Keziah in Kentucky: The "Stab and Grab" got us!

On Monday we had district P-day and crashed the Lexington North STLs apartment. We went to knock on their door and ran when we heard a dog bark because we definitely had the wrong door, so that was kind of funny. We just kind of talked about life with the STLs. Then we watched the eclipse with the district and played soccer/football/Frisbee. It was a lot of fun even though it was too cloudy to have a great view of the eclipse. On Monday night we had a lesson with our friend Shirley. It was kind of funny because we showed up and ended up helping her move bricks before sitting down to our lesson. We taught her restoration and she liked it—we are still not sure if she really understood it though. After that we had our final call with the Bluegrass sisters, I love them so much. They blue washed the area so it really was our last call with Bluegrass. After their call we talked to the zone leaders about plans for the rest of the week and ideas for this coming transfer.

On Tuesday we Tuesday at 10 (our mission-wide Zoom call) and talked about referrals and talking to everyone. We ended up having three lessons on Tuesday. One with one of our members who has really been struggling, one with our friend named Zach, and one with our friend Toney. Zach's lesson was so awesome! He started by telling us his favorite General Conference quote and how it goes really well with his favorite Book of Mormon scripture. Toney's lesson had really bad connection (it was over the phone) and yet it was also a good lesson.

On Wednesday we waited all day for transfer calls. We were convinced that we were staying together (not really, but we were living in denial). Because we were living in denial I joked that Sister Sellers was going to go White Wash Hurstbourne in Louisville—and then she did!! We had our last district council of the transfer Wednesday. During district council we talked about maintaining spiritual momentum. After District Council we ended up having two lessons cancel, but our third one went through! Our lesson that did happen was with our sweet friend Kahmari. We taught her restoration and I love her. After her lesson we visited some more people and then had a call with the district leader. After that call, we finally made dinner and then had transfer calls. Sister Sellers abandoned me to go to Louisville and Sister Allen came to join me! According to some of the missionaries, Sister Sellers and I looked depressed on that call. 😊 We should have known that Sister Sellers patterns would continue. (She served in every area 3 transfers and her companions were with her for 1 and then 2 transfers.)

On Thursday morning we had a Zone comp study where we talked about miracles that we had seen throughout the transfer. After that we said a lot of goodbyes and got Sister Sellers packed. We also had district lunch. The elders in our district are so funny! After that we had a lesson with our friend Janis and our member Brother Love. A funny quote from the lesson was, “They find a way into our hearts and then they leave!” Shortly before dinner our car started sounding weird and we decided it was one of the tires so Sister Sellers got out to look. Turns out we had a hunk of metal in our tire. Kind of ironic since the car started sounding weird when we drove past the gas station that is often referred to as the “Stab and Grab.” We then had the joy of replacing our tire with the donut before our member meal – in the rain! We had dinner with the Laceys. They are the new senior couple serving in the branch. We had Navajo tacos and it was really good to get to know them. After dinner we had stake correlation and it decided to go an hour long. During the meeting we messaged Elder Zahlman about our tire and asked about driving to transfers on our donut. The funniest part is that he got 2 messages from our zone less than twenty minutes apart about flat tires. Apparently the Lexington zone was having a rough evening! Right after that we called the Danville/Liberty (Danberty) sisters.

On Friday morning we went to get our tire plugged because Elder Zahlman did not want us driving to transfers on a donut. After getting the tire fixed we packed the car and headed to transfers! Transfers were kind of chaotic, but it all worked out. Kind of funny that Sister Allen is now my companion because we have served around each other most of our missions. We were trained in the same district and she was my STL in my last area. After transfers we drove back to our area and had a call with the Zone Leaders to plan the transfer. We then had dinner with Sister Feese. She is a super sweet younger women in our ward! After dinner, I finally got a personal study and then we called the Richmond ASL sisters. Every time we call them I learn new signs!

On Saturday we decided to transfer plan and have a walking day. We had some really good contacts and were able to finally get in contact with our inactive member Julius Caesar! We had a short lesson with him and then visited more people. One of the funniest parts of the day was when we walked past a group of kids and they waved, so we waved back. We then told the one that waved that we liked her dress. As we were walking away we heard her tell another kid, “Those are the girls that liked my dress.” The other kid replied, “Girls? Those look like Women.” It was soo funny!! After walking we drove to drop a Book of Mormon off to our friend Kahmari. Then we ate dinner, after dinner we had a referral call us to set up a lesson. They ended up telling us their whole life story and setting up a lesson before getting our names! When we told them our names they said Sorenson sounded like royalty (it was super funny). Finally, we weekly planned (at least started to) and called the Somerset sisters.

On Sunday morning we frantically planned our lesson for Young Women's (we over planned because Sacrament meeting ended up running long). After planning we had church. A lot of friends said they were going to try to make it, but only our friends Windy and Watson ended up coming. We taught the Young Women about missionary work and laboring in the Lord's vineyard. After church the miracles began! We had two lessons cancel on us (which has been a common trend this week) so we were both kind of disappointed. We were studying and a referral randomly called us. We ended up impromptu teaching him the entire Restoration over the phone and he was so amazed. We shared the first vision and he simply responded, “Wow.” We were able to set up a chapel tour with him and he is excited to come to church. We ended up going from a canceled lesson to a new friend. The best part is that he thought we called him! After that we went to go visit some people, and decided to park and walk since they were close to each other. As we were walking there was a lady on her porch, she yelled, “Who are you with?” When we told her she asked if we were talking about Jesus and then told us that we could talk about Jesus with her. It was really cool because she told us that she had been praying that God would send someone to talk about Jesus with her. We ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and giving her one. She is super excited to read it and have us come back. Basically we went from having two canceled lessons to having two lessons with new friends. Weekly planning did not end up happening because our impromptu lessons ran late, but there were some cool miracles. We also called a random gray dot and they told us that they want to learn more and to keep in contact. We then worked on our Zone Challenge plan and had a District Leader call. After their call we did social media and called it a night.

This truly is the Lord's work and I am so thankful for his hand in everything we do!

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