Week #30

Mighty Fine Family and Friends, 

How was your week?:) I hope it was great. We had some really cool experiences this week. Rabi, our investigator who is getting baptized on April 9th was able to attend a baptism this week. He was so excited after he watched Shawn, who was being baptized into the Temple Terrace ward, get baptized. He leaned over and said "Sister Graham I picked who I want to give the Holy Ghost" I was so excited for him. I asked him who and he said Jackie.... well she is a Sister in our ward. I thought for a moment wow we are the worst, he doesn't even know who holds the Priesthood. We then explained that she didn't have the Priesthood. Rabi goes "I know she doesn't." What? He was asking if she would be willing to give the Holy Ghost talk at the baptism. Haha we laughed for a good while! 

Thursday I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Sister Alder. She is serving as an online proselyting Sister in the Temple Terrace ward. We had a few less actives that she had planned to visit. The first lady we visited opened her door and this strange smell came into my nose... Sister Alder had warned me before hand but.... we went inside and started talking to Neveeda. Her cat started going crazy half way into the lesson. She was darting back and forth. Poor Sister Alder was trying to keep this cat off her lap as she starts to sneeze. The dog started barking, and the cat threw up a hair ball, all while we are listening to Neveeda bear her testimony. The end of the lesson we closed with a prayer. I could feel the cat by my feet so I pushed it away. As soon as we said amen it pounced in my lap and scared me so bad. The best part of the whole thing is that we both decided to wear black pants. Yup that's right we had white cat hair all over us it was quite the sight. The coolest thing was Neveeda was at church in Sunday! A simple visit and invitation and a lot of cat hair helped one of Gods children! 

Then we went and visited an elderly lady named Vilma! She is thee best. We get to her apartment and her daughter opened the door. Vilma was outside on her porch knitting a sweater for her grand daughter. She told us her conversion story, which was so inspirational. She was the only one in her family who joined. No one in her family is supportive of her being a Mormon. She had recently fallen which is why she had to move into her daughters house. Vilma now has to be in a wheel chair full time. Good thing it's electric she says. She asked us how far the church was from her house. So we mapped it out. It is 3.7 miles away! Vilma says "perfect I can make it to church and back before my wheel chair dies!" how incredible is her faith. Her kids won't take her to church and she would have to get a special taxi to take her. It really hit me after we left her home how much she truly has to sacrifice just to go to church. Extra time, relationships, money! All of this and she is willing to give it up because she loves the Lord! I really thought to myself, am I sacrificing all I can to the Lord? 

The Women's general Broadcast was amazing. If you haven't watched it please do. There are so many uplifting messages. I loved Sister Burton's talk. The biggest thing that stood out to me was serving others is where we find true and lasting happiness. Choose someone to serve this week!! 

There are quite a few things I have learned on my mission! An act that I will forever be grateful for is the atonement of Jesus Christ. It is so comforting knowing that there really is someone out there for me who has felt every joyful moment, pain, trial, and temptation that I have felt. My love and appreciation for the Savior has grown tremendously as I have served as a missionary. This week I was reading Mosiah 4:10-12, this passage of scripture is one of my favorites. Repentance is crucial in our life here on earth. Vs.10 says "believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them." I looked up the definition for forsake. To leave someone who needs or counts on you = abandon, desert, desolate. It really hit me that when we forsake our sins we are abandoning Satan and his followers! It must happen for us to progress and ultimately make it back to our Heavenly Father. Repentance helps us to "grow in the knowledge and glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of which is just and true." As we make simple adjustments in our day to day lives, we become closer to him who created us. The Lord promises us if we do what he asks of us, we will be filled with the love of God. We all know the Savior fills in the holes and bridges the gap! Trust in him. Trust in the strength he gives you. Trust in his atoning sacrifice. Take no thought of what ye should do. (Alma 31:37) I love my Savior and his gospel. We are all so blessed to have the gospel in our lives!! Have a thee best week ever! I love you all:) 

Love, 

Sister Kenzie Graham