Teaching with The Bears

This week was very much out of the ordinary but I can't quite explain why.

Tuesday was my 5 month mark, crazy stuff.   We did nothing out of the ordinary, food pantry studies, the usual, and then we had a mini lesson with Karla. All and all a really slow day, we didn't even really celebrate :(

Wednesday we did some service and help set up a wedding, ok scratch that I took the role of the wedding planner. Let me explain!! So first off I need to thank Lex for letting me help set up her wedding, what 2 yrs ago (oh man that's crazy!!)  So they saw on Pinterest what they wanted to turn the gym into, but they were a little unsure as to how to do it. So Sister Jones (the mom of the bride) and I went to work.  With a little prior experience and a little ingenuity I crafted up a storm.  Within three and a half hours the two of us had put up a tent that didn't look all too shabby if I might say so myself! Haha.... But really, I was the only one who had done anything similar, and let me tell you it was a lot of fun!! I'm not being sarcastic :) ;) Well I tell you what if I stay at this rate I'll be the next best wedding planner :) At least this one turned out
a thousand times better then the last one did :)  They were really grateful.   I told them that they could all fly out to help me with mine whenever that is.   hahaha I also told them after all of that chaos I was never having my own wedding! Haha... I had recruited the Hermanas to come and help us.  We've gotten really close this week.

That night we had a lesson with Danielle and it when so good.  Ten min before we were to be there she texted us and was like “hey, hope
you guys don't mind I brought a friend with me, I want her to learn a little bit more about the Mormon church too because I think you guys are awesome” !! Whoot whoot !! Who does that? I was so happy #bestinvestigatorever!  Anyway, we had a really intense lesson about the plan of salvation.  They had question after question, and she had annotated, the Book of Mormon like no tomorrow.  She’s so cool. I still am back and forth though.  I can’t decide if she just wants the information for educational purposes of if it’s to know which church to join.  I really don't care all that much because she is an awesome person to teach and she is feeling the spirit so I have faith that it will move her:) so now we have two new investigators Danielle and her friend Emily :)

Thursday we had zone training.  It was really good as usual I love President Bingham, honestly I could listen to him teach all day long!! I would have loved to be in one of his institute classes.  The majority of the zone training was on working together as a mission, as zones, and as districts and most importantly as companionships to get the job done.  We also broke down characteristics of some of our favorite Book of Mormon characters.  Their attributes and how we too can become great.  I
always learn a lot at zone trainings and I love seeing and learning because that's in turn when I get to see my weaknesses and my faults which
then allows me to know where to go so I can improve.  Later on that night we had dinner and a lesson with the Cunninghams. It was a really good lesson.  We talked about the daily things that we should be doing, praying, reading ect...   I challenged them to read and mark the Book of Mormon cover to cover the same way I did when I first received a testimony of it. That being when as a family my mom had us all go through and mark each reference it had to the Savior. That was a neat experience for me!! I challenged them to do that by New Year's Eve. So hopefully they'll do that and they'll gain a stronger testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

Friday in between the appointments we had we tried to weekly plan but we didn’t get too far.   Most of our day was spent teaching and service.  We helped Robin box up her whole front room because they are coming in to fix some water damage.  That was fun!!  We had to fit a whole lot of stuff into a teeny tiny area. Good times, good times.  She is doing really well though just plugging along in this endure to the end stage.  Later that day we had a lesson with Karla! She is doing so good, she's loving life :)  We talked about the Plan of Salvation.  She had a lot of great questions and she's moving right along!!

Ok the best of the best days are still to come….. Saturday was truly one for the books. So a little background, the Chicago Bears are doing an outreach program to the community this year. With that, they did a practice at the high school right across the street from the church.   It was free and it was going to be packed... so for selfish reasons of my own, I really wanted to go. But being a missionary I couldn't.   I wasn't going to miss something like this haha...   So I was thinking all week how could we capitalize on this.  Well, my answer came through Sister Jones, and we decided to do a lemonade stand with the Hermanas hahaha..... Just picture this for a second.   Ya, I don't know what was going through my head but we went along with it. Saturday morning I was pumped.   We got it all set up, and the people started coming in like floods.   It was crazy!!  So our lemonade stand failed, mainly because I couldn't sit there any longer me and Hermana Ammit went to town.  I had never really street contacted before but let me tell you I caught on fast. Needless to say we us two gave out over 200 + pass along cards we had over 80 really good conversations with people, and on top of that we got 20 phone numbers  aka 20 pni (potential new investigators) Go Team!!! There were so many people!   It was so much fun!   I hope that one day I get to go to the city and do that every day because it was the best time I've had on my mission, in the eyes of contacting!!  And then we came back when the event was ending we did it again.  I didn't get to go to the practice but I got to do something even better.   I got to share the gospel with so many people!!

Well, that was my week in a nutshell ;) we had a lesson early today with Danielle and she made a really cool comment that I thought was pretty funny.  So she has studied many many religions, both for her own knowledge and for her major so keep that in mind.   She said “if you’re looking for Christian church the Mormon church is where it's at! It's got the best morals the best set up and I would have to say it's the best Christian church there is”.  Well what Danielle doesn't know is that not only is it the best Christian church, it's the true church!!  Ah man, I love being on a mission!  It's been the best!! I'm so grateful for all of you back home that have helped me become the person that I am today, and for all of you that have helped teach me along the way! Heaven knows I wouldn't be out here working really hard having some of the best experiences of my life without you!  It all came into perspective on Saturday when I walked up and down the same sidewalk 100+ times sharing restored truths making people smile sharing what little light I have with them! This is what it's all about. I wish you all could #1. Be out here with me experiencing these same things and #2 jump into my heart and feel how deep my love is
for you all. The Church is true!!! I love you all!!  Have a magnificent week!!
Keep smilin
Sister Kendrick