The Lost Sheep

Hola a todos!

It has been quite the week! We got some surprise transfer news, and I'm now in Mesa in the Vineyard and Río Salado area. On Monday night, Hermana Rosales and I got a call from President Fisk. He said that because there were so many missionaries going home early for Christmas, he had to do some transfers early. He then asked me to transfer to the Vineyard and Río Salado area. He said that the missionaries there had been seeing lots of miracles and that missionary work has been taking off in the area. On Thursday, we did the transfer. My new companion is Hermana Shefchik! She is absolutely amazing! She is finishing up her second transfer of training and is already a great missionary. There really is so much going on in this area and I feel so blessed to get to be a part of it. Vineyard is the english ward that we cover, and Río Salado is the spanish branch. The branch was just barely started in June, so its pretty small. Our area only covers a few streets, so we are on bikes. A bunch of people told me that Mesa is like mini Utah, and now I see that its true! There are lots of members of our church here and it has been so fun to start getting to know them. A lot of them are related and have deep family roots here. 

Rewind to before the transfer happened... I had an exchange with Sister Gottenbos. She came with me to my area in Scottsdale. She's from Canada and is so sweet! Her area is actually here in Mesa, so now were neighbors haha. 

Sister Reeves, a member of the Chaparral Ward, invited us to join her, her grandkids, two of her neighbors, and their dogs for a walk. It was so much fun! Sister Reeves and her neighbors know the names of all of the dogs that live close by. They walk every morning and give each dog a treat. They have been doing it for years, so the dogs wait for them every morning. They are well-known in the area haha. 

Our friends Liz and Jaycob are doing really well! Last week, they were finally reunited with their family after several years of being apart. We were able to visit them and meet their daughters before transfers the next day. I'm so happy that I was able to meet them before I moved, and I'm excited for all of the good things that are in store for them. 

On Thursday night, we had the opportunity to go to the temple with Hermana Villalva as she received her endowment. She was baptized a little over a year ago in the Vía Linda Branch. Since we had just transferred, Hermana Rosales and I met back up there with our new companions. It was amazing to be there with Hermana Villalva and see her continue to progress on the covenant path. 

Now back to Mesa... Most of the friends that we are teaching right now live in an apartment complex called Equinox. In between some of our visits, we were walking around the apartment complex. As we were walking, a young girl yelled hi to us from her window on the 2nd story. Hermana Shefchik said that she had seen that girl several times before and felt like we should stop to talk to her. We stopped and asked her a few questions about herself. Her name is Naomi and she's 8. We asked her if she knew how to pray and she said no. She said that she wanted to learn, so we started teaching her how to offer a simple prayer. Her brother, Julio, came to the window as we were talking. He's 10 and said that he wanted to learn how to pray too. We talked to them about prayer then wrote down some steps to help them remember. We walked upstairs to give them the cards and offer a simple prayer with them. They were so excited! Last night, we stopped by their apartment and met their older brother. We noticed that one of the cards that we had given to Julio and Naomi was sitting on his desk. He told us that he saw the card and liked the picture of Jesus on it, so he put it on his desk. It was amazing to see how our simple conversation with Naomi and Julio also reached their older brother and helped him to feel God's love for him. 

We had a couple of lessons with our friend Baez. He has incredible faith in Jesus Christ and is willing to do whatever it takes to grow closer to Him. He is getting baptized on December 30th. As we were teaching him, it was like he already knew everything that we were about to say. He started learning english recently, so our lessons are in a mix of spanish and english. 

We also had a visit with our friend Yoander. He moved here from Venezuela a couple of months ago. He loves learning and coming to church. We are hoping to extend a baptismal invitation to him soon.

As missionaries, we talk a lot about finding the "lost sheep." Last week, I studied the parable of the lost sheep in Luke chapter 15. My perspective of who the "lost sheep" are changed as I read a quote by Elder Bruce C. Hafen. He said “The lost sheep are not just the people who don’t come to church. The lost sheep is a mother who goes down into the valley of the dark shadows to bring forth children. The lost sheep is a young person, far away from home and faced with loneliness and temptation. The lost sheep is a person who has just lost a critically needed job; a business person in financial distress; a new missionary in a foreign culture; a man just called to be bishop; a married couple who are misunderstanding each other; a grandmother whose children are forgetting her. I am the lost sheep. You are the lost sheep. ‘All we like sheep have gone astray.’ The times of feeling lost are not always times when we have wandered from the straight and narrow path. Not at all. We may be precisely where the Lord would have us be.” As I read this quote, I came to understand that as Elder Hafen said, each of us might be like the lost sheep at differet times in our life. The more people I meet, the more I understand that everyone is struggling with something and there is always a way that we can help them. I invite you all to take time this week to figure out what just one of your loved ones is struggling with. Then plan what you will do to help them. I know that there is no better way for us to show our love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ this Christmas season than by serving others. Jesus Christ ministered to the one, and we can too. He is the Light of the World. He loves you. I testify of these things in His name, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

I love you all!

Con Amor,
Hermana Kendrick























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