#awka-awkward

We're so tired...

WELL. There's every week and then there's that one awkward week. Or mission. Which is of course awarded to yours truly, Hermana Kennedy!!! Here's your re-cap:

Monday: Had an awesome P-day. And a pretty successful night. Saw a few part member families, and found two new investigators! We also started our exchanges with the sisters in Oroville, Sister Crofts and Hermana Streuling!

Tuesday: We ended up being in a quad pan all day because the Oroville sisters are 3 hours away... SO. We sang at an old-folks home, found some new people, taught 5 other lessons, had a member present, and talked to 23 new people! They stayed the night with us again, and it was so fun!

Wednesday: Well, we had an awesome missionary broadcast in the morning! If you want to read part of what we were taught follow the following link: https://www.lds.org/church/news/focus-on-the-doctrine-of-christ-elder-andersen-tells-missionaries-worldwide?cid=HP_TU_1-12-2016_dCN_fCNWS_xLIDyC-3_&lang=eng. It was so awesome! Details later. We had an awesome day, talked with our bishop, found a new investigator, saw a recent convert, and saw Claudius. He just needs to get baptized...

Thursday: Had another awesome day. 3 other lessons, some great Sister Training Leader Planning, an awesome dinner with the members we live with. And then there's that missionary coordination we went to (we got there a little late) and the Assistants were on exchanges with our zone leaders... #awka-awkward.

Friday: Weekly Planning! We had a lesson with Violet, the less-active that we thought was an investigator... She remembers nothing, and she was only baptized 3 years ago. #awka-awkward. We had an awesome dinner, saw Claudius and had an awesome lesson, and saw Natalya! She's finally back in town! We had our ward mission leader with us, too, that helped get us in her door. :) Yay!

Saturday: We went on exchanges with Sister Van Orden and Sister Robalin. Sister Robalin came with me to our area and it was the most #awka-awkward day! A cat jumped on our car while we were still in it; we went to dinner and the member forgot; we got stuck for 40 minutes in said members' driveway; Sister Robalin slipped and faceplanted it in the snow while we tried to push the car out; Sister Robalin had to conduct the music at a Spanish baptism; we listened to teenage drama for the last 30 minutes of the night; and a guinea pig crawled in my skirt. BUT, it was all made up by Claudius coming to the Spanish baptism!!! It was so awesome!

Sunday: We finished our weekly planning, nobody came to church, we had a good member dinner that was pretty focused, and we got to see Natalya again. We also talked a lot about the area and what we needed to do to help it grow.

RANT OF THE WEEK: Ok. Don't shoot me for being a hypocrite because I wasn't even close to being this person before my mission. BUT, member missionaries. Let me tell you, missionaries don't do anything. Sure, they talk to people and teach people and baptize people, but ultimately, our efforts don't work. The only efforts that do work are the members! BE GOOD MEMBER MISSIONARIES! YOU'LL CAUSE THE MISSIONARIES LESS PAIN AND HEARTACHE!!! That means YOU find people, YOU give referals to the missionaries, YOU go with the missionaries to the lessons, YOU follow up with them about what they're doing, and (if you're a guy) YOU baptize them. Rant over.

Also, I have the best companion ever. Even though sometimes she's a blonde and eats cookies with gluten in them. Shame on her. It's ok. I still love Hermana Harston to the moon and back.

Here's some insights from this week:

So, the missionary broadcast was titled "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts". Some way that we can call others to repentance is to just testify of Jesus Christ. Also, we don't teach. We listen and observe and let the Spirit teach. It's so important that we're worthy to have the Spirit with us, otherwise we can't let him do the teaching. Also, we need to commit people to do things, then we NEED to promise blessings and TESTIFY! Something that Elder Oaks said that I loved was that we need to have the doctrine of Christ written on our hearts. We need to live it every day if we're going to help others live it too. The Atonement is for everyone! We're all choice servants of the Lord, so it's up to us to be the people He wants us to be.

From District Council: If we aren't learning by the Spirit, we aren't learning anything at all. Obedience allows us to be worthy to have the Spirit always. We need to ponder what we study so that we know how to act.

Cool story about Claudius: He's been taught pretty much every lesson except parts of lesson 5, and he just won't commit to baptism. He had no problem with it in December, but since then all these concerns have come up. So, we had a lesson with him on Wednesday after the broadcast, and we really focused on asking inspired questions and listening. It turned out that he didn't understand the priesthood, so we were able to teach that clearly and simply. We also had some members with us to bear their testimonies of their father having the priesthood. For our commitment, we invited him to pray to see what he needed to change before baptism. We did it the way we were taught, and he committed. Then, we followed up on Friday. He told us about this super cool experience he had while praying. He heard a voice tell him that he needed to forgive others. And so we talked about repentance and forgiveness and used that same commitment orientation to get him to come to a baptism the next night. AND HE CAME!!! We were on exchanges, too, and that was our miracle of the day! We're going to follow up with that tonight and see if he's prayed for a baptismal date. He's so close! He just needs to accept the fact that he needs to be baptized by somebody with the priesthood in order to enter into the church of God. Algun dia. Muy pronto.

So, after the missionary broadcast, I was thinking about the Spirit and being guided by it. There's a promise in my patriarchal blessing that if I follow the guidance of the Spirit and act in faith, the Lord will light up my paths and let me know if I'm making the right decisions. Something I realized is that coming on a mission for me was an act of faith. I never wanted to serve a mission, and I don't know why I chose to serve a mission. The Spirit just told me that it was what I needed to do at that time. But, I know that my answer has come. That act of faith turned into me making it 14 months through my mission! And now I know why I'm here. I'm here to help specific people and to bring them to the gospel. I'm also here to help my future children and be that great member missionary example for them. I'm so excited for the rest of my life and the preparation I've had for it from being on my mission.

Oh, and Elder Kiser says "hi".

That's about it. Have a miraculous week everyone!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Kennedy

P.S. We taught a random guy about prayer, and this was his response: "You know how you pray? It's the same as when you milk cows -- you gotta milk cow titties to work to get the milk just like the Lord wants us to work to get the answer to our prayers!" #awka-awkward

We're so tired...

The ducks...

And that's our companionship for you.