:)

The weeks fly by. Already half way through September??? Weird.

Elder Taylor and I are having a pretty good time here in the Raytown Ward.

For the last three months a big focus in the mission is having the faith to pull down the powers of heaven to facilitate miracles. At zone training two weeks ago we invited the zone to read a talk called, "The Challenging and Testifying missionary". It is an amazing talk and everyone who participates in missionary work should read it. Well a big focus of it is to invite, invite, invite and testify, testify, testify so you can see and find those who are really prepared to follow the voice of the Lord. So more often than not we extend baptismal invitations in our first contact with people on the streets, at doors, etc. And it works.

1. The missionaries personally become more amped and bold in their work as we started to realize that there really are those out there who are prepared to receive this message. Just in the last two weeks we all have been able to feel the spirit so much more because we are so much more focused on helping people feel the comforting feeling of the spirit and then extend an invitation to see if they will act on the feeling they are having.

2. We have been forwarding out each of our miracles to the zone so that we can all see the miracles flow throughout the day. Nothing boosts your morale more than when you get a text saying that someone accepted a baptismal invitation in their first or second contact with missionaries. You start to walk with a little bit more speed in your step and focus in your thoughts.

3. We have been able to testify plainly and boldly to people simply about how aware God is of each of them. Often times we distinctly feel prompted to go talk to people yet they aren't interested in learning more or meeting with us. So we testify to them that we were sent from God and that we know even though they may be in a low spot at this time in their life (because more often than not they are) that God has a plan for them and that they can choose to be happy or sad in this life because of Jesus Christ and the Atonement that he performed. It is powerful to see the Spirit pull down walls of fear or doubt when we testify to people about this. They almost always walk away with a smile on their face and a slight glint in their eye. Probably one of the most fulfilling things we get to do.

We are teaching one of the families in the ward the lessons and on Friday we were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They have 7 kids that are all pretty young and so we needed to get their wiggles out and Elder Taylor suggested we play a quick game of Shurrades (not sure how to spell that). Well all the kids went first and it was funny to watch them impersonate animals and other things. Then it was Elder Taylor's turn. He is obsessed with Spiderman so he came in swinging on webs and fighting off bad guys. Super funny and then I came out walking on my knuckles like a monkey and started jumping up and down screaming like a chimpanzee. We were all laughing pretty hard at the end of everyone's turn.

It is pretty cool I won't lie to see children the age of 4-10 understand the doctrines of the gospel. Which by the way if you haven't seen the kids bible videos yet you need to go watch them. They have young kids describe events in Christ's life. Very powerful.

Hope all is well and beautiful!

E. Kelly

Cameron Is a Happy Man

Well it has been one busy week!

Tuesday we found out that Cameron could be baptized this weekend!!

Elder Taylor and I were pretty animated about it.

Elder Kelly and Elder Taylor

This is Patrick Murphy.  He is a recent convert of a year.  He has MS and cannot walk

so three times a week we go visit with him and continue to teach him.  He is probably

 the funniest person I have met.  We love to take him out with us. Thursday he joined

us at the visitors center.  (Elder Beyeler thinks his guns are bigger than mine.  He is wrong.) 

Wednesday night we were on exchanges with the Assistants and Elder Beyeler came with me to my area and E. Taylor left to the other area.  Elder Beyeler is awesome and I really enjoyed the exchange. That night we went to the Liberty Jail with Cameron and Brother Clark. When we picked up Cameron he came out of his house looking low down. I asked if he was doing alright. Apparently the night before he was jumped and robbed while he walked home from work. They took his phone and wallet.  It has been very apparent how much Satan does not want Cameron to be baptized. But Cameron just being himself said he hopes those men can one day see the happier life style they can live. Not the slightest tone of malice in his voice. WOW!

The spirit at LJ was so strong and it was perfect because Cameron could apply the principles that JS learned while in LJ. Then on Thursday morning we took Cameron to the Visitors Center and watched one of the new Meet the Mormons videos the church came out with. The one we watched is called "The Horseman" We taught a lesson based off the principals found in the video on eternal marriage and temple work.  (Kind of crazy I'm pretty sure Lindsey Kelly was in it for a split second. Someone needs to check on that for me.)

Friday was Zone Training and it was a lot of fun! One sister trained on faith and hope but went about it in an interesting way. She told us to identify some of our hopes and fears. She invited us to take every fear we had written down and find a scripture that can answer that; can take that fear and replace it with faith. Very powerful exercise with scripture.

Elder Kelly, Cameron, Elder Taylor

Saturday was the baptism and it was AWESOME! Cameron was so happy and there were a good amount of members who attended. As we sang the opening hymn we all sang very animated and loud! It was so powerful to be sitting in the front of the room and hear the power of each person singing behind me. Cameron asked elder Taylor to baptize him and he was very excited about that. I had mentioned before Cameron has a lot of really unique experiences with the spirit. Well as he and Elder Taylor were changing back into their suits Cameron said, "You want to know something kind of crazy?"

E. Taylor "Sure"

"About a year ago I was with my dad and I had a very distinct impression to go to Dallas. So I acted on it and went to Dallas, TX seeking work so I could move there but nothing ever happened so I left. Well I ended up here in MO and one of the missionaries that teaches me is named Dallas... Kind of cool huh?"

Elder Taylor and I did indeed think it was "cool" to say the least.

The next day Elder Clark confirmed Cameron!

So exciting to see people act on the message of the restoration!

Love you all!

- E. Kelly

Labor Day

Well it has been a very fun week. 

Good bye Elder Wright

Elder Wright made this bomb dinner so I could 

finish packing.  Super yum.

Elder Taylor and I continue to find out weird things that we are very similar in. Life experiences, choices of food, etc. This new ward is so much fun and the people that live here super humble. We are right in the heart of where the "Community of Christ" and "RLDS" churches are the strongest. We have a lot of weird conversations with people who totally believe that the Book of Mormon is a real book of scripture but also believe that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet after translation, but also believe that Joseph's son was the next prophet, but also believe that the Book of Mormon is just a "good book" but not actually scripture. It is super weird. Satan is pretty cunning by taking the truth and just twisting it .0001% to make everyone disagree on things. So rude. 

The apartment we live in has been occupied by missionaries for a few years now and it is pretty obvious by the many hand prints on walls and doors that don't really want to come off. Gross. Thank you for teaching me how to clean and stay clean! Me and Taylor are pretty sure that we are 2 of 5 white people in the entire complex.

This last week Elder Taylor's trainer and family came out and took us to get some BBQ. We ate at "Author Bryant's". Its world famous and several presidents have gone there apparently. Pretty tasty stuff I'll say. 

Elder Monroe was just released from the MIM.  

He used to live here in Vegas and we knew his family.

Elder Taylor was trained by Elder Monroe a year ago.

We met with Cameron every day this past week and He was indeed able to come to church as well!!! He makes me and Elder Taylor so happy every time we meet with him. He is so faithful and holds tight to the Iron Rod. So far the adversary has worked really hard to keep him from getting baptized with a plethora of different temptations such as"

- old friend asking to have sex

- people telling him not to get baptized until they can come

- mockery by co-workers for his decision

- etc. etc.

The coolest part is that Cameron recognizes it is the adversary and Cameron just chuckles right in the adversary's face and keeps moving forward in faith. So exciting!!

This last week we had two lessons with him at the Visitors Center that he really enjoyed. We were able to learn a little bit about church history there in MO and listen to the testimony of the modern day prophets. We also helped him set up a study plan so he can begin to understand the scriptures more fully. 

PSA!!!

ALL OF YOU WHO DON'T STUDY THE SCRIPTURES EVERY DAY ARE LOOSING THE BLESSING OF KNOWING THE WORD OF THE LORD!!!! MAKE A PLAN AND READ FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! 

Anyways. Cameron had his baptismal interview last Tuesday and we found out that we might need to push his baptism back a little bit. There are some legality things that need to be confirmed and cleared before we can move forward. Even that didn't seem to make him skip a beat. He told us he wants to make sure it is done the right way and is willing to wait as long as it takes. 

In his studies he found a scripture that helped him out.

2 Nephi 6:7 

"and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me."

The zone we serve in here is so awesome. We cover all of the Visitor Center sister companionships so there are a lot of us here in the Independence Zone. Oh fun fact I forgot to mention last week. President Kato ,the stake president, is a convert from a restoration branch that was a break off from the Community of Christ church and he actually used to be one of their bishops. Super awesome man full of energy for missionary work. Oh another fun fact is that our bishop has the hobby of being an Elvis impersonator and he does it on the weekends for extra money. Kind of funny. 

We serve really close to down town Kansas City and so whenever someone needs a blessing and asks for the elders to do it we get sent because they don't want the missionaries from all over the mission driving super far. So we went to the hospital last week. The hospital is called Children's Mercy and it is probably the coolest most kid friendly hospital I have every been to. It smelled like cotton candy and other sweets throughout a majority of the building. Also all the halls had different names as did the Elevators.

Example: Purple Castle Hall (entire hall decked out it a purple castle feel to it) pretty awesome I'll say. The only down side.... is that this place is a labyrinth. There is no order to the halls it seems and it took us a good 30-40 minutes to navigate to where we needed to be. 

I hope all is going well with each of you!!!

- E. Kelly