Week #53

Hey Family and Friends,

Another week has come and gone! I have no idea where time is going!
This past year has been the most amazing year! I have loved every
second of being a missionary and serving my Heavenly Father. It has
been the most rewarding, trying and challenging year. I am so grateful
for the opportunity to be a full time missionary!

It has been crazy trying to get to know all of the members and
investigators. We have done a lot of planning and organizing, which
has helped us figure out a lot of things. We have the best ward
mission leader ever. He called us this week and explained to us what
the ward mission vision is and told us what we could do to help with
it. The ward has a goal of finding 24 people who can enter the waters
of baptism and everyone in ward council knows it. I was taken back at
it! I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. Sister Mcgarion,
our Relief Society President, has given us lists of people to visit!
She is the most inspired lady because we have been able to meet some
really cool people this week because of it!

I love being able to work with part member families! Haley is one of
our investigators! Her dad is a less active member returning to
activity. Went over to their house this week and when we walked in the
door, we saw this huge cage in the middle of the kitchen!  Guess what
was inside? That's right three squirrels! The were the fattest
squirrels I have ever seen. They have raised them since they were
babies. In my head I was thinking, is it even legal to have them as a
pet? It got even weirder when the Dad started feeding them ice cream!
Haley isn't a member but has shown a lot of interest in growing closer
to the Savior. She has been through a lot in her life. We were sitting
with her and her dad reading the Book of Mormon. Her mom called for
her husband from the bedroom. We continued reading from the Book of
Mormon. Her dad came out from the room and told us his wife was having
chest pains. He called 911 and within minutes the ambulance was there
to pick her up. The paramedics came in the door and my companion and I
were sitting there with Haley on the couch reading the Book of Mormon.
Haley asked if we could kneel and say a prayer! How grateful I am for
that little girls faith. Her mom was taken to the hospital and all
Haley said was "I know everything will be okay!" Such a huge example
to me of someone who has faith in their Savior!

Saturday, we were contacting in a members neighborhood. We turned the
corner and saw this man washing his car. We asked him if we could help
and at first he seemed a little confused. He agreed and we started to
help him dry his car. He asked us what we were doing in the
neighborhood and we began to explain that we were missionaries for our
church. He told us he was a pastor for his church! I always get
nervous when I meet people like him, but I knew that he deserved to
hear the message we had to share. We shared the message of the
restoration and he was very skeptical at first. He had a lot of questions
about prophets and why we believed there was one on the earth today.
In the mission we have been working on answering questions through the
Book of Mormon. The craziest thing was earlier that morning I was
studying the exact question that he had. We shared with him Mosiah
8:13-18. He opened up to us and asked us if he could have a copy of
the Book of Mormon! The Book of Mormon brings the spirit and it's
because it is true. Drew didn't want to hear anything we had to tell
him until we opened up the Book of Mormon!

I have been pondering a lot this week on the things that I have learned
over the past year. There is quote from President Hinckley that sums
it all up! "I have discovered that life is not a series of great
heroic acts. Life at its best is a matter of consistent goodness and
decency, doing without fanfare that which needed to be done when it
needed to be done. I have observed that it is not the geniuses that
make the difference in this world. I have observed that the work of
the world is done largely by men and women of ordinary talent who have
worked in an extraordinary manner." The gospel is what gives ordinary
people the tools to act in extraordinary ways. The gospel of Jesus
Christ will never fail us! As we hold on and never let go we will
return to live with our Father in Heaven again! That is what I have
learned. With our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ we have
everything we need! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I hope you all have a
wonderful week.

Love,
Sister Kenzie Graham