Well, obviously the posts have slowed down. Elder K. has been so busy and most of his recent emails have gone something like this: "I don't have time to write much this week. Things are going well. I'll try to write more next week." And then we get the same thing the following week. :)


We are happy and excited to announce that Jake will be coming home in just a couple of weeks!!!


He will be speaking on August 19th at 1:00pm at the Eastridge Chapel in Logan. We will have lunch at Kartchner home immediately after. Send a message to cwkartchner [at] msn.com for an address and directions.We would love to have any of Jake's friends or family join us in welcoming him home.

Monterrey Sunset

An Update

Well It was a good week but not really much to report since I wrote on Wednesday. Its still just as hot as ever.

We are getting ready to receive our new mission president next week and saying good bye to the old one. Its a little weird to be honest. It will be good to learn from a new president but we will miss president Romney.

I will be home on the 15th of august so the 19th works out just fine [for Elder K's homecoming talk].


Yes, we still go to the temple once a month... well I go there more because my chapel is right out side but we only go into the temple once a month. We still eat with members here but it is very diverse. This area has super poor members a really well off members. So each day is a surprise of what we are going to eat.


Sounds like you guys are just as busy as ever. I keep thinking I will be going home to the calmness and away from the craziness of Mexico, then I remember where I come from haha.


As for cooking I have not really learned much but I will practice when I get home. haha don't worry... or maybe you should worry.


Love you guys,

Elder K

A Dirty Dog

Things are going great here in Estanzuela. We baptized Francisco the other day and we have a few other people that are getting to that point. I am really liking this area but not so much the sun. It has been getting really hot. We walk a ton up and down the mountain so you get real sweaty. I took some pictures but big surprise that the top notch computers that they have here aren't letting me attach anything... so you will have to wait till next week.

The only story that comes to mind right now is about a dog. The guy we baptized always has dogs show up at his house from the street. on Monday a little puppy (no more than 6 months old) showed up. It had hundreds of big ticks in it and even more fleas, on top of that it hadn't eaten for a long time. so we spent a good chunk of time picking all the ticks out of it, giving it a good bath and feeding it. It was nasty. You couldn't even see inside its ears because there were soooo many ticks. I am happy to say that he looks a lot better now.

Not really much more to report. Just truckin along. I love you guys. Thanks for everything.
Elder K

Time Flies...

I agree 100% time is flying by. I had an odd feeling yesterday as I realized that I only have 10 more Sundays in the mission. Don't worry, I'm not letting the trunkiness get to me. Things are going awesome here. I love having the temple in my area and the people here are great. We are going to have 2 baptisms this Sunday. One of the people that is going to get baptized helped build the temple 10 years ago. He had always wanted to stop by the church and see how it was but never had the guts but last Tuesday he was driving his truck along with out any problems when all the sudden it broke down out of the blue right in front of the temple. So the guard came out to help him and he left his info so we could visit him. To put it simply we visited him and he accepted baptism in the first lesson, went to church yesterday and will be getting baptized this Sunday. Funny how his truck decided to brake down in that very spot--haha.

My comp. has 18 months in the mission. He finishes in December. We checked it on google maps and he lives 3 min away from our house how crazy is that. What is this persons name that Jenni thinks is his cousin?
It was super hot here and going up and down the mountain all day makes a guy very sweaty. I felt like the only time I wasn't sweating was in the cold shower but even then I might have been sweating and just didn't realize it. The past 4 or 5 days have been pretty cool though. Some storms have rolled in every night around 6 so we get soaked and the roads turn into rivers but I think its better than the hot.

That will be crazy having Justin and fam so close by. I feel like I haven't seen them in forever. Where will he be working?

Well good luck with summer vacations. Things are good here. Love you guys.

Elder K

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