Week #72

Family and Friends! 

Sorry for those of you who haven’t been getting my emails. My email hasn’t been working. This week was incredible and full of so many miracles. We had the opportunity to attend Zone conference. President Cooper is such an inspired man. He taught us what it means to help our investigators connect with Heaven. It is so important that we build our foundation in our Savior Jesus Christ! “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Heleman 5:12). I know that if our foundation is in him we will be able to be connected with Heaven! 

Sister Barlow and I were able to go on an exchange this week! It was so fun to catch up. I definitely miss teaching with her. She is such an example to me. For awhile now I have been thinking of what it means to work with members to find people to teach. Obviously we are all suppose to invite our friends, but most people are so scared to talk with their friends and neighbors. We have the greatest message known to man so why wouldn’t we want to share it? :) Our Ward list has about 700 people on it, but only 250 attend each week. Brother Llil, who is our ward clerk, helped us organize a list that shows the status of each member. (Less active, prospective elder, recent convert, part member family). As we were looking through the list there was a new move in who is also a part member family. We called and asked if we would be able to meet and have a lesson. 

Wednesday morning, Sister Wentzel picked us up and we met the Whitten Family at the Church. We sat together in the relief society room and got to know their story. They have been married for a little over 2 months. We asked Adam, who is not a member, questions as to what he believes. He expressed that he wanted to know what church was true. Haha perfect segway into the restoration! We read together Moroni 10:3-5 and taught what it means to pray with real intent. His biggest concern was how to receive answers to his prayers. It is through the Holy Ghost. We watched the 5 minute restoration video and the spirit that was present in the room was something I will never forget. It was a testimony builder to know that there are people on our ward lists who no one knows and they are ready for the gospel. This is why visiting and home teaching are vital! 

The Tejera Family is doing so well! They have such an incredible family relationship. Always laughing as a family. Santos and Brenda live the gospel they just don’t come to church! We felt prompted to ask what is holding them back from attending church. They told us because they only have 2 days to be a family. The rest of the week they don’t get to see each other. Sister Smith testified if the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy. You could feel the spirit strong in that lesson. They expressed that they felt they had everything they needed. With love we boldly testified that Santos needed the priesthood and that their family was too strong to not be sealed together for all eternity. They both smiled and said “Sisters you’re right.” We have another lesson this week. I am grateful for the hand of the Lord. 

A few weeks ago at the Sisters Conference, there was a training on gratitude even when plans don't go as expected. They listed all the things that made a day go wrong. The list started with "there's a man in the gym." Which means that we can't use the gym that day, and the list continued with every other worst case scenario possible. So with that said, Saturday morning there was a man in the gym. As you may have guessed, things started to get a little crazy. We walked over to the kitchen for breakfast and noticed that all of our pears had the exact same bruise. There was a bite mark in the middle, some mold, and a big brown circle around it. The oranges went from being totally normal to being completely green, soggy and molded OVERNIGHT. I mean, these fruits were perfect 2 days before. What's weird too was that all of the other fruit in the fruit bowl had been there for weeks and nothing was wrong with them. We also had ants all in our cereal. So we hope we don't have some weird germ that's killing all our food. We ended up spending that whole morning cleaning out and purging our cupboards and kitchen. I love those Floridian bugs! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! God loves us all so much! Remind yourself that each day! I love this gospel and I love my Savior Jesus Christ! 

Love, 

Sister Kenzie Graham