Mackenzie's Mission: September 5, 2016

So coming from Kim....this week is soooo exciting! Kenzie has passed her halfway mark!!!!!!!!!!!! She left December 2nd for Uruguay. It has now been more than 9 months, so I can officially say we are on the downhill stretch! Since she already has her release date I also know that we only have 8 more fast Sundays! As Allen says, WE ARE IN SINGLE DIGITS FOLKS! We love getting her letters and pictures and hearing of her experiences and opportunities! Thank you for continuing to check in and see how she is doing. We love all of you! Hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,
Kim and Allen

Hey fam!!

This week was really great! It was my cumplimes( like a birthday is what they compare it to in the mission) and I now officially have 9 monhs in the mission!! Woohoo! It really made for a great week!

We also had four investigators at church this week! Leo and Leticia are progressing really well and their sons love coming to church! We also had a menos activa (less active member) start coming to church this week and her husband came and wants to get baptized! That was a crazy miracle of the week! We also had Mikaelah who is the girlfriend of the bishop's son! We are teaching her mom and sister as well! There is just so much progress in our area that we have started doing divisions(splits where they go out with a member of the ward) with the members in our ward at least once a week!

While we are on the topic of church, this Sunday was sooo great!! The fast and testimony meeting we had during sacrament really got to me. Antonio went up and bore his testimony, along with Martin, Sebastian, and Susana! When I started in my area here we didn't even know Antonio, Susana didn't want to come back to church and Sebastian wasn't coming to church either. I love my area so much and to see how every single one of them have come unto Christ and strengthened their relationship made me so happy! This ward is like my family and I am going to be so sad when I leave. Changes are next week and I am most likely leaving! But I know that if I leave it is what the Lord wants from me!

This week I have been studying a lot in Alma 32 about the seed with faith! Something that really stood out to me is Alma 32:17 y 18. It talks about how if we wait for a sign to know that that isn't faith. So many times when we talk to people as missionaries people tell us they don't believe in God because they have never seen proof of him. Something I have learned in the mission from the very beginning and still is that it depends on how we look at things..like with the eye of the faith. If we wait around for a sign we are not acting with faith. But if we go out and look for the answers we are needing and we have the faith that we will find them or recieve them THAT is faith! We can always better ourselves in our faith everyday and find more ways to act according to our faith to help us grow stronger! Like it says in Alma 32:27 even if it is a desire to have faith it is sufficient and the Lord will do miracles! I hope you all can find a way to grow stronger in the faith this week and remember that this girl in Uruguay loves ya!

Love,

Hermana Rich