Preparation

 Hey there friends and family!  Wow, what an amazing week.  I just
love being a missionary.  Definitely the most rewarding calling in the
Church.  The funny thing is that nothing major has happened this week,
but the daily experiences that I have with the Spirit and the miracles
that I see bring so much joy to my life.  It is great!  But there were
some pretty awesome things that happened this week nonetheless.  So
last week I think I mentioned briefly Doug, the guy who came up to us
in church and asked if we could teach him.  Well, we went and taught
him on Wednesday and it was a super sweet lesson.  We had it at the
institute building, and there just happened to be a super cool
returned missionary there as well, so she joined us for the lesson.
He really enjoyed it, and invited us to have a lesson the next day.
So then we had a lesson on Thursday, and he wanted another one on
Friday.  So we had another one.  We asked him what his favorite things
he's learned about so far, and he said the Atonement.  He is awesome,
and is planning on getting baptized on September 22.  We are really
excited.  Everyone at church on Sunday thought that he was already a
member and had just moved in, so they were very surprised to learn
that he wasn't.  Good times.  Also, last night.  So UNL had this thing
where all of the organizations were able to set up a booth and all of
the students came and found out about the different organizations.  We
met a ton of people.  It was like missionary heaven.  It was pretty
funny as well, we had these two fairly good looking members at the
booth as well, so we were able to get a lot of guys to come talk to us
and see what we're about, haha.  We'll use anything I guess to get
people interested in the Church.  It was sweet though.  You can just
see in so many people's eyes that they are looking for something, and
our job is to help show them that what they are looking for is in the
Gospel.  We had a sweet zone conference as well on Wednesday and we
now have an extra half of an hour to study the Book of Mormon together
in the morning as companions.  It has been great, so I am grateful for
this wonderful opportunity.
        Well, spiritual thought of the week.  So I've been thinking a
lot about preparation and how it helps us gain the spiritual power
that we need to make decisions in life.  One quote I really love is
"Prior Preparation Precedes Power."  It is a true principle that the
Lord will prepare us for decisions we have to make in life.  From day
to day we all make decisions that, although are small, effect our
eternal destination.  Often times we have no idea when we are going to
be required to make a decision that will be of eternal importance, and
we must always be prepared for what path we will chose.  The best way
we can be prepared is by making sure we have the Holy Ghost with us.
His power will allow us to make those hard decisions in life when they
come.  Best of all, we can commit now the decisions we will make when
those times come.  By doing this, a critical moment in our life
doesn't become hard, but is simple and easy because we are prepared.
I know that as we strive to prepare as Moroni did in the Book of Alma,
our enemies will not be able to overcome us, and we will stand strong
on the foundation of Christ and His gospel.  I love you all so much,
and hope you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Kendall