The Gospel Brings Joy and The Power of Positivity

 The Gospel Brings Joy (July 17, 2023)

What a great week here in Cranberry! The week started off slow, but I had an exchange with THE ONE AND ONLY ELDER YATES!!  I love Elder Yates, and we were in Oakland and I love Oakland so it was a win win.  We had a fire MLC which is always good and then we were blessed to have another baptism on Saturday!  Myriam got baptized!  I'll drop some pics below. 

Beef of the Week!: Caroline, a convert we had when I was in Oakland has this friend that always feeds her anti. I forgot his name, but he makes her question her testimony so much which is so lame.  It also makes it hard to have charity towards him...

Babe of the Week!: Miss Mary Gairdo!  She got me the coolest shirt from Walmart!  She saw it and said it reminded her of me, so she got it.  Also she's the niece of Myriam so that's cool.

The Cranberry Crew!: Miss Molly is like our last friend left that's progressing.  We don't really have time to find other people to teach just because of all the office stuff we're doing, but she will be baptized on August 6th.  Excited for her!

Spiritual Thought!: Chris Hoke, 2x NFL Super Bowl Champion is our Stake President and he came and talked to one of our friends we had at church yesterday named Sterling and he said, "I've played in front of thousands of people, I've won 2 Super Bowl Champions, and I've felt a lot of joy. But NOTHING compares to the joy the Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought me."  So I thought that was really cool.  This man has seen worldly success and still knows which way he faces. "Which Way Do You Face?" - Lynn G. Robbins

See you in 5 weeks!

NSJK

The Power of Positivity  (July 24, 2023)

Hello all!  It was a good Zone Conference week this week. v We went around the whole mission and it's always so fun to see everyone and all of my friends and their growth!  It reminds me of the sons of Mosiah in Alma 17. Anyways, we trained on positivity and the power that comes within!  That will be featured during the Spiritual Thought ;)

Beef of the Week!: This week's beef comes from the wealthy townhomes my man Elder Bringhurst and I knocked on our exchange.  It was crazy!  There were cars all lined up along the whole street and full in the parking lot but not a SINGLE person answered the door!  It was like super crazy, we knew there was going to be opposition, so we continued to press on.

Babe of the Week!: So talking about opposition, we had a lesson with our man Jesse!  Fun fact, he was the first lesson I ever taught my whole mission since Cranberry was my first area.  So I'm back teaching him again and he still hasn't been baptized!  Well on Saturday, after knocking all of the townhomes, we had a good lesson with him and our Bishop.  He committed to being baptized the Sunday before I go home!  First lesson ever, and last baptism ever.  We're super excited for him!

The Cranberry Crew!: Jesse is super cool and we're pumped for him!  Him and Molly are getting baptized on the same day. August 13th!  Miss Ann is super cool too!  She didn't make it to church today, but Sterling did!  He's a stud.  I'm gonna need to get a picture with him before I leave because he truly is a dog.  He's come to church the past 2 weeks!

Spiritual Thought!: We trained on the Power of Positivity this week and it was really enlightening for me to study!  Positivity and enthusiasm are very similar.  I learned that the root word for "enthusiasm" is the greek word "entheos" which means "God within" or "full of God" which is so cool to think that such a positive uplifting word is related to God.  It's no coincidence!  So I invite each of us to figure out how we can be more positive so we can have God with us more.

-NSJK

PS..My homecoming talk will be on August 20, 2023 at 9am!  Let me know if you need an address!