Livin' la Vida Loca!

77 DAYS!!!!! This mission cannot come any sooner! I'm so excited to serve the Lord for 18 months.

This past week has been spent preparing for the mission, of course. Mission shopping and planning was done. I also had the wonderful opportunity to have somebody with whom I could prepare! One of my dearest friends, Shannon, spent most of last week with me. She is also preparing to serve a mission in the Kansas Wichita mission. She reports to the Missionary Training Center seven days before I do! We attended the Ogden Temple open house and visited seven other temples in two days. We even did baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple!

For those who don't know, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in redeeming our dead by allowing them to be baptized and confirmed via proxy. That is one of the main reasons why our temples are so special to us. We wish to be with our families forever, but we believe that in order to enter heaven, you need to be baptized. Those who died before being baptized are pretty much excluded from heaven, then. But, God is fair and just, so He provided a way for the dead to be baptized--proxy baptisms in the temple. As a result, our ancestors have the opportunity to accept the opportunity and a ticket to heaven so that they too can spend eternity with their loved ones.

Here's some pictures for your entertainment

Keep calm through the craziness and carry on!

Hermana Kennedy, signing off.

14 Weeks to Go...

And, the countdown has officially begun! I report to the Mexico MTC in 87 days! That's fourteen weeks and two days. Or three months and two days. The point is that I still have a while to wait... While I wait, I figured that I would tell the entire world about what I'm getting myself into! If I rant, never fear, it's completely normal, but I would ask you to bear with me until I get off my soapbox.

A brief introduction:

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a motto in our church that "every member is a missionary", but some of us take that phrase to the next level. We willingly give up eighteen months to two years of our lives to preach our knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world! (Or, most of it since some countries won't let our missionaries proselyte there, like China). Our first prophet, Joseph Smith Jr. said about the purpose of missionary work, "After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel". 

We take his counsel very seriously, because we believe in Jesus the Christ, the Savior of the World. We also believe that we can live together forever in our Heavenly Father's presence, as long as we are prepared. Missionaries are called to serve and prepare those who are willing to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. I look forward to the day when I will bring even one soul unto Christ because that will be one of the greatest joys that I will ever experience.

Ok. Rant over.

In other news, one of our apostles, Elder David Bednar, recently gave a lecture concerning the Gospel and media. He invited us all to "share goodness"--to be the good that people see in the world through the media. If you'd like to hear Elder Bednar's talk, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?cid=social_20140820_30105576&v=kXi8bYMjZok. His words are truly inspired, and I would encourage you all to share goodness in your Facebook or blog posts; Twitter updates; Instagram pictures, and any other media sites that you use. If you want to see what other people are sharing, just look for the hashtag #sharegoodness. I'm sharing goodness, how about you?

Hermana Kennedy, signing off.