Preguntas Mas Rapido

From June 20, 2016

1. Tell me some more about Elder Uelese.

He is a really cool Elder from Samoa. The only one in the mission right now. Elder Costello was his trainer. He loves to sing and eat. He got tattoos removed so he could go on a mission. One of the humblest elders that I have met here. When he was in his first change I was in the offices as a secretary. When he and Elder Costello came into the offices for a capacitation they spent the night with us and Elder Uelese and I made pancakes. Nothing bonds two missionaries like good pancakes and a mutual love for music. :)

2. Elder Reyes sounds great. Has he taught you how to cook anything Colombian?

NO. Something that I am quite peeved about. :) haha. Today he asked his mom for a recipe for coconut rice, which is one of his favorite foods.

3. Does Elder Reyes have French ancestry? Jean Pierre is rather interesting for a South American.

Nope! His mom just liked the name. :) Haha.

4. How many missionaries are coming home in your same flight?

It's kind of wierd. There are at least 10-12, but on my flight itinerary the only missionary that appears is Hermana Drew, who was in my district a couple changes back. Not quite sure, in other words, how many are gonna be on my flight.

5. Have you learned to make flan YET?

YESIHAVELEARNEDHOWTOMAKEFLANANDITISDELICIOUSANDREALLYEASYWEAREGOINGTOMAKEITWHENIGETHOME.

6. What is this week’s silly story?

I got sick. And kept working 'cause I'm a burro. :) Hahaha so funny.

Hullo Thar

From a letter originally posted June 13, 2016

FAMILY!

Things are going alright here. We are working hard to keep our families progressing and reach our goals of baptisms this month. I can't believe that we are already more than half-way through June!

We have several families that are progressing well right now. There was a mom with her two kids that came to church yesterday that loved everything about it. Turns out that one of our Recent Converts that is super good is an old friend of hers, and that just made her experience at church yesterday awesome for her. She and her kids have a baptismal date for the 10th of July. We also have another family that is coming along well but that has difficulties with coming to church, due to some problems with very Catholic family. They are doing great, and have baptismal dates for the 3rd of July.

Progressing particularly well is an older gentleman named Jaime. He is a stud! Father, Grandfather, and retired employee of a law firm. He has every reason to just be happy how and where he is, but he decided that he needed to change his life and find God. He came to church a couple Sundays ago on his own, and just came again yesterday. He really wants to get baptized. He about cried when we invited him to do so, saying that he would love to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ, and wasn't sure if he was going to be accepted. Each lesson that we have with him is very touching. He has a baptismal date for the 26th this month. He will only have four assistances, so you will be receiving a phonecall asking for the exception. And Jaime is truly exceptional.

Our work with the ward is going well. Our ward mission leader (who is 23 years old) just got a girlfriend who got back from her mission three weeks ago, which has kind of taken him off of the face of the planet for these last two weeks. :) Aside from that we are working very hard with everyone. This ward is extremely supportive. I am so grateful that I will finish my mission here.

We went to the temple again yesterday! I am really excited for all of the families that went. They are progressing so well. Do you remember Laura and her three kids and granddaughter that all got baptized last month? We spent the whole car ride home with them. They are such strong converts. The kids spent forty five minutes singing all of their favorite hymns at the top of their lungs. Through the monster headache that I had after the first two minutes, I was really touched that these people have a mere month in the church and they have memorized so many hymns. I love the people here. I would never have chosen anywhere else for my mission.

Church is true and the book is blue!!

Love you!

Elder Kennington

Preguntas Mas Rapido

 From a letter posted June 13, 2016

1. What more have you learned about your new companion? Do you know his first name?

His name is Jean Pierre. He has two and a half years as a member. He loved music before the mission. His favorite music is Salsa and dubstep. His mom and sisters are all members. His dad, who lives apart, is an evangelical pastor. That made things tricky for his baptism. Elder Reyes is a cool guy. :)

2. How many missionaries are in your district?

We currently have eight missionaries. It is very possible that they will put another area in my district in the next couple of weeks due to some challenges with a new district leader over there, making us 10 missionaries. Which was the whole zone anyway last change. It is like I never changed assignments...Haha.

3. You said to remind you about a story about Elder Alegre Soto.

I cannot figure out how, but somehow Elder Alegre Soto figured out how to forget ALL of his clothes when he went to his new area. I got a phonecall a couple nights ago from the Secretaries saying that Elder Alegre needed me to send it through pouch for concilio today. And that he wanted me to wash everything. I am nice, but not that nice... Haha. Yup.

4. What is the quirkiest thing to happen to you this week?

When we were going to the temple yesterday we kept poking fun at our ward mission leader for the last time we went and how he got us lost for four hours in the middle of the city. On the way home we were behind his car, with another family in front. When we went to take a right turn, the ward mission leader went straight. So our driver went barreling on after him almost crashing to go save him. The whole way we were all laughing. We couldn't believe that he got lost again. We pull up next to his car, honk the horn...

And then we realized that it wasn't his car. It was someone else. Haha. Yup. We were the burros. It served us right. :)

5. How far away from your church building are you?

We are roughly twenty minutes away. Walking it would be a few hours. I really took it for granted that in Payson we can walk to church in about 10 minutes.... Haha. :)

Hey There

 From a letter originally posted May 23, 2016

This is gonna be a short one! We are running around like crazy right now.

Things are going awesome. Lerma was in really bad shape (our zone is Lerma) for a really bad time, but things are really picking up here. We are so excited for things. We have had more baptisms this last month than the last six months combined, and things are looking like they are still going upwards. Lovin' it! :D

We had three baptisms yesterday. Martina, Laura, and Karen.

Martina is so great. She is the grandma of the family, and the one who wears the pants. :) Usually when we went to go pick her up for church she already had all her kids and grandkids all bathed and dressed up and ready to go. She was a missionary for the Catholic church for a while, and she always says that she understands that a mission is hard. She always gives us sliced fruit or cereal or other little foods when we go to teach them. She is wonderful. :)

Laura is awesome too! She was the one that couldn't get baptized last week because she wasn't married. She got married this last Thursday, and it was a beautiful service. While her husband isn't really interested in the Gospel right now he agreed that it was really important that they take this step; especially as they have two kids together. She was so happy in her baptism.

And Karen is Laura's little granddaughter, who is adorable as all get out. Her parents got really upset when she went and told them that she wanted to get baptized just like the rest of her aunts and uncles, and she got really sad. We went with her to go talk with her parents. We got to know her parents, brought them to church, and she wound up getting her parents permission to get baptized. Her mom is really interested, but her dad is proving to be a little harder. :) We are working there.

This week is going to be a great one. We have another family of 3 that is progressing that, if we can get everything worked out with crazy work schedules, will be getting baptized. I love this area. I love the mission. And I love this work. With all my heart.

Have a wonderful week. :)

Love,

Elder Kennington

Postscript: My feet are great. I am a master of treating ingrown toenails. I have fixed three myself and feel rather accomplished. :):) Haha. Health? Doing great. I currently weight 79.5 kilos, which is great. And fat. :);) Haha. Sleep? I get more and more tired by the day, but that came in the job contract. :) Warm enough? Yep! I think that I am a polar bear like dad. :)

Quick Update

From letter posted May 4, 2016

WEE!

This last week was all over the place. We have been running around like maniacs trying to get everything together in our area so that we can get out and start working really well with the zone. We have found a lot of success. We have a family of five that will possibly get baptized this month (we just need to help the dad get over some problems with the Word of Wisdom), and another family that is definitely going to get baptized next Saturday. On top of them we have a few other individuals that are progressing really really well that will also be making covenants very soon.

The zone is doing ok. We are having a few problems with a couple of sister missionaries that are less than enthusiastic about being here on a mission and finding out that work and obedience are naturally expected as a result, but they are doing ok. Things are looking up. We had a really good zone meeting yesterday to try and get everything up. We also have an activity planned for the zone if we can reach our goal of baptisms for this month (28 baptisms in six wards).

Elder Alegre Soto and I are doing really well. I remember when I met him for the first time when he was with Elder Ramirez in Independencia, and he has grown and changed a lot since then. I think I'm still the same dork that I was back then, so I am grateful to have a companion that will help me to keep growing and getting better. We have fun working together and we are going to have a lot of success.

Our work with the ward is going well. It is so nice to have a fully-functioning ward mission leader once again, and ours is really good. He is an ex-missionary, which is also really nice. Last Saturday we had an activity with the youth of the ward where we basically took them out contacting all morning, and found a few families that could progress nicely. The youth here are so strong! I am really excited to continue working with them.

That is about it for now. Have a wonderful week! :D

Love,

Elder Kennington

Three pics:

1. There are two dogs on the roof next to ours that always bark like crazy when we walk by.

2. This is the view from our house. If there wasn't so much smog you would be able to see the volcano and two of my old areas (Las Torres and Universidad).

3. My companion hanging up laundry.

Baptism on the Run, Welcome to Lerma

Letter originally posted May 4, 2016

The mission goes by way too quick. I just entered my second to last change, and can hardly believe it. Last change went by so quickly. Sheesh.

I got transferred to Lerma this change. Now the only zone that I haven't worked in in the whole mission is Lomas Verdes, out there in Naucalpan. I am also a zone leader now, and an intimidated one at that. The Zone currently has a lot of problems. Aaaaand I get to try and help fix everything. Woo!

My companion is Elder Alegre Soto. We worked together a couple of times when I was in my second change and he was in his first. We are going to work really well together. He is from Argentina, loves pasta, working, baptizing, and working with the zone. We are going to get along great. :)

Lerma is one of the three stakes here in the part of the State of Mexico that the mission contains. I have served in the other two (Toluca and Metepec). Lerma is really beautiful. Currently I live on a hill that overlooks the whole valley and the other two stakes, which is nice. There are two pit bulls on our roof that always bark at us. And the house is nice. It is probably my last area and my last house...

Next week I won't be writing you until Wednesday, because we have concilio with Presidente Whitehead and the other líderes de zona on Monday all day. It is always fun.

Hm. I got a haircut today. It looks nice.

OH. HUGE STORY from last night.

Elder Lara and I were with a member family saying goodbye for me and all of a sudden, at 8:30 at night, the sister missionaries from Atla (Hermana Drew and Hermana Soria) call me:

"ELDER WE HAVE A BAPTISM GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!!!"

And so we went with the members an hour over to their area to go talk with the investigator. She, Veronica, was going to get baptized but met up with some horrible opposition from her family (all of whom are members) and hadn't talked with the missionaries since. She is a single mom that lives with her family-in-law. We go, 9:30, talk with her. 10:00 we are in the chapel getting the baptismal font ready. 10:30 the font has about a foot and a half of water and we decide it will have to do for sake of time. 11:00 she and I are changed and we are having her sitting down in the water to just lay down she gets submerged completely. 11:30. After three tries she finally gets all the way under and we are changing. 12:00 a.m. I am home packing my bags to get here to Lerma today.

Gotta dash. Love you! :D:D:D:D

Elder Kennington

Hard Work and Working Hard

Letter originally posted April 18, 2016

Preguntas Mas Rapido

1. What is the mission policy regarding eating fresh fruit and veg? 

We can eat everything that isn't fish or sea food. Here there were lots of missionaries that got sick from eating fish, so we can't eat it unless it is approved by Presidente Whitehead. I miss salmon!! 

2. How much longer in this change? 

This is the last week of this change. I am both a little disappointed (there is still so much to do!) and a little relieved at the same time. :)

3. Weirdest people story of the week: 

Ummm.... We had a stake conference yesterday and the Sister Training Leaders in the zone brought this older investigator to church. And halfway through the conference he decided that he had received revelation from God and that he had to get married with one of them. So he proposed. Sigh. That cruel sister missionary told him no. ;) Haha. He took it well though. He is still going to get baptized one day. :)

4. Weirdest non-human story of the week: 

Saw a dog that had a really swollen foot. Like the size of three of my fists put together. That was gross. Or maybe when we saw another dog peeing on some of the images of the Virgin de Guadalupe in the street. .... There are lots of dogs here in México.

HI THERE!! :D
I cannot believe that we are on the last week of this change. It has flown by so quicky. It has been one of the more difficult changes of my mission, for many reasons, but also one of the most rewarding. I have learned so much and have so much to practice applying in the next two changes.

We found a couple new families yesterday that are really really good. One of them now has a baptismal date for the 22 of May, and we are working with the other. They live about three houses down from each other, so it will make bringing them to church and going with them for the sufficient time a lot more easy. :) I am so excited to start working with them! They are great. haha. Actually, it turns out that the 22nd of May is the birthday of the grandma of the first family, which made her that much more excited. They have received us so well.

We have been working so hard to try and find new people and still aren't seeing the fruits that we are hoping for. Finding these two families was a huge blessing and an answer to a lot of prayers and fasts. And, in the end, there is no replacement for good hard work. We worked like maniacs this week, talking with everyone we could, trying to find the people that the Lord has been preparing for us. I love this work, especially when we have time and opportunity to do just that: WORK. It is so satisfying. :) We are doing our very best to find people.

Our work with the ward is going ok. We still haven't received a new ward mission leader, so coordinating our work with the ward has been tough. But we are getting along as is. We are trying to have the young men come work with us as much as we can.

This change has been very very hard. There has been a lot to do for the sisters, in the zone, to take care of my companion and try and maintain a good relationship, work with my leaders, and keep trying to baptize every week and keep improving as a missionary. But it has been a good kind of hard. Missionary growing pains. :) And I want to keep working and growing until the end.

There has been a little bit of everything. I am grateful for all that has happened. I am also grateful for changes and the chance that I will now have to keep going and learning and growing and working. Mission is the best the ever! :D

Love,
Elder Kennington

District photos!

1. Happy and baptizing! :D
2. Serious, "We gonna kick butt" photo
3. Walking to an appointment in the city part of our area and 7:00. Gorgeous! :D