Phoenix Arizona Temple

Phoenix Arizona Temple

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

May 19, 2014

Hey Mom :)

So here is the reason why I have taken awhile to write to you. We had to take 3 hours out if our P Day today to compensate for a temple trip tomorrow. If you remember the name, Callie Davis was baptized a year ago this month and she is getting married on Friday in the temple so I am going to her endowment tomorrow afternoon :)

And then Sister Seaman wanted to go with our zone bowling so I was trying to write you and bowl at the same time. I did pretty good, I got a 95 :)

This week has been amazing! Two weeks ago we met a girl named Raquel, last week we invited her to be baptized, and this weekend she WILL be baptized! I can't believe how fast it all happened for her! I feel like that is how things will start being with missionary work. Not so much 40 years of investigating, but having those who are prepared only take a few months or weeks to  get there. The work of salvation is hastening!

So I spent $6.55 on a pair of sunglasses today... I hope that's okay!?

I love that idea from Sister Loftus! I was just talking about that same concept with the family we had dinner with yesterday. We had dinner with the Cherry family who is the fellowship of the Schafer family, and they came to dinner also. So we had everyone write on a sticky note things that are stressful right now, challenging, standing between them and their desires to be happy and serve God, and specifically for the Schafer family, things that are keeping them from baptism. Then we asked if there was anything on that list that Christ couldn't help them overcome? One of the teenage girls said, "Yeah, Christ can't help me keep my room clean." Another teenager had on "math" as one of their challenges, and the mom put on folding socks. We showed them a video about Christ and that because of Him we will live again and had them think about what that video is telling them about their challenges. We testified that Christ deeply cares about the small details of our lives. He desires our happiness, so He can and will help us to overcome any and all of our challenges. We invited them to all pick something on their list to pray about and to invite Christ to help them to overcome it. Mom, I know that the Atonement is much bigger than just to cover pain and sin. It is also to cover heartbreak, disappointment, embarrassment, guilt, fear, shame, pride, and anything else that reduces our happiness. You wanting to lose weight instead of just inches it TOTALLY something that the Atonement was designed for. Phillipians 4:13. All things, ALL THINGS, can be done, because of Him. I invite you to pray to know how you can receive the help that is being offered to you by Christ in all of your everyday matters.

The hair appointment sounds great :) thanks so much! And, ya know, I may finish up cosmetology. Might as well, right? We'll see. Something to think about much later :)

I go home from my mission 3 months from today :(

Life is really good. I love my mission. The best times are when we have teaching experiences and times where we talk with people and have truly meaningful conversations with them. There are some things about missionary work that I don't care for as much, but it's all part of the job and I really don't mind it. The hardest part about missionary work is having every little decision directly affect my companion and having every one of her little decisions directly affect me. It will be nice one day to be able to make little decisions that don't really affect anyone! I know my decisions affect everyone regardless, but it would be nice to be able to have a separate schedule. I wouldn't cut my mission short for that, though. And it's not a big enough deal anymore to complain. It is what it is. I hope to love every last minute out here.

Teaching is going well. I feel like I am pretty good at teaching on the fly :) I could whip out a spiritual thought easy, but I'm also getting really good at jumping right in to an unplanned LESSON. It's pretty fun :) we have had some days like that this week where we planned to do something and a teaching opportunity came up instead! We did really good with lessons this week. We only taught 2 lessons to investigators by ourselves. This week we had 11 lessons to investigators with members present :) total, we taught 23 lessons :) it was a good week for lessons. We usually aim for 0 lessons without members, 10 lessons with members, and 20 lessons total per week. So we did pretty good :)

I hope you are all doing well. I played soccer last P Day. It was really fun! I will be excited to play with you and to see the Littles play and play with them :)

I think that answers all your questions? Let me know :) love you, Mom!

Love, Kady

Monday, May 12, 2014

May 12, 2014

Hey Mom :) good to see you yesterday! It was fun to see more of the family, too :) I hope Dominic has a better day today. 

If I make an appointment for my hair, I would also like for it to be colored. Is that okay? But if not, a cut would be much appreciated!!! I'll take an appointment whenever. It's not like I know what I will be doing those first few days until they happen anyway :) haha.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be opposed to 5:30 am rec center classes :)

This week has been just amazing. Our amazing friends, the Schafer family, came to Church again yesterday! They love it :) I am sooooo excited for them. Please keep them in your prayers! 

On Friday we were in a certain part of the area, and thought, "Let's go see Linda." She is inactive and we found her from a list of names the High Priest Group Leader asked us to see who he didn't know if they even existed. We'd met her once just to see if she was there and if we could do anything for her, and reported back. But Friday we had the thought to go back and invite her to Church. We said, "Linda, will you come to Church with is?" And she said, "Yeah, I will." We must not have believed it could be that easy! We read her some scriptures and promised her some blessings and invited her again. She said, "Yeah, I said I will go with you." Guess what she did yesterday? She came to Church!!! I forget how easy it can be sometimes to invite people. That's all Hastening the Work of Salvation is; an invitation to invite those we meet to do something!

What? Booger Boy didn't like the zoo? What an egg sandwich. Just kidding ;) I love my Soul Sister!

The lesson I learned this week is how to practice temperance. A temperate person doesn't let her circumstances, environment, physical demands, or other people determine her mood or reactions. Even if I am stressed, frustrated, hungry, tired, annoyed, bored, frazzled, hot, cramping, confused, misunderstood, or if the person I am with is any of those things, I can still be in total control. Right now I am not, but it is something I am working on. I have focussed my energy on slowing my mind down and thinking rationally. My natural inclination when I am tired or hungry is to be snappy so the person stops talking to me. The one that has been getting me lately is when my companion is irritated and my reactions are either to correct her impatience or to ignore it and let it bother me. But with all the situations that may occur, I have been learning to take a step back and think about what I can do to immediately make the situation better. Maybe it's being humble and accepting criticism. Maybe it's making light of a stressful situation. Maybe it is taking a little break by taking a fun picture or talking about something silly and laughing. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I want to be temperate, but my body is a roller coaster of emotions. Self control is the victory over this life. We are here to learn how to control our bodies by being obedient to God instead of doing whatever our body leads us to want to do. So, temperance is my current objective :)

Do you think I have changed since coming out on my mission? If so, can you share with me some examples? I don't feel like i have changed at all. Sister Seaman asked her family yesterday and they said she has changed a lot! So I am just curious :)

Love you, Mom! I think I spaced it and didn't wish you a Happy Mothers Day yesterday. I hope it was great :)

Talk to you soon!

Love, Kady

Monday, May 5, 2014

May 5, 2014

Hey Mom!

Sorry it took me a second to write you back. We had to hurry over to the grocery store!

We had a really great week! We went on exchanges on the weekend. I was with Sister Barnett and Sister Seaman was with Sister Summerhays :) I love Sister Summerhays!!! I miss her. And I really love Sister Barnett. We have gone on exchanges 3 times now :) She really is a lot of fun. Some of my favorite things about mission life include getting to know other sister missionaries. They really are such special women :)

Sister Seaman and I pretty much had the best day of our lives yesterday. An investigator family that we have been loving and helping came to Church for the first time! The whole family! All 5 of them! The father is a little nervous about being baptized and the teenage daughter has complications with her mom (the family consists of second wife and half siblings) that is keeping them from being on date, for now. But their fellowshippers are outstanding! I am really, really excited about them. I know they will be baptized soon, they just need to know for themselves! They know the Church is true, though! They are basically already Mormon! The mom was teaching and testifying in one of our lessons last week. She always says she is ready to be baptized as well as her sons, just waiting on dad. They even went with their fellowshipping family to the Stake youth baptisms on Saturday! It was so sweet, yesterday, after Church, we went to their house for a lesson and we went back over the Plan of Salvation for the dad's benefit. The 10 year old boy said, "So it's all kind of like a car! Our spirits are like the gas and the car is like our body. We put the gas in the car for it to go, but it can only go a certain distance before it runs out. And the gas coming out as smoke is like our spirits going up to the spirit world." Uh.....WHAT?! This boy isn't Mormon?!! We are soooooooo excited about them :)

I want to tell you about my study of Preach My Gospel this week. I was reading in chapter 4: "How Do I Recognize the Spirit?" The first sentence after Joseph Smith's quote really stood out to me. It made me think about how the Work of Salvation (the new name for missionary work) isn't my work, the ward's work, my family's work. I shouldn't do things my way, my companion's way, the ward's way. We need to do the Lord's work, the Lord's way. That's what we have Preach My Gospel for! True, we receive revelation for our specific needs, but it all boils down to the true and everlasting principles of the gospel. The "how" might be a little different, but the "what" and the "why" and the "when" are all the same for every person who wants to help God in Hastening the Work of Salvation. Will you as a family read Elder Ballard's talk "Following Up?"

Next week we will call at about our 3:15 which is your 4:15. I hope that still works :) I love you so much! Thanks for everything, Mom :) See you soon!

-Kady