all i need is a little bit of blue bell and WHOLE lot of Jesus...January 17th...week 15

hello everyone!!

this week was transfers and so I had to say goodbye to my beloved sistah terry but said hello to sister willy! actually her name is sister willardson but no one can pronounce it so we all just call her sister willy! I love her! She can just about quote every movie she's ever seen so we get along quite well!!

But back to when my girl Sistah Terry was here! On Monday we went to the Blue Bell Factory with Sister Jones and ahhh so awesome! For all of yall who don't know what Blue bell is, it's like the best ice cream ever and it's like only in the south! Everyone and their mother LOVE blue bell! I've seen towels at people's homes that say "all i need is a little bit of blue bell and a whole lot of Jesus" Like blue bell is religion here! So we went there in a town im not even going to try to spell but it was fun and i got a comfort color blue bell shirt and if you know the south, that's southern right there! i love it!

Tuesday we just went around saying goodbye to all our fav people before Sistah Terry had to go and it really opened my eyes to when one day I will have to say goodbye to cute little Alex City and I am NOT ready for that! so grateful that i get to be here a little longer and serve around these wonderful people that much more!

Sister Willardson and I have been doing a lot of tracting and we felt as if we needed to be on this one road by the church. We had been super bashed on it and I was scared to go back but we knew it was because there was a family we needed to find! So we went house to house and everyone just told us to go away and we were like, "not today satan!" so we kept tracting and we found the cutest family ever that only speaks spanish and in our broken spanish and their broken english we talked to them for quite a bit, just standing on their porch and the whole family in the doorframe. And it sounds crazy but Sister Willy and I both had this undeniable impression that this was the family that we were suppose to meet and that we will teach them one day! So we are now in the process of learning spanish! Wish us luck and pray for us!

Our zone is trying to be healthy and so now we are doing the Paleo diet, or the caveman diet and Sister Willy and I are dying but yet doing great at the same time. Apparently we try to stay away from carbs too, so yay! ps that was a sarcastic yay but i am excited to see what happens!

Had a Family Home evening at the Smith's home with Brenda and we watched the Restoration video and it was amazing! the spirit was so strong and powerful and ahh! I just love being a missionary! and we also had pound cake! In which we found out that it is called that because there is a pound of sugar in it a pound of butter in it and so on and so on. Did yall know that? Because we didn't! We think that it's probably not in the Paleo diet food list hahah

Funny Story Time!!

Met someone yesterday who tried to convince us that the Queen Elizabeth and everyone that is in "power" is actually descendants of the angels that followed satan. and in the middle of this huge long story he stops and says, "group hug" and just hugs both of us. Sister Willy and I were just like Huh? but he was already awkwardly hugging us and we just got out of it as fast as we could. and then he continued on about how God and Jesus are more than just 2 and they're actually a they meaning plural and on and on and on. It was awesome! 

Gave cute little kids stickers and as they were riding away on their scooters they were yelling, "Run away from the PoPo! Run away from the PoPo!" hahah

Sister Willy almost fell in a ditch while backing me out of the Smith's driveway! Always a good time backing people up! Because remember the dead possum?? yay me too!

Ate some pizza and then found out pizza is a carb. Oops! Guess that's not part of our diet hahah

Well that's all folks! Just keeping it real here in Alex City! Ps  we check our mailbox everyday so ya just gonna throw that in there! But anyways I hope that yall have a blessed week!

(her address is: Sister Kaia Kennedy, 1508b Stonehenge Dr., Alexander City, AL 35010)

Love,

Sister Kennedy

Saying Good-bye to Sistah Terry

Last District Meeting Before Transfers

Blue Bell Ice Cream

those crazy mormons...January 9th, 2017...week 14

He Yall! Time is short today so Im gonna make it a quick email!

First things first! Our awesome emmaus experience! Which is another phrase for saying like a super spiritual and crazy out of the blue experience. It references to the Road to Emmaus story in the scriptures when Christ is walking with His disciples after he is resurrected and they don't even know it. So it pretty much is the same for us as well. It's an experience where Christ is walking with us and we don't realize it until the miracle happens! So here it is! WE had an emmaus experience which started in tracting in 30 degree weather! We were going to go to quite a few different Follow Ups but for some reason just kept driving. We finally parked on a street we had never found before and got out and started walking. We just kept walking and walking past houses, for some odd reason, when we finally came to the very last house on the end of the street. We then decided to walk down their super long driveway and which we saw people watching us through the windows. It was a little bit awkward I must admit. So when the man opened the door very quickly, we thought he was going to tell us to go away "leave you crazy mormons", but instead welcomed us in with open arms, helping us to get out of this cold weather! We then proceeded to talk to him and his wife for a bit, and when the time came to introduce the Book of Mormon, the spirit was already SO strong! Sistah Terry and I both bore testimony of it truthfulness and the happiness that it brings, and the spirit was just tangible! I have never felt the spirit so strongly when bearing my testimony before. you just know it was testifying to them of the truthfulness of our words. They gladly accepted the BOM and are going to read it every night together and pray about it to see if they can find that same happiness! And I KNOW they will get an answer if they do this! Sistah Terry and I had no idea why we kept driving or walking past so many houses but we know that we were being led by the Spirit and that Christ was walking side by side with us! Such a cool experience! Ill keep you updated on how they are doing!!

We got our transfer calls this past Saturday annnnnnnnnnd I will be staying in Alex City for another transfer! Yay!!! But sadly my beloved Sistah Terry will be leaving me to go to the opposite side of the mission in Corinth, Mississippi/ Tennessee! Craziness! I will miss her so much! She's been here so long I feel like Alex City won't be Alex City without Sistah Terry preaching the gospel here but all is well cause Im super pumped for my new companion!

We were able to rake a lady's yard this week! Ohh by the way it got down to 17 degrees this week so just a little cold! Plus humidity no big deal, I just froze the whole week! But thankfully the day we did this is was in the 40's so all is well! But we thought it would take only a short while like an hour or so but then 3 hours later we had only done half of it! hahah and by that time a landscaping business had pulled up, done the neighbor's yard and left, but not before handing us their card so we wouldn't have to "work as hard as we were then". So were definitely calling them and asking if they would like to learn about the gospel! wish us luck!!

Okay! Quick funny Story!

Almost pee'd my pants in the Walmart parking lot! Sistah Terry was making me laugh so hard! And i just about sat down in the parking lot but all is well, I kept my cool and made it safely to the bathroom, but we just know people were watching us like "those crazy mormons..." but it's okay cause there were only like 5 people there cause the whole town pretty much shut DOWN for a little cold weather and possible snow. haha i love this place!

P.S. had the BEST CHICKEN FINGERS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE this week! at Jim Bob's Chicken Fingers! That's right folks, the most southern restaurant you've heard of but man it is so good!! Can't wait to take my family there one day!

okay well have to go! Probs do some catch up next week! but talk to yall then!

Have a blessed week!

love

sister kennedy

Last Sunday together with Sistah Terry. 

Last time together as a District. 

Ready to rake leaves for hours upon hours!

Best chicken fingers EVER! 

(April here...I love that she is already planning on where she will 

take us when we go back to visit where she served her mission!)

Best Trio with Shell!

The children (plus some friends) of a family we are teaching.

Our women's group at church (Relief Society). 

The Harvells!

The Glenn Family!!

(April again... we have become friends with this family on facebook.

It is so fun to have a connection to where Kaia is. Cody updates us on

Tornado watchings and checks in on Kaia and then lets us know she is Ok!)

"at least be something good, like a tornado or something"...January 3, 2017....weeks 12 & 13

hello everyone! 

so much has passed and yet so little time to write it all! 

Christmas was so good!! Well even the day before! Christmas eve was such a special day! The Spirit of CHRISTmas was everywhere and I loved it! It just filled the air! There's something special about the south folks! Well, we decided to go store contacting and hand out little cards to all the workers, thanking them for working on that day and that was so much fun! Seeing people's face light up just makes my day that much brighter!!

We then had Christmas Eve dinner with Sister Jones and her husband, and his sister! It was a nice evening filled with cheese fondue and laughs!! I just felt so at home when after dinner we all went and sat on the couches around the Christmas tree and started opening presents. Sister Jones even got us some fuzzy socks!! blessed cause we have only tile floors in our apt, but it was a nice evening and when we got back to our apt. sistah terry and I had a nice night filled with stories from the nativity! i loved it!!

Like I said, Christmas was sooo good! We woke up and had our own little Christmas morning with presents, hot chocolate, Michael Buble gospel centered Christmas music, and lots of whipped cream!! It was amazing! And what better way to celebrate Christmas then by going to church! It was such a  special day! the Smiths gave the talks and they were ah-mazing! really just focused on the Savior and what a gift He is in our lives. Oh and i also sang What Child is this with Sister Glenn playing the piano! Love her! very random and not like me but I did it so theres that! And afterwards we saw one of our fav family the Hills!! And gave them their Christmas presents and all! We got Earline some fuzzy Christmas socks and reindeer pjs! She loved them and put the socks on right away! 

We then got to Skype our families! That's right! I got to skype the fam!! it was so nice and so good to hear their voices and was just the boost I needed!!  We then had dinner at the Glenn's and played Heads Up the rest of the night! It was such a good day filled with love, family, and Christ!

Still mad at ourselves for not getting one picture that day of sistah terry and I but oh well maybe we'll dress up again and no one will ever know.... but ugh still disappointed in ourselves, its whatever, im over it, obviously.

The day after Christmas we had our Zone activity where we had a white elephant game, a potluck lunch and went bowling! It was a ton of fun! I won a reindeer ring toss game and sistah terry won a fanny pack! made our hearts happy!

New years eve was poppin! We had to be in early and we played all sorts of games! shout out to sistah terry's mom for sending like a billion games for us to play that night! and then we made cheese fondue! shout out to sister jones and sister smith for the recipes!! and had some martinellis and went to bed before midnight! It was a fun night though!

We started the New Year off ion the best way possible! by partaking of the Sacrament at church! i mean how much better can it get!  a fresh clean start! Also the mission pre, President Sainsbury and Sister Sainsbury spoke in our branch and that was so nice! Our piano player was out of town and luckily sister Sainsbury was there to fill her spot or we would've been left with me trying to play "Israel, Israel, God is Calling." right hand only for all 3 songs hahah. so blessed that they were there! 

But sister Sainsbury's talk was so good! It was all about new beginnings & these are some of the things that she said, that I just LOVED!

 -New Year. Same Dreams. Fresh Start.

 - 2 Corinthians 5: 17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We can become New in Christ everyday THROUGH His Atonement! Like in 3rd Nephi 9:18 when Christ says, " I am the Light and the Life of the world. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Christ has always been and will always be our new beginning. Let us make that our New Years resolution to have Him be our new beginning into this new year!

I hope y'all have a wonderful 2017 and I'll see ya next year! Just kidding! but i do hope it's wonderful for y'all!

Random Things That have happened!

- Hit my 3 month mark, weird but it happens, only 10 more years to go! just kidding!!

- this is my blackout year! Which means i'll be on my mission for the whole year of 2017, even weirder!

 - yesterday we were in the house all afternoon due to some really bad weather. our weather radio kept going off and it was only for flooding. like come on, at least be for something good if your gonna scare us like that! but ya tornadoes were suppose to hit and they didn't... so blessed!!! 

talk to y'all in a week!

love,

sister kennedy

We got to talk to Kaia on Christmas morning! Her and Sister Terry opened all their gifts from family and then Kaia said they sat there thinking what a chrismtas morning they had just had AND then remembered there was one more big box from us with presents in it she had put somewhere else...so they did round 2 of opening presents! (April)

The night before Christmas! 

Out delivering cards to the Walmart workers on Christmas Eve. 

More from Christmas morning and the infamous aftermath photo!

Zone Conference white elephant gift exchange and bowling party!

I LOVE that Kaia and Sister Terry had cheese fondue for New Year's Eve (again). Dave and I sat quietly at home on NYE's eating our own cheese fondue and we had no idea that Kaia was doing the very same thing that evening! Loved that.

Game night!