Monday, May 18, 2015

Our most contacts so far in this area

Hello :) 

Last Monday we had an appointment at 6. When we got there she asked if we could come back in an hour. So we went tracting for an hour and ended up meeting a teenage kid who was interested. His name is CJ. He was the only one home so we were teaching him outside. Then his parents pulled up and i was really nervous of what they would say. I wanted to make sure they knew what we were doing and so i just let them know that we had left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and just asked if it was okay if we came back. The mom made it very clear that she was not interested but that her son was confused and so she would let him do what he wanted. I thought that was interesting! But we will hopefully teach him later this week. 

When we went back for our appointment the lady had said that it wasn't a good time and her plans had just changed. So we rescheduled. As we were leaving two 13 year old girls came out and just asked what we were doing. We told them we share a message about Christ and told them we could teach them if it was okay with their mom. We were able to teach them the full Restoration and they had really good questions. They wanted to know what happened after this life and why bad things happen. One of the girls took a copy of the Book of Mormon and we will meet with her again this week! It was a great Monday night. 

Tuesday afternoon we went and visited a less active that our ward mission leader had asked us to go find. She is 21 and was very hesitant when we first started talking. She actually said that she was in the process of becoming a catholic. Through conversation we found out that she was baptized when she was 8 and then her parents got divorced and they didn't really stay active. She went a little bit but just felt like the gospel was really restricting. Sister missionaries had come to see her before and she felt like they were really pushy and didn't really listen to her. Well after talking for about 30 minutes she had mentioned that she wouldn't mind us coming by and teaching her the lessons again. She doesn't have a strong understanding of the church but feels like she keeps getting pulled back and she doesn't understand why. She is a teacher and so the end of the school year is busy but we are going to start teaching her at the beginning of June. 

Later that day we went out tracting. We hadn't been able to teach a lesson and decided to go do something else. Then we decided "just one more door". Well that was when we met Bobby. She is in her mid 50's and had had friends that were members. She said she didn't know really anything about our church except that we kept food storage. So we explained that as missionaries we come around and teach people about the gospel so then they have the opportunity to choose if that is what they want. She let us in and we had a really good lesson on the Restoration. The spirit was really strong and then at the end we asked her if she had any question she felt like had never been answered. She said that she couldn't understand why some people just don't feel like they have repented all the way, implying that she had never felt like she had been forgiven. I had no idea what to say and was so grateful for my companion. She explained that it was because she had never asked for forgiveness from the proper authority.  We talked about baptism and then asked her to work toward being baptized on the 27th of June! We are going back tomorrow.

Wednesday we met a really cool guy. His last name is Davis so we just called him Brother Davis. But we knocked on the door and he answered and immediately said, no thanks im not interested. I asked him "Why not?" And sister Garry said, "Do you know the message that we share?" and his response was the best! He said, "Yes, Jehovah's Witnesses." NOPE! We told him we were Mormon and he had a friend that was Mormon. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and before we could even ask him if he would read a chapter he asked us for the book. We are going back tonight to teach him again! 

Saturday we were on exchanges with the sisters in Long Beach. I was with Sister Durtchi. She is a brand new missionary. It was a lot of fun to be with her. We didn't have a lot of set plans and so i was trying to decide what to do. Sister Hartley had met a potential that lived down the street from a less active, Sister Johnson. I decided we could go visit her. We parked the car and then were walking down the street to find where her house was. While we were walking a car drove by and i recognized the driver. His name is Randy and is the son-in-law of sister Johnson. We had tried teaching him before and he was just really busy with work. Well he recognized us as well and backed up his car to talk to us. He was on his way to visit his mother-in-law and i just asked if we could stop by and teach him a lesson. He said we could and it went really well. I started out the lesson by asking them what they thought our job was as missionaries. They came up with what most people think. "To save a soul and better inform people about Christ." And both things are right but there are lots of people who can do that. I told them that our calling was to help people to return to live with God again. We talked about Matthew 7:22-23 where it talks about many prophesying in Christ name but he doesn't know them. I explained that without the knowledge we have from the Restoration of the gospel we can't know what Christ would have us to do. and in result He will not know us at the last day. It was a really good lesson and i know that the questions i asked were from the Holy Ghost and not me. We are going back next week to teach them again!

On Sunday we visited with a less active. We invited her back to church and she said no. Then we invited her to receive the missionary lessons again and she said she already knew it all. I didn't know what to say. Afterwards i was talking to sister Garry about it and we both just thought it was ironic. If she really knew everything then she would be willing to sacrifice and come to church. We are all human, we will constantly be learning and trying to understand. We will never know everything in this life. But as we stand by what we do know then we can trust that God knows everything. And as long as He knows everything and I trust in Him. Everything will work out. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers. This gospel is true. It changes lives everyday. And i know that the more we study the closer we come to our Heavenly Father. Hope y'all have a great week!

Love you, Sister Erika Kelly 



Estefany and Eduardo...SURPRISE!!

So many crazy things have happened this week!

Monday we prepared for transfers. Tuesday I sent off Sister Hartley so she could go home and see her family. I heard from her today and she is doing great! Sister Garry got here later that afternoon and we have had a ton of fun this past week. 

Wednesday and Thursday we spent a lot of time tracting because we had MLC later that week. 

Friday we drove up to Hattiesburg and met up with the STL's there. Then we went with them the rest of the way to Jackson. MLC was really good. We talked a lot about the Doctrine of Christ. I loved it! We are not missionaries to increase the membership in the church. But we are here to help people gain eternal life! And that is way more motivating then just having another name on the roles. 

Saturday after our meeting ended we got to go to Clinton. Eduardo and Estefany got baptized and I got to go! I didn't tell them i was coming and it was great! We walked in during the opening song. I snuck up and sat right behind them both. When they stood up to go into the baptismal font i just pulled on Estefany's sleeve. She was so excited to see me and gave me three hugs! it was amazing to be there. I love seeing people enter into such an important covenant. 



I hope y'all had a wonderful Mother's day! I love my mom so much and would die without her! Thank you for everything you do for me mom. You are AMAZING!  


Love y'all lots! Sister Erika Kelly


Elder Hendrickson is a goof. 

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Week 1 of my 7th transfer...

Hello Friends and Family! Sorry this email wont be very long, i only have 15 minutes before this computer shuts off on me. 

But this past week was really good. It was sister Hartley's last week and it was a good one to end on! Tuesday was rough though. Both of us felt really sick and all of our plans fell through. After talking about it we felt like we should just tract for an hour and then go home for the rest of the evening so we could sleep and get better for the rest of the week. Thank goodness we did, the rest of the week was great! 

Wednesday we had a full day and ended with teaching Misty and Joe's bible study. It went really well! We had a member come with and when we got there she realized that she knew Misty! So they connected really well. But we taught the Restoration and the two other sisters, Crystal and Melissa, really enjoyed it. They both took copies of the Book of Mormon and invited us back for this up coming week! Misty called yesterday though and her daughter has an awards night that night so we are going to have to reschedule.  

Friday we went out with a member all morning and visited a lot of less actives that we had never met before! It was a great success and i can't wait to go back and see them all again. 

Last night we were able to spend with a family in our ward. They have a son right now serving a mission in Korea and he left the same day i did! well they have some friends that live down the street and have been wanting to have them over. So we all went over for FHE! We had dinner, played ping pong, and corn hole. Then we had a short message about the Holy Ghost. They didn't want us to teach anything too specific to the church because they have been standoffish toward it before. Well the best part was we said a prayer and everyone got up to leave. We were all talking and then i realized that one of the son's had gone and grabbed a copy of the Book of Mormon from the back room and gave it to the Mom. She accepted it and promised to read. Sister Hartley and I had stopped by their house at the beginning of the transfer and tried to give her one and she wouldn't take it. Working with members is the best!!!

Well i love y'all so much! I hope everything is going well. Talk to you next week! Have a wonderful Mother's Day! 

Love Sister Kelly