Pictures

Zone Training

Sister Matagi's first name is Tess!

Making some Bomb Food

Hanging with Brother Perkins

Elder Taylor playing with this huge dog while I got a haircut

Some guy carved Jesus out of a tree trunk!

New sweater and shoes!

All the Good Stuff

So the family we met at the gas station, Tyron Aden Tyvia. We haven't been able to meet with them since last week so that is a bummer. But we did find two more guys that wanted to here our message!

We got a call on Friday from some guy named Michael who said we had talked to him and that he wanted us to come by. Elder Taylor and I could not recall any Michael. As we drove over there we finally remembered who he was. We had been driving to church and we saw a guy on the side of the road that we felt like we needed to talk to. So we pulled over and went and gave him a BofM with our number in it. Well we told him we would come to his house a coupled days later but elder Taylor and I totally forgot to put it into the area book because we were running to get to church! Well when we went and visited him and his cousin Deondre was also there. We taught them the restoration and they accepted a baptismal invitation for Oct 29th!  They weren't able to make it to church because of a family function but Elder Taylor and I feel that they will definitely progress to baptism.

Friday was Zone Training and there was such an awesome spirit there!

Elder Taylor trained on the enabling power of the atonement. He did a great job and had us split into different groups and discuss different scriptures and quotes from "in the strength of the Lord" by David A.Bednar. Always a good topic to think about and discuss.

Sunday Cameron received the Aaronic Priesthood and I was blessed to be able to confer it! Always a blessing to be able to exercise the priesthood.

We have been able to have Tony, one of the priests, come out with us pretty frequently the past two weeks and it has been a lot of fun getting to know him. He is the son of our ward mission leader, brother Johnston. A couple weeks ago we invited them to read the scriptures everyday and I guess Tony has been quite the stickler about it. He will call his family at the time when they usually read scriptures if he isn't there and remind them. We heard one of the conversations...

"Hey did y'all read scriptures yet?..... Ok well are you going to do it?..... Mom I need an affirmative Yes or No..... Well can I at least get an I love you?..."

Such a funny kid

Gotta Run!!

Love,

E. Kelly :)

Missions are the BEST!

Transfers!! Thankfully Elder Taylor and I did not get split up. Although I'm nervous that he might get pulled half way through this next transfer to be the new assistant. He and President are pretty tight and one of the assistants has been there for 6 months now. So hopefully that doesn't happen so I don't have to go to a trio for the last two weeks of the transfer and split the area with some other elders. That will be a sad day.

The zone had quite the face lift. 10 out of the 17 companionship were switched to some degree. So we are looking forward to getting to know everyone! 

Saturday night Elder Taylor had to use the bathroom super bad so we went to this gas station and it turned out there was no bathroom there. As we walked out to go somewhere else There was a family getting into the car that we stopped to talk to.  Tyron and Tivia are their names. They have two young girls under the age of 6. We shared the Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back the next night and teach the family. They accepted after some thought and we were pumped! We went by Sunday night and they were in fact there and they had in fact read what they had said they would read! We had a good lesson and set up a return appointment for Tuesday night!

Later that night on Sunday we went over to a different family that we had briefly talked to once or twice before.  Just the wife, Sivita, was there and she said her husband would be home in about 20 min so we left and went to another gas station because again we had to use the restroom. When we got there we saw a man and started talking to him. He told us that he had felt something when we pulled up and wanted us to come by and share a message with him and his wife. We gave him a Book of Mormon, used the restroom, and then headed back to Sivita's house. Her husband still wasn't there so we taught her outside with Josh Thieme, a return missionary who served in Vegas about 10 months ago. He knows a bunch of the people from out there. Oh he said hello to sister Ennis. Anyways as we taught the restoration the spirit was so strong! At one point Sivita talked about how she had always been frustrated by the fact that no churches taught that there was a Heavenly Mother. She said, "If our families are supposed to go on forever how is there not a Heavenly Mother?! There has to be!" Haha Elder Taylor and I were super pumped and had to restrain greatly so we didn't go on a tangent off on the awesome doctrine that she believed. She and her kids should be at church this next Sunday! :) She also asked if there were people in our church that visit the members to help them strengthen their testimonies so we explained what Home Teachers are and she asked if she could "Have some of those". We told her of course and can't wait to visit with her and her family again.

I am reading through the New Testament right now and found a really awesome JST

Matthew 16: 24-29

25 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.

26 And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments.        

27 Break not my commandments for to save your lives; for whosoever will save his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come.

28 And whosoever will lose his life in this world, for my sake, shall find it in the world to come.

29 Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls; for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I italicized the JST. The last one is my favorite! 

Love you all! Done forget to forsake the world and put off the natural man! :)

-E. Kelly 

Happy Happy Happy

Well this week was fast but slow with P-day being on a Thursday. It was weird because it felt like we have had 3 weeks in 1 and a half. 

Thursday at the endowment it was so amazing to see Patrick there. He is so humble and open to learning everything he can. President Vest went up to him in the Celestial room and asked if he had any questions he wanted to ask. He said, "No... I'm good. This is the happiest day of my life." Patrick is one of a kind. He is also in love with wearing garments. He keeps saying.  "Dude! They are so soft. I love it!"

Tuesday we had interviews and it is always awesome to sit down with president and visit a little bit. He always has our best interest in mind. While Elder Taylor was being interviewed I was talking with Sister Vest and asking her all her tips and tricks with cooking. She is probably the healthiest eater in the state of MO; it's kind of crazy. But it was also good to talk with her. 

Saturday morning session of conference we went and watched it with Patrick. Every Saturday we make him breakfast because he has to take some medicine on Friday nights that make him super weak the next morning. So on Thursday while we were shopping we bought some stuff to make biscuits and gravy. Elder Taylor got a recipe from his mom that was super good and we enjoyed that with Patrick as we watched that first session. Saturday afternoon we watched at the stake center with Levi and some members. Unfortunately we weren't able to get anyone to come to conference on either day that wasn't a member. Levi enjoyed it and came away with lots and lots of questions. We are excited to answer them all. 

Sunday morning we headed over to the Clark's house. They are some empty nesters that moved here from South Africa about two months ago. They cooked us up some delicious lunch for after the session was over. Pork, Butternut Squash, and a plethora of other food I don't know the name of that was quite delicious. 

We then headed over to the stake center for the afternoon session and we were able to get a less active over to watch. But he left early and haven't been able to figure out why. Hopefully he felt the Spirit.

Some of my favorites from conference:

- "When we pray. We pray to Heavenly Father, In the name of Jesus Christ, with the Guidance/assistance of the Holy Ghost. Engaging all three members of the God head at once." WOW!

- When we read the Book of Mormon we approach Jesus Christ.

- Elder Holland and Henry B. Eyring's talk during priesthood session. Both were AMAZING!

Transfers are this week and Elder Taylor and I are hoping so badly we don't get moved. We both love serving in Raytown and are having a lot of fun together. We are on the same page with almost everything. Always makes things much easier.

We have been listening to a song you all have to go listen to. Elder Taylor begged me to listen to it because I did not want to at first but after listening to it I was converted. It is "Silent Night" by Idina Mendzele. We listen to it all the time and we are not ashamed to say it even though it was the beginning of September when we first listened to it. You have to listen to the whole thing because the very end is so good.

I hope you all know i love you and miss you!

E. Kelly

MIRACLE

Well it has been one busy week and a half.

Let's back up to about two weeks ago on the 15th. Elder Taylor and I were weekly planning for the following week and realized that the Saturday of that next week was the 24th of Sep. At the beginning of the month we set the goal to baptize on the 10th and 24th of Sep. We had prayed about it and felt that we could do it as we turned more fully to Heavenly Father for help. Well Cameron was baptized on the 10th and now we had 9 days to find someone to be baptized since no one had progressed to that point yet. A rule here in this mission is that an investigator has to go to church at least twice before they can be baptized. No one in our teaching pool was at that point. As we discussed what our goal was for that next week in relation to baptizing and confirming someone we still felt that we had set that goal at the beginning of the month in faith with Heavenly Father's guidance. So we were going to stick to it and make a plan to find someone ready. We decided to fast on that upcoming Sunday. We fasted specifically that we would receive a referral of someone who was already prepared to be baptized that weekend and that was moving into our ward. We closed our fast on Sunday night and we were so excited to see what was going to happen that week. We both felt that somehow that goal would indeed be hit with the Lord's help.  Monday night we got a call from some Elders in a neighboring ward informing us that they had an investigator named Levi Watters who was scheduled to be baptized on Friday that would be moving into our ward. I had actually had the opportunity to interview Levi for baptism the week prior. For about an hour Elder Taylor and I couldn't say anything but WOW! Over and over and over. We said many prayers of thanks and gratitude.  Levi was baptized on Friday and confirmed this last Sunday. He is an energetic 20 year old who is on fire for the gospel right now. He loves to come on team-ups with us and is always bearing humble testimony as we talk to everyone we see.

God does not cease to be a God of miracles. He hears your prayers and is willing to answer them as we are proactive in trying to help Him do so. As a ward we just closed a 40 day fast and during that 40 day span of time 4 people were baptized in the Raytown ward. 3 of those people didn't even live in our area before the fast started. God really does answer as we ask, seek, and knock.

The reason I am E-Mailing on Thursday is because today we get to go to the temple!!!! Patrick Murphy is the guy who has MS I sent a picture of a few weeks ago. He is receiving his endowment today and we get to go!! He is so excited and we are so excited to see a large support from the ward there with him. He has been talking about it for months. Last night actually we went over just before going to our apartment to help him make sure he had everything ready. Just before we left he realized that his temple recommend was no longer where he had let it sit each day for so long. We searched the apartment for about 20 min and finally found it in a fire safe he has. He still isn't sure how it got there and neither are we. It had literally sat there in the same spot for weeks and then the day before it was moved. haha.

Sorry there are no pictures. I actually had a lot to send but on Tuesday this week I accidentally left my iPad on top of the car and we can't find it. So all my pictures are gone :(

But hope all is well!

Love Elder Kelly!!