Weekly Update - 10/19/2015

Hey Everybody,
This week has just been crazy. We have had a amazing week full of
service. We have helped shoveling dirt, building houses and doing a
ward wood project.

On Monday we had a pretty good lesson with a less active member. He is
really struggling with influences from others and making the wrong
choices. We deviated from our set lesson plan and helped him resolve
some concerns that he had. He then made us a really good dinner.

On Tuesday we started off by choopping wood for a less active widow in
the ward. That was pretty fun. While we were chopping wood a less
active member who was drunk started coming up and talking to us. We
were able to get to know him better and really connected with him.
Then we went over to a members home and helped them with some
landscaping that they where doing.

That night we met up with a less active member and his family and
shared about prophets. We then commited them to read a General
Conference talk. That went pretty good.

Wednesday and Thursday was full of Service for Non Members.

My favorite lesson this week happened on Saturday. We are meeting with
a man named Rick. We went over the Restoration with him. Throughout
the whole thing he commented and was asking really inspired questions.
All the comments he made would lead right into the next point. When we
talked about Joseph Smith and his vision he had. He told us he knew he
was a Prophet of God. We then watched a short clip showing what
happened. Afterwards he said he knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet.
It is not a belief, but a knowledge. Rick is so prepared. He believes
in everything we taught so far.

I am now the District Leader here in pinetop now. The old one had to
be Emergency Transferred down to the valley. I thought I would have
had a break from the extra responsibilites of leadership. No Rest for
the missionary though. We just keep pressing forward until it is
finished. Which, not to get you trunky mom, is only in 103 days.

I love this gospel. I love this church. I know that this is Christ
church restored to the Earth again. I love listening to General
Conference everyday and the uplifting feeling it gives me.

My ponderize scripture this week is Moroni 7:45.

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

Weekly Update - 10/12/15

Hey Everybody,

This has been a pretty good week. Things have really been progressing
and improving in our area. We are starting to teach a new investigator
this week named Rick. He is so awesome. He has such a strong belief in
God. He knows how to act on the spirit and he tries to align his will
with Gods will. When he lived down in Phoenix he would sing to the
Homeless people and would give them hamburgers. He seems really
interested.

Also this week Elder Heaton my trainee invited his first person to be
baptized. He invited Isaac Brown and he said YES! He now has a date
for November 7th. He was suppose to come to church on Sunday, but he
didnt show up. :(

We have done so much service this week as well. It seemed like
everyday we had service. We did everything from building a add on to a
house to shoveling dirt to building a wall. It was pretty awesome, but
I am pretty exhausted from all of it. We have a lot of service this
week as well.

We had Zone Training Meeting on Thursday. It was such a good one. The
whole thing was about how we can become a PMG missionary and not a EAC
(Easter Austraillian Current) which is from the movie Finding Nemo.
Not being a EAC missionary means not just going with the flow,
standing up for what is right and not being picky on which commandment
(mission rule) we follow. It was pretty good. I am definitely striving
to be better.

We did some service for someone not of our faith this week as well. We
put a exercise bike together for him because he was not physically
capable of doing it. This gave us a opportunity to just get to know
him more. One thing the mission is pushing is something called the
"Ammon Plan". The Ammon plan is a service plan where members find us
service opportunity with people not of our faith. Just like Ammon did
in Alma 17, when he showed up and didn't want to teach but wanted to
serve. We do that to. We don't have any underlining purpose of
teaching them although we would love that. We just want to serve. We
let the member know that we wont talk about religion with them, though
if they ask any questions then they are free game. Haha. Just like how
Ammon waited for Lamoni to ask him more. We know that if they just see
us and see the light in us they will want to know more. As we live our
religion that is when they want to know more. This is a pretty
effective way to do missionary work.

Ponderize Scripture of the Week - Mosiah 3:19

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 - 10/05/15

Hello everybody,

Not much as happened since Wednesday besides I am just trying my best
to train my new companion who has only been out about 6 days. He is
doing a trial mission to see if he can handle a full time mission. He
is doing great right now. He can be a handful at times and frustrate
me, but he is teaching me patience and unconditional love. This will
be an interesting transfer. That is all I got to say. He has the
desire to be out here and that is what really matters.

I absolutely loved General Conference this weekend. It was probably
the best one I have seen ever. I got something out of every single
talk. I really loved Elder Durrants talk about Ponderizing. That was
such a neat thing that we all can do. My first scripture I am going to
ponderizing is 2nd Nephi 4:18-23. It helps me known that God is there
to be with us in our trials and stupid things that we do. He is there
to guide us back to the path we need to be on.

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

Weekly Update - 09/30/15

Hey Everybody,

This week has been a hard week, but a good week. We had a baptism this
week for Steve Ohlau. He was so ready. He has been working with
missionaries for over 2 years. The baptismal service was so special.
He showed up smiling and left smiling. A lot of his family came up
from the valley. You could just see him radiating with the spirit.
Elder Sorenson who was my companion about 3 months ago came all the
way from Utah with his parents. It was so good to see him again. The
service went awesome and he only had to get dunked once.

There was a huge car show going on here called "The Run of the Pines".
The traffic was so bad though leading up to our house. It took about
30 minutes to get to our home when it normally takes 4 minutes. There
was a parade as well. Elder Sullivan and I made balloon animals as a
way of contacting people.

We got to talk in church as well. I talked about the blessings of
missionary work and Elder Sullivan talked about how God will give us
strength to do missionary work. It was so awesome and amazing.

On Sunday we had a investigator come to church for the first time
since I have been here. It was way amazing.

Transfers was yesterday. Elder Sullivan moved on to Show Low and I
have a trial missionary now. His name is Elder Heaton. What a trial
mission is someone who usually has a mental or physical disability
that is not to bad, but wants to see if he could handle a real
mission. This is going to be an interesting transfer. He is pretty
cool guy though.

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