¡Feliz Día De Acción De Gracias!

¡Feliz día de Acción de Gracias!

I hope that you all had a wonderful week and a happy Thanksgiving!

Our friend Keinis had been sick for the past few weeks, so we weren't able to visit her. She was finally feeling better yesterday and invited us over for lunch. She is from the Domican Republic and is an amazing cook! It was so good to see her again, and we are planning to start visiting her again this coming week. 

We have a new friend named Jennie! About a month ago, she moved here from New Jersey. She met the missionaries there and wanted to continue meeting with missionaries here in Arizona. She is facing a lot of trials right now and has incredible faith! Her situation doesn't allow us to have frequent contact with her, so we are trying to figure out the best way to support her and help her continue to learn. 

We had another visit with our friends Liz and Jaycob. Last week, Jaycob got some amazing news from work, and we are all praying that it will allow him to attend church more regularly.

We had been trying to set up a visit with a man named Larry for a few months now. He is very busy going back and forth from California for work, but he told us that he is truly interested in meeting with us. We finally had our first visit with him last week! A member of our ward named Sister Van Alphen joined us. Larry had lots of genuine questions. Sister Van Alphen was amazing at helping him feel heard and understood. Near the end of the visit, Larry said that all of us have such big smiles and are full of light. He told us that that is what he wants in life. He was so excited when we gave him a Book of Mormon. As we were leaving, he held it up and said to his daughter who had been busy with her kids in the other room, "Look! We have Mormon missionaries!" Haha. Although he didn't use the full name of the church, we were so happy to see how excited he was to tell his daughter. 

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been trying to visit members of our ward and branch who the missionaries haven't been able to contact in a while. Last week, we stopped by several of these members but didn't have much luck with them answering the door, so we left notes with our information on them. One morning, we got a phone call. We didn't have the number saved, so we weren’t sure who it was. It was a woman named Claudine. She said that she saw the note that we had left the night before and was interested in meeting with us! We asked her where she lives and realized that its the previous apartment of one of the members who we tried to visit. She asked us to visit her that night, so we set up a time and asked a member to join us. We had never had that member join us before, but she was absolutely perfect for Claudine and they connected so well! Claudine told us that she moved here not too long ago and had been looking for a church to go to. She had written down the information of a bunch of different churches in the area and was trying to decide which one to go to when she saw our card and decided that this must be the one for her! She just started a new job and has to work on Sundays, but she said that she is going to get that changed because she can't live without going to church. 

With Thanksgiving being today, I had of course been thinking a lot about gratitute over the past few weeks. President Monson said that "Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love." When speaking about gratitude, President Monson also reflected on the Bible story of when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. In Matthew chapter 15, the disciples saw only what they were lacking as they said "Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?" Then Jesus asked them "How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.” President Monson highlighted that "the Savior gave thanks for what they had, and a miracle followed." He then said that "Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings. This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good." He continued by saying that "Those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, and the love we receive from those around us." I testify that these words from President Monson are true. My prayer is that we do not wait to express our gratitude, but rather give thanks to God and those around us daily. I know that God loves each one of us. There are countless things to be grateful for. By expressing our gratitude, God will continue to multiply all of these blessings. Of these things I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

I love you all!

Con Amor,
Hermana Kendrick











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Power Of The Book Of Mormon

Image
¡Hola amigos y familiares! It was a busy week with Zone Conference and lots of lessons with our friends. There is so much work to do in this area and its awesome!  Our friend Blanca and her two kids, Ashley and Gael, told us that they want to be baptized but aren't quite ready to set a date. Blanca is a little nervous about being baptized because her extended family isn't very supportive of her wanting to join our church. We had one of our lessons with Blanca at the Laytons house, and the Laytons did an amazing job of responding to some of her worries. We are continuing to pray that her and her kids will be ready to set a baptismal date soon.  Daniel and Marisol are doing so well! Last week, they told us that they are ready to change what they need to and commit to following Jesus Christ. They come to every church activity and refer to the branch members as their family. It has been so neat to see how quickly they connected with the branch, and now you would think that they...
Read more

I Made It To Phoenix!

Image
Hola everyone! I made it to Phoenix! My mission President and his wife (President and Sister Eyre) are amazing! I already love them so much. My companion is Sister Farnsworth. She's great! She's been serving for 14 months, so her Spanish is really good. She does most of the talking in our lessons haha.  When I was getting ready to leave the MTC, the wheels on one of my luggages broke. Two of the guys working at the reception desk tried to tape them on for me. Needless to say, the airport was an interesting experience. Before I left the MTC, I received a priesthood blessing from one of the Elders in my district. During the blessing, the Spirit in the room was so strong. I know that the words the Elder said were from God. I was able to feel the comfort I needed before coming to Arizona. I am so thankful for the priesthood and priesthood blessings. I know that priesthood power truly is from God.  My final devotional at the MTC was a video of Elder David A. Bednar. He talked about...
Read more

Be In The World

Image
Hola a todos!  I hope that you're all doing well! We had another lesson with the Romero family and they are doing so well! Their goal this year as a family is to come to all of the branch activities. They have lots of friends in the branch and the members have been great at helping them feel welcome. We have been praying hard for the Romero family to open up more, and every lesson it seems like they feel a little more comfortable with us.  Last week was Zone Conference week, and President Fisk introduced a new mission initiative called "the lost coin." As a mission, we started teaching quite a few people last year but only a small percentage of them ended up getting baptized. This year, we are going to focus more on using the tools that we have to find those who were taught by missionaries last year and in years passed. Then we are going to check up on them and see how we can help them to continue learning. We have lots of amazing tools as missionaries and it will be awes...
Read more