Week 36 - Rome 8/24/2015 Continued

So I found this talk from literally like 40 years ago, and the end of
it was super like hard core but I loved this beginning part about
Paul, and fighting the fight.
“O man of God, … follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness.
     “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” (1
Tim. 6:11–12.)
     So wrote our fellow apostle to those who had accepted the Son of
God as their Savior, who had taken upon themselves the yoke of Christ,
who had covenanted in the waters of baptism to serve him and keep his
commandments. And so say we to all those today who have in like manner
taken upon themselves the name of Christ and enlisted in the cause of
truth and righteousness: Be valiant. Fight a good fight. Stand true.
Keep the commandments. Overcome the world.
     Speaking of himself and the great warfare with the world which
he had won, Paul said:
     “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith:
     “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2
Tim. 4:7–8.)
Just thought you guys would like that a lot. Cuz I thought it was
pretty rad. :)

Week 37 - Rome, 8/24/2015

Sooo this week.... Well nothing to crazy happened investigator wise...
Well okay some things did.
So first we got this new investigator who Sorella Cano met on the bus
during an exchange, and he called us that night and says I
couldn't go to sleep until I called you guys. I need to know what this
message is about. So we met with him and introduced the church a
little and we found out his dad was Mormon and used to take him to
church while he was little, like 8 or 9, but he has no idea if he's
baptized or not... So we'll be working on that haha.
We had a lot of people cancel on us or not show up this week... So
that was less exciting but we still had a pretty good week.
Okay then we found this other new investigator and oh my gosh... He is
really interesting. I say interesting because well A) He has one of
the hardest life stories I've ever heard. Like honestly it's nuts,
like I can't believe I actually met someone who has such a crazy
story. And then B) While we were teaching him I can't explain the
feeling really but there was just this overwhelming feeling from the
spirit like, "he needs the gospel and you were supposed to find him." 
I've met people that have had interest before and I'm excited and
it's cool but I've never felt so strongly that someone needed the
gospel like they needed food.  I just felt this screaming urge in
my soul like this man has been thirsting all his life and you have the
opportunity to quench it. It was a super beautiful experience. He has
a lot of work to go... Just because he doesn't have a relationship
with God at all. But he told us that he's been searching and he has a
list of church he's investigated and never found anything and so we
told him, that if he did all the things we asked he would find an
answer, and he said okay he would try. I'm a little nervous just
because I think I might die of heartbreak if he becomes like so many
other wonderful people I've known here who are interested, want to
learn more, and then disappear, don't answer anymore, get the flu for
a month, or decide they don't need God. But I'm praying hard that this
doesn't happen.
In other news, almost all the people we are teaching right now are
From South America. So basically all of our lessons are like in half
Italian and half Spanish... And sooo this has been very interesting as
I have never studied a lick of Spanish in my whole life haha. But you
know... Haha you just laugh it off and if I concentrate really hard I
can usually follow what's happening. It's pretty cool, because I can
totally see the gift of interpretations working in that sense.
The lord helps me so so so much!!!!
In other other news, something cool that I realized this week was how
my perspective of the mission has changed. In the sense that when I
came out I knew I came out because the Lord had need of me and asked
me to be here so I did it, and like I love the gospel and all that
stuff and so you think to yourself....okay I can share it with people. But now when I
think about why I'm here and why I get up every day, it's not just
because the Lord wants me here, but because I have this desire, this
need, to tell people about what we have and to bare testimony of what
I know. I mean like I stop people on the bus and in the streets to
tell them about the gospel because I feel like I have this gift, this
key to happiness they can't even imagine and I want to tell them. It's incredible  - this fire of sharing your testimony that starts when you do it. Even if nobody listens it's like okay whatever, but to tell
people, we have a message about Jesus Christ, about the family, about
something that literally could change your life and has changed my
life and my families' and my friends', like idk that's why I'm here.
Even if no one listens, my testimony has been so fortified in the
sense that I tell people these things because I feel them in my soul.
I know that this gospel is true, I know that Jesus is my savior and
that he loves all of us, and I know that the message that we have of
the restoration is the only message with all of the truth people are
looking for here on the earth today. It's great to be a missionary.
Well I love you guys tons!!

Week 36 - Rome, 8/17/2015

Well transfer calls were really exciting... Drumroll....I'm staying here!!!!...With Sorella cano!   We have a lot of awesome work going on here so that's cool. Haha yay!! Rome has been amazing. We've taught SO many lessons. Which is just so nice and a happy change for me.

This was taken in a tiny mountain town!! Isn't it beautiful? So so beautiful.

This is Vatican square!! It's so beautiful! 

's amazing. 

Week 35 - Rome, 8/10/2015

Hello Folks!! Well this week was pretty insane. It was probably my busiest week in the mission so far and it was incredible. It's been super fun to be in the trio too. We laugh and have a really good time together, which is really happy because I won't lie I was a little nervous about being in 3... But there was no need to fear :) 

Okay so a really weird thing that happened.. So we have this other woman that we are teaching... She's like a little quirky but you know "va bene." However she went from quirky to seriously bizarre this week. So it was too hot for her to come to the church, because she's older and literally it's been so hot, people over the age of 50/60 need to stay inside, so we told her we'd go to her house. So we trek out to her house which is like super far away and she picks us up and she's got like no bra on, (her shirt was also like kind of see through) and she's like I'm sorry it's to hot to wear a bra, I'm just so restricted, and were like uhh okay makes sense... But anyway So we then go into her house and we are like okay, so we are sort teaching the plan of salvation and in the middle of it, I literally have no idea how she got on this tangent, she starts talking about how she used to be part of some very controversial political groups andddd then she says, human flesh tastes really good, it's very sweet. And now I'm quoting here "sorella cano, I want to eat you. We could eat your thigh." Then she turns to me and says, sorella Kennedy, your thin you could eat her other thigh. And she was DEAD SERIOUS. It was the weirdest, slightly disturbing, most bizarrely hilarious thing ever. Clearly we will not be doing lessons at her house anymore... She's going to need to come out to the church where there are more people as witnesses, to make sure we don't not get cooked. Hahahahahaha okay on a more serious note. 

WE HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!!! The man we found on our phone! So we had our second lesson and he comes in and is like I know that I will be baptized in this church. And we hadn't even taught anything yet. We just were like mouths open... Well okay. So then we taught him the plan of salvation and the whole time he was paying so much attention and was asking us all of these questions and ugh it was so awesome. And then we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!!! The first week of September! :) and then he told us about how we have a lot of work to do with him because he has a lot of questions, and before he does something he likes to be in 100%, so he really wants to understand and know before. And then he told us about how he had researched the church on the Internet and he said, you know I know that there are people out there that will say terrible untrue things about you because that is how the world works and because you are good people. So don't worry because I don't believe and I won't read those things. Then he told us he went to Mormon.org and chatted with the missionaries online there too and he said to us, everywhere I go all the information is the same. I really like that. Ahhhh. It was soo so so awesome. Then he came to our pancake dinner that we had on Saturday and when we called him the next night he told us that he had really been touched by the spirit and everything that was there. Eeeeek :) it was so so so awesome. 

So yup that's the week!! 

Love you!