Dear Family, July 31, 2011

I am so just happy to e mail you all today! This seriously is the best two years of my life! I just can’t even describe how much I love every second of my mission. Whenever people ask me how long I have left I feel bitter sweet feelings....because a part of me really doesn’t want to leave. I love my mission so much and I love New Zealand and all the people here. I love the missionaries and just everything about being a missionary. But there also is a part of me that wants to be home.....because I miss all of you so very much. But I know I am going to serve with all my heart, might, mind, and strength and give it my all until the very last day! I love this work so much and I’m very grateful to be about saving souls!!

I really love my new area and my new calling from Heavenly Father. I love being a Zone Leader. It is so cool and you get to experience so many wonderful miracles. I love going on trade off with the other missionaries and just meeting all the investigators and get to see how everyone is progressing. We also got to go to a lot of baptisms this week for those getting baptized in the Zone. It was such a wonderful spiritual experience for me to have been able to witness so many of Heavenly Fathers children get baptized. I love how close I become to the missionaries whom I serve. I know them all so well now and they are all some of my best friends. They are all incredible missionaries. I love my companion, Elder Chandler. He is so funny and we get along so well. We are both extremely hard working missionaries and have a strong desire to save souls. We know how to have some fun while doing the work too. I love being with a missionary who just knows how to teach really well and work with the members and is just great. I have learned a lot about him and we have become good friends. The Zone did pretty good last month in baptizing people but we are looking very strong going into next month! I’m learning so much every day and I’m just trying to improve as a leader. We drive a Toyota Yaris car....it’s nice not riding a bike haha. Our flat we live in is way nice too. Probably one of the nicest I’ve ever lived in. West Auckland (Henderson) is incredible. I love the people here. The ward we are in is called Massey ward. It is a huge ward and the members are so cool. You can see the Sky Line of the Auckland City right out from our front door! The weather here is pretty cold....rainy....but not as rainy as Whangarei.

Our week was just amazing! It was probably one of the greatest weeks of my mission. We had so many miracles from Heavenly Father and just worked SO hard! This has been probably one of the most spiritual weeks ever. I have felt the spirit So much this week and have just been able to have incredible experiences. So just to let you know we have 10 people set with a baptismal date for the month of August and its only August 1st! We have been so blessed by Heavenly Father and he has led us right to people who are ready to receive the gospel. On Monday we had a lesson with this girl we were lead to on the street. We went to her house and had a powerful lesson on the restoration. We taught the Doctrine of Christ and set Stephanie, Ryder, and Formen for baptism. They are a great family. And now I have to tell you about Anna and her family. So she came to church last Sunday and loved it. We started teaching her two young sons (ages 10 and 11) and we set them for baptism on the same day as their mother (Aug 13). Well guess what? The father Quenton said he would live the listen to the lessons also!!! So we had a powerful lesson on the restoration. He is a Catholic but when we taught about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon he felt the spirit. We talked about temples and being a forever family. We also asked him to be baptized the same day with the rest of his family and he said YES!! Everything just worked out perfectly. I know we only opened our mouths but it was ALL Heavenly Father. He has done everything and it’s all a complete miracle. The whole family came to church yesterday and they loved it! We are working with them to get married and they have to give up some things to live the Word of Wisdom but they are just a GOLDEN FAMILY! I love helping entire families come into the gospel. We also have two Samoan lady’s also set for this month and I’ll have to tell you about them also. And we also set Stephanie’s boyfriend named Ryder! I just love this work so much.

Jerry was baptized and confirmed a member this weekend. The baptism was just amazing. I spoke at the baptism and there was SO many people. A lot of his nonmember family came so that was good. Jerry was so happy getting baptized. Then yesterday at church I was able to confirm him a member of the church. Our mission President was also there at our Sacrament meeting so he joined in on the circle as I confirmed him. Wow the spirit was extremely powerful. That’s one thing so cool. As Zone Leaders and because President lives in our zone....we get to see him so much. I have really got to know President Lekias and I really like him. He is an incredible man of God and I know he is supposed to be our mission President. The Lord has blessed me so much. Every trade off I’ve been on with the Elders in my zone so far we have been able to set someone for baptism. This week we also went on a trade off with the Assistants to the President (APs) Wow! They are incredible missionaries. I was in our area with Elder Greening. He is Maori (born in Gisborne) but moved to Utah. He went toTimpview. He played Football for Dixie State. He is one of the greatest missionaries I’ve ever met. I learned a lot from him. We were able to set two young teenagers for baptism but they didn’t come to church so they're not set anymore. This week was just amazing....I wish I could tell you a lot more about the week. But I just wanted to say a couple more things about yesterday. One of the Elders in our zone was sick. So my companion stayed with him in the flat and I went with the other missionary to their sacrament meeting. They had one of their investigators that was just baptized on Saturday get confirmed in church. But guess what? Sherry Dew, Brad Wilcox, and Elder Watson (from the Seventy) were there. Sherry Dew is the CEO of Desert Book. She is an incredible speaker. Mom I don’t know if you know her or not. The Sacrament meeting was amazing! And guess what I shook her hand just for you mom.

Well it sounds like everyone is doing great with all of you. That would be weird to have no children home eh? haha. I’m glad Jami and Kaylee loved Girls camp. And that’s cool Ryan is in Texas....he is probably really close to James! The Cousin Camp sounds like it will be really fun. That’s awesome.

Well about guys coming to New Zealand. A lady from the mission Office actually called me this morning and was just making sure on some details. I asked her if she knew if I could be released here in New Zealand and she said she doesn’t think so. It sounds like in order for me to get released as a missionary I will need to go to our stake president. So if you guys come get me I will probably be a missionary. But it really is totally up to you. What ever you guys decide I will be happy with. But in order for me to be able to do things we would have to have me come back to the States first. Just let me know but if you need to purchase tickets and stuff and I would make arrangements with the mission.

Well you all are always in my prayers. I put a lot more of my pictures onto a DVD and I will send it home. So you can get a lot more photos. Sorry I wish I could just send them through the computer but it takes so long. Thanks for everything. I love you all so much.
Love Elder Kitchen