Dear Orlando...

Wow. What a ride it has been. These last 18 months have been so sacred. I cannot even put into the words the smallest part of which I feel. 

Thank you for Windy Ridge, Buena Ventura and Semoran. Thank you for my companions Hermana Brown, Hermana Guerrero, Hermana Mull, Hermana Christensen, Hermana Klein, Hermana Banks, Hermana Robbins, and Hermana Stowell. (Hermanaland is a blessed place. ) I am grateful that I got to serve literally in Orlando Florida my entire mission. 

I have been blessed so much to serve around so many incredible missionaries. I am grateful for the things I learned from them, the experiences we shared, the growth that we had together as we served side by side in the Lord’s vineyard. Thank you for the family I found here among the members and other missionaries. 

Above all, thank you for helping me come closer to my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the changes you helped bring about in my life. I am not the person I left as in October of 2016. I know now what it means to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ. It means that I will love Him, follow Him, and serve Him, with ALL my heart, might, mind, and strength. It means to repent daily and always strive to improve and become just a little better. It means to look beyond myself and my need and seek out the one. It means to do as Christ would do. Discipleship means to love unconditionally, to forgive continually, to see everyone as our brothers and sisters. It means to always have His name engraved upon my heart and not be afraid to let others know who He is and what He means to me. I have learned so much about the Atonement and what it means to apply it continually. I am weak; So incredibly weak, but with my Savior at my side, I was able to do all things. I overcome opposition, weakness, broken hearts, sin, shortcomings, struggles, challenges, temptation and all things I didn’t think were possible. I have a long way still to go, but I know now that I can use the gift and blessing of the Atonement to get me where I need to go.

I promise you Orlando that I will never forget the things I learned here. I promise to continue improving and becoming someone more. I promise to continue to serve just as I did here. To put aside all worldly things for the furthering of God’s work and establishment of Zion. 

I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that I am a daughter of a LOVING Heavenly Father. I know will all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true. I have searched it, pondered it, prayed about it, and dedicated myself to it. I know that The Book of Mormon changes lives for the better because it has changed me more than I could possibly explain. I truly did come closer to my Savior by reading it and I really did receive a witness from the Holy Ghost that it was true.  I know I can be forgiven and have hope that I will one day return to the arms of my Savior and my Father above and be clean and pure. I know President Nelson is a true prophet called of God. I know that he receives revelation on how to direct the work of the Lord. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that he really did see God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ. Some of my most sacred teaching moments came as I spoke the words of the first vision. I know that angels are among us. It was a blessing beyond words to serve side by side with my personal angels and the angels of those I was teaching. I know this is the Christ’s true church. I will continue to defend it, support it, and do all I can to build it up. I know families can be together forever. It was my greatest pleasure to take that message to as many people as I could here. I know the Gospel truly does bless families. 

Thank you for everything Orlando. Thank you for being my sacred place. Thank you for the blessings, the memories, and thank you for helping me reach this point. I will always remember and cherish my time here. Hasta pronto Orlando. Te Amo mucho. 

Con mucho amor,

♥️ Hermana Kent

My awesome district

My Family from Windy Ridge came to say goodbye

The Orlando Hermanas

The Sanchez Family

The Silva Family, the great examples to me

The Silva's, the greatest examples to me

We have fun together

I 💜 the Orlando Temple

This week was full of so many tender mercies and beautiful miracles!

We worked hard preparing for Pedro's baptism. We wanted it to be the most spiritual baptism ever. Pedro is married to a Less-Active (now

re-activated) woman whose father was a pillar in the Semoran Ward before he passed away a year ago. He tried sharing the gospel with everyone he knew. I completely credit him for Pedro's readiness. So we wanted this baptism to be special for him because we knew how much he wanted to see Pedro be baptized. Well all the hard work paid off! It was an amazing baptism. Pedro invited his whole family (all non

members) and many from his wife's family. One of the family members came up to me after and told me something happened that he couldn't explain. He said that he could feel so strongly the presence of Hermano Roldán. He felt that there was something different about this church and he liked it.

Pedro was so happy! I have never seen anyone more ready to make that covenant than him.

Friday was one of the most tender days of my entire mission.  I got to go to the temple with all the other departing Elders and Sisters.

After the session we went into the sealing room with President and Sister Clark and a member of the temple presidency. They gave us some parting words of advice to go to the temple often and to always be worthy. I felt an overwhelming peace in the temple that I did my best.

I have no regrets. Whatever shortcomings I had, my wonderful savior Jesus Christ made up the difference.

After the temple we did some studies and then Pedro and Maritza picked us up to go back to the temple for a temple tour. It was the sweetest thing to walk the temple grounds with them the night before his baptism. We talked about how his focus should be the temple. We "put him on date" to go to the temple a year after his baptism so they can be sealed.

I cried walking around the temple grounds. I love the Orlando Temple so much. I was privilege to serve 6 months of my mission around the temple. It is my sacred place. I will ALWAYS be worthy of the temple and I encourage each of you to do the same.

I'll be sending one final email next week so stay tuned! For all those interested my farewell will be April 29th at 1:00. Stay tuned for the address...... I guess there is also going to be a little open house the night before (Saturday the 28th) at 6:30 at 295 E 1650 S. I am excited to see you all again! Please remember though, I love my mission with my whole heart!!!!!

🌴🌊☀️Hermana Kent☀️🌊🌴

Car selfie

Car selfie

Departing Missionaries Temple Day

Pedro's Baptism

Temple-tour with Pedro and Maritza

Our district attempting the tree of life vision

A Humble Prayer

This week was so good!

On Tuesday we found a new investigator and she was so sweet! She was raised in Cuba where she didn't have religious freedom. She told us she has no relationship with God but really wants one. Now that she has kids, she wants them to have a faith in God. We only had 15 minutes so we taught her how to pray. Afterwards she gave such a sincere and humble prayer. It was so special. I think I often take for granted the fact that I know how to pray. Prayer is a tender blessing from our loving Heavenly Father so that we are able to stay in communication with Him. It's so simple. A simple prayer every day takes only a few minutes and yet somehow we often allow the things that don't really matter to get in the way.

I also got to go back to Buena Ventura for the Baptism of little Adelita. She was so happy and looked like a little angel. I was so excited to see her again and even more excited that she finally was able to be baptized.

Florida is still amazing! I hope all is well! Since this email was really short, here are a bunch of pictures from the week.

🌴🌊☀️Hermana Kent☀️🌊🌴

Adelita's Baptism

This box is in front of our apartment and it brings us great

 joy because we are almost home

Chasing ducks on my bike

A lesson with our investigator and a missionary who taught him before he returned home

Our very unhealthy yet satisfying dinner

 

Walking around when it was about to rain