Solid week.

November 18, 2013

This week has been great, can't complain.

Standing on the rooftop,
everybody scream your heart out.

On Saturday there was a big firework show put on by one of the primary schools for a fundraiser. It doesn't get dark here until after 9, which is our curfew. We had members who wanted us to climb the hills and watch the fireworks, but we were good little missionaries and went home on time. We started our planning as quick as possible because we could hear the big booms of fireworks outside. We have no windows facing the way of the fireworks so we couldn't see!! We came outside after changing and I was jumping up and down because it turns out I LOVE fireworks! We had a fence that leads up to our roof so we climbed up fast and just as we did, they stopped. We thought maybe it was a pause, but no. We had missed the entire show and saw the last 3 seconds of fireworks. Ha what a bummer! We stayed up on our roof for a while because what other time we will be on our roof?? We were singing some hymns and people laughed with us. At least there was a beautiful moon to see and a fun view of the city from our roof.

Our beautiful blooming cactus in our garden.

We had some fun lessons on Sunday. We went to Karen and Liva's and watched the Restoration DVD. Have you watched it lately?? It's so powerful. I love Joseph Smith and his sincere desire to follow Jesus Christ. Anyway, we started to talk about faith and how it's like a seed that needs to be planted that can one day grown into a large tree. Liva told us he had just been telling Karen about faith like a seed. He said he'd just finished when we knocked and that we said it the way he had tried to express it but couldn't. Little miracle that we were able to come and confirm his faith and help it grow. We then went and saw Chloe and felt like we should also talk about faith. She said it was just the message that she needed to hear for the week and she was so grateful we came because we usually come on Saturday. It's the little things that help us see Heavenly Father is mindful of all of His children and we need to be the answers for other people.

We are teaching an 18 year old girl named Angel. She keeps telling us she’s been to an LDS church in Gisbane and Auckland but everything she talks about tells us it wasn’t our church. At first she told us she’d been baptized when she had been blessed on the head and fell over. We’ve struggled to find ways to tell her that she hasn’t been baptized and that it isn’t our church. As we’ve taught the first lesson and the gospel of Christ she’s been able to make real progress. She told us that she now understands she wasn’t baptized but that it was just a blessing of sort. She has committed to being baptized when she knows it is true but hasn’t committed to a date. It’s really interesting teaching her because she does know things about our church like the Book of Mormon and Joseph, but she has skewed knowledge. It’s fun to teach her and show her, or help her remember the truth.

Blenheim artwork at its finest.

We had a super "cultured" P-day yesterday! We went to a free museum in town filled with very artsy art work. This man had painted paper bags and was selling them for $1500. Crazy! We went to the local pet shop and looked at adorable puppies, fish, birds, and lizards. We found a great sushi shop and shopped our way home. It was pouring rain so I only shopped where it was covered with an awning ha. We had to rush home on our bikes because our landlord needed to get inside. The EQC- Earthquake Commission are the people who go around after an earthquake and inspect for damage and such and they came to our house yesterday. Not that we had any problems, but our landlord is very on top of things and wants it all to be good. We were soo grateful we had cleaned our flat very well. One man told us he had a Mormon friend and that he respected our work. Always nice when people think we're doing good things and they told us we were very tidy girls. Ha so grateful for the command to "be clean".

Pet shop.

This week I've been reading in Alma where Alma sits down his sons and gives them counsel and a bit of an interview. I was thinking about all the times I met with my Bishop in my youth and how I also got a big of a Fathers Interview. Ha I thought it was hard having a dad for a Bishop but now I realize what a blessing it was to get spiritual and father counsel all in one. Just think about how Heavenly Father wants us to gain his counsel and how He's given loving parents to help give that counsel. So grateful for my parents and family! LOVE YOU ALL!

I wish you a happy happy turkey Thanksgiving! Being grateful makes me a much happier person so I hope you can all find things to be grateful for.

Much love from the Kiwi,
Sister Kennedy

Blenheim is blossoming.

November 13, 2013

We had a miracle Sunday this week. Pra is a lady from Thai that we are teaching English and the gospel. Yesterday she came to church with her partner and his mother. We saw 2 less actives members who haven’t been to church in years. Jeff is an investigator and he brought 12 Vanuatu workmates to church with him. The non-member is doing amazing missionary work!! He attended the District Priesthood meeting in Graymouth with other men from Blenheim and he is so active in the branch. Ha it's exciting to see how missionary work can effect even those not members. It was a full chapel on Sunday and very exciting.

I saw a cricket game!! For about 2 minutes as we biked by. Such a different sport.

We had such a powerful day last week on Friday. As missionaries we are encouraged the extend the baptismal commitment on the first lesson with have. We met with Ashlee and Angel who the Elders met and gave us and we had a great first lesson. We taught the Gospel of Christ and bore testimony of the importance of following Christ. They both committed to be baptized when they find this is true and it was so exciting! But what was more exciting was when we had another lesson during the day and was able to commit two more people to be baptized. The Spirit bore such strong testimony while we were teaching and it was exciting to see in eyes of our investigators this decision that they would follow Christ. Things are really happening in Blenheim!

This week I had some really great studies in the Book of Mormon about the Sons of Mosiah. They had quite an extreme conversion process and then they immediately went about preaching the word as missionaries. They left for 14 years which is way longer than any missionary is asked to serve these days. Ammon was very powerful in converting King Lamoni and his people. As he was traveling to visit his brother Aaron he met King Lamoni's father and there left with him his powerful testimony. It softened the Kings heart but Ammon saw nothing come from it. When Aaron later came to King Lamoni's father his heart had been softened and he was ready to hear about the gospel. Aaron was able to teach him and he became truly converted to the Lord. In missionary work there are preparers and there are teachers. Ammon's role was to prepare Lamoni and it was Aaron's role to teach and convert him. When there's not physical success of baptisms I like to hope that I've been sent to Blenheim as a preparer. I hope that the people I meet with now will one day accept the gospel because of a testimony I bore. I also want to be a teacher, but it's what the Lord wants and in His time. Pretty neat!

A family moving to Invicargile, with the hopes I'll serve around them again!

There's 2 families who are moving out of our branch for work and schooling which is sad, but what's exciting is the possibility of seeing them again. I have no idea where the Lord will send me next or when He will send me, but I'm hopeful that I'll get to see these cute families again!

I'm quite jealous of the Americans that will celebrate Thanksgiving in the coming weeks! Eat lots of food, watch good football, and laugh at the commercials I can't. It's warming up quickly here, although it likes to flip back and forth between seasons.

JUST found out the most amazing news, probably the best news I've heard my whole time in Blenheim. My favorite family, the Prescott's just set their wedding date for December 21st. Whoot, whoot!! That means a family being united then a baptism to follow and the temple in a year. With this exciting news that probably means I will be transferred two weeks before the date.. but I pray Heavenly Father will still need me in Blenheim so I can be apart of this miracle.

I got a beautiful wedding announcement in the mail yesterday and am so excited for Aunt Lisa's wedding this weekend! I hope that everything goes well and that the marriage is filled with love and happiness!

I think the Lord is so great to show us our weaknesses but gives us the ability to overcome those weaknesses and make them strengths. There's ups and downs of missionary work but we know that with the Lord He is always constant and consistent. We can always improve and become better with His help. I ask that everyone prays with real intent this week to help develop an Attribute of Christ that they need: Faith, Hope, Patience, Obedience, Diligence, Charity & Love, Knowledge, Virtue, or Humility. Tell me how your week improved as you prayed for help to be more Christlike!

I love all, and truly miss you but am grateful for this time I have to serve:)

Love Sister Kennedy

Holidays are here.

November 5, 2013

We've had so many holidays this past week. Last Thursday was Halloween, last Monday was Labor Day, this Sunday was the Indian "Festival of Lights" holiday, Monday was Marlborough Day (like Box Elder celebrating a public holiday), and yesterday was Guy Fox Day. There have been fireworks almost every night here for the past couple days! I realized how much I love fireworks and although we can't see much from our flat because we are surrounded by trees, it's exciting to hear the pops in the sky.

Jaysleen, Sister White, and I all dressed in
traditional Indian dresses.

For the Festival of Lights holiday we were invited over to the Branch President's home for dinner. They had been baking sweets all week for the holiday! We tasted some really yum Indian treats, but more fun was when we got to dress in their daughters traditional Indian dresses! We have quite a few Indian families in Blenheim and it just happened that we got to see nearly all of them on the holiday. Natasha dressed in one of her traditional dresses and they showed us the alter they had built to pray to their Gods.. not too excited about that part ha. Another family we just saw for a minute because they were preparing for the evening's events. It was fun to be a part of a new holiday.. just minus the worshiping idols thing.

We had quite the experience in the park this week. We tried to see a lady but she wasn't home, but she lives right next to a beautiful park so I wanted to show Sister White around. We had a dedicatory prayer in this park when we first got to the area so I wanted to show her the little tower we found. It's a red tower in the middle of rose gardens and so we went up top and just started to sing some hymns. A few people walked by just avoided eye contact and left. This little dog came wandering through so we kept singing, waiting for the owner. This man named Michael came and we actually had a great gospel chat. He was one an Anglican preacher and has been very devoted to Christ. He said that he'd found a glass bottle and was going to throw it away at home, but then he felt like he should just find a garbage in the park. The closest garbage can was right next to our little tower and he told us that he would come to our church. Very excited we gave him the detaisl and he went on his way. We didn't think much of it, but then Sunday came around and he really did come to church! The meeting had already started when he came in and he sat in the back, but it was so cool that he came. He left before it ended and we didn't get a chance to speak to him, but I really hope the Spirit was able to touch his heart and maybe some good will come out of it one day. Who knows!

The Prasad's are the cute family we've been teaching almost the whole time we've been here. The Dad committed again to a baptismal date which is very exciting. We didn't know how to continue teaching because they've had all the lessons and they seem to understand well. So a suggestion came that they should teach us. We assigned them the homework of preparing the restoration lesson for us and it was so exciting to have someone else teach ha. They hadn't actually prepared when we got there, but using the pamphlet they each discussed what they understood about the principles of the restoration. It was so great!! I know I always learn more when I teach, and we could really see how when they taught us it cemented their beliefs and made them really think about what they knew. Ashwin was onto it, he really did teach me. I hope we'll get to use this again in the future because I can see how it really helped them, and it made them realize they know more than they think.

Sister Edna Stratford Eames (My long lost Stratford cousin)
in the beautiful Pollard Park in Blenheim.

We have two Senior Sisters who work in the mission office and they came on a bit of a tour of the South Island. They stopped in Blenheim and we got to see them which was so fun. Sister Eames is a Stratford and we've found our connection with Edwin Stratford long ago. Meeting with others missionaries is always uplifting and especially when they are cute Sisters!

The work continues to move along here in Blenheim. We are teaching more lessons than ever! This week we taught 16 lessons and I am super excited about that. It's the most I've ever taught in a week. If you are living at home near missionaries, please help in their efforts. Offer to help give investigators rides to church, be a member present in their lessons, and give referrals for them to teach. The work is almost impossible without the members and I just wish the members here had a bit more willing heart. Be the person the missionaries know they can rely on!! Being a missionary is for all members of the church regardless of their age, where they live, or how busy they are. Missionary work is the best:)

Love, Sister Kennedy

21 is great.

October 22, 2013

What a week! It was just zoomed by so fast. Everyone suddenly wants to see us since Sister Taleni is leaving so we've had meal appointments galore and hardly anytime to pack or clean the flat.

They lifted us down with a tractor after the trailer ride. So fun!

On Saturday we had a super successful branch activity. The MacDonald's have a big vineyard farm (Old MacDonald had a farm, eeyi eeyi oh) and they invited everyone out. I had my first hongi which was interesting.. I'm not sure I'm sold on the taste. Then they loaded up 2 big trailers behind a tractor and they took us around his land and out to the ocean water. We are so close to the ocean! We had a big turn out and we even had 3 investigators come which was super cool. All the islanders love a good hongi and the kids and adults were playing rugby. It was really warm and I got really sunburned along with all the other white elders, but all in good fun!

The Edward's stayed with us this weekend so they took us out for Chinese Birthday dinner, they got me a chocolate cake, and sang to me in the morning. They are the cutest, and we love having the senior couples around!

My Birthday was so great, probably because it was Sunday as well. I did the normal routine in the morning but when I went back into my bedroom my bed was filled with purple balloons, a big Happy Birthday sign and a present. My companion is the greatest, giving me my 21st key! Turning 21 isn't a very big deal in Utah especially when you're Mormon because you can't go drinking. But here it's the biggest Birthday they celebrate. If you've been a good kid, you get a 21st key which is the key to your freedom. I'd say I've been pretty good, so it was the best present:)

My 21st birthday with a member!

Sister Taleni had such a surprise when her Uncle's family drove up from Christchurch and were just sitting in the chapel waiting for church to start. They are the cutest family and it was so fun that they came to see her before she goes home to Austrailia. We were able to have lunch at a members home, they're work friends, and so they could chat for a bit. It reminded me of how much Heavenly Father loves families and that we really can be together forever. Brother Taleni said he remembers a ginger missionary named Elder Stratford so that was exciting to hear our families are connected!

My new companion, Sister White, arrives on a bus in about 20 minutes.. so we should go get her! She's Tahitian and been out almost a year. It will be exciting to have a day with 3 missionaries .Sister Taleni goes home tomorrow which is so sad. We've cried pretty much every day this week, but tears of happiness really. She's been so good to me and I know Heavenly Father gives us the companions we really need to grow and develop.

Thank you so much for everyone who sent me 21 things they are grateful for! It was so uplifting to see all the things that people really cherish. Having a grateful heart can make any situation better and more pleasant. Life is happier when we have an attitude of gratitude.

You are all the greatest and I love you so much!! It will be exciting to lead an area and try out my grown up missionary skills. God is real, He loves us, knows us and wants us to be happy. That's why He sent Jesus Christ, who knows exactly what we are going through. He's the way back!!

Love, Sister Kennedy