To All Of You I Say HELLO!
Transfer calls came this morning and Sister WIlliams and I got perhaps the BEST news on planet earth! Well, okay. Maybe just the BEST news in the Houston Texas South Mission. I am sure there is somebody else out there in the world who got some pretty great news today. But I digress. Our news is the BEST in my mind! Sister Williams and I will be staying here in Alief for another 6 weeks together! This will make 6 months strong together! We are so thrilled! She has been a huge blessing on my mission! She has been a wonderful companion and being here in Alief will prove to be one of the greatest blessings of my mission! God has truly been so good to me my whole entire mission. But this final 6 weeks could not be a better situation! I sure do love my Heavenly Father. He truly loves us.
I attended my final Missionary Leadership Council this past Friday. It was an intense meeting. One that I will never forget. A highlight of my mission. Many of the zone leaders and us sister training leaders on the MLC have served together for most of our missions. Many of us came out right before the BIG rush of sister missionaries after the age changed 18 months ago. So each of us have grown together and served together for most of our missions. And for the majority of us, it was our final MLC. We all made it through the meeting, which was very inspiring and at the end sang "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing". Our mission song. By the end of the song, half the MLC was in tears. We knelt together to pray, one last time. Elder Johnson, our AP for many months who goes home this week, said the final prayer. By the end of that prayer, there wasn't a dry eye in that room. You could feel the hearts of every missionary in that room breaking. Knowing that it's coming to an end. An experience that has meant the world to each of us. That has changed us and brought us closer to our God and to our Savior in a way that nothing else ever has. It was bittersweet. The good moments will keep coming, this I know. But in that moment, you would have thought that every single one of us in that room was literally dying. Not just "dying" on the mission. But literally dying. The love and unity I felt was something I will never forget. I love the sisters in the mission and having been able to serve them as a senior sister training leader has brought me more joy and growth than anything. My mission wouldn't be "my mission" without it. My heart is filled with gratitude and humility for my God. In 1 John 1:7 we read "walk in the light ... we have fellowship one with another". There is power in unity. In gathering together in His name. In fellowshipping one with another. All because of the Savior and the light that He provides.
But the super GREAT news for me is that it isn't over yet! 6 weeks still! Not enough, but I will cherish every second. :)
There is a video on lds.org that all of you MUST watch! It is amazing and will change your appreciation and perspective on the scriptures forever. It's phenomenal! It is about 20 minutes long and so maybe for a Family Home Evening or something it would be good. But it is awesome! It is titled Scriptures Legacy. Here is the link. https://www.lds.org/media-
I went out to Texas City on exchange this past week! It was a blast! When all of you think of Texas, including me, Texas City is what you think of! Totally country and one of a kind people. Cowboy boots. "Fix'n" to go places. True Texans! I loved it! There were bugs everywhere and the humidity was through the roof and it was awesome! Life is good. There was this super cute family that we visited too and the little girls walked us out to our car afterwards and the little 5 year old girl said "WOW, your car is sooooo clean! Did you take it to the Washateria?" Hahaha! (In case you didn't get the joke, the Washateria is where you wash your clothes) Now it's funny, right? Haha! We laughed so hard! Love little kids! Truly the most innocent and sweet things to walk on planet earth! Love them! They make me happy. Add to my joy! :)
Donald, one of our most progressing investigators, is doing amazing! He came to the Saturday night session of stake conference! Who does that? He is facing a lot of persecution from his family and friends and it seems that every single time we turn around, the adversary attacks full force. But we have God on our side and his power is ever more great! Yahoo! We will prevail. We will win. When we taught him the Word of Wisdom he accepted it right away as a commandment from God and said "I'm already thinking about needing to load up on gum. That will help." I love the Spirit. It does such a wonderful work!
Sunday morning we had another wonderful surprise when not only Kristi Youngblood showed up, but her husband Reid Youngblood showed up also! He works every weekend and so we were shocked to see him there. When we mentioned it after the meeting he said "God made me sleep in late and take a tardy at work so that I could come to church today"! Ha. I love this family so much! They are amazing! :) I can see the Atonement working in their lives and they are recognizing so many changes in their family! It is powerful to witness. Even yesterday Reid said "I know we can do this, because we have each other". It was a great opportunity to testify of the power of family. Truly with our families, centered around the Savior, all things are possible!
We taught a lesson on discipleship to a less active couple this past week. It was a wonderful lesson and at the end the brother bore a very sweet testimony. He said "it's ironic that you should bring this message to our home tonight, the past couple days I have been thinking a lot about this topic." I am so thankful for the Spirit that guides us in this work. Tells us the words to share and the testimony to bear. The Spirit surely guides us more than we think it does. How thankful I am for that. :)
Sneak Peak. So last week in my e-mail header I wrote "$30 in 1's & Cops". Now I just know that all of you were DYING to read the story that went with that header and then I am sure you were very sad when you realized that this blonde sister missionary in Texas totally forgot to write about it/ran out of time. Sad day, right? But guess what!? Do not fear. I have time today to write about it! Phew! So two weeks ago we went to visit a less active brother one night. He wasn't home. There was garbage all over his lawn. It looked like they had moved. Abandoned the home. It was crazy. We had no clue how to get in contact with him. But God provides the way. The next morning guess who we see on the side of the street? Brother Burger! For real! Yes. That is his name. Isn't it the best? We pulled over and chatted with him and found out he moved (obviously). He told us to meet him at Taco Cabana (a yummy Tex-Mex restaurant here) in an hour. So we did a couple visits and then went on over to Taco Cabana. He wasn't there when we got there. But 6 cop cars were in the parking lot. We parked our car and sat on the outside patio and waited. And watched the cops raid this car and they had a man in cuffs. It was a good show. And we waited. And waited. And watched the show. And waited. And an hour later, Brother Burger showed up! Yahoo! His friend gets out of the car, walks over to us, hands us a wad of $1 bills and walks back to the van. And drives away. As they pull away Brother Burger yells out the window "when I pulled up I thought I was going to have to save you from the cops". Ha. Well when you showed up you didn't have to. But as you drive away after doing a sketchy money handoff, you are going to have to save us from the cops brother. Luckily, the cops were preoccupied and didn't raise an eyebrow at the sketchy exchange of money between two black guys and two white girls. It did not look good friends! Did not look good. But we got ourselves to the car and drove away! SAFE! Phew. I love Texans. Life is good. God is good.
WIth Love, Sister Kunzler
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