Week 35
It seems crazy that all that has happened this week has happened only in 7 days! This week I went on an exchange with Sister Hemming in Kielce! Kielce is, first of all, the cutest city/town ever!! I really hope that I get to serve there one day! And Sister Hemming is absolutely amazing too! I totally felt like the dream team with her! If you ever need to open up a new area of something, Sister Hemming and I would gladly volunteer to do that together! haha But anyways, I am so grateful for the many lessons I learned on that exchange. I left for the exchange a little nervous because it was my first exchange being the Sister Training Leader! And once again I was very humbled and felt like I had no clue what I was doing and even thought "are You sure You knew what You were doing when You asked me to be in this assignment, Lord?"But once again, strengthened was my testimony that God hears and answers our prayers and that He qualifies His servants. I decided to just work as I would work were I in my own preaching area! And it turns out that she ended up learning a lot...I know that the Spirit was teaching her and not me! We learned on the exchange that the best way to be successful is to be happy! If you're having a miserable time and stressing out, you're not going to be successful! It's the happiest missionaries that are enjoying their missions from whom people see a certain joyful light while talking. When we're stressing out like crazy people and running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we can't have the Spirit with us. I have found that to be true in my mission. Preach My Gospel [book missionaries study to help them teach the gospel] says that patience is enduring and waiting calmly. When I am calm, I am giving the Spirit time to speak to me and I can notice His promptings. Another lesson that I learned is that the best way to be an example, is not by being perfect, but by being yourself and continually trying to improve YOURSELF! Becoming the best version of yourself...not being the "picture perfect missionary". I have found that finding joy in the journey allows me to love my mission and love those around me so much easier! All in all, the exchange with Sister Hemming was a huge success and I am so grateful to have been able to learn from her.
Miracle of the week...for me. I don't think that anyone else besides me would really consider this a miracle, but to me, it is. Contacting has never really been my favorite thing. I have always thought it's really nerve wracking and that I need to pump myself up before I go talking to these random people on the street about Jesus Christ. But the Lord knows my weaknesses and has turned them into a strength! White washing = a lot of finding = talking to EVERYONE.... the Lord knew that one of my weaknesses was liking contacting, and in His great goodness, He this past week turned it into a strength! All of a sudden, I LOVE talking to random people on the street! I love learning their stories and I LOVE testifying about this true gospel! My testimony has become so much more valuable to me as I have been sharing it WILLINGLY with more and more people! I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's all-knowing-ness and His awareness of me and my need to really enjoy contacting.
Daniel (the Elders' investigator here) got baptized on Saturday!! It was so amazing and the Spirit was SOOO strong!! It was so awesome because 5 nonmembers came to his baptism! one of them was a mom Asia and her son Wojtek! They are so amazing and i KNOW they felt the Spirit so strongly during the entire service! I could see it! It was so amazing because there was a moment when I felt prompted to ask her to read part of 3 Nephi 11 where Christ Himself talks about the proper performance of baptism. I gave her my Book of Mormon to read and read she did! WAY past what I suggested!! Her little 10 year old son was also super interested in the baptism and I KNOW that they are going to be baptized one day! ...we hope even for in the next transfer! :) Never say never!!
Funny moment of the week: In our missionary planners, we have a back up plan section. Back up plans are sooo important! Mostly when you have meetings set up. But when you don't have meetings set up and are planning to talking to people in your path on the way to someone's house, there aren't too many back up plans that would be super effective.. and so was the case one of the days this week. Sister King and I were laughing so hard when we looked at our plans to contact on the way to a person's house and I said, "well....if that part of the city blows up --" "We'll give service!!"! I don't know why that seemed so absolutely hysterical in the moment, but we were just dying laughing at the thought that the only thing that would stop us from walking on the street would be if the city blew up! hahaha
Anyways, love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Blake
Karen, Kendall's mom here. Here is a note Kendall wrote our family this week and I wanted to include because it is so raw and from the heart:
I feel like I say the same thing in almost every email! But just know that when i get back in 9 months (CRAZY!!! this Wednesday is officially the half way point! I can't believe it!) I'll be able to sit down and have a nice 3 day long chat by the fire with all of you about all the amazing things I've seen and learned! This gospel is true!! It's silly to think I'd give up a year and a half of my fantastic life to this cause if it were not true! If you trust me, trust my sincerity when I say with the fullness of my heart that Jesus Christ established a church and it has been restored!! Why else would I be tromping around freezing in Poland?! I WOULDN'T! I do it because I know that what I preach and teach is NOT a lie! We don't even understand how much happiness Heavenly Father will cause us to feel! If you find yourself saying "ya, I'm content, I don't need to change, I'm a good enough person", then you are selling yourself short! From the very depths of my soul I express my love for each of you and for my Savior, who I will never turn my back on nor ignore His outstretched hand. He's Always there! Even when it seems too late! I've experienced this, and I know it's true.
Prayed for me to open up to a scripture that would be good to include with this email, and opened up to this..so I'm following the prompting and including it: Mosiah 4:30 ....although I highly recommend reading chapters 2-4 in Mosiah cause they're some of my favorite :)
p.s. I'm going to Auschwitz next Monday and am not sure if i'll be able to email next week.... so if you don't hear from me, I'm okay! :)
It seems crazy that all that has happened this week has happened only in 7 days! This week I went on an exchange with Sister Hemming in Kielce! Kielce is, first of all, the cutest city/town ever!! I really hope that I get to serve there one day! And Sister Hemming is absolutely amazing too! I totally felt like the dream team with her! If you ever need to open up a new area of something, Sister Hemming and I would gladly volunteer to do that together! haha But anyways, I am so grateful for the many lessons I learned on that exchange. I left for the exchange a little nervous because it was my first exchange being the Sister Training Leader! And once again I was very humbled and felt like I had no clue what I was doing and even thought "are You sure You knew what You were doing when You asked me to be in this assignment, Lord?"But once again, strengthened was my testimony that God hears and answers our prayers and that He qualifies His servants. I decided to just work as I would work were I in my own preaching area! And it turns out that she ended up learning a lot...I know that the Spirit was teaching her and not me! We learned on the exchange that the best way to be successful is to be happy! If you're having a miserable time and stressing out, you're not going to be successful! It's the happiest missionaries that are enjoying their missions from whom people see a certain joyful light while talking. When we're stressing out like crazy people and running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we can't have the Spirit with us. I have found that to be true in my mission. Preach My Gospel [book missionaries study to help them teach the gospel] says that patience is enduring and waiting calmly. When I am calm, I am giving the Spirit time to speak to me and I can notice His promptings. Another lesson that I learned is that the best way to be an example, is not by being perfect, but by being yourself and continually trying to improve YOURSELF! Becoming the best version of yourself...not being the "picture perfect missionary". I have found that finding joy in the journey allows me to love my mission and love those around me so much easier! All in all, the exchange with Sister Hemming was a huge success and I am so grateful to have been able to learn from her.
Miracle of the week...for me. I don't think that anyone else besides me would really consider this a miracle, but to me, it is. Contacting has never really been my favorite thing. I have always thought it's really nerve wracking and that I need to pump myself up before I go talking to these random people on the street about Jesus Christ. But the Lord knows my weaknesses and has turned them into a strength! White washing = a lot of finding = talking to EVERYONE.... the Lord knew that one of my weaknesses was liking contacting, and in His great goodness, He this past week turned it into a strength! All of a sudden, I LOVE talking to random people on the street! I love learning their stories and I LOVE testifying about this true gospel! My testimony has become so much more valuable to me as I have been sharing it WILLINGLY with more and more people! I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's all-knowing-ness and His awareness of me and my need to really enjoy contacting.
Daniel (the Elders' investigator here) got baptized on Saturday!! It was so amazing and the Spirit was SOOO strong!! It was so awesome because 5 nonmembers came to his baptism! one of them was a mom Asia and her son Wojtek! They are so amazing and i KNOW they felt the Spirit so strongly during the entire service! I could see it! It was so amazing because there was a moment when I felt prompted to ask her to read part of 3 Nephi 11 where Christ Himself talks about the proper performance of baptism. I gave her my Book of Mormon to read and read she did! WAY past what I suggested!! Her little 10 year old son was also super interested in the baptism and I KNOW that they are going to be baptized one day! ...we hope even for in the next transfer! :) Never say never!!
Funny moment of the week: In our missionary planners, we have a back up plan section. Back up plans are sooo important! Mostly when you have meetings set up. But when you don't have meetings set up and are planning to talking to people in your path on the way to someone's house, there aren't too many back up plans that would be super effective.. and so was the case one of the days this week. Sister King and I were laughing so hard when we looked at our plans to contact on the way to a person's house and I said, "well....if that part of the city blows up --" "We'll give service!!"! I don't know why that seemed so absolutely hysterical in the moment, but we were just dying laughing at the thought that the only thing that would stop us from walking on the street would be if the city blew up! hahaha
Anyways, love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Blake
I feel like I say the same thing in almost every email! But just know that when i get back in 9 months (CRAZY!!! this Wednesday is officially the half way point! I can't believe it!) I'll be able to sit down and have a nice 3 day long chat by the fire with all of you about all the amazing things I've seen and learned! This gospel is true!! It's silly to think I'd give up a year and a half of my fantastic life to this cause if it were not true! If you trust me, trust my sincerity when I say with the fullness of my heart that Jesus Christ established a church and it has been restored!! Why else would I be tromping around freezing in Poland?! I WOULDN'T! I do it because I know that what I preach and teach is NOT a lie! We don't even understand how much happiness Heavenly Father will cause us to feel! If you find yourself saying "ya, I'm content, I don't need to change, I'm a good enough person", then you are selling yourself short! From the very depths of my soul I express my love for each of you and for my Savior, who I will never turn my back on nor ignore His outstretched hand. He's Always there! Even when it seems too late! I've experienced this, and I know it's true.
Prayed for me to open up to a scripture that would be good to include with this email, and opened up to this..so I'm following the prompting and including it: Mosiah 4:30 ....although I highly recommend reading chapters 2-4 in Mosiah cause they're some of my favorite :)
p.s. I'm going to Auschwitz next Monday and am not sure if i'll be able to email next week.... so if you don't hear from me, I'm okay! :)
Dearest Kendall looks like an angel dressed in cute clothes with her LiGhT popping out from her hat ! Who could walk away from her?! Loving her letters. Janna
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