Week #68

MERRY CHRISTMAS Family & Friends! 

Well again this week was INSANE! I don’t even know where time is going! The fact that Monday is Christmas just blows my mind. We received transfer calls this morning and we are staying together in Citrus Ridge! I can’t tell you how excited I am. I am praying I get to finish my mission here! This week definitely had its highs and lows, but mostly highs. To start the week off on a funny story, our beautiful car decided it wanted to die again. We got in it last Sunday and tried to start it and...... nothing happened! This happened to Sister Robertson and I right around hurricane Irma and the mechanic put a new battery in it, so we were surprised it died again. Well long story short we took it back to the shop that put the new battery in. They told us there was nothing we could do. We then were told to take it to a different company who explained to us that the battery that was put in the car was too small.... well shoot! So we drove back to the original shop and asked them to put in the right size battery and all is well in Citrus Ridge. We are back to being normal proselyting missionaries! We can officially say we know how to jump start a car all by ourselves! 

We had a Sisters conference at the mission office this week and all I can say is that I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life. I am blessed with the most amazing mission President. President Cooper gave an incredible training on our divine worth as Sisters. The knowledge that we have that we lived with our Heavenly Father before is PRICELESS! Our Father in Heaven has given us talents and abilities that we are to develop while we are here on earth. Each of us are divine and if we truly understand that, the challenges of life become opportunities for us to rely on our Savior and overcome them resulting in strength and knowledge! “Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.” (Abraham 3:22-23). We are so blessed to have the gospel. You are all noble and great ones. Don’t ever forget that!! Later that night we were able to attend young women’s and one of our investigators Anna came! 

We had a viewing and funeral for a recent convert in our ward! It has been hard knowing she is gone and we miss her very dearly, but I know that Heavenly Father is taking care of her. Sister Lance who was a former missionary in our mission was able to fly back for a few days to attend the funeral. My favorite thing about being a missionary is all the amazing people I get to meet. Sister Lance has changed my life. She is such an example of charity! She makes everyone around her feel so loved. Definitely someone I aspire to be like! Please keep the Jones family in your prayers. 

Sunday was such a special day! After ward Council we walked into sacrament meeting and saw a man sitting on the stand. He looked so familiar, but I couldn’t figure out who it was. Well believe it or not Bishop Waddell from the presiding Bishopric was visiting Florida with his family for a Christmas vacation. Our ward is the closest ward to Disney World so each week we have a lot of visitors. He spoke in sacrament meeting and the spirit that filled the room was unreal. He explained that the 12 most important words in the scriptures are Here am I send me, Thy will be done, it is finished! His talk was simple and powerful. I know with my whole heart that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He over came it all for us. He followed our Heavenly Father perfectly and did it because of his perfect love! 

Sunday evening we were contacting in a neighborhood and felt prompted to knock on this Less Actives door. She opened and spoke very little English, but let us in. We were able to have a full on conversation with the little Spanish we knew, and of course google translate! Zaida expressed to us that she wants to come back to church. She wants us to come back and teach her brother and his wife! God places miracles in our path when we are least expecting them! The Tereja Family is doing SO well! We had an amazing lesson on Jospeh Smith. Brenda told us that for once Santos is actually considering going to church. He use to leave when the missionaries would come over, and know he is listening and.... READING THE BOOK OF MORMON. It brings tears to my eyes. This is the restored gospel. Please don’t take it for granted! I wish you a Merry Christmas! Love you all! 

Love, 

Sister Kenzie Graham