goodbye a-city, it's been real...February 21, 2017...Week 20

well first things first! tomorrow i will sadly be leaving my dear alex city. i know sad day. but i will be headed up the road to Columbiana, AL with my new comp, are yall ready??? SISTER WINTER! AHHHH!!! (one of my favorite sisters I was with in the MTC at the very beginning in Utah) This next transfer is going to be awesome!!!! I'll let you know more about our assignment next week there! but anyways back to alex city!! so since both sister willy and I (yup i know both of us :( will be leaving, we took this last week to visit and teach everyone we wanted to one last time!! 

lets catch up on Shanay!! yall she picked a bap date for March 11th!! yay!!! and how did she tell us?? by coming to church!! like yes!! best Sunday EVER!!!!  she is so prepared and has worked hard to get to this point. her faith and the way she acts upon it is so inspiring to me every time we meet!!! I'm heartbroken that i won't be here to see her be baptized and see what this journey has been leading up to but i know that she will be left in good hands!

we got to spend a lot of time with Brenda this week as she is back home from her trip! yay!! i missed her! We played apples to apples (and we found a card that said baptism . Like what?? a sign?? what??) and had key lime cake! It was a great night!! i just love her so much and love her testimony of the Book of Mormon. She is still trying to connect the dots of what that means for her but i know when she does, I will somehow be there at her baptism! Whether in spirit or in person I will find a way!! haha

This past Saturday we taught a lesson in spanish to a part member family and it went so well!! We had our broken spanish and they had their broken english and their son Eddie translating a little here and there for us, because he's only 10 and has a harder time with the gospel lingo, and we got through a lesson! Although it was  a little hard at times, the spirit was so strong and you could not deny that what they were saying and what we were saying about how we feel about this knowledge about the gospel is so true! Ahh yall there is no boundaries for the Spirit and I am sooo grateful for that!!!

we got to see some of our favorite kids and ride bikes with them this past week! The more we rode, the more kids we got riding with us!! We were soon having races around the block and us two old peeps were the judges cause didn't feel like riding up the big hill towards the finish line! haha! and we looked soo cool as the only ones with helmets aww ya! especially when mine is two sizes too small and just sits on the top of my head! haha

Made prayer beads with Martha! That was fun!! and was able to say goodbye to Shell. These goodbyes yall are something else. im already over them and its only my first area. Also had the best time with the Glenn's yesterday making Cauliflower Tortillas (paleo) and then having dinner with the whole family! Ahh love those people sooo much!!! Alex City will be a hard place to leave but I cant wait to come back and show my family everyone that I love!!

Well I hope yall have a blessed week! That's all folks, one last time in Alex City.

Love,

Sister Kennedy

"all creatures of our God and King"...that's what i sing when i think of you!...February 13, 2017...Week 19

Hello Hello Hello!!

this week has been so good! First of all I'll start with yesterday because it was just full of miracles left and right!! So we went to church and we were expecting Shanay, our investigator that is praying about a baptism date, to come yesterday, finally after so long of trying! Well we waited outside our cute little church building and waited and waited, and she didn't come. It was quite sad having to sit in the pew by ourselves when out of the blue a member that we have been meeting with walked in through the door!! She hasn't been to church in over a year so to see her walk in the door was a miracle in itself! Sis Willy and I hopped up with the biggest smiles on our faces and ran across the walkway to sit with her! While Sacrament Meeting was getting started, a family with 5 kids walked in through the door that we have been trying to get back into church! AND THEN a brand new family with 4 kids walked in right after them!! I was scared we wouldn't have enough room in the chapel. hahah Everyone had to move around so we could all fit! Like what??? BEST feeling ever to have a full chapel!! Well turns out that family with the 4 kids are the Clarks, a family who moved into our area, but we had no way of contacting them. So for them to walk in was just ahhh! A miracle! And that day we had a linger longer and so both families were able to stay after wards and really get to know and bond with the branch members! Like it couldn't be more perfect!! AND THEN Shanay wanted to meet after church and so we did, and at that lesson she told us of how her prayer was answered when she attended her church, that it was okay to come to our church and to make that change. God is so good yall! He is so aware of us and the things that will truly bless us in our lives! She is still praying for a baptism date but has it down to 2 alternate dates. We are just so excited for her!!

This week we had interview with President in the most middle of nowhere town called Clanton. It was so nice and afterwards Sis Willy and I went to the cutest little Ice Cream place EVER! So apparently Clanton is known for it's peaches and yall we had the best ice cream ever!! Sis Willy had Peach Ice cream and I had an Peach Sundae with cream Cheese Ice Cream. Sounds like the weirdest junk but it was soooo good. trying to find any excuse to go back out to that middle of Nowhere town just to have that! hahah

I am truly gaining a testimony about planting seeds! Or in other words when Missionaries have contact with people and they don't know why but just feel good talking to them, but they can't put their finger on it until later, when we teach them about the Restoration.( Did that make sense?? oh well) well we were tracting the other day and a lady let us right in to have her husband come out and talk about how "the boys" aka the elders used to play basketball. they never pushed religion on him too much but just enough to plant that seed. Well we were able to have a great discussion and teach his whole family about the BOM! i can't wait to go back there and teach them about how this gospel can truly bless their lives!! All because they used to play basketball with him!

Well folks, i have big news! I chopped off all my hair! jusst kidding but actually Sis Willy did! Brave soul that one is! But funny story about it! It was long enough to donate and so the lady asked us if we would like to and sis willy said yes. Well the lady put it on the counter and continued to do her hair. Well at the end, for some reason she thought we would want to send it in personally and so as we were leaving, she handed us a sticky note with an address on it and the ponytail of cut off hair. Not in a zip lock bag or anything just this chunk of hair! Well we had somewhere to be afterwards and couldn't bring it home and so we put it in our cup holder in our car. And we have just been so busy that it is still there at this moment. Okay next thing! hahah

well we've started collecting funny quotes from the week and so here are some of the following:

- Sis Willy singing/ talking to me, "All creatures of of God and King.... /that's what a sing when i think of you." hahah

- The Hills E:" I knew this lady once ...and she was very nice and........." B:" Was that all??" E:" Yup that was my story" B: "That was a great Story honey."

- talking about missionary work in sunday school - Sis Willy "Is it appropriate to fist pump in Sunday School? Cause I've done it about 3 times now"

Coolest thing of the Week:

Played Capture the Flag for our Zone Activity... in a BAMBOO FORREST! like how cool is that! Man I love it here! P.s. the girls won, probs casue we dressed super cool and coordinated in wearing all black!

Scripture of the Week:
It's taken from Alma, a prophet who was also a missionary spreading the gospel and bringing others closer to Christ throughout the land and he says: 
35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name. 
 36 Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.
 37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

And I just want to add my testimony to that as well. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ can truly bring us joy, especially sharing it with others. We have this great knowledge of the goodness of God, so why not share it with others? I am grateful for every single day on my mission to have this opportunity to do so. 

Well that's all i have for today, trying to think of all the funny moments ive had with sis willy but my mind is dumb and cant remember all of them! hopefully next week i'll be better! I hope yall have a blessed week!

Love,

sister kennedy

Best peach ice cream ever!

Sister Willy and her peach ice cream cone and cute new haircut! 

This is our chapel in Alex City where we meet on Sundays and the seminary students meet before school each morning. 

Pretty sunset.

Still trying to eat healthy!

National Pizza Day! hahaha

Zone Activity in the bamboo forest!

Only in the South! Love this place. 

i had a pet squirrel...February 6, 2017...week 18

Well Folks! 

This week was a fun one! Let's just start off by saying that we went to a bible study at a baptist church this week! They were very kind and welcoming but I'm a little nervous the lady that brought us is actually trying to convert us haha! but when she introduced us she said we were from the Church of Christ and Sis Willy and I both didnt say anything but just straight faced shook our heads no (cause you know felt a little uncomfortable anyways). And so when she saw that she was like "the Mormon Church" and everyone went ohhhh and we were just like yup, that just happened. But we had a very nice time and the sermon was very nice. 

We have been teaching a couple of girls our age and they are doing so well!! loving the book of mormon and it's precepts or principles i guess! i love in the introduction Joseph Smith says,  “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” And I just love that!! How True is that statement! I see it in use every time I read, every time I see others reading and APPLYING it in their lives!! Ahhh the BOM is just so great yall!!

did yall know it was groundhog day this past week?? cause we didn't! but while we were at the Hills home we found out and so like any other person we asked! Is it gonna stay winter or be spring? To which Bill responded, "honey dont listen to that lame oversized rat! look at your calendar! That had us dying as always!!

we had zone conference this past week and it was so good! i love our mission president and his wife! They are just so real and are such great leaders and i love being on of their missionaries! Sis Willy and I actually performed and sang the same song we sang on sunday! killed 2 birds with 1 stone i guess! haha so that was nice! and plus we won cleanest car!! so got some cool prizes all because we through everything in our back trunk into 3 huge boxes and closed them! if only they looked in those boxes!

Found the best taco place in the South the other day while we were in Birmingham! I felt a little too lame to be there. you know what i mean? like your just not cool enough to be in that place? well thats how we felt! So we just pretended we were rockstars and ate these awesome tacos and enjoyed every second of it cause lets be real, you arent finding the most authentic mexican food around here. SO that was nice!!

okay are yall ready for this one?? we visited Gene and Marianne again and he graced us with the following story! Looks us dead in the eye is quiet for a bit and then says, " I had a pet squirrel. I kept in my pocket. I would feed him peanuts and just put them in my pocket and he would eat them." at this point I already have tears rolling down my face, trying to drink the soda to cover ups my laughs. "One day I forgot i put matches in my pocket and i look down and i saw smoke. My pet squirrel had eatin the top of the match and struck. that pet squirrel ran up my shoulder and its whiskers had burned off." He then proceeded to show us which ones on his face. Yall these are the best moments of my life right here!!!

Met this dude and he told us about this vision he had where in the midst of him laying on the ground, having this vision, "an owl as big as that trashcan *points to the garbage can on the side of the road* flew down, looked at me and then flew away. Im not kidding yall, it was the owl of OWLS" his then friend then started nodding his head while saying "yup thats true" true story.

Sis Willy and i found these awesome onsies at walmart for 5 bucks! So of course we got them!! she got a panda one and i got an Eeyore one! i swear yall we wear them every chance we get! Get up in the morning, put on the onesie. Come home for the night, put on our onesies. Come home for 30 min for lunch, put on our onesies. Yall they have hoods and everything!! Were in Love!!

Best Signs Of the Week on the side of the road:

One Call Yall! (for an attorney)

Come Worship! *new screen appears* JESUS. (like okay will do thank you for that gentle reminder)

FALL.... in love with Jesus (uhhh okay?? that one was weird...like sentence structure and even the sentence and all)

We've been asked to memorize scriptures and this is the one im working on~ In 2 Nephi 27:23 - For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

In the bible dictionary it says "Miracles should not be regarded as deviations from the ordinary course of nature so much as manifestations of divine or spiritual power." Miracles are supposed to be hoped for. They are something when acting upon our faith, should be watched for. That is something Sis Willy and I are trying to do. At the end of the day we ask each other, "What's a miracle you've seen today?" I invite yall to do the same and then thank our Heavenly father for giving us that miracle! I know that as we do see and increase our faith in miracles, He will be happy to give us more and more! 

I love yall and hope that yall have a blessed and miracle filled week!

love

sis ken

Zone Conference

Our Onesies

Best Mexican Restaurant

My companion Sister Willy and dessert

"you need to go home and repent to Jesus for telling stories"...January 30, 2017....week 17

This week has been an interesting one!! On Monday we made biscuits with Gene and Mariane! The funniest people I have ever met! we are teaching them right now and they LOVE the book of mormon! yay!! but along with making awesome food we get to hear the funniest stories ever from Gene. stories that i'll tell a little later. but that night I took one for the team and ate like 10 biscuits, you're welcome sis willy!

that night we stopped by a member's house just to share a quick verse before heading home for the night and when she wasn't there we asked if we could share one with her son, he's like in his 20's btw, who opened the door. he said yes and we discussed Mosiah 4:11, i think the verse i shared with y'all last week and talked about how knowledge can bring joy into our lives. well her son, cody, doesn't live there and so we thought that was that. but that next day we got a text from Denise, the member asking if we could come back over and teach her son about the Book of Mormon. He and his friend were really interested and wanted to know more and so of course we went back that night! It was such an amazing first lesson and intro to the BOM. You could just tell that they had such true desires to come closer to their Savior and start down the path that He wants them to walk down. So prepared!! It was such a great experience because we were able to testify that everything they wanted to do could be done by reading the BOM. We are continuing to teach them and i'll let y'all know how it goes!!

i don't know if I told y'all about Miss Fanny but we've been teaching her for a while and she loves the BOM! hasn't quite made the connection between it being true and the church being true but SHE CAME TO CHURCH Y'ALL!!! she came to Sacrament and loved it!! she said she felt such a peace there and thought that it was quite nice! oh did i mention that she is 79 years old?? just shows how awesome she really is! Sister willy and i did a music number in Sacrament and so she was able to see that as well and liked it too! yay! ahhh love her!! i don't know, but the love you have on the mission for other people is not your own. I mean it is, but there is just no way that I can have all this love inside of me but i do and i don't ever want it to go away!

We had a game night with Brenda at the Smith's home with the Smothers and it was such a fun night! Sis Willy and I taught them how to play apples to apples and i won! weird i never win but i did and everyone hated me for it hahah but that's alright i forgive them. i'd be mad at the winner too ..but ended the night by sharing our favorite scripture and the spirit just filled the room, just confirming to me that the scriptures are our tools on this earth to get through this life. they are just so awe-inspiring. (we've been asked to not use the word awesome so there is my attempt at using new words)

funny story time!!

Brought to you by Gene:

          - when he was young he would go to the bar and this hippy would always sit down next to him with his pet pig. like a huge pig or hog idk but Gene said it was pretty big . and what gene and everyone at the bar would do would buy a drink for the pig and THEN one for the hippy too!! Like specifically in that order! Sis willy and i were dying as he was explaining how the pig would hold the drink in his mouth and chug it all down at once!!

           - still in his younger years he was going into the country with his friends to hang out with some girls and as they were driving home in his convertible he ran out of gas. well he left his friends to go find the nearest home and as he was walking he kept seeing all these mean looking cats and when he finally found a house, the man told him to sleep on the porch until morning and so thats what gene did. when he and the man walked back to his car he was surprised to not find his friends anywhere... he then heard a noise in the trunk and soon found his friends shoved in there trying to sleep through the night without cats climbing all over them hahah like what???

            - gene came home one day to find that Mariane had sold his ATV for a parrot that could talk. he went inside to say hi to this new bird that cost a lot of money and said "Hi Champ". the parrot, previously owned by a grouchy old lady said, "I Dont like you!" hahah i'll send A VIDEO of Gene telling it one of these days! Cause that's the best part of spending time with them! they just repeat the same stories over and over!

my funny stories:

     - met a dude with the sickest metal dragon necklace of my life. it was epic!! i should write a book titled, "its the dude with the dragon necklace!" ehh someone might've already taken it... maybe one day!

   - Brother Smith was trying to get me to eat some turnip greens and Sister Smith said, "Ya that would be a good thing to eat, if you wanna DIE!" if you couldn't tell she hates them too haha

  - i had a little boy tell me that i looked "27 and from Canada"...."Eh??"

  - the same boy thought that in Utah you spoke a different language hahah so he kept asking sis willy, "so what language so you speak there?"

  -Sis Willy has been driving around to get to know the area and well lets just say she doesn't know it quite yet! Well at the Hills home when telling this to them, Bill, yes his name is Bill Hill, said, "Well Sister Kennedy, you just tell Sister Willy that she is a great driver and that she is driving just fine!... and then you need to go home and repent to Jesus for telling Stories!" (telling stories= lying) that had us dying!!

Well I hope that y'all have a blessed week! Alma 17:10 - And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with His Spirit, and said unto them, Be Comforted. And they were comforted."

Love

Sister Kennedy

First companion picture with Sister Willy

Companion hair play!

Celebrating being on the mission for 4 Months!

My new companion cute Sister Willy

My study area all decorated.

Cute Camryn

Miss Fanny came to church!

Decorated Preach My Gospel book

The sunset and your typical methodist church.

"little did they know that His daddy was a boss!"...January 23, 2017....Week 16

what up my homies!

We've been roughin' it this past week in our bathtub for all y'all that didn't know due to some pretty bad storms that came our way! just kidding we only had to be in the tub once, but i will tell you sitting there with your stupid bike helmet on and a mattress over you only makes you want to be there once, scratch that never. it was quite uncomfortable and when i went to sit up and move around having to deal with this heavy mattress above us, me being sis ken, turned on the water faucet. so now we're screaming cause of the sirens AND the water that is now pouring on us! it was pretty comical if i do say so myself! so that was fun!

It continued to be pretty stormy which caused us to have to stay inside most of the days we were in town and i'll admit it was quite frustrating because we just wanted to WORK! ya know what i mean? but that's alright cause this next week is going to be awesome full of people so prepared to hear the gospel! alex city isn't gonna know what hit them and im not talking bout a tornado but sis ken and sis willy teaching the gospel left and right! okay pep talk over back to what happened this past week!

we had a zone training in prattville this week and that was fun! got to see my girl sister gilbert! took a trip down memory lane to when we were just wee babes in the MTC lol get it?? (see picture below) after that we had an exchange with our stl's (sister training leaders) in millbrook and i got to spend the rest of the day with Sister Chavez! i love her! she's from southern ca and loves free people so i mean of course i would love her! she's new to the area so we didn't always know what we were doing but it was fun! like trying to visit a less active member and realizing they are an active member in church whose husband and sons were at scouts hahah, that was pretty funny! that night, sister chavez showed us a video of a young boy in birmingham rapping about Jesus and the favorite line of the whole thing was him saying. "little did they know that His daddy was a boss." like you just can't make this stuff up! ahh i love the south! and i love our stls! it was a fun exchange!!

we had dinner at the hills and ahh i just love them! they fed us fried catfish, hush puppies and french fries! one my fav dinners out here by far!! 

sister willy taught me how to chuck whip cream in the air and catch it in your mouth and it was so awesome! it only took me 6 times to finally get it but im a pro now and will be willing to show you anytime. we then tried passing it to each other and i may or may not have thrown it too hard and it may or may not have gotten stuck on our ceiling but anywaysssss

do y'all remember Brenda?? well i hope so because she is so amazing! she has been reading the book of mormon like a champ and i can see the light that she's longed for come from that reading! when sistah terry and i were teaching her we asked her why she wanted to read the book of mormon and she expressed the happiness she saw in us and knew that it came from the BOM and wanted that too and she has gotten it! i can see her eyes are filled with hope and happiness and ahh the BOM is so powerful and can literally bring so much goodness into one's life! also, SHE CAME TO CHURCH yayayay!! it was a special day and i was so proud of the courage that she had to come! ahh i just love her so much!!

funny stories:

- in bathtub with sirens going off and i couldn't help but ask "do you think the mail will still come today? i hope so!"

- got cops called on our parking job!! at a gators house and the door gets knocked on and our gator is all like "WHOS IS IT?" and i thought they replied "LEASH!" and she was all like "WHO?!" and then they opened the door to the police. yup. and it was cause our car was on some dudes grass. oops. so then we went and apologized to the dude and next thing you know we have a appt scheduled to meet up with him this week and teach him about the gospel. God works in mysterious ways folks.

- little tid bit from last week that i forgot! sistah terry and i went to a member's home and got to listen to Elvis Presley Gospel music on the record machine! it was pretty legit!!

well that's been my week! had to give a talk this week in sacrament and based it off this little line from the BOM it says, "Understand with your hearts, and be converted, and be Healed" if we truly understand the Atonement and how it works for us, we will be converted to do the God's will and will be healed. I love this scripture that explains it perfectly! In Mosiah 4:11-12 it says, 

" 11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. 12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true."

I hope that y'all have a blessed and safe week!

love,

sister kennedy 

tornado warning...in bathtub with bike helmet and mattress!

With Sister Gilbert as remembering us as wee babes in the MTC!

Fried catfish, hush puppies and french fries dinner with the Hill Family

Gospel Elvis Presley

My motto everyday!