Truck and Trailer in Downtown Chicago

 THIS WEEK HAS BEEN GREAT!! ITS A TOTALLY DIFFRENT WORLD DOWN HERE IN VALPO (MY NEW AREA) I FEEL LIKE IM BACK AT HOME.  ITS SO DIFFERENT FROM CHICAGO!! IM IN THE CORN AND THE FIELDS!!  BUT IT’S SO GREAT, A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE FOR SURE!!

 SAYING GOODBYE LAST WEEK WAS A BITTER SWEET EXPERIENCE!  I HAVE BECOME SO FOND OF THOSE I SERVED IN GURNEE!! I’VE DEFINITELY MADE FRIENDSHIPS THAT WILL LAST THE REST OF MY LIFE!! IT WAS HARD TO LEAVE THEM, MY INVESTIGATORS, AND THE MEMBERS. BUT I GUESS THAT’S PART OF THIS LITTLE GIG!! SOMETIMES THIS MISSION LIFE STUFF IS HARD!!

 WELL I PACKED UP MY BAGS AND SISTER C AND I TRAVELED DOWNTOWN. THEN WE LOADED ALL OF MY STUFF INTO THE TRUCK AND TRAILER AND HEADED OFF TO MEET UP WITH MY NEW COMPANION, SISTER SUFIA!! (NOTE TO SELF: DONT EVER DRIVE A TRAILER AND TRUCK THROUGH DOWNTOWN CHICAGO, IT’S JUST A BAD IDEA!! I WAS JUST GLAD I WASNT THE DRIVER, IT REMINDED ME OF THE BOLOS RV ADVENTURES) HAHA!!!!

 SO A LITTLE ABOUT SISTER SUFIA, SHE IS FROM SOMA (AMERICA SOMA) SHE HAS BEEN TEACHING ME SO A LITTLE BIT OF SAMOAN, WHILE I TEACH HER ENGLISH WORDS. HER FAVORITE PHRASE IS GOOD STUFF GOOD STUFF :) SHE IS THE 2ND OLDEST OF 7!! SHE IS AWSOME I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! SHE KNOWS HOW TO HAVE A GOOD TIME AND SHE’S MAKING THE MISSION LIFE SO MUCH FUN!!  SHE’S BEEN OUT FOR 1 YEAR, ON THURSDAY!!!  BEST OF ALL, SHE IS A HARD WORKER AND WE ARE GOING TO TEAR IT UP HERE!! THERE IS A LOT THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE HERE, I’M SO EXCITED TO JUMP IN AND GET MY HANDS DIRTY HAHA!!

 I DONT REAL KNOW WHAT TO WRITE BECAUSE I DONT REALLY KNOW, OR REMEMBER EVERYONE AND THEIR STORIES, SO GIVE ME A WEEK AND ILL GIVE YOU ALL THE DETAILS ABOUT WHO WE ARE TEACHING :)  I GUESS THE BEST THING I CAN TELL YOU IS, IT’S BEEN A REALLY SUCCESFUL WEEK.  WE MET A LOT OF PEOPLE, WE GOT 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS AND WE PUT SOMEONE ON DATE, SO ALL AND ALL IT WAS A GOOD FEW DAYS :)

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED THIS WEEK THAT SHOWS THE LORD HAS PLACED US BOTH HERE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS WORK!! THERE HAVE BEEN MANY MIRACLES AND BLESSINGS THAT HAVE ALREADY HIT US!!   I’M EXCITED AND ANXIOUS TO SEE WHAT’S AROUND THE CORNER!!

 I LOVE YOU ALL AND I’M GRATEFUL FOR YOUR EXAMPLES TO ME!

CHALLENGE :)
THIS WEEK IS CONFERENCE SO MY CHALLENGE IS THIS :
1. START PRAYING NOW FOR THE ANWSERS YOU NEED, AND THEN WATCH CONFRENCE WITH A OPEN HEART, AND WITH A WILLINGNESS TO DO THE LORD’S WILL… WHATEVER THAT MIGHT BE AND THEN LISTEN INTENSELY.  MAYBE NOT SO MUCH TO THE WORD’S BEING SPOKEN BY THE SPEAKERS BUT TO THE HOLY GHOST!! HE WILL AWNSER YOUR PRAYERS, I CAN BEAR TESTMONY OF THAT!!
2. AND THEN SHARE SOMETHING YOU LEARNED WITH THOSE AROUND YOU!! SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS OF A MODERN DAY PROPHET, OF THE ANSWERS YOU RECEIVED, OR MAYBE JUST YOUR FAVORITE TALK!!  WHATEVER IT MAY BE, JUST SHARE!!

 OK I LOVE YOU ALL
 KEEP SMILING
 SISTER KENDRICK

Super Pumped

6 months baby!! Whoot!! Whoot!!  It’s been another terrific week!!! 

Monday….. 

was a wonderful day, we got to spend some time with some other Sisters in the Zone. We also went to Joanns for the first time since I've been here.   It was like coming home!  Since I can't sew cause I don't have a sewing machine,  I bought some yarn and a hook and I'm knitting myself a blanket for 2 reasons. 1. I need to be able to create something. 2. It keeps me busy while Sister Christiansen is learning how to drive on Chicago roads. It keeps my mind off the road. It works really well. I've been better at not yelling at her in the car. Let's just say after this experience, my 16 year old kid will love me. 

Tuesday 

we did a lot of service! We went to the food pantry and because I have been here for 6 months I didn't know if I was going to be here another transfer so we said our goodbyes. That night our ward had a progressive dinner put together by the Relief Society.  We were able to help out a ton.  It was a really cool idea. We made pumpkin soup out of an actual pumpkin! #ineedapressurecooker. 

Wednesday 

we had district meeting, the last one of the transfer. Super, super, sad. I have grown to love this district. We didn't know what was happening with transfers but it we knew a least one of us was leaving. We had a great meeting.   Afterwards, we were able to have a lesson with a less active member that no one knew!! It was an awesome lesson, he told us he still reads the scriptures and all, but he just hasn't been out for a while.   In my head I was thinking, well that's what everyone says, but the more I talked to him, the more I realized that he had been reading.   He knew the scriptures up and down. Come to find out, he just moved here about 7 months ago and he's only been a member for 2 years so that was kind of a fun lesson ;) #findingthelostsheep 

Thursday 

was a packed day!  Amongst the planning, we saw Gail in the morning and sister Watkins in the afternoon and attended a wedding that night for one of the elders recent converts.  With Sister Watkins and her granddaughters, we did the fun little brown paper bag books that Bree sent us.   We are going to use that in all our lessons with them.  It was super fun!!  Gail is doing great!! She is driving  uber and she is loving it!!  haha... she's the best!! She told me she talked to you, mom.  She was like mmmmmummhh that's where you get it, you sound just like her, Kendrick !!! Haha she loved talking to you!!

Friday 

We had a fun district lunch.   Like I said before I've grown to love this group of people and the Woods.  We did some online training with Sister C, and we met this really cool guy.   He asked me if I knew anything about Excel and for 2 hours, while Sister C was doing her new missionary training, I taught him how to use Excel.   He said he wants to hire me to work at his office.  He's a nurse practitioner, but he was going to school for a higher degree or something like that.   Anyway, I helped him do his homework.  He was so cool!! He was 6' 7'' a huge ball player. It was good stuff!! That night we had a lesson with the Cunninghams.  It was so good.   For a while it's been a real struggle with them  I don't know where they have been but there back.  Our lesson on Friday was great and they were happy and Frank was jumping up and down, it was so good!!! I've missed them :) 

Saturday 

Not much to report on other than stake conference was amazing!! That night we had transfer calls and I'm leaving Gurnee.   I'm headed down to Indiana.   It should be very exciting!   It's crazy stuff, I don't want to leave Gurnee and all my beloved people here but I'm excited for what's to come. My new comp is Sister Sufia.  She's from Samoa so I'm super pumped!!! 

Sunday 

Conference was amazing!! I have a great love for our Stake Presidency. They are awesome and President  and Sister Bingham spoke so it was a win win!!!  Elder and Sister Woods invited us over for dinner for the last supper!   It was bitter sweet!!! I love them so much!   They have been a great example to me!! They had some of the sailors over and 2 of them were not members so we were able to have a great lesson on the restoration and they agreed to meet with us again.  That was cool but the crowning moment of that day was our lesson with Mr. Sheffield.   He prayed for the first time and it was the sweetest pray I've ever heard!  After wards, he sat there and sobbed and I was crying because it was such a rewarding moment!! It was a great way to end my stay here in Gurnee !! I know I've done what I was sent her to do!! I've worked hard and I've done all I knew how to do!! Hearing Mr. Sheffield pray was the most gratifying moment yet!!!

Well I have a lot to do today, a lot of people to go see and a lot of packing so I'm going to wrap it up!

 I love you all 

Keep smiling

Sister Kendrick 

Stuck at the airport

Hey y'all

This weeks letter is kinda all over the place and short I kinda forgot a lot of what happened….sorry.



Tuesday we went on exchanges and I'm convinced Sister Meily and I are the same person. It was a wonderful day. We were on a spiritual high and we laughed the entire time. We had some solid lesson and we are definitely in tune with the Spirit. It was awesome. One of the greatest things about being on a mission is the fact that you get to meet so many cool people and friends that will last a lifetime. Sister Meily and I will definitely be friends forever. She is from Alaska but she is planning on going to BYU I whoot whoot. Let's just say gramps, next time you go hunting or fishing in Alaska, I'm going with. But really, I'm grateful for STLs. I needed that day!! I feel like I can handle life again.

Wednesday I had to teach district meeting and let's just say we have some rambunctious Elders and it's hard to keep their attention. So I thought I would do my lesson based on something that would interest them and I used some of the things you taught me dad about sleds and what makes the difference from the guy on the top of the hill to the one on the bottom. I probably didn't do it justice but it kept their attention and I think they learned something or at least I hope they did. I used it as an analogy on how we can teach about the Spirit. I know crazy right but there is a connection. #thegospelappliestoeverything.

So Thursday was kind of a blur too but I know we saw Robin and Sister Watkins, which is good because we haven't seen her in a while and now we are going to start teaching her and her grandkids again! Go team! The Gospel is true!!

Friday was not anything to talk about, its been a weird week!!

Saturday we spent the day “finding” at the air show! We didn't mean to stay as long as we did but we got trapped in. They shut the roads down because they had some really cool planes and they thought people would be looking at the sky and not the road. Anyway, we made the best of the situation and we talked to some really cool people and we got to see some really sick airplanes and I don't even like airplanes but they were cool. And then we got to go to a baptism for a little girl in the Spanish ward. She does her best to teach me Spanish and it usually ends in her laughing at me but hey it's cool :) we have a really good relationship. She is so cute I love her and I told her I would come and she was so excited!!

Sunday is the best day ever or at least it has been for these past few weeks! Sacrament meeting was really good!! Funny story, as the sacrament was going around I was praying and when it came to our row Mr. Sheffield said to sister C, “you’re going to have to wake her up, she's sleeping.” I looked over at him and smiled and said “Mr. Sheffield, I'm not sleeping, I'm praying.”  Then he said, “oh is that what all the old guys are doing too?” He was dead serious!  Good times, good times!!   The meeting was about receiving revelation at stake conference, which is this week.  I'm so excited, I love stake conference!! One of the churches best kept secret is the adult session, Saturday night .  Oh and then we also got to teach primary. We told them how they could prepare to be missionaries and how they can be missionaries now. I love little kids!  They are so funny!! And plus I got to sing all the primary songs!!  We saw Mr. Sheffield that night too. Our lesson was on testimonies. I have this testimony tree object lesson. It starts out as a seed of faith and you need to water it with praying, reading your scriptures, etc. then it starts to grow into a tree. We have leaves that have what we believe in. He said that he feels different when we come over and we explained that is the Spirit.  He was crying and I was tearing up the spirit was so so so strong I love this old man.  He's the best!! We also put the invitation to be baptized out there but he didn't say yes or no. It was a GREAT LESSON!!!!

Anyway, that was the week in a nutshell.  I hope you all had a good week too and that you have an even better one this week

Love ya,

Sister Kendrick
Keep smilin

Melting My Heart of Steel

Hey everyone
Thank you for the emails and all of your love and support!!   I love you all!! This week, for the most part, was really good ;)

Tuesday- we went back to the food pantry and Chief told us a story about his past and how it was growing up and living in the ghetto.   I love him!  He's the best!!  He goes on the list of the best people I've ever met! Later that night, Robin took us out to lunch.  She is so sweet.  She is really doing well. She's even been wearing nice clothes to church. She normally wears a t-shirt and pants, not that's a bad thing, but it just goes to show that she is trying really hard and she's making a great effort!
Wednesday- we had district meeting and we mainly talked about finding.  After district meeting, we saw Gail again. She is a wonderful!   I'm in love with her!! She really has been a bit of heaven sent for me my whole time here but more than ever, these past few weeks. I'll just say yesterday I had “a moment”, in the words of Gail. She gave me the biggest hug, was rocking me back and forth, giving me some very wise council.  When it was all said and done she had tears in her eyes, and obviously I was crying because, first off, the mission has melted my heart of steel and because Heavenly Father has sent me so many tender mercies! Man oh man how grateful I am for them!!   I'm convinced that the only reason that Gail was baptized was for me.  So selfish but I'm convinced!!
Thursday- that was a day… We went to see a referral who requested a Bible and we were just going to get to know her a bit and use “how to begin teaching".  She was super cool!  She was not raised with religion and she just wanted to get to know God a bit.  She is currently attending some Bible studies at some different churches, so we may or may not be teaching some Bible classes in the near future :)  Afterwards, I had a heart to heart with sister C.  It was really good and we met up with the Elders in our district so they could give her a blessing.  We were waiting for them at the church.  The Spanish ward had mutual. There was a girl there with her mom and a sister that was Bree's age!! She needed help with her math homework and the mom was saying, “I can’t help… I have no idea what they want you to do…. you know the usual… I've been out of school for years.  So, I ended up helping her!   It was great!! I felt like I was home :) I still need to work on my Spanish!! It's so bad, but I do my best!  Afterward, we put some pass along cards on cars in the church parking lot. There was a swim meet across the street at the school so if they are going to park at the church, they are going to get a pass along card!   There were at least 100 cars!  Being a missionary is the best!!
Friday- we saw Karla and we started playing Testimony Jenga with her.  She brought up a subject that is too fresh to tell you just yet, maybe in a year or something, sorry. But I tried to figure out what we could do to help for a good hour maybe more. We decided we couldn't help just yet so we are just trying to get through this. After that, we went finding.  Sister C did a lot better.  I think I finally figured out how to help her :) don't worry it only took me 4 Weeks ;( We didn't have a dinner appointment that night so I decided to make fajitas and baked potatoes.  We needed to clean our oven big time!!  I didn't know that you needed to clean the inside of the oven.  I think I've said it before but I live in an apartment that the elders lived in before, and let's just say I find new surprises all the time!!  So here's the story of how I found this one out ;) I turned the oven on and the
apartment started to fill up with smoke. Nothing caught fire but it was a good 20 minutes before we could breathe in there and the smell is still in the walls. Right before we left, we started to hear sirens. There is a school right next to our apartment and 2 fire trucks pulled in there and the fire chief's car too.  Sister C was kind of freaking out because she thought it was going to be SO humiliating if they were there because of us. I on the other hand was laughing her so hard. Let's just say, after setting the fire alarms off in are apartment and waving towels in the air for a good 15 minutes, I decided I need to invest in some oven cleaner and kick some Elders butts ;) the best part of all, was all that night we kept hearing and seeing fire trucks and ambulances I was having a hay day.  It was like they were following us because I'm sure you could smell the smoke!  My hair smelt so bad haha!!!

Saturday- we had 3 appointments that day and they ALL cancelled on us! Two of which we had members there and the last one was the Cunninghams. They are having some problems right now and we want to help but we
don't know the whole story! So we did a lot of finding that day. We went to stores and the beaches. I have some pictures and it looks like an ocean! I am not kidding what so ever! It is HUGE!!!!!!!!  But I was pretty bummed out I hate when people use their agency, in a way I don't agree with!   It is, for sure, the hardest thing!

Sunday- we had a good study session that morning, That night we saw Mr. Sheffield again and taught him about the Ten Commandments.  At the end of our lesson, he wanted to give us some of his wife's clothes which is a big step for him because she died last October and that is the first thing he has given away that was hers.  I really didn't want them but I I'm not kidding when I say it was a huge step for him!  The dishes she last ate off of are still in the kitchen and have not been washed!!  We took a few things that I think a few people in the ward might like. He is the best!! I love old people. I miss being a CAN.  They have so many fun stories and they have learned so much in their lifetime.  I honestly could listen to them go on all day long. Oh guess what!!
He has one of those chairs from Up on his staircase and he let ME RIDE ON IT!!! Dreams do come true!  It was so much fun even though it moved at like 2 miles an hour!  Dad, do you think you could turbo that?   It has a motor!! But really though that has been the closest thing to say that I‘ve been able to ride here!! I just want to go driving in the car through the mountains as fast as I want without having tiwi yelling at me, or jump on a boat on Lake Michigan or go through a big mud puddle on the four wheeler!! So needless to say when I get home
a year from now we have to go a trip of which we can do all of this!! Okay, I'm done ranting but I have a need for speed and loud music!! Ok I'm done

Today- we got to go to the Chicago Temple! We went because a couple in our ward that joined the church not too long ago was getting sealed. We went through the endowment session and then right after, we got to witness the sealing.  It was beautiful!  I love going to the temple!!  I wish we could go more often!!

Ok sorry this is so long but in just wanted to leave you with some quotes I ran across this week in my studies!!

“Compare this unique accomplishment with that of other scriptural translations. The King James Version of the Bible, for example, was produced by 50 English scholars who accomplished their work in seven years, translating at the rate of one page per day. Expert translators today do well if they can also translate scripture at the rate of one page per day. "In contrast, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon at the rate
of about 10 pages per day, completing the task in approximately 85 days! …

"Think of that in terms of what it implies. The coming forth of the Book of Mormon preceded the restoration of the priesthood. It was published just a few days before the Church was organized. The Saints were given the Book of Mormon to read before they were given the revelations outlining such great doctrines as the three degrees of glory, celestial marriage, or work for the dead. It came before priesthood quorums and Church organization. Doesn’t this tell us something about how the Lord views this sacred work?”

Ok challenge: read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year!!

If those quotes don't say it well enough, I’ll add my two cents!  The Book of Mormon is so powerful and so important!   It is truly an inspired book given to us from our loving Heavenly Father!  Read it, find out for
yourself what I have come to know!!  The book a Mormon will change your life and deepen your testimony of Christ and of this church!!

I love you guys have a great week
Keep smilin
Sister Kendrick