greetings from down under

Hi everyone! How are you doing? Can you believe January is already over?! I cant...time goes by really fast on my mission. We are so involved with the work and we are so busy we loose track of time. I'm glad we are so busy and have so many investigators to look after. The Lord really has blessed me with an incredible mission. We are teaching a lot of investigators and some less active members too. We usually teach a lot of lessons on a normal day. I hope your January was great and I bet your excited for February.

Well it was so nice to read the e mails you sent me. I love reading them so much. I really do miss each and every one of you more than you know and it makes me feel a little bit like I'm home when I read them. I love hearing everything that's going on in your lives and to tell you my cool experiences I'm having out on the mission. This morning we just got back from the temple!! It was my first time going to the temple on my mission. The New Zealand temple is very beautiful inside, and you should see where the temple is. Its just outside of Hamilton in the country. The surrounding area is gorgeous and very very green. I wish you could see how beautiful it is here in New Zealand. Maybe someday. But the temple was amazing. The spirit was very strong and God answered some of my prayers. I love getting away from the world and entering the house of the Lord. It gives us a small taste of how the Celestial Kingdom will be like and how it will be to live with our Father in Heaven for eternity. I pray that each one of you will always live righteously so we can all live with each other in the Celestial Kingdom of God.

Well my week has been really really amazing. Last Monday after I emailed you we went and got a hair cut and played some board games in our flat...we also had to clean it really good so we could move into a new one. We haven't moved yet because we can only clean it certain times during the week and we still have a lot to clean. I hope we will be moving into the new one sometime this week or next. I'm excited because it will be in our area. Tuesday we had district meeting and I gave a ten minute training to the other Elders on Virtue and Knowledge. It was good. We also had a double trade off that day. Elder Sessions went with Brother Chapman from the ward and I went with Brother Willard Sunnex. (he is the son of the brother Sunnex I have talked about in the past) He is about 26 or so he is awesome. We had a great trade off. We went to a lot of lessons and the spirit was defiantly there. It was a really fun trade off and it was nice to go out with someone else. Wednesday was a really great day also. We had a lot of good lessons and were busy the whole day. Thursday was a little rough, the morning was very slow and we didn't have any luck. We didn't have any scheduled appointments and spent most of the day finding. We talked to a lot of people on the streets and found some potential investigators. We had a couple of lessons but lets just say it was a long day.

A part of our area is the ghetto. Its pretty dang bad and very sad to see how some people live. Its not dangerous for us because all the gangsters like us. They all say "brothers" its funny. But I felt so grateful for everything I had and for you guys and how I had such an amazing life before my mission. We really are blessed so much. Thank you so much for everything guys! I love you so much!

Well Friday was the big day. We woke up at 4 in the morning and our district leader picked us up at 5. We had to round everyone in the zone up and then finally started on our journey to Auckland. It was so cool to see New Zealand again and see Auckland. Its a really cool city. We all went to a stake center in the north shore. All 200 or so missionaries from the north island were there. It was so cool to see all the missionaries. Before the apostles and general Authorities showed up we had a really awesome testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong and it was so cool to hear all the incredible testimonies from the other missionaries. Then they came. It was awesome we all stood up when they entered and you could just feel the spirit flood the room. There was 2 apostles of Jesus Christ and 5 other general authorities. Elder Cook, Elder Chrisofferson, Bishop Burton, and 4 other members of the seventy. It was SO cool.We got to MEET them all and SHAKE their hands!!!! I got to shake two apostles hands. The whole time they were there with us and were speaking to us i felt the spirit so strong. Right when i shook their hands i just could feel that they are apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ! It was so cool to talk to them and meet them. They both also had really amazing talks and were very powerful when they spoke. I learned a lot from them and learned ways i could be a better missionary. They both bore a powerful testimony on the truthfullness of this church and gospel. Elder Cook said this really is the MOST important thing I could be doing for me and for my family! I'm glad I'm serving the lord and qualifying blessings for me and for you guys. The mission conference was awesome and we drove back to Hamilton after it was over. So we drove there and back in the same day. It only takes about 1 and 30 min to get to Auckland from Hamilton...well I think.

Saturday and Yesterday went really good also. Church was awesome and I love the ward. I am making really good friends with all the ward members. They are all awesome and they treat me like family. I'm being really well looked after here in New Zealand. The members do a lot for us including feeding us all the time. The food here is AMAZING and they also give you a lot of it. We always have desert too. The lord has really blessed me so much. I'm in an incredible mission. I love it so much. I'm doing really good. You don't have to worry about me because the lord is watching over me and giving me so many blessings.

Well I'm glad I could e mail you and tell you some of the experiences I'm having on my mission. I love you all very much. I cant send any pictures this week because my SD card is at a members house because we took a picture of Koutison and he needed it to put on the program.

Well thanks again for everything you do. I love you so much family. I couldn't ask for a better family. I miss you all so much. I'm excited to hear from you next week. Hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Kitchen.
PS our mission broke the mission best record for baptism in January. We are doing miracles in New Zealand.