in action.  Behind the scenes.  We stopped by the hospital last night to visit an investigator of ours and as we walked down the hallway to Bette's room, we saw Sister. Ingram sitting in the hospital room with Bette.  She seriously is incredible!  She loves the sisters and it shines in all she does!

I got to go on exchange with Sister. Bianchini this past week!  She was my first "baby" (person you train, it's missionary lingo... work with me)!  She was here in Hermann Park with me just shy of a year ago!  :) It was SO GREAT to be with her!  She has grown so so so so so much and it was awesome to see!  We got to attend the Zumba class at the church with an investigator of ours, Talisa!  So much fun!  Love Zumba!  :) We got to teach Juan (investigator) about the Plan of Salvation and before our lesson we were talking about the twelve tribes of Israel and he was super super super excited to learn about Lehi's lineage in 1st Nephi.  Juan is solid!  After our lesson with him we got to have dinner with the Walker Family!  :) Now, I know that I say everybody is super amazing... but the Walker Family!  They are on a different level of amazing!  LOVE them!  She always makes my most favorite food in the world!  This time we had Greek food!  DELICIOUS!  The best food ever!  :) Then we went and did a family history training with the Cline's and we had to park far away and it was raining and freezing (yes, Texas got COLD) and we had coats on, but they didn't do a whole lot for the cold factor and so we RAN IN THE RAIN!  So much fun!  When we got to the Cline's apartment we were huffing and puffing super a lot and so we had to stand on their porch and catch our breaths while laughing and laughing! So fun!  The joys of the work!  The final miracle of this major miraculous day was William and Kathy!  (Like William and Kate, cute, right?).  They are from the Philippines.  William was raised in the church and moved to America when he was 19 and has been inactive since.  His parents are active still!  Kathy is not a member but recently lost her patient of four years (she is a CNA) and it really traumatized her and "woke her up" to the fact that she needs to make God a part of her life!  And so, here come the missionaries!  Yahoo!  To rescue the day with the Plan of Salvation!  They are great!  So excited for them! She has accepted a baptism date for March!  Eternal Marriage here they go!  The day was great!  Sister. Bianchini, I LOVE her!  The only slight problem with the whole exchange was when Sister Bianchini woke up the next morning at 3 am ... sick.  Yea.  No bueno.  At all!  She was super super sick!  Throwing up and exhausted.  She couldn't even get out of bed!  So I got to play "doctor" for the day!  Which was great!  The sad part was that we were supposed to be at a Sister's Conference with Sherri Dew that day... oops!  Guess what though, the world isn't over and I'm still alive.  It didn't kill me and I will just have to meet Sherri Dew in the Celestial Kingdom!  :) Sounds like a marvelous plan to me! 

I have to brag about James and Aleisha McKean for two seconds!  They moved into the ward about 6 months ago and have us over for dinner once a month and they have become such GREAT friends of mine!  We had dinner with them on Saturday and they mentioned that they are moving back to UTAH in May!  That means they will be there when I get home!  Yahoo!  Love it when friends move to the same state as you!  :) Sister. McKean came up to me after Relief Society yesterday and gave me a final hug (I knew I was going to be transferred... President. Ashton spilled the beans in my quarterly interview a couple weeks ago).  We had a little cry moment and then it was over and we talked about her super cute purple sister missionary skirt!  :) I just love the people here.  Friends forever! 

Okay, enough story telling.... it's time for something spiritual.  1 Nephi17:7 is when the Lord commands Nephi to go to the mountain.  Nephi goes and is told to build a ship.  I was thinking yesterday about how nerve racking of a trip that would be, up the mountain.  He had to know that "something big" was coming.  He had to know that it was going to require work and sacrifice and faith on his behalf.  I think about times in my life when I have known "something big" was coming.  Like when I got my mission call.  That anticipation is something that can't be described.  Or transfers... that is another type of anticipation.  It got me thinking about how can I act more like Nephi in these situations... just a thinker thought. 

Brothers & Sisters!  I LOVE all of you SO MUCH!  I hope you know that!  Your prayers on my behalf and on behalf of all the missionaries in the world, they WORK!  You haven't a clue how much strength they give us out here!  We feel it!  Thank you! 

I LOVE Y'ALL!

With Love, 

Sister Kunzler
Signing Off.
In HP.
For The Last Time. 

New Adventure.
Here I Come.