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
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