Listening to Conference and Feelings of Gratitude

Hello Family,
How are you all doing? How did the conference weekend go? How was all the stuff during the week? Well I am doing good and this week seemed to fly by because on Thursday we had interviews with President and the conference weekend took up lot of work time. It flew by and now we are starting week 5 of the cambio and time is just melting away like the wax of a lit candle. It is crazy I swear time has sped up here in the last couple weeks and now in the blink of an eye the days and weeks pass you by. As you can probably tell or maybe are thinking this morning for a zone activity we went up to the hills and went paintballing.......now you might be thinking what are missionaries doing paintballing......we have got to let loose and have fun too. We played senior comps vs junior comps and the senior comps won. It was fun but hot with all that stuff on. The last round it was down to me and my comp Elder Pierce and well I suicide attacked and it worked his last shot missed me and I just nailed him with 5. I didn’t mean to pump 5 at him but it just happens in the moment. It was super fun and cool to let loose after that we had to walk 12 blocks to centro but the exercise is good for me.
This weekend with conference we had 5 chances to get investigators to church and before we worked so hard to get them ready and scheduled to pick them up and go to church and with all the phone calls and efforts we only had 1, oh well but we did get a lot of new coverts there like Ivonne and Margarita. They really enjoyed the last session Sunday. We had to take the opportunity and take a picture with them because they never come to church in a skirt and but they came in skirts to conference on Sunday so, I told them now that I know they have skirts and church clothes I expect to see them dressed like that every week and they just laughed at me.....oh well. I really enjoyed all the talks and especially Elder Holland’s it really got me thinking of all of you, my family, and my leaders in the past that did so many good things for me and sacrificed their time and money and talents to listen and help me and how much I took those times for granted....I felt such a have pain too think of how ungrateful I was and still am for all the things you and other do for me.....I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for your sacrifices and good examples...there aren’t words to express the gratitude I feel for the things you all do and for your prayers and advice. I get so caught up in me and my world that I miss the things that are done around me to help me move along.....I know the words thank you aren’t enough, but THANK YOU, I love you all and really do appreciate the letters and kind words and prayers for me, the work moves a lot easier know that there are people 1000´s of miles away helping me too. The talks about pride in the priesthood session really hit me hard and really got me thinking about how prideful I am.... I know I am and I know it has gotten between me and my potential as a person but even more as a son of God and a missionary, I have let my pride build barriers between me and others and I know it is my downfall. I cannot stand to lose even when I know I am wrong I fight and fight until the other person just gives up because I cannot stand to lose, the Lord asks us to be humble and to submit ourselves to His will and to follow His commandments......why is it so hard? it sure is but the road to being humble is to get 2 knees to the ground .....I know if I do the Lords will He will bless not just me but those around me and will help me be the person I can be. I know the Lord loves us and wants us to be happy.....happiness is found in humility and obedience.
Interviews went very well and we had to do a lot of practices and they went very well. Elder Pierce and I were complimented on our teaching and in my interview with Pres. he did the same and said he had heard good things about my teaching....he then asked “Well Elder Kuykendall, I know your problem in you sector isn’t your teaching, so what is it?” I told him “I really don’t know the weeks are always up and down and every week the challenge changes.” It looks like we will be doing a lot more mini cambios with the zone and district leaders to help us find the solution....it will be a good chance to help me work on being more humble. haha We have a lot of great people to teach but I don’t know what the problem is.....we do contacts and try to get references but ...I know the Lord will bless us as we are obedient and work hard. We have great people to teach but it is so hard to find them in the house to teach them.....
I hope you all have a great week and hope to hear from you all. I love you so much and think about you all the time, take care and keep going.
Love, Eric