A Kennedy in Kennewick: Rain, Rain, Go Away

Hermana McArthur, Hermana Campbell, and I!

Bienvenidos a todos!

Well, I'm not going to lie, this week was a rough week. I've been feeling either unmotivated or scared to do the work lately. Probably scared. You know, because I have to talk to people, and let me tell you, they're scary, and I'm kind of a chicken. I've been thinking a lot about the love that our Heavenly Father has for me and whether or not I'm truly showing my love for Him. I've come to the conclusion that yes, I am showing my love for Him. But, I can always do more. If I truly love Him, I will do more, be less scared, and have the desire to do His will. So, that's something that's going to change my life this week. Here's your rundown of last week:

Monday: We found a new investigator, Earnest! Hermana Torrez and I both felt something as we prayed on his doorstep. We invited him to say the prayer, but he told me to do it instead. We asked him if he would do it the next time. He said, "Next time Hermana Torrez can pray and then I'll pray". So, we have a guaranteed 3 lessons with him.

Tuesday: Did some service at the museum, made calls for about an hour and a half to figure out our lives and our investigators lives, had dinner with some awesome members, tried by all of our investigators (who weren't home) and ended the night seeing a less active with our ward mission leader. We've been working on the word of wisdom with her, and I think she's getting it now.

Wednesday: Did some service. Tried a referral that only spoke Spanish and was definitely atheist and didn't want us to teach her... So we did some more service. Had dinner with a mostly less-active family (the mom's the seminary teacher and she's super active). Stood up by Earnest. Got dropped by an investigator, but she still invited us back next week for tamales and gave us some soup to go. And ended the night by seeing Natalya. We gave her a CTR ring to help her remember that she's always going to choose the right.

Thursday. Museum service again. More service after. We learned how to paint, and the guy we painted for was actually really happy with how we painted. Maybe I'll be a painter when i grow up... And then we had a lesson with Claudius. Let me tell you. Members that come out with us at the last minute are my favorite. We had a member set up on Wednesday, but they cancelled on us 5 minutes before our appointment. So, we were calling every woman that we knew for about 15 minutes until one of them finally agreed to come with us. She is the bomb. And the lesson was the bomb. We watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with him, and he was crying the whole time. One day, he'll be baptized.

Friday: We weren't able to have any lessons today, but we saw pretty much every one we knew. At our last stop of the night, the couple had just bought 25 new baby chickens. (ADORABLE!!!) and one of them did not want to move, eat, or drink anything. I asked if I could hold him, and they let me. AND HE STARTED EATING AND DRINKING AND WALKING AND CHIRPING!!!! I lovingly named him Philip, after my favorite Disney prince.

Saturday: Well, we have about 600 contacts in our phone, and that's all we can have, so we decided to go through and get rid of some of them. We called people for about 3 hours, and now we have 3 return appointments, 2 really not interested people, and 1 loaf of homemade bread that a member gave us. And then we were able to see 3 less actives! One has been sharing the gospel at school and asked us to teach her the plan of salvation so that she could explain to one of her friends the 3 kingdoms of glory. Super cool.

Sunday: Lunch with a less active. Super yummy. Church. Food. Awesome lesson with some of our investigators. And then we saw another less active that fed us some more! It was delicious.

Now, let us talk about #Hallelujah. Isn't it awesome?! If you don't know what I'm talking about, then please go to followhim.mormon.org and jump on the bandwagon! Share it with friends, family, children playing in the street! Everyone needs to hear the true message of Easter, so get on it!

Also, Hermana Torrez and I decided that we're going to work on improving our love for the language by speaking it all day everyday! Maybe not all day because we need to be lazy sometimes, but more than we are now. I've seen a difference in just the past few days. I've found that I forget words in English and can only say them in Spanish now. It's pretty great. I promised myself that I would never be that person.... Oh well. God's will, not mine.

Also, it has rained so much this week! I've become very aware of what shoes of mine have holes in them... And then yesterday, it snowed!!! Who does that? Seriously.

As for me, myself, and I, I would like to share something the Spirit taught me during my personal study today. I was studying about faith and charity--from PMG chp. 9 and Enos. As I was reading, I felt like I just didn't have any faith--particularly the faith to find. As I was pondering the 27 verse of Enos, Alma 32 came to my mind about how faith, when planted, grows into knowledge. And then I realized that I have a ton of faith--my faith is in different things, and as a part of that, those different things grow at different times. For example, my faith in Jesus Christ has been knowledge since I was a little girl. But, my faith that Joseph Smith was a prophet didn't grow into knowledge until I was almost 19 years old. My faith that we can speak by the Spirit is now knowledge. My faith that the Lord prepares people for us to teach is just growing. I think it's really cool how the Lord does things line upon line, precept upon precept, until eventually we will know all things. Anyway. Just thought that was awesome.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. Hope all is well and y'all are seeing the miracles every day! Have a miraculous week, and remember to shout "HALLELUJAH!!" I'll follow up with you next week. ;)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Kennedy

So, I'm behind. MTC companionship reunion!