Bautismos

 

Querida Familia y Amigos,

F. was baptized this week! This is the first baptism I've been a part of where I was there when they were invited to be baptized and throughout the whole teaching process. She has so much faith and it was an honor to teach her the gospel. After she was baptized we were waiting in the dressing room and she just hugged us and cried. It was beautiful. We introduced her to the Singles Ward and she fits right in there. Her English isn't perfect, but she is taking classes at the Community College and I know everything will end up just fine for her there.

This was a very good week for us here in Kent -- we invited three people to be baptized! I love them all and they will all be strong members of the church. One of them is C. We have been teaching her for a little over a month now. C.'s mother is a member and she has 7 children. Her greatest desire is that one of them joins the church. C., who is pregnant with twins, moved in. C. is so bright and has a deep faith. She has read the Book of Mormon every time we have visited her and sometimes even reads more chapters than what we ask her to read because she is curious. She also tried to read the Bible with The Book of Mormon and uses the additional reading selections at the back of the pamphlets on The Restoration and The Plan of Salvation. She always has good questions and is very open with us. She has a strong testimony but just doesn't know it yet. Her baptismal date is May 30 and she is a joy to work with.

Hermana Fillmore played the piano and I sang Yo Sé Que Vive Mi Señor (I Know That My Redeemer Lives) in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was nice and we hope that it invited the Spirit. We love to use music to bless the branch here.

I hope all is going well for you all.

Con amor,

Hermana Kinghorn


Andrea would love to hear from you, please write to her at:

Sister Andrea Joy Kinghorn
Washington Seattle Mission
10675 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, WA 98004

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Andrea at the Seattle, Washington Temple

Andrea with Hermana Fillmore, her new companion

Zone Conference

AMOR

Querida Familia y Amigos,

What a great week! I hope all is well for all of you.

Hermana Fillmore and I bought two copies of the new Personal Progress books at the Distribution Center when we went to the temple and now we are working on the faith value. We decided to do the Personal Progress program to encourage D., a less-active young woman, to work on her Personal Progress with her mom. We like reading the scriptures and doing the discussions that go with each value experience and are hoping to complete the program by the end of our mission.

As missionaries we are protected every day. This week Hermana Fillmore and I had a little scary experience, but in the moment we were completely fine and afterward when we reflected on the situation, we know that we were protected by Heavenly Father. We experience seen and unseen miracles daily.

Hermana Fillmore is a great companion. We are alike in some ways and different in other ways. One thing I am able to appreciate more and more everyday is how we can work together to have our different manners compliment each other so that the work can move forward. I am learning so much from her and we are constantly improving in our teaching.

We were teaching one of our new investigators this week who is named H. and is from Cuba. Her daughter speaks English and Spanish and had been taught by the English elders so this was H.'s first time hearing from missionaries. I just felt like we should talk with her about prophets so after she told us about some earthquake or something that had just happened that day (we are completely out of touch with current events and it is surprisingly refreshing) I told her that we have a prophet today to lead and guide us unto Christ in these unsettling times. The first thing she did was look straight at me and say, "We have a prophet today? I didn't know that. Where does he live?" It was beautiful to see her simple faith and believing heart. I think we can all learn from her.

The less-active member from Honduras came to church! We know he was so happy to be back and we could see him paying attention attentively in sacrament meeting and the member who picked him up for church told us that he was participating in priesthood. After church he called us to tell us that he cut his hair so he would look better for church! It is so amazing to witness the miracles that can happen when others feel the Spirit and are converted.

We learn so many different teaching skills as missionaries. One thing that the Spirit has really helped me with as a missionary is coming up with "parables" I guess you could say. This one came to me in a lesson when we were trying to help a couple understand the importance of the Book of Mormon. I compared it to a person whose father had died and they wanted to learn everything they could about their father because they loved him very much and wanted to become more like him. (We know that eternal life is to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ from John 17:3 and D&C 132:24). This father had written two letters: one to this person and one to their brother. Obviously the person would want to read both letters to have the most complete understanding of who their father is. But which one would be more precious to them? Which one might they give priority to? Would it make since to say that the father wrote the letter to the brother first, therefore the other person didn't want to read the letter that he wrote to them? Of course the letter written to them would have special priority and because they would learn more about the love their father had specifically for them from it. This is just how it is with the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The Bible was written for the Jews and the early saints. We learn from Mormon 8:34-35 (I think. I don't have my scriptures with me right now...) that The Book of Mormon was written specifically for our day. I know that The Book of Mormon is true and testifies of Jesus Christ. My testimony of the power of the book (Introduction and Moroni 10:3-5) grows every day here as a missionary. I can promise those we teach that if they will read the book (with sincere heart, real intent, having faith in God) they will know by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true and by that same power they will know that Jesus is the Christ and Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. I can easily make this promise because I experience it daily. I love the Book of Mormon. I love telling people on their doorstep that I am a representative of Jesus Christ -- because I am! How blessed we are to be members of Christ's church today and to have made covenants with Heavenly Father by the priesthood authority of God to follow Jesus Christ.

Con Amor,

Hermana Kinghorn

Me encanta ver el templo

Querida Familia y Amigos,

We are going to the temple today which is taking up much of our Preparation Day. The last time I attended was February 16 and I have missed it.

My new companion is Hermana Fillmore. She is from San Diego and went to BYU-Idaho before her mission. We get along great. She entered the MTC on September 30. Both of us are still very new to Spanish, but we see miracles every day as we are talking with people and we understand them and they understand us! We also are both newer to the mission field so we are learning a lot of things about missionary work by having to do them instead of by having more experienced companions. Sometimes it's hard when we both don't know what to do, but we are guided by the Spirit. Prayer is our greatest tool. We have a lot in common and I love teaching with her and serving with her. She always has a smile on her face and she is such a good example to me in working with investigators and members and having a positive attitude.

This week, President Moffat changed the way we do some things in the mission. One of the biggest changes is that we are now going to try to pray on the doorstep. We have tried it this week and have seen success as we've invited the Spirit to even short conversations with people. I love President Moffat and am so grateful to have him as our leader.

I have good news about the less-active member from Honduras who called us angels. He went to a church activity last Saturday. We made sure to get there thirty minutes before the activity and he tried to give us every excuse for why he couldn't come but we wouldn't take any of them. Finally he went inside and put on a collared shirt just to come to a branch activity. His roommate, one of our investigators, came too! Also, one of the less active members that we invited to come who hasn't been to church for months came to the activity. We have been inviting her to church and branch activities every since I've been here, but this was the first time that she actually came.

One of our investigators is so great. She is 25-years-old and preparing to be baptized on April 24. We were able to teach her about The Law of Chastity and The Word of Wisdom this week. After we taught her The Law of Chastity, she told us that she thought it was a beautiful law and she was happy to live it. After we taught the Word of Wisdom she told us that even though she couldn't understand why it was bad to drink coffee, she would stop because she knew that sometimes we have to do things on faith. She is such a good example to me that when we truly desire to follow Jesus Christ and keep His commandments we will be blessed to see the importance of obeying his commandments, we will receive a confirmation of the importance of keeping the commandments, and we will have the faith to press forward even when we don't understand exactly why we should do something. I know that she will be blessed for her faith in ways that she cannot now imagine.

It is so great to be a missionary and to prepare others for the wonderful gift of baptism! We experience the joy described in D&C 18 every day here in Kent. I hope that you all are feeling this joy as well as you share the gospel with those you love.

Amor,

Hermana Kinghorn

El principio de otro traslado en Kent

Querida Familia y Amigos,

We found out on Saturday night that Hermana Hoskins is being transferred and I am staying here in Kent. Hermana Hoskins will probably be white-washed into the new area that is being created for Spanish sisters. We don't yet know who will be our new companions, but with only 8 Spanish sisters it is pretty easy to guess. I will let you know next week who my new companion is. I was pretty nervous when I found out Hermana Hoskins was leaving because this means that I will be the companion that knows the area. Also, Hermana Hoskins is the sister that knows Spanish best after our two native-speaking sisters (who are not being transferred from their areas) so that means that I will have to do a lot more talking and I will have to pay even closer attention in conversations. But I know that Heavenly Father didn't send us here to fail and even though I know that I will make a lot of mistakes this next transfer, I know that He will be with us. All things are possible through Christ!

We had a pretty good week here. We worked hard and again never really had a break, but that's alright. I think we have given up on that idea.

We were able to invite M. to be baptized this week. The sisters have been teaching her for a few months, but she wanted to wait to be baptized when her son returned home from his mission in Chile in October 2011. We decided to teach her a lesson about baptism and confirmation with the help of members. One thing I've noticed is the more I think of the blessings I have received from covenants I've made with God (especially baptism) and renewing those covenants (through the sacrament) and having the spirit with me, the more natural it is for me to incorporate baptism into our lessons and invite others to be baptized. M. accepted the invitation to be baptized and we are looking forward to helping her work toward this goal.

General Conference was great. We watched it in English and I cannot wait to receive our May Ensign so we can read the talks over and over again. Hermana Hoskins and I were able to receive answers to many of our questions about how we should work with our investigators and able to find talks that apply to their lives. We cannot wait to share all that we learned at General Conference with our investigators and less-active members.

Con amor,

Hermana Kinghorn