Hurrah for Israel!!!

This week has been so much fun!

Sister Baier is so prepared! They are making arrangements to be married legally so she can be baptized soon! They came to a baptism with us on Saturday and she had a good time! They drove us out there and they are the funniest people ever. One night we were teaching them and we were teaching the plan of salvation! It was almost like the moment after we said that was what we were teaching that he gets all excited grabs his quad next to him and opens the front cover and proudly shows us the plan of salvation taped in from when he was in primary. It was hilarious. She is excited for her baptism and has been telling her family to come! Hopefully we don't get transferred before it happens!

Can't believe it has almost been one transfer!

This week on exchanges Elder Porter and I found 5 new investigators in about 2 hours. It was miraculous. They were all within a 50 yard diameter!

Earlier this week we committed 4 people on baptismal dates! Jeanie is the only one that has continued to progress but hopefully we can get the others to have the fire lit in them.

Powerful

Whole Milk or Die

The Art of Mixing Cereal

Lunch to Make Your Momma Proud

Learning How to Be a True Harvester

Family and Friends!

This mission thing is so great. If anyone tells you their mission was boring or not the best two years of their life then they weren't actually serving the lord by bringing others to truth. I love reading your guys emails and honestly hate emailing back because it stresses me out a little so I am doing my best!!! (Don't think I am saying I don't want to email you guys though because that isn't the case) This past week was faster than the last and I don't know how it works. My best guess is that it is because as we continue to be on the Lord's errand doing his will and not ours we begin to operate in his timing too. Not doctrine just a funny thought.

Just got done with a game of 21 and I love that game so much! These high tops are coming in clutch for all that dunking! (JK)

Elder Katoa is continuing to be one great trainer! He helps council me on what I need to fix and thankfully is very kind about it. He lets me realize things myself but sometimes points things out when I don't seem to realize I'm doing the same wrong thing over and over. So honestly he is a great trainer. Together we are realizing what it means to truly be a harvester and how to accomplish that effectively. We just need to bear testimony and see who responds to an invitation to follow Christ. I love serving with him.

We are going to start a new trend.

So since elder Katoa is a District leader and he has to go on exchanges every week I do to! And this week it was me and Elder Smith (also a brand new missionary) who were together. Well neither of us have taken the mission driving test so guess what we did..... RODE BIKES! Honestly I felt like a lost dog. We were both new and I had never done a biking day so I didn't really know how to effectively go through the day without back tracking over and over. Honestly probably one of the longest days of the mission because out here there aren't mountains just really big hills. Also if you want to sufficiently feel really dorky... Wear Sunday clothes with a helmet and ride a bike that has really bad gears that don't want to shift. I felt like a naked man or something. Oh and  it was in the 30s with some nice wind. Oh and I was wearing those behind the head ear muff things under my helmet straps. I need to take that test.

Last night we ate with the Horrocks family and I felt like I was at home! :) Their family just kind of reminded me of that feeling of being home. Oh and the food was BOMB. They made fondue pots (a valentine tradition for them I guess) and there was some Spinach one and a cheddar one and then just a plethora of stuff to dip in it. I pigged out! Then we had dessert fondue as well and pigged out again.

Me and elder Katoa were so full.

I am really beginning to love exercising in the morning. I'll have to send progress pics one day ;). Getting mad gains out here with a total of 5 pounds. (Full of sarcasm)

We just started teaching a woman by the name of Jeanie Biaer. Her husband, Chris, is already a member but he is inactive. Both have expressed desires to be sealed in the temple for time and eternity in the Kansas City temple. They also have made it very easy to teach them by asking if we could come as frequently as possible in the evening after they put their kids to bed. Hopefully we can have daily contact with them one way or another and help them work hard to become ready for a baptismal date. Chris has a desire to baptize his wife so hopefully this will really strengthen them as a couple and family.  This is the family that we were looking for and instead found Raymond and Nathaniel. (By the way we had to drop Nathaniel)

Elder Katoa and I got to speak in church yesterday on the plan of salvation and it was so much fun! I loved it! Spoke for about 15 min each.

I know this is the Lord's work and in turn God's work. Do not fear! It is breaking your baptismal covenant.

-Love Elder Kelly

This is Jeremy Guthrie. If you don't know who that is, he pitches for the Royals and was a major pitcher last year in the World Series. He is a beast when it comes to missionary work. And has found us two solid investigators (Bobbie and Israel. I'll tell you about them next week) He goes on team ups with us all the time too. So I am basically famous now!

23 Months Left Ha Ha #Sad

These weeks out here don't feel like 7 days. More like three days or something. I seriously can't believe it's already P-day again. This week has been great though!! I won't say much this week because I'm tying to play some sports. I didn't play last week because E-mailing took so long.

Kind of stinky but like two hours after I emailed last week Raymond and Nathaniel dropped us and said they weren't ready for this big of change. Elder Katoa and I feel like we might have overwhelmed them and didn't allow them to first gain more of a testimony. We went over that night and talked about how they were feeling and they said to give them a week and we can talk again. They said they would both read from the Book of Mormon for the week though so hopefully the spirit has pricked their hearts some more while reading.

Susan Thaxton is an investigator with a really rough past but has turned her life around to helping people! She has so much desire to do good and seems to already have a lot of the same beliefs as we do! She expressed to us how she hates working on Sunday's because she feels like it should be the Lord's day where you only do what he desires on that day... We never even had mentioned keeping the Sabbath day holy prior to her expressing that! The field is truly white! Susan has been reading from the Book of Mormon and she is already in Mosiah with the same excitement about the book as someone reading Harry Potter or something. It is so great teaching her because she is SO prepared!

Study is too short. I feel like 1 hour of personal study needs to be more like two! I am reading in Alma right now and I feel like I am watching ESPN's top ten plays of missionary work or something because every story is like "and thousands came unto the understanding of their savior". Elder Katoa and I keep trying to find what we can do to be more like Alma and the sons of Mosiah. I have been studying a lot about self-mastery in the scriptures and it is the coolest thing ever!

You guys should try it!

I am here to tell all of you that if you think it is crazy that Enos prayed all day then you aren't relying on the Lord enough and you also don't know how to pray correctly. So all of you need to study prayer from Preach My Gospel page 93-95

I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and I know he is waiting for us all to just turn fully to him.

Love Elder Kelly

PS (if you have the missionaries over for dinner or anything and you say you don't know anybody that could use the gospel right now then you don't understand the atonement and also lack faith. 2 NE 2:6-8)

The Only Thing that Grows without Hard Work is Weeds

Investigators! Last Sunday the two guys we met named Raymond and Nathaniel were doing so well last week and flying through lessons. Raymond seems to understand the lessons and concepts a little better than Nathaniel but that is ok; we can reteach them if we have to. We got both of them set on date for February 27th! Both have been keeping commitments of reading the scriptures and praying and it so awesome to talk about what they read from the Book of Mormon! Both committed to obey the Word of Wisdom and are striving to quit smoking and drinking. We met with them both three times this week and separately with each once. The daily contact is so important with an investigator like this. Raymond committed to live the law of chastity even though he is living with his significant other and said he will talk to her and figure things out so he can be baptized on the 27th! Both said they would come to church but Nathaniel was called into work and Raymond texted us Sunday morning saying he felt uncomfortable going because of his living situation. We are praying hard for both of them. 

            I have been trying to figure out how I can have more charity towards others because it has been too many times I catch myself judging others while I am teaching them. Really loving them has been a little bit hard. I read about charity from True to the Faith and the scriptures that it suggests to study. The spirit impressed upon me that I needed to take the same steps I would with any companion, actively seek the good. Its the same with temptation. We must continually fill our minds and actions with good so that there is no room for the bad. I need to fervently seek for the good in others so that there is no room for judgmental thoughts to creep in. Mosiah also reminded me, "are we not all beggars?" I depend greatly on the Lord for my strength and for my guidance just like everybody else does so how can I judge?

            This mission thing is so much fun!!! I love serving the Lord!

Love,

Elder Kelly

We found this gnarly moldy bread!  Gross