Wednesday, January 6, 2016

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

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