Merry Christmas to Yall and to Yall A Blessed Night!...December 19, 2016...Week 11

What up my fans!! Just kidding! but hello peeps! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Such an exciting week! actually it's been an exciting month but this week specifically leading up to a day dedicated to celebrate the birth of our Savior! the Spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Alex City and I just can't help but smile!! If people weren't nice before, they're like saints now!! ahh love the south!! we were at the hallmark store and was talking to the manager lady about Christmas and she asked about our house and if it was decorated. I told her that my mom had just sent me like 3 ornaments and so now we have 3 ornaments on our tree and we were so excited to have them! She just smiled and went about keeping up the store. Well we checked out and was walking to our car when Sistah terry noticed her bag was bigger than what she ordered. she looked inside and that was not the stuff that she had bought. we quickly turned around and went into the store and the manager lady just said Merry Christmas and shooed us out of the door in a cute southern way, you know? and so we did. Well now we have 4 very special ornaments up on our tree and i can't help but smile every time I look at it! AND THEN! we went to this cute couple's house for a bible study they were holding and we told them this story and how cute it was and how it just brightened up our apartment and when we were walking out of the house we were given an ornament from them signed by everyone at the bible study and ahh just made my heart melt!! i love these people so much yall! so yes these people are saints!

Tuesday we exchanged companions for the day with our Sister Training Leaders in Millbrook and so Sistah terry went there and Sister Merrill came to Alex City for 24 hrs. SO that means that I had to lead the area ahh! but honestly it was so much fun! That girl is just the sweetest and chillest person ever! Love her! She's so bold and i just love it! something you need down here in the south!!

We've been teaching the cutest little family ever. they have just the sweetest little boys ages 10 , 8, and 7 and ugh just such a cute family!! we were talking about how we should be kind to our families and do nice things for them and i asked what happens when we do this? the little 8 year old looks at me and says, " well you just get a tender feeling in your heart." like ahhh my heart just melted right then and there!!

friday was our Christmas Party for the south part of the mission! and what a fun day!! sister Winter was there! i mean how much better can it get than that! but we also had training and a talent show which i weirdly performed in with a couple of other people. didn't go as planned but its the thought that counts right?? hahaha okay good! I will say though we performed with Elder Bradford who is legit trying out for Newsies on broadway when he gets off after this transfer, so when he is on Broadway I cannot wait to say I attempted to sing a pentatonix song with him at our mission Christmas party!! it's gonna be awesome! we actually got to watch a  movie too! Zootopia! everyone felt like they were doing something wrong watching a movie, but i guess i haven't been out long enough cause i was just like, " finally movie time, let's get to it!!" like super pumped but oh well! i guess ill be weirder next Christmas! 

Sistah terry and I got to teach one of our favorite ladies this week. Her name is Brenda! She is is in her 60's and lost her husband pretty recently...we have been meeting with her for a few months now and she has told us of the JOY she has felt as we meet with her and as she reads the book of mormon. One of my favorite things she told us was that the book of mormon to her was and "enlightenment" of the bible. She says that she knows it's true and bore her testimony of it and i just loved that!! We are working with her right now to help her recognize how that knowledge connects to knowing that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that this is the true church on the earth. We are so excited to keep teaching her. We love her! 

Funny Story time:

 -on like the 2nd door i knocked on with Sister Merrill tracting, we were walking down this guys cement steps when my beloved Steve Madden boot deceived me and slipped right out from under me and i fell on my butt! but not just once! i then proceeded to make like a cartoon and fall down each step until i was at the bottom, just sitting there making solid eye contact with the man in the driveway across the street, loading lumber into his backyard, frozen,. just trying not to laugh. So after sister merrill and i busted up for a few moments, we went and shared a scripture with the man across the street! he accepted a book of mormon and wanted missionaries to stop by his house in birmingham! so it was for something!

- we got locked out of our house. again. but we sadly couldn't get our winder (window) open. which kind of put me to ease since if we couldn't maybe robbers couldn't either! but then after asking our neighbor to help us open our winder instead he proceeded to unlock our door in like 2 seconds. like oddly fast, which made me right back in the spot i was before, just a little creeped out that he was able to UNLOCK our door so quickly but all is well cause we were able to get our keys that were actually inside our house this time!!

-sistah terry tried to lay on her bed one night and somehow missed? and ended up falling hard on the floor on the opposite side of the bed hahahah good times!!

-got told by 2 different people how God wanted us to do illegal substances and tried to prove it to us with scriptures from the bible! it was quite comical if i do say so myself!

-got a missionary discount at a name brand retail store! i mean only in the south people!!

- Little girl prayed with us and she prayed that she would get to know Jesus so she would go to Heaven one day and be able to play with Him on the gold playground. just melted my little heart!!

well that's all for this week folks! I hope that yall have a very merry Christmas and remember the Reason for the Season!! One of my favorite Christmas videos is the one, a Savior is Born/ He is the Gift! Yall should try to watch it at least one time this week!! Well I hope that yall continue to Light the World! 

Merry Christmas to All and to All A Blessed Night!

love,

sister kennedy

cut the light on aka. light the world...December 12, 2016...week 10

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

i know its still a couple weeks away but it feels like everyday is Christmas Day so ima just go with it! i mean im not complaining!!

this week was a great week! we got to see other missionaries! #blessed

ya know living in isolation aka 45 min away from your district (the closest missionaries to ya) can get a little hard sometimes. but thats what makes days like this past week so much better!! we had zone training and a temple trip!! i mean can you say blessed or what!! zone conference was awesome! sis gilbert and sis beck had us play minute it to win it games! one of them was who could look like a snowman the fastest! so it was my team against sistah terrys, with us being the snowman. we obviously won!! that was a lot of fun and ahh the temple is just so amazing! for those of you who don't know, a temple is the Lord's house here on the earth. it is able to be one because of the proper priesthood authority that has been restored to the earth. so being able to go inside one is a very special experience!! ahh just so good!!

this week we also made peanut butter balls and were giving them out to our gators (investigators or people wanting to know about Jesus Christ) all while caroling to them as well! just spreading the Christmas cheer and what not! Well while doing that, Sister Terry and I had an awesome experience! I think I told you about that one Monday where we were being bashed by these two people.  Well after that experience, we were not too fond of those people. We didn't even want to go in that area. Just wanted to stay as far away as possible from those people! Well one night we were going around to our gators, singing to them Christmas songs and handing out treats along with the Light the World card, when the rest of the gators fell through (weren't home). We had 2 treats left and didn't know who to go to. We just started driving and was actually going to head back by our place, when lo and behold we drove right past those mean people's apartment complex. I instantly, in kind of a joking way shouted, "let's go sing to the mean lady!!" so after a little convincing sister terry, and quite frankly myself, we pulled up to her apartment, got the courage and sang and gave her treats. Her kids piled around the door, and all were smiling. Service softens stony hearts people! remember when i told yall that? But who knew the stony heart would be mine!! I was so glad that we did that! Honestly all that anger towards her disappeared and I felt like I got to experience just a little bit of Charity (the pure love of Christ) towards this woman and her family. It was a great lesson to be learned!!

we also had this super cute town party at the park right next to our house!! it was the cutest thing ever! there were lights everywhere and santa was there, so was the grinch, and frosty the snowman. there was fake snow blowing in the air, and horse drawn carriage rides, with free hot chocolate and ice skating! ahh it was just the cutest thing ever!! like so small town, i loved every minute of it! It was a little freezing but all is well cause it was the perfect time to talk to people about the reason for the season. and people love Jesus down here which makes it 10x better!! we also got free signs! super southern with the cross and everything!!! we were gonna pay for it but people here are just something else! just the kindest people you ever did meet!!

favorite thing of the week!

instead of people saying turn on the light or turn off the light, they all say 'cut the light on or cut the light off.' you know your in the south when... but honestly i love it!! so don't forget peeps! lets cut the light on and light up the world!! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJmAV0gTp_Q) Please watch this video and join in. Each day is a new way to serve.

oh by the way if anyone wanted to know, people love to bake here, i mean obviously we're in the south, buuuuut they also do Christmas baking, specifically peanut butter balls, which i did not know. so imagine my surprise when we go to drop some kind of good kind of bad lookin peanut butter balls to this ladies house and she lets us in and her dining room table is FILLED with gourmet looking fudge and peanut butter balls with like super fancy designs and packaging and here we just handed her some over powdered sugar, half dipped, peanut butter balls. we gotta step up our game. we're not in california anymore toto!!

but love all yall so much! (dreamed my very first yall! im officially southern! jk but im on my way... sort of!) anywaysssss, i love yall and hope that yall have a blessed week!!

love,

sister kennedy

Snowman building at zone training!

sistah terry....did not win

me and my team...winners!

We also played 'water pong' and I won....seriously never played it a day in my life and I win!

our sweet sign from the community holiday party.

gifts from home arrive....one to open each day (12 days of christmas style)

(We sent Kaia a few ornaments to remind her of home....

hot sauce bottle, a whale, a piece of sushi and a fancy feathered bird!

We hope they made her laugh out loud!....April)

I WONDER IF JESUS HAD TO GET BAPTIZED 3 TIMES....December 5, 2016...Week 9

hello everyone!!

its been the BEST WEEK EVERRRRRR *sung in sponge bob voice*

Tichel'le (pronounced ti-chalet) got baptized!!!! Finally realized once we got the baptismal record that we've also been spelling her name wrong this whole time! hahah oh goodness, we need help! but that doesn't matter because she got baptized!!! it was honestly such a spiritual and sacred day. i can't even put into words what it was like! we had such a cute little turnout too! president and sister sainsbury were able to make it as well! i honestly just went through the day with tears in my eyes. this is what she has been longing for and the day had finally arrived! The service went so well! Sister Donnahue spoke on baptism and then we went to the font. interestingly enough, somehow the baptismal fount was only filled about knee high...hmmmm... so that was interesting ahahh... finally on the 3rd time they just layed her on the bottom of the fount and she finally went all the way under!! not matter how many times though, it took nothing away from that special moment of her coming out of the waters of baptism. Ahhh love her so much!! while she got dried off and dressed we passed out cards to everyone for them to write her a little note, which we gave her on sunday alongside some pictures from that day and a matching ctr ring both sistah terry and I have!!! love her so much! sistah terry then gave a talk about the Holy ghost which had us all in tears, as the Holy ghost testified of the truthfulness of her words. Brother Glenn then welcomed her to the branch, which had us just engulfed in the spirit, and just wow, what a special day it was. I will never forget that day, and the feeling that makes all of this so worth it!! While we were walking out, we passed by the picture of Jesus getting baptized by John the baptist, and after looking at it for a while I asked out loud, "I wonder if Jesus had to be baptized 3 times?" we all had a good laugh about that!

have been continued to be bashed but all is well because we are steadfast in Christ, standing shoulder to shoulder with Him at every door! but i will tell yall of a fun experience sistah terry and i had last monday night. we were let into this lady's house right away which should have been a sign, but we were blinded by hope! walked in, said a couple of things and then were pounced on. i had never heard someone call my religion a cult to my face before that day, so that was interesting. also we were told we're brainwashed. honestly i just love when people tell me what i believe. they then prayed for us before we left, and we were prayed for to be blessed to not be brainwashed and be put on the right path, all while the other person was speaking in tongues! my very first experience!! it was quite interesting if i do say so myself. just thought id let yall know that that happened, and it was very interesting. "and that's all i have to say about that". - forrest gump

yall! on friday we had a follow up training with everyone that left the mtc at the same time i did and i got to see the homies!!!! ahhh it was such a good reunion with sis winter!! love that girl so much!! felt like we had never said goodbye! pretty much had a mini photo shoot in front of the temple but who cares cause i got see the homies!! ahh that was such a good day! and not because we had chick fil a on the way home but that did add to it, just sayin!

spiritual experience of the week!

Something very interesting happened yesterday. I just had this weird feeling all morning, kind of just of sadness, for what purpose I dont know. While sitting in Sacrament having tears run down my face from the Spirit, I saw a family in our branch, the glenn's, crying as well. A thought came to mind, "Why do I feel like something bad is going to happen today involving that family and us." I pushed it aside and went through our classes. After church Sister Glenn asked us if we would like to go to this awesome Nativity exhibit in Montgomery today after church. Sister Terry and I were both so excited and said yes! We set the plans and they were going to pick us up at later that afternoon. Driving home, while passing an intersection, I had another thought, "What if The glenns and us were to get in a really bad car accident?" Again pushed it aside because I was just so excited that we were going. Finally Sister terry remembered that we would need a gator or LA going as well. when she got a text from ZL's confirming it, we had to sadly text Sister Glenn, saying we couldn't go. I was so bummed and a little upset that I had gotten my hopes up, when we got a text back from Sister Glenn saying that they also wouldn't be going due to a weird prompting she had been getting all day. It was then that my thoughts went from being upset to so full of gratitude. I then recalled all the promptings I had received that day as well and was so ashamed that I didn't listen, too blinded by my own desires. We then had dinner at the Glenn's instead and was so grateful for the discussion we had at dinner talking about spiritual promptings and how important it is for us to listen. I am so grateful for Sister Terry as well, for being that obedient missionary and following the prompting given to her to ask the Zl's if we could go. I don't know what would have happened and I'll never know, but I am so grateful for those brave enough to act upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

funny moment of the week:

had our very first tornado watch! sister winter got it pretty bad in mississippi but all we had was a watch. but freaked out none the less! pretty much put all our belongings in the bathtub before we left so that was fun cleaning that out when no tornado hit alex city! but it was pretty funny the night before when we got the phone call from the zone leaders that tornadoes were hitting all over the mission, we called the wetempka sisters, who get really scared really easily about tornadoes to just check and make sure they were alright. we were talking about what if one happened right now and what would we do and in the middle of my sentence i accidentally flung the phone against the wall and it broke apart, and ended the call immediately. we could just imagine the wetempka sisters freaking out thinking we had just died or something! after putting our phone back together, we got texts all like," ARE YALL ALRIGHT?!?!" hahah it was pretty funny just scared the wetempka sisters half to death no big deal. (for tornado warnings or when one hits the mission rule is the missionaries have to put on their bicycle helmet, get into the bathtub and put their mattress over them!)

thats all for this week folks! i love yall lots and hope that yall have a blessed week!!

love,

sister kennedy

Sister Hatch (in blue) really wanted to be in the picture! hahaha

temple day + companion love

MTC roommates reunited

always laughing

these three are tight

friends forever

T's baptism day

notes from baptism day for T 

fresh out of the waters of baptism

joy filled

peanut butter ball making (a Kennedy tradition)

tornado prepping

weekly planning at it's finest

cain = bigfoot???...November 28, 2016...Week 8

hello yall!!

what.a.week!!

first things first, Techel'le did not get baptized this week due to timing issues, but its still on and is for this Saturday! Yall do not understnad how excited I am for her. her testimony is getting stronger everyday and man, she is just one of the strongest women I've ever met! and i still didn't get a picture with her but it is coming, i promise!!

so much happened i don't even know where to start! hmm lets start at zone training! so that was this week and it was so much fun! got to meet up with other missionaries and talk to people! yay! something were not used to in alex city! lol sister terry always says, "we're literally in africa" (due to how far away we are) and then elder opare, who's from africa says,"what's wrong with africa??!!" hahah good times. also, walked into the meeting with a striped dress, blue cardigan and booties and i see sister gilbert's companion, sister beck, wearing the EXACT same outfit haha and we didn't even plan it! so of course we took a picture! it was elder opare's last transfer before he went home so we tried getting pictures as cool as him, key word tried! and let's be real, did you even go to zone training if you didn't take a picture? nope so of course we took pictures! love my zone! so glad most of us are staying for this next transfer! that's right sistah terry and sis ken back at it again in ALEX City for another 6 weeks, getting baptism dates left and right! fingers crossed!

thursday was thanksgiving!! such a great day! everyone was just so kind, like more than normal, and ah the spirit of thankfulness was tangible! we went to this sweet lady, martha's house for thanksgiving and ate with people from arkansas, which was very interesting. don't let the styrofoam plate fool ya, that was the best food I've had in a while! and I'm here in the south! so we got to spend it with her and her cute grandaughter kylie and some people form arkansauce (that's how sistah terry told me to write it) and the day after that, the smiths had us and techel'le over and what a special night and time! love those people!!!!

saturday was the iron bowl and no one was on the streets or answering their doors so sistah terry and i took 5 minutes to snap a couple pictures of the empty street! but that was a fun day! went to walmart that night and everyone would just look, nod their head, and say roll tide. i loved it!!! oh and because bama won of course!! also, that day there must have been a newsletter published that day saying "lets bash the mormon church today" i guess i didn't get the memo but everyone else did. it's very interesting experience when someone screams at you that they're a christian so go away! i mean quite the experience! also when someones bashed us a little, then goes on to tell us the devil is with us and then slams the door in our face is quite the experience. i just had to run away because i was scared she would here my laughing through the door she had just closed. sistah terrry was the good missionary and just said through the door, "well i hope you have a nice day!" love that girl! i think the best one all day though was when at walmart a man proceeded to talk with us for 45 min. thinks we were 7th day adventists and just BASHED and i mean Bashed the mormon church. so imagine his surprise when we had the following conversation:

us: oh no sir were actually LDS

him: ya 7th day whatever

us: oh no actually Latter Day Saints (pointing to nametag)

him: ya whatever 7th day adventists

us: no sir, mormons

him:...

it was awesome! but i mean this was the same man that told us about how cain actually is bigfoot cause it pretty much says it in the bible right there. cursed to not be recognizable so obviously bigfoot!! showed us a picture and everything. also told us that Jesus was a zombie. So there you have it.You would think he would be a crazy old man but nope a normal father with a family standing by his side. love the south!!

had 2 meal appt on sunday!! #blessed one at the Hills home, by the way love that cute little old family and one at the smother's home with the glenn family as well. they just had a son/brother come home from the hawaii mission so that was fun being able to talk about hawaii for a bit!! such a fun night and such a great family!! felt like i was home for a bit just had that welcoming arms that you don't realize you miss.

today was our zone activity and that was kind of out there but kind of cool at the same time! we went to the place where they filmed this movie called, "Big Fish" It was so pretty with spanish moss everywhere and there were goats too so that was fun!! It was like a little ghost town super sketch but really fun too!

spiritual thought for the week! all you gotta do is go to mormon.org and check out the Light the World video on the website! Let's try our best to be the light of the world!!

last thing! funny moments if i havent mentioned them beforehand:

- made a short lil music video in our car on the way home one night singing and rocking out to hark the herald angels sing. all the way down our street and into our driveway for some 30 seconds until we noticed our neighbors were on the other side of our driveway, cause you know duplex life. it was so awkward and i loved it. we just ran into the house trying not to pee our pants. it would've been better if they just laughed too but no they just looked at us with a look like they just felt sorry for us hahahhahha

- named my chin"mcfly" as in back to the future mcfly, causing getting hard to find it due to the double chin thats coming form this southern food. "mcfly!!you in there mcfly!!" #prayformcfly

-just about ate it in walmart in front of this guy. he had to stop himself from laughing. dropped everything i was holding too. good times!

-we got Chris from the hill family to say "you guys" instead of yall it was so funny!!

-theres a park right next to our house that has been all lit up for christmas and it is so cute!!! not very funny but it did inspire us to make the music video so i blame that for our problems at the moment

-was 20 min late and showed up in pday (preparation day...their one day off each week) clothes to meet with President Sainsbury. talk about impressing the mission pres!!

miracle of the week:

sister terry and i didn't know what to do after all our appt. got cancelled and we both had a feeling to go to airport dr. so we went at like 8:30 at night, which is strange because normally people around here go to bed at like 6. but we went and sure enough there was a man working on his car in his driveway and we just knew we were suppose to talk with him. we walked up to him and proceeded to have a 40 min conversation about life, the gospel, and the book of mormon which he was SUPER open to hearing about. also told us about all the struggles he was facing at the moment and we were able to just be the person he needed to talk to and listen to everything about. it really is amazing how led we are by the spirit to talk with people. God knows us personally and will show His love through a lot of different ways and that experience was just one example!!

well got to get going!! love yall so much! keep on keepin on!

love,

sister kennedy

twinsies with sister beck

trying to be as cool as elder opare from africa

zone conference gang

thanksgiving host and her granddaughter

don't be fooled by the styrofoam plate

this is one of Kaia's favorite families. they are not members of our church

but have said since kaia is so far from home and family that they would be her family

she has so much love for this family

she got him to say 'you guys' instead of y'all!

second thanksgiving dinner on saturday with the smiths

zone activity with the goats where Big Fish was filmed

even though it was the iron bowl and NO ONE was around....

it's clear these girls think is is great to be alive