Scuttle Butt Baptism

Hello all!

This week wasn't nearly as exciting as last week, but a good week nonetheless!

Monday we went to the Waukgen Harbor.  Sister Jones is afraid of water I think... We walked out on a ½ mile pier and she was having a little panic attack because we were surrounded by water hahaha.... Ok, I may have made that sound a little dramatic, but she was for sure uneasy. I thought it was funny, all I wanted to do was jump in the water.   It looked so pretty, and a like it would be a great swim:)

                                                           

On Tuesday we served at the food pantry like usual.  Most of the time they are concerned about us doing hard things because we are girls and we "will hurt ourselves"... But they don't even give us a chance! I somehow weaseled my way up to help unload the truck this time and proved my strength and speed :). They were very impressed to say the least. I think I have a new job now.  Once they saw that I could move steel, unanimously they all exclaimed that I must be from a farm hahah.... I don't get it, people just don't know how to work hard I guess. Tuesday night we had dinner with Elder and Sister Woods.  Nick and Drew were also there. It was so good.  Our plan was to find out a little bit more about Nick this time. Where he is from, what his plans are, and who he wants to be.  You know the usual:) and then the same with Drew.  That did not happen at all.  We sat down and the two sailors where so happy to be out of class and off the base they just went crazy. Hahaha They started to talk horror stories about boot camp and then they just started to throw out 3 letter acronyms.  It was so funny Sister Jones and I were so lost, like come on who even knows what : TTM NMOT SCUTTLE BUTT JFR ZDB GTY ....  What is this??? Haha After dinner we taught him about commandments and covenants, and  he stopped drinking coffee and he's  living the word of wisdom... And so much more!!!  We put him on date and I'm so so so excited for him it's truly amazing what he has been able to learn and understand in such a short amount of time. The Lords hand has truly been guiding us! There have been so many things that have just “HAPPENED “to work out just in the right time, just the right way.  He has truly been prepared  ;) it's so cool !! Nick is going to be baptized on June 11th! We are so excited! He is so excited to learn the gospel and he is just eating it all up                                                                  

Wednesday we taught Frank and Shelley. They are hippies. Haha About 6 months ago Sister Jones and Sister Smith were tracting in Zion, and the first door they knocked on was theirs! They let them right in and they talked to them for a while.  They found out they knew a member of their ward and left them with a Book of Mormon. They didn't really think much of it.  Little did they know that six months later they would be interested in learning more!! They have been coming to church the last couple weeks with their member friend, and we had the opportunity to teach them for the first time this week! They are excited to learn, but they don't have a firm belief in much of anything.  We will be starting from ground zero :). We love them already! They have never been a part of a organized religion, ever, in their lives so we've got our work cut out for us. It’s truly going to be great ;)
                       

Thursday we taught Sister Watkins and told her we have a vision for her family to go to the temple. She loves having us over and we can see her testimony growing!   We had dinner with Christina Wood that night.  She made jello for dessert but it wasn't set so she put it in the freezer.  The next time the freezer door was opened, there was jello splattered EVERYWHERE.  We got to do some impromptu service and cleaned her kitchen all up :)                                                                           

Friday we were able to teach Gail, she is growing so much!!!  We are still trying to help her understand Joseph Smith.  That night we helped a family in the ward set up  for their daughter’s wedding.  I
struggled a lot!!!   It was just thrown together and I was needless to say having a heart attack!! I had to remind myself a 1000 times that is wasn't my wedding and it was ok that they had plastic table clothes
hanging on the walls and that the flowers didn't match the theme ect... Lesson learned, I don't want to have a wedding anytime soon!!!! I'm way to high maintenance #anyonegotaxanax.   And then they gave us a giant pizza  for dinner aka why missionaries gain weight!!  We even tried to pawn it off on a few people but no takers so we ended up just tossing 1/2 of it.

                                                           

 

Friday night Brother Eager,  a member of the bishopric called and asked if I would speak for 20 minutes on Sunday.  I freaked a little but it ended up being all good. I just got up there and winged it. Good thing I'm not scared of speaking.  

During all of our open time this week we distributed invitations for the pancake breakfast our ward put on this morning!  We got to help make pancakes and serve everyone.  One sweet brother in our ward made crawfish and cheese grits to share, and it was so good!  Charlie is an army veteran, but wore his authentic civil war cavalry uniform to the breakfast! I love Charlie he is the coolest guy!!!                         

 

I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I know Christ strengthens us when we turn to him!

Have a wonder holiday and week!!! Keep smilin love you                 

      

Package from Wayments

This is as close to home as I have seen

Wall of fame....I love pictures from home

I love the ghetto

Package from home

This is why Sisters gain weight!!

This one is for gramps!  The fire station

Can you say amazing??

This week ... I'm in awe….. It’s seriously has been so good!!

A week ago the elders got a referral for a guy on the naval training base, sent in by one of his friends. They tried to set up an appointment, but the problem being that anyone on base in their first phases they are not allowed off the base without a freedom buddy, and they were unable to go through with their meeting.  You might be asking yourself, what does this have to do with anything? Well, brace yourselves for one of the coolest things that I have ever been a part of.

The set up for the story...
There is a senior couple that is call to military relations.   Their names are Elder and Sister Woods.   They are not called to teach, but to be more of a support and organize the church on the base. Nick it the sailor that the Elders were trying to set up an appointment with.  Drew Hamilton an amazing returned missionary that is now training to be a sailor.

The story: so Sunday night, Elder and Sister Woods called us up and asked if we would have time In our schedule to come down to their house for a Mexican fiesta.  They live in the old naval housing on Utah Court Road.  Then they asked us if we could teach Nick.  He had come to church that day and then to the Woods’ home afterward for a little social.  They told us the elders had a busy schedule that week and Nick was going to be in training for just a few more weeks.  Elder Woods didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to teach the gospel. Of course we said we would love to.  We thought that Nick and the other LDS sailors would be at the house too.

When we got there, we were the only ones at dinner and we were really confused, wondering where this new investigator Nick was.  Elder Woods then told us that we were meeting him on base....
Yikes… in my head I was thinking there is no way we can't go on the
base we don't have passes.   I didn't even know if we were allowed by the mission to go there.  Sister Jones looked at me, I looked at her and we were trapped.  We didn't feel anything unsettling so we just went with it. After dinner, Elder Woods said they would be driving over and we were going to pray real hard that they would just let us on with our ID's, but still wondering if any of this was even going to be possible.  I admired their faith and added mine to theirs and jumped in the car.  When we got to the gate, they took our ID's and the Woods’ passes that said in big bold letters, NOT AUTHORIZED TO BRING ANYONE ON BASE.  They took a good look over each of them and they let us on! Heavenly Father for sure wanted this to happen.

We meet Drew who would be helping us teach, and then Nick got there shortly after.   We started the lesson and words can't express the spirit that was in the room.  Nick is the picture perfect investigator.   He asked a lot of questions.  He is so sincere, and he is open, and so prepared!!  We taught him about the restoration.  He wanted to know more about prophets and why Jesus Christ is important and what was the priesthood was, and if the heavens were really open.   We taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and then it went into a mini testimony meeting.  Drew shared a powerful testimony.  Elder Woods asked if he had felt something different about us and about what he felt when he went to church and when he went to the Woods’ home.  He said that he for sure felt something different and it was the same thing that he had felt at his friends’ home, back home, which made him curious about the gospel in the first place. IT WAS SO SO SO COOL!!! The spirit was prompting me in almost a yell, to invite everyone to join in a kneeling prayer... but everyone was putting their last words in.  It was so loud in my head I thought I better just jump in and interrupt.  I finally had an opportunity and so I first asked Nick if he would be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority.  He answered, “for sure, I will”.   Then Sister Jones jumped in and asked if he would read and study the BOM.  He said, “I promise you I will".  Then nearly at the same time, we asked if we could say a kneeling prayer!  We asked him if he would offer it.  He gave an amazing prayer ahhhhh!!!! It was so good, start to finish!!!!

We set up another appointment, and we were able to teach him on
Thursday!!  We shared the plan of salvation and just like the lesson
before, it was awesome!!  Nick read the BOM.  He prayed and did everything we asked him to do. He loved the thought of the spirit world and the pre earth life.  He thought that was so cool!  We set up 2 more appointments and set up a tentative date for his baptism in June.  He wants his friend from back home to be there and he had to find out when she and her family could fly out.  That is why we don't have a definite date.  So ya, that happened!!!!!   Whoot!!   Whoot!!
HARD WORK PAYS OFF!!!!

Tuesday we went to the food pantry, as always.  This time I had an
idea/ prompting to share a Mormon message with everyone there.  It was kind of tricky because the food pantry is in the basement of a Catholic Church and most of the people we work with attend it. We needed permission from the head person and when we asked her she was really hesitant, but something we said was good enough and she said we could go ahead and do it!!  It was so great!! We had people on the verge of tears.   Many commented on how they thought it was one of the best things they had ever seen. We had one man ask us to send it to him so that he could share it with others.  It was just amazing!!! I love the food pantry and I love MORMON MESSAGES.  They are so easy to share with others and they bring the spirit so strongly.

Challenge of the week:   share a Mormon Message either on Facebook or share one with a friend co-worker.  Explain to them why it made an impact on you/ share your testimony. 

Friday we went to the temple.  Oh happy day!!!! It was so good!!   I miss going to the temple so often.  It was definitely a great recharge. We were able to do sealings after the session, which was really cool.   I was able to stand in as proxy as a daughter and have President and his wife stand in proxy for the parents and we were able to seal quite a few families.  It was so good!! I love the temple and being able to feel of the Spirit that is there.  It's was so good.

The rest of the week we tracked and tracked and tracked.   We got 4 new investigators so hopefully something will come out of those.  :)

It's truly been a spectacular week.   Words can't express how happy I am out here and how grateful I am to be a part of this work!!  So many
blessings have truly come our way! I love you all!  Have a great week!!
Keep smiling!!

 Love ya,
Sister Kendrick

I love people from 3rd world countries

Hey how is everyone? I hope all is well!! This week, well let's just say everyone has their agency and sometimes people tend to use it like fools :(  No one would get back to us and it was really sad!  But never fear this week was still great, the work goes on.

Monday, After dinner we went over and visited a less active older man.( he lived on a horse ranch that means land and horses, that's really rare around here).   He was really nice we talked about everything under the sun except for the gospel :( We started out with a prayer and a scripture, and he wouldn't read it, nor did he want to talk about it. He was totally avoiding it.   It made me really sad, but right before we left he made a comment about the Manti temple and the murals inside the endowment room. It made me so sad that he has a lost his
testimony. He still has the knowledge of many gospel things, but he has lost the ....

We had zone training.   It was so good.   I love President Woodbury.  He is so sweet and so knowledgeable.   It's great. :)  The trainings were centered on Christ like attributes, and having faith and always looking to the
Lord, fearing not (Peter walking on water) I love zone training :)  Afterwards we went to eat with all of the sisters it was a lot of fun, and it was a great head turner.   I was able to talk to a lot of people, it was great... It's funny because talking to people is not natural to any of the sisters in my zone, and actually they all have had a really hard time getting use to being a missionary.  I don't know if it's just because I've been raised to talk to others and be outgoing or what, but it's not a problem for me.   It's wonderful ;) so they all just let me talk to everyone that came into Subway haha ...

We visited with Gail twice this week, once for our normal lesson, then once because she needed to vent.  We listened to her, showed her a Mormon message that made her smile, prayed, and had her call the Elders to receive a priesthood blessing.  We have become good friends with Gail! and she takes care of us :). It's so fun to see her testimony grow a little bit at a time! The temple is our next goal.

So for the past few weeks we have been teaching this less active couple.  They've been members for 30 plus years and they are really cool people.  The first time we stopped by just to see who they were.  Brother Watkins said that Sister Watkins had just started to read the Book of Mormon recently to find out for herself if it is true. GOLDEN WORDS !!!!!  We have slowly been helping them regain their knowledge of the gospel.  They keep saying that they have testimonies, but I think what they don't understand is that a true testimony requires us to ACT.  If we have a testimony, it changes something inside of us, it makes us want to change, to become how our Savior sees us.    So for them our main purpose is to help them gain a true testimony. Slowly but surely it's coming along :)  Brother Watkins knows so much, so many stories.   He studies the early Saints, the temples, Joseph Smith…. his knowledge is never ending he's doing his homework.  He's put in the time. He's just never allowed it to change him, and it makes me really sad. BUT never fear they are moving in the right direction.  They just need a little push hahaha ....

Because our investigators haven't been getting back to us, we have had a lot of time go and visit less actives, it's been great!! I'm still in awe as to how so many people fall away from the church. I don't know if I was just blind to it at home but there are a lot of people who have just allowed themselves to stay stagnant in one place in the gospel, or so that's what they thought, but we know and they now know too that if we are not constantly pushing forward, gaining more knowledge exercising our faith and testimony the light of the gospel begins to take the form of atrophy.  It so sad :(

The best part of the week was probably Sunday.  We met Tricia, from Belize, in the park a week or so ago. She is a nanny and her kids were playing  a pick up soccer game.  We stopped to watch and one of the little kids was so good.  I must of commented out loud because she started to laugh.  I started up the conversation and boom!!! Soccer is the best!! So I guess when she was younger, 17ish the missionaries came to her house in Belize.  She felt so bad for them that she would feed them at least 2 times a week, so when she saw our name tags, she was so happy!!  She had loved the missionaries. She had a very hard life.   Her dad left when her mom was 19 and had 5 kids, one being Downs Syndrome.  She, being the oldest, had a lot of responsibility..  They were very poor, so when she was 9, her mom left for America and left her and her 4 siblings in Belize. She was to take care of them. Her mom would send money home and slowly they were able to move from a shack to a nicer home, but she still she had a to take care of her little sisters, go to school and be he mom!!! Crazy, right?  It reminded me so much of Africa.  Long story short, she eventually moved to the USA and has been a nanny for some millionaires ever since.   I love her so much!!  Well because she loved the elders she had us over for dinner Sunday. She spoiled us with Belizean food and we had a great conversation with her! We talked about prophets, personal revelation, Joseph Smith, and the simple little moments God gives us to
show us His love. She is so amazing and strong! We are looking forward to teaching her! I love her !!!


Well I love you all keep up the good work !!! Challenge for the week invite someone over from your neighborhood or friend group that is less active or non members, and while they are there, share one thing you love about the gospel, it doesn't have to be a lesson or anything big  but just share a little bit of how the gospel
has blessed you .. You have until the rest of the month  GO AND DO :D

Well I love y'all keep smiling
Love Sister Kendrick

My district

Found my car in Illinois!!

This is Sister Knuth.  She is 95 years old.  We got to visit her this week.

She maintains her home all by herself.  It is jaw dropping.

The Sisters in my zone

The tallest "mountain"....mad made.  Lots of smog

Lunch with the Sisters in my zone

I Love People

I loved getting to see everyone yesterday.   It was sooo so good.   I loved every second of it, even if I couldn't hear y'all for most of it.  hahaha Well, this week was slower than any I've had so far.  No one seemed to want to get back to us, but all is well because when we thought we weren't being very productive trying to find people for hours every day, Heavenly Father proved us wrong.   We were able to find 2 new investigators ahh hard work pays off, when you least expect it :)

The big city...
So Monday we spent all day in the city, it was really fun. The buildings are so tall they block the sun at noon day. It's so crazy!! We rode the train in and there were so many people. It's a awesome place to visit, but I don't think I could ever be a city girl ;)

We found a new investigator at Jewel though! Nicole is 17 and super sincere. She really wants to turn her life around and become a better person through Jesus Christ! That's why we are here hooray!! We are excited to help her get involved in young women's program.   The young women in our ward wrote their testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon to
hand out to people, so we were able to give Nicole a Book of Mormon with a testimony from a girl her age :).

We  also met a lady at the park from Belize! Fifteen years ago, the missionaries used to visit her in Belize and she LOVES to feed missionaries...so we might have a few more dinner appointments :). Hopefully she will want to act on what she learned years ago!

We met Jeremiah, an investigator, at a gyro place this week and taught him about the Book of Mormon.  We hope we can teach him again soon! He has lots of good questions, and seems to like the answers  that the gospel offers.

We had a great lesson with Crystal and shared "The Hope of Gods Light" Mormon message. I would suggest you all watch it! Even if you have seen it before, go watch it again :). It's that good.

On Saturday we didn't really know what we were going to do, besides the fact that we would be doing a lot of finding. But miraculously, the Lord filled our day.  A member called and asked us to help her out, then we were able to teach Nicole in the afternoon! We did some finding, then during dinner Gail texted us in despair that she couldn't see her kitchen floor. So we spent the evening in Gail's kitchen working wonders :). Gail lives in the sketchy part of town...right down the street from a blinking red light, indicating a high crime/drug zone. Gail always watches us walk out to our car, but this time when we left (at 9 pm) she watched as we ran. :)

But Sunday was, by far, the best day of the week! We got to sit with Christina's kids in sacrament meeting which was super fun, made me feel like I was home :). In Relief Society Nadiia, a recent convert from Ukraine, needed help with her Gospel Library App.  Sister Jones went to sit by her.  Nadiia was so concerned that she wouldn't be able to access her Gospel Library! It was such a simple fix that when she fixed it, she just laughed! She was so grateful to be able to use the app
and for my service that we just laughed through most of the closing hymn in Relief Society :). Nadiia wants to learn as much English as she can, so I wrote down Eensie Weensie Spider for her. We read it to her, she read it back, then she said she would practice it.  I love her! And Gail :). Old people are my favorite.

 After church we delivered cookies for Mother's Day, went to dinner at the Monsons (Robin and Niccolo were there too) and had a grand time.  And saving best for last, I got to Skype my family!

I know that we are each instruments in the Lord's hands. If we trust in Him, He orchestrates our lives for us to be happy!  He leads and guides and walks beside us to help us become converted. It is truly only our Savior who can change us, but He is always there to help us along.  Best of all, He loves us infinitely! Turn to Him and all will be well :)

Well I hope this email is good I'm really tired today and I couldn't even tell you what I wrote so if it doesn't make sense please forgive me haha well I love y'all have a wonderful week keep smilin



Love Sister Kendrick

This is the park I was telling you about on the phone

P Day in the City