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
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
February 20, 2012
Dear Family,
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
Sunday, February 19, 2012
February 13, 2012
Dear Family,
The woman in the picture I sent two weeks ago is Olga, a less-active member we have been working with for awhile. She has 3 kids who are members and 2 that aren't. She is really nice but doesn't really like to progress. She currently has a boyfriend and is almost always out with him. Her oldest daughter, Laura, is the mother-figure of the household
(20 yrs old) and is amazingly responsible given the kind of background she's from. We continue to go by because it seems they come to church more often when we visit, and we're trying to focus on Olga's two oldest daughters Laura and Cecilia. They are the only ones who aren't members but also the only ones who seem to understand the standards of the church (not that they necessarily keep them) and the significance of making covenants. I don't know why the Olga got baptized but she isn't a great example to her kids. Her daughters always get on her case for drinking coffee and breaking the rules because they know what it means to be baptized in this church. We actually had a sweet lesson with them (the 2 daughters and Laura's boyfriend) last night where we talked about faith and trials with them. Laura used to be religious when her grandmother was alive but stopped going to church when she passed away. We shared a couple of scriptures with her, but the one that hit her the most was found in 1 Peter 4:12-13* in which Peter makes known that "fiery trials" await us and counsels us not to be surprised. I testified to her that trials are necessary in this life and we grow stronger because of them. I used the example of how she has become a blessing to her siblings as their mother-figure and she has developed many attributes because of the trials she has faced in the past. We all felt the Spirit and she started to cry. We invited her to ponder these things in her heart and to pray to God that he would strengthen her faith. It was a pretty good lesson.
Other than that I would say our week was below average in effectiveness. There were just a lot of things out of our control that wasted our time. We didn't get to teach the people with baptismal dates enough and two of the baptisms are for this upcoming Saturday. They are still really solid investigators but we are going to need to teach them a lot more before they are prepared for baptism. Our baptismal dates for the 25th are super solid. It's a family we've been teaching ever since my first week in the area, the Garcia family from El Salvador. They really want to get baptized in a lake or a river. We tried to tactfully persuade them into doing it in the baptismal font due to the hassle it causes those who wish to attend, but it's a really big desire he has so we're thinking of doing it in the Salt River in Mesa. Elder Hiatt, our Zone Leader, knows a High Councilman who owns a lot of land on the river so we're hoping he can provide us with a spot that also has bathrooms for changing clothes. We are going to figure it all out this week so that we can announce it in Sacrament Meeting next week and give people time to plan rides and such.
Elder Nielson is doing really well and improving fast in terms of his Spanish. He still has a long way to go but has improved considerably since leaving the MTC. It's still baffling to me the number of teaching methods and activities they appeared to have done away with; methods that were primordial in my being able to establish a strong Spanish foundation I could build on when entering the mission field.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy your vacation in Puerto Rico. Send me some more pictures!!!
Love,
Elder Kinney
P.S. - Isn't really looking too good with the Cervantes family. We found Gabriel drunk last Monday night, and then we went back again last night. I don't thing he really trusts us anymore because we kind of caught him in the act and now he can't really play the victim card with us anymore. It is really upsetting, but he still thinks the church is true. I don't really know what good that will do him given the way he's acting. The whole situation is really intricate and would be very arduous to explain. We will continue to go by every once and a while to see how he's doing, but other than that we are going to move on to those who are more prepared.
The woman in the picture I sent two weeks ago is Olga, a less-active member we have been working with for awhile. She has 3 kids who are members and 2 that aren't. She is really nice but doesn't really like to progress. She currently has a boyfriend and is almost always out with him. Her oldest daughter, Laura, is the mother-figure of the household
(20 yrs old) and is amazingly responsible given the kind of background she's from. We continue to go by because it seems they come to church more often when we visit, and we're trying to focus on Olga's two oldest daughters Laura and Cecilia. They are the only ones who aren't members but also the only ones who seem to understand the standards of the church (not that they necessarily keep them) and the significance of making covenants. I don't know why the Olga got baptized but she isn't a great example to her kids. Her daughters always get on her case for drinking coffee and breaking the rules because they know what it means to be baptized in this church. We actually had a sweet lesson with them (the 2 daughters and Laura's boyfriend) last night where we talked about faith and trials with them. Laura used to be religious when her grandmother was alive but stopped going to church when she passed away. We shared a couple of scriptures with her, but the one that hit her the most was found in 1 Peter 4:12-13* in which Peter makes known that "fiery trials" await us and counsels us not to be surprised. I testified to her that trials are necessary in this life and we grow stronger because of them. I used the example of how she has become a blessing to her siblings as their mother-figure and she has developed many attributes because of the trials she has faced in the past. We all felt the Spirit and she started to cry. We invited her to ponder these things in her heart and to pray to God that he would strengthen her faith. It was a pretty good lesson.
Other than that I would say our week was below average in effectiveness. There were just a lot of things out of our control that wasted our time. We didn't get to teach the people with baptismal dates enough and two of the baptisms are for this upcoming Saturday. They are still really solid investigators but we are going to need to teach them a lot more before they are prepared for baptism. Our baptismal dates for the 25th are super solid. It's a family we've been teaching ever since my first week in the area, the Garcia family from El Salvador. They really want to get baptized in a lake or a river. We tried to tactfully persuade them into doing it in the baptismal font due to the hassle it causes those who wish to attend, but it's a really big desire he has so we're thinking of doing it in the Salt River in Mesa. Elder Hiatt, our Zone Leader, knows a High Councilman who owns a lot of land on the river so we're hoping he can provide us with a spot that also has bathrooms for changing clothes. We are going to figure it all out this week so that we can announce it in Sacrament Meeting next week and give people time to plan rides and such.
Elder Nielson is doing really well and improving fast in terms of his Spanish. He still has a long way to go but has improved considerably since leaving the MTC. It's still baffling to me the number of teaching methods and activities they appeared to have done away with; methods that were primordial in my being able to establish a strong Spanish foundation I could build on when entering the mission field.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy your vacation in Puerto Rico. Send me some more pictures!!!
Love,
Elder Kinney
P.S. - Isn't really looking too good with the Cervantes family. We found Gabriel drunk last Monday night, and then we went back again last night. I don't thing he really trusts us anymore because we kind of caught him in the act and now he can't really play the victim card with us anymore. It is really upsetting, but he still thinks the church is true. I don't really know what good that will do him given the way he's acting. The whole situation is really intricate and would be very arduous to explain. We will continue to go by every once and a while to see how he's doing, but other than that we are going to move on to those who are more prepared.
* 1 Peter 1:12-13
February 6, 2012
Dear Family,
I got a little sick over the past couple days but nothing too serious.
Unfortunately, Evangelina and her girls didn't get baptized because some issues came up unexpectedly that really took us all by surprise and I still feel like I don't know the gyst of the entire situation. I know in the past Evangelina and Gabriel had their issues but those were due to Gabriel's lifestyle of drinking and partying. It seems she is possibly resentful towards him still and can't accept that he has changed. Gabrial is very trusting with us and has expressed to me that he wants to save his marriage but Evangelina is currently being uncooperative. We referred him to President Tejada (our Branch President) and it didn't help at all. As a matter of fact it made things a little worse. Gabriel now doesn't want to be obligated to go to the Branch every Sunday because he feels like President isn't sensitive to his situation (I told President Tejada beforehand to handle it with delicacy predicting that something like this would happen). Thankfully he has a really strong testimony that the church is true, but unfortunately, he just realized not all of its leaders are perfect. Gabriel also told me Evangelina lied to us about the Word of Wisdom because she is still drinking coffee.
I love President Tejada, and we have a great relationship with him as the missionaries, but unfortunately it seems like he isn't sensitive enough to these kind of situations.
Other than that, our week went pretty well. We set four more baptismal dates and found a sweet, new investigator through one of our members (with whom we set a baptismal date). So those were some really tender mercies the Lord prepared for us after the depressing situation with the Cervantes family. We will continue to work closely with them and see if we will be able to help them out. Gabriel really, really trusts me and has expressed a lot of gratitude for the spiritual support I provided him through this difficult time. Please pray that the Lord blesses me with the gift of discernment so I can know how best to help him and his family.
Sister Zuniga got baptized two weeks ago and is doing really well. I only have 3 minutes left so I don't have time to send you the photos. I am so happy that the Giants rocked the patriots!!!
Love,
Elder Kinney
I got a little sick over the past couple days but nothing too serious.
Unfortunately, Evangelina and her girls didn't get baptized because some issues came up unexpectedly that really took us all by surprise and I still feel like I don't know the gyst of the entire situation. I know in the past Evangelina and Gabriel had their issues but those were due to Gabriel's lifestyle of drinking and partying. It seems she is possibly resentful towards him still and can't accept that he has changed. Gabrial is very trusting with us and has expressed to me that he wants to save his marriage but Evangelina is currently being uncooperative. We referred him to President Tejada (our Branch President) and it didn't help at all. As a matter of fact it made things a little worse. Gabriel now doesn't want to be obligated to go to the Branch every Sunday because he feels like President isn't sensitive to his situation (I told President Tejada beforehand to handle it with delicacy predicting that something like this would happen). Thankfully he has a really strong testimony that the church is true, but unfortunately, he just realized not all of its leaders are perfect. Gabriel also told me Evangelina lied to us about the Word of Wisdom because she is still drinking coffee.
I love President Tejada, and we have a great relationship with him as the missionaries, but unfortunately it seems like he isn't sensitive enough to these kind of situations.
Other than that, our week went pretty well. We set four more baptismal dates and found a sweet, new investigator through one of our members (with whom we set a baptismal date). So those were some really tender mercies the Lord prepared for us after the depressing situation with the Cervantes family. We will continue to work closely with them and see if we will be able to help them out. Gabriel really, really trusts me and has expressed a lot of gratitude for the spiritual support I provided him through this difficult time. Please pray that the Lord blesses me with the gift of discernment so I can know how best to help him and his family.
Sister Zuniga got baptized two weeks ago and is doing really well. I only have 3 minutes left so I don't have time to send you the photos. I am so happy that the Giants rocked the patriots!!!
Love,
Elder Kinney
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