April 30, 2012

Dear Family,

Things are going pretty well in my new area in Mesa.  The members are pretty awesome and have a bit more experience than the ones in Phoenix.  We have four baptismal dates which are looking pretty good -- all for the month of May.  One thing that's a pretty big bummer is the lack of Hispanic people we see while out biking and proselyting.  I think it's been a week since we contacted any Spanish-speaking people on the street.  I see them driving around in their cars so I know they're out there somewhere!!!  We are doing what Sister Ellsworth mentioned and came up with seven different things we can do this week to find new investigators.  We really need to find them through the members, however, because we don't get many potentials to sift through that we meet on the street.

Elder Eskeets and I are doing really well and have achieved a pretty comfortable teaching style.  One thing I really like about Elder Eskeets is that he has the desire to teach and is anxious to share the thoughts that come to him during a lesson.  That's something I really haven't had in a companion since I was with Elder Hernandez like eight months ago.  That kind of attitude is really great coming from someone who has only been out for two transfers (or 12 weeks) and who's still trying to get a good grasp of the language.  Our District did really well this week in terms of finding new investigators and getting people to Sacrament Meeting.  I asked one companionship, Elders Johnson and Clark, who are teaching a ton of people and they told me they don't have one investigator who isn't a referral or someone they found through the members.  I am going to invite them to share a little bit in District meeting this week about what they do or what their members do to find new investigators.

This past week I went to Leadership Training Meetings again which I believe are once every two transfers.  Basically what we do is go to the church next to the Mission Office from 8am to 4pm for 2-4 days and receive training and instruction from our leaders, mainly the Mission President and sometimes the Assistants to the President. By the way, Elder Ralphs, my old companion, is one of the current AP's.  They are usually really good meetings that teach me a lot but sometimes its really easy to get distracted.  One of the things that President has recently implemented in mission meetings (District Meetings, Zone Conferences, etc.) is that the person conducting the meeting selects someone randomly to teach one of the three main lessons in five minutes in front of everyone.  So out of the 50 or 60 District Leaders, Trainers and Zone Leaders present I was chosen to teach Lesson Two.  It was pretty cool because I felt like I did a good job.  It's really easy to go off on stuff that is really not that relevant when teaching Lesson Two, especially the Doctrine of the Fall.  The main purpose of the activity is to assess the knowledge that the missionaries have of the doctrine contained in the missionary lessons. I don't think I have or ever will teach every principle of Lesson Two in five minutes with an investigator, but if it were ever required of me, I'll know the doctrine well enough to teach it in 15 or 30 minutes.

I hope everything is well in New Canaan.  I heard that President Checkett's team, the St. Louis Blues are doing pretty well this year and are set to play the Kings tonight in the NHL playoffs.  I also heard Metta World Peace is suspended for elbowing James Harden on the Thunder.  I am so happy I'll be back for football season this year.  As much as I loved football before my mission, I think not being able to watch sports at all has made me love all sports way more than I did before the mission.  I even found myself doing something I  never could have imagined -- two days ago while talking to someone at their doorstep, I had to resist the urge to watch NASCAR, yes, NASCAR of all sports (if it can even be considered that) which was playing in the background on their massive HD TV.  Anyway, I hope the Blues win the Stanley  Cup.

Love,

Elder Kinney