Thanksgiving

Hello Hello!!

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! :) We definitely did! We spent it at multiple different members homes, eating here and there as we went :) But that wasn't the beginning of my week, so let's start with

Monday....

Best. P-day. Ever. We didn't do a thing but email, sleep, and get groceries. It was quite the delight! Our evening was pretty neat because we checked on a referral from the bishop's wife and it's the
cutest family from Norway! They have an Asian nanny who is Buddhist and asked about what we believe about life after death. Our original plan was to teach the restoration, but switched gears to meet their needs :) It was wonderful! They want us to come back as soon as our schedules line up :) We love them!

District meeting on Tuesday was super cool! Elder Jones, our zone and district leader, had us try a neat way to receive revelation. He asked us ahead of time to think of a serious question that we wanted Heavenly Father to answer, missionary related or not, and bring a paper to write on to the meeting. When we got there he gave us a few steps to receive an answer to the question we brought.

1. Go to a quiet place, spread out, be as alone as you can be without being out of sight and sound of your companion. 

2. Pray (on your knees) for inspiration as you seek an answer to your question.

3. Read any chapter in the Book of Mormon, one you feel guided to

4. Write down any thoughts or feelings you have while reading
5. When finished with the chapter, kneel and pray again. Explain to
God what you've written and ask if you missed anything.
6. Read the chapter again, writing any new thoughts or feelings you may have.
7. Kneel and pray, asking if the things you've written are true.

It was SUCH a cool experience!! I received multiple different answers to my question, and highly recommend trying this method when seeking answers from Heaven :) 

The purpose of this exercise was to help us see how important the Book of Mormon is not only to us, but to the people we teach. It was saved for our day for a reason! I was grateful for that experience; it really strengthened my testimony on prayer, the Book of Mormon, and the reality of a Heavenly Father who truly cares. In the afternoon we did service at a recent convert's home, and in the

evening I went to get my MRI! It was the coolest thing. I'd never done anything like it before, so I was pretty excited :) They put me on a table with a pillow to lay my head on, and the machine slid me into a tube (half way; my whole body didn't need to go in). It was super loud! They gave us ear plugs and in total it took about 40 minutes. I slept like a rock the whole time :) the loud noise reminded me of a washing machine, or a dryer; the repetitive humming/clicking sound made me sleepy! 

When it was all over we went to correlation with our ward missionaries, which is always a good time.

On Wednesday I got a phone call from our good friend Pa, who was the doctor at the MRI place, and said the radiologist wanted to get a couple more pictures of my leg. So, we had to go back.

It only took about 20 minutes total that time though :)

We taught a lesson to Du and Ju that evening on prayer, revelation, and prophets. This lesson was the most spiritually guided lesson I've had in a very long time! The spirit is the coolest! 

Sister Williams and I pray and read the scriptures together more than I've ever prayed and read with any other companion. Seriously we pray ALL the time! Because of this, I've also never been lead by the spirit as much as I have been this transfer :) I LOVE this companionship! We agreed at the end of the day that this is the best companionship we've ever had because of its uniqueness. It's darn hard, but it's wonderful!! :) we have grown in our own ways leaps and bounds! I am incredibly grateful for Sister Williams :)

Thanksgiving was so fun! We had dinner with our favorite family ever! We have a lot of favorites actually, but this one is particularly MY favorite family :)

Afterwards we went to see the family who's son just left on a mission, and the dad isn't a member. We learned all about church in Kentucky because that's where their family that was there

was from. It's so different! In the little tiny town they live in 14 out of 46 primary children are active, most people in their ward wear jeans and t-shirts to church (whereas we typically wear our best out
of respect to God), and other odd/uncomfortable things about their ward. I felt for their missionaries and thought about the work over there! I bet they're busy :) All in all thanksgiving was a super good
day, and it was extra good because I got to spend it with my companion who happened to be a good friend of mine 3 months prior to this transfer :) so it was like spending a holiday with a best friend, and that was a tender mercy :)

Cool things happened on Friday! We had our leadership meeting and then went to choir practice with the rest of the mission who wants to sing at the Temple Visitors Center on Christmas Eve :) We have been invited to perform a 30 minute program and it will be so much fun! 

To make the day better, we (the sisters in my mission) received an email from President Huntsman informing us that the Temple visitors Center has invited all of our sisters to help out during the Holiday season, so we are each assigned an evening to go, pair up with a TVC sister, and BE a TVC sister all night! What an experience!! :) our day is next Wednesday, the 9th :)

All of our appointments canceled that night, but... that's the life of a missionary! Always keeping us on our toes :)

Sister Jensen needed help on her farm again! So on Saturday our zone got together and helped her out from 9am-3pm. That's always a good time :) It was super funny because sister Williams and I were sent to a swamp to clear out wooden pallets and anything else that trashed what was once known as a "kiddie pond"... Ya know... For children to swim in. When we got there we found a remote control for a tv sitting on a pallet. Then as we got closer to the area, we found a torn up couch sitting in the water, along with a toilet and a sink! It looked like someone dumped their house in a swamp, and we pulled it all out. It was fun :)

We had one of the most spiritually led lessons with the Cl's that night! :)We asked the 15 year old son why he wanted to be baptized and he expressed his desire to receive the constant companionship of
the Holy Ghost. Then we asked the dad the same question and he expressed his desire to not only be clean and have a fresh start, but to be an eternal family :) I literally covered my face with my hands
and smiled so big because I was bursting with love, gratitude, and joy :) They get to be an eternal family!!!! Like, hello!? Is that not THE coolest thing?!? :) Ah. It was such a good night :)

Sunday was the best day of the week, though :) I can't even express my gratitude for church and the spirit that I feel every time I go. Go to church, people!! :)

Dinner last night was amazing! The family we ate with had friends over who are inactive. The daughter of the inactive family was writing a paper for her religion class on the LDS faith, and wanted to interview us to better understand the religion. It was the coolest :) We ate dinner and played a game called "Big Booty" which isn't as odd as it sounds haha :) it's super fun and we cried from laughing so hard; much needed :)

The spirit was so strong as we taught a lesson about prayer! Oh it was so strong!! :) I love the Holy Ghost. It truly does testify of truth. I feel it every time I teach and bear testimony :)

This was a kind of slow but good week! Christmas is in 26 days!!!! :))) I love and miss you bunches. Thanks for all you do :)  ~ Sister Kailey

PS: Bad news. Apparently I had 3 stress fractures and have to walk around on one of those scooters with my knee up for 6 weeks. They were going to put me in a full leg cast for 4-6 months, but.... No thank you :) I'm not allowed to exercise anything from the waste down, so no cardio, for 4-6 months and I think I'm going to die. That's all.