Week 7 Transfer

Hello!

Transfers were this week! And so with Elder Bartlett now back home in the CA, I now have Elder Richardson. He's been out almost 5 months. And he is from the Boston area. He is super notorious for all the puns he makes. So it's a fun time. Also because Elder Bartlett left, and even though Elder Richardson is senior companion, I'm technically leading the area. It's kinda nerve racking. We have a baptism this week and because he has no knowledge of the area I'm kinda on my own with setting everything up. It's fun stuff. 

Also, if you saw my pictures from last week. We recorded two mission song parodies last P-Day. I'll send them to mom and she can determine who to send them to. They are the first mission songs made here so it's kind of awesome. Also. Because of one line I sing in a song I now have the nickname Dirty Cash. And it doesn't seem it's going away any time soon. 

In other news we have a baptism coming up! Her name is Becca Allred. She was from a polygamist background and she finally got interviewed by a member of the 70, and she was approved to be baptized! She's been waiting for almost three months for this to happen! 

We also got to witness a Re-baptism this week as well, it was for a guy named Michael. Not quite sure if he was excommunicated, or if he had his records removed, but he is one lost sheep who has returned to the fold. 

Lately I have been stressing the importance of the Book of Mormon to everyone. I don't know why it's been so important lately to me, but it has been. 

Also! Something I've noticed, is when I'm in a lesson, my voice changes completely. It almost doesn't sound like me. It's weird. 

But so stake conference for the YSA stakes is this week, and I've never heard of a YSA stake conference so this will be fun. We will have to be split as both stakes are having them at the same times, so that'll be fun!

Oh! Also we are teaching some one named Rob, he's an investigator, and when I brought him up yesterday at the 1st stake Ward Mission Leader correlation meeting, I got some interesting reactions. Reason being, he was the biggest drug dealer in all of northern Utah for four years. He found the gospel while in jail, and he's not quite clean, but he is looking for that "something else" and he's probably one of the coolest guys I've ever met.

Then just the other day, I was going on splits and contacting with an Elders Quorm President in the 22nd Ward, and we entered a familiar apartment complex, and it didn't take me to long to recognize it as our old zone leaders live there (they redid the zone boundaries) and I looked to him and said, "How funny would it be if this referral was for our Zone Leaders." Then we walk over to their building and I start busting out laughing. The referral was for their neighbor. (And if you are wondering why they didn't talk to their neighbor is we have a strict rule about not proselyting to your neighbors) After knocking on the door a few times and talking to the Ward Mission Leader for a second, Elder Pereira slowly opens the door and pokes his head out, then busts out laughing saying "I thought I heard missionary talk out here." Then his new companion (his old companion Elder Evans went home) Elder Florez walked over to the door, and I forgot he was his companion and it caught me off guard (because Elder Florez as just released as AP, so I got all awkward real fast), and then after a few seconds of an awkward greeting between the Elders Quorm President and the ZL's I accidentally said out loud "Well this is awkward..." And then Elder Florez broke out in laughter. But we then talked about the neighbor and was then on our way.

So yeah. It's been an interesting week.

But here are some photos to finish up all that I'm lacking in written words!

Elder Bartlett leaving me on his bike...

My Last picture with Elder Barlett

My last photo with Elder Bartlett

 

And me and Elder Richardson

'Till Next Time,

Elder Kentish

Week 6

Sorry!

I won't have time to do a full email today. So here are some photos.

That's our district with DJ Dub-D (on the left of Elder Bullock [the one in blue]) after we recorded some songs in his study for district activity.

We recorded some songs for Pday and I'll send them to you when I have the chance. They are missionary spoofs of rap songs.

Also for music it's anything uplifting. He has no specific "approved" list. So yes. Sufjan is ok and what ever else you think fits under that category.

I see president Killpack probably once a week, but never long enough to interact all that much. He is very kind, loving, and inspired though.

Also tell April what's up, I haven't heard from her in a while. Also tell Mollie to email me, I've gotten a letter from her, and just let her know it'd be easier for emails for me.

I'm so sorry I don't have time for a full letter, it's just been really busy today!

Also transfers are this week and I get my new companion this Wednesday, I'll let you know all about that then!

Elder Kentish

District

Rap Artists

Week 5

Hello!

So another week has gone by and it was a little on the rough side.

We have had tons of cancellations through out the week and people have been getting hard to reschedule with as well. Its not making our lives easy at the time, but who said it would be easy?

In other news though we had one baptism this week for a guy named Brian Perkins, and man is he something else. When we scheduled the baptism, apparently there was a blood drive going on at the church we had scheduled for, so we had to baby sit the fount and the room we were doing the service in for several hours well before the baptism. But it went smoothly and the baptism had a good turn out. It was funny though, during the baptism Brian tried to dunk himself before the baptismal prayer was even said.

In over news I spoke twice this last Sunday on missionary work. One talk was 8 minutes long, the other I gave was 25 minutes long. A big difference between the two. But both talks were focused on the conversion story of Zeezrom, and the background that got Alma the younger and Amulek to the point of meeting with him. I spoke about how the change of one man lead to other great things as Zeezrom later becomes a missionary with Alma and the sons of Mosiah for the Zoramites.

So two pretty interesting events happened this week. One just a few hours ago and the other a few days ago.

The one that happened a few days a go was super strange. We were in the Cherry Hill Sisters area (Sisters Inman and Denning [Their area being the home wards to our second YSA stake]) doing what we call a 'Blitz'(which is where everyone in the district focuses on one area in the district, this area being the sisters district at the time). And while on the Blitz we were hitting up some referrals for them in an area we weren't to familiar with in south Orem. So eventually we get a little lost, and start driving down this weird road in the middle of a neighborhood, and we see something lying in the middle of the street. As we pull up to it we discover its a dog, and the dog looks like it was hit by a car. It wasn't moving or anything. So I rolled down my window to try and get a better look at it and once its down Elder Bartlett then honks the horn on the car, and this dog we thought was dead just jumps to its feet and starts barking, scaring both of us and causing us to speed away as quickly as legally possible. But it gets better as we try to drive away this huge herd of cats just wanders into the road. and when I say huge, i mean there was at least a dozen or more cats. And it was just a super strange site, and at this point Elder Bartlett just yells our "WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE!" I don't know. I thought it was pretty funny.

Then the event that happen a few hours ago was Elder Bartlett was having a rough morning as his iPad wasn't working, and as we were leaving the grocery store this is a Chucky Cheese across the street and while pulling out of the parking lot Elder Bartlett just says "Let's just go get a picture with Chucky." and we pull into the lot and go on in. Next thing I know we are talking to the owner and Elder Bartlett is asking to get a picture with Chucky, and then the Owner offers us free food, so we at lunch for free at a Chucky Cheese today, and also have a picture with the over sized mouse costume. So yeah, it was a pretty interesting time...

So yeah, it was a pretty interesting week, and as this is the last full week of the transfer Elder Bartlett will be going home not this Thursday, but next. and I'll be getting a new companion on next Wednesday. So it'll be a fun time as Elder Bartlett finishes out his time here.

Hey, so I finally got the package, and I ate all that candy on my own because I'm a fatty now. Elder Bartlett isn't to big a fan of sweets so they were all for me at that point. lol

I have some requests for the next care package when ever that will be. More skinny style ties (not super skinny though. Like the rum ties is the skinniest it can be {and that tie is a Penguin tie, and I want more of those, you can tell by the penguin on the back of it.}) Also, a CD and a Flash drive with a bunch of MoTab (two specific hymns I really want be it MoTab or what ever is 'If You Could Hide To Kolob' and 'Be Still My Soul' ) and every every single religious Sufan Stevens song you can find that is around. (His Christmas volumes should all be good, as well as a bunch of songs off of his Seven Swans album) you can also send the Nashville tribute band. but if you can get all those music files on a flash drive we can plug the flash drive into our car to listen to it. so that'd be awesome. also like two or three more scarfs, not to many scarfs. Also less food and more material things that will stick around more.

Yes there are biking areas, but I never know when I'm going to need one. So just keep that money sitting there and when the money goes poof that's when I needed it.

Also I cant receive videos, but pictures would be ok for MTW and Brents farewells. What I'm holding in one picture is my TiWi card, a card I have to use to log in every time i drive. But with elder Bartlett being the designated driver I haven't gotten the chance to yet.

Tell Miss Clara thank you for the shirt, and tell Tia LoLu thank you as well for the package. Also let Nana know I said thank you for the card.

It's been a fun time and I'll write again soon.

Elder Kentish

With Elder Bartlett

Baptism Time

TiWi Card and Driving Priveledge

Week 4

Hello Everyone!

Another week has gone by and we have had a few interesting experiences.
So earlier this week we had taught a lesson in a bathroom that is
bigger than our apartment. Now I'm sure you're wondering why a
bathroom. But it was because we were helping a member move out, and as
we were admiring their bathroom (which is seriously almost twice the
size of our apartment) he just asked if we could do the lesson there
because he didn't feel like moving. So yeah. Lesson in a bathroom.
Also I finally got the chance to go to the Provo City Center Temple
open house. I got super lucky as they extended the time recently for
missionaries to take investigators to it. And so we escorted our
investigator through and I finally got to see it. It was an an amazing
Temple. And there was tons of wood work in it. Like. Seriously. Tons.
But it was so beautiful and I feel seriously so lucky I got the chance
to see it.
Another fun experience I had was on Sunday. An investigator was in
need of a baptismal interview and because Elder Bartlett is our
district leader we needed a zone leader to do the interview. Well, the
zone leaders had a Ward council they needed to attend. So I went with
Elder Pereira (the Brazilian dentist) to their Ward council (because
him and Elder Evans are the zone leaders) while Elder Evans
interviewed the investigator. Well. Our zone leaders are Spanish
elders. So I got to sit in on a Spanish Ward council, and I had no
idea what in the world was going on the entire time. But it made me
want to learn Spanish (for once).
So something else interesting happened on Sunday. As I'm sure you all
are well aware it was fast Sunday, so therefore it was a testimony
meeting during sacrament. Well, right towards the end and after tons
of people gave their testimony (including Elder Bartlett) we had an
investigator we have been working with by the name of Kandi (She is
someone who has very little religious knowledge period, and was
attending with her boyfriend), walk right up to the pulpit. She then
stated she was prompted by an unknown feeling to get up there and
express her personal testimony. She spoke on how she enjoyed
everyone's testimonies and how she loved the standards of the church.
She made sure to say she didn't quite know if the church was true or
not, but she was definitely open to it. It was an amazing experience.
And as she was walking down for the pulpit a member of the bishopric
stopped her and whispered something to her, which we assumed was
something along the lines of 'have you met with the full time
missionaries' as we then immediately see them point to us and we all
gave out a nice laugh. It truly was an amazing experience and
something no one saw coming.
So other than being really cold this has been a pretty eventful week.
It was hard to get lessons Sunday night because of the super bowl
though, but none the less glad the Broncos won.
For those of you wondering what I've been doing on my Pdays you'd be
disappointed. So far every single one has been filled with shopping
and sitting around doing nothing, because Elder Bartlett had been
preparing for coming back here for school. So like today we sat at the
DMV for three hours because he was getting his residency and he has to
finish his UVU application and all this other paperwork related stuff.
It's not fun because we are going to be missing our Zone Activity
which literally starts in a few minutes. (I'm writing this email as
he's filling more paperwork out) So yeah.
Any how, that's an overview of all our interest moments this week.
Everyone feel free to email anytime!

Till Next Week,
Elder Kentish

Week 3

Hey Everyone!

Shorter Letter this week as its been busy in the sense of doing the...
same thing. Teaching lots of people and doing electronic paper work.

But so this last Tuesday I went in exchanges with Elder Cole in the
UVU South area which covers the UVU campus and most of student
housing. It was interesting seeing how things were going on over
there. They only cover one YSA stake but it is super busy. Elder Cole
is a fun Elder and I had a blast with him. But when I got back with
Elder Bartlett it was nice having him back. Because it was
interesting. Elder Bartlett always seems to be in a rush in
everything, while Eder Cole seems to be a little laid back for
everything. Never in a bad way for either. It's just interesting to
see how even though we all do the same work, people do everything a
little differently.
But so like I said we have been teaching lots of people to the point
were a couple nights this last week we were on splits and we plan for
all of this upcoming week to be on splits. It was interesting teaching
a lesson virtually on my own (even if the Ward Mission Leaders are a
big help). It's really interesting though. After every lesson everyone
asks how long I've (or we've) been out. And when I tell people I've
only been out for less than a month people have started to not believe
me. Apparently I'm just that good, because a lot of people guess I've
been out for at least a year.
I feel really blessed that a lot of our Ward Mission Leaders are RM's
so they all know how Ward Mission Leaders should be doing their job.
My favorite Ward Mission Leader is the 17th wards. His name is Brother
Bryson. He's served in the Phoenix Arizona mission and was one of the
trial iPad missionaries. So he knows our current electronic Struggles
and such. He's been a huge help with everything and plans on making
some big changes to the way Ward missionary work will work.
In other news a Less Active we were teaching last night gave us a
little parting gift. His mother made like seven loafs of homemade
bread, and right as we were about to leave he gives us the biggest
loaf and sends us on our way. The bread is so amazing and it's already
halfway gone. So now it makes sense why she made seven. Because it's
gone in a second.
Also in other news, last Pday while we were at the store two separate
ladies gave us each 20$ and another woman paid for all of our
groceries. Like, I always heard that stuff like this happens, but I
never thought it would happen to me. It was weird because no matter
how hard we'd try to deny their help they always swoop in on the last
second to ring what ever it is we had up on their card.
But so, I've been really enjoying the area (even if it has snowed
almost everyday I've been here) and the people I teach and teach with
are awesome. I can definitely see how I was placed here to teach
specific people. And I feel very blessed.

Till Next Week,
Elder Kentish

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