Her desire to follow the Savior Jesus Christ

Wow. This week was incredible

so firstly Id like to share an experience that I had when I was visiting in the house of a less active member. So we were visiting her and I felt impressed to share a scripture that is basically one of my favorites that I talked about last week Marcos 9:23 (mark) about How everything is possible for those that believe. And as I was preparing to read this a thought entered into my mind and made me realize i didnt really know what was occuring in this story so I quickly skimmed over the page and when I realized what the story was about it hit me really hard touching my heart. About the Father who had a child with many problems (basically to the point where he was putting himself in danger) and how this man pleaded with Our Savior Jesus Christ to help his son be cured. And He responded asking if the man had faith because everything is possible for those that believe and the man replied

"I believe!!"

and then after stated

"please help my unbelief"

and the son was healed.

What is wonderful about this story is that this father had great faith and hope 

Because Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things but rather having hope, believing in things that are not seen which are true.

And I thought about that because of the talk that was given (by Elder Holland?) About being firm to the faith we already have. 

And it made me think about me learning the language as a missionary because I know that Im learning the language miraculously fast and I can understand people really well, but sometimes there are people that dont quite understand me and its easy to get nervous about this, about not knowing what to say (in a way really clear that they will understand despite my accent) but then I talked with my companion about this afterwards,

because during this lesson it hit me that this scripture really was for me as well because I KNOW that the Lord is blessing me with the ability to share my testimony and express myself to people and that they truly do understand WHEN I am talking (acting) with faith.

Tiago (James) 2:7- Faith without works is dead.

When I am following the spirit, and trusting in the Lord to help me communicate everything works out wonderfully and people are able to understand.

And it made me think about faith more, because I always "know" that the Lord can bless us and miracles can occur but what is important is always acting, showing that faith- meaning talking without being worried about whether or not they will understand because I know that they will understand because it is not us that teach lessons, its the Spirit that is within is. Also we can teach lessons but it is the spirit that will carry the lesson to the persons heart. Its really wonderful this week experiencing how much the spirit works through us.

"And how do you think I know this for myself, this only comes through much prayer and fasting". 

Ever since I started fasting more and praying more specifically I have been so incredibly blessed with feeling the spirit testifying to me about what I should do or say.

My companion sister maia shared with me a few phrases the other day about the Spirit and one of them I really liked said this

"The spirit will feel like a "hunch" to do something righteous."

because everything good cometh from God

and so when we are feeling that we need to do something its important to act in the moment because we might miss the opportunity if we don't act apon the prompting.

I was very blessed yesterday in church because of my choosing to act apon a prompting.

So we had an absolutely wonderful sunday in which 6 people were in church including LUAN who is being BAPTIZED this saturday!!!!! Okay I am so beyond happy about that because his testimony is so incredibly firm. He went to talk with the pastor of the church he had attended to tell him that he was leaving the church to be baptized WOW. And then when he prayed the other day I just about began crying because of the joy and happiness I felt.

He included this in his prayer "I am so grateful that I have been blessed to know about the restored gospel, I am so grateful that the gospel has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and I pray that I will continue to learn more, please bless our living prophet, the apostles and all the missionaries in the world to be safe and please bless the members of the church."

If THIS isnt a person beyond prepared for the Gospel then I dont know who is. Really everything thing he has done has been a further testimony to me that the Lords hand is in this work and that His children are needing the Gospel. Joao (John) 10:16- I have other sheep who are not of this fold, whom I shall visit and they will hear my voice.

He is beyond incredible and has been actively changing his life to follow our savior (and in reality he didnt have a whole lot to change because he already was living the law of chastity because he felt it was the right thing to do, and when we taught about the word of wisdom the only thing he had to stop was drinking coffee basically rarely if ever) 

anyways its just so wonderful. I just know he will be really firm in the church and because of his example Aline will also know the truth of the Gospel and be baptized. (Oh and he is searching the book of Mormon on his own to receive answers to his questions!! And he read all of the For Strength of Youth...TO HIS MOM !!!!!! Wahoooo!!) 

Anyways he is amazing and beyond elect

and our other miracle story with people being beyond prepared for the gospel is Dilma.

Because she would have been baptized the first week we taught her if possible. Everything we have taught has "made sense to her" or she has "felt that it is right" its just such a wonderful blessing. Anyways she wants to get married so she can be keeping the commandments and so she can be baptized.

But things are a little difficult with her fiance Marcus following through with his word on marriage (which he has actually been saying for 5 years) anywayss

so we were in church and we had our investigators sitting with other members to build friendships in the ward and so Dilma was sitting in the 3rd row from the front and I was in like the second to the back

and the speaker was talking about the importance of following our savior and doing whats right

and I felt a burning desire to stand up, walk to the front and sit behind Dilma to comfort her, 

all the way in the back I knew that she needed comfort

that she had heard something in the talk that made her feel filled with anguish (because of her righteous desire but inability to be baptized)

but then I tried to ignore this feeling because I didnt know if it was necessary.

And then right then the speaker said "When we feel promptings from the spirit we need to act upon them, because tomorrow make be too late."

and so I went and sat behind her (because the bench was full) and as soon as I placed my hand on her back and that she knew it was me she grabbed my hand, tears started streaming down her face.

I felt terrible sadness that I know must have been what she was feeling and so I just rubbed her back and consoled her

and then I told her (what I knew she needed to hear,)

that The Lord knows that she is trying to follow him.

And when she heard that she just sobbed and sobbed,

wow.

Her desire to be baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ is SO great that it literally is painful to her to not be able to right now.

But I know that miracles will occur and that all things will happen for our good, and that the Lord doesnt give commandments unto the children of men least he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish them.

Also that things will happen in the Lords time.

My companion and I are praying and fasting for her and I know that everything will work out.

and so this experience was sad but at the same time joyous because I felt the faith she has and I know that she will do what it taked to follow the Savior and that she will be baptized and remain firm forever.

How absolutely wonderful to be able to be blessed in this way to be able to participate in helping the Lords children find the way he has set for them and then watch as they make the efforts to follow him.

So its just abslutely wonderful and I am so grateful for the Gospel. I realized the other night because of this experience how incredibly blessed I am to be so priveledged to be born into the Gospel. What a marvelous blessing.

Well I love you all so much, stay firm in the faith :)

And I am so glad that I have been born of goodly parents

I love you all! Families are Forever!!

With Love, Sister Kimball

Following the impressions of the spirit

We were walking down the street leaving an area and my companion felt strongly that we needed to continue in this street so we turned around and were walking talking to people

and THEN I saw a lady leaving her car that I felt we should talk to

so we introduced ourselves and started talking about families and how they can be strengthened giving her a liahona about families and how they can be together forever

and then my companion started teaching about the restoration

and this sweet lady

broke down Crying

saying "I really needed to hear this, thank you, thank you, thank you"

it was quite the powerful experience

we testified that the Lord is aware of her and because of it sent us to talk to her

and then we sang "where can I turn for peace"

wow, so powerful, so amazing

I know the Lord guided us to her, and that the Lord is guiding this great work, if we follow the Spirit and are willing to heed to the promptings, the Lord will have great things occur in our lives.

Mom I love how you said that you want to always follow the Spirit in faith, its sure a wonderful thing,

I love you all!!!

Ciao!!

With the Lord all things are possible

So the computer had a misfunction and said I didnt have any time left when I actually did, I was wondering why the time went soooo fast haha

But anyways this week I learned a lot of great things and really had some powerful faith building experiences, including during the middle of a lesson feeling the prompting to have us all kneel down and say a prayer, and THEN I realized we never said a kneeling prayer with her, and so we did and it was just really a powerful moment I just felt the spirit SO strong without a doubt in my mind I know the Spirit was testifying strongly in all our hearts the truth of our message it was really neat.

It is really interesting with everything we do that we absolutely need help from the Lord, that with him everything is possible for those that believe (Mark 9:23) that is something that Im definitely praying for (meaning that Im just doing my very best to trust in the Lord and that he is guiding this work)

Something that my companion shared with me during this week was that when we are sharing a message with someone and feel the spirit really strong, we can tell them during this moment that the feeling THey are  feeling is the spirit and that we know they are feeling the spirit because we are too. That was really interesting because after this we had 2 lessons where we testified, In the moment, that we knew Luan/Aline was feeling the spirit and its really cool the way the spirit is more powerfully testifying to our hearts in the moment that we are testifying of the reality of the resposta (response/answer) they are getting.

Something cool is that sometimes I think a word in portuguese is explains a situation better then the same word in english. (Im prefering portuguese to english).

its really neat on my mission having experiences where I AM given the opportunity to choose to do whats right regardless of what others may think.

That really its more important (Bem Mais importante) to do what we feel is right in the Sight of the Lord, to do what would make Him happy and pleased with us.

Something I read this week in preach my gospel that was really cool was that Because God is our loving Heavenly Father he wants us to be happy, but more than that he Also wants us to succeed. I feel like being on a mission has made me ponder a lot about the word "success" and I really do know that God wants us to succeed and he has given us So many things to help us succeed.

(the scriptures, the Holy Ghost, A prophet, Church) 

Well this week Im just superly superly grateful for my companion, It really makes a difference having a really steller companion I think :) 

Because for me whats most important to me is following the Lords will and doing everything we can to share the Gospel. And so its awesome having a companion who has the equal desire.

Im just really grateful I was really praying hard for a companion full of excitement for misisonary work and Sister Maia definitely is.

Its great :)

Well I sure love you all!! Im grateful for your prayers

I also loved the emails I received (thank youuuuuuuuuuu mom and dad)!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!

With love, your daughter forever

sister Kelsey Kimball

ALSO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY of 23 years WAHOOOOOO!!!

and happy valentines day

and happy my 11 month mark

and dads bday on the 28th

Love sister Kimball

They received answers to their prayers!

My dear wonderful family, I really feel that there must have been many prayers said for me this week because a miracle has happened in my life.

The name of this miracle is my brand new companion who is

Sister Maia,

andddddddddddddddd she is Brazilian!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOO

Oh how I love her!!! I just cant even explain how much I have appreciated and enjoyed this past week.

 Serving with her is a true joy.

From the VERyyyy first moments with her I just felt a friendship and unity that is just so wonderful. Whats so great about this is that just Everything else falls into place.

BECAuse Already we teach really well together and with the spirit, and I love her and I know she loves me and therefore we are in this great work together.

Its really fun being able to be with someone in which we trust each other. Meaning if we are walking down the road and I feel that itd be beneficial for us to walk in the complete opposite direction all I need to do is turn and she will walk with me. same goes for when she feels the prompting to talk to someone.

I LOVE IT! Because we both feel the importance of seeking the spirits guidance in all things.

And because of it we have had INCREDIBLY indescribable experiences in this past week alone.

Experience 1- We fasted for Luan, Aline and Dilma

AND Luan received an answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO! So incredible!!

He basically prayed to know if he should be baptized and then had a dream that a man jumped into a river and then the man beckoned for him to join him in the river 

I love my companion she is hilarious (like in the same way I think Im hilarious)

she said (hmmmmmmmmm.......water...river....Jesus Christ was baptized in the River Jordan..........Baptism!!!!!!!!!) 

Haha its just awesome. and for my 11 month mark she treated me to icream. Okay we definitely eat a wholeee lot of sweets together. But its fun.

Something that Im loving is being able to support each other and strengthen each other, also she is teaching me to cook certain foods :)

Experience with Dilma-

WE picked a day to visit the place where we mark marriages!!!!! :)

How awesome!!

I think my time ran out?? I love you all!!!!!!!!!!

The spirit teaches the truth of our message

Well my beautiful wonderful family how are you all? :)!!!

So I have quite a few Big news events to share with you all.

Firstly

We are having transfers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess what this means?!!! So I am staying in the area which honestly I felt in my heart I was meant to stay here for a few specific beyond incredible prepared wonderful people that are receiving answers to their prayers about the Gospel and that I believe I will have the opportunity of witnessing their conversions, and hopefully their baptisms :)!!

But this means my companion sister Faundez is leaving to open a new area.

Which means

I will take over the area

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD train a brand new companion

WHOSE FIRST LANGUAGE will be spanishhhhhhh!

ahhhh! wahoo!!!!!!!!!!! :)!!!! Im pretty excited!!!

The pressure is on now ;)!!

But really I am pretty excited about this, like its interesting because the first time I was asked to train (a brazilian) I was beyond nervous, just so nervous. And then she turned out to be beyond incredible and everything just worked according to the Lords plan.

And so now I will be having a new companion who probably wont speak portuguese, which means that my portuguese will hopefully be sufficient haha.

But some of the reasons Im really excited is because of this,

brand new missionaries are the BEST!!!!!!!!! Straight from the MTC feeling the spirit like crazy and super desirous to start teaching and helping people. They are full of hope and happiness and they are willing to do their best.

This is my belief and trust in new missionaries and so Im excited and hopeful.

And as long as she is willing to do her best and be exactly obedient I just know we are going to experience SO many miracles this transfer.

So Im excited. I will meet her tomorrow :)

So this past week was beyond amazing,

we were focusing this week on specific people to help them preogress and its just all been really good. So we have Luan and Dilma that Im just hoping, praying and fasting for.

Luan visited 2 baptisms with us this week, And was in church and will be next week, he said he felt something really good and different but he wants to "know for Sure" he really is just really great and reading the Book of Mormon and praying and its just really all very wonderful. He is the brother of Aline who is also incredible who basically received an answer through feelings of peace in her heart but is kind of waiting for more responses. And so really we believe that Luan Will receive an answer and because of it Aline will too, and therefore her husband (THEY GOT MARRIED THIS WEEK!!! WAHooo) will hopefully investigate the church as well.

So we are really hoping and praying for him.

Okay so the BEST part of this week was Dilma.

I do not have words to describe how special she is to us and how incredible she is. The VERY first day we met her she said "I need this in my life"

and since then she has allowed us, asked us, and WANTED us to visit every day, (doesnt want us to leave).

Everything we have taught her she has Immediately felt is true and chosen to follow

Word of wisdom "This makes sense now"

Law of Chastity "I want to get married"

Plan of Salvation "I am so grateful to know this message, it really shows that God is loving"

Baptism-"I want to get baptized but I dont know if Im prepared"

To which I bore my testimony and testified to her that she is absolutely the most prepared person I have ever met in my entire mission to be baptized because of her Desire to follow our savior, her humility in recognizes changes she wants in her life, her Love for the Gospel, her diligence in keeping commitments, and for honestly preparing in every way to be baptized.

Oh and get this, a couple times we have taught a message and closer to the end she had a question about a different topic which she shared a little about and then left a pamphlet (because we visit her at around 8:30 every night and need to be hope at 9 so her lessons get cut short because of time)

but the next day she has already read the pamphlet and not only that but she understands it and talks about it in such a clear a perfect way that Im excited to bring her as a recent convert to help teach EVERYONE else!!!! :)!!

Also she has an adorable son Erik Dave (Dah-vee) who is 8 years old who also wants to be baptized (when we toured the church he left the group and lingered because he wanted to be in front of the baptism font because he wants to be baptized. How absolutely wonderful. )

Oh but anyways we visited a baptism with her (I honestly can think of no better lesson in the world then to bring an investigator to a baptism, they are SO powerful!!!) but she and I watched the baptism and while everyone was filing out we just stood in awe, it was the most perfect baptism I have ever seen (the elders investigator is just really wonderful) and the spirit was so strong.

After the doors were shut we were still just standing there.

And then she turns to me, and this wonderful friend of mine is crying.

She knows this baptism was true. She said "I know now this was not of this world, I just feel it in my heart."

This moment was so precious I would not trade it for the world.

She truly will follow her savior and be strong in the church.

Also when she visited church it was really wonderful as well.

We have a teacher in Gospel principels that is quite frankly a blessing in our lives. Im going to write him a letter today, because I dont think he could ever know how much he has helped our investigators knwo the truth of the Gospel. Wow. I am so grateful for him. And seriously all our members are just wonderful, our bishop is loving happy and aware of new people, and everyone of their own accord went out of their way to greet our investigators (I also have a testimony of being to church on time because THIS helps so much!! because everyone coming in thats early sees us and new people and its just perfect.)

So really there has just been so many miracles and I just know with all my heart that Heavenly father is looking out for his children.

Another thing really important to me right now is the young men in our ward

recent converts but less actives.

The other day we were talking to a lady who said her son didnt want to serve a mission. so his father encouraged him saying "Read the book of mormon cover to cover and if you still dont want to go we will leave it at that."

He read the book of mormon

Gained a testimony

served a mission

and married in the temple.

The book of Mormon is Powerful!

So I believe this is what will save our youth in the church.

So Im so grateful for the experiences Ive been having and I am just so grateful for the Gospel and for our wonderful prophet Thomas S. Monson who is leading and guiding it under the direction of our loving Heavenly Father. Im grateful for our Brother and Savior Jesus Christ and for the love unending he has for us.

And this is my experiences for the week,

I love you all

Sincerely Sister Kelsey C. Kimball

I love the power of the scriptures!

Ola my wonderful family!

So this week has been really good BECAUSE we worked Really hard! Also a sweet lady talked to me that I had met before and it was a really neat experience

SO basically this is what happened

A while a go I was on a bus and I felt really prompted to talk to this teenager that basically had a ton of piercings and things like that (and sunglasses) the whole "look" of a rebel, but I really felt like I should talk to him.

And so I did and it was really good and he took of his sunglasses and I just knew with all my heart he was a son of God and he honestly was just kinda lost but a really good kid and so anyways I talked to him, shared some things about the church and at first he was pretty unintered but then after a little while he was truly listening and I just knew it was things he needed to hear (about how he IS a son of God and how he is very Loved) and things like that, and so he said he would really like to visit our church (he is in a different area so I gave him the address of our church building and he said he would visit)

and so that was really good, I dont know if he was able to but I know I was able to say what was needed to be said. 

Then when we were leaving the bus (and you may have already heard the first part of this story so its a refresher because there is more information haha)

but anyways a lady stopped us when we were leaving the bus and she said.

You are angels of God.

I thought that was a nice thing to say.

Anyways NEXT time I saw her it was at a chapel open house!! And she said she wanted to be baptized! That elders were teaching her and that she was excited to be baptized.

2 weeks after that she stopped me again (at the chapel dedication)

AND she was baptized!!!!! WaHOOO

so thats pretty neat :)

Its so cool because we never know the lives we touch when we follow the spirit. Its definitely amazing.

Also I was thinking alot today about how a mission really does prepare us to be servants of the Lord to be ready to follow his guidance. Because when we have transfers we receive a telephone call, pack our bags and journey to be in a new place we have never been with a companion we usually have Never met.

And I was thinking about this because Im grateful for this experience because firstly when these transfers we have the opportunity to trust in the Lord and follow.

And I just Know it will prepare me later in life, because I do want to be able to follow the spirit to go Wherever the Lord wants me to go. And thats pretty big for me because really I was kind of just planning on finding a nice little spot in utah and living there forever and ever with all of you my wonderful family. But then I realized basically EVERY single person in the scriptures that was following the will of the Lord needed to at some time leave everything they knew behind and follow the Lord.

It makes me think of being here in Brazil because I was nervous to be here and I think for that reason I was in NM to prepare me and to be able to recognize and have experiences seeing how when the Lord calls us to do a certain thing or go to a certain place it is ALWAYS better then our personal plans. For example I loved more than anything my first area in farmington new mexico and when I learned that I was leaving I was worried and kind of sad because I loveeeed farmington and the people there and my companion sister Egginton was such a blessing for me. But then I decided I Would Love my new area and that it was a calling of God to leave that area and serve people in gallup. And so I did and I was SOOO happy and had a beyond absolute blast with my next companionship (trio) that I loved so much and basically couldnt sleep because we were just so happy. We worked hard had the spirit in lessons and taught some wonderful people. And it made me think,

because if I was guiding my life I would have just stayed in farmington, but then would have missed out on Amazing experiences and just a truely wonderful time as a missionary in Gallup. And the absolute same with being in Brazil. On the Very day that I truly prayed and said "I recognize that I was worried about Brazil but really I Want to follow thy will and if its in Brazil Im excited to go and will love the people with all my heart" and basically "I Will go Wherever you want me to go"

on that very day I had received my visa.

And I believe its because I was willing and eager to follow the Lords will regardless of whatever might happen

and now Im absolutely loving Brazil,

and having incredible experiences seeing changes in peoples lives and seeing people I just know with all my heart are prepared by the Lord.

For example right now we are teaching Dilma who is just indescribably amazing and eager to follow the will of the Lord.

She WANTS us to visit every day. She reads the things we leave her, she prays about them. She recognizes us as servants of the Lord.

And we have been only teaching her for 2 weeks

she Wants to be baptized and because of it

she wants to get married (and will marry)

and the First time we talked the word of wisdom she said

"This makes sense. It all makes sense to me now."

WOW just truly remarkable, I love her so much!

And our other friend who is just beyond amazing is Luan (brother of Aline who is also amazing)

He was the one that requested a book of mormon, 

the only difficulty was that he worked basically non stop and so weve only really had one lesson with him, but he read the restoration pamphlet we gave him when we talked to him the first time and He believes its true. wow.

anddd he will be having holdiays from work for ONE MONTH
BATISM!!!!!!!!!! :) Hahaha. Seriously we see him as a missionary, a leader to the young men, a bishop a stake president

he is Amazing.

So we are hoping and praying. And because of blessings Ive received and things Ive learned from the Book of Mormon, I will also be fasting :)

So thats our hopes and dreams :)

But really Ive realized the harder we work the better I feel 

also we had a open house in which we talked with 506 people in the space of 4 hours!!!! :)!!!!!

Well I love you all!

I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am beyond grateful for the way its blessing my life with peace and ability to conquer all things with faith.

I love you all! Continue strong!

COM amor /lots of love

Sister Kelsey Cheyenne Kimball