Week 2

Hey Everyone.

So this week has been a bit of an interesting one. Just going out and teaching people. We've gone back to that same drug house a few times but lately everyone there has been super friendly and the girl we teach has started to commit to come back to church (she's a less active). But we've just been meeting with awesome people and awesome Ward and full time missionaries. Like tomorrow I'm going on exchanges with the UVU south missionaries (they cover the campus and most of student housing), specifically Elder Cole (who is the funniest Elder alive). So I'm looking forward to that.

A fun accidental event happened this week where some guys we teach accidentally scheduled an appointment with us (the YSA Elders) and their family Ward Elders (Elder Wainhouse and Campell [two great people by the way]) at the same time. We got there first and then literally five minutes later there's a knock at the door and I go to open it and we all just stare at each other all confused. Then, Brian (the guy who accidentally set up the appointments at the same time)
just says out loud "whoops" and then his friend Cris just yells out "I knew something wasn't right!" But so after joking with Brian a little bit we took the other Elders to a referral they had (they didn't have a car so we drove them) and then went back to teach Brian and Cris.

I don't know if I mentioned this last week but Elder Bartlett is the district leader in our district, so we get to talk to all the other elders and sisters in the area every so often. And all the people in
the district are amazing.

 

We also get to talk to our Zone Leaders pretty often who are awesome as well. One of them, Elder Perire is from Brazil. And he's actually set back home. He has a house, a car, a fiancé waiting for him, and he used to own his own dentist clinic. But he gave all that up to serve the Lord. He really is an amazing man. Just everyone out here is amazing. Nothing else happened that was to special other than two things in particular. The mission was invited to go to Salt Lake to participate in a world
wide missionary broadcast as the audience along with several other missions in the area such as the temple square and salt lake missions. But so at this broadcast a few of the apostles showed up, Elder Bednar and Elder Oaks to name two. But it was mainly about a new focus for missionaries which is "Teach Repentance, and Baptize Converts." So they gave some talks on how to help move the work along, but it was so awesome to see some of the apostles, and we got to shake some member
of the seventy's hands. It really was an amazing experience, and it felt like the spirit hit everyone like a brick wall when they all walked in.

 

One other interesting experience Is I give my second blessing while being out in the field. One of our less actives was biking and got hit by a car, and so when we met him we shared a short message then gave home a blessing. The interesting thing about this was we met him at a church we couldn't get into, so we had the lesson in our car while it was snowing outside. Then when we gave him the blessing we had him sit in the passenger seat and had to reach through the windows while we
stood outside in the snow to bless him. It was a very interesting experience. But a spiritual one none the less. But so that's all I have for now. Nothing to outstanding other than those few things. But I'm sure more exciting things are to come!

Feel free to email me anytime. Sorry you're on here twice April. I have emails for you and I don't
know which to send to. Mom, feel free to send more ties or scarfs anytime.

Till Next Time,
Elder Kentish

Week 1

Hey Everyone!

So this week has been a very busy one.
My new Companion is Elder Bartlett, He's 23 months in and is from Sacramento. He's an energetic and fun guy. He is currently the District leader as well as my trainer. He literally a few transfers ago as an AP. Now when I found out he was AP, my first thought was, "Man, was I that bad In the MTC that they need a former AP to train me?" But believe it or not I'm actually one of the strongest (Knowledge/spiritual wise) of all the new missionaries. And so he's here to train me to end up being a leader later in my mission. So yeah, no big deal.
So the area we are in is the UVU North area, covering the YSA 1st and 2nd Stake, so we cover 20 wards total. So there is actually 30 YSA wards. We just don't cover the 3rd YSA stake, which consists of the UVU campus and housing. Thankfully this is a driving area as we cover literally all of the city of Orem (Minus actually being on campus for UVU). So this last Sunday was a little crazy with having to attend 4 Sacrament meetings all back to back. Fun thing about this area though is we both whitewashed (meaning both of us have never been in the area or know anything about the area) this area. So the first two days was trying to figure out who all we can teach and meet with. But so, all the people we have met with have been some of the coolest people I've ever met. I haven't a single person I haven't like here, be it missionary, less active member, Investigator, or member.
Believe it or not YSA missionaries don't get fed to often. Last night was our first dinner and it was with our land lords. So no jello yet.
Our apartment is literally someone's basement, and it's tiny. Like some peoples kitchens are bigger than out apartment. We are literally in the smallest apartment in the mission.
So other than lots of paper work (which has all been actually digital because of the iPad) A few exciting things that happened was on my first day I'm pretty sure Elder Bartlett took me to a drug house. It was pretty intense, but we gave a good lesson and set up another lesson with the people we met at a near by church building. But then the next time we showed up there was a total of four Elders and one member with us, so yeah, I'm Sure it was a drug house. But in that very house, we gave a blessing to one of the less actives who lived there and it was really a spiritual moment.
Some other exciting stuff was we had a baptism on Saturday. It was pretty awesome, even though we did have to scramble to get it ready on such short notice. The thing was though the girl that was baptized was of polygamist background, so she had to be interviewed by a Quorum of the Seventy, and President Killpack. But so her boyfriend who served a mission in Mexico was the one who baptized her, and then the next Sunday me and Elder Bartlett took place in the confirmation.
But believe it or not polygamists are kinda common as we are teaching another girl with that kind of background. Like I would have never of thought that I would be running into polygamists ever in my life.
I've also put my first investigator on date for baptism on our first lesson with him, which honestly isn't to big a deal as I'll probably be doing that a fair amount.
But so as you probably where wondering what a missionary does here in the middle of Mormon Central, is we focus mainly (or so it seems) on Less Actives. We do find our fair share of true investigators, but the less actives are those we seem to be meeting with the most.
If you want some more specifics feel free, any and all of you to send me emails at any point of the week as much as you want. (The more I get to read the better)
Hope You All Are Having A Great Time,
Elder Kentish

Finally Arrived

The Mission President (President Chris Killpack) and his wife (Shelby) sent us a quick note tonight letting us know Elder Kentish has arrived safely in the mission field. I know he didn't have far to travel, We are sure his drive from Provo to Lindon was uneventful and probably less than a drive from our house to Murfreesboro but none the less he is safe. Ok it was a 17 minute drive. Now bike or no bike? That is the question!

 

My New Life

Hey everyone!

(PSA ignore spelling issues as we only have 60 mins. for emailing so I'm going fast.)
So as you guessed my PDay was on Wednesday, so i'm only getting one here at the MTC seeing as we leave for the field on Tuesday. I'll give you a quick run down of everything that's been going on and break into some more specifics in a bit.
So my companion is Elder Tingey, he's from Las Vegas, Nevada. He's a real smart Elder and seems to be the man with all the answers. When we are teaching he seems to have all the logical explanations to everything we could ever need. I started to joke that he teaches through Logistics, and I teach through Faith, and because of that we have been a great team.
So the is only three other Elders in our district and they are of course a Trio Companionship. They are Elder Ross from the Salt Lake area. Elder Fairbanks from Columbus Indiana (Hes actually from Russia, but was adopted) And Elder Elmer from the southern California area. Elder Ross is going to Sacramento CA, and Elder Elmer and Fairbanks are going to Orem with me and Elder Tingey. Now we only have three sisters in our District, Sister Anderson, Moralis, and Shellito. Sis. Anderson and Moralis are going to Sacramento, and Sister Shellito is going to Orem as well.
So here's a little bit about each Elder as I've gotten to know them a Little better than the Sisters. Elder Ross is a Marine Infantry Man. He's currently in the reserves and is the oldest of all of us, He's 21 years old and so strong in the spirit. He's ever growing and expanding with everything he does. Elder Fairbanks loves to ask questions, so much that if you've ever have a question about something spiritual, i can promise you that he's already asked it and knows the answer. Elder Elmer had served a mini-mission right before he came out here and already knows his stuff. It can be a little annoying as sometimes it prevents learning experiences for us, but he always has helpful insight. Now I've already told you about Elder Tingey. And on the case of our Sisters, all of them are converts. Sis. Anderson and Moralis have only been members for about a year and a half, and Sis. Shellito for about four or five years. And because of their conversions they know how investigators work and know all the right things to say to help them (and us) feel the spirit.
Now there is one more district in our zone with four Elders and four Sisters, all great people as well, and either going to California or staying here in the Orem area.
Now something surprising happened to me and Er. (Elder) Tingey. We were called as our Zone Leaders. So we over see our district 40-B, the other district 40-D, and we will be helping with orientation and will be over the new set of missionaries coming in later today, being district 40-A.(District 40-C left this last tuesday and wont be filled back in until after we leave.) Now being Zone Leader has its perks, like me and Er. Tingey share a simple flip phone for emergencies, and to contact the front desk and such, but it has no real purpose other than that. We also get the luxury of having to go to leadership meetings and all that other fun jazz. No as being Zone Leaders we over see everyone in our Zone to make sure they are on track, healthy, stress free, and having a good time. And as one day Sis. Shellito was feeling unwell she asked us as Zone leaders to give her a blessing for the sick and afflicted. It was Er Tingey's first blessing. He anointed the oil, and I blessed. That day I was having a rough time keeping my self together stress wise, but before the blessing me and Er. Tingey said a prayer, and we went in there a gave a great blessing. Sis. Shellito's companions said the spirit was so strong you could almost see it. and after that point, i was no longer troubled with an unfocused mind.
So while we've been here me and Er. Tingey have had 4 investigators. Brooke, Mike, Kai, and Stephen. Brooke and Mike are role played by our teachers Sister Johnson, and Brother Balzer. Brooke is the simple investigator as in she's just curious about the church and what we have to say. Believe it or not shes actually our hardest investigator as for all our others they have specific things we can help them with, so we find it hard to point her in the right direction. But so, we have been trying our hardest to connect with her. Then with Mike he has some serious issues with God. He's struggling in trusting God and just other major issues with that sort of thing. But amazingly he's our easiest investigator, even though our whole district seems to be struggling with him the most. I say its thanks to Er. Tingey's logic and my Faith, so we get both sections covered were other companions struggle with it. With Kai he is an actual investigator as far as we can tell, as we will never be told if its a role play or the real thing outside our class room. He asks a lot of good questions and has torn me and Er. Tingey apart a few times, but we ultimately get the message across. Then with Stephen we've only met him once and the entire district teaches him. Me and Er. Tingey wont get to teach him a lot as we will be having leadership conflicts with our meeting times, so we'll be leaving it up to the rest of the district.
Some small stuff also Is i gave my testimony on Fast Sunday, and talked about the OSU incident and what i think about that. And a a lot of people seemed to really like what I said.
I've also bumped into Sister Edgerton a few times before she left. It was nice seeing her.
Also, you'd think New Years was fun or something, but we didn't do anything special. We've been so busy lately we've (mainly me) have been forgetting its a new year all together. Also doesnt help that the entire MTC got new scheduling on the 1st, so for a while everything was super confusing and crazy. But its all figured out now.
We also visited the Provo Temple today as a district and had an amazing time, I didn't get a photo today, but we will be back there on Sunday, so I'll make sure to send a photo of our whole district then and send it the next time I get a chance.
But until then, here's a photo of me and Er. Tingey that I just took today.
Tell April, Alissa, Marty and all those fantastic people I miss them and they can email me any time.
For Carina, Carisa and Bela, I miss and Love you.
And for Mom and Dad, thank you for helping me be the person I am today, as I would have never had done this without you.
May The Spirit Be With You!
Elder Kentish