Hey everyone, September 18, 2011

What an incredible blessing it is to be able to e mail you every week. I wish I could have hand written you more since I’ve been on my mission. I could have done better and I’m sorry but we are just so busy in the Work of the Lord. I’m glad we can e mail each week. I’m glad everything with all of you are going good and that you are all continuing living the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is such a blessing that all of our family is trying to do their best to live the gospel. It makes me feel so much joy and happiness. Each and every day I learn more and more about the gospel and really how important it is to live it. I am so grateful for the Savior in my life, for the ultimate sacrifice he made for me and how I can always be forgiven of my mistakes. I love learning about our Heavenly Father and learning more about the gospel. I also love teaching others. It makes me so happy when I see other people’s lives start to change and when they come to know that Our Heavenly Father lives and loves them. It truly is the greatest two years of your life. We are going to the temple tomorrow!! I’m so excited to go on another temple trip....this will probably be my last one.....Yesterday we had another come and see fireside, it’s where all the missionaries take their investigators and some recent converts bear their testimonies. They have a lot of beautiful singing and Elder Watson of the Seventy spoke to us. It was very good to see our investigators feel the spirit.

This week was really great! We had some pretty crazy experiences.....I always have those but sometimes I forget to write them down....I remembered to write them down to tell you this week. First off last P day was a blast...we played B-Ball in the chapel with the other missionaries. I’ve noticed in the city we play more sports because there are more missionaries around us. On Tuesday we went on a trade off with some of the missionaries. We had a miracle, we knocked on this door and they let us right in. We taught 3 of them (Amy, Mehaka, and Daniel) we shared a very powerful Restoration Lesson and the spirit was so strong. We committed them for baptism and Amy said yes! Wow it was amazing and we are helping her prepare for next month. On Wednesday me and my companion had to drop off a missionary because he was getting transferred half way in the cycle....and then we got kind of lost in Auckland somewhere hahaha....it’s a pretty big city haha. And we had this crazy experience. So Lisa is set for getting baptized this week, and her son Josh was also going to get baptized....but he kind of lost a little interest and wasn’t coming to sit down for our lessons. So we thought of buying him some cookies (he loves cookies) and writing him a note. Well it was raining and we drove to the gas station. The driveways in New Zealand are CRAZY! You wait until you get here.....then you will know what I mean. So she lives up this really steep, long narrow drive way. And it bends around really sharp. We were driving up it and it was really wet. Well Elder Moss was driving and we started to go up hers and then the bottom of the front started to scrap on the concrete. So we decided to back up.....and whenever a missionary is backing up the companion has to step outside and lead him back so he doesn’t hit anything. Well it was raining like crazy so I was leading him back into the drive way and then the hitch started to scrap on the bottom hahaha....So we kind of got stuck....it was a lot funnier in real life. Then it’s hard to explain next but Elder Moss drove the front of the car into a side thing and it got stuck.....so the car wouldn’t move. I was laughing so hard but you could tell he was frustrated. Then the whole front part of the car fell off!! HAHAHA! I was like WOW this couldn’t get any worse. The rain was drowning us and the car was stuck right in the middle of the driveway (other people use that driveway for their homes too) All of this for a little packet of cookies. So we went up to the house and said here is your cookies haha. It was funny. Another experience I had this week was I was trying to wave down these members who were picking up our investigator because they were driving off because they couldn’t see us and then the next split second a taxi pulls over and says yes sir get in. He thought I was waving down for a taxi....I don’t know it was funny if you were there.

On Thursday we had a specialized training with President Lekias. He came with us to a companionship study with a companionship in our zone, came to a district meeting and then came with me and Elder Moss to some lessons! It was good we had a lesson with Dodie. She is preparing for baptism this next week!! This member family took us to this all you can eat buffet place, it was really good. On Saturday we helped Lisa clean her house because she was moving. We were scrubbing down the walls. Then we had lessons and then got ready for the baptism. Lisa got baptized on Saturday!! It ended up being a wonderful baptism!! The spirit was so strong and Elder Moss baptized her. As I watched her in the water all dressed up in white....I remembered the day I talked to her on the street. I was with her for the whole process!! Church was great. We did some baptism interviews for the Assistants to the President. We had some great lessons and then went to the Come and See Fireside. Sometimes I get sad when I know I won’t be doing missionary work for a ton longer.....because I absolutely love my mission. I love serving the Lord. I love helping others receive the gospel....All these experiences I’ve had on my mission have changed my life and I will never forget them. I can’t wait for you all to meet everyone I’ve taught and come to the places where I served!! It really will be a dream come true!

I can’t believe that all of you are coming to New Zealand!! WOW and that we will be having a huge family vacation here in the Beautiful island of New Zealand. It really will be absolute amazing. Don’t worry I know so many members would love for us to stay at their homes. They already told me in all the areas where I served. So we will be set in all the areas I served in. I am so excited we will be all coming here!! And also that we will be flying to LA wow what a blessing. Thank you so much! That means the world to me. I love you all so very much. I am still going to stay 100 percent focused on the work.

Thanks for sharing those really cool experiences with me dad. That sounds like you had a really good time there and got to experience some really cool things. We will have to do some of that here in New Zealand...Its absolutely beautiful here. Well I have to go now....thanks for everything. I sent that DVD last Monday so you should be getting it soon. If you could you should send some more pictures next week. Have a wonderful week everyone. Love you all.

Love Elder Kitchen