February 28, 2011

Dear Family,

This past week has been really great at some parts and kind of a bummer at others.  I met my new companion, Elder Pierson, from Raymond, Alberta Canada and he is a super awesome missionary.  He has been out on his mission for about a year and he has trained twice.  I have already learned a lot from his faith, knowledge and experience that he gained while serving a mission.

This past week has also been a learning experience for me because I kind of had to take the reins and show Elder Pierson the area.  Because of that, I was able to direct the lessons and make more of the decisions than when I was with Elder Ralphs.  He is a really awesome teacher and is so good at applying what we teach to the lives of our investigators.  For example one of our investigators, Jose Medina, (one of those marriage situations that needs to be sorted out) used to do tiling so he compared a scripture we were reading in Ephesians about Christ being the principal angle of the church to how important it is that the angles be exact in the tile business.

This past week I have really learned how to rely more on the Lord, accept His will, ask for His help, and thank Him for all of the tender mercies that He gives me.  The reason my understanding of these things has increased is because the Lord humbled me sufficiently so I could learn them.  I think I mentioned in the last letter that numbers-wise, the month of February really hasn't been the greatest month.  Saturday was the first time in this area that I didn't teach a lesson.  This drop in numbers has been really getting to me lately, partly because I can't figure out why it is happening.  We have been working really hard and trying to find people through different techniques, but a ton of people just blow us off when we have appointments.  So Saturday was a bad day for me.

This sort of "last straw" caused me and Elder Pierson to really sit down and figure out what we could do to change.  We decided to inquire of the Lord to receive revelation as a companionship on what He would have us do.  It was a very memorable moment as I felt the comfort of the Lord and new that He was aware of our concerns and also our desire to serve Him.  We felt that to reach our goals we needed to teach more towards baptism, plan effectively relying on the spirit, and to stay constantly focused on the work during proselyting hours.  That night was the night we set monthly goals for March and we set them by the Spirit more than I have ever done on my mission.

The next day, Sunday, was Stake Conference where we had the opportunity to hear from the newly called General Authority, Elder Gifford Nielsen, a former quarterback for the Texas Oilers.  We had three investigators come, which was super awesome.  After Stake Conference we went out to work and again, didn't have success until dinner.  After dinner was where the miracles started to come.  We talked to an English guy and set up an appointment with him for the English Elders, we set up a solid appointment for tonight with this lady at a member's home (which we have been trying to do for a while) and taught a solid lesson to this guy named Sergio.  It was the first time in my entire mission when I asked the question after teaching the great apostasy: "If the church Jesus Christ established had been changed, and God's children were walking in darkness, what would He do?"  And we got the answer, "He would send more prophets to lead us back".  I have been trying so hard to fulfill my purpose as a missionary and praying so hard for the Lord to help me do that and it felt great receiving an answer to my prayer.  After that lesson we thanked the Lord for the success we had that night and asked Him to help us have more faith. I am excited to work hard to reach our goals and see success for the month of March.

Love,

Elder Kinney