Elder Kennedy

I have to start off with a crazy story on the happenings of Monday night. We started off the night with some late night tracting. We biked down to The Club (it's an apartment complex), and tried to find some less actives. We didn't have much luck so we decided to canvas the area. The rain turned on and the thunder rolled in! The lightning and thunder were all around us! We get to knocking and we ran into Elder Kennedy. Have any of you seen the "Mormon" musical? Well Elder Kennedy is one of the main characters in the play and this guy was the one who would be playing that role. We were all freaking out at this point. He was just so amazed that actual missionaries knocked on his door. He has been doing research on the church so he could know how to play the character better. It was just such a funny experience. I don't know how interested he actually is but it was definitely the highlight of the night. We get done with him and were fixing to go home when this uhaul pulled up right in front of us. A young lady and her mom step out and look super confused. We asked if we could help them unload the truck. They praised God that he sent someone to help them. We called up the APs and cranked out the moving.  We got some new investigators from it!!

Another highlight this week was the temple! I love the temple so much and I am so jealous that people can go whenever they want. If I could, I would
probably stay in the temple all day. I had a question I brought to the temple and man was it answered! I found Matthew 25 about the talents and Matthew 5:14-16. I can't discuss the whole thing with y'all but just know that the Lord really answers sincere prayer.

Another thing that was awesome was the food this week. Not gonna lie, I miss real southern cooking from Linden, but the food in this area so much more diverse. Still no cafe Rio but I do love Steak n' Shake! We ate at this one place called Prince's hot chicken. I got the hot but there was X hot and XX hot. I thought I could handle it but I was mistaken. It was so spicy that I had a hard time talking! I felt like Adam Sandler on the bedtime stories movie where the bee stung his tongue! The sunset sisters called and I had to help them but it was so hard to talk. Man it was bad.

There is a member who is probably one of my most favorites in the mission. I know I am not supposed to have favorites but this guy is awesome. He like to predict what our callings will be after the mission. He thinks Elder Hamblin will be the young men's president in his ward and he thinks I will be called to be a monk.... So I am going to be the first Mormon called monk ever! He says he just sees me sitting in the forest with a shaved head and a bible under my arm. I have never been pinned as a huge studier, but I guess the mission does change you.... ha!

Y'all have a blessed week!  I will give two birthday shout outs. One to Alayna! Happy birthday Alayna! I hope you have a wonderful time. The other to my amazing brother Zander! He is such an awesome dude and I love getting his letters. He is 13! I can't believe it.

Love, Elder Q

Sticks to Bricks

I am loving the city! I do miss the southern comfort zone and the ward
in Linden. I like the fast pace and just moving. Lots of things have
changed. Road kill became weave hair, trees became buildings, slang
became swag, trucks to bikes, and flowers became smoke. When I first
got here it was a huge culture shock! I actually saw more than 5 cars
on the road! There are places to eat and people everywhere! People
can't understand me here too because I had picked up to much of a
country drawl haha!

My first thing I would like to say is I love being a trainer! Elder
Hamblin is a super easy missionary to train. We get along so well! I
am laughing like everyday with him. He is 22 and just a stud! He has
an awesome conversion story and it just resonates in the work. We feed
off of each other's positive energy and just have a good time. We stay
up passed bed time just talking and having a good ol' time. We are
called the Brother Hood of Beef because Smith Springs A, (our area)
has gotten elders for a while who are over 200 ibs. The APs live right
down the road so we have had supper with them and have gotten rides in
their Chevey Silverado (Lucky). We have played this amazing game named
wet head! It Russian roulette but with water! I will get a video soon.

The area here started a little rough. Only a couple of solid people
but after some hard work and hours of knocking doors we have found a
great deal of solid people. We didn't teach a single white person
week. Wait I take that back, we taught one but he was a straight thug
but a super awesome dude. He got hit by a train! Most of our people
are Arabic, so I am learning to speak and write Arabic here and there.
It's crazy because it writes right to left. We taught this guy from
Nigeria who would go days without food and never knowing when he will
get some. He is doing very well for himself in America because he know
how to really appreciate things. Another guy fled Egypt because his
factories got taken over and destroyed. He had to pay a ransom for his
family which took all his money. It is just crazy what all the people
have to go through in other countries. I had only read about stories
like these but it never really hit me how real it is. Oh and p.s.
There are homeless people everywhere and I just got done reading Luke
10 about the good Samaritan, so I gave a man a fresh loaf of bread and
a Jesus card.

This district is awesome! The APs don't make it to often so it is a
relief society! Whoot relief society president! That means I only go
on one split this transfer with the zone leaders who are Spanish
elders ha! There is probably more sisters in Nashville stake than
elders. We actually will do pdays together! I am so excited! We also
have some of our investigators kids coming over to play us in soccer.
We are gonna be on team Egypt and the Spanish elders will be on team
Mexico because they have some coming too!

That is most of the highlights for the week. Have a blessed week!

New address:
630 Bell Road
Apt 263
Antioch TN 37013

 

Nashville

The calls came in and I am headed for the heart of Nashville. Going straight from stix to city to the big city. I ain't the most thrilled missionary but I am super excited for the new adventure! I am going the the Smith Springs ward so I guess not directly in Nashville but right next door. I am still going to be a District Leader but now I am also doing training!! I am follow up training Elder Hamblin. Elder White told me he is a pretty awesome dude so I am stoked! The APs (assistants to the President) are in my ward and district, so I am like the bishop for a general authority... I think it is gonna be a blast! I will actually be able to spend Pday with other missionaries!

My story for this week happened while we were on exchanges (splits). I was with Elder Story from Highland Utah! He went to Lone Peak and was a year older than I was. He is an awesome Elder! We were staying the day here in Linden. After we had tried a couple drop ins, we decided to do some tracting. We got to our first house and it was a blue trailer with a ramp to the front door. So first off we know whoever in there was old and even more evidence of this was the medical helicopter evacuation sticker on her door. We knocked and started hearing this terrible coughing. We almost busted through the door to see if the person was dying. We knock again and the coughing continued. Soon after that the coughing stopped. There was an awkward silence then all of a sudden I could hear this jazzy regae guitar start playing. Story and I just busted up laughing as we left the doorstep. We knocked multiple times but there wasn't an answer. Only in the backwoods of TN will you find people like that ha! Oh and this other guy told us about his 17 bars of gold he found while using a metal detector. I am going to miss this place.

I have really developed a testimony on prayer and personal revelation. I used the advise president Eyring gave and approached prayer like I am approaching the throne of God. Let me tell you, when you pray this way you feel so much better. It helps you put all your heart into the prayer and realize how much you really are in debt to God. He doesn't have to listen but he does out of so much love. If you truly want to know something, pray with all your soul and have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. If you do this, you will never ask anything that is wrong. Believe that you will be answered and you will be. Like the Savior Himself said, "not my will but thine be done." Then wait. Let Him communicate to your heart what He needs you to know. I know that you will be answered, all in God's own timing.

I said goodbye to a lot of the members and they were sad to see me go. The life of a missionary is hard sometimes. I was so willing to stay here for the rest of my mission but the Lord has other plans for me. I will miss my Linden family but I am stoked to meet some more wonderful people.  Happy birthday to my current companion, Elder Benich.  His birthday is tomorrow!  I always learn so much from my companions and Elder Benich has taught me some good things.  He's staying in Linden as the new DL.  I am happy to go realizing Linden is in good hands.  :)

Have a blessed week!
TNM
Love, Elder Q

Real Southern Cooking

Howdy y'all!
Most of my weeks are starting to just blur together. I can't think of much to write about this week but one thing is for sure, I love the food down here. I will start off with a story this time. The Newsham's wanted to take us to a firehouse cook off. We were happy to be invited and accept the offer. When we got there the smell in the air was so delicious! There was fried everywhere! I have really come to a liking of fried catfish. Anyways, we paid and headed down the line to the food. It was an all you can eat with one catch, you had to eat all the food you put on your plate. Obviously I grabbed every type of fried meat. As I got to one of the baskets it smelled like a tinge of crap, it could well have gagged a maggot. I still got it because why not? I satt down, got ready to eat, and prayed. I went for the not so good smelling meat first and Sister Newsham and all the people at the table looked at me and said, "Do you realize what that is? That there is the chittlins we was tellin' you about." I stopped dead in my tacks and told Elder Benich to get a video of this. I took a bite out of it and start chewing, and chewing and chewing. It wasn't getting any smaller so I just swallowed. Ugh. It was not something that I would like to eat again. If y'all don't know what chittlins are, they are pig intestines. Hence the reason for the awful smell.

Other cool story for y'all. After church we went to hunt down a couple because they didn't make it to church. We took Brother Davis with us but the couple wasn't home (typical).  We asked if there would be anyone else he would like to see. He couldn't think of anyone so we headed off back to the church. On the way a name popped in my head of a person Brother Davis knew so I asked him how the Dickenson where doing. He wanted to know if I had ever been to their home and I was hadn't. So he swung back into the turn lane and we headed for their house. We got there and this ancient Kong fu master came hobbling out. I felt like at any moment he could use his walking cane to make me flip upside down on my head. We'll, it was brother Dickenson but he looked to be in the worst of shape. He proceeded to tell us that he was attacked by a dog the day before and threw out his back fighting it off. He asked us for a blessing and told us we were an answer to his prayers. Their trailer is in bad shape and he lives in the most humble of circumstances. I have really learned to be great full for what I have since serving out here.

Other than that..... everything has been going pretty good. It is the last week of the transfer already! We have one last district meeting which I am super stoked for! It is going to be on revelation through prayer and through the Book of Mormon. We have been trained on how to use he pamphlets when teaching a lot more effectively. We will also be doing exchanges! I am super happy! Have a blessed week y'all and drive fast!

Love, Elder Q