Email from week of May 18th

May 18, 2014

Wow, what a week this has been! Mission life keeps getting crazier and crazier. Wellington keeps getting colder and colder, and our investigators are getting better and better! This email will be sent in a couple parts to send adequate pictures ha.

This is what I call an "exchange-over". Like a sleepover, except better because we're all Sister Missionaries and still obedient ha. We needed to get 2 exchanges done in a week so we ended up just inviting 2 sets of Sisters to come to Wellington and then we split off from their on our exchange. My favourite part of being a Sister Training Leader is getting to work with the Sisters, so it was really fun, and successful, to have four sisters in Wellington.

Sister Hann, Kennedy, Vautier, and Olamaleva
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Sister Kennedy, Hann, Boehmer and Woodbury

Random facts about the week:

-We pay 5 cents per grocery bag at the stores.
-I bought a Twix this week super excited, but it did not taste as good ha.
-This week I went into the bike shop on 6 different occasions to get all the sisters' bikes fixed ha. I'm a regular now. I still am not good with bikes, but I am getting better :)
-We're running out of K's on our car so we biked A LOT. The busiest street in Wellington is Lambton Quay, it's the shopping and business district. It was raining hard out, rush hour traffic, and we were biking down that street. Ha thrilling and terrifying.
-On the street I met this kid wearing a U of U Football t shirt. Of course I stopped him. His cousin gave it to him while in Samoa and I forgot all the names.. but it was cool to tell him I worked with the team.
-OH! Forgot to tell you, the exchange list came and I am staying in Wellington with my companion Sister Hann and I'm still STL. No complaints because that means I'll get to be here for some of our baptisms :):)
-We hug and kiss sisters all the time, but Sunday I got hugged and kissed by a YSA guy and it was terrifying. Ha I'm so awkward.

The Elders had a beautiful baptism yesterday! Anthony, the super tall one, was introduced to the church by a friend, the one with the beard in the picture, and was baptized just a little over a month after that. He asked me to sing for his baptism and that was fun. I sang "Come thou Fount". People were surprised to learn that I could sing ha so that was a fun to have the chance.

This is Suzanna!! She's officially my favourite ginger. Sunday was her first time at church and she stayed for the baptism as well which was awesome. Pray for her:) If things go well she'll be baptized the same day Caro is married, which is great! ​

We had Stake Conference, and it turned out to be a blue day. We thought it was funny we were all in the same shade of blue. ​

So Stake Conference was for everyone in New Zealand and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake. We started by hearing Elder Oaks who spoke about the importance of sticking to education even if it seems easier to drop out and just get a job. He also spoke for quite a while about RM's and how it means returned missionary and not retired Mormon ha. He also encourage church leaders to release experienced members and give returned missionaries big callings when they come home. Pretty interesting. We then heard from Sister Wixom from the primary which was my little tender mercy. She spoke in General Conference last year, I then saw her in my temple session, she spoke at the General Woman's meeting this year, and now she spoke to everyone in New Zealand. I think she is meant to be in my life ha. Anyway, she was really sweet speaking to all the children. President Monson addressed us so sweetly about loving others more and being kinder. He's just my favourite! We had 3 investigators sitting next to us and I loved hearing from the prophet and knowing these investigators were hearing from the Lord's chosen messenger. As part of the Conference we watched clips from Hastening the Work of Salvation and it was really fun to see Shannon McCullam and tell people I know her ha.

I realize that this email is a bit all over the place. You can see the week was crazy and I have lot on my mind right now haha. I love you all heaps and hope everything is sunny and beautiful back home! One time I thanked my dad for praying for me and he said, "who ever said I pray for you?" Then he said just kidding ha, but thank you all for your prayers. Many miracles are happening here and I love being a missionary!!

Love, Sister Kennedy