Los Kitchens,                                                                                                   December 17, 2012

¿Que tal? Hey everybody! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I really appreciate it. It´s way crazy to me too that I´m already 20 years old. It was good to hear from all of you, thanks! Sounds like everyone is doing great. Well as for my birthday weekend...it went great!! It was different, but awesome. So first on the 14th we went to our planned Christmas Activity at the Mission Home with President and Sister Reeves and half the mission (the other half went on a different day). We played a few games outside, busted a pinata, sang Christmas songs, ate some really good food, watched a bit of the broadcast with Mo-tab and the Prophet, and then opened a little present that Sister Reeves made for all of us. They were hand-knit scarfs cool huh? It was such a fun activity. Oh you guys have asked a bit about my Mission President, and I keep forgetting to tell you about him and Sister Reeves. They are both SO awesome. President Reeves has such a powerful testimony. He does so much for the mission. He is also just a really calm, friendly guy who has a sense of humor. I haven´t got to see or hear from him a whole bunch, probably like 5 or 6 times. Sister Reeves is a great "mission mom" as you can see she does a lot for us too. Anyway so on the 15th Dolores got baptized!!! We had a service with two niñas that are 8 years old with Dolores too. Elder Tinoco baptized both of the little girls, and I was privileged to be able to baptize Dolores! Cool huh? My first baptism and confirmation on my birthday, and I got to do it :) It was such a great experience. I´m so happy for Dolores and his decision to change his life and follow the Savior. He is going to be a great member. I have a cool story of something that happened right after the service. We had some soda and cookies, and when just about everybody had left...guess who randomly walked into the Chapel?! Victor with my Christmas/birthday present!! I was so surprised! I honestly have no idea how he found me all the way up here in Atexcac in the church. He was with a couple of family members that are from here. He gave me my present, his number if I will need anything, took a couple of pictures to send you guys, and then they were on their way. Wow he is a really nice guy! I thanked him and his family for their kindness. What a cool surprise right after my first baptismal service. When we got home that night I´ll have to admit I couldn´t help but open it a little early haha. I figured that the 15th would just be when I celebrated my birthday because the 16th was the sabbath and all. So...I LOVED my package. Wow guys thank you so so much! Mom you really out-did yourself :) I have enough chocolate to last me forever! It´s perfect. I love the Ipod too its so cool!! The music is great too Mom thank you so much I can tell you spent a lot of time on that. I´ve already listened to a lot of songs, and they´re awesome. Also Elder Tinoco says thank you for the tie. We both wore them yesterday on my birthday. We also made some P B & Js which were awesome! Thanks again guys I loved it. It means a lot to me. I also really enjoyed all your letters that were inside. Anyway on the 16th we got to confirm Dolores into the church. Also there was like a Christmas program from the primary. As for the rest of the day I told my companion not to make it a big deal. We had a few teaching appointments and things. It felt good to forget myself and try and help other people. As for today we had a zone activity planned. We went up close to Popo to eat and play soccer. It was fun. We are also going to have cake with our investigator Adán later today because he wanted to buy cake for me yesterday, but we wouldn´t let him brake to sabbath for my cake haha! So my birthday was awesome!! 

We had a really good week. We taught Dolores the rest of the lessons that he needed for Saturday which went awesome. He really was the definition of a golden investigator. We also had two first lessons; one with Anita and other with someone named Tomasa who was a reference. 2 new investigators! We are excited to keep working with them this week. We also did service this week a couple times for Adán our other investigator and his family. We are really getting to know them well. They are all really funny. We had a great lesson with Adán on my birthday. I shared a detailed experience, and after I really didn´t know how I spoke so well. I know the Lord is helping me so much with the language. The gift of tongues is real. We also had quite a few lessons with less-active members as well. It was a great week for us here in Atexcac. Well I wish I could tell you all more about the work, and some experiences, but I don´t have time! 

Thank you so much for an awesome Christmas package. It was a birthday that I will honestly NEVER forget. I love and miss each and every one of you. I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday season!  Anyway thanks again. I love you guys. It was surreal baptizing Dolores. I remember being a bit nervous right before because I wanted to say everything right in Spanish and what not. I said a quick prayer in my heart and asked for strength, power, and confidence. Instantly I was not nervous anymore. I said the words perfectly and powerfully. I know that prayer is real, powerful, and essential. Never underestimate the power of a simple heartfelt prayer. I have to rely on the Lord out here, and I continually plead for His divine help. No matter what we are doing in our lives, we can receive the same divine help from our Father in Heaven. Through sincere pray we literally do receive divine help, guidance, and comfort. I love you guys! Have a great week! I can´t thank you enough for all the continued love and support. Until next week!

Con Amor,

Elder Kitchen

Dear Family,                                                                                                 December 10, 2012

P-days just keep coming` don`t they? It`s crazy how fast the week comes and goes. Anyway oh before I forget, the shoes did finally come. Apparently the zone leaders have had them for a little while now, but we haven`t seen them in a while. They are not the same ones as I have now, but they should work out just fine. I`ll save em` until the ones I have now start falling apart I guess. Well it sounds like everyone had a great week! I really look forward to reading your letters and hearing how everybody is doing. Yesterday sounded like a good Sunday. Tell Nick hi for me! I can`t believe he is already home. Also thanks for going to Chandler`s farewell Dad I`m sure that he appreciated you being there. Sounds like he is ready to go. I`m glad that he put his head on straight and he`s heading for the mission field haha. So dad he mentioned me specifically in his farewell talk? He`s going to do great out there in Oregon. Also it was cool to hear about Cameron coming home and ya`ll going hunting again. Man, I leave and ya`ll decide to go hunting everyday huh? I`m joking looks like you guys had fun. Tell Cameron estoy emocionado poder placticar con Èl en Español cuando regresarè tambìen. Dìgale tambíen ser listo por que voy a hablar bien rapido y con un accento mèxicano perfecto. Tal vez no entenderà ;) Anyway yeah Dad that Carne Asada was to die for. I had like 5 or 6 tacos mmm. I`ll have to get some recipies and try and make some good Mexican food when I get home. So 20 degrees huh? Wow I`m not mission that at all haha. Hope you guys are having a good time! I`m wearing a short-sleeved shirt right now. Oh and Mom no I haven`t gotten a letter from Kylie yet...I actually have only received one letter so far. I don`t know if the zone leaders are holding anymore right now, or not. I also wanted to thank you again mom for spending so much time getting my package ready. Dad told me you`ve been spending a lot of time with it. I really appreciate it. Love you Mamma. It`s weird that I`m about to turn 20 years old. It`s doesn`t really feel like it. Also it doesn`t feel like my birthday is coming up cause it`s usually always cold. What`s going on with my sisters? I feel like they died or something, because I haven`t heard from them yet. Jami...? Kaylee...? You guys still alive? haha I hope you guys are doing good and enjoying High School. High School...I can`t believe you are both in High School. That scary. Dad I was cracking up with the end of your email haha. It must have been pretty late huh? Good luck with the old man check up ;)

Anyway I`ll tell you a bit about the work here in Atexcac. We`re already on the 3rd week of the 2nd change which means I only have 4 more weeks of training left. I wonder what will happen at the end of this change. Well Dolores is still progressing really well. We taught him the 3rd lesson, and started with the commandments this week. On Sunday, we taught keeping the sabbath day holy, which went really well. If all goes planned this week I will have my first baptism on Saturday the 15th and the confirmation on Sunday the 16th. Dolores is such a prepared investigator. He`s great. It`s kinda funny because he talks really really fast and has a little bit of a speak problem, so I don`t understand him very well. My comp doesn`t even understand him sometimes. When it comes to lessons though we are able to understand each other well. I`m really excited for this week. We also had a lesson with Adàn our new investigator yesterday. We found him in the area book and saw that he had received the missionaries and part of the 1st lesson a long time ago. We read that he had an issue accepting Joesph Smith. We felt strongly in planning to start teaching him the Gospel with the Plan of Salvation. So we did, and the lesson went really really well. We hope that we can get him to church this Sunday, and to the baptism. We also plan on teaching the Restoration to him in our next lesson. Those are our only 2 progressing investigators right now. We have quite of few of potential investigators that we are working to set up appts. with all the time, so I`m sure we will get the opportunity to teach them soon. We served quite a bit this week too. Everyone is harvesting corn and a little fruit called tejocotes, so we help chuck corn and stuff a lot. Oh yeah also I got sick for the first time this week. It was only for one day about 24 hours so we think it was something I ate. It wasn`t too bad. I got to rest it out and I had some medicine and everything. Anyway that`s what has been going on around here.

Well I better wrap it up. Thanks again for all the support. Tell Grandma and Grandpa Kitchen/Ellsworth thanks for the continued support as well.  I love and pray for all of you. I miss you too, especially over the holidays, but I know I`m wear I need to be and I honestly wouldn`t want to be anywhere else right now. I am so grateful for all the blessing the Lord continues to bless our family with. I hope that you all continue to enjoy the holiday season, and that you keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas. Without our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement we wouldn`t be anything, but with him we can hope for all things. Have a great week!

Con Amor y Siempre Fruete,
Elder Kitchen

¿Que Hacen? (greeting unique to Atexcac...doesn´t make much sense literally)  December 3, 2012

Hey hey everybody! How´d the week go? We had a really good week! Looks like you guys are working hard and having fun too, so that´s good. So am I :) That´s cool you got to go hunting again Dad. Sounded like you and your girlfriend Kit had a good time with Nate and the guys. haha. To answer your question, no we haven´t had a zone conference yet, but we have had what is calling a zone meeting, which to me seems like the same thing. I have had a few experiences with my zone already. Also, my knee is doing really well. I make sure to do my hamstring workouts every morning when I work out, so it should be nice and strong to jump cliffs in Park City when I get home ;) Anyway Mom sounds like you guys had a good time up in Salt Lake at the Christmas Devotional. I enjoyed both the pictures that you sent. Keep ém comin. And yeah we didn´t get to see the Devotional here, and even if we did it would have been in Spanish, so it would have taken my full focus to understand it all. I feel like as long as I´m not distracted (like eating or something) and that I´m putting my full focus in to what people are saying, I can pretty much understand everything. Almost. There are times when I don´t, and it gets frustrating because I really want to be able to. As far as speaking, that is coming a little slower than the understanding (which is normal I´ve been told) but I´m pretty much able to roughly communicate anything that I want to say. It just depends on the context really. We have a new District Leader Elder Matt from Park City who has 21 months in the mission, and Elder Tinoco says that I have a better accent than him already. So that makes me feel good. Oh and as far as reading, if it´s in PMG I understand pretty much everything I´m reading. Scriptures...not as well, but I still understand. I´m almost done with 2 Nephi in B.O.M in Spanish. Yeah the Isiah chapters? Didn´t understand hardly anything in Spanish haha. Anyway...to answer your question Mom Nealtican is just like a bigger version of Atexcac. A pueblitio. It´s about 20 minutes away. We are in the Nealtican Norte stake, and some of our zone is there too. There is actually 2 stakes in Nealtican and Atexcac which is a ton of members. They call it a pueblito version of Utah haha because of all the members.

So I´ll tell you a bit about the work and how my week went. There is a ton that happened, so I probably won´t be able to write it all. As for our new investigator Christina, she isn´t progressing because we weren´t able to see her this week either. We´ll keep working with her. Our prayers are really starting to be answered though. We should be able to teach and get new investigators with some of the contacts I told you about last week. We set up appts. with a girl named Anita, her sister and cousin, and also with someone named Adrian. It didn´t work out this week, but they look promising. They are good references and their whole families aren´t members. Other than that we have 2 other investigators that we are working with. One is named Adán who is new from last night (Sundays are the best days here). We taught him and he wants to hear more. Also I´ve got to tell you about our progressing investigator Dolores. He is like 34 years old and works with sheep. He has totally been prepared by the Lord to receive the Restored Gospel. We have already taught him the first 2 lessons and he has a baptism date for the 15th of Dec! If it all works out then the confirmation will be on the birthday the 16th cool huh?! He is so willing and already has really strong beliefs. Here is a quick bio of his story: both his parents have died, one from alcohol related issues. He used to have a drinking problem too, but he had an experience (I don't know when) where he made a promise to God that he would never drink again. Very recently he had a dream of our church (don't know the details) so the very next Sunday, like a couple weeks ago he just showed up at church all by himself. Cool huh. He told us he already received an answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true and he already believes. He was talking about wanted to be baptized before we even committed him to a date haha he is awesome. We´re excited for him.

Well I better go. I hope this week goes really well for all of you. I hope that school is treating you all well, and that work is good for you Dad. Has Tyler moved back in yet? How is everything coming along for the BYU-H? I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. Tell all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that I miss em and happy holidays. Everything's is going good here. Until next week, Love you guys

Con Amor
Elder Kitchen