Life Is Good

This week was great with so many good things and so many blessings!! It's hard to put into words how amazing the mission truly is....

 We were able to see Crystal on Monday night, yay !!! We went over the story of the stripling warriors with green army men as a visual, and talked about how much courage they had to act on their faith.  In the closing prayer she gave she said "thank you for the missionaries and their powerful message..." Yay hopeful she is going somewhere!!! A little background on her,  she is in a part member family.   Her husband has been a member his whole life but when he got married he stopped going.   He was one of those kids that felt like he was forced to go to church,  so the moment he didn't have to go to church, he didn't.   The grandparents (also missionaries in our mission) had each of the little kids baptized, but none of them come.  Now Crystal is being taught and has been since 2014.   She has slowly progressed.  She actually was on schedule be baptized at the end of 2014.  Something happened and she said that she no longer wanted that.  They stopped teaching her for about 6 months.   The missionaries started up again so we're at at the point that she should be a member. She only wants to move forward if her whole family is going to do it with her.  They don't want to :(  so we have just been trying to help her start moving towards baptism again and it is a very slow slow progress.  President told us to ask her tonight to be baptized and to invite her husband to get worthy to baptize her!!!   So that's why it's so exciting to have her say the things she did in our last lesson. 

Tuesday ahhhh this day was crazy !!!!   Service....we organized all the odds and ends of donations.  It was crazy!!   There was stuff everywhere but when we left it looked beautiful with labels and all!!   Hurray!!   It was great and I felt so accomplished.  It was my kind of cleaning!!  Then we went to lunch with Charlie.   He is this old guy in our ward and the sweetest thing you'll ever meet!!  He has some crazy cool stories.   His mother and father in law were in the consecration camps.  Crazy right??   I loved hearing all his stories,  I eat them up.  Anyways, he took  us to a restaurant  so that we could meet a nonmember waitress  that he has been teaching the gospel to.   It was so so cool.   We met with Breanna and taught her the second half of the restoration.  She's moving right along and I love it.  She is so excited to learn and she has so much faith!!  I love it!!

Nothing really exciting happened on Wednesday just finding :D

Thursday was a off day but a great day!!  We did studies and we started weekly planing and then at 11:00 we headed to the church for president interviews!!!! :D President was a little behind on interviews (3 hours behind) haha It was a long day at the church but it was fun because we got to talk with a lot of the missionaries! We got our planning done and we had a extra second to take a breath and had time for some extra study time.  It was wonderful!!! It was finally my turn to talk with President.   He is so awesome!   We talked about the work that was going on and how I as a missionary can better help these
people I'm teaching.  I feel so bad for him.  You can see in his eyes the weight of the mission.  I think his job is a hundred times harder than a bishop.   He has to help so many people and all the Sisters and Elders.  He is truly amazing, but he has so much on his plate.   When he asked me if I needed anything and how I was doing personally, it was so great to be able to say that I am doing so so so good, I'm loving life, and that I knew my purpose and why I was here and what job was before me and that he didn't have to worry about me.  The smile that came to his face when I said this was great!!  He gave me many promises. If I continue in my path, the Lord doesn't have a choice, he has to bless me!!!  He is so sad that he won't be able to see the blessing that I will be to the mission.  These will be the last months of his mission.   This was the last interview:(   Next interview will be with the new mission president.  I'm super excited for that but I'm sad to see the Woodberry's go.   They are amazing. 

 That night I went on my first  exchange with Sister Trowbridge.   I had to drop Sister Jones off and pick her up.   Mind you,  we don't have a gps and I was driving on the highway which I had never done at 9 o'clock at night.  I had to figure out how to get home ahhhh.... But no worries I made it with out having to turn around yay!!!  It was so much fun with Sister Trowbridge.  I got to teach Gail and we taught her spiritual Jenga.  She loved it.  We focused a lot on fasting.  She is moving right along and I love it.   She is understanding little by little and it is so cool.   We also taught Robin.  We shared the stripling warrior lesson with her, the same one we did with Crystal.  She loved it!  She stayed on topic the whole time:D and she took a lot out of it.   She said in her prayer, "thank you for this very enlightening message that the sisters shared with us"  (They both came to church!!!)   Then we did a lot of contacting and Sister T loved it.   She was amazed at the amount of people we shared the gospel with!  I really had fun but I was so glad to get Sister Jones back.   I couldn't wait to tell her all of our adventures that went on that day.  It was the same way I feel with Bree.   I just wanted to tell her everything about my day!

Saturday we visited less active for the majority of the day.  We took Maren, the sister that just got home from France, with us.  We went door to door and we had a lot of success too.   It was great.  It's hard to see all these people that have fallen away from the church.  All but one them said,  with out being promoted,  that they know the church was true and they know that is where they are supposed to be:( I've got to help them!!!

Sunday. church was great!!  We have a unique ward and it's so much fun to see how the gospel has touched each of there lives.   Robin and Gail were at church.   It's sooooooo exciting. They are doing so good.   We contacted at the park and and we met this guy.  First off,  I didn't  really want to walk over to him, but Sister Jones was leading the way.   He was smoking something, and I thought,  well this is going to be fun.   We started talking with him and we found out that his mom is in the cancer hospital with stage 4 cancer.  I felt impressed to ask him if his mom would like a blessing.   I hesitated because he didn't even know what the priesthood was, and he probably would think we were crazy.   It came to me again and I knew I couldn't deny it.  I asked him and the joy that swept over his face was amazing.  He said his mom could use all the help she could get  and that he would love that!  He told us to call him tomorrow at 11:00 and we could set up a time.  Throughout the rest of the conversation,  he kept confirming that we were going to call him.  So, that story will be continued but it was a really neat moment!!

 Because there is so much diversity here,  it is not uncommon for someone to ask you where you are from.  I asked a man at the grocery store if they sold scone dough.  He asked me where I was from.  I told him I was from Utah and his mouth dropped.  He said he thought I was an Englishwoman with a southern hick voice.   hahah   So,  I guess you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.    It just made me laugh!!

Life is so so good!   I love teaching the gospel with others!!  I love talking to random people in the shampoo aisle and sharing my testimony with the
strangers walking down the sidewalk.   I love it all!   Being a missionary is great!!

Challenge for the week:   Bear your testimony in church on Sunday, and this week really study it out in your mind.

I love you all!   Have a great week!!
Keep smiling!!   Keep believing!!
Love, Sister Kendrick

This is where I write my emails every week

We heart attacked the Senior Missionaries going home..Crystal's in laws

This lady wouldn't let us talk to her until we bought a red nose for $1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRODEE!!!!

This week was amazing!  It was full of fun, and crazy things.  It feels like a dream!

1 month down can you believe it ahhhhhhhh....

  I'm a big girl now 
So Monday night, I was so proud of the crock pot that I bought, I felt like a big girl :)  I wanted to take a picture!!  We dropped EVERYTHING off in the house and we ran outside.   After taking the picture, we realized that along with the bags and Sister Jones’ shoes, we had left the house keys in the house ...  So with crock pot in hand and no shoes on, we had to walk all the way across the apartment complex before It closed.  We had 10
minutes!!. Ha ha!!  We barely made it in time. It was really funny because here I was thinking I was a big girl and all grown up and then I locked myself out of the house;)

It's gonna take work
On Tuesdays we do service at a Presbyterian church. They have a food bank and soup kitchen in the basement where they help about 200 people on Wednesday.  We go there the day before to set up.  We make up boxes and a food line.  It is really fun. There are some amazing people that come and help work. I love giving service and helping others! They were so impressed with my work ethic.  They said that they didn't think young kids knew how to work. I was just doing what I'm used to doing.   Okay, a side note… every night we do I love you tonight because...even that night Sister Jones said that she loved me because of how hard that I work because her past companions were "city girls "  and they didn't really like to work hard.  I'm so grateful that I've been taught a good work ethic and I know how to work hard!! (Thank you mom and Dad!!!)

People in our paths
 The Hermanas (Spanish speaking Sisters) have been teaching an English class at the library.  They have been teaching a young woman that has become interested in the church. This week after the class we went down to meet  Merveilla... She is so beautiful. She just came to the US to live with her Uncle.   She is from the Congo.  There are a few huge obstacles.   She speaks French and very little English, but as it would be Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have once again shown that they are at the head of this church.   They know each of us individually.  They have a unique plan for each of us. They had already prepared a path for us.  Not more than a month ago, we had a sister in our ward return from her mission from Paris, France.  Guess what!! They speak French there!!! As we were trying to understand and communicate with her, I got a small prompting, "What are you doing? You are getting nowhere.  I have placed others in your path”!  I had not met the return missionary, but had heard about her.   I asked Sister Jones for clarification on where she had served.
We called her up immediately, and she taught her a 10 min lesson.  We taught her our beliefs and asked to set up a lesson…. all over the phone!!  Ahhhhh The church is true!! How else could all of this be so?  She hasn't had time to meet up with us yet so the story will be continued hopefully ending with her conversion but it's too soon to say.

Sisters ????
We have a lot of young families in our ward.  There are a lot of med students and people that are with the naval base, so in the next 2 weeks there are 6 young families moving out to different schools or different jobs...  We were able to help one of those families pack.  They have the cutest kids. Emery 3 Atley 2 months.   I do miss being able to play and be with the kids:  While we were packing Emery would say every 2 minutes Sisters can you do this…and sisters can you do that….I loved it!!!   It was so cute that she knew who we were and what our purpose is as Sister missionaries. She knew what that name tag meant.  That leads me to the next story.  We were going fast-food finding and we came to Culver's.    Sister Jones said that they hadn't ever been there before and that she didn't think that it would be a good place to find.   Nevertheless we tried it that day! As we
were people watching trying to find someone we could interrupt, or catch on their way out, a worker came up to us and asked us if we were like elder.  I was kind of thrown off, but I answered we were sisters but we teach the same things. We asked her why and how she knew about the elders, At one time the elders stopped by a few times a month to say hi and to share a 2 minute message with her family. She moved away and was wondering if we knew her elder and could ask him to come teach her again. She told us that was more than 2 years ago.   We told her how it all works, but that we could teach her. She happily agreed and that was that. We've taught her 2 times since then and we have more lessons schedules this week! She also knew what our name tag meant and that was all it took.  Funny thing is, Breanna had just started working at Culver's and that was her second day there!!! The Lord prepares his people step by step until their hearts are open and they are ready to learn. I'm so glad to be a part of this work.  We just happen to be in the right place at the right time way too often!!   It's not just by chance!!  These things don't just happen!! I am a part of a marvelous work!!
I'm so grateful to be a tool in his hand!!!!

Talk Talk Talk
Thursday we had zone training! We discussed some general conference talks and I loved it.  The prophet and apostles truly are inspired and called of God!  We can learn so much from them. My favorite quote was "Heaven is cheering you on!"- Elder Uchtdorf.  We were also able to see Crystal and share a conference talk with her :)
I love black people…
 Miss Gail she's so funny she is a recent covert and she joined the church because, “Why Not”!!!  Her words, not mine.   She said it seemed right, so why not. She is a little confused on some of our beliefs.  It's like taking baby steps.  Last week we taught her that Joseph Smith is not an angel and we don't worship him.   We taught her that he is like Moses, and when we compared him in that way, it made sense to her.  Hooray!   This week we taught the 13 Articles of Faith and why the church is the only true church.  I used a great object lesson that just made sense to her, so it's been great!   She’s learning!!  We also taught Robin who is also a recent convert, less active, and then she came to church in Sunday!!!! She hasn't been for 26 weeks so that was soooooo good !!!



Direct out paths
It's finally warm enough that people are coming out.  We had the chance to go outside to the parks and talk to people. For the majority of our Saturday, that's what we did. We had 10 minutes until we needed to get back to the apartment.  We got in the car after fast food finding at Taco Bell.  I was backing up Sister Jones out and I realized that our tire was a little flat, I checked the psi, but  I couldn't read on the tires what it was suppose to be at because of lack of lighting. So I jumped in and we drove to the Target parking lot a crossed the street. While on my hands and knees looking for the psi on the tire some man pulled up and asked if we needed help.  By that time we had found it, so we told him we were fine.  Long story short, he noticed how we were dressed and our name tags. We talked for a good 25 minutes, basically slamming info in his fac.  He kept asking questions and very intrigued with what we had to say.  It was amazing! We exchanged contact information and are in the midst of setting up an appointment. I ask myself 100 times a day if this stuff is real!!  Our tire ended up not being flat, but if I had not thought that and we had not drove across the street to a completely different place  we would have never met, Shawn. There is no rhyme or reason as to why we did those things actually looking at it, it seems stupid that we we even went to Target.  It didn’t have any more light than the Taco Bell did, but he was directing our paths.   He was leading us and He was paving a way for Shawn to hear the gospel.

We also tried to make some cookies this week, but we didn't have any chocolate chips so we chopped up some chocolate Easter bunnies.  Our cookies didn't spread or flatten when they baked...and we don't know
why? Haha so we have a bunch of short and stout, chocolate Easter bunny cookies.

Anyways now that I've taken all your time with this long email, I'll tell you the most important thing.  This is the true Church, Joseph Smith was a prophet called by God to restore this Church. Heavenly Father knows you and loves you.  He is aware of what you’re going through. Turn to Him and He will strengthen you!!

I love you all so much!!   I miss you!!   I'm so grateful to be a part of this work ;)

Love Sister Kendrick

We were picked up at the airport. The mission presidents took our luggage to the mission home and gave up a copy of the Book of Mormon with instructions to give the Book of Mormon away by the time we got back to the mission home.  We went on the train and rode to downtown Chicago, did some sight seeing and then back to the mission home for dinner.

President and Sister Woodbury and my new companion Sister Jones

I'm not in Utah anymore

                                                                                                                        April 11, 2016

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM !!!!!

Hey...... How is everyone???? All is well here (other than the snow) haha... I miss you all!!!!!

Because I'm sure you all don't want a giant email to read, I'm just going to bullet point some of the big things that happened my last week in the MTC.  If you want detail I'm sure my mother dear would love to read my journal to you when she gets it later this week ;)

The last Week
My MTC stay seemed to fly by after the first week.   Time just seemed to slip out of my fingers.  It was like trying to hold a handful of sand.  I was truly sad to leave.   I enjoyed the MTC so much, and I learned a lot, but I was ready to get out in the field…. bitter sweet. The last week was jammed pack with things to do ....
In field training:
Yes,  this is as bad as everyone says.  The meeting started at 8 and it didn't get over until 5. They went over a lot of stuff but for the life of me I can't remember what.  It was so much information at one time.  I’m sad to say I think the only thing I got out of it was welcome to
in field orientation and Thank you for coming....

I ran into Elder Elijah Wilson.  I heard my name and I didn't even respond, in fact I think I forgot my first name;)

Thanks for sending all the letters and the calendar.  I was so happy to see your faces.   We sat and looked at it for about an hour.  (in the MTC that is a very, very, very, long time)
   

It was really sad to
say goodbye to my teachers after our last lesson. They taught me so much and helped me grow in ways I would've never thought.  I'm so grateful for the time they put in on my behalf to help me become the missionary my Heavenly Father wants me to be.  One of the last lessons we had was watching The District.  In this show, it was about two sisters teaching a family and then seeing the family grow, then one year later being sealed together.  I watch this before I came out but it didn't mean hardly anything to me but watching it on the last day of class, and realizing that was going to be me three days was a little different.   Was going to have the opportunity to bring souls to Christ and helping them receive the restored gospel and Endure to the end.  It really hit me hard.  I got scared and nervous but more
importantly, super excited!  I am so glad I was going to have this opportunity.  I don't know if you have access to it but if you do here's the link.  You have to find the whole version where you get to see them go through the temple.

District 2 - The Purpose of Missionary Work - Robles Family  You tube

Saying goodbye to my branch president wasn’t really that bad because I only got to see him twice given the circumstances I was in while in the MTC.  

Conference weekend was great… this is how the day went.  We woke up and ate breakfast, watched the morning session, went to lunch, watched the afternoon session, ate dinner.  Then on Saturday, the Sisters watched the woman session while the Elders watched the priesthood session.   On Sunday, the only thing that was different was going in the morning and having departing devotional along with our Sunday devotional. The departing devotional was Vocal Point….which was great.  It was so good to hear music!!

I woke up at 3:30 AM to leave the MTC at 4:20.  We took the tracks from the MTC to the airport.  When we got to Chicago, The Woodberrys (the mission president and his wife) were standing at the bottom of the escalator ready to go.  They took our bags and gave us a Book of Mormon and a sack lunch.  They sent us with the STL'S  and the AP's on the train.   It was so much fun.   I loved putting my new skills to work.   I gave out a Book of Mormon and got 3
phone numbers for potential investigators ya!!!!   We went sightseeing around Chicago and ended up at the Mission home where we met all the senior couples and got to have a fun dinner with them.

Day two we went to church and got our iPads.   We had a few trainings and met our first companions.  Sister Jones is from Idaho and is amazing.   She has been out for 10 months!! We've had so much fun together.  I'm serving in the Zion, Gurnee, Wadswoth Winthrop Harbor and Waukgen areas.   I'm in the Gurnee 1st Ward.   It's the furthest north you can go in our mission, and is up against the lake.

It's been great!  For the majority of the time we walk around stores and talk to people and act like we're shopping, because it's too cold to go outside.... The end....
We're working with two investigators right now Crystal and Alex. I have yet to truly see where they are in their conversion so I will tell you more about them next week. The majority of our job here is to reactivate the Gurnee 1st and Gurnee 2^nd wards.  They actually had to combine 2 months ago because of inactivation.   It's really sad.  But it's OK because we are near do our best to help them out, rebuild their testimonies and to bring them back into the fold.

So that's been my last two weeks in a nut shell.   Not a lot, so sorry if you wanted more but....
I love it here.  It's been fun to adjust and to see what this is all about. I'm growing and learning like never before but it's awesome.   I love every second of it.

It would be best if you wrote down questions so that I know what to tell you.  That would be great!!

I love you all and miss you so much!!!!

First week down yahoo!!!!
-Sister Kendrick-