Week 19!...I think :)

It is currently raining super hard outside with some nuts thunderstorms. The weather here is really weird and it's hot, cold, rainy, hailing, tornado watch, REALLY raining, in mood swings about every couple hours.

This is Mark, a new ward missionary.  We love it when 

he comes out with us because he is so funny.

Last week's p-day me and Elder Childress wanted to run some ladders before we left because we are getting fat. And when I say "we" I mean him. We did a few races with it and it was fun. I won't lie though I was so tried at the end of that day and slept hard. We had a lesson with Chris and Jeanie that day and just really talked to them about committing to make the changes necessary to progress towards June 25th. We helped them see how nothing we teach them will benefit unless the do what the Lord has asked. We further went on to show them that even after they are baptized none of this will profit them if they aren't in a good habit of church attendance. I think it seemed to sink in pretty well. This was our second CTJ meeting with them and it has seemed to work.

Wednesday at district meeting was awesome. I honestly live for those meetings. They are the only thing that keep me going spiritually. After, we exchanged with the Leavenworth 2nd Elders and I went with Elder Staheli back to his area. He came out with elder Katoa back in July and we had a really fun exchange. He is new this transfer and this was my first exchange with him so it was just really fun getting to know him better.

Friday was super exciting! Had a mini exchange with the other District leader's comp was with elder Childress at a trading for a couple of hours. We are really tight on miles this month and so we decided to bike to service at thrift shop while they were gone. It was a really fun bike ride actually and it was nice to get a good work out in twice that day. It is really hilly here and while going up one hill my legs were burning so bad and I was reminded of the crazy mountain biking experience up at Navajo lake. LOL  Later that day we went and taught Ashley Pasley's friend, Sarah. They are both graduating this year and it was a really awesome lesson! We taught the restoration and at the end invited Sarah to say the closing prayer and the spirit came rushing in as she prayed and she began to cry. She expressed how it is nice just knowing that God is always there as an unchanging strong hold while life is so crazy. She also expressed that she felt that this is where she needs to be. We teach her again tomorrow.

When we did weekly planning this week and we were really excited that we finally got to do step 2 (Set goals and make plans for investigators to be baptized and confirmed in the coming week) WOOT!! Sharon is doing awesome! We went over the interview questions with her and she really does understand the gospel through and through. We asked her to share her testimony at the end and she testified that she knows when we pray with a sincere heart and real intent we receive answers. That was the extent of her testimony but I loved it because that is so central to continuous conversion!

When you finally get to do Step 2 in planning!

Sunday! Chris and Jeanie finally came to church again! WHAT!!!! They both seemed to enjoy it too! It was so good to see them making the changes!  Rick Harmer (A less active we have been working with since February) finally came to church too! He has made really slow progression. But progression and it was so exciting to see him there.

Me with Rick Harmer

Some things that I have been really pondering this past week.

1. We taught a lot of lesson on prayer this week and we found a common theme to people have mediocre prayers is that they don't listen. So I would pose the question to each of you. Do you listen after you pray? If not your missing the other half of the prayer. Talking to yourself is considered insanity right? #listen

2. A story was shared in sacrament about a family who had 5 sons on a mission at once and the parents always made sure that they wrote their sons about their personal missionary efforts. So I just wanted to ask any of you that write me to please share the missionary experiences and efforts you are making. If you don't have any then it sounds like a good time to start!!!!!

Love you guys! 

-Elder Kelly

Shatto Milk #bomb #banana

Mirrors that hate tall people.  So annoying

Warren K, aka Chip, is a recent convert that we have been teaching.

When he saw this picture he said "Holy Smokes! Am I getting a gut again!"

Weird Weather

So a common game we play on Pday lately is Revenge. We play it all the time because everyone can play. It is the same as knockout but whoever wins has to get everyone out. So if the person that got you out gets out you are back in. In makes for some long games but it is such a good work out because you are running so much. At the end of the day we had a guy call us who we had given a Book of Mormon in passing a couple days earlier. He was genuinely interested and we were able to go meet with him and teach the whole restoration. He said he would read and pray! Has a lot of real intent in his attitude so we are excited.

I have been memorizing a lot of scriptures lately and it is making me so much more happy. It's kind of cool how the scriptures can actually enlighten your mind.

Working on memorizing all of these scriptures that go with each doctrinal point we have to memorize.  (see attachment Image)  It has been fun so far. You should memorize these because you can answer any doctrinal question through these.

On Wednesday we had district meeting and Elder Childress asked if I would give a training on Charity and as I was studying for it I found a really cool scripture about love and how God works. 

3 Nephi 27:15.  

 "And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works."

When I read this I was just think about why I am drawn towards Jesus Christ. In my head I would have to say I am drawn to him because of the love He shows me. Christ says that he will draw all men to him according to the power of the father. God's power is love. No wonder charity is greater than all others to have at the last day.

Sharon Burns asked us to baptized!!! She is being baptized on May 28th! WOOT WOOT! We are so excited to see her take this step forward! She continues to amaze us with her knowledge every time we teach her.

After that lesson with Sharon we went and taught Mary Pruess and her daughter Anna. Mary is the woman that took us to dinner before we ever taught her or anything like that. She just thinks the missionaries are awesome people. We taught them the whole first lesson and the spirit was definitely present.

Friday we got to go to seminary at 6 in the morning. It made me not miss early morning seminary even a little bit. We got to do a Q&A about missionary work and missions. It was kind of fun to answer their questions.

Friday we were giving service at a local thrift store and there was this teenager girl there who was looking for a book to take to a book exchange at school. We told her we would give her a Book of Mormon for free to take. Apparently she posted something about it on Instagram because a girl in our ward texted us and said that she saw her friend's post and texted her about it. The girl now wants to learn more and we have an appointment on Friday!

As I have prayed these last couple nights before bed I can feel Heavenly Father's love for me so strong. It is a marvelous feeling. God lives and His son Jesus Christ is our savior. Don't ignore them for things of this world that don't matter. Treasures in heaven are more important!

Love

- Elder Kelly

Mother's Day

Some things of note.

There is a young man named LJ that we street contacted into back in March I think. Well we went and tried him when we had an appointment fall through with a member team up. He answered and we got the chance to teach him the whole entire restoration! He was really humble and sincere. We set a return appointment and when we went back we taught him again! At the end of the second lesson we asked him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true and after everything he said that he felt enlightened! Those that are humble are always more susceptible to the spirit that others. SO BE HUMBLE!

Youme and Jeanie didn't come to church :( church is always the biggest let down to be totally honest. It stinks.

As I am writing this we had someone we street contacted call us back!

That is always so exciting because it is so rare.

I love you guys and I am so sorry this is short but I don't have time!

Love you guys

-Elder Kelly

Fast and Testimony Meeting...Always a Hoot!

Great week! Elder Childress and I get along extremely well! He told me that my MTC comp (Who he trained) said that me and elder Childress were very similar. Kinda cool. He is super good at talking with everyone and it's so awesome! Makes me always want to try harder! He is from Gilbert AZ and graduated back in 2010. He used to have way long hair and rock a mustache! Like a long mustache. I'll send pictures.

Not going to tell much but just some crazy stuff from this past week.

Wednesday We got a call from a sister in our ward asking for help moving.

"Oh you and brother hall are moving out?" (They aren't married yet).

"No we split up last night"

"Oh ok, see you at 3"

We got there and she is like rushing to get this truck loaded and I'm thinking. "Am I helping this lady sneak out before her husband gets back from work?!" Oh well. When I went into the house at one point I saw this note written on the white board. Yup, she was sneaking out.  Kinda crazy!

Then when we went to teach some lessons and we were talking with a member and he straight up started bashing with us. Arguing about priesthood authority and such it was really weird.

Fast and testimony was the cherry on top for weirdness. The testimonies are great. Just one after another. Then we had a member get up right towards the end and start teaching some serious false doctrine. Always awkward. Then following that person another woman got up; a non-member. She gets up and starts declaring from the pulpit that she is so grateful for Doctor Roy Hall (member of our ward) for saving her life by bringing her to church. She is practically yelling and also decided to declare that she had unprotected sex with a professional athlete when she was a Chiefs cheerleader and had an HIV scare and Brother delivered the news that she was ok. She also asked the congregation to pray for her because she had cancer. It was the weirdest thing. Very nice lady just TMI!

Anyways, sorry I don't have a ton of time this week but I love you guys. Have an awesome Mother's Day!

-Elder Kelly

Transfers!

Well this week was a good one because I LOVE change. Always motivates me to work harder. After emailing on Tuesday it was weird to think about being in the area without elder Katoa because I felt like all the work was our work because we had white washed in. I had this weird feeling that I was being left alone in the area to be a missionary by myself. It was a weird feeling. Then I was just stressing that my companion wasn't going to be as hard of a worker as elder Katoa and I was stressed all of Wednesday. Wednesday we did our best to get elder Katoa all packed in as short of a time as possible so we could still proselyte. 

Sabrina told us that she didn't want to meet anymore and was going to take what she had learned and apply it elsewhere. In an earlier lesson she said that she felt like God had led us to her. So why was she pushing something that God had led to her away from her. She couldn't give us an answer. She realized that it wasn't the best idea and we seemed to be OK by the end of the lesson. 

Thursday morning we woke up all anxious to see what was happening at transfers. We showed up and took some pictures and then went and read the roster with the transfer news. Elder Katoa is the zone leader in Platte city so he is now my zone leader and I'll still see him every P-day. My new companions name is Elder Childress. He is 24 years old and has been out for 6 months and just finished training my MTC comp, Elder Barlow! Kinda crazy. He has been out in the boons in Trenton and was in a branch. Coming to Parkville; he said that he has been in shell shock every time we drive around because there are so many people. He is a very hard worker and loves serving the Lord. Definitely someone I'm glad to serve with. In fact at the mid-trainers meeting me and him were asked to do a role play and afterwards I thought to myself, "He would be an awesome missionary to serve with!  So far everything has been really good! We get along way good and we both are trying to figure out what can make us more effective and efficient in our area. Our goal this transfer is to begin to up the ward effort by working more heavily though the ward missionaries. He is from Gilbert, AZ and so we are both really enjoying the heat that is starting to come back!

Good - bye Elder Katoa, see you on PDay

Elder Barlow, Elder Kelly, Elder Childress

Elder Childress, Elder Kelly

I hope you guys are working hard back home to spread the gospel with others who need it! Be anxiously engaged in a good cause! Be an agent unto yourself!  I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holly Ghost are to be the center of our life. Pray to see how you can further center your life on them!

Love Elder Kelly!

Sent from The Alpha and Omega Mission

Elder Kelly, Jeanie, Chris, Elder Katoa

Chris said, "Your parents are going to wonder who googlie eye is."

Word Up

Transfers are this week. WHAT!? It'll be weird to see what all happens!

Weatherfby Lake near our apartment

This past week was a good one! We went on exchanges twice and that always makes the week fly by! Wednesday after District Meeting we exchanged with the zone leaders. Elder Heinrichsen (the kid from Vegas) came with me to my area. We had some lessons set up for the evening and lots of potentials to find during the day. Two of the houses we tried were just houses we drove past often and I had always wanted to go knock. One was a huge old looking White House and I just thought it was cool. The other one was a house that had this very distinct purple car parked out front that we see driving around town ALL the time. The purple car house was this guy who seemed genuinely interested to learn more and invited us back for next Wednesday after we shared the whole restoration on his door step. His name is Buck and was pretty cool to talk to. The big White House was an older man in his 50's or 60's (sorry if you don't think that is an old age). He was so kind and had a lot of land. The house had been built back in the mid 1800's by his wife's family. He redid the entire inside and seemed to love the house. He had rental cottages in the back lot and told us that he used to actually house missionaries in them. He and his wife had Thanksgiving dinner with the missionaries once and had them over for dinner frequently. Unfortunately he shut us down every time we tried to invite him to learn more or share anything with him. He said to come and talk to him if we ever needed anything. Then when we asked to share numbers he declined. LAME. He just already knew all the missionary tricks that we use to try and share the gospel. So he was almost as cool as Buck.

The District

Zone Training with Pres Vest

Then on Friday we exchanged with Elder Smith and Elder Attwood. I stayed in my area with elder smith. The interesting part of this exchange is we are the elders that aren't allowed to drive yet because we are both new. Well to make it even more interesting Elder smith broke his 5th Metatarsal in his foot on P-day playing basketball so we couldn't be on bikes because he was on crutches. We planned the day to visit every person that was in our area book that was within less than a half mile of our apartment. We headed off on foot and holy cow we met the coolest people ever and talked to the most people ever! I think in 3 hours we talked and had full conversations with 10 plus people which never happens! Elder Smith was a beast and smiled and laughed the whole day even though his shoulders and hands were killing him the whole time. It was a good day and I hope I serve with Elder smith in the future.

We have a new investigator named Youme who met a while ago but who we were finaly able to set an appointment with. We talked with her the night I was on the first exchange and we put her on date for May 21st!  She is very prepared and loves feeling the spirit. She told us that if she can just feel it in her heart she will do it. SO COOL RIGHT!?

Anyways I don't have much time left but the reason we emailed on Tuesday instead of Monday is because Elder Katoa and I went to the temple and if we go to the temple that is our P-Day but the temple isn't open on Mondays so Tuesday it was! We were glad we got to go before transfers were up and we might of got split. As I am emailing elder Katoa got a call from president and he is now going to be a zone leader so it's official. He is leaving :( I love him to death and I'll miss him.

At the Temple with Brother Stocks and Elder Katoa

I love the Lord! He is my light and King!

Elder Kelly :)

Some guy gave us this Anti Mormon literature.  

He said he felt in his heart to give it to us.  

The bug from Harry Potter 4 is real.

Service is the Best!!

Monday was a really weird day and I can't remember most of it honestly. Tuesday we went over to a less active's, Sister Vargas, house and did a bunch of yard work for her. She has a pretty large yard and it was really fun. We had to get this huge branch that fell off one of her trees to fall all the way down and then cut it up in pieces. It stabbed the ground and then the other end was like 60 feet up in the air. It took forever to get it to fall down and it was pretty sketchy because we couldn't get enough leverage on the top half of it and we couldn't tell where this super heavy thing was going to fall. We got an old dog leash and tied it as high up as I could get it while standing on an old wooden high chair we found in the back yard.  When we finally got it to fall it fell perfectly into the biggest opening of the grass with out smashing elder Katoa and I or anything else. After that we got her riding lawn mower to start after fiddling for a while and Elder Katoa cut the whole big area with that while I cut another area he couldn't get to with a push mower. We had a good time honestly and headed on home to shower and change pretty tired.  That evening we went and taught a part member family at the Guthrie's home; it was a lot of fun.

Elder Kelly and Elder Katoa after serving

Wednesday again we went over to Sister Vargas's home and worked on the front yard this time. We mowed, weeded, and cleaned out the gutters on her house. Honestly it never even crossed my mind that people do that.  That's what happens when you grow up in Vegas. That part took the longest because we had to unscrew all the gutter covers, clean it, then re-screwed them all back on trying to find each piece that matched with the random screw holes on the gutter. That night we went to dinner with a member at this place called Bone-Fish Cafe. It was bomb digity and I had some really good fish tacos. After that we went over to Emma Patterson's house again and taught Kandace E. The Doctrine of Christ by reading through 2 Nephi 27 with her. I always love the lessons when we read chapters from the scriptures.

Thursday was another sweet day! We taught Sabrina around 10 in the morning about temple and family history work. She is pretty interested in Family History so it was cool to explain that whole thing to her. Immediately after the member that took us to Bone-Fish took us out to lunch to this restaurant he owned. It is a Louisiana Kitchen/Marti Gras style kitchen and man the food is AMAZING! He owns 6 different locations. I think he said there is one in Texas and the rest are in Kansas and Missouri. The place is called Jazz and man if any of you are out here you have to eat there. We had Gumbo as an appetizer (had no idea what the heck that was) and I wanted to just keep eating it because it was so good. Then we headed home and did our weekly planning and it was probably the most efficient planning Elder Katoa and I have ever done. We got so much done. That night we taught Sharon (Emma Patterson's other friend) at the church before mutual about the plan of salvation. She has really close family who passed the last couple years and so it was really good to be able to teach her about eternal families and the spirit world.  The struggle with Kandace and Sharon right now is just getting permission from the parents. Both mothers aren't for it.

Friday was zone training and I just love those meetings so much! I felt so spiritually pumped! It was one of those meetings you leave and just want to go be like Captain Moroni and make the powers of Hell shake. At the end of the meeting we started exchanges and I went to the other area out in Leavenworth, Kansas. Their apartment is so gnarly. That night we helped a woman move for about two hours. We had to feed everything into an elevator to get it down stairs and it took a while. We were working as fast as we could so we could help her as much before we had to head home. I was sweating so bad.

Saturday morning I felt so gross working out and having to do push ups and sit ups on their floor. We did service that morning too. It was a kid's Eagle project and we moved a huge pile of mulch via wheelbarrow. Thanks to my concrete job of wheelbarrowing concrete the mulch was so easy. I was told like twenty times I was dumping the mulch perfectly so they didn't even have to rake it into place. If only the Latino dudes from work thought that way :P Saturday after exchanging back we went straight to the visitors center with a less active and her son. Then drove straight back to our dinner appointment and then drove all the way back to the VC to take Sabrina too! Both visits were really good and our mission is blessed to have both the visitors center and the Liberty Jail. Sabrina actually brought a friend so that was pretty cool that she did that. Her friend had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and stuff. And the best part was we had a member ride down to the VC both trips! I love this ward.

Well I love you all so much! Don't forget to always be sharing the gospel with friends!

Love Elder Kelly :)