Surprise!

Surprise! I didn't email on Monday! Why am I emailing on a Wednesday, you might ask? BECAUSE WE HAD A TEMPLE P-DAY! It's my new favorite day where we wake up with the roosters at the crack of dawn; get dressed and do hair and makeup in record time; don't scrape our windows; drive for an hour and a half; and go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a wonderful, spiritual experience filled with much peace, happiness, calm, revelation, and doughnuts.

As for this past week and two days, it has been so long! It was a rough week for my companion and I. But, it's ok. We had little miracles throughout the week that kept us going like tracting into a humbled less active, being inspired to do white people work, teaching former investigators that are ready to get baptized, and finding golden investigators that just want to change their lives! Pretty sure all those are the highlights of my week. As for the rest of it, well, I'll leave it to your imaginations.

Best experience, though, comes from tracting in a trailer park. We knocked on one door, and this kid comes out in his pajamas. We start talking about the Book of Mormon, and he got really interested. We asked him how he would feel if he knew that this Gospel is true. He said that that would be awesome! We asked him how he would feel if he could get baptized. He said that that would be awesome! We asked him if he would read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it. He said that that would be awesome! We asked him if he would get baptized. He said of course! Could we go back to teach him? Anytime! Did we go back to teach him? He was an English guy in our Spanish area, so we had to pass him off to the English elders. :( They steal all of our awesome people! Oh well. He's on date to get baptized now, so that's cool I guess.

Funny moment this week? We role-played knocking on someone's door as a missionary with our recent convert. She pretended to offer us coffee. Hahaha. We also did some service at the Food Bank, and we were bagging candy. One of our zone leaders, Elder Pesnell got so excited! It was weird to see him look like a normal teenage guy...

Spiritual thought: "Treasure up in your hearts the words of life". Read your scriptures. Think about them daily. Really take them to heart. Then, God will give you everything that you need to do.

Have a miraculous week!

Con mucho amor,

Tu favorita,
Hermana Kennedy

Cows R Us

The P(l)an of Salvation

Burgers

My diva companion

Sunrise

Holy Boldness!

Sister Thompson, Sister Maez, Hermana Cain, y yo. 

Well, last week was my first transfer week out in the field, so my first zone is gone and another has come. We are down to four sisters, though. I'm really going to miss Sister Gamble (she went home) and Sister Allred (She got transferred to Richland). But, we still have Sister Maez and Sister Thompson, who are no longer walking missionaries!

In other news, I don't really know what to talk about this week. I guess the weather. The sun has finally made an appearance, so the skies are no longer gray and cloudy! It's been really nice weather--sweater weather, in fact. No more boots. No more coat. I only have to wear one nametag. It's pretty exciting.

Um... This week was pretty slow. Really slow, actually. Until Friday. We had a surprise training for new missionaries who are on their second transfer in the field. IT WAS AMAZING! I don't have my journal with me, otherwise I would just type up my notes and send them to you. I guess what I want you guys to do is study 2 Nephi 31 and 3 Nephi 11 this week then start to live the doctrine. If you don't know what the doctrine is, it's a five-step process! The first step is having faith in Jesus Christ. The second step is repentance. The third step is baptism (or the sacrament). The fourth step is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (or seeking the Holy Ghost always). And the fifth step is enduring to the end. LEARN IT. LIVE IT. LOVE IT. And I'll be following up with this commitment next week, so I'd suggest that you'd do it unless you want to see me be devastated.

And then Saturday came. The most unromantic Valentine's Day of my life. I LOVED IT! We went around having lessons with people about how much God loved them. We had a ton of lessons and got three new investigators! #MosesMiracles Oh, and we had dinner with some lovely members who made my favorite just for me. I really felt the love. They gave us a chocolate / candy care package, so don't worry. I got something for Valentine's Day.

I think that's about it. Besides the fact that we met a new friend this week, Toby, who likes to bite skirts. And we have new faces all over Moses Lake. That's different. Oh, and we learned all about how to have Holy Boldness (Having a balance of spirit and boldness when we teach). That is pretty much why we did so well on Saturday. It's pretty great.

Oh, and one more thing. White people are rude. Don't be rude white people that tell the sister missionaries to drop dead on your front porch. Just don't be rude. Other people really appreciate it.

Have a miraculous week!

Love,

Hermana Kennedy

Dogs

Sunsets

My trip to Washington

Distrito en fuego!

The story behind the subject line: It seems that every day whenever we approach a door that's open or a house where the family is staring at you out the window, I trip. I'm a tripping. Every day. It's great. It makes for a pretty great ice-breaker as well, so no complaints here.

So... The first week of February. I guess it was ok. Pretty much every lesson we ever planned fell through, though, so we got to meet a ton of new people! We had a record of 49 OYMs this week. (An OYM is a time when a missionary approaches a person they've never talked to before, explains that they're representatives of Jesus Christ, tells a restored truth about the gospel, and leaves them with an invitation.) And we talked to more people than that! It's pretty great. The only set lessons we seem to have is with our recent converts. And even then, surprise birthday parties for the recent converts are thrown in the way... Story to be explained later.

SOOOO..... Thursday was the miracle day this week! We began by serving in the Catholic soup kitchen. The dishwasher, Grandpa Bob, came up to us and told us "You tell your bishop that Grandpa Bob says that the Mormons need a soup kitchen". Bishop Hansen, I have now told you. Feel free to get on that whenever your heart desires. Or whenever the Spirit prompts you to do so.

Then, we went to go see a lady we met a couple of weeks ago, but she wasn't home, so we knocked the apartments around her. One Spanish lady opened her door and gave us the whole "Somos Catolicos" deal. But, we kept talking to her and she let us in. We taught the Book of Mormon (in Spanish). And then she asked us what we thought about teenage pregnancy, so we taught the Law of Chastity. She liked it. (Her 19 year old son's 17 year old girlfriend is pregnant, so that's why.) We set up a return appointment for this Tuesday, and hopefully she'll become a progressing investigator!

Then, we went to go see our recent convert, Emma, with another recent convert family, the Hi-Chews. But it was Hermana Hi-Chew's birthday, and Hermano Hi-Chew threw a surprise birthday party for her. So, we showed up to the lesson and pretty much the whole branch was there. But, they had food, so it was all good. I taught Emma the Book of Mormon while Hermana Cain taught the Hi-Chew's non-member son. Divide and conquer has never had more meaning to me.

Saturday, we found a secret hidden corner trailer park that has no name but is full of Latinos! #MosesMiracles We'll be doing a lot of week there in the coming weeks.

The funny moments from this week:

Thursday during 9th branch coordination, Hermano Perez (our Branch Mission Leader) brought cookies and milk. I was only eating the cookies. He asked my why I wasn't drinking any milk. I told him that I didn't want any milk. so he told me to "drink the darn milk!". So, he poured me a glass and while I was drinking it, he made me laugh and it came out of my nose and onto Hermana Cain's coat. It was pretty funny. Although, milk coming out of your nose is kind of nasty.

Also, Hermana Cain was sick this week, so she apparently sounded like a cat being strangled. It led to this redneck quote: "Man, I hate it when them birds choke on peanuts. They sound like cats being strangled."

We also met three dogs yesterday whose names were Cocoa (she was a brown pug), Banshee (a Dalmatian) and Littlefoot ( a German Shepherd). And then two Corgis that we named Max and Charlie. They're super cute and follow us everywhere.

Spanglish joke of the week:
Me: "... juzgados."
Hermana Cain: "Whose gatos?"
Jajajajajaja.

Have a happy Valentine's day! Or just be aware of how single you are. That works too.

Love,

Hermana Kennedy

So we recreated the picture behind us. I think it's pretty legit. 

Hermana Cain with Charlie and Max.

January

I need to come up with more creative subject lines, I know. A day may come when I have a creative spark, but it is not this day! (Maybe that could be the subject line...?)

ANYWAY. In missionary news,

Nobody was baptized or confirmed this week.

Nobody was on date to get baptized this week.

2 of our investigators were at church.

We had 5 lessons with a member present.

We had 6 other lessons, but only in our 9th branch area and not our 8th ward area.

We have two progressing investigators in 9th branch. None in 8th ward.

8 received referrals.

1 contacted referral.

4 new investigators.

5 lessons with recent converts or less active members.

As you can see from this key indicator report... We got nothing to indicate. This week was a hard week, especially because it was Super Bowl week. Everyone's a Seahawks fan. Everyone doesn't care about the Gospel because they care more about a bunch of guys throwing a ball. Not cool, Satan. Not cool. BUT, I'm sure everyone has been sufficiently humbled in Washington to realize that they need something better in their lives. Something like.... the restored gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! This week is going to be better. I feel it. This week was also super hard because we didn't have a car for four days. It takes around an entire day to walk the whole area that we cover. But, our legs are buff and in shape, now. Hopefully the rest of our bodies will be by the end of our missions. Also, if you're a returned missionary, you should go on splits with the missionaries. They really appreciate somebody who doesn't mind tracting with them for 2 hours. It's pretty sweet when you have a sister RM who's willing to drive you and be with you for 4 hours of the day. It certainly increases your chances of getting in doors and actually having lessons, too!

This week was President Interviews, and I love them! Everyone should have a personal priesthood interview once a month! It's so amazing! We also had exchanges this week, so I got to do some work in the YSA area with Sister Allred (who's from Utah!). WE HAD A CAR. Which was good because we had to go out to the college for institute! (I met a Whovian who was wearing the 4th Doctor's scarf. We had a fabulous conversation about how the Gospel relates to Doctor Who.) We also knocked on this one woman's house who had a sign that said "Remove thy shoes!" I'm pretty sure you need that sign, mom. I'm pretty sure it's scripture. Somewhere in Exodus when there's the burning bush and Moses. Also, I discovered that all college students have cats and all other people have dogs and more dogs, most of the time they're chihuahuas. Nasty. Anyway, we got our car back on Friday! We missed Toulouse so much. 9th branch also had a fiesta which included pesole, horchata, and Latin dancing! Loved the pesole. Loved the horchata. Ran away when it came time to dance.

Also, this week we focused on following the Spirit, and MIRACLES CAME. But only when we really tried to follow the spirit. Listen for the spirit. Just shut up and listen for like 30 seconds everyday. When you do, miracles happen!

My motto for this next week is something President Ware shared with us:
President Hinckley taught truth; “The best antidote for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired.” Keep working hard and the Lord will bless you!

Love you all! Have a miraculous week!

Love,

Hermana Kennedy