with love, elli: The Best Work is Missionary Work!!

This week in a nutshell:
Me: "sister schooley, why is everyone in Virginia so much cooler than me"
Sister Schooley (very rapidly responded): "because their black."

TRUTH.

HAHAHA ok sorry I just had to share a laugh with all you WONDERFUL people. This week has been MORE than good. It has been absolutely TREMENDOUS! I am so completely obsessed with Kingstowne VA and the people in it that have truly changed my life! MISSIONARY WORK IS THE BEST WORK!!!

We finally got one of our less-actives to come to church this week and it was SO RAD. She is so solid and wants to be involved in the gospel but it has been hard for her to make it a priority in her busy life. As we meet with her we talk about the blessings of PUTTING GOD FIRST. This week we challenged her to write down 5 things she recognized in her life as GOD's hand. She did it and she LOVED it. I think that is part of the reason she came to church. She RECOGNIZED how much God has given her and HOW she can give back by praising him and sacrificing time out of her busy schedule to come to church!

We have also been meeting with a less-active family from Ghana. The Oko family. Dad, you will be interested to know that Brother Oko was from Ghana but converted in URUGUAY. He told us that and I FREAKED OUT. I told him you served there and he was like NO WAY! WHEN DID HE SERVE WHEN DID HE SERVE!! I told him, and he said he wouldn't have met you because he met the missionaries in 1994. BUT still rad nonetheless. haha. We do Family Home Evening with them on Monday nights. They live in an apartment that is probably 800 square feet and there are 2 parents and 6 kids. all the children share one room and have close to nothing. This humble lifestyle continually reminds me for what I am grateful for. They are the SWEETEST family with so much love for the gospel and for God. When they pray you can FEEL their spirits as they give ALL glory to their God and their Savior. It is an incredible feeling being in that home and coming closer to Christ as we teach them and they teach us.

We have a new woman in our ward named Virginia from South Africa! she is SO RAD. she was baptized 2 years ago and since then has done the temple work for her 25 closest relatives that have passed away. #RAD. she had this super rad accent that is so fun to listen to and her testimony of the gospel is incredible. Before she found out about the church, she knew she needed more in her life. SHE HAD A DREAM that the church she was looking for would come from 2 young men wearing white shirts and black pants. WHAT!? yeah. and that's exactly how it happened. She met them and they answered her questions for 4 HOURS. yeah. and now she is so solid. She invited her neighbor to come with us this Saturday to the temple visitors center because she wants him to be baptized. she gives ALL OF HER FRIENDS book of Mormons and IS SUCH A GOOD EXAMPLE. I love Virginia, we ALL can learn something from this incredible woman!

Sidenote, this SUPER cute lady in our ward that we meet with, Bobbi, works as like a molecular biologist for the government or something crazy like that, and her boss's kids go to school with the OBAMA GIRLS. and they are ALL FRIENDS. his kids go to birthday parties at the white house!!!! HOW RAD IS THAT. I just need to meet her boss and get connected to we can baptize Barrack #bishopbarracky

WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR!!!! her name is Jen :) she is the cute 24-year-old lady from El Salvador. She has got some serious sass and a desire to come closer to Christ. Yesterday we taught her about how Christ set up his church and how we can all come closer to Him through the gospel. she LOVED it and committed to baptism. #hallelu-YER (people actually say that here, including my companion hahhaaha).

The bishopric wants me and sister schooley to start teaching DANCE CLASSES to get more investigators, HOW RAD IS THAT!? except I teach hip hop and sister schooley teaches modern... but still! if we could figure that out, I WOULD BE SO AMPED. looks like my swag level hasn't gone down after all #holler

We also got 11 member lessons this week!!! which is WAY good. our goal was 7, so we were so excited that we got more!!!

On Friday, we went to go check up on a family that just had their 5th baby and they weren't home so we did some street contacting and we met the RADDEST guy named Stuart from Scotland (yeah that was his full name. Im kidding). His accent was SO THICK you could barely understand him but he was HYSTERICAL. He was telling us stories allllll about his life in Scotland and then about the Middle East, where he met his wife. Then we started talking about the gospel and he told us that he has a Book of Mormon that was given to him 20 years ago! That he has kept but never read! His biggest issue with the church is that he LOVES going to the pub, and smoking, and drinking coffee... SO we talked about the Word of Wisdom and WHY we follow it, and low and behold he WANTS US TO COME BACK. I was so so so amped. He's GOLDEN.

This week was truly nothing less than spectacular. and to finish it off we had an incredible Sunday that was based on judging others. President Uchtdorf gave a talk called "lord, is it I" that was given in the priesthood session of conference and BOY was it incredible. it was focused on rather than us thinking, "wow my friend john really needs to hear this" or "you know sally could improve on this" it tells us that instead we should ask, "Lord is it I?" we need to have the COURAGE and HUMILITY to be able to ask this question so we can further improve ourselves to become more like Christ. LET Christ mold and shape you into who HE WANTS YOU TO BE. I want to invite ALL OF YOU, Mormon or not, to watch the Mormon message entitled "THE WILL OF GOD". It. Will. Change. Your. Life.

Let God be in charge, get EXCITED about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the desire to SHARE it with all who come into your path will COME.

I love each of you DEARLY, I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has molded and shaped me, and I am absolutely 100% OBSESSED with being a missionary.

Keep it real and keep the faith,
Sistah "swag" Kennedy

being artsy outside sister field's house... haha

taking in the BEAUTY of Virginia. This is what EVERY street looks like. you cant even see the houses because the trees are SO thick.

this is Money cat. EVERYONE here has a cat. LITERALLY I can count on one hand the amount of people I know without a cat. but this one is my favorite because it literally weighs 17 pounds. #rad

dinner with another set of sisters and their recent converts :) at dinner I gave a Book of Mormon to our waiter and asked him if we could teach him the lessons he responded by saying, "well who wouldn't want to be taught by two beautiful ladies like you". welp. looks like were passing him to the elders. hhaha