Kendrick, Jessica

This week I studied how we need to pray to know the truth through the Holy Ghost!  Well prayers need to be effortful! The amount of times that I read phrases like "give ourselves continually" (acts 6:4), "laboring fervently" (col. 4:12), "pour our their hearts" (mosiah 24:12), or "with all energy of heart" (moroni 7:45) was almost overwhelming.  As a missionary, I pray a lot- when I wake up, before and after each study session, every time I leave the house, before I eat, before lessons, to start a lesson, to end a lesson, to go to sleep... and the words I say get very repetitive. I can mean the words I'm saying and still not be putting a whole lot of effort into my prayers, because I still want the same things, and need that same divine help, but the effort isn't there. This is the advice my mission president's wife, Sister Farley, said: "stay on your knees, until the effort is there" and stay there till your heart has been ...

This week there were so many small miracles that just made me happy! But as always I'll start with what I studied! This week is a mix of a couple things, but I studied about the apostasy! Specifically personal apostasy!  I was reading in Matthew 7 where it talks about the wise man and the foolish man, and I really liked verse 27. "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." In the story, the wise man build his house on a rock- which makes sense, when building a house you need a sturdy foundation- one that the weather won't effect. Imagine yourself as the house, feet spread sholder-width apart and knees slightly bent, ready for something, anything. That is how it needs to be, so when your friend or sibling comes behind you, you don't topple over.  Now, Imagine it in a slightly different way, you are standing on a rock in the middle of a big body of water where you can't s...

This week I studied the Saviors earthly ministry and atonement! Something that I really liked this week was the definitions! I was really focused on the definitions of redeemer, to redeem, and redeemable. To redeem is to prevent committing sins and to restore the honor or worth of. So Christ is literally restoring our honor! So we can live with God again! The definition of redeemable is being susceptible to improvement or reform. Hermana Peck and I were talking and the reason why Jesus could create the universe was because the matter obeyed him. So we can only change for the better when we obey him... to be redeemed we have to be willing to obey and experiment on the commandments to grow a testimony and feel joy.  Also this week i was reminded about how you can think you know a scripture until you read it one day and it just clicks. That happened this week with 2 Nephi 2:25. I've always read that verse and thought "cool Adam and eve had to fall so that we could live life....

This week was a weird week... we were quarantined for most of the time! But it was fun! I got to bake some brownies, and make some manicotti! It was so yummy- made me kinda feel like I was home and making dinner for my family!  We had a friend who wanted to learn about pride and ego- and I studied a bunch about it haha- and I was brought to the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The king found no fault in him, but it was his pride that caught him- he "loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:43)Thats the sin of being prideful- God created us, and knows what is best for us... we should be worried about what he thinks of us. Another scripture that I was brought to was 1 Nephi 8:28. I had never really been bothered by it before, but the word ashamed really hit me. Why did they have any reason to be ashamed? Their pride. Haha fun tidbit to lighten it up- in the verse before- it says that "their manner of dress was exceedingly fine." Is that ...