February 27, 2012

Dear Family,

Thanks for sending me a picture of my mission chart.  I had totally forgotten about it.  It is crazy to see how I looked before my mission.  I feel like I look a lot older now, which is a good thing in my opinion.

We actually have some good news regarding Evangelina.  She texted us this week and asked if we could come over with a family from the Branch to help her out a bit.  Apparently, she has felt a little unwelcome in church now that her husband won't be coming with her, but we helped her understand that isn't the case at all.  We'll see what happens with them in the upcoming weeks.  It was actually really good to see all of the little kids again because I missed them a lot.  It really was a great blessing to teach them again and I was sure to express my gratitude to the Lord upon leaving that appointment.

This past week still felt kind of jam-packed with non-proselyting time (kind of like last week) which is always really frustrating to me.  I think a lot of it had to do with preparing for the river baptism (which was so awesome!!!).  We still got some work done and had good progress in our area but I love coming home at the end of a day after talking with a bunch of people.  Even if the numbers don't really show it, at least I got to bear my testimony to a lot of people and I feel productive.  I have a feeling that this next week is going to be better.

Elder Nielson and I are doing great and his Spanish is getting so much better.  I let him take the lead all of the time when we are biking so that he gets used to starting conversations with people.  He is doing really well and has a great attitude about everything.  We are really going to bust our tails this week and try to get a lot done, so I am excited.

But real quick, the baptism in the river was so sweet.  I don't know the last time a river baptism has happened in this mission.  We had a really good turnout and one of our investigators was able to come who has a baptismal date for the end of March.  I am really happy for the Garcia family.  They are going to make a great addition to the branch.

Anyway,  I hope all is well in CT.  I am kind of in a rush right now so I got to go.
 
Love,

Elder Kinney