End of Transfer #5!

So first! The AP's called and told me I'm going to be training another
new missionary and still be a sister training leader! They didn't
tell me if I'm leaving or not though! But that means if I am leaving
West Jordan, 😥 then I will be white washing, which means we will both
be new to the area and not know anyone or have a clue where we're
going! Haha the Lord must think I'm strong to give me this! But my
strength is in Him alone, and with Christ all things are possible!

Philippines 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Alma 26:11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength,
nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is
brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;
therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for
in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles
we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name
forever.

This week has been good! It's been a little tough, but it's
strengthened my testimony! I know that God is always with us, but I
love that during the trying times we can feel Him SO CLOSE! ❤️
One of the experiences from this week was that we started to talk to a
woman and her adult son on the street and they just wanted to argue.
She was contentious from the start so I wasn't really talking to her,
sister Alvarado was. But her son seemed pretty genuine. So I told him
I respected their beliefs and shared my testimony when he asked
questions about what we believe. At one point she started to tell us
what we believe ( things that weren't true) and something in him
changed, he started to talk angrily as well and I could see the crazy
in his eyes. So I didn't respond for awhile. Once he'd stopped I
shared simple testimony of Jesus and His love before leaving and I
could see the crazy start to fade. It is amazing the times the spirit
can and can't be there, and it cannot be with contention. The fruits
of the situation and the black and white contrast of feelings
strengthened my testimony that we are doing the Lords work. I believe
this is the gospel He established when he was here and he doesn't want
us to argue, but rather spread his truth and love. We are so blessed
as missionaries to be able to do that every day!


I love you all! And will write more later if I'm being transferred!
I wrote more before but it got deleted to this email is shorter, sorry!

❤️ Sister Kirkpatrick

And the news is......

WHITE WASHING!

So I am white washing with my new missionary in the south Jordan
highland stake!!!! It will be an adventure! That's for sure!!! (White 
washing means going to an area that is new to both missionaries, 
instead of just one) Does anyone from Utah know anyone in that stake?
I am excited, we will be replacing elders! And one of them was my
first zone leader, he's going home to Italy tomorrow!
There are a ton of changes in the whole mission due to the amount of
new missionaries, they are opening up new areas.
I am so sad to leave all of the people in West Jordan that I have
grown to love so much! I am going to a meeting with the new sisters
and the sister training leaders from 5:30-9pm tonight, so I won't have
time to say bye to very many people 😥😥😥
Soooo sorry I won't get to respond much today! I will more next week!

I hope everyone will watch general conference this weekend!! I am so
excited for it! And now I don't know if I'll get to go or not haha! We
had tickets if I was staying here, but we shall see!

Anyways, back home in WV you can watch it online at LDS.org or on tv
on the BYU tv channel I think? Or at the church nearest to you!!! It
will be 12-2pm and 4-6pm this Saturday and Sunday!!! 😊🙏🏽⛪️❤️

Love,
Sister Kirkpatrick

Lots of pictures this week!

This was a really good week! We started teaching a lot of new people!!!
Tuesday we saw the biggest miracle ever!!! I felt strongly that we
really needed to be strengthening the new members of the church here
in West Jordan before the Lord would start showing us those who are
being prepared to receive the gospel. So as soon as we got done with
our meeting, we went to meet with a woman named Sammi who was baptized
before I got here. She's was getting home just as well got there and
let us in to share a quick video about Jesus with her. He son,
daughter, and friends joined us. After the video we all talked about
Christ and His sacrifice for us and the things we do to remember Him
and His sacrifice. Sammi was telling us how much she feels she has
grown in her relationship with God and asked her daughter, Destiny,
who is an adult, if she wanted to do the same thing and be baptized as
well, and she said oh no I can't. And I asked her why not, and she
said " because you have to go through a lot of training and I don't
have time right now", and I said no you don't, I was just baptized 2
years ago and I'm already on a mission, I didn't have any training!
Haha she was like "really?!" And I told her it was all about her
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and learning more about His
gospel. That we teach 5 lessons about the restoration of the gospel,
the plan of salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ and His
commandments, and that she could be baptized as soon as three weeks if
she wanted. Then her mom talked some more and I asked her if she
worked on Sundays and she said she didn't think so, and that she
wanted to come to church and she'd like to be baptized!!! I was blown
away!!! Her faith is so amazing! She said she wanted to learn more and
make sure that this was the right thing to do, and we told her we
wanted the same thing, that her answer needed to come from God. As we
were about to leave she asked if we could pray for peace for her, so
we did, and after the prayer she was crying, it was one of the most
spiritual experiences I've had on my mission to this point! I hugged
her and told her that I know I just met her, but I already love her so
much! 😊

We also had zone conference this week, where we got to learn more from
President And sister Lansing, as well as other missionaries in
leadership positions! I really really love that the whole mission is
reading the New Testament at the same time together, because at the
zone conference we were all able to share insights and were familiar
with the scripture passages since we'd all just read them! And sister
Lansing was a seminary teacher (she taught high school kids about the
scriptures each morning before school). So she knows her stuff! 😊

Jose was baptized this Saturday!!! We are so happy for him and his
decision to follow our savior Jesus Christ's example by being
baptized!!! It really is the gate, it is when we enter into a covenant
to serve the Lord, but it is far from over, we get to spend the rest
of our lives learning about Jesus and striving to do as He would.

I am so grateful to know that Jesus knows and loves me so perfectly!
This week I was wondering about a few things in the morning as we were
getting ready, and the very question that was in my heart was answered
so specifically in the scriptures I read that morning in studies. It
was a passage I'd read before but it was exactly what I needed to
answer my question in that moment. It is amazing, I know that only the
word of God can do that, can speak right to your heart! I know that
Jesus loves each one of you so much, and that when you open the word
of God with an open heart and mind, God can speak to you so clearly! I
invite each of you to do so this week 😊❤️

Love,
Sister Kirkpatrick


P.S. Pictures-
1.the whole mission after the 5 mile race a few weeks ago!
2. Crazy bike picture sister Alvarado wanted to take! Haha just so you
know how goofy I look in my helmet.
3. We can't hold babies, but we can hold puppies!
4. The rest are from Joses's baptism!!!

7 months!

It's been 7 months! The longer I'm here the quicker time goes!!

This week was really interesting, we had a really slow week to start
with, but Saturday was full of miracles! Up until Saturday we had
about 75% of our lessons cancel on us, which was a bummer, but
Saturday was great! We had two first lessons with new people, one of
them was a very sweet woman named Marisol.  I felt the spirit so
strongly as I testified of Christ's love for her and how the gospel
coming into my life has changed it so much for the better. We were
also able to solidify Joses baptism plans for this Saturday, so next
week there will be exciting pictures :) I'm so happy for him and his
decision to follow Jesus Christ!!! We also got to have a good talk
with Angel and tell her how much we love her and Jesus loves her, and
we always will, not matter what... she is the sweetest!

So pictures... I dyed my hair, it looks better in the sun, it doesn't
look much different otherwise...
I tried the spinach smoothies again in an attempt to lose some of the
weight I've been gaining but they upset my stomach still.
We got to go to the temple Thursday!
And the little boy is Jimmy, his mom took us to the store and I gave
him stickers 😊

Sorry there isn't more, last pday wasn't too long ago! Haha love and
miss you all!

❤️ Sister Kirkpatrick

Finally Pday!

So much has happened since last Monday! I won't even be able to update
you on everything, haha! First of all, sister Casagranda was emergency
transferred 😥 the AP's called Monday night at 8:45pm and told her she
needed to be at the mission office at 8:45am... We were having too
much fun together as you can see 😳 I'm kidding, that's not why, I
think someone went home so she went to go be a companion, but we were
having a lot of fun! It was amazing to see the Lord's hand perfectly
in her time here. She was able to meet people she had Alaska
connections With that I haven't met in the almost 7 months I've been
here! His plan is perfect and this is definitely His work!

I went to my first MLC (missionary leadership council) last week and
got to see so many sisters I love! It was a really good meeting, and I
felt blessed to be able to be a part of it, although I was not very
prepared for what we were going to do, next time I hope to be more
prepared!

We ran a 5 mile race from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to the Jordan
River Temple on Labor Day! We are all so sore! It was a ton of fun
seeing so many missionary friends there as well! We were the first
sisters to finish 😊 we finished in 50 minutes, not too shabby, I was
super proud of sister Alvarado! Also, president Lansing walked, and
when we saw him coming to the finish line we all went to run with him,
so he started running, and he fell 😱😱😱 I was so scared, but he just
rolled and got right back up and kept running! What a champ! 🎉🏃🏽

So Jose is finally going to get baptized this time I think! He wants
to be baptized September 17th, we are so excited for him!!  He is
actually reading his scriptures and coming to church and praying, and
when we asked why he wanted to be baptized he said so that he could be
forgiven and have a clean slate! So a,axing and so true! Because of
Christ's sacrifice for us, we can all be washed clean by following his
example. No one is perfect, but God loves us so much regardless! I
love my savior Jesus Christ so much and I am so thankful for His love
for me! I know that it is only through His grace and mercy that we are
saved! 🙏🏽🙌❤️

We are getting ready to go to the temple at 3pm so we don't have as
much time to email today, but Monday will be here soon!

I love and miss you all!
Sister Kirkpatrick


Water balloon fight last pday! Last pictures before sister Casagranda
was emergency transferred 😥 MLC sisters picture, and the 5 mile
temple to temple race we ran on Labor Day 🏃🏽😊🎉

Action packed week!!!

This week has been so full and amazing! It started off sad though, the Buchanans finished their mission  sad day, but so happy I got to serve so long with them! ️ I am also still so happy to be serving with my companions, we have so much fun together! We work hard but we laugh a lot 

Also, this week I went on my first exchange as a sister training leader! Basically everything that could've gone wrong did, but it was just bad timing. I hope that I was able to help in some way  

We had one of the best lessons I've been in to this point in my mission this week! It was a first lesson with a man named Chris and his girlfriend Melanie!  He is so funny!! He is open and honest about his beliefs but truly seeking truth! He said he would be baptized September 24 if he got his answer from God, and then he came to church!! As we were scheduling the next visit, Melanie said so next week or the week after? And he said "Noooo,September 24, we got a deadline!! We gotta get the "W" (win)!! Haha it was hilarious! I kept saying spiritual witness and I guess no one else knew what I was talking about, I just meant an answer from God, so now we're saying he's gotta get the SW (spiritual witness) not W for (win)! Haha! He said such a sincere prayer at the end, we all knelt and held hands and he started with "What's up big G?!" And she prayed sincerely to know the truth and that his heart would be opened and softened to the truth, and the before he closed he said "I just wanna open up the mike now for anyone else who has anything they wanna add" and we had the best popcorn prayer ever!!!!!! We were all so happy  they're having us over for dinner and a lesson tonight!! 

We also had an amazing first lesson with a man named Kurt, sister Casagranda got us in because she's from Alaska and he loves Alaska! We talked for awhile but then we has such a spiritual restoration lesson!!! I felt the spirit sooo strongly as I testified of our Savior Jesus Christ and His life, atonement, and love for us! It was amazing! These both happened in the same day, needless to say it was a great day!!!

This week from my personal study I loved reading Helaman 15:6-8 (from the Book of Mormon, I'll paste them below), those verses are so powerful and exactly what I want to do; strive with unwearied diligence to bring my brothers and sisters to the knowledge of the truth so that it can set them free! I know that this is the Lords work, and He loves each and everyone of us so much and so perfectly!!!  I invite you all to ask Him for a hug this week, and be enveloped in His warm love ️

Helaman 15:6-8

6 Yea, I say unto you, that the more part of them are doing this, and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their brethren to the knowledge of the truth; therefore there are many who do add to their numbers daily.

7 And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them--

8 Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.

Sincerely, 

Sister Kirkpatrick ️

Transfer #5!

I LOVE MY NEW COMPANIONS!  They are so amazing!! Sister Alvarado (from
Guatemala) has been serving her mission in the US almost 3 months,
that's all the time she's been speaking English and she truly does
have the gift of tongues as well! She studied it in high school but I
studied Spanish in high school and know nothing 😂 she really wants to
learn and asks lots of questions which is so good! And Sister
Casagranda ( from Alaska) is not even training, she is training me!
She is so obedient and does such a good job teaching and testifying in
the lessons! They are both so down to earth, easy to get a long with,
and a lot of fun 😊

So Elder and Sister Buchanan are finished with their mission this
Tuesday, so sad!!! I have loved working with them these past 6 months
❤️ we helped them dump food storage (canned peaches) down the toilet
this week haha it was a blast, in preparation for them to move 😥

This week has been good, I am so excited for this transfer! I can just
feel that there are so many miracles waiting to happen and we are
ready to work hard! 😊 we had a lot of first lessons this week,
unfortunately a lot of people didn't come to church, but there's
always next week!

Last night it was almost our curfew and we stopped to talk to one more
young man on the way home. He grew up going to church but doesn't
believe in a loving, all knowing and powerful God. It was sad to hear,
and he didn't want us to come visit him because he feels like people
make him their project, all I could do was testify that God is real
and He does love us so much, that's why He sent His Only Begotten Son
to die for us, and Jesus knows how he feels, and it is through
Christ's sacrifice that we can be made whole and feel that love. I
just invited him to pray to ask God the questions he has and ask to
feel His love! I felt the spirit so strongly and I can only hope and
pray that he did as well!

I love and miss all of you and hope time is flying as quickly for you
as it is for me 😊
❤️Sister Kirkpatrick