Dear Family,
Thanks a ton for the package you sent, especially the Hi-Chews (Japanese candy). They were super awesome. If you could keep a steady flow of those things that would be awesome (ha ha just kidding . . . but seriously). Oh and before I say anything else, TELL MATT TO GIVE YOU THE SHIRT HE WAS WEARING IN THE PICTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could have sworn that was one of the shirts that I did not give him permission to wear?!? That is like the most favorite shirt that I have!!! So if you could please tell him that and then keep it safe, unworn, and unstained that would be awesome. Let me know...
I can't believe that I've been in the mission for over a year now!!! I have learned so much, but am still glad I have a year left to continue growing spiritually and mentally. Serving a mission is seriously one of the best decisions I have ever made in my entire life. I feel like I have a completely different perspective on life in terms of my goals, my purpose, and my potential as an son of God. I know the year mark is considered a hump, but I still have a lot of goals I want to complete by the time I go home. I am really grateful for all of the support that you guys have given me and for keeping me updated on your lives back at home.
This week was a good week in terms of the lessons we taught. But, unfortunately, we didn't have any investigators in church. That has always been a struggle in this area and I am still trying to figure out why. We have been trying to put more emphasis on the sabbath-day doctrine because that's something even some members haven't yet grasped. We have a bunch of solid people that keep all of their commitments, and even drive from the Avenues to 12th Street on Thursdays to a Gospel Principles Class (our chapel is on 19th Avenue, only about five minutes away from most of our investigators).
One miracle that happened this past week was Maria de Rosario accepted a baptismal date. Last week or the week before we taught her the Plan of Salvation and invited her to be baptized. She said no without even hesitating. Her boyfriend had just moved out because of her increased involvement in the church and she didn't have a job to be able to provide for her two daughters (a 2-month old and a 2 year old). We were all praying for her to be able to find a job, as well as someone to take care of her kids . . . and she did!!! It was so awesome! She had such a change of heart and she contributed it all to the Lord. We re-taught her the doctrine of Christ and we didn't even need to directly ask her to be baptized. We just asked if she felt like she was ready and she said yes. She told us how she felt a huge increase in her faith since we began to teaching her and how she recognizes the Lord is answering her prayers. The only obstacle now will be her getting off work on Sunday!!!! but we'll see what happens. She has come a long way and has a lot of faith because of the humbling position she found herself in.
The attached photos are from our one-year shirt-burning ceremony and a dust storm we were caught in on Thursday!!
Love,
Elder Kinney
Friday, August 26, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
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
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
Sunday, August 14, 2011
August 1, 2011
Dear Family,
I don't have a lot of time but I'll give you an update on what has been going on here in Phoenix. Elder Faldmo and I have found some pretty good potential investigators this week and were also able to set 3 baptismal dates for the month of August. The most solid one is with this guy named Martin who was a media referral (he wanted a Finding Faith in Christ DVD). We went by and talked with him a couple of times and he has a really good view of the church. One thing that I really like about him is that he is one who loves America and the opportunities that are provided here. He told us he thinks that Americans have the right to be overprotective with their immigration laws because he has seen how "his people" corrupt the youth in america by selling them drugs. That is not common at all considering all of the heat we take for Russel Pierce being a Mormon. Anyway, he is super enthusiastic about everything we teach, including the Book of Mormon. He is also one that understands the principle of Prophets more than most of the other people I have taught. I am really surprised at how hard it is for people to understand prophets even when we explain it so simply and boldly.
The other family is from Guatemala. We were able to set a date with them during the first lesson. We introduced them to one of the Counselors in our Branch Presidency, and they opened up even more after that, which was awesome. They are going to get baptized the last weekend of August. Anyway, I'll try to write a longer letter next week. Have a fun and safe time on your vacation. Thanks for everything!
Love,
Elder Kinney
August 8, 2011
Dear Family,
We got transfer news on Saturday night and I found out I am going to be getting a new companion from Tobasco, Mexico!! His name is Elder Hernandez and he came out the same day I did. He didn't speak a any English before entering the MTC, so my Spanish skills are going to be so awesome by the end of our companionship. I'm am also excited for him to come to this branch because I definitely think it needs a native-speaker, more able to easily relate and communicate with the people.
One really awesome thing that happened this week was a 180-degree turn around of a recent convert/less active/recent move-in member in our branch named brother Barrera. He moved into the branch a couple weeks ago and came to church two times, but he started having some issues with his testimony (he was baptized 7 months ago). One day when I was on exchanges with my District Leader, (who doesn't speak any Spanish). We decided to go and see how Brother Barrera was doing. By the end of the lesson, he ended up telling us he didn't want to go to church until Russel Pierce (AZ State Senator) was excommunicated and the church had made a new commandment forbidding member-involvement in politics. I shared with him the Twelfth Article of Faith* and assured him that the latter would never happen. I also told him he had two much anger and resentment towards Russel Pierce, be he a evil man or not, and that the Lord would not answer his prayers or comfort him until he rid himself of the "spirit of contention". His wife was there and looked extremely sad that her husband was like this and you could tell she didn't agree with him. She didn't say much even when I would ask her a question, but I knew she didn't like the decision her husband had made. We left the lesson with a feeling of dispair kind of looming about us. My District Leader had a sort of pale, distraught countinence as he didn't understand anything but knew that it wasn't good. Anyway, Elder Faldmo and I went back at the beginning of this past week and Brother Barrera had experienced a change of heart which came about because of the faith of his wife, who related to us how she had pleaded that the Lord change him. The coolest part was that he showed up at church on Sunday, super happy having recieved another spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of the gospel during his scripture reading the night before. And THEN, he got up in Fast and Testimony Meeting and bore his testimony, which included the decision he had made to dedicate all of his time to missionary work!!! He doesn't have a job and believes staying at home all of the time is detrimental to his testimony and he needs to be involved in the work of the Lord. He literally offered to bike around with us ALL DAY and do missionary work. He really is an interesting and amazing guy. We'll see the effect that he has on the Catalina Branch!!!
Anyway, I need to go. Thanks for everything and don't forget about family home evening tonight.
Love,
Elder Kinney
*The Articles of Faith
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 |
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
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