Serving...one of the greatest blessings....

My Sister and her family live in the same home that we grew-up in.  Granted it looks very different because they actually built on and changed some things to fit their family.

With that said, the blessing of living in that area is that you know many of the neighbors.  You have had them as your church teachers, you have become friends with them.  You have watched their kids grow-up, and you are always willing to help and give service.

One of the those families is Carla and Kendell Kelly.  They have never been able to have children but have had foster kids.  They have loved many of the neighbor kids and watched them grow-up and then go onto have children of their own.

Brother Kelly has had Parkinson's disease.  Whenever it was garbage or recycling day Desmond would walk down to their home and take the barrels to the street.  

As Desmond headed to the airport at around 5 or so in the morning to leave for Orlando, FL he remembered that it was garbage day.  So dressed in his suit, dress shoes and missionary badge in place he wanted to stop one last time and make sure the garbage was out.

Brother Kelly passed away a few weeks ago.   I am sure that he will be yet another angel to watch over Desmond as he serves the Lord.

Church Cleaning!!!!

 Back home my family and I would clean the Church about twice a year after doing lock-up duty that week. Cleaning the chapel in Firth included such tasks as vacuuming, dusting, cleaning windows, and dumping garbages. Here in Rockledge Florida I have also have the opportunity to take care of Church maintenance, however, in this case we clean it weekly with one other member and the tasks are a little different. We still vacuum and dump garbages, but we also disinfect just about EVERYTHING. Oh yeah, and this week we also swept up cinderblock fragments and cleaned the dust from where a homeless nude man tried to break in. The doors were just fine. The kitchen window took more of a beating but he still wasn't able to get in. You may wonder how we knew he was naked, that is because we had to scavenge around the church to make sure we found his entire outfit and throw it away. The weirdest thing though, the member who we clean the Church with was very nonchalant about it.

This week our zone placed a heavy emphasis on finding new people to teach because some of our teaching pools were practically nonexistant. Our finding techniques are pretty much cold-texting, Facebook finding, and member referrals. We prayed (a lot) and we fasted (a little) and we had (some) success! Though we didn't quite hit the goal as a zone, my comp and I were able to find a person who we did a Bible Study with. We asked her what she wanted to study and she said Genesis 1. After reading that and discussing it we asked her what she wanted to talk about next time and she told us that based on how we prayed and how we testified, she knew that whatever we taught her next would be what she needed to hear so we have been praying and are still deciding on what lesson to teach her.

It has been a crazy week over all but I would not have it any other way! I was listening to a talk called "Plow in Hope" for my personal study, and the thought hit me that a field isn't plowed all at once. Whether you do it with state-of-the-art equipment or a hand-plow like my grandmas, you still have to do it one pass at a time. Which is just like missionary work! Those little tedious things like messaging people daily and posting on Facebook eventually build up and the work moves forward! Additionally, if you focus on the row you are on now without worrying about the ones you have left to do, you hardly notice how long it takes or how difficult it was!

You guys are all amazing!!

Elder Killian

Pic #1 - At the beach with the District

Pic #2 - Selfie with a palm tree that grows weird fruit we wanted to eat but apparently it makes you sick🤢🥭

Pic #3 - Broken kitchen window from the homeless guy 🪨

Pic #4 - Us preparing a photoshoot for Facebook🥜

Memories in the Making!!!

 Some further entries from Desmond on Facebook and other fun photo's!!! These are memories you do not want to forget as you come home from your mission and continue on with the blessings and challenges that life will give you!!!!

Blessings, Challenges and Serving the Lord!!

 As Elder Killian serves in the Florida area he is extremely blessed to be able to meet incredible people, see the hand of God in the beauty of nature and growing physically and spiritually into what the Lord wants him to become!!!

This is Aunt Wendi taking advantage but to me this is a little bit of "Heaven on Earth"!!

                   The Elders are allowed to go in the ocean up to their knees.

Not sure why all the Elder's are in the shower....but could be a hurricane drill.

                            Helping someone with maybe changing a tire!!!

                                    The Elder's showing their personalities.

I am sure that one of these Young Men will probably have a car like this!!

Who's my Companion?

 This week it was exchanges time! Since Elder Shepard (my comp) is the district leader, I had the opportunity to do exchanges two days in a row, so it was strange coming back to my area after being away for that amount of time. The first exchange was just with the other elders in the apartment, so I went with Elder Petersen which was alot of fun and I learned a bunch! The second transfer was with the Zone Leaders and I actually went with one of the ZL's comps who was also a greenie. Don't misunderstand though, this man is a whiz when it comes to Facebook Finding and Cold Texting. He pretty much leads the mission and so he taught me all the tricks which I am working on trying! I will include one of the memes another elder made about the experience, I was dying laughing when I saw it. The other greenie is named Elder Miller.

ALSO, I SAW AN ALLIGATOR FOR THE FIRST TIME!!

In other news, I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting, and I only found out about two says before I was to give it. Obviously that wasn't all bad though because I normally wait until the last day or two to write my talks, so if you think about it, I wasn't procrastinating in the past, but rather preparing for this experience.🤷‍♂️ I was asked to talk on forgiveness and it was a fantastic topic. While studying some conference talks I came across one by Thomas S. Monson back in 2001 called compassion. He said, "all are capable of compassion and worthy of it" which I used in my talk but then subbed out "compassion" for "forgivess." There has been no other point in my life when I have seen so many examples of forgiveness than while serving here in Rockledge, Florida. It seems as though every person I meet has regrets and sins from the past that through the atonement, they have been able to forget and they now have stronger testimonies than ever before!

Pic #1 - Elder Moses and I by a sticker we found funny!

Pic #2 - A meme that was made by another elder who overheard me talking about Elder Millers immense knowledge!

Pic #3 - A pic of me at the beach this morning, we are allowed to wade in the water up to our knees!

Pic #4 - A pic of the alligator I saw! (We had to recreate it because we drove past the actual alligator too fast to take a picture)

Note from Aunt....I think there are a few issues with this alligator sighting.....but your time will come again :)  

Fun Pictures you have to see of Elder Killian!!!

 

On Christmas Day, the Sisters came and left messages on the Elder's door.....this is one just for Elder Killian!!

It may look like Elder Killian is going tribal....but it is just him with one of his FAVORITE finds in Florida.... the "EXOTIC" palm tree!!

Preparing for 2021 in the Park.....prior to having to be home!!!

 Desmond talked about their adventures in the Park...but he did not share all of the GREAT pictures so being the Aunt I get to add onto things!!

Christmas Photo Moments!!!

                                                                        Great people!!!

                                               The Elders with their beautiful Christmas tree!!!

A great quote written on toilet paper or cloth....that would have to be asked of Elder Killian.

As discussed in the Christmas post....here are the Elders working very hard on all the snowflakes they shared with members and others on Christmas!!!  Elder Killian had a great time making all kinds of different snowflakes.

 

Christmas Call Home 2020

 The missionaries get to have a longer call with all the family on Christmas and Mother's Day!!! So here are some pictures from the Christmas call.... I was told by my Sister that they did save some gifts for the family to open with Elder Killian!!

         Grandma Killian would never give up the chance to talk with her missionary grandson's!!!