In the City

Ok so heres the dealio. Transfers aren't until this coming Tuesday but I got moved into Monterrey last Wednesday. I am now living with four natives and one American and I don't have an official companion. It's a long story, but simply put the elders were having problems here and president thought it was a good idea to send me as a peacemaker...who knows why. So I kinda have 5 companions at the moment. We will see what changes this Tuesday. The good news is that missionaries in Monterrey get to go to the temple once a month so we went today (that's why I didn't have p-day on Monday). My spanish is really picking up now that I am living with so many natives. People say I talk like a chilango....a chilango is a person from D.F. Ask Summer for details, I think she will know about this (D.F. = Districto Federal, a.k.a. Mexico City). Being in the city is a huge change, but I like it a lot. We use the metro trains and buses a ton. It's so nuts, you have to be moving so fast all the time or they will just leave you behind.


So I am now in a ward which is super nice. We had a baptism last Sunday and things are looking good for some baptisms in the near future.

I have a water bottle that has a filter system in it so don't worry, I drink clean water. It is super super super hot here. I am not looking forward to the summer when it hits 120 at times.

So lots of changes since the last time I wrote and that's it in a nutshell. I will give you more details next week and hopfully I will have a comp by then too.

Love you all and thanks for your prays and support.

Elder Kartchner (a.k.a. The White Chilango)

A Rough Week

Ok first things first. No, we don't have siestas. It's the sad truth. I haven't really heard much about the earthquake in Japan. Just that it happened, not much more. I am guessing it was pretty bad. Just another sign of the times.

This week was a toughy. The first half was really good. We found a lot of new people and a lot of success. Friday and Saturday we had a lot of people get mad at us and were long days but we were still happy because we had a good 10 people commmited to coming to church. We had transportation and everything set of for all of them. We also had a baptism. Then Sunday came: The Moment of Truth.  We left the house early so we had a good 2 hours before church to go and talk to all the people that were going to come to church. We spent to hours of people lying to us and slamming doors in our faces. Also during the first two classes my comp continued to try and get people to come while I taught the classes. When all was said and done no one came but hey we still had a baptism...or so we thought. He didn't show up to chruch either so we raced to his house on bike just before sacrament meeting to find him drunk. Needless to say, no baptism.

As we returned to the chruch we found the members all bickering. A cell phone of a recent convert had gone missing and everyone was pointing fingers. Me and my comp quickly got sacrament meeting going in an effort to calm everyone down. My companion gave a talk asking why everyonw was here and why they were baptized. I then spoke on charity and if we know why we are here we should build charity for others and help them know why they should be here. Both of us stressed that we needed to have good feelings between members if we want the branch to grow here. All this in an effort to get them to stop and think before pointing fingers. After sacrament meeting nothing changed. Everyone stayed at the church for almost an hour split up in groups gossiping about who did what. During all this we dicovered that some one had broken in and stolen the chruches only TV. We finally got everyone home and then start to contact. What a day. We have a lot to work on here to say the least. So that about sums up the week. I am just glad that its a new week. Starting fresh.

I love you guys and thanks for all your support. Sorry no pictures this week. I didn't really take any. Have a good week.

Elder K

A Quick Update

The missionary work is going better. We meet in a small building but yes, a chapel. I will get a picture of it for next week. We got a new branch president yesterday and things are looking up. We had a record high for people at church yesterday in who knows how long, and only two were investigatores. So that means people are starting to come back. We also have recently ordained some of our investigaters to the Aaronic Priesthood and in the next month or so we are going to ordain some elders, AKA more leaders!!! We eat with members every day here. So far nothing too bad but I have been worried a couple times. Just close your eyes and eat it. Almost no one has cars here, at least of the members. I really have no clue what gas prices are.

The pictures are of the investigator from texas, a lizard I found in the shower...while showering, and I don't remamber what others I attached--haha--you will have to guess.

Elder K

Getting Better

Well this week was a lot better. It was also very very hot. I am a little scared because if it is this hot in Feb. how hot is it going to be in July? We had a pretty good week. We found some new investigatores and had a lot of people at church yesterday. We could have multiple baptisms this coming Sunday. One of the people we have been teaching lives in Texas with her kids (speaks no English) but she also has a house here. So she comes down here for a couple months at a time to visit family. She has been here since Christmas and is going home a week from today so we are going to try and baptize her before she goes. She is mad at us because we didn't find her sooner. She tells all the time "I have been here for months and you guys waited till now to find me. Why?" Sadly we have no answer for this. It's crazy that I have been here in Mexico for a month now. It doesn't feel like that much time but it also feels like my entire mission has been here, haha.


The Spanish is getting a lot better. I teach the youth sunday school class every Sunday and I remember how hard it was the first couple weeks. I wouldn't say that its easy now but I can fill the time and they understand me so I would say that's pretty good. I have been really trying to do every little thing I can to be able to have the spirit and the blessings I need to be a good missionary along with this I have been trying to be more positive about things. As a missionary there are a lot of things you have to deal with. I have been trying to turn some of these hard things and see the good side. Here is a few of the things I came up with...

1. The food gives you bad gas..... In Mexico you fart wherever you want and it makes no difference.

2. No one can sing hymns.... Makes you look like you have the voice of an angel.

3. You can't always understand people, especailly if they are making fun of you.... They can't understand what you think of them.

4. People teach false doctrine at church.... I get to gain a personal testimony of the apostasy.

5. You never know if you will have running water.... I doesn't matter if you don't shower, everyone still thinks you are super clean and smell great.

So there is a few of my positive thoughts among others. I really have seen a lot of blessings in the past week and although its still hard work.

Sorry no pictures this week--I forgot my camera. I will be sure to remember next week. Not a lot to report here. All the days run together so I don't know what happened what day. Something could have happened a week ago and it feels like it happened yesterday.

I love you guys. Thanks for everything you have done and are doing for me.

Elder K

A Missionary Apartment in Mexico and the Latest from Elder K

 The Kitchen

The Bathroom

 The Study

Hi Mom, It sounds like you had a good lesson on Sunday. That is my favorite thing to do. I love teaching more than anything else on the mission. It just feels good to be able to explain things to people and see the lightbulb turn on. As for fasting I have seen as well how much it helps and I am greatful for all of your fasting and prayers. There is a missionary rule, though, that we are not to ask people back home to fast. So you will just have to fast when you feel like it--haha!


Things have warmed up a lot here. It has been a little foggy at times but other than that sunny and hot. Short sleeves all week, just the way I like it.
We just bring our bikes inside the apartment. I don't think that you are allowed to live with members here beacuse no one has a house that can support to missionaries. Food is really cheap there just isn't much to pick from. American stuff like peanut butter is really expensive but oh so worth it. A good old PB&J before bed is awsome after a day of meat and tortillas. Speaking of which, I have a favor to ask. I need you to send me some kind of fiber suplement--haha--I don't think I need to say much more. I will just leave it at that Meat and tortillas taste good but after a few weeks of that for every meal the body can't handle it. Also, I'm looking forward to the future because it takes months for a package to get here.

I am too far north for monkeys, and all the big mountains are in Monterrey. Here it is flat and desert. No avocado trees here but I still have had a pretty good amount of them to eat. I haven't really seen a ton of bugs but now that its warming up they are coming. Every night when we come home we raid the kitchen for roaches.

As for the work, it's going ok. To be honest it has been a really hard week or so. Me and my companion don't get along that well. He has been out for a year but is younger than me because in Mexico you can leave at 18. He is really focused on numbers and that's it. There are a lot of things but to sum it up we just don't see eye to eye on how the do the work. Also, Spanish has been really killing me latley. I don't know why. I think it would be pretty safe to say the past week or two have been the hardest so far. There have been some really down days and no one to talk to. At times it feels like I'm not me. I can't talk and communicate and do things the way they should be done. I guess the hardest times are the times we grow the most. Just trying to stay positive and stick it out.

Don't really have any big stories from this last week, kinda just same old. Love you guys. Thanks for everything you do.

Elder K

Wow, what a week. It felt like 2 days!

Wow what a week. Felt like it was 2 days. We had another baptism on Thursday. It was a 14 year old girl named Alondra. She took a little longer than a week, haha.

I also attached a picture that shows the difference a good shoe shine makes after a couple weeks in Mexico.

And also a picture of my district and of my surprise that I am actually in Mexico now.

This week was good but flew by. My comp. had a stomache bug Thursday and Friday so we were in and out of the house. It was nice to have some extra study time. It was funny because when people found out he was sick they would all say "But he is Mexican and you are a gringo how come he is sick?" To be honest I really didn't know what to tell people. I am just glad that I wasn't sick. Not really much else to report. Just the same old work. It is warming up though. I also went on exchanges with one of the zone leaders on Wednesday. It was nice to have a real conversation with someone in English for the first time since I arrived here. The Spanish is still coming. I can't wait to be able to just talk. I did have to give a talk in church again this Sunday but this time it had to be 20 min. and no one remembered to tell me this untill we were up blessing the sacrament so I took the talk I gave in California and just threw some stuff in to make it 20 min. It was pretty messy and not the best Spanish but I thought it was ok. After I gave it my comp told me to dumb it down. He said that the people here are so uneducated that they couldn't understand some of the big words I used. I say this not to boast but to give you an idea of how uneducated they are becuase my Spanish sucks. Well that's all for this week. I love you guys.
Elder K

Feb 7, 2011 From Mexico (and a funny story!)

So one week down here in Mexico. Its went by pretty fast but slow at the same time. Still trying to get use to it here. It is a lot different than the mission in Cali. We found a guy here my first Sunday and brought him to church and then we baptized him after church the following Sunday. All in a week. Holy cow it was fast. I need to get use to it I guess.

The town that I am in is pretty small. It is called Zaragoza. We actually cover two little towns. They are kinda far apart though. The size of the towns and distance kinda reminds me of a Grantsville-Stansbury type deal. So I am in one of two areas in the mission that hitchhiking is allowed--haha.  It makes for some interesting stories. They are like cowboys here so they kind of talk weird. They use a lot more slang so it makes it even more fun to try and understand. The Spanish is coming along pretty good considering it's all I speak now. It still has a long way to go though. There is still a lot of body language going on.

It has been freezing here. I didn't know that is got this cold here. We have been below freezing a lot of the past week and it's supposed to continue. No me gusta. I am not prepared for the cold at all.
My comp has been out for almost a year. He has been a member his entire life. His name is Elder Pinedo. We get along alright.

One cool story for the week is the story of Elder the Dog. We left our house one morning and as we were walking to the appointment we could hear a little puppy barking like crazy. We didn't think much of it and kept walking. We then realized we forgot the phone so we had to go back to the house. Again the barking dog. It was starting to get a little annoying but we kept walking. We got the phone and headed out again. Guess who was still barking non stop? So I decided to find out why. I searched and searched but no dog. I followed the little yapping barks to a larg trash can. We have no clue how he got in there but there was the little puppy. I picked him up and set him on the ground and walked off. He was sooo happy he would not leave me. I almost stepped on him multiple times as I tried to walk. So he followed me around for about 15 or 20 min. It was cool at first but then it got old having to dodge him every step. So we saw some people outside with their dogs and asked if they would take him. They said yes and asked his name. I told them his name was Elder. We continued to talk to the people and got a return appointment. So in reality Elder the Dog really was a missionary. He helped us contact someone! Ha ha!
I attached pictures of where I stayed in Vegas, the Investigator that I baptized yesterday and a picture to show how cold it has been here.
I love you guys. Thank you for all your support.
Elder K

The people Jake stayed with in Las Vegas while waiting for his visa.

It's COLD in Mexico!!!

First baptism in Mexico!