Merry Christmas

Hey Everyone!

Oh the packages and cards and letters make my day. And I seriously kept all the packages unopened for Christmas. Crazy because I'm a snoop, but you can ask my trainer, Sister Partridge. Meeker is wonderful. I'm getting to know the ward alot faster than I expected. It's not to hard when everyone hugs me every two seconds.

It's cold... Very cold. -20's. We went caroling one night, which was a big mistake on my part. It was the coldest night so far. It was on Wednesday with the youth. We road on a flatbed trailer with hay on it. It hurt so bad to sing. When you breathed in your nose, you could feel your nose hairs freezing. My toes were in excruciating pain because they were so cold. When we got back to the church, Sister Partridge and I went into the bathroom and put my toes under the water in the sink. I yelled "turn off the hot water!" Sister Partridge didn't have ANY hot water on. It was pure cold water burning my toes. It took a long time to get the pain to go away.

I got warmer boots :) Wool socks, but it's still super cold!

This week has been crazy! We found 3 new investigators. The standard of excellence is 2. We were shooting for 6. We really need more. We found so many referrals though. And we met so many new people. Finding 3 investigators is alot in this small area. Last transfer, Sister Partridge and her companion only found 1. It's such a small town.

We had a lesson with 2 men from Assembly of God. We were nervous it would be a Bible bash, so we brought Bishop Isenhour and his first counselor Brother Harman. It went extremely well. The lesson was for Justin. He asked for a Book of Mormon at the end. Sister Partridge said the last time they went he wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon. Null, Justin's friend who baptized him, is still scared to take a Book of Mormon, but we have another lesson with them next week. Brother Harman did a great job answering questions I might have been stumped on. No contention. The spirit was there.

We taught Tom this week. He talked to us about his concern of going to church because of feeling judged from past sins. We taught him Alma 36 which is all about Alma telling his son Helaman his conversion story. What an amazing use of the Atonement. The spirit was there. He came to church that Sunday. His newly wife is a member. He was almost baptized 3 months ago, but suddenly went backwards. I think he will progress again.

Alot of the husbands here are inactive or a nonmember. Our investigator Laura is a sweetheart. Her boyfriend is an inactive member of the church. They have a son, Dillion who is 1. She loves the idea of the family. She came to church for the first time last week. She couldn't go this week because Dillion was sick. We need Ed, her boyfriend, on board for her to be baptized because they need to be married. He was offended at one time in his youth. He had a traumatic event happen and people didn't treat him the way they should have.

We felt strong promptings to go to the Taylor's house.  (referrals) They are currently moving, so we went to the new house. When we got there there were two boys in there twentys working on a fence. We talked to them and they said they would be there tomorrow. We left. I regretted not talking to the two boys about the gospel! We did quickly turned around and went back to talk to them. Thats why we were prompted to go to the Taylors. We went back and we literally had to circle the house to find them. We felt like stalkers. We found them and got their numbers and will visit them soon.

Sister Partridge is AMAZING!!!! She's so fun! And so amazing. She's so directed by the spirit. We both have been!

I cannot wait to skype on christmas!!!!!

-Sister Gampe

Sweet Gesture

My Mom and Dad got a nice email from someone Kendra visited last night. They spoke highly of Kendra and her companion and they included this picture.

~Brielle

Picture Update

I'm in Meeker, COLORADO! It is a SMALL town. No Walmart. no fast food. no nothing. It's amazing. We have to drive an hour on P-days (Mondays) in order to go to walmart to shop for food. We can't buy it in Meeker or we will starve. Way too expensive. I've never seen so many mounted animals in my entire life. EVERY house has: Deer, Elk, Moose (sorry mom) , Goat, Mountain Lion, Bear etc. wow. My companion Sister Partridge (who is AMAZING, fun, spunky, I love her) said her last companion was a vegetarian (stopped for her mission) and cried every time they left a house because it was full of those mounts. Meeker wasn't her place. haha The people are so loving. I've never met so many loving people. The ward helps the missionaries so much. Sister Partridge says that I'm so lucky to serve here. She says Meeker is the best. We get fed every dinner. (pretty much) I ate Elk. It was really really good. Bishop Isenhour made it for me. He seasoned it really well. It was delicious! Every meal has been great. I love the weight from the MTC. wooo! I have a scale in my home. I'm living with the Neilsons. They are so sweet. We live in the basement. There was a weasel in the walls scratching and keeping Sister Partridge and her companion up, so they put tons of Moth Balls. So when I got there it REAKS of moth balls. But that will hopefully die down...when we give hugs people complain of our smell. Its actually pretty depressing. All my clothes smell like moth balls. So if you smell moth balls, think of me. :) This place is not what I was expecting when I was sent to Colorado. I love it though. I've never received so many hugs at church in my entire life. The kids all would hug me. They asked me to introduce myself by bearing my testimony. Our investigator Laura came for the first time! (which was crazy) So my testimony was more like a mini lesson to her testifying of the truthfulness of the first lesson. The people are wonderful even when they turn us away. Which is a huge blessing. This is a dog town. Every home has a dog. We probably smell so bad from petting so many dogs. AWE we even got to hold BABY puppies. Only 2 weeks old! I finally can send pictures because my companion has a SD converter. (to a USB) Shes sweet.

I am in charge of the phone...which isn't good. I accidentally dropped the phone in the snow getting out and didn't know. we continued through our day. That night during companionship study, we noticed the phone was gone. I thought of the possibility of me dropping in the exact spot where we did. (heavenly father blesses us) The next morning we got it in the snow and it works perfectly :) I would have cried if I broke the phone my first week. I'm extra careful now.

 

We found an investigator TRACTING! crazy huh. especially in this small town. She GAVE us her number without us asking. Who does that?! She must have some reason. We meet with her tomorrow and we are preparing like crazy so the spirit can teach. I'm so excited. Her name is Dawn.

 

I miss Dear Elder. I don't think they work. I havn't gotten anything since being in Meeker. My Mission President is amazing. His wife is amazing. I loved meeting them. That picture they took of me the day I met them (which I think they sent to you) is terrible. throw it out! hahah On the flight to Colorado, I sat next to this man who is not a member. So I took advantage. ;) We talked alot. The whole time, and he admitted that he usually hates talking to people. He is BRILLIANT. He has his own business curing cancer with herbs and some other crazy stuff that was too smart for my brain. He says he doesn't advertise because hospitals would put him out of business. sad. people could fix their illness, but he want's more money. I got him to open up. His family is mormon. He was raised mormon. He served a mission in Dallas, TX. He left the church. I think he was offended. He basically says he doesn't believe in organized religion but respects what I am doing and he said that I will benefit. I asked him what his favorite thing was from his mission that benefited him. He said being able to talk to people. He seems like one of those really smart people that are socially awkward. I really did enjoy talking to him. He told me to take 2 tablespoons of Ground Flax seed for my ADHD. He said it will help tremendously. I should try it. He said I can put it in my protein shakes. I don't know how to get that stuff though. He said a Health store...whatever that is.

 

Wow there is so much going on. I don't even know what to write about! Everything is fast pace. Sister Partridge got sick though so we had to take it easy so she could rest. She sounded really crappy. She is back on her feet again so our numbers are going to be high next week. I can feel it. We have alot of lessons scheduled so that is good. It's so hard to make plans after 7. Lights are out by 7 in Meeker. It's really wierd. haha

 

There's this inactive lady Irene. She saves cats and has a Kitty house for them. It's heated and everything. She has a permit so she can pick up road kill to make food for the cats. I told her how mom saves every animal stumbing in our yard and she loved that. We are "practicing" our lessons on her "since i'm new" Yeah Sister Partridge uses that excuse alot so people will let us teach them. But we know if we let the spirit touch them, they will remember it's true. There are alot of inactive members here. We will bring them back. All we need to do is love and serve them. I keep extra clothes (pants and shirts and sneakers) in the car so we can do unexpected service for people.

New address

c/o Neilsen Home

PO Box 154

Meeker, CO 81641

 

Her companion is Sr. Partridge. I'm still working on figuring out how to change the address on her blog layout to the left. Please use the current addresses I've been posting. Her other address is not current. You can also use DearElder.com to easily write Kendra and send her care packages.

Goodbye MTC

Hey Everyone!

First off, I received so many wonderful letters from family and friends. Greatly appreciated! They make my day. I hear that you can still send Dear Elders while I'm in Denver. I would check on that if you can. I have my Mission Home Address. I will put it in the bottom of this e-mail. So many wonderful experiences here. Good thing I write in my journal everyday because I would never remember it all. It all blurs together. I am getting sad every time I think of the last moments with Sister Lamb. She is so wonderful. I know she will be an amazing missionary in Toronto Canada. She is an amazing companion.

It's amazing how Heavenly Father truly answers prayers with faith. Mine were answered all week. Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it. Keep saying prayers morning and night. Individually and with with your family. I've really loved reading The Book of Mormon. I don't know why I had a hard time reading or understanding it. It's truly turned into a novel now. It's hard to close it. A novel of Truth about Jesus Christ and his prophets. I am reading it and marking all the things about Christ in red. When I read it again I will mark Christ's doctrine in another color. It's going to be amazing.

The lessons are a lot easier to teach. The Plan of Salvation was my hardest to teach, but the trick is to simplify! The Gospel is a lifetime of learning, not just a 45 minute lesson. They will learn more later. I continue to love everyone. I really got close to the new districts that came into our zone two weeks ago. There are four sisters that I absolutely adore. Sister Woodbury was a BYU soccer player! I beat her in leg wrestling with my right leg. My left leg I got crushed. Literally I was thrown! She's way cool. She's graduated and started a career. What an example. She paused her life to serve the Lord.

There are some Elders here that need to lock their hearts. My companion and my sisters in my district tease each other that the weirdo ones that we see are each others future spouse. So the one p-day me and my companion were in the book store and she was looking at the birthday cards and so I wanted to try to find some funny ones. Funny cards in the MTC = NON EXISTENT! They were ridiculous. Gave us some good laughs. The one said, "It's always time to go out on your Birthday! Unless it's 10:30!" Me and my companion were wondering if it was a joke for old people, or if it was a strict parent who doesn't want their teenager to go out at night. Hmm.

I am going to miss my Book of Mormon Tutor. She was such a sweet lady. We really dug deep in the scriptures. She was so fun to talk to and I think she really enjoyed studying with me as well. I'm glad I was hard on myself and was able to be scheduled to have the tutor even though I didn't actually need it. My companion was jealous she wasn't being tutored because she could feel that spiritual high I had after it.

The food here is oh so delicious! I gained 4 pounds. Which is nuts because I work out every morning and in the gym! Sitting in a classroom studying allows you to lose 0 calories. Our elders in our district each gained 10lbs! Ouch! I should be good when I go out in the field.

Guess who wakes up ALL of the sisters in my room. ME! Who would have thought? I am terrible at waking up. But I pray every night that I will wake up. I am excited for my quilt from mom. I hear it is so beautiful! Plus I can't wait to be super warm at night. Oh no! I hope that doesn't make it harder to wake up!

I am getting anxious to meet everyone in Denver! I'm going to open my mouth up to everyone! I don't want to risk missing the people the Lord had prepared for me. That would be sad. Well I better get going. I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Gampe

Sister Kendra Gampe
Colorado Denver South Mission
999 East Tufts Ave
Cherry Hills Village, CO 80113
United States

Still Learning

Hey Everyone!!!

I've been receiving wonderful letters from friends and family and I want you to know that EVERY SINGLE letter was greatly appreciated. Tremendously appreciated. Keep it up! ;) I love the work. I love my study time to dig deep in the gospel. Its amazing how my view on the gospel has change. It has changed in the way that I thought that the gospel was complicated. Whenever people asked what we believed in it was hard for me to explain, but I learned that it is so simple! We have a Heavenly Father to loves us. That's the beginning and you take it from there. I wish I could go back in time and teach people what we believe more clearly.

I love the people around me. I met senior missionaries during lunch one day and every time they see me the sister missionary gives me a big hug expressing how grateful she is to see me. I love how easy it is to truly love people you don't fully know. But I know they are a child of God. That's enough for me. My teachers are truly inspired. They are amazing and I feel like I can ask them everything. I can see the difference in my lessons. I've learned to listen, be patient and actually listen to people. Focus on what people are saying. Don't focus on what you should say next. You will be more honest and inspired. The more I learn the more I am able to get out of the way so the spirit can guide my lessons. I love asking questions so I can focus on what THEY need to hear and not what I want to tell them.

Funny story. Before my TRC (where I teach an "investigator" that I don't know) me and my companion, Sister Lamb, were out in the love waiting. We started talking to some elders. Randomly the one elder gets up and sets his camera on a table across from us and sets it on a self timer. I didn't know he was doing this. Randomly he leans over and the camera takes! I look up super confused! All the other elders were yelling, "Elder you have to ask her! You can't just take pictures with random people!" He was extremely embarrassed and quickly put his camera away (without deleting the picture) and tried to say he meant to angle the camera towards the other Elders. I hope his companions teach him a little more social skills while he is in the mission training center. ;) Me and my companion were able to awkwardly laugh it off.

Funny things happen here all the time. I'm always laughing with my sisters, my district, my zone, and especially my companion. I know that we will be eternal friends. There are Christmas lights all over campus here. I LOVE it. The only thing about my district is they don't like singing Christmas songs right after Thanksgiving. I had to fight for some Christmas songs! So now we do "rock-paper-scissors-shoot" to see if we can sing a Christmas song. We learn new things about each other everyday.

Alright well I better get going. Only 30 minutes. Exact obedience = miracles! I love you all so so much! I miss you and pray for you every day. Promise!!!

Smile

-Sister Gampe

Thanksgiving with Elder Holland

Wow my days blur together! But let me tell you how much I love The Mission Training Center. What a wonderful place full of loving people. My teachers are amazing. I am learning so much. I truly think I will benefit as a high school teacher because of my mission. I love my Sisters, Companion, District, and Zone. They are so amazing, fun, and strong. We are teaching acting investigators daily and I am blessed because I haven't had a bad experience yet. But I know my time will come. I am really learning out to teach through the spirit. My lessons with my companion, Sister Lamb are totally guided. We have had investigators cry, and we have set baptism dates. Our investigators have never said no to commitments because the spirit is always burning inside them and they cannot deny it. I always try to point it out to them.

Thanksgiving was the best I've ever had. We first had a Morning Devotional, and we knew one of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was going to speak. We didn't know which one though. Jeffery R. Holland walks in and immediately we all stood up. My heart was beating so fast, my body felt like it was on fire, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. The spirit was so strong in that room as soon as he walked in. Tears filled my eyes. What a wonderful experience. He brought his whole family and had a few of his grandchildren perform vocal, piano, and bear testimonies. His beautiful wife spoke about how we need to have a testimony so strong that we cannot control it. We just want to shout it to the whole world because we want everyone to have the blessings. President Holland spoke about how blessed we are to be in this dispensation. We are the members that will press forward. So amazing. He shared his love for his wife. What a beautiful thing to witness. Plus he was hilarious. He wanted us to tell you all that they adopted us in their family on Thanksgiving. When he left, we stood up and that same feeling came and tears filled my eyes again!

We also had a humanitarian aid project. We made 4,200 Health Kits and 4,200 Education Kits that are being sent to Mali, West Africa. What a wonderful thing for Thanksgiving. Service is how we show our love for our Savior.

We than were given popcorn and watched "17 Miracles". I cried so hard during that movie the whole row of seats were shaking and everyone was looking at me. Embarrassing. And than an Elder went to shake our hands to tell us that when he looks at us Sisters he feels so blessed. He shook my hand while it was covered in snot. Embarrassing. Hahah I couldn't contain myself!

I love you! Heavenly Father loves you! We are all blessed.

I'm Alive!

I LOVE it here! My companion Sister Lamb from Las Vegas is amazing. She is so sweet and we get along perfect. My other roommates who are in my district Sister Schrishuhn (try pronouncing that, it took me 3 days to get it right ((Shry-shoon))) and Sister Langi are so fun too. The rest of the missionaries in our district are elders. They are all fun. We make sure to sit next to each other at the meal times. We actually sit with our whole zone. I was just asked to be the Coordinating Sister. Which means I'm in charge of my sisters. I need to serve them and love them and report how they are doing to the Branch President, President Wenn. He is literally 4'9''. Maybe even smaller. Looks like a little elf. I would love for him to dress up closer to Christmas time. haha just kidding. I found out I have to get tutored...wow what a way to make myself embarrassed and feel inadequate. It's not because of reading out loud or because I don't understand what I'm reading but because my vocab isn't good. The sister missionary that quizzed me would ask me randomly what a word meant in a verse in The Book of Mormon and I didn't do very well. I think I got them all wrong. Blame my ADD. Oh well. I would like the extra help, I just don't know how I will have time for it. They keep us busy in here. I'm exhausted by the end of the night. It's a lot of studying and class time. My mind is drained. I have no extra time to think. I miss you all, but I really don't have time to think about it, which is good. I can tell some people are struggling with homesickness. I am learning how to love everyone in the matter of 5 minutes of meeting them. It makes it easy to want to serve them. My heart is locked. Promise. My teachers Brother Bacon and Brother Roberts are amazing. They are currently attending BYU Provo and devote a lot of their time for us. You can tell they prepare very well. I love them and I'm very grateful for that. The spirit is so strong here. My heart is beating our of my chest. I literally think it will explode one day. I pray a lot here. I always pray for my investigators out in the field. I know that there are people waiting to here the gospel. I hope to help them come to Christ. I had my first lesson yesterday. It went very well actually. We felt really good about it. It was Brother Roberts pretending to be an investigator. At one point he said "The world is a dark place". In my head i desperately wanted to ask him why he thought that, or what has happened in his life that makes it a dark place, but Sister Lamb was talking and I didn't want to mess up our grove. When we walked out and Brother Roberts came back into class, he talked about how we need to love our investigators so much that we need to be concerned for them and want to help them and find out if they are struggling or going through a hard time. At that moment I knew the Holy Ghost wanted me to ask that question. Darn I didn't act on the Holy Ghost! But it is a learning experience and I am soooo grateful I was at least able to recognize the Holy Ghost. Gym is so fun here! I whoop on all the elders in four square. They get mad when I throw the "spin" move. Gets them every time! I also played volleyball and they were very impressed. All those years of going to Dad's practices and getting hit by jump serves. I hope you know how much I love it here. It is truly wonderful here. The meals here are of course delicious! But I make sure to watch what I eat because I don't want to gain weight. I cant believe how exhausting the MTC is. I am able to wake up at 6:30 am and fall into bed at 10:30. I think I'm snoring as I'm crawling into bed. OH, so me and my roommates took pictures at the Provo Temple. I'm sure they posted them on my facebook. They might have even included a video of Katelyn surprising us. She flew into Salt Lake City from Colorado to see me. Oh I was so happy. It was so wonderful. I thought I was going to be a crying mess when they dropped me off but I didn't have time. I had time to give them hugs and the Elders pulled me away with my luggage. Probably a good thing. Well I don't have too much to tell you because they days literally blur together. I study, listen, and pray constantly. OH I received a package from Tiff and it was amazing! Doubled Stuffed Oreos. MMM. And the letters were wonderful. A letter to Tiff is on the way. OH. "Dear Elder" . go to that website. You can write me and I will receive it THAT day! It's even nicer than e-mail because I can only check my e-mail once a week. I would LOVE those. HINT HINT. You just need my name and my mission. Colorado Denver South. So Dear Elder me when you can. I would love that.

Shout out to my Girls: Katrina, Makaal, Katelyn. I loved the things you gave me. Katrina your blanket actually helps a lot because it's pretty cold and they don't give you much blankets. Katelyn the letter I found in my journal made my day!!! Makaal I ran into an elder here that said you showed him a picture of me and told him to find me. He did! In four square! I got him out! MWAHAHAH. I don't remember his name. He seemed like the type that just pops into cute girls apartments.

I LOVE YOU FAMILY! You are the best! Such a great example in my life!

Love,
Sister Gampe

Sister Weekend

My sisters and I planned our last visit all together before I leave for the MTC. We all went to my sister Tiffany's house in Texas. We had a blast shopping, playing games, and eating. In these photos you can see we are wearing the same necklaces. Tiffany gave us all a necklace that say on the back, "A family's love is natures masterpiece." She gave them to us all at the same time to open. I wish we had a video of it because I am getting all emotional reading this necklace, and my other sisters are all yelling that they are going to get it out of the package the quickest. I will miss seeing and talking to these wonderful sisters.

Temple

Ahhh the Washington DC Temple is so amazing. How blessed I felt to be able to go through with my parents. I remember being extremely nervous. I was scared I wasn't going to be ready mentally. But I felt so wonderful inside the temple. My fears should have never took place because it was so perfect.

Mission Call

You can tell in the first photo that I am running inside with my mission call while Makaal is jumping up and down cheering! What a fun day! I received my mission call the July 27th. It took 3 weeks from the time it was submitted. Longest 3 weeks of my life! Notice the phones lined up. Those are all on speaker phone. They each had a different sibling listening while I read that I was going to serve in the Colorado Denver South Mission.