Dear Family,
Thank you for the pictures and the letter you sent to me this past week. I can't believe how much snow there is back East. I bet Matt is enjoying all of the time off from school that he's getting. The shoveling...probably not so much.
This past week has been really great as Elder Ralphs and I were able to find a lot of new people and get our area fired up. We are going to have a baptism this week for the nine-year-old boy, Stephen Moreno. You would think that a nine-year-old boy who has been going to church his whole life and has active family members would be easy to get into the waters of baptism, but it has been a very strenuous process that has required a lot of faith and especially patience. (By the way, I don't know if you know this, but if you are over 9 years old, you have to be taught by the missionaries if you want to be baptized.) I think I have told you about Steven before and if so, this will refresh your memory. He is a nine-year-old Hispanic boy plagued with diabetes, hearing problems, a speech impediment, and a slew of other health issues. It is actually very unfortunate. The first time we taught him, I thought it wasn't even necessary that he get baptized given his extenuating health and questionably mental circumstances. Nevertheless, our Branch President said he is eligible for baptism and we could teach him. Every time we would go over to do so, he would immediately roll his eyes, let out a sigh of air, and throw his hands up in disgust. The lessons went equally as bad, if not worse, as he would literally be unresponsive to any question or gesture we would make to him. Luckily, as Elder Ralphs and I prayed with faith that he would be receptive to our teaching and adapted our teaching style, with careful spiritual consideration, we were able to get Steven to open up to us and even talk. The best we were able to do was get him to answer all of the baptismal questions in the affirmative and even say the five fundamentals of the Gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure). It was truly a miracle, especially that he passed the baptismal interview with our District Leader. Watching him progress towards baptism has been such a blessing and a testimony builder as we prayed with faith and our prayers were answered.
Another great blessing we have seen is that some of the investigators we were not able to get in contact with for awhile, have been reading their scriptures and progressing. One thing I have really been focusing on is faith and praying with faith because the Lord really does provide when you have faith that He will. One scripture I love a lot is in Ether 12:4 which talks about how the Lord provides an anchor for us to hold on to that leads us to be steadfast and firm. When we get discouraged or frustrated, we are showing the Lord that we don't have faith that he will help us. One thing that Jesus always told his disciples was to "be of good cheer" because the He is with them. Fear is of the devil and will only bring us down, and having faith is awesome because the Lord lifts us up.
Every Friday our District goes to the High Councilman's (in charge of missionary work) house for breakfast and to talk about the work. One thing I enjoy about going to his house are the motivating stories and letters that he tells us about the exploits and acclaims of his beastly son serving a mission in Sweden. To some, it kind of comes off as gloating but I really enjoy it because it is super humbling for me and it gives me great ideas on how to better the work in our area. His son, Elder Jorgenson, is supposedly in the Ensign (a Church magazine) on a regular basis and gets between 40 to 50 lessons a week IN SWEDEN. That is just so BOSS. He was born to be a missionary. Elder Ralphs and I got a lot of ideas from him on finding more opportunities to teach as we go about our daily work and it has really been paying off in the past couple of days. Yesterday we got 8 lessons, which was really great. We have definitely made it a point to not just to be searching for more lessons for the numbers, but to bring others closer to Christ and help them feel the Spirit. This method of finding and teaching people has helped us find a ton of new investigators and sift out who is going to progress towards baptism and who isn't.
Anyway that's what is going on in my life up to this point. It was great writing you and I hope all is well back home.
Love,
Elder Kinney
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
January 18, 2011
Dear Family,
I'm really sorry I don't have more time to write, but I only have 10 minutes since we have an extremely busy p-day today. I am going to try and go to downtown Phoenix to buy my suits today. Last p-day we went to three places where there was supposedly a Men's Warehouse (according to Google Maps) but they weren't there. I recall dad telling me to go to a Brooks Brothers at one point so I am going to call them, confirm the address, and go.
This past week was pretty good since Elder Ralphs and I have returned to actually being missionaries instead of sitting at home waiting for Elder Ralphs to get well. His pneumonia is almost completely gone so it isn't much of a setback anymore.
Right now our first priority is finding new people. We had a ton of investigators at the end of the last transfer but with our new area boundaries, we lost a good chunk of our old area that has the most Spanish-speakers and a lot of work. Our area is still one of the largest in the mission so there should be plenty of people ready for the gospel within our boundaries.
Also, something else really neat is that we are going to have 2 baptisms this Saturday -- Lupe and her husband. We haven't been teaching them very often because they live outside of our mission and they have to come to a member's house in our area when they want to talk to us. I found out a while ago that member referrals are the best type of investigators that are super interested. We found them because they were friends with Olivia (the one who got baptized the second week of December) and Griselda (another recent convert). We taught them the lessons, got them to stop drinking coffee and now they are getting baptized, so it is pretty awesome.
My comp and the other Elders are waiting for me so I have to go. Sorry I couldn't write a longer letter. I love you.
Love,
Elder Kinney
I'm really sorry I don't have more time to write, but I only have 10 minutes since we have an extremely busy p-day today. I am going to try and go to downtown Phoenix to buy my suits today. Last p-day we went to three places where there was supposedly a Men's Warehouse (according to Google Maps) but they weren't there. I recall dad telling me to go to a Brooks Brothers at one point so I am going to call them, confirm the address, and go.
This past week was pretty good since Elder Ralphs and I have returned to actually being missionaries instead of sitting at home waiting for Elder Ralphs to get well. His pneumonia is almost completely gone so it isn't much of a setback anymore.
Right now our first priority is finding new people. We had a ton of investigators at the end of the last transfer but with our new area boundaries, we lost a good chunk of our old area that has the most Spanish-speakers and a lot of work. Our area is still one of the largest in the mission so there should be plenty of people ready for the gospel within our boundaries.
Also, something else really neat is that we are going to have 2 baptisms this Saturday -- Lupe and her husband. We haven't been teaching them very often because they live outside of our mission and they have to come to a member's house in our area when they want to talk to us. I found out a while ago that member referrals are the best type of investigators that are super interested. We found them because they were friends with Olivia (the one who got baptized the second week of December) and Griselda (another recent convert). We taught them the lessons, got them to stop drinking coffee and now they are getting baptized, so it is pretty awesome.
My comp and the other Elders are waiting for me so I have to go. Sorry I couldn't write a longer letter. I love you.
Love,
Elder Kinney
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
January 11, 2011
Dear Family,
This past week has been a very interesting one. I say that because all we did was sit in our apartment and wait for Elder Ralphs to recover from pneumonia. We did have the opportunity to teach one less-active lesson but that was it. Elder Ralphs has just been extremely exhausted and constantly sleeping because the pneumonia would just sap his energy. Luckily he has become a lot healthier and we were blessed with the opportunity to begin working again yesterday.
We got transfer news last Saturday and found out that Elder Ralphs and I will continue to be companions. Our area is going to be changed just a little bit so we are losing some of our investigators, including a couple with baptismal dates. But that's ok because now we have the blessing of finding new investigators and baptizing them.
Our most solid investigator right now is a man named Eddie who lives in an equestrian stable with his future wife, baby and stepson in Scottsdale. It was really hard to find him at first because we had to enter this horse ranch and knock on all the doors of various buildings. The first time we went by we couldn't find him but we went into an abandoned-looking house where we saw extension cords running under the door and figured that might be it. No one was home but it appeared that someone was house sitting due to the sketchiness of the room. Thankfully he was outside working when we came back, and now we know what door to knock on. He was a referral from one of the members in our ward and seems really interested in learning about the gospel. Every time we give him something to read, he always has questions for us to answer and insights on the reading. We haven't had the opportunity to teach him a full lesson yet because he is always working when we come by, and Elder Ralphs has been sick.
The less-active lesson we taught this past week was to a guy named Rosalio and he lives with his wife, a heavyset, tobacco-addicted, white woman who learned Spanish on the streets, and 2 kids. We wouldn't have any idea who he is if he hadn't called us and told us he wanted to us to come and see him. It turns out he joined the church about 5 years ago, but soon after returned to a lifestyle of drinking. He realized the mistakes that he made and remembered the Spirit that he felt when he was taught by the missionaries and when he had come to church before. So he called us to help him out. He has a very similar story to many other male immigrants from Mexico: grew up in a household laden with violence, abuse, alcohol, and in-opportunity. Unfortunately this way of living is perpetuated and continues in the lives of these Mexican families today.
One thing you notice hear in AZ is the innumerable amount of smoke shops and liquor stores. Something I had never seen before coming to Phoenix was a drive through liquor store. It just goes to show how rampant the influence of Satan is among people today. Thankfully we have the gospel to help guide us to the path the Lord has set and the Atonement of Jesus Christ to cleanse us of painful sin. Rosalio expressed to us the addiction he has to alcohol and the problem he has abstaining from it. He told us that the Circle K mini-mart (everyone advertises alcohol) is a temptation for him every time he passes it. We taught a powerful lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ as we read from Alma 7, and promised him that he can find a cure for this through his Savior Jesus Christ. We assigned him to read about repentance in Alma 36 and testified how real the Atonement really is. When we returned, we witnessed a miracle as he told us that he hasn't thought about drinking for 5 days and how grateful he was that we were able to help him get to this point.
These experiences strengthen my testimony on the healing power of the Atonement so incredibly. It is these types of experiences that make me love being on a mission and being a tool in the hands of the Lord. Unfortunately, his wife is not very interested in listening to us but at least she supports Rosalio in his membership. So this is just a little information about what I am doing, I hope you enjoy reading it. Hope all is well in snowy NC.
Love,
Elder Kinney
This past week has been a very interesting one. I say that because all we did was sit in our apartment and wait for Elder Ralphs to recover from pneumonia. We did have the opportunity to teach one less-active lesson but that was it. Elder Ralphs has just been extremely exhausted and constantly sleeping because the pneumonia would just sap his energy. Luckily he has become a lot healthier and we were blessed with the opportunity to begin working again yesterday.
We got transfer news last Saturday and found out that Elder Ralphs and I will continue to be companions. Our area is going to be changed just a little bit so we are losing some of our investigators, including a couple with baptismal dates. But that's ok because now we have the blessing of finding new investigators and baptizing them.
Our most solid investigator right now is a man named Eddie who lives in an equestrian stable with his future wife, baby and stepson in Scottsdale. It was really hard to find him at first because we had to enter this horse ranch and knock on all the doors of various buildings. The first time we went by we couldn't find him but we went into an abandoned-looking house where we saw extension cords running under the door and figured that might be it. No one was home but it appeared that someone was house sitting due to the sketchiness of the room. Thankfully he was outside working when we came back, and now we know what door to knock on. He was a referral from one of the members in our ward and seems really interested in learning about the gospel. Every time we give him something to read, he always has questions for us to answer and insights on the reading. We haven't had the opportunity to teach him a full lesson yet because he is always working when we come by, and Elder Ralphs has been sick.
The less-active lesson we taught this past week was to a guy named Rosalio and he lives with his wife, a heavyset, tobacco-addicted, white woman who learned Spanish on the streets, and 2 kids. We wouldn't have any idea who he is if he hadn't called us and told us he wanted to us to come and see him. It turns out he joined the church about 5 years ago, but soon after returned to a lifestyle of drinking. He realized the mistakes that he made and remembered the Spirit that he felt when he was taught by the missionaries and when he had come to church before. So he called us to help him out. He has a very similar story to many other male immigrants from Mexico: grew up in a household laden with violence, abuse, alcohol, and in-opportunity. Unfortunately this way of living is perpetuated and continues in the lives of these Mexican families today.
One thing you notice hear in AZ is the innumerable amount of smoke shops and liquor stores. Something I had never seen before coming to Phoenix was a drive through liquor store. It just goes to show how rampant the influence of Satan is among people today. Thankfully we have the gospel to help guide us to the path the Lord has set and the Atonement of Jesus Christ to cleanse us of painful sin. Rosalio expressed to us the addiction he has to alcohol and the problem he has abstaining from it. He told us that the Circle K mini-mart (everyone advertises alcohol) is a temptation for him every time he passes it. We taught a powerful lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ as we read from Alma 7, and promised him that he can find a cure for this through his Savior Jesus Christ. We assigned him to read about repentance in Alma 36 and testified how real the Atonement really is. When we returned, we witnessed a miracle as he told us that he hasn't thought about drinking for 5 days and how grateful he was that we were able to help him get to this point.
These experiences strengthen my testimony on the healing power of the Atonement so incredibly. It is these types of experiences that make me love being on a mission and being a tool in the hands of the Lord. Unfortunately, his wife is not very interested in listening to us but at least she supports Rosalio in his membership. So this is just a little information about what I am doing, I hope you enjoy reading it. Hope all is well in snowy NC.
Love,
Elder Kinney
Saturday, January 8, 2011
January 4, 2011
Happy New Year!!!
This next year may be one of the only years that will be fully dedicated to the work of the Lord. I am excited for the experiences that await me as I strive to be a powerful servant in the hands of the Lord. I hope that you guys had a great holiday season and created some good memories.
This past week has been really good. We still have 8 baptismal dates and we will hopefully have one this Saturday. It is a 9 year old boy named Steven Moreno who really loves the Church but doesn't really like the missionaries...at all. Every time we step into the house he is always playing and having a good time but as soon as he sees us he throws his arms, lets out a puff of air and displays a look of despair on his face. It is hard for us to get him to say anything because he seems very shy and just flat out doesn't like us. I am afraid that he won't pass the baptismal interview with our District Leader because he won't want to answer his questions. His mom is less active but his grandfather is awesome and takes Steven to church every Sunday. So I really hope it goes through.
In church this past Sunday I bore my testimony about repentance and how we can take the chance we have as we enter into a new year to change our lives for the better, repent, and use the Atonement that has been provided for us everyday. I have noticed repentance is a constant thing that you need to always be doing in your mind. God knows our thoughts, so we can have a conversation with him in our mind as we are engaged in the matters of our daily lives. When we do something we know is wrong, we can't repent for it right there on the spot, especially if it is something small like leaving the house a few minutes late or singing a song that is stuck in your head that doesn't invite the spirit (those two things obviously are missionary examples). If we are always repentant, then we will always have the Spirit with us. When we can feel the Spirit and recognize the Holy Ghost has found us worthy to receive his guidance and feel his presence, we are candidates for the Celestial Kingdom. If we died that moment, we would go to Paradise. This is how I think the Lord wants us to live our lives everyday: by the Spirit. So bearing my testimony was a good experience.
Also this past week there was a day where it rained from the early morning, all the way into the night which was cool because it never rains hear. On one day it got into the high 30's and we saw a couple snowflakes so I can say that it snowed here while I was on my mission. You learn to really love any type of precipitation when you are from CT and it is always sunny here. Other than that my week was just an average one in the life of a missionary, filled with trials, joy, miracles, teaching and humbling experiences and of course the Spirit.
I love you guys a ton and think about you a lot (and by a lot I mean whenever appropriate -- I don't want you to think I'm distracted or anything).
Love,
Elder Kinney
This next year may be one of the only years that will be fully dedicated to the work of the Lord. I am excited for the experiences that await me as I strive to be a powerful servant in the hands of the Lord. I hope that you guys had a great holiday season and created some good memories.
This past week has been really good. We still have 8 baptismal dates and we will hopefully have one this Saturday. It is a 9 year old boy named Steven Moreno who really loves the Church but doesn't really like the missionaries...at all. Every time we step into the house he is always playing and having a good time but as soon as he sees us he throws his arms, lets out a puff of air and displays a look of despair on his face. It is hard for us to get him to say anything because he seems very shy and just flat out doesn't like us. I am afraid that he won't pass the baptismal interview with our District Leader because he won't want to answer his questions. His mom is less active but his grandfather is awesome and takes Steven to church every Sunday. So I really hope it goes through.
In church this past Sunday I bore my testimony about repentance and how we can take the chance we have as we enter into a new year to change our lives for the better, repent, and use the Atonement that has been provided for us everyday. I have noticed repentance is a constant thing that you need to always be doing in your mind. God knows our thoughts, so we can have a conversation with him in our mind as we are engaged in the matters of our daily lives. When we do something we know is wrong, we can't repent for it right there on the spot, especially if it is something small like leaving the house a few minutes late or singing a song that is stuck in your head that doesn't invite the spirit (those two things obviously are missionary examples). If we are always repentant, then we will always have the Spirit with us. When we can feel the Spirit and recognize the Holy Ghost has found us worthy to receive his guidance and feel his presence, we are candidates for the Celestial Kingdom. If we died that moment, we would go to Paradise. This is how I think the Lord wants us to live our lives everyday: by the Spirit. So bearing my testimony was a good experience.
Also this past week there was a day where it rained from the early morning, all the way into the night which was cool because it never rains hear. On one day it got into the high 30's and we saw a couple snowflakes so I can say that it snowed here while I was on my mission. You learn to really love any type of precipitation when you are from CT and it is always sunny here. Other than that my week was just an average one in the life of a missionary, filled with trials, joy, miracles, teaching and humbling experiences and of course the Spirit.
I love you guys a ton and think about you a lot (and by a lot I mean whenever appropriate -- I don't want you to think I'm distracted or anything).
Love,
Elder Kinney
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