Howdy Y'all!

Howdy y'all!

 

Don't worry, howdy is not part of my vocabulary. We had an alright week this week, with some real big trials that we are going to have to over come. This weekend on Friday we were in the church practicing for a song we were going to sing at a baptism of some Elders, and we saw some people working on the chapel. We weren't really sure what they were doing, so Saturday morning we got a phone call from someone in our ward saying that we aren't going to have church in our building for the next 6-8 weeks, because of some structural problems with the ceiling in the chapel and cultural hall. This was a little stressful to hear. So, for the rest of my mission I will now be going to church in Spanish at a stake center outside of our Stake from 1-4 and for English we will be attending at the stake center of this stake from 3-5 every Sunday. This means that both wards that we cover now overlap in two buildings that are more than 30 minutes apart from each other. Because of all of this, our investigators didn't go to church, nor did the less-actives that we had been working with so hard. So with this obstacle, I thought it would be a great idea to fast for a miracle, that our investigators will still come to church even though it isn't close to their home.

The other really big news of the week is that the Gutierrez family also decided that they will prepare to be baptized on the 7th of June. They are really solid, but they need to read more and come to church. I am really excited for this family! We also have a date for the 23rd of May for a 9 year-old girl.

As far as transfers go, I will be staying, and my companion will be leaving. I am guessing that my next companion will also be the zone leader in this area. I really hope so! It would be really nice, and I believe that we could help the zone out a lot better if we were together. Almost our entire zone will be changed this transfer, because almost no one was changed last transfer. I am so grateful for my mission! I have met some incredible missionaries, and this is probably what I like most about being zone leader.

I don't really have anything else to write about, it will be interesting to see how things go with the whole church experience. I am excited to talk to y'all soon! Have a great day!

Love, Kyle

Hi Dad,

 

This was a very eventful week, and it was OK as far as the teaching went. Not too bad, but no amazing either.  There is a saying about the mission that goes: If your mission isn't hard, you're doing something wrong. So, the mission must have been getting pretty easy, because it just got really hard. We should be OK though. With the help of the Lord, we can do it.

 

1. Did you like the new car.  ( if you behave Mom may let you ride in it)

I do like it, as long as I don't have to ride in the back on long road trips, but even then, I think it will be great!

 

2. Did you get transfered?

No, but my companion did, so I think my next companion will also be my zone leader companion. I will find out tomorrow.

 

3. How was the work this week?

It was OK. The highlight of the week was that we set baptismal dates with the Gutierrez family for June 7. Now we just need to get them to church.

 

4. Any baptisms on the horizon in this area?

One on the 23rd of May and two on the 7th of June

 

5. Do you keep in contact with any of your friends from home.

Every once in a while. Josh is a zone leader, Ryan has been a zone leader, Esteban is a zone leader, I haven't heard from Todd in a little while but I am sure he is in some sort of leadership position, and Bryson and Kurtley are both having the times of their lives. I am really excited about how Kurt has done. He has loved his mission. I have such a great group of friends, and I can't wait to meet up with all of them again. It will be quite the reunion.

 

6. How was going to the temple?

Great! I loved it!

 

7. Are you going to teach us about family history and help me find some names when you get home?

 

Absolutely! I will help you find the name of your 7th cousin 4 times removed, and you will be able to take his name to the temple. Unfortunately our work isn't as easy as some of the other people I help here.

 

We actually also had a meeting this week without power. We were all in the chapel while it was dark listening to a presentation. At this meeting the Safety specialists from church headquarters came to the mission to install a TIWI box. It is a box that records our speed, aggressive driving, and whether or not we are wearing a seat belt. So now our mission office tracks all of those things and they will take away our driving privileges if we have to many violations. 

 

Thank you for your love and support! I love you!

 

Love, Kyle

This week was great again!

Wow, a new car? And I saw that it has a DVD player. Perfect for road trips. I am excited to see it. What year is it?

 

This week was great again! We found lots of new investigators, and we taught lots of part-member families. We have so many solid investigators now, and I am very excited about how busy we are now teaching them. I have never had so many teaching opportunities on my mission. This week, we found 10 new investigators, and we are continuing to see lots of success here in getting the members of the ward involved. I love working with the members. It is so much fun!

 

This past Saturday, we went to the temple. It was my first time in over a year, and it was also my first time seeing one of the new temple videos. I enjoyed it a lot, and it was great to feel the spirit that is there in the temple. I plan on going much more often when I get home, but for now I am going to focus solely on working hard and helping the living. This week I also went on another exchange over to Lakewood again, which is right on the outskirts of the downtown area. I love going there, but I hate how busy it is. I definitely won't be living in a city any time soon. It was a great exchange, and we were able to learn a lot.

 

Sunday morning we had another meeting with the Stake President. Going in to the meeting, I thought it was just going to be us and him, as well as a few other high councilors, but instead the Stake President had invited all of the ward mission leaders. We started out the meeting going around and having everyone introduce their ward mission plans, and then we all discussed how we could get our wards and ward councils involved in carrying out our ward mission plans. It was a very inspiring meeting. Both of our ward mission leaders who were there came away very motivated to finish and edit the ward mission plans as well as get everyone they could involved. It was also such a great meeting for me to be able to learn how to be a great ward mission leader if I ever have that calling in the church. I hope that I can still work with the missionaries after my mission, because I love it so much!

 

We are teaching lots of people and so far, we only have one person set for baptism, but we have lots of people that are showing lots of potential. I am hoping that we can help them to come to church, then we will be able to help them realize that they need to be baptized. The work is going so well in this area!

 

I am looking forward to talking to y'all in a few weeks as well. Thank you for all that y'all do to help me. I love this gospel, and I love Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for my mission and for the opportunity that I have had to serve this mission.

 

Love, Kyle

One of the Best Weeks of my Mission!!

Hi Mom,

 

We had one of the best weeks of my mission this past week. We were so busy teaching, and we saw some great progress in the area. On Monday, we played basketball again for preparation day, and afterwards we taught some good lessons that night. Tuesday we went around and tried to find part-member families as well as we knocked to find new investigators. We set up several appointments, but we weren't able to teach really. On Wednesday we went to visit some members to help them with their family history, and in about a half an hour we were able to find 20 names and 60 ordinances for them to take to the temple. They were so excited about that, because most of those names were her close family relatives. She is went and did the work for her parents, grandparents, and aunts/uncles. It was such a great experience for all of us!

Thursday was a great day! We visited some people in the morning, ate lunch with some members, came back to plan, then we went and taught 5 other lessons that night including our dinner appointment. We ate some great food, and we taught some great people!

Friday was our day of service. We went in the morning to go help a member put a patio in their backyard. That was a lot of fun, and afterwards, he made us hamburgers which he grilled. That got me excited about summer bbq's, but as Dad says, I am not thinking about that yet. We then went and helped another lady who's husband had died recently with some yard work, and we will be teaching her as well as her grandkids on Friday.

This weekend was also really good. We found a part member family last night where the husband was a member but his wife wasn't. The husband stopped going about five years ago, and the wife has been going to our church in Allen, because she cleans houses for lots of members that live over there. So we found a non-member that has been active in another ward. It was a miracle, and every time I find someone like that, it strengthens my testimony that these people are out there, and they are ready for the gospel. We should have some great success with them!

It was such a great week, and I am so happy! I love this work so much, and I especially love how the work is progressing here in this area. The Spanish ward is amazing, and the English ward is getting there!

I love you Mom!

Love, Kyle

Hello Dad!

 

We had one of the best weeks of my mission this past week. We are doing so much and staying so busy, and I am having so much fun! We have done a little bit of everything this week, from teaching lots of lessons, serving different people, helping members with their family history, having great missionary coordination meetings, and finding part-member families. The Spanish ward is on fire here, and the English ward is slowly getting there. I am loving this area, and really my goal before I leave is that it will be in such great shape by the time I go, that the whole ward is involved in the missionary work. I hope that we can get the members inviting, and we have made the plans to help them do so. I am so excited about the work here!

Answers:

1. How is it being a Zone Leader?

I love it. It keeps me busy, and I love helping those in my zone. We are planning on doing a big exchange tomorrow where us zone leaders will be going to a district to give trainings, and then to do exchanges with them!

 

2. Do you think this will be your last area?

Yes I do. I really hope it is my last area.

 

3. Who is your most promising Investigator?

We are teaching a part member family named the Camacho family. Their daughter is 9, and she hasn't been baptized yet, so we are going over and teaching them. They were less-active, but are starting to come into activity again. We set a date with the daughter for baptism, and that got the parents really excited about being active again, so we are going to be waiting for that. We set the date a little far off in the future so that we can make sure they are active before she gets baptized.

 

4. Why is a member doing your laundry?

I don't know. She has been doing it for awhile now for the missionaries, so it was just a usual thing. It is really nice of her.

 

5. What do you like most about Texas?

The people. I love having the Hispanic/English culture mix. I have loved spending time with the Mexicans and other Hispanics while still having the comforts of the United States. Spanish speaking missions in the United States are the best!

 

6. How is your zone?

They are doing great for the most part. There are a couple of companionships that struggle a bit, but it has been really good for the most part.

 

7. Has it worked out having your other zone leader not be your companion?

Yes for the most part. Communicating over the phone isn't as effective as if he were my companion, but we have been able to coordinate everything well.

 

8. Why is a member doing your laundry?

See answer #4

 

9. What is the one thing that has changed you the most?

The Atonement of Jesus Christ. As Ether 12:27 says, "And as men come unto me, I will show them their weaknesses...." I have come to realize just how many weaknesses I have, because I have come unto Jesus Christ. But, I have also become more humble in knowing that I needed to change through his Atonement. And I feel like I have started that process of changing and developing those Christ-like attributes that I lack. I wasn't a bad person before the mission, and yet the Atonement has still made a great change in me. I love Jesus Christ!

 

10. What are you the most excited to do when you come home? (but don't think about that yet)

OK, I am going to answer this question without thinking about it.... I am most excited to.... be able to sit down, rest and do nothing with my family. But I definitely won't be doing anything like that before I go home. Work, work, work, and more work. That is all there is time for, and I love it!

I am doing so good. This week, was probably the happiest week of my mission. I have really loved how things are going, and we have been able to meet some great members. Thank you for you love and support! I love you!

Love, Kyle

Conference Weekend!!

Hi Mom,

 

I enjoyed this week quite a bit. It was busy, and I loved General Conference! General Conference as a missionary is so great! There was some downs to this weekend though. My companion had food poisoning, so we weren't able to do much Sunday afternoon, because he had to be close to the bathroom. I had a little bit of food poisoning, but not as bad as him. We are feeling better now.

On Monday we found out that we were going to have interviews on Wednesday. This came as a shock, because we had to plan 8 hours of trainings and what not, and my companion is not very close. So Tuesday morning we got together, and we were able to plan out a zone meeting that would fill the 8 hours. The Assistants took up a lot of time, and President took up some more time, and we asked several people to also train on various topics. We were feeling pretty good about the meeting and about what was going to happen.

The interviews meeting on Wednesday went really well I thought. It was a very long meeting that started at 8:30 and ended at 4:30 or so. We did a lot of role playing on teaching skills, and on contacting which is something that we haven't done too much since President Taylor came. We are really trying to help everyone perfect their teaching skills with the new method of teaching that we recently learned. I personally feel like I am starting to get the hang of it. I really like this new way of teaching. I think it is a lot of fun. Overall I think the meeting was great!

This week the work started picking up again. We found a lot of new investigators, so we will see who is ready for the gospel. We are working really hard to help the ward become more engaged in the work as well, and my hope is that by the time I leave, the ward will be engaged in missionary work. This means that I probably won't see the fruits from it, but that doesn't matter as much to me as building up the kingdom of God, and working as hard as I can. Hopefully we can see some success in that. The mission is going by so quickly.

This weekend was great! We watched the first two sessions in Spanish at a member's house. In between sessions they made us lunch, as well as they went and bought pork from the store. I don't know what it was that we ate, but afterwards I didn't feel too great, and neither did my companion. Then for dinner we had a seafood soup, which was really good, but I think it just made everything worse. Priesthood session that night was and always is my favorite session by far. The talks that are shared are so great in helping me know how I can change and be better. It was a great day overall.

Sunday I felt about the same, but my companion woke up not feeling good at all. The conference was really good, and I loved being able to watch two of the general authorities speaking in Spanish. When they spoke, we ran from the chapel over to the relief society room so we could hear their voice. Something about hearing the person's voice who is speaking just makes their talk so much better. To finish out the night my companion really wasn't doing very good, so we stayed at the member's house where we do numbers the rest of the night. I hate being sick, or having a sick companion on the mission. I just want to go out and work hard, but I know that it isn't always the best thing to do, especially when my companion is sick.

Thank you very much for the update on the family. It is going to be so weird going back to parties and stuff like that with the family. I feel like I don't know them anymore, but I look forward to that. I love the mission, and I am excited to go home, but I don't want to give up missionary work, if that makes sense. I want to continue to be a full-time missionary, but I guess I will just have to work on being a member missionary. This work is great! Thank you as well for the Easter package. I haven't been able to eat any of it because of how I have been feeling, but I am doing better now. I love y'all, and thank you very much for your love and support! I hope y'all have a great week!

Love, Kyle