Busy, Busy, Busy

Hi guys! How's my awesome family doing?! Its so nice that I get to email you today! I'm excited because I have 2 hours to email today so I will be able to catch up on reading all your emails and sending you all my experiences!

Well first things first! I just wanted to let you know that I got your other package! I forgot to tell you last time. Thank you so much for everything it was awesome. I enjoyed the letters and reading all the cool experiences. Thanks for all the cool things in the package and for the candy. Oh yeah the christmas card was way cool. It looks really good, you did a great job mom! :) and I liked the letter a lot. But I loved the way cool missionary stocking!! It was So awesome. Its so cool me and Elder Sessions thought it was so awesome and we were laughing cuz its so funny. I like how there is a litte tag and everything. Thanks for the package.

I forgot to ask about the car accendent Ryan had! That sounded really scary...is he okay and everything. I hope that doesnt happen again.. But other than that how is snowboarding and skiing going for you guys? I bet your enjoying the snow. Is there good skiing this year in Park City? I cant even imagine it snowing in utah right now becasue its so hot here in New Zealand! Today is the first time it has rained in a while...it was looking pretty dry. They dont have sprinklers here so when it doesnt rain for a while it starts looking really dry and not so green and nice.



Thats cool your church time changed, 11 am is your favorite time right? Well when I first got here we had church at 1pm but now because of the new year we changed to 9am so we have early morning church. We have to be there by eight so we can greet everyone coming in. Church is so awesome out in the mission feild, we are so busy and focussed on trying to get all our investigators there and to make sure they have somewhere good to sit. It is aweosme to feel the spirit and to know that they are too. The Claudelands ward I am serving in is great. They all have very strong testimonies and I always feel the spirit in church. I'm glad to be serving in this area.Church was great and we had a lot of investigators there! We had 9!! WOW thats a lot huh!

We had zone conference again on Janurary 7th. We had another one this soon because of the new year. It was SOO good. President Porter is absolutely the best Mission President ever. He has the most powerful testimony. I felt the spirit so so strong. I got pretty dang emotional too! The spirit is so powerful. I forgot to tell you we had transfer calls this last Wednesday, January 13, but Elder Sessions and I are staying.
So I am going to be in the same area with my same companion for at least another six weeks (a transfer). I am glad I am staying because we have a lot of potential baptisms and progressing investigators. I'm excited to see what happens in this next six weeks.



Well I'm going to tell you guys about some of the experiences I had for the week of 1/4/10-1/10/10 because I never did. Well that week was amzing again. We taught a lot of lessons and we had a lot of investigators. Tuesday was incredible. We taught so many lessons! We taught 8 lessons in ONE Day. That is the most even Elder Sessions has ever taught in one day. It was amazing. It was probably one of my favorite days on my mission so far. We had a lesson with Jenny, then a amazing lesson with Lona, Chance, and Safari. I dont know if I told you but Brother Swain is a member that speaks French. He comes out with us and translates what we say. It is the coolest experience to watch us teach and then for him to say it in French. It is amazing so see them feel the spirit. They told us they have been reading and praying. They told us that they all have felt the spirit and they believe it was an answer to their question if what we had been teaching them was ture!! Wow, you dont even know how happy I was. It is the best feeling in the world for someone to say that.

Well we also had a incredible lesson with Kouiston. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He loved it and understood it all. He said he had been reading and praying. He knows its true and loves us coming over and teaching him. He said he feels peace and happiness when we are teaching him. Awe, it is so awesome.

We had a great lesson with Sister Strawbridge. We also had an amazing lesson with Nicolas and Mikeal. They are feeling the spirit now and they came to church and loved it. I know they are progressing and its so awesome to see because they haven't ever been spirtual and they are pretty rough guys, they smoke, drink and party. But to see them feel the spirit is priceless.
We had an awesome lesson with the Simmions, they are doing really good. They still come to church every sunday.



Well now I will tell you about this week I just barley had Jan. 11-17!

Well first of all. We have had so much success! The Lord is blessing us so much and we are doing our very best to be faithful and qualify for his miracles. I have been praying so much and it has strengthened my faith so much.
Last monday we played volleyball for 4 hours!! It was so fun. We got to play with some New Zealand professional volleyball players! They were so good. They are some invesitators of Elder King and Elder Bapcocks. On Tuesday we had an aweome district meeting and then had a cool experience with the Lua Lua's at the visitor center. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and went on a tour, I think it was really really good for them. We had an amazing lesson with Shelly and Danelle that night too. They are both struggling on reading but Shelly said she knows its true and wants to be baptized!! Danelle has had a lot of anti mormon stuff but since we have been praying and have had a lot of spirit filled lessons she finally said she believes in it! We were so happy. She said she just wants to gain a little stronger testimony before she gets baptized.
Wednesday was another awesome day. We had some really good lessons in the morning and then went to the visitor center with the Simmions. It was awesome. They felt the spirit really strong in the Joseph Smith movie they said. The only bad thing is we found out they are moving on the 22 of this month, so this Friday, ugh we are so sad. They were progressing so good and we were about to set them with a baptism date. Oh well they said they are going to meet with some missionaries where they are moving. Oh yeah Kousiton went to the V.C. too. We had a really good lesson with Nicolas and Mike and Jordan that night too.

Well I forgot to tell you we set Kouiston for baptism on the January 23!! Thats this Saturday!! He is so excited. We have had a lot of lessons with him, he has come to church 3 times in a row and I know he is ready. We have a lesson with him tonight on the law of chasitsy and tithing. The word of wisdom lesson went great last time and he has no problems with that! Well I will let you know all about his baptism in the next email. But please keep him in your prayers and that he will have a very spirtual experience this Saturday.

Oh yeah on Wed night we had a bad experience. It was my very first bible bash experience. It was Elder Sessions worst one he has ever had. We didn't mean to do it at all! His name is Caleb, he was really nice and we met him tracting, he invited us over again so went on Wed. He and his wife were there. We got to know them and they are both really nice young adults. Well long story short he just wanted to try and prove why we are wrong and how Joseph Smith was a fraud. He was like yelling and swearing! It was not a fun experience. We knew it was not good because the spirit was not there. We kindly said we had to go. We both learned a good lesson. Bible bashing is stupid and gets you no where.

Well the rest of the week was incredible. Wow I cant even tell you guys how awesome it is to be on a mission. Not only that but the Lord is giving us so many amazing experiences. We have so many lessons a day. We meet lots of new poteial investigators and we feel the spirit so strong as we testify about truth the whole day. I love being on a mission. My testimony has gotten so strong. I wouldnt want to be anywhere else. This is the most important thing I've ever done in my life. I am helping to save souls, I'm bringing them to Christ, I'm bringing them back to their Heavenly Father. I have wittnessed miracles here on my mission so far. I have strengthened my relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They are so more real and I feel really close to them. I've learned so much about life and about the gospel on my mission. I'm getting so much better at teaching the lessons. I'm becoming a better son of God and a better person. I'm learning so much about the whole point of life and that compared to eternity, life doesn't really matter that much. Of course it is so unbelievably important, but I mean worldly or things that take us away from God don't matter. I want each of you to know that I love you so much. I want to let you know that Heavenly Father loves you so much. That He truely is there, that He wants us to be happy, and that the gospel is THE only true happiness. I know with all my heart that this is THE only true chruch. I know that Jesus Christ died for us and that he made it possible for us to repent. Please let the Atonement work in your life, I've been learning so much more about it and what He went through. Its unbelievable. I know that if we do our very best and keep the commandments, repent, and live like our Savior and His gospel, we will have eternal life.

Well I love you all so much. Thank you again for everything. Your truly the best family I could ever ask for. I think and pray about each and every one of you all the time. I'm very thankful for your prayers for me and everything you do. I want you all to know I love it here. I'm very thankful to be serving God and doing something to repay what Jesus Chrsit did for me. I miss you so much. I miss everything about you. I miss spending time with you and even seeing your faces but I know this is where I'm suposed to be. Well, have a great week. Be safe and keep having fun. Well I love you!! Have a great week.
Love Elder Kitchen