One Thing After Another

Wednesday I packed up all my stuff over 3 or 4 hours. I despise packing.

The last few days with Elder Wright was all on foot. Wednesday night we left after dinner in the apartment and very quickly it started to rain. We walked the entire night around in rain. Not just a little rain. It was coming down heavily without fail the entire time. We had rain coats and umbrellas but none the less we were soaked by the end of the night. Our shoes were completely wet all the way through and our rain coats started to Osborn water as well. At first we only had one umbrella and a lady with a member family pulled over and gave us a super nice umbrella that saved us. Simply put we slept like rocks that night.

At transfers Elder Wright and I showed up anxious to find out the news of what was going on. He went into his meeting to meet his new companion and I waited for the Assistants to roll up in their car with the transfer roster. Found out I was transferred to the very center of the mission and will serve as Zone Leader! Independence, MO! My companion is Elder Taylor. He is from Layton, Utah and went to North Ridge High school. He has been out for a year. We are strangely similar in many ways. Serve in the Raytown Ward. This stake is actually called the "Center Stake of Zion" (according to the stake president...who knows if that is true). Really a blessing to serve in a mission so rich in doctrine. The Raytown Ward is where Elder Katoa got called out of to be the assistant so Elder Taylor was just serving with him last transfer. We work out with elder Beeyler and elder Katoa each morning. There is a sweet run we do where we run by the visitors center and the community of Christ temple.

 Saturday morning I got a call from brother Ahmu asking me to speak on "Blessed are the meek". My brain was stuck for a long time on what exactly I should say.  Sunday morning we had a correlation with President Vest and the stake presidency. And then had about 40 minutes after for me to prepare my talk. Thankfully the spirit came through and the talk went very well.  Many of the members were super warm to me in welcoming me in.

We are teaching a super miracle. His name is Cameron Davis and he meets with us every day. He has a baptismal date for Sep 10th. His father is a member out in Idaho and he has avoided the church for many years. He is so committed to the Lord and truly hungers and thirst for righteousness.

Sorry I am short on time and I don't really have any pics. Love you family!!!

Transfers :(

So this week Elder Wright received the news that he will be training a new missionary! We were pumped and sad and excited and sad. This transfer has flown by and it is sad to see the companionship get spit.  We have had a ton of fun and it will be interesting to see who leaves or stays. We find out tomorrow so I'll just shoot you all a text when we get the news! Just Kidding. Not kidding; I almost started to dial numbers for home to ask some questions about things and then I remember that I can't do that. Funny how your brain remembers and forgets things so fast.

Anyways. The normal thing would be that Elder Wright stays and I leave but we will see. Maybe the Lord will throw a curve ball on us and I'll stay and he will go whitewash or follow up train somewhere else.

The Atagi family and Paul's family did not make it to church this week unfortunately because both of them had family stuff come up that pulled them else where. Should both be back in full swing this next week.

District Meeting this past week went really well! We talked about Baptism and the Love of the Savior and there was such a strong spirit there as we discussed these topics. Always so nice to have the spiritual pump ups to keep you moving forward. Sister Hunt trained on the Love of the Savior and invited us to each take five minutes out of the day and ponder the Savior and His atonement that was made in our behalf. You should try it!!! Powerful to have the savior on your mind throughout the day.

We have one sister in our district who is "Dying" this transfer so we took some funny pictures after.

District Meeting

E Merrill, E Roberts, E Wright, E Kelly

S Fletcher, S Pope, S Whitehead, S Hunt, S Garay, S Jackson, S Fletcher, S Flake

Sister Whitehead is on her way home.

Not going to lie Elder Wright and I have really struggled finding new investigators here in Olathe 2nd. We have found 1 new investigator in the last 6 weeks. (Just in case you didn't know that is really bad) we are curious what any of you have seen or done to find more of God's children to teach. So if you could email us any cool ideas. We would love to try them out!!

Anyways love you all. Don't forget to read the scriptures and brush your teeth!!!

Seriously though. One cannot have a happy life without both :)

Elder Kelly

 Paul's wife, Sister Nudson, collected Beanie Babies as a kid and had hundreds. 

These are some of the last ones she has. She let us each take one.

So naturally we had a photo shoot with them. 

Bought a member in our Ward a tie at Burlington today.

:)

Sunday was such a great day! We have been working with a few less active people and they are starting to make progress!!

The Atagi family is the first. Elder Wright has been meeting with them since he got here. They have two daughters under the age of 6. They haven't been to church in 6 years! Brother and Sister Atagi are starting to realize the damage that they will do to their daughters if they continue down the path they are on. Two weeks ago they told us they were going to block off Sundays for the last three weeks in Aug so they could come. And they did!!! The members of the ward were so excited to see them there again. Their HT and VT have been faithful the whole time and we are hoping that this can be the beginning of a turn around for them. We meet with them once a week and teach their daughters the lessons. This next week we are teaching the restoration and we are excited!

Dusty Dunaway is the next. He is a single guy who aged out of the singles ward about 2 years ago. He was baptized in his 20s and hasn't been to church in years either. No one had been able to get him to come and the last week before I got here he came for the first time.  He was able to make it to church once since I have been here. We were able to set up weekly appointments with him as well and this last week he accepted the calling to be a home teacher. We had brother Allee come as a team up which was perfect because they used to be in the singles ward together. He didn't make it to church this week so we are praying he will be able to come next week.

Brother and Sister Phillips are last. They haven't made it to church in about 6 months. We also have weekly appointments with them. We talked to them about their baptismal covenants last meeting and the Spirit was very strong. Brother Phillips made it to church on Sunday and it was so good to see him there. He snuck in and out of the back and we barley caught him. We didn't even know he was coming! Next time we will have to make sure the members know he is here.

We had Zone Conference last week and it was such a spiritual pump up!

I love meetings!

Found a super cool scripture this week that I love!!

38 And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life. -D&C 101:38

Love

- Elder Kelly

This Week Was Kind of a Blur

We met with Paul and Kasey twice this week and just read the scriptures with them. We told them that they need to tell us when they want to be baptized and until then we will just help Paul stop smoking by reading scriptures and stuff like that. Even then we will just be passing this off to the elders quorum eventually so we aren't spending so much time over there. Also gives a good opportunity to have Paul make friends in the ward other than the missionaries.

Thursday we were walking down the street and saw this older Asian looking lady who was shoveling some wood chips out of her yard. We offered help and she told us we could do it for her and she would give us free haircuts. She told us to come back tomorrow in normal clothes while she was at work and then she would see us Monday. Elder Wright and I agreed and she did a really good job on our hair.

Friday we had zone training down in Paola, Kansas and up until this point I did not realize how huge our zone was. We have three districts in this zone and I think total there are 14 or 15 companionships.

Throughout the meeting it kept reminding me of how student council was. It was weird. Anyways, ever since Elder Anderson came to our mission the focus throughout the mission has been about pulling down the powers of heaven since that was a majority of what he talked about. Elder Wright and I fasted to know how to pull down the powers of heaven in our ward and with the people we are teaching and we put a plan in action. We are hoping and praying that we will be able to help this ward grow with these goals and plans.

Zone Training

The Assistants that came to Zone Training.  

Always good to talk with them.  They are studs.

At the end of zone training we all had lunch together. There is a sister who lives in Paola who always makes lunch for the missionaries after. So awesome. There was baked potatoes, chili, salad, dessert, SO MUCH FOOD. (there was actually a ton of leftovers at the end of the lunch) It was great. We were all pretty hungry and I put down 2 very large plates of food and a bowl of pasta. I was eating as much as I could because we didn't have a dinner that night. Well what I didn't realize was that it was 2:30 pm when we started eating and we in fact did have a dinner. It was our dinner with JD. Well it was about 30 minutes back home and I had already eaten so much that I was actually hurting. I don't know why I didn't stop. I don't usually go fully glutenous. Well we went and proselyted for about 40 min and had to head over to JD's for dinner. Hamburgers, potatoes, strawberry shortcake, green beans. He had made a ton of food. I won't lie I was ready to cry at the thought of eating more food. None the less I ate everything. At one point JD was talking about this really spicy salsa he had made and Elder Wright took the courtesy upon himself to tell JD how much I loved spicy food.

"Well try some! I made it fresh from my garden!"

"No thanks I'm ok"

"C'mon Elder Kelly don't tell the man no!"

Elder Wright could see the fear in my eyes because he knew I had over eaten that day but he continued to persist with a stupid smirk on his face. I'm not kidding when I say fear. I was seriously afraid to eat the salsa.  I already felt like I was going to throw-up from the amount of food I had eaten and I was positive that if I ate something super spicy it would put me over. Vomit sweats had already hit me. I said a prayer in my head that I would be able to keep it down and promised I would never eat so much food again (no joke), ate the chip with salsa, and walked out of that house like a champion. A really, really fat champion. I felt disgusting the remainder of the evening. I have never eaten so much food in so short of a time. Heavenly Father seriously helped me out there because I was sure that I was going to up chuck right there in front of JD.

On a more spiritual side of things, fast Sunday was so good and we had a lesson in gospel principals about the gifts of the Spirit. Such a good lesson.  Also this week I was reading through the King Benjamin sermon in the book of Mosiah and I love how it is similar to general conference. GO READ THE CONFERENCE TALKS. Over and over and over. Be acquainted with the modern day prophet's words. Build your testimony of the authority and keys he holds.

Me and Elder Wright are having a lot of fun and really enjoy the work here in the Olathe 2nd Ward. I'll send lots of pictures this week I promise.

I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God who has been called through revelation and continues to guide the Lord's church in righteousness. He is the literal mouth piece of God. I know the Book of Mormon is a book of scripture that invites a spirit into your life that cannot be duplicated by anything else. I know that God is real and is aware of each of us specifically. I know that the fullness of the gospel is here on the earth. I know that through the ordinances of the temple we can be with our families throughout eternity.

I love you all.

- Elder Kelly

Elder Kelly, Elder Butterfield, Elder Wright

Elder Butterfield trained Elder Wright and picked up 

Elder Kelly from the airport.  He was visiting the area with 

his family and took them for ice cream.

Elder Wright and Elder Kelly

Walk the Talk

Walk and Talk

Last week was walk week with no car and Elder Wright and I actually really enjoyed it. :) You just get to talk to so many more people throughout the day and we are hoping that this week we will be able to help a lot of those new potentials from this last week start meeting with us.

While we walked we...

- Were told by an older lady we were cute but there was no point in walking around looking stupid like that. Later in the conversation we found out she was atheist.

- Got chigger bites

- Sweated a lot (But definitely blessed none the less. Weather was about 10 degrees cooler than the past and future weeks surrounding it)

- Heard lots of yelling through car windows

- Got honked at by members

- Met JD and David (separate stories I'll tell later)

- Memorized scriptures

- Talked about best memories

- Experienced lots of other cool stuff you wish you experienced on your mission.   Haha

Thankfully here in Olathe it's a lot flatter than it is in Parkville.

Makes walking ten times more enjoyable.

We met with Paul and Kasey four times last week to help Paul stay busy and not thinking about smoking. Each time we went over he told us he was still feeling good about the 13th of Aug. Well he didn't smoke for about two days and at the end of the 2nd day (yesterday) he told us that he doesn't want to be baptized the 13th and isn't sure he is ready to quit smoking. But Kasey is still shooting for the 13th hopefully and we are praying that his dad will follow suit one day. We will still be meeting with both of them to help them further their relationship with Heavenly Father.

Wednesday we met David on the street and met with him on Friday. We taught the whole first lesson and he didn't seem to understand and looked at us like we had three heads. We were trying to ask questions to check understanding and he was just acting weird and saying, "I don't know". We will see if he ever wants to meet with us again

On Friday we were walking and saw two guys and a woman on their porch.

"Hey are you Jehovah's?!"

"No we are from the Chur-"

"Are you Mormon?!"

"Yes we are."

"Well then get up here!!!"

This is why I love the mid west. People never do that in Vegas. Well no one has a wrap around porch to sit on in Vegas either. We walked over and introduced ourselves. JD, Connie, and Matthew. (Kind of crazy: Matthew's name is Matthew Paul, and 20 minutes before we met him we were eating at a members home who's name was Samantha Marie) Just three friends hanging out on the porch drinking a beer and smoking cigarettes. We told them about ourselves a little bit and about the church and our beliefs. JD (He owns the home) invited us back to have a "cookout" next Friday. We told him we would come if there was no drugs, alcohol, or smoking going on. They said it was a deal. None of that until after the lesson is over and we leave. So we will drive by next Friday night and see if they actually kept it away and if not we will just go home and eat. We are praying it actually works out because they were all really nice people.

Saturday night bishop texted us asking if we had a dinner to which we joyfully responded "no". He said he would take us out that night.  We got in the car and he asked where we wanted to go. He listed a few and we chose one. As we were driving he said, "You know what. Do you guys like sushi?"

"UUh... YEAH!"

"Really? YES!! My sushi buddy moved away and no one eats sushi with me anymore."

Elder Wright and I had been talking two days before about how good sushi sounded and how sad it was that we probably wouldn't eat it for two years. Needless to say we were excited.  The way this placed worked was pretty cool. It was a large oval shaped bar and on the inside of the bar they made all the sushi. There was a train that went around the bar that they put the plates of sushi on and you just grabbed a plate off the train as it came by. They charged you based on how many plates you had and what color of plate it was.  Fun experience to have with Bishop Drake.

We are having a fun time out here in Olathe 2nd!

Love and miss you all (I really mean that) -Elder Kelly