February 20, 2012

Dear Family,

It sounds like Puerto Rico was a pretty cool trip. I wish I could have been there with all of you, but it won't be too long before we can!!  And I can't believe Jeremy will be back in three weeks and I'll be 21 in less than a month.  I remember my birthday last year like it was just a couple months ago.  Anyway, I hope that Frankie made it alright while you were gone.

Elder Nielson and I are really excited for our river baptism this upcoming Saturday.  The family getting baptized is very prepared and will be such a great blessing to the Branch.  They are very "quick to observe".  Just one example: most investigators come to church in whatever clothes they want and just kind of have the mentality that they don't need to dress up like everyone else because they're just visiting.  We had taught them how the members dress before inviting them to church for the first time, so they came dressed up nicely.  But when he saw all of the Priesthood leaders and a lot of the other men wearing white shirts and ties, and sometimes suits, he came the next Sunday with a white shirt and tie and this past Sunday he came in with a full suit on.  He is always making comments in class and will be prepared after his baptism to recieve a calling right away because he clearly has leadership skills.  I am very impressed with the progress of this family and am really looking forward to seeing their progression in the church.

We had to push back one of our baptismal dates to March 31st because the older woman, depsite having a testimony, has a bit of trouble making the commitment.  Origanally she wanted to wait until her son is released from jail to be baptized (to thank God), but using the book of Mormon, and with the help of a member's testimony, we were able to teach her that God performs miracles according to the faith and diligence we render.  It was a blessing we were able to set another date with her.

The other person we had a date with was Chris Zuniga, the son of Nancy who just got baptized in January.  But like I told you before, he is very independant as an 11-year-old and he didn't come to church this week with his family.  He says he wants to see a baptism so I'm hoping Sal and Emmas' will be a good experience for him.

Unfortunately, it appears that one of our investigators who came to church last week and was pretty solid has been kind of discouraged in his investigation into the Church of Jesus Christ by his Catholic family.  He still says he is reading in the Book of Mormon but hasn't shown the same interest as before.  I am going to give him a call later this week and see what is up with him.

Elder Nielson continues to improve in his ablilty to teach, contact people, and speak the language.  He has a really good attitude about missionary work and we are getting along really well.  I hope that you guys are enjoying winter.  It is really hot here already in AZ.  You'd think that I would be used to it but its looking like this summer is going to be pretty brutal.
 
Love,
 
Elder Kinney