Ch-ch-changes

I got transferred! I am now in Roma stake in the area Estanzuela. It is right in the heart of good old Monterrey. The temple is in my area is that's cool. We have a nice little branch which was a little funny to me because we go to the chapel that is in front of the temple Which is the biggest nicest richest one in almost all the mission.

My comp. is really cool. His name is Elder Knowles He is from Logan as well. He lives like 5 min. from our house and I think he knows more people from our ward than I do. It will be a good Transfer working here. I will be finishing out the mission here but I will have one more companion change.

It's nuts all the changes that everyone is doing. I cant believe that Jenni is going to finish high school. It really is like everyone just jumped ahead two years. In my head everyone is still how they where. Sounds like good things are happening for Justin I just hope the best thing offered gets him to Utah--hehe.

 

Apart from transfers we also had leadership council this week. It was a little different because it will be presidents last one till he goes home in about a month. He invited some lawyer and big business guys to come talk to us about leadership. It was really interesting and made me realize even more how much all of the stuff we learn on the mission will apply to all of life.

 

Well I gotta get going. I love you all and will talk to you soon.

Elder K

Progress

Well, we just got done playing a bunch of soccer in the hot sun. We also found a tennis ball and got a zone game of wall ball going. It was awesome. I think the last time I played good old wall ball was in elementry school. Just so you know... it's still fun.

The zone ended this transfer really well considering the rough start we had so I am happy about that. Tonight we find out about transfers. I hope they give me my wish and let me stay here but if not it will be off the a new area tomorrow where I will finish the mission. It will be interesting to see what happens because there are so many things that could happen.

We have been having a bit of a tough time in the area the last couple weeks. It is known as one of the harder areas of the mission, sometimes I ask myself why I want to stay another transfer, but I feel like things are going to pick up. The zone is in a really good spot for starting the new transfer. We have a few people we are teaching but they just haven't been able to give up some old habbits. Yesterday we had a really good lesson with a 45-year-old woman we are teaching that made me feel that she is finally going to stop smoking and she is telling everyone at work she is going to become a Mormon so that's a good sign for the future.

Well I am not that great when it comes to writing. All the things that happen in the week just kinda slip away when Monday roles around. Things are going good, I hope all is well on the home front. I love all of you.

Elder K

Well things have been going pretty good here. The news of the week is that it is getting so hot that I can almost smell my skin cooking as we walk in the street. We also finally found the fattest man in the world. We had heard that he lived in our area and we found out he lives just a few blocks from us. He has the world record for being the fatest man in the world and also the world record for losing the most weight in a year. He lost like 400 Pounds but still wieghs like 700. We taught him twice and he is a way cool guy.

I attached some pics of him and the two people we baptized last week (Orlando and Jamie) We also made some sweet soccor jersey for the zone so I took some pics of those. All went well in the Zone conference and now we will be just trucking along this week to get things done and get the baptisms going.

Thanks for the package. The clothing was much needed but I think my soul needed the candy even more--haha. It has been a while since I have had some good old Easter candy. I had forgotten how good a chocolate marshmallow egg can be.

I love you guys tons and thank you for everything. I will try and send some heat up there because I sure dont want it.

Elder K

 

Elder Bednar, etc.

Well, it was another crazy week here. We had two people (not related at all) show up to church yesterday that we had only taught one time each and they both accepted baptism this coming Sunday. It's weird how sometimes the people you least expect are the ones that are wanting to take the step or leap of faith and make the changes. Things are looking really good in the zone this week. We are hoping for all kinds of success.

Me and my companion have both been pretty excited to be able to speak English to each other but we have come to realize that it doesn't matter how much we try, sometimes it just comes out as a language that only a gringo in Mexico can understand--haha--it's cool though. It makes for a good laugh at some of the words we invent.

Sounds like the house is going to be just as crazy as usual when I get back, but it wouldn't be home if it weren't like that. I must say though things will be a lot different than I ever would have guessed. I think that that is also part of the Kartchner home, haha.

Things were awesome with Elder Bednar. The East and West missions were there. We all got to shake hands with him but they told us that we could not try and small talk with him or anything so everyone shook his hand and kept on moving. So when he grabbed my hand and didn't let go and then asked me a question I thought I had peed my pants! It wasn't a big deal, he just saw the last name and asked where I was from I said I grew up in Stansbury and his wife piped in and said ¨oh we were just in stansbury the other day, it's so beautiful and Kartchners are good people¨ As I sat down feeling all important everyone started asking me ¨Elder do you know him or something? You guys were holding up the line and everything just to talk¨ haha So apart from my feel-important moment the conference was really awesome. He didn't really give a talk. He asked us to study a couple of his talks beforehand, then for three hours we just talked. There were a bunch of mics so he asked questions and we asked questions and it was sweet. He is different from what we see in conference. It's cool to see a more personal side of an apostle. Also it was awesome because I was sitting on the 4th row back so I could almost feel the spit flying from his mouth as he spoke. It was sweet.

Well, that's about all I have time for today. I love you guys.
Elder K

More Pictures!

Hey, I got my card reader working again. Here are some pics of the center of Monterrey and of the family we baptized a couple weeks ago. Love you, Elder K

A Busy Week and A Bucket Shower

So I will be sticking around in my area (San Nicolas) at least until the end of May. I got a new companion, Elder Fifield. My first American comp. since I have gotten to Mexico. He is from Kaysville, UT. It's going ok here in the zone. We really struggled yesterday with baptisms but we are looking a lot better for this coming Sunday. We are starting to crack the whip a little more to get things moving this transfer.

This last week was nuts. We spent almost all day Tuesday in the bus center getting all the transfers done. Wednesday we had the district meetings then it was off to the center of Monterrey for a Zone Leader council that ended on Thursday evening. It's always nice to go to those because we eat good American food and we play basketball. Gotta love it. Then Friday and Saturday we had time to work in our own area and do interviews of the people being baptized. It was a crazy week.

On Friday night we had a nice experience while waiting for a bus. We had just gotten done with some baptismal interviews and we were waiting for the bus back to our area (about 9 at night). The bus just went zipping past us so we decided to walk to a more lit up part of the street. As we walked we saw a man in front of his house a little ways off and even from a distance we could see that he had been drinking. He was standing behind a little 4 foot wall dumping water on his own head. He started yelling ¨Hey Mormons! Over here!¨ So we started walking faster. As we came to the house and were trying to pass quickly he jumped out from behind the wall and to our surprise he was butt naked. haha! He had been taking a nice bucket shower in front of his house, and I thought he was just a drunk pouring water on his head. How silly of me. Needless to say our speed walk became more of a light jog at that point and we decided it would be best to wait even further down the road for the bus haha.

That basically sums up Mexico for you.

Well, thanks for everything. I love you all. Have a great week.
Elder K

Easter Week

Well, it was a quick week, and as usual we didn't get everything done that we wanted to. There are nver enough hours in the day but at the same time sometimes you just want the day to end--haha--wierd how that works. So we have transfers tomorrow. I will be getting a new companion and I feel like there will be a lot of changes in the zone but its a good thing. I think it will help us to explode with success this transfer. We are going for records!

Sounds like downtown Salt Lake has changed a little with all the City Creek stuff. Can't wait to see it. I saw a little on the report of the church between conference sessions. It looked really cool.

Everyone's spreading out all over the place. Jonte in Job Corps, Summer and Dave out of the country, man no one will be around by the time I get back! It's all good though. Thats how life goes. Sounds like it's a good thing for everyone.

Easter Weekend was pretty good here. We didn't really do anything different. The entire week is celebrated here. Its the Semana Santa (Holy week). A ton of stores shut down the entire week and every day in the churchs (mainly Catholic) they have special events. They even act out all of the trial and death of Christ. They don't mess around.

Well, not too eventful this week, just getting excited for the Elder Bednar's visit next week! Love you all.

Elder K