December 16, 2013
Family!
I seriously can't remember much of what happened this past week…It's
all a blur. haha I'll try my best to remember!
My birthday was a very happy birthday! Thanks so much for all
the sweet gifts and love that you sent my way. It means so much. I love you!!
It's super weird to think that I'm the big TWO-ONE!!! ahhh.... weird! Also weird to think that I'm now less than a
year away until I'm done with my mission.... didn't I just get out here?? How
in the world have I been out this long?! Hahaha! The day of my birthday we had
interviews with President Berry. Everyone there greeted me with 'Happy
Birthdays" and I had an interesting interview with the President! The
whole interview was pretty much about online proselyting in the near future. I
don't know a whole lot other than out there somewhere is a chance that we will
be starting Facebook, etc. at the New Year.... we will see! Honestly, I'm a
little intimidated to get on Facebook... haha! It will just be weird. I'm
excited for the opportunities that are ahead to help move the work forward
though :)
After interviews, ALL of our appointments fell through... ugh.
Those days aren't the best. We just followed up on our back up plans though and
saw many miracles! We tried dropping by a less active's home and they weren't
there so we started knocking on doors. We knocked on the 3rd door and this man
named Cord came out and immediately sat us down to teach him. His mom who lives
a little ways up north is reading the Book of Mormon right now and he was
interested in learning more. We taught him the Restoration and he wanted us to
come back. Literally FIVE seconds after leaving Cord's home, this lady was
walking onto the sidewalk from getting out of her car and asked us what we were
doing. We told her who we were and she invited us into her house! We went
inside and taught her and her husband and they have been reading the Book
Mormon! We left their place and we decided to try dropping by a former
Investigator (Jason's) home who lived a couple doors down. As we were walking
up to the front door, Jason leaned over the balcony above the front door saying,
'Hi'. He said that he had seen us walking around and hoped that we would come
by his place. Apparently missionaries had started teaching him back in the
summer but after both of those missionaries left the area, the two new missionaries
that white-washed the area either lost contact or didn't try seeing him.... so
he was super excited to have us there! All within a couple hours, we had three
new investigators and one new former investigator to teach! Happy Birthday to
me!!! haha! It was definitely a gift from God. I don't think I've ever seen
anything like that so far on my mission. It was awesome :) I was very spoiled
by some members in the ward as well. Brother Westcott doorbell ditched a
bouquet of flowers off (and we saw the whole thing through our window hahaha), What
a great guy! Ed and Michele gave me a Christmas teddy bear with the year '2013'
on the foot along with a big ice cream cake from Ritter's that they handed out
at a scripture study class later that night. So cute of them!! I also received
a lot of texts and calls as well. Let's
just say that I felt very loved. Thank you so much for all of the cardigans and
things! I will love those for the winter time. It really was such a great way
to celebrate my 21 years of life! haha :)
We had a lesson with Wayne again. His member friend from Orlando
that gave us the referral came to the lesson. The spirit was super strong in
the lesson. We had tried committing him to baptism before but he kept putting
it off and talking about "next summer". At the end of the lesson, I
had a very strong prompting to invite him to baptism. I did, and he said 'yes'!
I didn't feel like it was the right timing to push him to commit a date yet
though. So we are getting there ;) It was such a miracle though! He commented
on how at the last lesson he wouldn't have said 'yes'. We asked him what had
changed and he said that he is coming to know Jesus Christ more than he ever
has in his life and it's changing him. We really are seeing changes with him
and hope that things will work out for Wayne :) He's a great guy. He lost the
bottom half of one of his legs last year... but he has the best attitude about
it. He is actually carving out a wooden leg! It's sick! hahaha! I promise I
will get a picture and send it to you :) It's just so him. He was a former
sailor and he has carved out a black anchor on the front of it. So
awesome.
We went over to a less active's home called the Santana's. They
fed us Puerto Rican food (super good!) and then we had a lesson with them. They
opened up to us and told us why they hadn't been going to church. It was a big
miracle for them to do that... they haven't told anyone else about it. We
talked through things and they decided that they would go to the Ward Christmas
Party and church this weekend. They went to both and I think they felt very
loved, missed and welcomed back into the ward. I sure hope that they continue
coming. They are a great couple. Please keep them in your prayers!
This next week is going to be super crazy. Our whole week is
pretty much already full and scheduled. That's NEVER happened to me, not even
close. We are being soo blessed right now!! We are working super hard but are
seeing so many blessing from doing so. :) I'm a little nervous about this next
Friday though... the Assistants asked me to give a musical number at a
Mission Christmas Devotional.... yes, the whole mission will be there.... first
time I've been with the whole mission. ah!! There is a member in the ward that
has some piano music... so I'm going to be playing a version of 'O Holy Night'
on the piano... I don't have much time to practice it because of our crazy schedule...
so PLEASE PRAY FOR ME. hahahaha I'm getting pretty nervous about it. I'm
honored to play though!
Well, I can't believe that we are almost a week away until I get
to Skype you! ah! I'm sooo excited to talk and SEE you guys! ah it will be the
best Christmas gift I could ask for :) I still don't have a specific time of
day for sure of when I will Skype you guys... but keep your Skype open, ready
and waiting in the afternoon. I will for sure email you next Monday with a
more specific time. I love you guys so much! I hope that you are enjoying
having Christmas Break. Angie, GOOD LUCK WITH FINALS! You'll be awesome, I'm
sure. I love you!!!!
xoxoxo,
Sister Kirkham
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