Bailey Got Baptized!!

Hey Everyone!

This was the best week ever because... drumroll please.... Bailey got baptized on Sunday!!!! She is so sweet, so prepared, so willing and so ready to receive the gospel. The service was small and simple, but really sweet! Funny story: I was the chorister for the baptismal service, and when I got up to lead the song, I noticed that the pianist was playing the wrong song, and none of us knew the words or had primary books to look it up. So I pretty much stood up there awkwardly conducting a silent congregation... and then finally got the courage to tap the pianist on the shoulder and change the song. Haha. For some reason, that was the perfect way to start the meeting! Also, planning baptisms can be stressful so it was nice to laugh at myself a little!

Saturday night, the day before the baptism, we went out to dinner with Bailey, and it was so cool for me to realize that I consider her to be one of my closest friends out here. Heck, I only met her 6 weeks ago! But I care for her so so much. Since it was transfer week, too, it was such a tender mercy to acknowledge the friendship we have, because transfers are always interesting! Sister Gifford is great, though. I'm excited to serve with her and get to know her better!

There are so many things to say, I don't even know where to begin. On Saturday there was a cool Memorial Day Weekend Kite Festival thing in Milwaukee, right by the Lake, and we walked around and talked to people and gave out pass-along cards. I don't super have a testimony of street contacting yet - I haven't seen it to be very effective - but it DOES make me feel like a real missionary. haha. And we've got to do it, I guess! Anyways, the festival was saweeet and it felt good to be in the sun. I LOVE Lake Michigan!!!! I LOVE Milwaukee!!!!!

Something cool I read in the Book of Mormon recently is Alma 5:60, which talks about how Christ is our good shepherd, and if we hearken to Him, He will bring us into His fold. Then it says, "and he commandeth you that YE suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among you, that ye may not be destroyed."  Christ longs to protect us from the ravening wolves of the world... but WE are the ones who let them into our lives. I really do have a testimony that Satan can only influence us to the degree we allow, and thankfully the Atonement of Jesus Christ is always there to lift and protect and bless us to the degree we allow, as well.

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Shoutout to Dad for his remarkable service to our country :) GO AIR FORCE!!!!!!

Love you!!!

xoxo

Sister K.

Last Week of Transfer--

Hey everyone!

Transfers are this week, so these next couple days will be my last days with Sister Wise :( We are so sad to be getting split. I've learned so much with her and especially from her - things like how to teach with enthusiasm and power, how to show love and connect to people, how to force myself to run every morning (haha), how to be consecrated while still being myself and loving my family. Sister Wise is the best ever!!!!!!!! My new companion will be Sister Gifford, who I met once at the very beginning of my mission. I don't know much about her but she seems nice, and if I remember correctly I think she's from Brighton, Colorodo. (The only thing I know about Brighton is that we beat their high school team at a volleyball tournament my Junior year. Haha. They had nice jerseys though.)

So... I am totally overwhelmed at the thought of leading this area... but in the past few days I've realized how incredibly much I love the people here. Kayla, Bailey, the Bollinger family, and incredible ward members... it couldn't get any better. Bailey gets baptized THIS SUNDAY and I am SO BEYOND EXCITED for her!!!!!!!! I feel like I've said this already but she just has the most amazing faith... we went through the interview Qs with her on Friday and she told us she believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. Everything we teach her - even the commandments - makes SO much sense to her; it just clicks and feels right, and it's the coolest thing ever to watch. I feel like my eternal struggle on my mission is that the MORE I know about the gospel and the more I believe it, the HARDER it is to help other people understand it. So it's SO cool to be teaching someone whose heart and mind are so open to the message we are sharing!

Kayla is finally in town again (YAY!) so we got to see her at church yesterday! Absolutely INCREDIBLE, the strength of the LOVE I feel for this one. She opened up to us a lot about where her heart is in regards to the gospel lately, and I have to admit, I feel like I have stood EXACTLY where she is currently standing, and asked the exact same questions she is asking. She and I are so similar, in ways I can't even put into words. So many times I have just gotten the feeling that she is the reason I'm here right now. Which blows me away and fills me with gratitude because I want so badly to find the people I promised before this life that I would find. My heart aches for her... we are doing all we can to help her see that THIS IS TRUE. I believe it with all my heart!

Lately our best "finding" technique is calling old contacts whom we don't know while we're driving between appointments. Those who know me know that I am NOT a fan of calling people, especially strangers, but we've found several new investigators that way. Heck, we found Bailey that way!!! So it's totally worth the initial awkwardness. Plus it seems that we will NEVER run out of numbers to call... our area book is full of them. (Shoutout to Sister Hunter, who was here exactly a year ago - thanks for helping the future Sisters out! Haha.) 

Love you all! Hope your week is great:) 

Enjoy the beautiful weather!!!!

xoxo

Sister K.

Congratulations!!

Dear Family!

CONGRATULATIONS to Kayli and Bronson for tying the knot on Saturday!!! 

Thanks to everyone who sent pictures and details about the wedding. I hear it was a very beautiful ceremony :)  Kayli, I'm so grateful for your example! Cool story: I was at the Chicago temple on Friday, so the day before the wedding, and we were there with a couple recent converts so we were only able to do baptisms. Luckily, though, Sister Wise and I got a chance to dry off and get changed and go into the Celestial room for a couple minutes. On the way there, we saw one of the sealing rooms, and the Spirit was so strong! I could picture my whole family there, including Bronson, and I KNEW that they were doing fine... and that the wedding would go well, and that we were all sealed together forever :) It was a priceless moment and a HUGE tender mercy to get to be in the temple!

Our investigator Bailey is progressing toward her baptism at the end of May! She is such a sweet and special person. It's been cool to teach her because she is so willing to live the principles we teach her, and willing to change her life to make the gospel a part of it. She has such great faith!

Kayla, also, is doing well! She is out of town this week but texted us yesterday saying she found a Sacrament meeting to attend in New York :) We are blessed to be teaching the COOLEST PEOPLE I've EVER met here in Milwaukee YSA! I've been asking myself a lot lately - especially on Saturday - why I am out here, and over and over again the answer is THE PEOPLE. :) It's all about the people!!

We also got the chance to go on two exchanges this week with some struggling missionaries, and I learned a lot about myself and what is most important to me. I have a testimony that obedience DOES matter. Obedience is how we come to know God, because without laws or commandments, how WOULD we know Him? If there is no law, if there is no sin... there is no God. But we know that there IS a God, and He is a God of order and cleanliness, and He "doth immediately bless us" when we keep His commandments; even when we just DECIDE to TRY to keep His commandments. That's pretty incredible!

Family, I love you!!!! My heart was with you this week! :)

xoxo

Sister K.

May Day

Funny story: yesterday in Fast and Testimony meeting, one of the new guys (there are DOZENS of guys that move to Milwaukee in the summer to sell pest control) got up to bear his testimony and talked about how miserable he was this week knocking on doors when it was 30 degrees outside. All the missionaries just looked at each other and LAUGHED!!!!! Haha. Priceless. :)

Really though, this week was pretty dreary weather-wise! But today is GORGEOUS! Hopefully it stays that way!!!

Kayla is doing GREAT. She came to church and fasted yesterday... she is absolutely amazing... She inspires me in so many ways. (As in, I started reading the Bible again on my own because of how passionate she is about the word. Incredible!) In a way, I have kind of taken on her conversion process as my own conversion process; as she gets answers to her questions, I get answers to mine; as she prays about the Book of Mormon, I pray about it too. More than anything, Kayla has made me realize the depth and breadth of what we claim as members of the Church; we claim we have the only Priesthood authority; we claim our families are sealed in temples to be together forever after death; we claim that we make covenants with God; we claim we have a true modern Prophet; we claim that the gospel path is the ONLY path that leads to happiness and eternal life. That's HUGE!!! So if what we claim is true, it really is the MOST important message in the world, and being baptized begins the MOST important steps we can ever take to return to God. I've received my witness before that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, but I will always accept the opportunity to reaffirm that testimony, because there is nothing sweeter than gaining that knowledge and building on it!!

We are also teaching a YSA named Bailey, who has a baptism date for May 22nd! She is super duper sweet and seems really prepared. We found her by just calling the people we didn't know in our phone! It was inspired! She came to church yesterday and seemed to really enjoy it. We also had a couple recent converts come who haven't come in a while, and it's the GREATEST feeling to see them at church because I KNOW that's exactly where they need to be!!!

We went on exchanges with the Waukesha sisters, and I got to go back to my beloved Waukesha!! It was surreal! Tomorrow is my 11 month mark of being a missionary...WOW. So crazy! I LOVE going back to Waukesha because that's when I can really feel how far I've come. (Spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, I mean... Physically not so much - I currently live like 10 miles away from Waukesha. haha. But you know what I mean!)

Happy Mother's Day everyone! Can't wait to Skype!!

xoxo

Sister K.