Weekly Update - 11/02/2015

Hello Everyone,

This has been a crazy week. On Monday we met with the Ohlaus. Brother

Ohlau was baptized about 5 or 6 weeks ago. We had a really good

discussion on councils in the church and how the church is organized.

They are both doing so well in the gospel. I can see so much

progression in them since we first started meeting with them.

On Tuesday we started meeting with a less active who just recently had

a niece pass away who was like her own daughter. She had some

encounters with her after the niece died saying things like let me go

mom. I am fine mom. It was really amazing to know that our family who

passed on are still doing fine after this life. She really just needed

someone to vent to because she doesn't really have anyone left besides

her husband. We were able to talk to her about the Plan of Salvation

and how we will be with our family after we die. We gave her a

pamphlet to read. We were not able to meet with her for the rest of

the week. We went out with the Bishopric in one of our wards that

night as well. We were able to make contact with people we have not

been able to in a long time. We should be starting to meet with a

potential soon because of those visits.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Damoth who is one of our zone

leaders. He came to my area. We had district meeting that morning. It

was all about aligning the keys in the wards we serve in to accomplish

the work that the Lord has in plan for those areas. It was super good.

We had a halloween party that night for our wards. We stopped by

briefly and then headed off to a meeting with the Stake President.

Thursday I went to an Elders area for exchange. His name is Elder

Hugo. It was a interesting exchange. He is a interesting Elder. Not

much to report on about that.

Friday we had a lesson with a less active and investigator. We talked

about the importance of prayer and scripture study. I was surprised to

find out that they are actually reading them now and praying. This is

a lot of progress for them especially since I have been here.

Saturday I did a baptismal interview for a young girl who is getting

baptized on the 7th. It went super good. Then we went to the temple

for the day. I was able to bring about 30 names to have baptisms and

confirmations for. Also I gave some other elders some people that

needed endowments. We got about 5 of them done. It was such a great

day. We then had the opportunity to clean the temple afterwards as

well. That was awesome.

Sunday we had a amazing day at church. The first sacrament meeting

Elder Heaton and I gave our testimonies almost first. We talked alot

about temples. There was a less active there that came for the first

time since I have been here. Most of the talks talked about temples. I

was thinking I am so glad she is here to experience this. The spirit

was so strong. We also gave our testimonies in the Other sacrament

meeting as well. The whole day was probably my most favorite time at

church because the spirit was so strong. Stronger then normal.

All in all it was an amazing week. Only have less then 3 months left

on my mission. Got to make it count. Love you all. Keep going on.

Love,

Elder Kennedy

Arizona Scottsdale Mission

6265 N. 82nd St.

Scottsdale, AZ 85250

dallas.kennedy@myldsmail.net

Weekly Update - 10/26/2015

Hey Everybody,

This has been a busy week. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with an
Elder in my district. It went pretty good. We saw so many miracles
there. We had a lot of people ask us some hard questions and through
the spirit we were able to answer them flawlessly.

On Thursday we had Interviews with President as well we had District
meeting. I love Interviews because it is just a time, one on one, with
President and we can just talk. He is such an inspired man. One thing
that we are focusing on in our mission is aligning the keys. So he
help us know of how we can align keys with our bishop and stake
presidents.

Saturday we had a priesthood leadership session and adult session of
Stake Conference. In both those sessions they talked about the
importance of councils in the Church whether they be family or ward
councils. They then talked about how in these councils we should make
plans to accomplish things. We shouldn't just talk.

President Shumway (Stake President) Gave everyone 4 principles of
effective planning. He received all these points from the Church
Handbook.

1. Plan with purpose and with a purpose
2. Plan well in Advance
3. Involve Others (Especially the Youth)
4. Communicate the plans and give clear Direction.

Planning is really so important because that is what leads us to
actually doing. It is one thing to talk about people in Family or Ward
Councils. It is another to actually plan for people.

On Sunday, we had the last session of Stake Conference. One thing that
stuck out to me from it was something President Shumway called
Brutiful. It is not a real word, but he said it means the brutal
things we go through in order to become the beautiful person our
heavenly father knows we can become. The whole conference was so
awesome. President and Sister Sweeney (Mission President and Wife)
where there as well. They talked about how missionary work is easy and
shared some stories from their own life.

It was such a great week and is getting colder each day. They say it
will be a bad winter here with lots of snow. I am looking forward to
it.

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

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

Weekly Update- 9/21/2015

Hey Everybody,

This week has been so spiritual. We had an investigator Steve Ohlau
pass his baptismal interview and we then went through the program with
him. He is so ready for baptism. We also had another investigator
commit to a baptismal day. Her name is Crystal Thomas. She committed
to October 24, 2015. She is so prepared and ready for baptism. Most of
her family is members already. If y'all could keep her in your prayers
she really needs them.

This week we got to go to the Snowflake Temple. I got to do the
endowments for Grandpa Kennedy. It was such a amazing experience.
Throughout the whole time I was feeling pretty good, but was not
feeling the spirit super strong. Then towards the end as we were
wraping up the session I felt just this huge overwhelming feeling of
happiness and love. I felt like he accepted it. It was probably one of
the times in my life that I felt the spirit so strong. I also had a
impression of how important family is and how they are always there
for you during the hard times and the good times. They love you
unconditionally. I know my Grandfather accept this work that was done
for him. The work is true.

One other amazing experience this week is we got to go to a fireside
for Travis Tuttle. He is one of the missionaries who got kidnapped in
Russia, which a movie was made about them called "The Saratov
Approach". It was such a awesome fireside. One of the things that I
really loved about it was how he applied during his talk his
experience to each of us. One thing that I really loved was how during
his experience he thought he was going to die. He had a mask over his
face and tape around his eyes. He heard a gun cocked then the trigger
pulled. He was thinking right before he died how much he loves his
families. He thought to himself that the only thing that really
matters in this life is the relationships we develop with our family,
friends and with God. That really touched me. So Mom and Dad and
Family just in case you didnt know. . . I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Thanks for
all you do for me. I appreciate you making it possible for me to go on
 a mission.

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