September
23, 2013
Hey
Family!! :)
This week was a super
crazy but good week! Last Monday we spent all of P-day moving everything out of
our apartment and into our new apartment!! Oh my goodness... the new apartment
is 10x better. The old one had been used for 13 years by missionaries... it was
pretty beaten up. The new one is bigger, much more light comes in, it's clean,
and we have a washer and dryer. It's much, much better. We have been trying
move in and clean a little bit each day in between appointments... we finally
were able to finish everything this morning. I'm so done with moving!!! Haha!
We have started a
scripture study class every Tuesday night at the church. It's been
super successful! We have more people come every week. Sister Pitts and I trade
off every other week with the elders in the ward. We taught 1 Nephi 16 last
week. The chapter is about the Liahona and Nephi's faith through difficult
times. Something that I learned from that study was that when Nephi's bow
broke, he made plans (made a new bow), turned respectfully to his father, the family
Priesthood holder for direction (although Lehi had been murmuring himself,) and
they prayed to get a confirmation of their plans before they went out and
executed the plan. It was great! There are so many things that you learn in the
scriptures every day. I try really hard to make sure that I am confirming my
plans with the Lord so that He can direct me where He needs me.
Our main investigator,
Michelle, is so solid. To make things even better, her husband has come to the
past two lessons and has come to church the past two weeks!! Apparently
Michelle has tried having missionaries over for the past couple years but every
time the missionaries would try to see her at her home, her husband, Ed would
send them away. We were finally able to meet with Michelle and teach her
because we would meet at the church for lessons. Michelle had made comments
about how her husband has realized the changes that Michelle is making and now
he is coming! He told us in our last lesson that he has been reading the Book
of Mormon an hour a night. He was brought up Catholic and is only use to ROTE
prayers... but without us even teaching him about how we pray, he told us that
he has started changing the way he prays and it's more personal! It's amazing
what the Spirit does and how he teaches us :) We are hoping that both Michelle
and Ed will get baptized together. We are still a little uncertain with Ed, but
we have faith that he can come around and be on board the way Michelle is. They
are miracles!!! At church yesterday, Ed was awestruck that he was able to take
the sacrament. He has been through a divorce. In the Catholic faith, divorce
makes you unworthy to take the sacrament... so sad. He was nervous to take it
but you could tell he was at peace knowing that he could actually partake of
that sacred ordinance! On top of that, the Gospel Principle lesson just
happened to be on the Sacrament. I think he was really feeling the
spirit.
There was a baptism of
a member that had been excommunicated this past weekend. Michelle and Ed were
able to come to it! The spirit was very strong... there were a lot of talks on
how much God really does love each one of us and that we can always start anew
and come unto Christ. Michelle was crying.
We met or did more
than our goals for this past week which is awesome. It was kind of a challenge
to get it all done though because our phone has decided to freak out on us...
we can't make any phone calls or send any texts... and the phone won't ring but
just leaves voicemails... and we can't even connect to hear the voicemail!! We
should have a new phone coming today or tomorrow (hopefully) but we
have had to go over to member's homes to set up and confirm all of our
appointments, etc. so it has been nuts!! Last night was super funny.... our
phone was the worst it has been yet. We had to give our weekly numbers (how
many lessons, contacts) and let our district Leader know that we were in and
safe... but we couldn't get a hold of anyone!!! Luckily, we connected with our
District Leader for like 5 seconds... but as I was quickly trying to say,
"Before the call drops...we are in and safe!!"... the call dropped
before I could say "in and safe"... hahahaha we watched our
voicemails add up from 3 voicemails to 13!! ah!!! hahaha Kind of bad.. but we
got things figured out... hopefully we get that new phone soon....
So technically my area
is called New Smyrna Beach... but I live in Port Orange. Everyone here is super
laid back in all that they do... for example, we were at a dinner appointment
with the former bishop's family last night. We had finished dinner and were in
the middle of sharing a short message with them and their son started calling
them on Skype.. so they both jumped up and started talking to him and left us
their confused with our scriptures open on our laps.... hahahaha so funny! I
love these people but you are surprised everyday by crazy things. haha
Another funny thing
that happened this week...we were driving down a really busy road and all of a
sudden Sister Pitts screamed and freaked out...because there was a MASSIVE frog
that jumped and chilled on our windshield!! haha! I have no idea how it got on
our car in the middle of such a busy street! It was hilarious and we both had a
good time laughing about that. Seriously, Florida is like no other place. It's
GREEN, super wet, humid all the time, lizards everywhere and frogs jumping out
of nowhere. It's crazy! I love it here... but I also miss Utah. I know that I
will be sad when I have to move home. Florida is my home!! Just like that
Phillip Phillip's song, 'Home' says, Florida is my home for the next year or
so. I love the quirkiness of the people and that I get soaked in a matter of
seconds!
Thanks for the care
package. That was so sweet of you! I love hearing from you guys. I have
pictures that I'm going to send home today :) I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please keep Ed and Michelle in your prayers... as well as that we will be
able to find more people teach. XOXOXOXOXO
Love,
Sister Kirkham
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