August 15, 2011

Dear Family,

The pictures you sent look like you had an awesome trip to Wyoming!!  The pictures look awesome!!  I would have loved to have gone with you guys.  The canals here in Phoenix actually have some extremely massive fish.  We see people fishing them fairly often in various places but I have never seen anyone actually catch anything.  I have seen the fish though and they are MASSIVE!!! Like there are literally some fish in the canals that are 3 feet long and get to be 5-10 pounds.  But judging from the water quality, I would definitely throw them back if I caught one.  Anyway,  everytime I see them in the water it makes me want to go fishing.  We tried once my first transfer in Mesa but didn't have any luck.  Tell Matt I like his sweatshirt...  

This past week has been pretty good.  Elder Hernandez is an amazing teacher and he is going to bless the area a lot.  We were able to find a couple more new investigators this week as well which was pretty good.  We are seeing more success as we try to implement the doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Endure to the End) in everything we teach no matter what it is.  It is also becoming easier to be bold as we make it a habit and invite people to repent of their sins and change their lives.  At first it might feel uncomfortable to do so, but rarely is there a circumstance where change is comfortable or doesn't require sacrfice.  We as missionaries are trying to help other people change their lives, and we are also trying to change our own so the same principles apply to us.

Unfortunately, Martin didn't come to church yesterday so we are going to have to push his baptismal date back a week.  He is kind of difficult for me to understand because he is so awesome and enthusiastic in our lessons and doesn't try to avoid us but it seems like something always comes up when he needs to come to church or a class we do on Thursdays with the Stake Patriarch.  I think we are going to focus on the doctrine of the Sabbath Day the next time we go and teach him so he understands it's importance.

Yesterday I gave a talk in church on the Word of Wisdom.  Of course the President put me last on the program, predicting that the first two talks would be short . . . and they were.  I ended up talking for about 40-45 mins but it was good.  I prepared for it like that.  One thing cool that I have learned while being on a mission is how to give a talk by just writing down some bullet points or topics that I wish to discuss and a couple of scriptures, and with that I am able to talk for as long a I need to.  I really stressed the fact that we are not allowed to drink tea or coffee and told everyone to throw it away if they have it in their house.  It was a good thing that someone from the Stake Presidency was there because supposedly President though you could drink tea as long as it was "natural".  I could hear them talking behind me for awhile while I was talking.  But I did get some compliments from some of the auxiliary quorum leaders who knew that was a subject in need of addressing.

Anyway, that was my week.  Thanks dad for the update and pictures on your trip. 
 
Love,
 
Elder Kinney