Hello!
Another week has come and gone in my service here in Houston Texas! What a joy the past months have brought as I have served here and how grateful I am for each passing day that brings more experiences and more joy than I could ever imagine was possible. The challenges are harder than I ever thought possible too, but hey, how would I grow and become better without them, right!? We all have to face them! :) It's been a great ride. The other day, Sister. Thompson, one of my companions was talking about life and ups and downs and she said that one time she heard the saying "I Am Going To Love My Story". This is what I have decided! And why not? We each have a story. We each have a different life and each of our lives are tailor fit just for US. How neat is that to realize? :) Pretty special and fancy if you ask me! :)
The Thomas Family! They are going to be my most favorite family here in the Alief Ward. There are 5 little girls in this family and when I met this last Monday for FHE for the first time, I fell in love right away! The girls names Taylor, Katie, Sally, Kenzie and Samantha! Don't you love the names? I do! Especially the name Samantha! :) Haha! They are such a cute family! The girls just love you for who you are and the mom is an AMAZING cook! Her Mexican food is to die for! I am so thankful I get to be a part of their lives! :)
During our MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) a week or so ago we decided that our mission needed to study repentance and improve our study skills during the month of February! At our Tuesday Zone Meeting I did a training on How To Study Effectively! It got me so excited for this opportunity I have this month! Repentance is something that we each have to use each day of our lives. Forever. We aren't perfect and we are always falling short of the glory of God. But because of Jesus Christ we can repent. I am so excited and thankful and feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world for getting this opportunity to study repentance for a whole month! I am so excited to learn more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how I can more fully apply it each day in my life. Study skills are also something that I will use the rest of my life. Whether studying the scriptures or studying for school, study skills are so important and fundamental! I am so excited to improve in this area of my life also! Luckiest sister missionary alive right here! :) Yahoo for me!
The Felt family in Alief is amazing! We had dinner with them this past week. Brother. Felt has Alzheimer's and so that adds a little extra responsibility to Sister. Felt and on top of that she is taking care of her special needs grandson. I was just so amazed and inspired and impressed by this lady. She is a little bit older and still going full force. She is amazing and the whole time we were in her home I was just amazed by her. The world is full of such incredible people. Who are amazing examples of the Savior. So Christ-like in so many ways! :)
We have an investigator, Cynthia, who we had a break through lesson with this last week! It was UNREAL! It was like one of those lessons you have in the MTC and then you get out to the mission field and realize that lessons "like that" don't really happen that often. Well, guess what? They do happen. The timing of everything that happened in that lesson was so perfect. We went into the lesson knowing that we were probably going to have to drop her. She wasn't progressing and wasn't showing real intent and we could just "feel" that "something" was off. But we could not put our finger on it. We were trying to get to the bottom of things by asking all these inspired questions and being sincere and praying for her and for each other as we were teaching and then her friend came to the door. And when her friend came in, it was at a very suspenseful and intense part of the lesson and Cynthia was crying and so were we and then her friend told us about what is going on in Cynthia's life and the story was unreal with all the trials she is facing in her life right now. And then the lesson got to the point where the three of us (me and my 2 companions) didn't really know what to say next and then in came Marie (who is a less active member) and she didn't know about anything that has just happened and so she was super casual and we were able to wrap the lesson right up, say a prayer and leave. It was so intense and none of us even knew what to say. We got back into the car and drove to our next location and then as we were walking to the next appointment Sister. Thompson finally broke the silence and said "So... Cynthia... That was intense". Haha. It was crazy! Loving these experiences!
Studying the scriptures is THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD! I am so dead serious right now. My whole mission I have seen an increase in my study skills and sometimes I still feel like I have no idea how to study and I still have study sessions that I don't feel I get much out of and I just have to find hope in knowing that tomorrow is a new day and another opportunity to try again. Well, this last week I was really putting an emphasis on studying by the Spirit and being taught from on high and allowing God to guide me to where I needed to be in the scriptures and using my resources effectively. On Friday I had the most incredible personal study of my life! I was going to study repentance and I felt that I should read this talk by Gene R. Cook and within the first couple paragraphs he suggested to the reader to study Alma 32 and I felt that I should. And so I opened up The Book of Mormon and read in Alma chapter 32 and verse after verse answered question after question after concern after problem I have been facing and my investigators have been facing! It was the craziest and most amazing experience EVER! I have read Alma 32 so many times in my life and this experience of reading through it was unlike any other experience! I had also been pondering the past few days on how I could gain a deeper understanding and testimony of The Book of Mormon. In my patriarchal blessing it says that I will gain an "undeviating testimony" of the prophet Joseph Smith as I study The Book of Mormon and I know that this experience I had this past week was definitely a part of building that foundation for my life! :)
We took an investigator to a baptism on Saturday and afterwards we got to teach him with a member in the church building. Another intense lesson. In my last area, most of the members that came out with us were return missionaries and so they TOTALLY knew Preach My Gospel and the lesson outlines perfectly. So they were very easy to teach with. Well, here in Alief there are lots of non return missionaries, because they are converts! Which is AWESOME! It also means that our lessons go nothing like we plan on them going, which is so much FUN! Because then you totally know that God is leading the lesson and that the Spirit has to be there in order to help our investigators tune out what crazy story the member is sharing and to just recognize how they feel and not what they hear! For real. It is the BEST thing in the whole entire world and I just love it! We walked out of this lesson, got to the car and I said to my companions "who feels like their faith just increased like crazy?" It was amazing! I feel so strengthened by these opportunities that I have to preach the Gospel and learn the principles of the Gospel in such unreal ways! Lovveeee it! :)
Sister. Thompson celebrated her 9 month mark this past week! How exciting of a milestone for her to reach! We celebrated by going to Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream for dinner! Yup. Mom and dad, you weren't there to tell me that I couldn't. ;) Hahaha. Just teasing! We sure had a great time! Dessert for dinner! Why not? :)
Yesterday in church, the three of us (me and my companions) sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer in sacrament meeting to the tune of Homeward Bound. It was so beautiful! And yes, it was my first time singing in public. Well, I mean. I have sung in sacrament meeting you know, like with the congregation and all that, but I have never sung for a musical number with that small of a group (just 3 of us) and oh the best part was that Sister. Erin Calvert was doing SIGN LANGUAGE right next to us! It was so beautiful! Y'all would have LOVED it! Hopefully some day in heaven we can all watch a re-run of it! :)
My last thing to share is about prayer. This past week I have had a handful of experiences where I prayed to my Father in Heaven, during very random times of the day, whether while I was running in the morning, or laying in bed at night worrying about this and that, or getting ready for the day in the morning, etc. and I have had some powerful experiences of feeling an immediate impact of love and peace. It has been so powerful! One night I was laying in bed worrying about some "political" drama thing going on in the mission and immediately Father in Heaven calmed by heart and reminded me of the truths. The principles. The fact that we are called by God to do this work, not by man! There were a handful of other expereinces like this. I am so grateful for prayer and know that we can pray at ANYTIME for peace and God will always send it to us! He loves us. He knows us.
I LOVE Y'ALL! Keep being so great and amazing!
Sister Kunzler
In Texas
In Alief Area
Can You Beleive That?
I'm Not In Hermann Park Area Anymore
Crazy Life
I LOVE My Story
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