November
3, 2014
Family!
I need to start off by telling you of the two biggest pieces of
news! :)
1. Michelle got baptized last Thursday and confirmed on
Sunday!!!!! I'm so happy for her :) We saw God's hand in her life so much. The
biggest miracle (besides her baptism) was that her husband, who before was very
against us told Michelle that she can do whatever she wants. It's sad that he
is so against it right now but I'm sooo happy that he is allowing Michelle to
live and exercise her beliefs the way that she wants. We went over to see
Michelle last week and found out that it was her husband's birthday that day
and Michelle had been slaving away cooking food! We stepped in and helped her
for about an hour and I think it helped save her quite a bit of time. Not only
were we able to try some amazing Haitain and French recipes, (she was born in
Haiti and lived in Paris for 30 years,) but Michelle also told her husband that
evening that we had helped out and I think his heart softened quite a bit when
he heard that.
Michelle had to be baptized on Thursday because she has a crazy
work schedule. There is never a set time for when Michelle clocks in and out of
work so we were stressing that Michelle would be okay and make it to her
baptism on time. She called us about an hour and a half before the baptism and
said, "Ladies, I won't make it. I have to work overtime
tonight." Seriously, I almost
burst into tears but right before I did she started laughing and saying that
she was kidding. AH! NOT FUNNY! Hahaha! I almost had heart failure! She skipped
her lunch, dinner and her break at work so that she could do her best to get to
the baptism on time. She definitely did…with time to spare! It all worked out
so well. She had great support from the ward. She was a little nervous about
immersing completely under the water so when she came up out of the water, she
had this HUGE smile on her face, shook the water out of her hair real quickly
and burst out with, "Did I do it?!" Hahaha! Everyone was happy to
tell her that she did and she was just sooo happy :) She is going to get along
great with some of the women in the ward. They all love her so much. She is a
huge example to me of faith in Jesus Christ. She literally said and DID
everything that she could that is in accordance to God's will. She was always
telling us, "Whatever God wants me to do, I will do it." She is so
strong! I love her :)
2. Transfers are tomorrow... and I'M STAYING IN OLYMPIA!!!!! I
can't believe it.... Olympia is my last area :) and Sister Gonzalez is my last
companion :) It's sooo surreal but I'm so happy and feel so at peace about it.
I'm really grateful that I don't have to go somewhere else for only 6 weeks.
It's just crazy to think that I will have been in Olympia for a total of 5 transfers...7
1/2 months AND with Sister Gonzalez for 3 transfers…4 1/2 months. I’m not sure
if you guys haven't noticed but I have had a different companion pretty much
every transfer except for when I trained and when I stayed in Winter Garden
with Sister Hoyt at the beginning of my mission. It's a shock to not have any
change…but I like it :) Sister Gonzalez and I have seen SO many miracles these
past 3 months and we are super excited to work really hard these next 6
weeks!!
On to other things that happened this past week!
Monday evening we had dinner at the Stake President's home,
President Shill, along with his business friends, the M’s. To give you somewhat
of an idea of both the Shill's and the M’s... President Shill is like the
CEO/head surgeon for a big hospital here in Florida. He has a beautiful home in
our ward. The M’s are also very successful. The Shills invited us to join them
for an elegant meal with the M’s; a very intelligent, successful couple. Mr. M.
had so many questions and was sincerely interested. We were able to teach Mrs.
and Mrs. M. the Restoration. It was a very powerful lesson. I truly felt God
guiding my words. I don't feel like I have ever taught the message of the
Restoration more clearly than I did that night. It was really neat. Mrs. M. has
actually read the whole Book of Mormon already while she was staying in a
Marriott Hotel in Utah once. She only had good things to say about it. Mr. M.
was very excited to be able to read it and said that he would try to read it in
4 days and then let us know when we could meet again…so we will see what
happens! President Shill really appreciated and was very relieved with how the
lesson went. He came to Michelle's baptism and was part of her confirmation on
Sunday. He really went the extra mile. It was nice of him :)
Tuesday we had a Chili Cook Off/Trunk or Treat combined with
another ward! It was super fun! I love the Olympia ward. The people here are so
great! There were some huge miracles. A lot of inactive members and nonmembers
showed up…more than we thought there would be! :) Sister Gonzalez and I were
trying to figure out how to still look like sister missionaries but be festive
in costume, so we found matching, bright dresses that we both have and put a
Hawaiian flower in our hair to be Hawaiian sister missionaries! ;) haha! That's
about as clever as we could make it. Haha!
We’ve also had several lessons with the Jean family. They are
the cutest family. They are from Haiti so of course they are gorgeous. Haha!
The teenagers have been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon all on
their own and actually understand it really well! It was super exciting to see
that. We read from the Book of Mormon with them this past week and they were
really focused on what we were reading. They are sooo cute! My favorite part
was that one of the twins, Jeff, who has always been really good at saying
prayers was encouraging and helping his other siblings to say the closing
prayer. I really hope that we can help this family. The struggle is that they
don't have a car and their mom is always working on Sundays but we are doing
are best to help them with their situation.
Marvin is doing awesome too. He still has some issues with
committing fully to church every Sunday and setting a specific baptismal date but
we are getting there. We went through the baptismal interview questions with
him to see where he was at and he straight out told us that he knows everything
is true and that he knows and wants to work towards living all the laws of God.
He has downloaded the Gospel Library app on his phone and LOVES it. He has been
studying sooo much. He knows so much too! He even knows about the missionary
video series, “The District!” haha! He is so funny. The coolest miracle that we
have seen is literally EVERY, SINGLE TIME we go over and introduce the topic of
the lesson he has studied up on that topic just the night before or morning of.
How cool is that? The Lord is guiding Marvin in his studies and he has such a
strong knowledge this is all true. Now, we just need to help him understand the
blessings of going to church on Sundays and that baptism in not a burden but a
blessing! Keep him in your prayers please.
Frank situation makes me so sad :( We had a feeling that we
needed to call Frank two Saturdays ago and he told us that he was going to have
to call us back later because he had an emergency. He did NOT sound good over
the phone. Later, we got several texts from a relative that he is in the
hospital because of an aneurysm :( :( :( We continued getting updates on him but
he has been sent to Jacksonville and then life-flighted to a hospital in
Gainsville. :( I'm so sad. I really hope that he is okay but he has been in
intensive care for over a week. One tender mercy: Our ward mission leader,
Brother Scherer, just moved from Gainesville and knows the Zone Leaders there
in that mission area. Bro Scherer asked them to go give him a blessing last
night. We haven't heard anything yet but I hope that it works out. Pray for
him!!!
Halloween was a pretty typical night. We had to stay inside once
it got late so we did our weekly planning in the evening. We were trying to
come up with some clever ways to make Halloween…well…more Halloween like. The only thing that we could come up with was
watching the church video “Together Forever,” after our nightly planning. Hahahaha!
It's a pretty cheesy 80's video. Good times…hahaha!
Saturday we had dinner again with President Wood, one of the
counselors in the mission presidency. He thought that I was getting transferred
so he set up a departing dinner for me just to find out that I was staying ;)
haha! These people of the Olympia South Stake can't get rid of Sister Kirkham
;) I have served 7 transfers in the O'South!
Well, I really can't believe that this is my last transfer.
Truly, it hasn't hit me yet and I'm okay with that :) I want to sprint to the
finish line. I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father's loving hand in my life and
in the lives of everyone around me. I can't help but have a smile on my face as
I see and recognize his hand in all things. He really is with us ALWAYS. He has
a PERFECT plan for each one of us. All we have to do is try to trust and love
Him the way that He does towards us. He knows what is going to make us happy
and more importantly what is going to shape and refine us into better daughters
and sons of God.
I love you guys!!!
Love,
Sister Kirkham
No comments:
Post a Comment