March
3, 2014
Family!!!
I seriously cannot believe that it's been a whole week since I
said goodbye to the people of Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach... wow! I have
to tell you that we are doing transfers differently now than we use to and so
we don't find out who we are with and where we are going until you are there at
the transfer meeting and they announce each person one by one! Let's just say
that it makes you a little anxious...hahaha…AND…I was seriously like one of the
last people to be called! Ahhhh! It was not fun waiting that to the
end....hahahaha! BUT, I'm sooo happy about this next transfer! I am now companions with Sister Cather, serving in
the Goldenrod ward that covers parts of Winter Park and Orlando! I’m back in
the city! I was so excited when I found out I was with Sister Cather. She was
my Sister Training Leader (STL,) and was part of my District for a transfer
while I was in Port Orange. She is the cutest! She is actually going home at
the end of this transfer so that is going to be interesting to “kill off” a
companion. We are working our tails off though! It's been super hard work but
we are seeing a lot of good things happening and are really excited for this
transfer. We are over the largest set of Sisters in the mission so we will be
working hard and traveling a lot with exchanges. I'm sure I will have many
miracles and stories to tell from different parts of the Orlando stake.
We saw several miracles this past week. This area has had a
struggle with finding more than one investigator a week for a long time...but
we were able to find 5 new investigators! Two of those investigators are
parents that have families!! woot woot! We are being very blessed here right
now. There has only been one baptism in this area since last July... so the
work is a little dead here, but we are very determined to work hard and help
the work progress.
I had my first Mission Leadership Conference, (M.L.C.,) this
past week. The President, A.P.'s, Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet
once a month and talk about the progression of the work and talk about how to
improve. It was so exciting to see the progress that our mission has had over
the month of February. In January the mission had 33 baptisms and in February
we had 58!! We all discussed WHY we had that success and it all simply came
down to MEMBERS. Members are SOOO key and important to the hastening of the
work. When members are involved, the investigators grow so much more rapidly.
We had a special M.L.C. meeting on Sunday with Elder Munns from
the Quorum of the Seventy and discussed the hastening of the work. He discussed
that the Florida missions are going to be taking the lead for the southeastern
missions in missionary work. It is so cool to be apart of this work... as well
as to know that we are working hard!! Elder Munns shared a cool story that
Elder Perry told him when he was visiting Florida. Elder Perry said that he had
a discussion with the #1 ranked Cardinal from the Catholic church and the
cardinal said, "Tom, the Mormons are going to have to save the
world." Elder Perry chuckled a little and asked, "There are 1.5
billion (?) Catholics in the world and only 15 million Mormons, and you say the
Mormons will be the ones to save it?".... hahaha anyway...it was kind of a
cool and funny story. This truly is the LORD's work and His church. Not mans.
The work is truly HASTENING and it's up to us as missionaries and us as MEMBERS
of this blessed church to share it!!! I could keep rambling on and on about
this...it makes me so excited!
I'll end with a quick miracle story that happened this past
week:
Sister Cather and I went to a recent convert's (of about 5
months) home to teach her a lesson and she invited her 19-year daughter to join
in on the lesson. We started the lesson directed to the recent convert... but
her daughter had SO many questions and was soaking in everything that we had to
say. The daughter ended up crying and thanking us for the lesson. She had been
reluctant at first to sit in on the lesson but was SO grateful that she had and
wants to meet with us again! She is super cool and I love her! Oh, and her name
is Krystal :) Another Krystal! Gotta love it :D haha!
Well, I better get going... but I'm super excited for this
transfer! I'm nervous about the discomfort I'm going to experience as I try and
help the other sisters in my zone... but I already feel so much love and
excitement to get to know, serve and love them. Please keep the sisters in my
zone in your prayers, as well as that the Goldenrod ward area. I LOVE YOU TO
PIECES!!!!!!!!
Love,
Sister
Kirkham
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