BABY HOOD RICH GOT BAPTIZED! 🌊💥

 

Week: 49
Date: January 13, 2025
Location: Springfield, Illinois
Email: leah.kimball@missionary.org
Companion: Sister Roos /Paradise, Utah
Blog: https://livinlavidastlouis.blogspot.com/?m=1

Lexi's Mission Blog: https://iputtheradincolorado.blogspot.com/

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RICHARD'S BAPTISM DAY! 
Springfield Illinois
January 2025

We are gonna be best friend's for life.. he promised! 
Springfield Illinois
January 2025

Hey everyone!! BABY HOOD RICH GOT BAPTIZED!!! AYEE!! What a dub week!! Seriously, miraculous!

First off, our friend Richard got baptized yesterday!!! Literally so awesome, amazing, and just perfect! It was the first baptism for the YSA, so everyone was beyond stoked for Richard! Richard is genuinely so funny, and we wanted to make his baptism was all about him! His theme was gold and white, and he chose his favorite hymn (which was just hymn number 4 because 4 is his favorite number lol)! He also asked if we could have some fancy pizza restaurant cater his baptism! Lol, Sister Roos and I can't afford that, so the night before, we went to Walmart and bought six frozen pizzas! #sorryRichard! Some of the members brought Dr. Pepper and peanut butter cookies, which are his favorites, so I think it was a HUGE success!!! He also started crying after he got out of the water and then thanked everyone for coming! He told Sister Roos and me that he feels like he's on top of the world! It was a tender moment and genuinely top 5 on my mission! Richard will always have a very special place in my heart, and I'm so blessed to help him grow his faith!

Richard kept joking that he was just gonna go for a swim... lol 
Springfield Illinois
January 2024

This whole week was just baptism prep. We have really been focused on helping him and Trent get to their baptism dates. The adversary tries to hit so hard in the last week of prep before baptism day, hence the extra attention. So every single day, we made it a goal to have a solid, good contact with them and read the Book of Mormon with them!! And God provided!! Seriously, so awesome, I just love, love, love baptism! What a cool covenant to make with God!

Christmas zone conference flic with
Sister Mckay and Sister Fairchild! 
Springfield Illinois
January 2025

Babyhoodrich Henderson bro posts about his baptism coming up! 
Springfield Illinois
January 2024

Sister Roos and I have been trying our best to hit all of our goals every single week, and we've experienced some pretty awesome miracles through it. Although I lack motivation to write about them because we've passed both of these people to the Springfield Elders, I'll make this quick!! This week, on two separate days, we taught Jakiya and Jaona! We were pumped! In both of these lessons, the Spirit was so strong! So, we invited both of them to be baptized. We literally are SOOO excited. Then, at the very end of the lesson, when we end with a prayer, we usually ask, “What can we pray for, for you?” And Jaona told us we can pray for her baby (meaning she's not YSA anymore), and Jakiya told us we can pray for her Algebra 2 math class (we found out she's in high school and not YSA)! So, basically, the root of the problem is that we keep either teaching high schoolers thinking they're YSA or young parents who need to be in the family wards! Lol!! So, major awesome miracles, but we passed both of them to the Elders!! Our friend Demetrius from two weeks ago—we found out he has a baby too, so he also got passed to the Elders! Lol!! So, everyone pray we can find YSA (not parents) to teach! But hey, those have been some pretty AWESOME elect referrals for the Elders! Also, the college campuses open back up this week, so I am pumped!

 Snowed in selfie! 
Springfield Illinois
January 2025

Sledding action pic 
Springfield Illinois
January 2024

This week, we've had SO much snow, and I'm literally dying. God is really testing me out here. I've slipped and fallen three times so far. One time, I fell right as someone was opening their door after we knocked, and they legit started laughing at me. Hurt my ego a bit, but it made for a good conversation starter as I forced back my tears, and we got to share a message with them! Lol #help. I have legit caught myself praying multiple times for the snow to just melt already! I'm ready for summer!

ALTHOUGH… this week, the YSA planned an activity where they all went sledding! And, of course, being the good missionaries we are, Sister Roos and I joined! Not too sure if that is within the standards, but ignorance is bliss, and we did sled multiple times! We even got on a huge tube together and set the record for the farthest slide! THANK HEAVENS SISTERS CAN WEAR PANTS NOW!! Haha! Sister Roos and I were legit having a total blast! Everyone in the YSA is awesome! This is such a special and unique experience being in the Springfield YSA!! I'm having a total blast! God is SOO good! (Rereading this, I sound pretty unfocused on my purpose, but one time I heard my brother’s mission president say, “In order to make missionary work fun, if you see a slide, go down it.” So, this is just me taking his counsel, lol).

Speaking of how great God is! I'm just on like a HUGE baptism and making-a-covenant-with-God type of high!!! Planning and actually going through with a baptism is just so pure and amazing!!! Richard has genuinely strengthened my testimony!! He has pushed my faith above and beyond what it already was! My spiritual thought this week comes from my testimony/spiritual experience with baptism this past week! I know that baptism is just the beginning of our celestial progress!! As we work to be clean again, we can receive the blessings that God wants to pour upon us. Our YSA is filled with 50% recent converts, and when Richard got up out of the water, you could hear a room full of cheering and yelling! It was the most hype baptism I've ever been to! (I was kinda jelly; no one cheered at my baptism, haha)! And the best part is, the Spirit was still there through the ruckus! This was a room full of God's children celebrating as one of His children decided to come unto Him! It was an honor to be among them yesterday, and my heart is truly full of gratitude! The mission is hard, but days like these make me want to serve a couple more in the future (probably with my husband, lol)! I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father, and I am grateful for the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, who made it possible for us to return to Him! I know that because of Him, we can rejoice and come home to God! I love God! I love His plan! I know this work is HIS, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love y'all so much! I love my mission! It is hard, but easy to love! Thank y'all for loving me! GOD IS GOOD! 🩷🩷

-Hermana Kimball

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Dad: YOU ARE AWESOME!! I love you! Can't wait to see how you study the Atonement this week! Thank you for consistently showing me how to keep my faith through trials!

Mom: I miss you too!! These videos made me miss Lexi, lol! #ihopejacksawthose #IWASCUTE

Colton: Running into a pole… Idiot.

Caryn: I could watch Kash play for hours when I don't have TikTok!! So THANK YOU.

Taylor: Hey BIL, how come you don't text in the fam GC?

Bailey: Hey! I hope work is good! Can't wait to hear from the Sulzens!

Clay: You miss 10000% of the shots you don't take. Colton has the email.

Lexi: Sorry I missed you last week; those vids of us made me kinda miss you, twin! Love you!

Bella: I miss lil Bella, well, and you too, haha!

Collins: I CANT WAIT TO LISTEN TO ZACH BRYAN WITH YOU!

Capri: Girl, I was so jelly of your mom and dad date!

Kash and Reese: Gosh, I just wanna hug y'all!!!