Tues. Jan. 3, 2023- MTM

 MTM is Missionary Training Meeting and we have it each Tuesday morning. This morning we departed from our usual training for a guest speaker.

First we had the Tonga Sisters sing! They are a singing group that are pretty famous. They all live here on the North Shore. Usually there are 5 of them, but only 3 were in town, so they came and sang an opening song. Amazing harmonies!

Then our amazing speaker! Her name is Kendall Levine. She was a missionary in the Australia Sydney mission in 2014.

But today, she walked into our auditorium with a cane and with difficulty. Then she told us her story.

She was a five sport athlete and going to college on a full ride basketball scholarship. On September 5, 2014 She and her companion had stopped by the side of the road to take a picture of a double rainbow.

A taxi cab driver who was very tired fell asleep at the wheel and hit her, Throwing her 30 feet and pinning her under his car. Amazingly, she had no broken bones , but was taken to the hospital where she remained in a coma for one month. When she came out of the coma they realized she had a traumatic brain injury and stayed in the hospital for five more months. They did many surgeries, even removing part of her skull. The doctors there said she would never walk or talk or feed herself or dress herself. They thought her parents should just put her into a home.

  She doesn’t remember any of it now, but when she was on her mission she wrote in her journal every day and she has read and reread that journal to help her remember.  Her parents took her home to Utah and began years of intensive physical therapy and subsequent surgeries. When she came to speak to us it had been almost 8 years since the accident . She still has limited mobility on her right side and balance issues. She said I fall down every day. But she told us she was thankful for her experience and that she feels like she is reaching more people now than she ever could have as a proselytizing missionary. She says that as she speaks to groups now, she hopes to inspire people to push through the struggles they face, learn how to forgive and live the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is an amazing woman! She showed us many photographs at the end of her growing up, and her whole life before the accident. Then she showed us all the pictures of her since the accident. From someone who was never supposed to be able to walk or talk, now she is in college again, and speaks often to groups of people and tells her story.