A walk down memory lane

Well I have procrastinated as much as I can. I figured if I never wrote it, then this day would never come. Then I quickly realized as the hours have passed, this is happening whether I want it to or not.  I would be terribly stupid to pass this opportunity to share some of my most dear feelings of my mission and thank you all for your love and support. Before I get to that, I wanna give a quick brief rundown of my week so that I don’t look back and wonder what the heck I did the last week :) 

Tuesday I had my last exchange with Sister Tanner, man was that something else! A while back President Bingham gave me permission to go back to Gurnee to teach Karla. So, we took a road trip on Tuesday to go see her! As we were driving around up there, so many sweet memories came to mind… Sister Jones, Sister Grant and Sister C…. the countless hours we spent together, teaching, contacting and praying.  The wonderful people I got to teach, Karla, Gail, The Cunninghams, Nick, Mr. Sheffield and the Woods. The wonderful members… man my heart was so full! I had one of my best friends right next to me in the car and all these memories. It was a very sweet feeling.

We did go and see Karla and she is doing so well! She looks so healthy and so good.  She is going to school and doing all the things that seemed so impossible. I shared with her some of my deepest feelings about her and the church, some treasured memories and a few tears. All and all it went really well. There is a new senior couple up in Gurnee and I asked her to meet with them and she said she would be happy to! And guess what she kept her word they have already meet up twice my heart is full! We also ran to Gail’s home for 10 minutes.  I love that woman!  Just like old times, she had me laughing and oh the embrace in a Gail hug! So grateful for her! 

Wednesday and Thursday we were running around with our heads cut off teaching and service and contacting and everything between.

Friday, I went up to the temple with all the senior couples and those going home with me. There are so many of the senior couples that I have gained such a admiration for, so many that have allowed me to be one with them and their family. Many tears were shed in the temple with The Crofts, The Ericksons and the Binghams. I truly love them. I’m so grateful! I love the temple. When I walked out of the celestial room, there was the sealing room and my mind reflected on the wonderful day that Sue was able to be sealed to her husband and the joy and the tears!  That was one heck of a day!

I had road up with the Senior Sisters to the temple while Sister Caucut was with the STLs.  Afterword I found myself wrapped up in helping President Bingham move and clean out some apartments. He said it was going to be a long night and I was up for the challenge!! It was super fun on the ride down I was able to spend a good 3 hours in traffic with Sister Bingham. Somewhere along the way we found ourselves in Valpo cleaning out the house that had been my home for so long. Once again memories came flying by. As I carried out the chair I thought of how Sister Sufia use to sit on it all bundled up with all the blankets we could find on some of the coldest nights with a bowl of cereal in hand cheering me on while I ran. I saw the white boards with the same notes that I wrote on not too long ago. I thought about Sister Tanner and all of her many questions and how I used to use those white boards to help illustrate the answers. I thought of Sue, The Oaks family, Ash, Beth, Dumezes, Courtney, and Thomas family. Oh how much I love all of those people and how much I grew from their examples. I remember having to rely upon the Savior and being able to feel of His love. President wasn’t kidding when he said it was going to be a long night but I’m so grateful for the chance I had to help and reflect upon all the great memories I have had throughout my mission. 

Saturday and Sunday were mostly filled with watching conference and preparing to leave. I love watching conference while being a missionary. There’s such a sweet spirit that comes with it. It was a good way to end my week. 

Even though I didn’t get to spend that much time in North Shore I am forever grateful for the people that I met there as well as in all of my areas. I have been so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve so many different people. 

It’s hard for me to put into words how I feel right now and how to adequately express how much my mission means to me. I have learned so much and am forever grateful for this amazing opportunity I have had to serve the Lord for the past 18 Months. I can’t imagine going through this mission without all of the love and support I have received from all of you. Thank you so much for all the words of encouragement, the prayers, and love it means more than you know. I am so very blessed to have such a great support group. I have been able to feel of your presence as I’ve served and I hope you are all able to feel and receive the blessings of me serving my mission. I was truly never alone. I will forever be indebted to all of you for your examples, testimonies, and faith. Thank you again, I’m so happy I was able to share this wonderful adventure with all of you. I know I could never say it enough but thank you. I love you all.

The very thought of not being a missionary anymore makes me so sad.  I wore my name tag to bed last night. But I know that this is the right step for me. Before I end I just want to share my testimony with you. Before I came out I thought I had a strong testimony. I was built upon a sure foundation but coming home now I not only have a sure foundation, a stronger testimony, but also I have reached the level of conversion. I don’t know everything but I have a strong conviction to keep studying and increasing my faith for the rest of my life. 

I’m indebted to the Lord for my mission and my experience. I know that He lives and I know without a doubt that the gospel brings joy. I’m incredibly grateful for the knowledge of the love my Father in Heaven has for me and all of his children. I know that the Book of Mormon has incredible power because of the many testimonies of Christ.  I know that the Lord places us where we need to be and I know I needed to be here in Chicago for these past 18 ½ months. How grateful I am.  I guess it all boils down to one thing in the words of Nazaret “it’s true, it’s true, it’s true!   The gospel is true. 

Well this is it the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next! 

I’m so excited to see y’all tomorrow!  

For one last time….I love ya all

Thanks for everything 

Keep smilin 

Sister Kendrick 

Comfort Zone

Well it's already been another week that's crazy!!

Tuesday I went to my last zone conference and man that was hard. I love
zone conference the spirit and the growth that comes in that simple meeting.  I am really gonna miss it!! A few things come with my last zone conference, one being giving a departing testimony, and then having my exciting interview with president. I had a lot of time to reflect on my mission both sharing it with the missionaries and with president and it felt so good!! I know that I've done all that I could. It was awesome to look back on the hard time and see how I overcame them and seeing the Lord’s hand in my life. It is has been so cool to stand as a witness of Christ. I've had so many amazing experiences because of it. It was such a sweet feeling for sure but after it was all said and done it was a hard day, to say the least.

Friday night there was a baptism and Nazaret came.  I love her!! She's so cute! Afterwards she was so happy and giddy I asked her how she felt. She couldn't put words to it all she could do was smile.  She did say, “well you know, I ask my mom every Sunday if I can be baptized and she tells me I've already been baptized, then I tell her mummy I want to do it this way so I can chose it and it needs to be done the right way”.  Then she said “I want to be baptized so bad”!!

On Sunday, she wasn't at church which is super weird. She has been there for 13 weeks straight. So we texted he and asked her if she was ok. She responded back that he parents wouldn't let her go anymore, her stepdad, I was so sad, I can only imagine how hard this is for her and her family. One step forward two steps back but she's on date now and she's almost done with Jacob.  She's amazing.

I wanted to share a short experience with you. On Saturday, we drove to drop of a Bible. Let me just paint you a picture of what we pulled up to, with the help of one of my favorite movies…..Blind Side. Sandra Bullock desires that she wants to meet Big Mike’s mom and so she drives down to the hood, right and what she finds is a ton of people just sitting around, up to no good.  The second she drives up all the attention is on her because she sticks out like a sore thumb and it's quite the sketchy situation.  People are yelling at her and the whole shebang.  Okay, got that scene in your mind? That's the best way to explain how I feel most time in this area, but it fit perfectly with what took place on Saturday. In fact, Sister Cuacut said to me “I don't know if I feel comfortable here”. I returned the respond with “is it you feel uncomfortable or unsafe because if it's the first, remember that there is no growth in comfort (only because that's what I was telling myself). After a split doubt, I knew God needed us to be there, so I got out. We walked down the road past some a bazillion people I was set on the Bible referral. When we found the apartment, there were to gates and you had to be buzzed in before you could even get to her building.  As we were sitting there trying to get a hold of her and figure out how to get in without looking like we were just hanging out, a little boy popped his head out the 3rd story window. I waved at him. He waved back.  After a few minutes of us sitting there, he called out “yous want me to letch ya in?”  Long story short, he let us in and we went to the house that requested the Bible. As we were walking out, the same little boy was out of the window and I waved at him and thanked him again.  As we were about to get to the gate he yelled out “you live here?” We walked back and explained to him we were missionaries and we were dropping of a Book of Mormon and a Bible to someone.  In the sweetest little voice, he asked if he could have a book about God. It melted my heart.  We walked back to the car to get him a children's Book of Mormon and the group of people I was afraid to talk to on the way up stopped and asked if we were giving free teachings of Christ.  So in the middle of the street with a whole group of people, we started teaching, handing out Book of Mormons right and left it was awesome!!  We went back and gave the little one the Book of Mormon and he held it next to his heart and my heart melted!!  We took a selfie with him it was great!! I'm so glad that I got out of my comfort zone!!

Well it's been a week I'm excited to finish this one out strong!! 

I love ya all
Sister Kendrick

18 Month Mark

What a wonderful week it has been. It has been packed full of a lot of inspiring meetings and experiences.  I will just share the ones that were the coolest and the most impact for me. 

Thursday we got to go to the temple!!!  For all those who know me, know what a treat that was in and of itself. I love the temple so much and I am so excited to come home and return to my weekly trip. I have not gone for quite some time here on the mission but because of that, it made the experience super tender and sweet. The whole purpose in going was in preparation for Elder Renlund, a member of the 12 Apostles, which came on Friday!  So grateful for all the time spent there.  Everything that took place this week was up by the temple, which is quite the drive so we spent a lot time driving back and forth and sitting in the lovely Chicago traffic 

Friday we woke up bright and early. Our sweet bishop had us, 3 sets of missionaries, over for breakfast and then we did a little bit of service with the elders.  After that, we headed up to the meeting.  We had to be there super early so everyone could be ready for Elder Renlund his wife. They also brought various members of the Seventy, Elder Taylor, Elder and Sister Scott, and Elder and Sister Nattress. 

 Here is a summary of the meeting: 

Elder Renlund opened the meeting with a beginning message.  Man, the spirit was so strong!!. He started with, “I hope you have been wondering why in the world they would send a 12 and a bunch of the 70 to my mission”, he said,“rather than you still wondering, let me just tell you. There are three reasons:

1.  We are here to thank you! To thank you on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for your service!! Thank you 

2. To let you know you have been sent here to the Chicago, IL mission for a reason, for a purpose and it is your right, your responsibility and your obligation to know why.  There is power that comes from knowing!  So get down and wrestle with the Lord until you know why. He then told a few stories and the process that takes place for one to be called to a specific mission. (It isreally neat) 

3. To let us know that the Binghams have been called by God to be here with us, They love us and they will do anything for us. They are called by revelation and then he went into how they were called. (Once again really neat) 

Next up was Sister Bingham 

She spoke of the joy that comes from the gospel. She said choose joy. Joy is a gift to the faithful. Joy is Christ. Joy can be found in the hardest of places when we follow and live the gospel.  When we choose Christ, we choose joy.

President Bingham 

He spoke of how he can relate so well to the story of the stripling warriors. He feels he is the leader of he the stripling warriors and he feels so honored to call us his sons and daughters, for we are worthy to be called that.  Alma 56:9-10   He spoke of the love and the support that each of us has behind us and that we are love and then he spoke about mothers and the role they play in our lives and the role that the mothers played in the stripling warrior’s lives. Super sweet!  President and Sister Bingham were teary eyed.  It was so tender. I truly love them.

Elder Taylor

 He quoted the talk “Joy in Spiritual Survival”.  His talk was all based on the simple phrase, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Friday rolled around and Hebrews 12:2.  What was the joy that was set before him ? It was us and it was his father D&C 18: 10 and 19: 16-19. He then shared that it is worth every effort to have him be our focus and to gain the joy that comes from that. 

Elder and Sister Nattress 

They spoke about the impact we are making here on our mission and how our success is going to take time to measure. Elder Nattress shared a story that I will tell I bit later in my letter, but the whole idea was we are effecting generations with the message we are sharing.  No effort is wasted. Sister Nattress said something I really liked "Every day you serve your mission, you are treading on sacred ground" I thought that was a pretty cool way to look at it. 

Sister Renlund

We were assigned to read 3 talks before we came to the meeting and to study them out deeply. They were “Fourth floor last door”, “Joy and spiritual survival”, “Faith is not by chance but by choice”. We had more of a discussion with her rather than her just speaking to us. It was really good, too much to share. She is super sweet are really funny!!

Elder Rendlund

He started off by reading D&C 4, and he said it doesn't say serve with you prefrontal cortex and your right atrium!! He won my heart right of the bat! He speaks my language.  By the way, he's a heart surgeon, if I remember correctly.  He spoke about our effort and our attitude, both must positive for miracles to take place. We need to be in the top right quadrant.  As he was drawing, it I was thinking, great I'm definitely the top left quadrant.   I'll work my little butt off if that's what needs to be done, but my attitude isn't always there. As I was getting on myself for this imperfection of mine, he pointed to that very corner and said to be honest this is where the natural man in me falls and it's a daily struggle to overcome it! That was neat for me to see that he too has struggles,that he's just a man but yet he is doing all he can to follow in the Savior’s footsteps. He knows where his true strength lies, that was neat!! The rest of his talk he focused on the success of a missionary is measured by his/her commitment and his/her desire.  In Preach my Gospel on pg 10 it says this, but it’s so much more powerful hearing out of the mouth of an Apostle.  This toowas very comforting to me coming to the end of the line. I often wonder if I'vedone enough, if I've been successful and I was once again reminded that I've done a good job. He ended like all special witnesses do with a profound yet simple testimony of the reality of the Savior Jesus Christ and our role is to bring ourselves and others home to Him. Man, the spirit was so strong!! 

Over all the experience was amazing!  It was a great day! I felt so blessed to hear of their words and to be spiritual recharged and ready to press forward with the last little bit! So blessed!

Saturday was my 18 month mark!!! Crazy, right??   I can hardly believe it!! Sowe celebrate! Ashley came and took us to lunch

Ok, last story. Sunday was Stake Conference. None of the buildings are big enough, so we had it in a school which was really fun…not the point of the story though. Nazaret was able to come! Bless her sweet little heart! It seemed to me that the whole conference was just for her.  Call me ridiculous but it was all things that pertained to her!  Man it was awesome!! The last speaker Elder Nattress got up and said, “I have received the prompting 3 times now to share a story with you. I'm hesitant because I've already shared it a couple of time while I've been here on my trip but when the spirit prompts me I obey.  He shared a story about his great grandma who at the age of 11 saw the missionaries and began learning from them in the town square.  She desired to join the church. Her family, and especially her dad was not happy about it but after much fasting and prayer on behalf of her and the missionaries they felt it would be the right time to ask her father for permission. After some conversation, he consented. She was baptized all by herself and after being baptized and confirmed she walked home in her wet clothing by herself on a cold night, yet she said she had never been warmer.  Later, she left her home with the Saints, once again by herself. She went to help a widower raise 8 children and after a bit of time was asked to marry him. She consented and they had 8 children of their own. Shortly after, her husband died and around the same time another man visiting the town of Bear Lake had just recently lost his wife.  They dated and too were married. He also had 8 children.  They had 2 more children of their own. He began to share his gratitude for his sweet sweet great grandmother, for the choice she made to act on the feeling she had and to follow the Saints. The last child born, was his grandmother. He called it his testimony line. All because an 11 year old girl chose to have courage, chose to have faith and chose to make convents that he was stand before us.  There was more to his talk but that hit me and it hit Nazaret. Her story is so similar,she being only 14. It brought her to tears! Ahhhh God truly knows his children! It was just what she needed… support, reassurance a little nudge!! Man I love her!!

Sorry for such a long email I just wanted to share all the wonderful things that took place this week!! I hope you made it through all the words and that hopefully you to learned something or felt just a little peace that the spirit brought to me

Closing in on another great week here!! 

Love you all 

Sister Kendrick 

Keep smilin