Sister Kimball and Sister Alberts take to the road.

Missionaries are always on the go. The Lord's work keeps 'em busy!

Remember Sisters your MILES ARE LIMITED ! Ha !

Thanksgiving holidays Nov. 28,2011

Sister Kimball  is getting ready for
                         THANKSGIVING DAY!

The first 4 days with it being the Thanksgiving holidays were rough days as to missionary work. No one really wanted to see us or wanted to spend much time with us, however, on Thanksgiving everything fell into place. It has been one of our best weeks this transfer. We were able to see Scott Jensen finally after he returned home. He is working 7 days a week which is very uncommon for this line of work, usually once they come home they don't work at all, but he'll be working until he leaves again in January.He's really frustrated. It is going to be a bit of a challenge to teach him but he'll make it happen. He wants to get baptized and feel a lot more rooted in the gospel and into the ward before he leaves. He'll be baptized hopefully, December 10th, but we are helping him to overcome his tabacco addiction. He gave us his chewing tabacco { don't worry we threw it away }! He loves church and he understands the importance of it. His faith is growing so much! He loves to pray.Their little boy is 5 years old and takes charge to say family prayer. How neat is that! They never prayed together before and now they are! How wonderful that is!
President Monson has said," A family that prays together stays together." That is exactly what Scott wants more than anything in life.

Work is getting in the way a lot. It's hard to tell him to quite his job because he knows it is affecting his family a lot and he really needs to go to a different company but you know that in these economic times it's just to hard. But we are excited to begin teaching him again.

 ...Thanksgiving Day... Our Thanksgiving was spectacular!
We woke up and went on our 5k run with our ward. A member in our ward set up a course to run and had signs and maps for us to follow. It was so much fun except Sister Alberts can't run so I ran without her. It was weird but I had a running buddy. I don't know how I will do without someone at my side all the time. Hmmm, maybe I'll love it. haha After that we played racquetball with the elders

And one of the elders hit the ball with all his might right into my arm. I had a huge welt for a while. haha

Then.........

we had dinner at our stake president's home with all the missionaries in our stake. It was a ton of fun! Afterwards we played clue. ( we were allowed to play as long as it was p-day and at a member's home)

The 1st 24 hour exchange

This week we went on 24 hour exchanges with other sisters closest to us. That was a lot of fun! During our exchange we had a great lesson with Sarah Dugan, our investigator. We went to a member's house and (Sarah's) 4 kids played with the other kids. We had the entire house to ourselves to teach her. The spirit was strong, there were no distractions and we were able to teach a full lesson without any interruptions whatsoever and we were able to answer her questions. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She had a lot of questions and also her kids about life after death. (Sarah) was never able to answer them before. They have had a lot of people die in their family in the last couple of weeks. She told us that a few days after the lesson that one of her girls asked again about life after death. Then (Sarah) asked her daughter what she thought about families being together forever. Her daughter responded with,"Yeah, I really like that ,Mom" She was now able to answer her child's questions. Cool, huh?

There are so many people who are looking for TRUTH. People want to have that assurance that they will see their family again. That God loves them and knows them. So many want to believe this but they just don't know where to find it. We are here to help them find again what they once knew before they came to earth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth through a prophet,the keys of the kingdom are once again on the earth and we can be baptized, have our families together forever through the proper authority of God. It's all made possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ. He lives! I know He does! We need to develop faith and trust in Him. We do so by starting with the small and simple things -reading the scriptures, prayer-Oh, you all know this. Well, I love you. I hope you have a wonderful week! We sure will. We are working hard and we are seeing miracles everyday! This is the Lord's work. We are on His errand. We must be diligent and faithful!

Beautiful Washington in October 2011

" Therefore, gird up thy loins for this work. Let thy feet be shod also, for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and among many nations." Doctrine and Covenants 111:7

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST

Elder Neil L. Anderson came to our mission. The whole mission gathered together. We had our mission president and his wife there, Elder L. Whitney Clayton
(presidency of the Seventies), Bishop Edgely (presiding bishopric) and Elder Merrell (of the Seventies). It was a remarkable meeting. Elder Anderson spoke to us briefly, he's funny. Then it was open for questions and answers and we got to ask questions and we heard from all the men in response to our questions. After that, Elder Anderson spoke to us for 30 minutes. His main message was instructing
us to ponder the question," What think ye of Christ"
He said that now is the time for us to have our testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, be deeply rooted in us. (He continued) It's not nearly enough for us to have a testimony, we need to be converted. and that the mission is the time to become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that conversion is a process, it will take a lifetime. He asked, "Where will your knowledge and faith be 20,40,60 years from now? We continually need to be thinking, pondering. and praying to strengthen our faith in Christ. He promised that as we do so, the things we believe in will become perfect knowledge. It won't be merely "faith" anymore. He left us with such a firm, powerful testimony of his love for our Savior, Jesus Christ and that He does live. We will see Him face to face one day. He is our Savior, and Lord and Redeemer. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I've been really pondering that question.
" what think ye of Christ ". He told us to put it up where we will see it each and every day.
...here comes the funny part...after he spoke we sang a song just before I was suppose to give the closing prayer, as the song was coming to an end, I started to walk up to the stand, I almost blacked out. Ha ha, no joke. I totally teetered over to the side. I was soooo nervous. I don't think I've ever been so nervous with anything else in my entire life. I got extremely light headed. Ha ha, oh goodness!! Thankfully I was able to sit down for a brief second before the song ended. I was praying the entire time in my head. As I walked to the pulpit it felt like the longest walk of my life. You probably think I'm exaggerating, huh? I know,pathetic! Why I was so nervous I don't know. I was just giving the closing prayer in front of my entire mission, Elder Neil L. Anderson, and a bunch of general authorities; no big deal. Well, I made it through the prayer, it actually went really well besides my voice trembling here and there.

Remember the moments that make up the memories

Our mission district

            A time to prepare...

" Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; ...For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
                                             Matthew 11:29-30

Sister Alberts and I are staying-right here

   Sister Kimball's just zippin along...
                    watch an see

I'm so excited that Sister Alberts and I are both staying. I'm excited for the miracles this transfer. We are getting a ton better! It's like night and day from the beginning and we are finally getting to know our ward members and the area. We are teaching a lot, so many miracles! I know President Wilson was difinitely inspired by God to have us stay. I believe both of us are needed here. I sure wanted to stay. I like it here, however, I am getting teased like crazy about the time I have left on my mission but no worries I keep smiling and I don't focus on it.

Nov.7,2011 A visit with Anna

We had a wonderful lesson with Anna Asaf. She is great and she always has a smile and she laughs. I think it's refreshing. She is dating a less active member and he is not making the best decisions such as asking (Anna) to move in with him. We figured that we should talk to them about the law of chastity and how chastity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ intertwine. Well, we first started talking about faith and repentance. Anna has a belief in Christ but not a lot of faith in Him. We are helping her to understand the role that Christ plays in our life and when we are striving to develop faith in Him we have a desire to change our lives (repentance). She doesn't quite believe it is possible so we taught her accordingly.That took up most of the lesson so I thought
," Well, I guess we will wait until next time to teach the law of chastity-
Well, let's just say that the Spirit had a different plan. And he really didn't even notify me (ahead of time) to let me know that we needed to talk about it, because for some reason something that was said made it possible for me to open my mouth and say,"you know,Brandon, you're suppose to wait until you're married to move in with each other". I was shocked that , that statement so bluntly came out of my mouth! It was bold but the spirit was there. He had a shocked look on his face because he didn' t know we knew (they were moving in together) because Anna had told us earlier. He sat there quietly and I continued to talk with great love. I know that it was the Spirit. So we talked for 1 hour and 30 minutes on the law of chastity. After talking about it with him, I knew why the Spirit put those words in my mouth, because he needed to hear what we taught him, as well as her.It was not an awkward conversation as we all know it could have been, but the Spirit had control and it went really well. I'm still in awe about it. When we left the first thing that came out of Sister Alberts mouth was," Wow, I can't believe you just said that. It was so blunt, I was just shocked...". I.m just as shocked, but after talking with each other, we realized that it couldn't have gone more perfectly.

The Spirit November 7,2011

Missionary work here in Woodinville, as the ward members say, is ON FIRE !   The Lord is definitely blessing us. We are having nonmembers coming to church left and right. The members enthusiasm for sharing the gospel has grown a lot. It's cool to see. 
       Missionary work is being in the right place at the right time and following the Spirit and taking the opportunity that is placed before you and then to trust in the Lord.
We had a neat experience this week. We went to visit a less active family on Friday. Their 14 year old daughter,Sam, had a nonmember friend over. The mom, who is less active, started to share the gospel with her and telling her daughter's friend all about what we do as missionaries. We talked to Sam's friend more about (the work). She had never gone to church before. Sam doesn't like church at all, she thinks it is boring so she rarely comes to activities or the 2nd and 3rd hour ( block of Sunday classes). She says that she feels that everyone is perfect. We had a great conversation about that and helped her to understand that none of us is perfect. You come to church and see everyone on their best behavior. You don't know their imperfections until you start to get to know them. "Church is a hospital for sinners not a hotel for saints."
Anyways, to make a long story short, her friend is really interested. You could tell that she is searching, she doesn't seem very happy with life and she is searching for greater happiness. So we kept inviting them to church and they just avoided the question by telling us that they would come to Wednesday's activity. Well, (on Sunday) they all came to church with their daughter's friend and they stayed all 3 hours!!! How neat is that?
They have plans to come to a Young Women's activity on Wednesday. Missionary work is one answer of how it can help strengthen our own faith. To see SAM start coming back to church because of sharing the gospel with her friend, is the neatest thing. 
Miracle! It was all the Spirit. People often say,"good job", and I want to say,"It is not us. It is the Lord's work, we are just instruments in His hands and conduits for the Spirit to work." It is a privilege to be a missionary, to serve and to see these miracles occur.

Monday Oct.31,2011

Saturday night we had a great Halloween party. There were so many nonmembers. We had 3 investigators and their families.

        We finished teaching Morgan who lives in Duvall. It is bitter sweet cuz we love teaching her and we will miss that but sweet cuz she is ready for baptism and she'll be baptized in the upcoming month, we all HOPE! She just needs to meet with President Wilson and all will be a go!
          Today we found out that Sister Alberts and I are staying in Woodinville, this will be " 3" transfers together and that's a long time to stay ( 24/7 )with one companion or anyone for that matter, but it will be good!

We are definitely needed in Woodinville. there is just so many amazing things going on. Sunday, a lady in our ward invited a friend to church and she is interested in learning more, however, she is really busy the next couple of weeks because she is running for city council so after that we will start to teach her.

Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi 15:24 " And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction."

I love you all!!! Have a fabulous week and have a
                                  Happy Halloween!     

Book of Mormon October 31,2011

Tuesday early morning I woke up with a very sharp pain in my low back. I first thought that I just slept wrong, but the pain intensified so after a half hour or so I woke up Sister Alberts by screaming her name. She rushed out of bed and to my side. I was laying on the floor...to make a long story short, she rushed me to the E.R, We called our mission presidents wife at 2:40a.m. after we got to the hospital. I was able to get a room in 20 minutes  which was a blessing.The lady said that if I would have come much sooner I would probably have been waiting for hours, it was a really busy night. That was blessing # 1. The #2 blessing happened as I was laying in bed before they were able to give me any medication, the pain got worse and worse I was crying and praying and asking for my mom (ha,ha) and as I continued my plea to Heavenly Father for help, He answered my cry with a soft impression  to read the Book of Mormon. With tears I turned to Sister Alberts and asked if she would read the Book of Mormon to me (we always carry a copy with us). She started to read and immediately and I mean immediately  peace fell upon me. I stopped crying, the pain was not as severe and I calmed down.It was a miracle. Seriously the moment she started to read the spirit filled the room,and I felt immediate peace and that everything would be okay. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it will bring anyone who is seeking for truth closer to Christ and bring greater hope and peace into their lives. I've almost always had a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, however, I am so grateful for this experience that strengthened my faith in the power of the Book of Mormon. On top of everything, Sister Alberts called our district leader at 4:30 a.m. because I requested a blessing. So three elders came at 5:00 a.m. and gave me a blessing. It was awesome! ( by this point I was on meds so I was a happy clam).So shortly after I got a cat scan and the doctors found out that I had a kidney stone 4mm which is medium size. It's a blessing that it wasn't any bigger. The stone passed! I was told that usually it takes a week for a kidney stone to pass. I know God was blessing me and watching over me.

Ooops ! October 2011

Just after we finished teaching a lesson and walked outside into the rain soaked street and just guess who slipped and fell in the MUD ?  ME !

STRIVING

So why I wrote the word striving in the subject box was because I think it sums up what we do as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We continually strive to do better, be better, and to achieve all that God has in store for us, to become more Christlike. We know that as we are striving we must put our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to progress. I noticed this week as we were teaching people the restored gospel that they often felt very overwhelmed, especially the Jensen family. They want to receive it all. They want to have happiness, be an eternal family, have the Spirit in their lives in greater abundance and feel worthy. I often have felt the urge to try to jump up to the top but we must take steps to get to the top. As we talked about the word  "striving", that it means as we move forward wherever we are on the track as long as we are facing in the right direction we will get there. Scott Jensen (he is so wonderful) said," I want this to be true, I sure hope it is." We invited him to be baptized on December 10th-He accepted!!!

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love sharing my testimony and bringing others to Christ. It brings me the greatest joy.
A lady in our ward came with us to a lesson. Afterwards, she expressed her great gratitude for asking her to come with us. she said," I just love sharing my testimony. It brings the greatest feelings of happiness. The Spirit was strong during the lesson. Share your testimony, "perfect love casteth out all fear." ( Elder Perry's talk last conference)
The Spirit will convert. The lady we were teaching said," The Spirit is strong, I know this is from God, I know that the things you are saying are true because I can feel it." Those words to a missionary are some of the greatest words anyone could say to us.