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Gloria's Setting Apart to be a Full-Time Missionary

Sunday, January 13, 2019, we headed to the stake center in Saline after sacrament meeting to witness Glo being set apart as a missionary.  Everyone was there except for Hannah and Allison.  President Ward asked us each to give her a piece of advice, and then she was set apart.  With her being my fourth and final missionary child, I didn't care about protocol and recorded the setting apart:

Sister Gloria Grace Kennedy, by the authority of the holy Melchizedek priesthood which we hold, and in the name of Jesus Christ, we place our hands upon your head and set you apart as a full-time missionary in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to serve in the California Santa Rosa mission, and to do so with all of your heart, might, mind and strength, in a way that will bring you unlimited satisfaction and a smile in the regard of our Father in Heaven as you serve.

In this week in Come, Follow Me, we've studied the life of Mary and Elisabeth and the miraculous things that happened in their lives, and in their ability to be obedient, and to allow the miraculous and difficult and challenging things that came into their lives to move forward and to accomplish the work of the Lord.  We, likewise, bless you with an ability to accomplish the Lord's work through your service; that you will be able to have the talents and abilities and capacities that you possess currently magnified in ways that will make you a powerful missionary, one who can stand to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to others and testify of the Savior, of his redeeming and enabling power.

We bless you with strength, with energy, with enthusiasm, and with an ability to connect with those you teach and testify to.

We bless you with the gift of tongues and with the ability to communicate, and acknowledge that that will take work and effort; that you'll need to do your part, but you'll be blessed by the Lord in ways that will allow you to grasp the language, and be able to speak fluently, in ways to allow the Holy Ghost to convince the hearts of others through your words.

We bless you with the ability to enjoy wonderful relationships with members of the church who will see you as being an excellent missionary, and one that they can have confidence in.  We bless you also in your companionships with an ability to effectively cultivate loving relationships that will be a blessing to you and to your companions in ways that will allow you to build them, and them to build you.

We bless you with opportunities to lead, both informal ways and formal ways, where responsibilities will be placed upon you, and that more importantly, informally, you will have an opportunity to be an example, day by day, of the work and effort and energy that is required to be a successful and consecrated missionary.

We bless you with safely and protection and the guidance of the Spirit, with angels to be about you, to go before you, who will assist you in your work but also protect you from harm and accident as you accomplish the Lord's work at this time.

We bless you with an ability to support and sustain the mission president and his wife; that you will be a champion of them, and one who has an ability to be obedient and to hearken to the counsel that they give to you.  They will guide you in ways that will be a tremendous blessing, not only to your service but to your life.

And we bless you with an ability to accomplish this work in a way that allows you to be a favored daughter of God, enjoying the tremendous blessings the gospel brings; the blessings of a wonderful family who surrounds you and loves you, and being highly favored in so many ways.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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