Lots of pictures!

This week was so much better than last week!!! It is amazing how much
happier you are as a missionary when you are focused on the work!

I don't know if I told you last week or not, but in the Highland stake
there are 9 wards we cover, and one of them is Samoan, hence the
excited pictures with my Samoan name tag, and my Micronesian skirt
from sister Mallarme to match 😊
So the Samoan Ward covers the whole west side of the valley basically,
and since we don't have a car we haven't been able to do much work in
that Ward. And we were told the bishop was sad to have sisters since
he can't go on splits with us... so this Sunday we went to his Ward
council at 7am and got to know him, and he was so nice to us!!! He is
so missionary minded and really wants to share the gospel!! Then we
went to their sacrament meeting at 9am, and it was so good!!! It was
partly English and partly Samoan, we sang all the hymns in Samoan 😊
it was fast and testimony meeting and I felt the spirit so strongly
because everyone's testimony was SO centered on Jesus Christ and His
sacrifice for us, and just so humble and sincere! Every time someone
got up to share their testimony, they started with "Brothers and
sisters, Talofa!!! " which means hello, and the entire congregation
responded back, TALOFA! Haha it was so great! I was almost shaking it
was so powerful! After sacrament meeting we had a lesson with two
recent converts and the bishop in his office! He is so amazing, and so
bold! He was really getting onto one of them about reading his
scriptures and he said "I'm on your nerve, but that's okay I wanna be
because if I make you mad I know you're gonna go do the thing that I
ask you to. When I get to the judgement day and Heavenly Father asks
me "did you love Jeremy?" I'm gonna say yes! But when he says "so did
you teach him the truth?" I'm not gonna say "no I was scared he might
get upset with me..." I loved that! It is so true! It is a different
culture, and I love it! We went to 3 Ward councils and got to know a
lot more people yesterday too, then in the evening we went out to
visit people with Bishop Levao from the Samoan Ward and his wife. It
was so good! They were playing K-love in the car ❤️❤️❤️ and we visited
like 5 different families in 2 hours, we were in and out and to the
point, and it was so powerful! He told everyone who wasn't coming to
church, "I'm not inviting you to come back to church, that's just a
building, I'm inviting you to come back to the Savior!" SO GOOD!!!
🙏🏽👌🏼🙌🏽

We've also been spending a lot of time with the Ward family this week!
They are amazing and we love them so much already! John said that if
he knew this message was true he would be baptized! 🎉🎉🎉 now we are
going to do everything we can to help him get that answer, through
reading scriptures and praying and coming to church! 😊

As we were coming back from the Samoan Ward visits this week, we
passed by the West Jordan east stake, on redwood road, and my heart
broke into little pieces! As I saw canal road that I ran on every
morning for 7 months, and passed by the apartments and the stake
center and I realized I would probably never ride my bike around
sharing the gospel again 😥 but I also realize that the relationships
I formed there will last a life time and I am so so sooo grateful and
blessed with this opportunity to know and love so many of God's
children the way that He does ❤️

I love you all and hope you have a great week!
❤️ Sister Kirkpatrick

Growing Pains

Hello from South Jordan!! 

First of all I just need to tell you all how blessed I was to stay in West Jordan for as long as I did and have so many people that loved me, and that I loved more than they will ever know! It was so hard to say goodbye to the Tippets, but they dropped me off at my new apartment and helped me to get situated, I truly felt like they were my parents dropping me off at college! And the rest of the day I was finding cute notes from sister tippets hidden in the apartment I'll attach a picture!

So my first time being transferred, white washing and training, I have been so humbled! I didn't realize how blessed I was to be teaching so much in West Jordan, and have to many people to teach!!! We only had one person we were teaching when we got here, and since then we have found one more, and visited a few more than that. I know the Lord has called me here for a reason, and I believe we will see many miracles! And the people here are so willing to help us, which is really great! 

This weekend I LOVED watching general conference! My favorite part I think was the Sunday morning session, everything in it spoke directly to me! My favorite talk was By Russell M. Nelson, about JOY! He said that because of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us, we can feel joy in all circumstances, even the tough ones, because our joy is not dependent on our circumstance, our JOY is in JESUS! 🏽🏽 I so desperately needed to hear that, because this week has been tough. I remember what a very wise companion once told me though "that when things weren't the best in a companionship, you just go to work, you fully immerse yourself in the work, and there is nothing like it!" I believe that and I have already felt it! As we read during companionship study this week and the atonement of Jesus Christ and missionary work, I felt God's love so strongly that I was almost moved to tears (and I don't cry!) I realized why I'm here, and it has NOTHING to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with Jesus, and inviting everyone I can to know Him! 

After one the last session of conference a woman we were watching it with told us a story of a boy in the hospital excited for conference, saying elder Bednar was his favorite, and at that moment they saw Elder Bednar walking down the hall, and asked him if he could come meet their boy, they said he did and he came to give a priesthood blessing to the boy. He told him " Everything will be alright, you are here for a reason, learning things you could not learn anywhere else. It won't be easy, but it will be alright." Little did he know that was exactly what I needed to hear as well! I know that there is little growth in a comfort zone, and little comfort in a growth zone. I am definitely in a growth zone!!! 

I know that I am in the Lords hands, and that He knows and loves me so perfectly! And that He has plans to grow me this transfer... I trust Him with my whole heart, and am learning that happiness is a choice, that we can choose to be happy in any situation, because our joy is in Jesus, who will never leave us!!!

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 🏃🏽😊🎉