Our Lesson Went on a Road Trip

Man, this was such a good week! Hermana Christensen and I saw a lot of blessings!

I'll start by explaining my subject. We taught Rosa this week. She is a young mom from the Dominican Republic. She was a referral from Mormon.org and is super solid! Her kids are all still in the DR which is really sad. She is living with her sister and brother-in-law but it's not a good situation. They are pretty mean to her and not very supportive of her decision to investigate religion. So when we came by for our lesson she felt very awkward because she didn't want them hearing her experience with reading and praying (which was amazing btw). So we decided to go walk outside but it was over 100 degrees and super humid so that was miserable.  We decided to sit in our car with the AC. It was so fun though. It ended up being an incredible lesson. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! She cried through the majority of it. She told us that she believed the Book of Mormon was true and wants to be baptized. She is on date for July 23rd! So yes, we extended a baptismal invitation in our car. Haha. But hey, the spirit was incredibly strong!!!!! It was amazing.

Some other fun stuff:

- knocked a trailer park for 2.5 hours and some Pentecostals tried to recruit us.

-saw sever snakes this week. NOT OKAY

-had a ward BBQ

-Quoted some scriptures in sand

- HIT MY 8 MONTH MARK!!!!!!!! Time is freaking flying. Also not okay.

- Finally learned how to French braid

- Ran into my Trek brother Jeff Barnett.  So we were just sitting in the foyer on Sunday and I was studying my Spanish flash cards. I legit didn't even see Jeff sit down and he didn't see my face because I was looking down. Then he asked "what mission is this?" I looked up to answer and both of our eyes just got huge. We were like “holy crap! What are you doing here?! How's it going? What a small world!"

It was so crazy. At that moment it was just him and his brother. He asked how long I'd been out and stuff. Crazy, crazy, crazy! Then his mom came in and IMMEDIATELY said “hey it's a Kent girl!" Then she took the picture. I gave her a hug to pass along to my family. That was seriously so fun!

I love this work! I’m studying Alma chapter 5 this week and I freaking love it. It is super chastising. Verses 12-14 talk about a mighty change of heart and being converted to the Lord. I also read the talk called “The Character of Christ” by Elder Bednar and he had this to say about the difference between a testimony and Conversion:

“If a testimony is what you know to be true by the witness of the spirit, then conversion is consistently being true to what you know"

I loved this. And I know it to be true. It doesn't matter what we know unless we are going to do something about it. I don't want just a testimony. A testimony isn't strong enough. I want to be converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and forever follow Him.

I love you all and hope you are doing well. This is the last week of the transfer. Hermana Christensen and I are hoping to stay together. We have had an amazing time together and holy cow it has flown!!!! Stay tuned for next week!

Hermana Kensington Kent

Hermana breakfast after District Meeting

Taking a mini vacation on some swings

First time taking a name tag picture.  Love this thing more than I can describe

All the missionaries that meet in our ward building had a
picnic between church blocks

Ran into my trek brother and his family from back home at church.  Super fun!

The Zabala family at the ward BBQ

The Plan of HAPPINESS

This week went by so fast! Some highlights:

Tuesday: we watched a car accident and pulled over to help. No one was hurt and it really wasn't that bad but one of the cars was three nineteen year old girls who were pretty dramatic. While helping them some investigators who we have been ignoring us ran by..... they aren't interested. Really sad.

Wednesday: we had a lesson with a former investigator named Carla that we stopped by on last week. Her dad was the one who was taking the lessons before he died, but she had overheard them and wanted to know what he had been learning and where he was. It was a really cool lesson. It was the first time I've taught the Plan of Salvation to someone who had a recent loss. Really cool.

Friday: we received this amazing referral named Rosa. She came across Mormon.org and started chatting with someone. She wants to be baptized!! She doesn't have a strong religious background and doesn't know very much about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but she is like a sponge and soaks up everything. She has given us more referrals and taught  her family about the Restoration and Book of Mormon! She is the sweetest thing.

Saturday: I went on exchanges with Sister Phelps! She has been my STL for 5 transfers and this is the first time her and I have gone together. It was a lot of fun!!! She goes home in two weeks which is really sad. She is an amazing example to me and has been one of my dearest friends.

I love this work. Teaching Carla was such a personal thing. She was so worried about where her dad was. I guess he lived a not very good life and when the past missionaries were teaching him he started to change and become better. She noticed that change but was still fearful her dad was in Hell. We reassured her that he wasn't. I am so grateful that I know the Plan of Salvation and am able to share that with others. The church is true! The Plan of Salvation is the true Plan of a Father in Heaven who truly loves His children. We are never too far gone off the path to return to Him.

I love you all and hope life is treating you well!

Love,

Hermana Kent

Departing Missionaries on April 25, 2018!

Exchanges!

Exchanges!

Going out to work right as a VERY dark cloud rolled in
Florida weather is CRAZY!!!

Selfie... why not:)

Zone Ice Cream trip for P-Day

Las Familias Pueden Ser Eternas - June 12, 2017

This week was pretty good! Life is always good when you're a missionary. I mean, moments might suck, but overall, things are always good. :)

On Tuesday we got to go and do baptisms for the dead with our recent convert Doris and her daughter Valentina. I miss the temple!!! Although we couldn't actually participate in the proxy baptism, we got to go and be there with them. The Orlando baptistery is BEAUTIFUL! I loved being able to go sit in the temple for a little while and feel the spirit. The Temple is such a special place and I just love it. Doris did the baptism for her mom and grandma. She kept telling us on the drive there, today is my mothers baptism day. Today my mom is going to get baptized. It was really cool. She was very emotional for the baptism. What a special experience it was. My testimony of Family History has really grown this week. I had absolutely no idea (and still don't really understand) how to do family history before my mission. However, seeing how special it was for Doris to do that baptism for her mom just made me realize how important family history is. +

This week was also Zone Conference so that was amazing! The main focus was on Our purpose as missionaries. During the Assistants training they asked if anyone would be willing to share why they came on a mission. Honestly, this was completely involuntary, but my hand shot up. I came on a mission because Since I was 6 years old I have known that families can be together forever. I want to share that with every person that I can. So this week I tried to be better about remembering why I in specific came out on my mission. It changed the way I worked so much. It made the long days of knocking that much easier because it was personal. I urgently wanted to share the message that I came here to share. 

We often forget that huge blessing in our church. Families are eternal. It was the message of the week. First with Doris going to the temple for her family, me remembering MY purpose for being here, as well as the lesson in relief society on Sunday which was about family history, and making your home a place for a family. Families are essential to our Heavenly Father's plan.  I am grateful for the restored gospel because with it, we received the Authority to seal families. 

Les quiero muchísima!

Com mucho amor,

Hermana Kent

Chasing some cute ducklings

Zone Conference!  They catered with Chick-Fil-A for lunch:)

A less active and his "pet" alligator named Coco

Selfie in front of this cool steamboat

Temple trip with Doris

We had to wait in our car for about an hour because
it was raining so hard the roads were flooding

4:00 = Time To Rain

This week literally everyday at EXACTLY 4:00 pm it would start to pour.

It was crazy at the consistency. Summer is definitely on it's way. The

heat and humidity have gotten pretty bad but still. It even close to

what it will get. Don't get me wrong, I love every single minute of

it. Something about being soaking wet all the time either from ran or

sweat makes me feel like I'm truly living the missionary life, and I

love the missionary life. :)

Other than experiencing lots of rain, this week was pretty normal in

terms of missionary work. We are teaching 4 Venezuelan guys who are

all working to help get their families here. It's very humbling to see

what they will do to provide a better life for their wives and

children. They love the message we bring and are progressing so well!

They got so excited about the Book of Mormon and have been relating

the things they read to themselves. It's awesome. Hermana Christensen

and I are really developing a testimony of the gift of tongues. Our

language skills are RAPIDLY increasing.

I have been studying the talks from General Conference and this week I

really loved the talk by Bonnie H. Cordon titled "Trust in the Lord

and lean not" In the talk she breaks down the scripture Proverbs

3:5–6“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine

own understanding.

“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” I

love this scripture! I have noticed that every single time I think "I

can do this, I know what to do and say," I fall flat on my face. My

tongue cannot speak or understand the language and I have no idea how

to teach. It is not about me. If I lean on my own understanding I will

fall. However, if I stay centered on the Lord, things go so much

better. Trust in the lord and lean not! I highly recommend you look up

a talk.

Hope everyone is having a great start to summer! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Kensington Kent

Got soaked in literally the 2 second run from the car to 

the church. It was exhilarating.

Working up the courage to run to the car in another down pour.

Celebrating Hermana Andrus' birthday

Sunday selfie on our way to church