Tuesday, June 24, 2014

I Love This Work and I'm So Grateful To Be Serving Here in Orlando's Olympia Ward!

Family!                                                              23 June 2014

We were so busy that I honestly can't remember anything that happened! haha! Just give me a minute to think…Okay, we went on three exchanges last week...Kill me now! haha! I was so tired! It was great to be with the sisters though and to help them in anyway that I could. 

Last week I was on exchanges here with the Conway sisters and saw a great miracle! We had dinner with the famous Herzog family. They are so awesome! Brother Herzog does the official temple tours and is such a great help with missionary work. He and his family have an awesome view of Disney World from their apartment. You can see the Hogwart’s castle and many of the roller coaster rides! Fun, huh? That's the closest I've seen it! haha! Angie... be jealous! Their family is so great. After dinner they came with us to a lesson with Rosemond (the returning member from Haiti.) Rosemond is so cool! He is so excited to be back and attending church. When we walked into his home, he had a roommate that was sitting at our table. I invited him to join us and he loved the lesson too! Brother Herzog was perfect at answering their questions and invited them to go on a temple tour (that Bro. Herzog runs!) within the next couple days. They were all for it and went!!! Rosemond’s roommate also asked if he could sit in our lessons with Rosemond... which of course we said, "Yes!!" He's great. Rosemond was also able to get work off again this Sunday which is a great miracle. Disney is NOT nice when it comes to getting work off for church... another miracle!!! Brother Herzog picked and dropped Rosemond off for church on Sunday. Later, Brother Herzog called us and said that as he was dropping Rosemond off at home, Rosemond was practically in tears because he was so happy to be back :) 

Wednesday was a super busy but awesome day. We had breakfast with a recent convert, Singh, from Guyana.... he LOOVES spicy food... hahaha He fed us a super spicy breakfast with fish.. not exactly what I would call breakfast food…It's an experience that will go in the journal! Haha! He is such an example of one that has been changed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Last year he was very depressed and had soooo many problems with his life... but when he found the missionaries and the church... it changed his whole life around!! He went from being one that was probably more a burden to society (I mean that the nicest way possible!) He just didn't work and was into bad things...and now he works, serves regularly at the Bishop's Store House, and attends every church event. He is awesome! I love him. 

After breakfast, Sister Welch and I taught a lesson through Facebook to a woman that lives in Apopka, Florida. We taught her the first lesson... and committed her to be baptized... THROUGH FACEBOOK!!!! Crazy Cool right?? We are experiencing so many miracles. I couldn't believe that we had done that! She was soaking in everything that we had to say and wanted to learn as much as she could. We were able to talk to her more yesterday over Facebook and got her information and are sending the Apopka missionaries her way to give her a Book of Mormon and teach her :) :) :) Amazing, right? It's so cool to see how the Lord really is hastening His work. My testimony of sharing the gospel online is growing more and more all the time. It's so weird to think that we have this great relationship with this lady... but we still have never met her before. haha! Maybe one day :) 

We also taught Dave again on Wednesday. We felt impressed to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ next and it went really well!! The spirit is always so strong when we are there teaching Dave. We challenged him to a baptismal date in July and sadly he said no...but it's because he is the kind of guy that will follow through with his word. I’ll be honest, usually when moments like that happen I get kind’ve nervous about investigator’s progression... but both Sister Welch and I felt very at peace with it. He is studying and praying so much! This past Sunday was a test of faith for Dave to see if he would come to church because his wife was out of town. On Wednesday we invited him to church on Sunday but he was pretty noncommittal. On Sunday we didn't see him when we first got to church. The 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency gave a talk in our Ward Conference and related fitness to a principle of the gospel. In the middle of his talk, he gave a shout out to Dave!!! Sister Welch and I spun around in our seat to see Dave!!!! He came to church without his wife! He had a big grin on his face :) He is so awesome. We are continually praying hard for him that he will receive the answers to his prayers and recognize those answers :) 

This weekend was super crazy because we had two back-to-back exchanges. Yeaaahhh…I went to the Windy Ridge Spanish area and guess what...! I bore my testimony in Spanish!! =D I was so proud of myself. I said it pretty well too :) 

Saturday, I was on exchanges with Sister Bracken and Sister Salvesen (from South Africa) in the YSA ward. I went there with Sister Salvesen. We were able to teach a lesson to a kid that Sister Hoyt and I found on the street a whole year ago!!! It was such a miracle when we found him last year. He had just moved from Spain and was about to let go of the church...but we found him and past him off to the YSA and he is active and doing great!! It was sooo cool to see him a year later and see how he is doing. The Lord truly does put you where he needs you at the right time. 

There are so many other great things that happened this week. We are working super hard! 24 lessons and 78 contacts total last week! Ok… numbers don't mean everything but…Seriously, you feel it after having so many exchanges in one week as well.

I love this work and am so grateful to be serving here in the Olympia ward!!! 

I love you! 

Love, 


Sister Kirkham 

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