September 30th 2013

 Hi Everyone!! :D Hope you haven't all forgotten that I'm still alive!
;] Another week in White Rock, and honestly, the BEST we've ever seen,
especially as far as results go! President Tilleman has issued a
challenge to all of us, and that's to baptize one person per
companionship for the month of October. There's around 125
companionships in this mission!!! The challenge was issued as a gift
to President Monson, to show him that our mission has truly responded
to the call to "Hasten the work!" The past two months have been record
setting for us! Little less than ten years ago, the average baptism
was around 15-20 baptisms a month, and those were GOOD months, The
past two months we've had over forty both months!!!! Now, as we are in
the last day of September, the work to find those who are prepared by
the hand of the Lord has increased immensely! And i'll tell you what,
the pressure has been ridiculous!

I'm a district leader, and with only one other companionship(a very
successful companionship mind you) , in our area, the pressure to have
a solid baptismal date for October was looming over Sister Smigel and
I. We've worked ourselves to the BONE this past week, and I can say
with quite a bit of confidence that I've never walked so much in my
life! We've talked to dozens of people each day, and didn't manage to
find a single person who would become a soild investigator! Our only
real investigator, is a woman named Rene, who's incredibly sweet, but
extremely fearful. We've met her three times now, and FINALLY she
allowed us to share the Book of Mormon with her. In fact, one of the
most powerful witnesses that I've receieved from the Holy Ghost, was
from that particular lesson. Sister Smigel and I were worried that
we'd have to reflect Rene, ( like we've had to do with four other
people in the past two to three weeks). However, as soon as we sat
down, and began to discuss with Rene about some of the Concerns she
had with her family, she started to cry, and softened quite a bit. We
started off with reading the story of the Savior's baptism in Mathew 3
with her, and she listened closely. Then, we gave a brief introduction
to how 2 nephi 31 would explain it better. Then we asked her about her
feelings towards the fact that we read from the Book of Mormon. She
was polite, but said that she had little to no interest in reading it
because of the Revelations scripture that explains no further
scripture. ( This is one of the oldest concerns in the book! -_- )
However, instead of going ahead with our original plan about teaching
the full restoration, I instead began to bare my testimony about the
love of God, and began to explain my feelings as to why Heavenly
Father gave us the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father loves ALL of his
children, equally! Why in the world would he allow half of the world
to dwindle in unbelief, without prophets, or without the knowledge of
the Savior?? Noah's flood indicates pretty well how much he cares
about the state of the entire world's wellbeing. Better his children
perish physically and recieve the chance to learn the gospel in the
after life, then dwindle in unbelief for their entire life, and sin in
ignorance because of the general populace.

As I began to say this, I was overcome with emotion, and a powerful,
confirming witness ( one that I've recieved serval times before,
although not nearly as powerfully) warmed my heart, and I watched
Rene. Her face seemed to be one of skeptisism, but she was LISTENING.
And by the end of the conversation, she accepted the Book of Mormon,
though a little hesitantly, and invited us back next week to help her
paint. I can't tell you about every single one of the numerous
miracles that I've seen on my mission, but I CAN tell you about the
ones that impact me the most. This was most certainly one I'll carry
with me for the rest of my days.

The days following were still extremely difficult. Sister Smigel, from
an old basketball injury, has to go into the mission doctor this week
because she's been over exherting her left knee from all the walking
we've been doing. And last Saturday, we spent almost every single hour
possible attempting to get that baptisimal date. Our absolutely Golden
investigator by the name of Jill, was going to England for a month,
and would not be home until Oct 24, and there was NO way she'd be able
to recieve all of the lessons by then.
By 8 o clock, we were walking down the major street close to our home,
and I had reached the end of the rope. I despaired because I felt for
a few moments, that the Lord had seen us unfit for the blessings of a
Baptism in October, and that we had failed. Moments after praying in
my heart for relief from the Sorrow, of all things to happen, some
stupid teenager through an Egg right at us! It didn't hit either one
of us directly, but I most certainly felt the brush of it on my hand.
Sister Smigel and I had to laugh, but it was really a testimony to our
Day Lol!

The day closed, and we went home satisfied with the Work we had
done... but still sad we couldn't find that baptisimal date.... until
nine o clock that night when our Zone Leaders Called us. Elder Pierson
and Elder marshall, though our zone leaders, are also the other
english missionaries we have in White Rock. They called us to tell us
that not only were they handing over an investigator to us ( A Recent
Converts daughter by the name of Emma Kwanning, from Guam.), but that
Emma was ready to be baptised at ANY time as soon as they recieved
permission from her father! She would certainly count as our October
baptism.

So here's a long winded, but solid testimony. God DOES answer prayers!
He knows every single one of us individually, and loves us, and knows
our hearts better than even WE do! I am so grateful to be apart of
this mission, and to see the miracles that the Lord blesses these
great people with. Canada Vancouver is most CERTAINLY the greatest
mission on earth, and I can't wait to share more of my miracles with
you!!

Hope everything is going on great back home, and across the world
wherever you are! :D I loveee you all! Transfers are this week, so I
won't find out tonight if Sister Smigel and I are going to be in White
Rock still, or if we'll move on. But I'm grateful to the Lord for
everything I've learned here. Though its been hard, its been my
refiner's fire!

Y'all better write back! I love you ! :D

Love Sister Kennedy