Weekly Update - August 24, 2015

Hey Everybody,
This week has been crazy. We had transfers so I have a new companion.
His name is Elder Sullivan.
Some highlights from this week is that we got to speak on Sunday. We
spoke on the Plan of Salvation. It went pretty good.

On Saturday we went to Eagar so i could do a baptismal interview. That
went good. So far for our zone we have had 10 Baptisms for our zone.
We should have a couple more this week as well. Things are really
moving forward.

Cool experience this week with me. I was just feeling frustrated and
stressed this week. New companion and just a lot of change. Well i
felt a prompting to get into the book of mormon more. So instead of
reading it I am listening to it now on my iPad. As
I listen to it I feel the spirit in my life and I just feel calmer.
There is defenately a different feeling you feel after listening to
it. Sometimes when I read it I get distracted, but listening to it I
may not remember everything said but i do remember the feelings.

Well I dont have to much else to report on. This upcoming week we have
Zone Conference to look forward to! Well I love you all. Keep being
awesome.
Love,
Elder Kennedy
Arizona Scottsdale Mission
6265 N. 82nd St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85250
dallas.kennedy@myldsmail.net

Weekly Update - 8/19/15

Hey Everybody,
This past week and a half have been awesome. I think one of the
biggest miracles this week is that on Sunday we started meeting with a
new investigator. Her name is Bobby and her sons name is Teegan. She
met a senior couple a while ago. She was going to be baptized but then
the senior couple had to leave. She just recently asked one of the
members in our ward who she works with if she could get baptized and
meet with the missionaries. So now we are starting to teach her. She
is extremely prepared. She really wants to do what is best for her and
her family.

So transfers happened. Elder Hinds my former companion got transferred
to Fort Apache. I am still here in Pinetop as a Zone Leader. I love it
here. My new companions name is Elder Sullivan. He is from Missouri.
He is pretty cool. He is into games, making balloon animals and other
things. He has a interesting personal. He is a good missionary. We
should do good here. Our Zone is doing a split zone leader. So I am a
zone leader and then up in Show Low there is another zone leader. So
we are not in the same companionship. This should be good I think.

We are seeing a lot of success here and should see some more continued
success. The biggest struggle is just getting people to church. It is
hard because they are just not very committable.

Well love you all. Keep being awesome.
Love,
Elder Kennedy
Arizona Scottsdale Mission
6265 N. 82nd St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85250
dallas.kennedy@myldsmail.net

Weekly Update - Aug 3, 2015

Hey Everybody!

This week was so Flippin awesome. We were pretty busy this week with
exchanges with other elders and also we had interviews with President
this week. One of the highlights of this week though was that Kameka
and Hallie both got baptized on Saturday. They are the first baptism
in this Ward in over a year. It was such a spiritual baptism. Elder
hinds was able to baptize Hallie and brother Lemmon baptized Kameka.
The spirit was so strong there. So many of the young women and leaders
where there. We even had the stake president there as well. Later that
day we went to Whiteriver for Kameka's birthday party. We talked with
Esau and Emily who are the guardians for Kameka and Hallie about the
baptism. They said they it was such a nice service and that it was
something that you just had to be there for. She said that to her
friends. We know they felt the spirit and hopefully we can start
teaching them too!

The next day we had their confirmations. Elder Hinds did Kameka and I
did Hallie. A lady came up to us afterwards and told us that she was
sitting far away from us but could feel the Holy Ghost so much. She
said this is the first time she has ever felt it so strongly. That
made me happy. They also got their temple recommends so they will be
able to go with the youth to do baptisms for the dead.

Next week we will be having the baptism for Steve Ohlau. It is so
exciting to see the fruits of your labors.

We also met this week with Isaac and Jeremy Brown. We had our stake
president come to that lesson with us. The spirit was so strong and we
help them recognize the importance of the priesthood and why we need
to be baptized by that priesthood authority. The spirit was really
strong in the lesson. Hopefully we can help guide them towards baptism
and make at first step towards Christ.

Well I love you all! Keep being awesome!
Love,
Elder Kennedy



Elder Kennedy
Arizona Scottsdale Mission
6265 N. 82nd St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85250
dallas.kennedy@myldsmail.net

Weekly Update - July 27, 2015

Hey everyone, 

This week has been crazy! Two of the days this week in the mornings 
were spent trying to get this huge stump out of this nonmembers yard. 
It was so hard to do. Eventually we had a calling back up and get two 
other elders to help us get the stump out. The non-member whose name 
is Jerry really appreciated as being willing to do from. He was 
wanting to pay us. We couldn't accept it obviously but we did accept 
Burger King gift cards. He tried paying two other companies to do it 
and none of them took it. So he was kind of in a bind and so were able 
to help them out. 

This week we were able to go on exchanges with the Eagar Elders. The 
area I served in before in eagar was whitewashed and so there are 
brand new elders in there. I was able to go with them on exchange and 
able to help them find people that didn't have much information on 
that I worked with when I was there and also got in contact with 
formers which I worked with and also recent convert and less actives. 
It was a really productive exchange and they felt like they knew there 
a lot better now. Well I was there though I was see you sad news that 
one of the recent converts are baptized when I was in eagar past away 
a couple months earlier. She was 90 years old so it was her time to 
go. She was having a lot of health issues and struggles and so it is 
good to hear that she is in a place of peace and rest at this time. 

This week we had baptismal interviews for Kamica and Haley who are 
two Apache girls that we are teaching. From the interview we now know 
that Kamica can be baptized this Saturday but haley is going to have 
to wait a week or two to get baptized. She just needs to learn a few 
more things. 

Brother Ohlau who is another person we are working with wants to be 
baptized on August 15. He is super excited to get baptized and is 
really prepared. Looks like we are going to be having some baptisms 
soon. 

We also met with a couple named Isaac and Jeremy. We went over the 
restoration with them. They had a lot of questions which we were able 
to answer. We invited them to be baptized and Isaac says he will once 
he knows those hot is true. Jeremy has been baptized before in another 
religion. So she has some concerns about that when we told her that 
she needs to pray and ask God wether the priesthood or the authority 
to act in Gods name has been restored on the earth again and if it has 
and if she prays and knows it is true then she needs to be baptized 
and she agreed with that. Hopefully soon we can help them set a goal 
or date for baptism and we can help them get their answers. 

Well I love you all. Thanks for being awesome. 
Love, 
Elder Kennedy 
Arizona Scottsdale Mission 
6265 N. 82nd St. 
Scottsdale, AZ 85250 
dallas.kennedy@myldsmail.net 

Weekly Update - July 21, 2105

Hey everybody, 

Things are goin really good here. We are seeing some growth in our 
area and are trying to be bold with our investigators. As a result we 
got 2 new investigators on date. We are also seeing growth as we are 
contacting formers. It was really cool as we contacted one of our 
formers who seems really prepared. She met with missionaries last 
December And there was no drop reason given and so we decided to stop 
by and to see if she would be interested in meeting with missionaries 
again. When we her she had one concern about Joseph Smith. She thought 
we worshiped Joseph Smith we quickly resolved her concerns and she was 
enthused about hearing that. She said if the missionaries would have 
told her that before she would have been to church every week. She 
says she really wants to meet with us again and learn more. She said 
she wants to feed us dinner and invite her member friend over for a 
discussion. 

We also met with Steve who is planning on getting baptized soon as 
well. We went over the Word of Wisdom and also the law of chastity. It 
went really well. He is so prepared and his wife is making the steps 
to come back to church as well. I can't wait to see him get baptized. 

We met about 3 times this week with a new investigator named Jimmy out 
in McNary. It is a slow process with him because he had a brain injury 
a while back so it is hard for him to process things. We had to go 
over priesthood and why you need that authority to be baptized about 3 
times before he grasped it. He is a really cool guy though. Not 
progressing to much right now but hopefully soon. 

We also did a drop by visit this week to a PMF in McNary. The wife is 
the one who is not a member. She basically said when we should up I 
need to come to church and I need to get baptized. It is so cool to 
see someone so prepared. She didn't end up coming to church on Sunday 
because she got sick. We are going to be meeting with them on Tuesday. 

Well things are going good here. Hope yall are doing good. Love you all. 
Love, 

Elder Kennedy 
6265 N. 82nd St. 
Scottsdale, AZ 85250 

dallas.kennedy@myldsmail.net 

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Weekly Update - July 14, 2015

Hey everybody, 

How is it going? Things are going pretty good here. We spent a lot of 
time in McNary this week. McNary is a Apache Indian Reservation which 
we cover. It can definitely be frustrating deal with Apache because 
they are pretty lazy and uncommitable. We had about 3 appointments set 
up out there and all of them fell through. Apache just live day by 
day. The Ward that covers McNary is thinking about starting a FHE 
night out there in an effort to get more people active. McNary is a 
pretty cool place though. 

We had a lesson with 2 young girls out there though named Kamica and 
Haley. We brought the Young Women's President with us and got them 
started on Personal Progress. They are not members but want to be a 
good example to their dad who likes to drink a lot. We hope to be able 
to get the on date for baptism though. The Apaches like to drink a lot 
out here. It gets really bad at the beginning of the month when they 
get their checks from the government. We also picked up 2 new 
investigators this week in McNary, Danny Moody who is one of the 2 
black guys in all of McNary. He was really excited to hear about a 
prophet on the earth again. We also started teaching a man named Jimmy 
out their who met with missionaries when he was 12. He seems pretty 
interested. 

We also met with the Ohlaus this week. The husband is still on date 
for August 1st and the wife is coming into activity. They were not 
able to make it to church this week though. They are doing so good 
though and have some really good questions. They really do have a 
desire to learn more. 

On Friday we helped with a service project at the high school here. We 
helped paint the inside. It now looks pretty awesome. We were able to 
talk to a lot of people there as well. 

This week one of our recent converts got the priesthood. It was so 
cool to see that. We were able to help explain it more. His wife and 
him want to get sealed in the temple in September and hopefully he 
will be able to go do baptisms for the dead soon as well. 

Well I love you all. Keep being awesome. 
Love, 
Elder Kennedy 

Sent from my iPad 

Weekly Update - July 8, 2015

Hey everybody, 

Things are going really good here. Sadly I had to send my other 
companion home because he was done with his mission. It was sad to see 
him go but it had to happen, but this last week with him was really 
good. We got an investigator on date for August 1. He is really 
prepared. We went over the holy ghost in the role of it. We helped 
him to recognize the Holy Ghost and the feelings he had when he read 
from the book of Mormon. That is what really helped him decide to be 
baptized. It was really cool because when he said that he wanted to be 
baptized his wife who was sitting next to him shouted I want to come 
back to church. She was just waiting for him to make the first move. 
It was really cool to see. 

We are doing a lot of work on the reservation too. We had a family 
that we've been working with come to church for the second week in a 
row. Last week we had two young girls who haven't come to church yet 
come. It's really cool to see the benefits and blessings of our 
labors. 

We had MLC this week as well. They talked a lot about agency and 
responsibility. They mentioned that we need to be 100% responsible for 
the things that we control. We should not blame others when we do not 
see success but do all we can to ensure success. It was a really good 
discussion. 

We also had a fantastic Fourth of July. It started off with us helping 
Show Low by checking in floats for the parade. That was a good way to 
meet people and have them See us. Then we got to watch the parade. It 
was pretty cool. That lasted for about an hour then we went home and 
showered shaved and got ready for the day. We then went to panda 
express for lunch it was delicious. Then it pretty much rain for the 
rest of the day. Try to go contacting people but we got soaked. We had 
dinner with the bishop that night. He was having a barbecue and they 
invited families from the ward. 

On Sunday we went to church till about 12. Then we had to go home get 
Elder Sorensen's luggage packed into the truck and drove to Showlow 
where we dropped him off at. Then I went with Elder Anderson and 
Morgan to their area for the next two days until I got my new 
companion Elder Hinds. He is way cool. He is from Utah. Who would've 
guessed. But I did have a good time with Elder Anderson and Morgan. 
They are really good missionaries. It was really cool because we went 
to a young single adult activity and two people I work with in 
snowflake were there and I was able to reminisce of the good old 
times back when I served in Taylor and Snowflake. It was so good to 
see them. 

It is definitely a little bit stressful taking over an area after only 
being there for 6 weeks but I know the lord will help us through it. 

Well things are going good here and we receive miracles every day. The 
work is true the book is blue and where that red white and blue. 

Love you all, 
Love 
Elder Kennedy 

Sent from my iPad 

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Weekly Update - July 1, 2015

Hey everybody, 

This week was a pretty good week. I cant describe how awesome this week has been. Elder Sorensen and I have just been killing it here. We had a awesome lessons with a lot of investigators we had. We had 4 investigators actually come to church as well. That was probably the biggest miracle so far. 

We went on a ton of exchanges this week with other missionaries in our zone. That took up Wednesday and Thursday. I went on exchanges with Elder Carr and Call. We were able to actually contact someone that I was teaching in Taylor that moved to Clay Springs. I was able to introduce the missionaries to them and get a appointment scheduled to start teaching them. The family name is the Johnsons. That was so cool to see them again. They are so awesome. 

This week also we have been imputing things from our paper area book into the digital area book. This has taken a while, but we got it all in. The Digital area book is so awesome. We have our planner on there as well as all of our teaching records on there. I can definitely see how it will make us more efficient missionaries. 

Elder Sorensen had his departing interview with President Sweeney this week. My Companion Elder Sorensen leaves next week on Monday. It is going to be sad to see him leave because he is a hard worker. President said I am going to be taking over the reigns here once he leaves. Good things are definitely happening here.I have a lot of pictures to describe a little more of this week. 

Hope y'all are doing well.
Love you all

Elder Kennedy

--
Jeff Kennedy
Sent with Airmail

...

Weekly Update - June 24, 2015

Hey everybody, 

This has been a pretty awesome week. We got a new investigator this week. Her name is Shelly and she is the wife of Jonathan who is a member. We were just going around McNary and trying to set things up with Less Actives. We knocked on Jonathan's door and he let us in. He was a little drunk again. He just found out his Uncle doesn't have much longer to live so that was hard on him. His wife was there with him as well and we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to them. Shelly accepted it very well. We are going by tonight and teaching them and hopefully getting her on date to be baptized. 

We also had a lesson with another part member family. The non members name is Cody. We went over the Plan of Salvation with them. Cody got really happy when he heard that he could do the work and ordinances for those that have passed on without hearing about the gospel. I think that was what really got him feeling the spirit during that lesson. He wants to be baptized, but wants to wait until he knows a little more. He is amazingly prepared investigator. 

We had ZTM this week. A lot of what we covered was about the iPads and the Area Book app we should be getting. That went pretty good. 

We also met with a investigator. His name is Steve. We went over the restoration with him and his wife who is a LA member. They have a lot of questions which is amazing. He says that everything that we have taught him just makes sense. He really liked the idea of a prophet who leads and guides this church. He said that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever so why wouldn't we have prophets again. Hopefully next time we meet with him we can get him on date to be baptized. 

We also TTI'ed a guy named Warren. Warren is an interesting guy. When we started to talk to him he wasn't to interested, but we kept being persistent. Finally we started talking about the gospel with him. At first he didn't believe the Mormons actually believe in Jesus Christ. He didn't think that Prophets need to be on the earth after Jesus Christ. He goes to the baptist church and I think gets a lot of Anti Material there. He wouldn't even take a copy of the Book of Mormon. Every time we would resolve one of his concerns he wouldn't accepted. Every time we would share a scripture he would deny it. It was just kind of funny that he would have such strong beliefs against Mormons and yet he doesn't even know the bible that well. The purpose in me sharing this is that we have to study the scriptures and actually ponder on them and pray about them before we can deny or reject something. This man would even touch the Book of Mormon. We tried to tell him of the importance of reading and asking God if it was true and yet he wouldn't do it. That is the only way we can know truth is by asking God and studying it out in our minds. It just amazes me how much people actually reject something just because someone told them bad but maybe untrue things about it. This can relate to anything in life not just religion. We have to actually learn about things and not just take peoples words for it. 

Well the work is definitely moving forward. This week we are going on a bunch of exchanges with the district leaders and other missionaries so it should be a good week.

Well I love you all. Keep being awesome.
From,
Elder Kennedy

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--
Jeff Kennedy
Sent with Airmail

On June 16, 2015 at 12:07:07 PM, Jeff Kennedy (jdkennedy21@gmail.com) wrote:

...

Weekly Update - June 15, 2015

Hey Everybody, 

Things are going pretty good here. This week we were able to find a 
new Investigator in the Pinetop Lakes ward. His name is Cody. We were 
going over to teach a Less Active and her significant other (Cody) was 
there. Apparently he was meeting with missionaries down in Whiteriver, 
but then they stopped coming by for some reason. He is really 
prepared. We taught them the restoration and invited him to be 
baptized. He says that is something he wants to do. He hasn't set a 
date yet, but we hope to be able to set a date this next lesson. 

Also a Less Active that we are working with has quit smoking this 
week. He is starting to use Chantex and it seems to be going really 
well. We watched a video with him called "hope ya know, we had a hard 
time" It is by Elder Quentin L. Cook. Curtis started to cry a lot and 
expressed to us how hard it was to give up smoking. This video really 
helped him know that Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father are always 
there for us. Also he gave us his cigarettes and e-cigs to get rid of 
so that is what the picture is of at the bottom. 

We had a lesson with another Less Active that was drunk when we showed 
up. It was the one year anniversary of when his Aunt died. He was 
going through a really hard time as well. He just needed someone to be 
there for him. He is a good guy who just needs help from the Lord. 

This week we were able to go down to the Valley and have a Special 
Mission Leadership Conference with Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the 
Presidency of the Seventy and also Elder Tilleman of the 6th Quorum 
of the Seventy. It was just all of the Zone Leaders and Sister 
Training Leaders that were there. It had the feeling of a one on one 
with a General Authority. We talked about his recent CES Fireside he 
gave in May. It was awesome because we could ask him any questions we 
wanted. 

This week we also were able to go to the temple and I was able to 
bring over 70 names to do baptisms and confirmations for. It was so 
amazing to be able to get so much work done in the temple. The spirit 
was definitely so strong there. I love the temple so much. 

This week we also went on exchanges with the Assistants to the 
President. That went pretty good. For morning exercises we did disk 
golf which was pretty fun. 

Today we are gettting our hair cuts by the stylist who did madonnas 
hair on her Rouge tour he said. So hopefully it looks pretty good. We 
are also making Indian Tomahawks today and making really nice pens 
with our Ward mission leader. 

Well I hope all is well with you all. Keep being awesome and sharing 
the Gospel. 
Love, 
Elder Kennedy 

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