Sometimes You Get Stuck in the Mud. January 2, 2012 Great Bend, KS

Happy New Year everyone, and a very Happy Birthday to you Pops. I love you!

I'm so glad the Holidays are over. I'm running out of ideas and excuses to avoid eating ham (I absolutely hate ham). I can only be so creative you know!

I hope you all enjoyed New Years and had fun partying the morning away. Sister Mendez and I had plans to wake up before midnight and do all of these little traditions that I'm pretty sure Sister Mendez has made up but 6:30 am rolled around instead. Sister Mendez forgot to set the alarm and so we slept right through the New Year. Missionaries are so cool.

One of our more recent investigators, Pam, is amazing. She has been taught and then dropped on and off by the sisters for over a year. Sister Mendez and her last companion dropped her in November but then a few weeks ago Sister Mendez felt like we needed to go visit her, so we did. Pam is awesome. She has been dropped over and over again because she never keeps her commitments like she says she will. We don't know what the difference is this time but she is now reading the Book of Mormon and praying with her daughter Ellie! It’s been so fun to see! She is doing an amazing job. Every time she reads we give her a clue as to what our first names are.... apparently this is what all of the sisters have done in the past. She loves trying to figure it out. As far as I am concerned she can know my name and everything else about me if she will continue to do what she is doing.

We have been doing a whole lot of finding this week. Our area book is completely full of referrals and potentials that previous sisters missionaries have found; some date back to 1999 and that is a problem, but Sister Mendez and I are slowly making our way through each one. Because of our efforts the Lord has completely blessed us with 4 new investigators. They are all super cool people and live in these small little towns outside of Great Bend. We are excited to meet with them this week and as a bonus we get to see all the beautiful brown scenery as we travel!

Speaking of brown scenery... we were trying to contact a referral outside of Pawnee Rock...aka the middle of nowhere, and we couldn't find the house. We figured we were lost and had better turn around, but Kansas roads can be deceiving in more ways than one! What looks like grass lining the sides of the roads is really giant muddy sinkholes of death. WORST MISTAKE EVER! We got stuck in the mud.... big time. Here is the proof for your viewing pleasure.

Look at that front, left tire! Oh, and since your already looking at the photo,

notice the beautiful surrounding scenery.

Farmer Hammond to the Rescue! 

After laughing hysterically for a few minutes, reality set in. I did everything I could possibly think of to get the car out of the mud but it was stuck hard core. I began having a slight heart attack. We were stuck and the car was not going to move.

We finally gave up our efforts and remembered there was a house about a mile away. Yes friends, we headed out walking down that muddy road. It was like one of those scary movie scenes, not another soul around, only empty cornfields on all sides. Does the movie title “Children of the Corn” ring any bells? Turns out, a very kind farmer saw us coming from very far away and walked to meet us. The first words out of his mouth were, "are you ladies stuck somewhere?" Two girls in skirts with “out-of-towners” tattooed to their foreheads responded, “Yes Mr. Farmer we are very stuck.

The sweet man whose name is Eric Hammond, came to our rescue and grabbed one of the many 4X4 trucks he had chillin on his property. We realized that getting into this mans car was against mission rules, but the walk back to our car was so far away. He drove us to our stuck vehicle and after surveying the area he said, "There is no way I can get this out with my truck, so let me go get my tractor." We waited with the car and after few minutes we could hear the distant sound of a slow but sure engine. MIRACLES! Mr. Angel Farmer Hammond put his tractor in place and gave me instructions. As he pulled I reversed the car, and MAGIC! The car came out of that mud and made it safely back to the dusty, stable dirt road.

Mr. Angel Farmer Hammond will forever be my best friend, he will be the future Bishop of Great Bend Kansas; just you wait and see. I am so grateful he wasn't a mass murderer but instead a very nice Kansas farmer that was willing to help two very "out-of-place" looking girls. In the famous words of Elder Earl Sinclair, "Bless his little pea pickin heart." Only on a mission in Great Bend Kansas will I have experiences like these. It certainly is a complete and total blessing to serve here. Heavenly Father always knows what we need. Sometimes we get “stuck in the mud” but He knows how to help us get out. He is aware of us and everything we do.

Love you all. Have a fabulous week of making fun of me!

Sister Kenz