A Kennedy in Kennewick: La lucha es real

Hermana Torrez and I

Hola a todos!

Well, this past week was absolutely stellar. Here's what happened!

Monday: Met a couple new people, Hermana Torrez said goodbye to a couple people, and we saw one of our investigators, Y, who was so happy we came! She had a rough week last week.

Tuesday: We woke up extra early to teach seminary. It was about Isaiah, so that was fun. (If you don't believe me, it really was! I love Isaiah!) I learned so much. We had our studies, did some service, saw a few less actives, said goodbye to a couple people, and saw O and D and talked about baptismal covenants with them. It was cool.

Wednesday: Had lunch with a less active, and then I said goodbye to Hermana Torrez and hung out with Hermana Dungan and Hermana Harston for the next couple of hours. We moved Hermana Harston's stuff and visited a less active and found a super awesome golden lady too! Then, Hermana Dungan got her new companion, and Hermana Harston and I went out to work! We met a couple new people, had a few other lessons, and set up some return appointments. We also did some family history work with our recent convert, S. WE FOUND HIS GRANDPA! (Thank you, Hermana Johnson for teaching me how to search records.) And yeah. It was fun.

Thursday: Had a ton of meetings, but we got our STL planning done! We planned our all our exchanges for this transfer with the sisters, and I am stoked! We had dinner with an awesome member who came our with us to our lesson with O and D. We taught them about tithing and the member had a super solid testimony of tithing! It was perfect. O decided that she needed to pay her tithing.O and D got kind of anti-ed this week by their Christian boss. We're thinking we might move their baptism back because they still aren't keeping the Sabbath Day holy either. We'll keep working with them, though. They said they'll still be baptized because we have been the only ones that have cared about them enough to visit them and invite them to change, to stop drinking, and to get married. So, extending commitments is a huge part of my testimony right now.

Friday: Cleaned out a hoarder's house. I never want to let dishes sit in the sink again. (Just remind me of the hoarder's house, mom. I'll do the dishes immediately.) And we finished our weekly planning. We saw Claudius and talked about Elder Ballard's General Conference talk with him because he's having a little trouble with his daughters. He loved it and was totally willing to do it. He even invited his sister who's visiting from Seattle to come to church on Sunday! We had dinner and taught 3 other lessons.

Saturday: We did some finding and found some great new people to teach. One is Italian. I could tell by his mustache. I told him about Brother Ugolini and how he wanted me to serve my mission in Italy. The investigator told me I should have. So, you've got an Italian brother on your side, Brother Ugolini! After that, we drove down to Yakima for a baptism of a couple that Hermana Harston taught. IT WAS SO DANG SPIRITUAL!!! I didn't even know the people, and I wanted to cry! And then we drove back.

Sunday: Studies. Church. Dinner. And then, this happened: We went to see some of our investigators, the Telephone family, that we met a couple months ago. We've been feeling like we needed to drop them, but not yet. So, when we went over last night, they had some friends over, R and Y. As we had a gospel conversation, Hermano Telephone asked us why other churches don't mention the Virgin Mary more. (They're Catholic and believe in la Virgin de Gaudalupe. All those from Mexico know my pain.) We explained why and he still didn't understand. Then, Y jumped in and said "it's because you see her as an idol and the 2nd commandment tells us not to worship idols." Talk about bold. Then, he told us about this one experience he had where he prayed to the Virgin Mary and his prayer was answered. I wanted to say something, but somehow I knew Y would answer better than I could, and she did not disappoint. She talked about how we are all Heavenly Father's children and he wants us to be happy, so he'll still do things for us that we need even if we don't ask him directly as long as we're asking in faith. Or something like that. It was awesome. So, we got her number and address, and she lives in our area so #golden. We're excited to visit them this week.

This week my testimony has been strengthened in receiving personal revelation. Lately, I have been wondering if I should go back to school this coming fall semester or spring semester next year. When I first made my decision, it didn't feel right. So I made another decision and it didn't feel right. I read and studied and prayed and fasted and I got nothing. So, this week for My Plan, I had to study my patriarchal blessing. I had been studying it for about 5 days, and there's a paragraph that specifically talks about continuing my education. I had read it a billion times! And as I was pondering, my answer came to my mind and my heart. I think it's so cool how we receive revelation, but only if we put time, effort, study, and sincere prayer into it. The Lord is definitely awesome. :)

Well, I think that's about it for this week! Pictures to come! (I'm taking a picture every day so that y'all can have pictures. Be grateful.) I love you!

Hermana Kennedy